Berlin Attack Suspect Killed By Police; Terror Attack Increases Pressure on Politicians; Anis Amri Had Long Criminal History.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN HOST: All right, breaking news. The suspect in the Berlin truck attack shot dead by police in Milan, Italy.</s>MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN HOST: Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Miguel Marquez.</s>ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is 31 minutes past the hour. We welcome all of our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. Again, we can tell you that that suspect in the Christmas market attack in Berlin is dead. He has been shot dead by police in Milan. Actually, outside of Milan -- a suburb of Milan near a train station. He was asked for his identity papers at 3:00 in the morning local time and he did not pull out papers, he pulled out a 22 caliber pistol, took a shot at police officers. An officer was hit in the shoulder and wounded. A fellow officer shot and killed him. The Italian Ministry -- Interior Ministry saying without any doubt this is the suspect in the Berlin attack and he is now dead. For the very latest let's bring in journalist Chris Burns. He is live for us in Berlin. This manhunt has been extraordinary over the past few days. Not really a surprise, I think, that he would try to make his way to Italy. This is, of course, someplace he'd spent time in prison. He'd been in six different prisons according to "The New York Times" -- or jail facilities in Italy, and he was found there in Milan apparently alone, Chris.</s>CHRIS BURNS, JOURNALIST: Well, that's what we know so far. He was apparently alone, Anis Amri. He -- according to the Italian news agency ANSA, he took a train from Savoie -- in Chambolle and took it to Milan to the central station, and then took another train just outside -- to a town just outside the suburbs just outside of Milan and that's where the police accosted him. So where was he trying to go? Obviously, he was trying to find a place to hide and, yes, he had spent years in Italy and probably had some very good contacts. It is believed that during his prison stints in Italy, over four years, that that is where he radicalized and that's what authorities are going to have to be answering about as well, Christine.</s>MARQUEZ: Chris, do you -- it is interesting that they were -- they are reporting that he had this ticket from France to this train station in Milan on him so, clearly, he went from Germany possibly then directly to France or maybe had some other connection in order to evade capture, and then went on to Italy. He clearly seemed to have some sort of plan. Do you know the level of discussion between the German authorities, the French authorities, the Italian authorities, and just how in lock step they were in the aftermath of this attack?</s>BURNS: Yes. Well, Miguel, yes, they're very much in contact. I mean, there's Europol, there's Interpol, there are contacts with the Americans, they're watching phone calls and so forth. Yes, it's very, very intense. But keep in mind, too, that between Italy, and Germany, and France, they are within the Schengen group of countries where they have open internal borders, so they're not checking everybody going through the border. This is like going between states in the U.S. -- the same thing. They're not checking all the passports, they're not checking every identification, so it's very easy for a guy like Anis Amri to slip from Germany into France, and then France into Italy as, apparently, he did, Miguel.</s>ROMAN: The question now, Chris, is how extensive is his network? Was this a case of, you know -- we've heard terrorism officials talk of this loser to lion trend where a guy is just a loser. Goes into the prison -- goes into prison, somehow latches onto the Jihadi romantic narrative, and then is on this brainwashed mission.</s>BURNS: Yes.</s>ROMANS: How much help did he have in that? That's what we're trying to find out now, right?</s>BURNS: Well, you know, yes, and CNN got ahold of nearly 350 pages of German intelligence papers that show that, yes, he was very much planted in a group that is -- that was led by Abu Walaa who was a hate preacher who is now in custody. And that organization had worked very effectively in Germany to recruit people, to train them in boot camps, hiking them for 10 miles with backpacks. And that is the kind of training and influence that Anis Amri had in preparing for this kind of attack. We even heard that he had said that he wanted to be a suicide attacker. So this was a guy -- and how many other Anis Amris could there be out there? That is also the question and that's what authorities are very much on edge watching for as well.</s>ROMANS: The guy turned 24 years old yesterday and dead today. And now, still many, many questions for German authorities about how you prevent another one of these guys from wreaking havoc.</s>MARQUEZ: And you had a foiled attack, possibly unrelated, at the same time in Germany. I want to bring in Ben Wedeman who's in Italy for us -- in Rome. He knows that train station and that area of Italy quite well. He knows about the background of this individual. Ben, if you could just walk us through what the Italians are saying about how they brought this man down.</s>BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Yes, it happened around 3:00 in the morning local time -- that's about nine hours ago -- when an Italian police patrol routinely was looking for -- he was asking people for ID's outside the Chiasso San Giovanni train station which is on the outside of the city of Milan. And when they asked this individual for his ID, he reached into his backpack, pulled out a 22 caliber pistol and shouted "Allahu Akbar" and started to open fire on the police. One of them was hit in the shoulder. Another officer responded, killing Anis Amri. Now, we know that he did spent three and one-half years in six separate Italian prisons, mostly in the southern part of the country. And it was probably during those years in prison that he came into the individuals who led to his radicalization.</s>MARQUEZ: Ben, we're looking at pictures now, it appears, of that train station outside of Milan and it appears that Anis Amri never even got into the station. It appears that his -- they challenged him just outside the station and --</s>ROMANS: Or he'd been in the station and left the station and was walking someplace else.</s>MARQUEZ: Perhaps, or was running from authorities or trying to get away from authorities. It doesn't look like a large European train station as one might suspect. What sort of place would this be and at 3:00 a.m. in the suburbs of Milan wouldn't he stick out like a sore thumb?</s>WEDEMAN: Well, this is a working-class neighborhood on the margins of Milan so it's not a big station. But what we understand from the Italian press agency is that he came via France by train, went to Turin, and from there he went to the Centrale train station in Milan, and then he went to this train station, the Chiasso San Giovanni train station. So he clearly was going somewhere specific. He wasn't just going to Milan or to the Centrale train station. And yes, he would stand out a bit like a sore thumb at 3:00 in the morning in December, which is not a time where there's an awful lot of people out. So certainly that immediately would raise a suspicion to the police. And according to the Italian officials and the Italian news agency they described him as acting strangely, which is one of the reasons why the police stopped him.</s>ROMANS: All right. Ben Wedeman, we know you'll continue to report for us. Thank you for that information. Don't go far away. We are also watching a news conference out of Germany right now where German officials are speaking to the press. Let's listen in for a little bit of this and see what they are saying about their coordination with Italian authorities.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): -- that they had and please understandI can't give you this information.I, of course, can't say more than Mr. Fladden (ph) or Dimmar (ph). I cannot confirm the death of Mr. Amri. That's what the Italian authorities do if they can, and they have done so. The events took place there and the information is there. I would like to thank the Italian authorities that right from the beginning we had a close, trusting exchange of information. And also with the foreign officers, the German ones in Rome and Milan. I can confirm that we have close exchange of information with Italy but an official declaration is still to come from Italy.</s>REPORTER (through translator): Mr. Schaeffer (ph) and Mr. Fladden, is it the same liaison officer that --</s>ROMANS: All right, you're listening to a German press conference. We'd heard an Italian press conference for confirming the death of that Berlin attack suspect. He was shot dead by police near a suburban train station near Milan. We're going to take a quick break and come back. A lot moreinformation for you after the break.