0 billion, the 1 billion internet enabled smart phone was sold. the world web wide is amazing and powerful and fits into the palm of your hand. happy internot day everybody. ac 360 starts now. tonight, one man's murder, was he killed for thrills, gang initiation or the color on his skin? late breaking facts. the parents of trayvon martin weigh in on claims as the victim should be seen as the white version of their soon and proof that life sometimes sucks. first up tonight, breaking news in the killing of an australian exchange student that sparked controversies on two continue innocents. in australia the focus is the gun culture and here at home the focus is on race. breaking news on that and late word from one local official who does not, repeat does not, believe race played a factor. whether it settled the question, though, remains to be seen. the killing is just mainly tragic. christopher lane died in a ditch, shot in the back while jogging. the only saving grace, he did not die alone. richard rods found him and did cpr. >> i said chris, chris, hey, hey, buddy, stay with me, man and he would come up and gasp for air and he would gasp for like 30 to 40 seconds in between, you know, and i knew there was something wrong. we need to do something quick. and so i blew in his face, you know, and he would come up and gasp for air, come on, buddy, stay with me. >> that interview was published on the website of the sydney, australia herold. they call america easy access to guns but home conservative critics see it through a racial lenls. two of the suspects is african american, the youngest of whom james edwards has a number of racial tweets to his name. 90% of people are nasty he writes in one and hash tag hate them and with my "n" words when it comes to taking lives. like i said, racially inflamed tor -- antiinflammatory. here is a late breaking fact from local authorities. i spoke just a short time ago with the district attorney handling this case. >> i don't believe that this is a racial crime at all. i have nothing in any of my files, any of the paperwork, audio recordings we have that would suggest that christopher lane was killed either because of his race or his nationality. >> that's the chief prosecutor but again, his word likely won't be the last word. we'll debate the question shortly. first, more on suspects james edward s and the question of another motive, gang initiation. >> reporter: if he was such a good kid, top athlete and personality how is he charged with felony first-degree murder. daniel is his sister. >> he started hanging out with the wrong crowd and they was in some deuce block gang or whatever, you know, and he just wanted to -- i guess he was going through an identity crisis. >> reporter: the deuce block glang is really more of a clique than gang she said. when we asked the duncan police chief he said there aren't really any gangs here, just want to be gang members. still, in the last six months danielle says her brother changed from honor student and star wrestler to this. >> i've never seen him wear his pants below his waist. i never seen him wear -- it was just not him, you know. he was -- >> reporter: did we want to be a gang member? >> no, he just wanted to fit in. >> reporter: maybe so but look at this, on edward's facebook page we found this photo posted this year. that's edwards along with one of the other suspects in the chance. they appear to be flashing gang signs. ryan benton is a youth pastor. he told me edwards came here to pray and take part in youth programs but edwards came around less often in the last six months he says after he was ex spelled from school and told he couldn't wrestle. >> for him, wrestling was his life, and with the possibility of him not being able to pursue that because of him being expelled, i could see where it would possibly take him down a bad road and not to mention, have more time to hang out with people that weren't a good influence on him. >> reporter: like some of the people at elm street apartments where edwards lived. >> to feel more important with that group than what they feel in the rest of their life, and so it's almost a -- it's almost giving them a place where they feel like they fit in, belong and have power. >> reporter: was it power or pure evil that drove them to kill? on august 15th, just one day before the shooting, edwards wrote on his facebook page i've never been this mad in my life. what was he so angry about? that same day he posted this, bang two drops in two hours. edward's sister wishes she had gotten to him sooner. she spoke to him from jail on wednesday. >> he just cries and cries and cries and like man, i'm sorry. he was like nobody deserves that. we should have never been out doing that in the first place. he said sis, it wasn't even my idea. i was just riding with the guys. >> reporter: randi kaye, cnn. >> digging deeper with mark geragos, crystal wright, and michaela angela davis. danny fort said they did this because they were quote bored. you heard the da saying he doesn't believe race was involved. could it be this straight open and shut. >> i think some people don't want it to be that open and shut. what i've heard, somebody could make this into a race or racial crime or hate crime, but i think if you got a da whose there and got the wind at his back and knows the facts, at least at this point i would defer to the d.a. and unfortunately, i say this with a lot of regret it sounds like it could be that simple and that's the extremely disconcerning. >> 15, 16, 17-year-olds, suspects, two charged with murder being charged as add adulthoods. does that surprise you? >> no, that's been a real trend in this country in the last 20 years to go lower and lower in ages and make those people adults. that is contrary, frankly, through the biological research that shows especially among males that they don't really fully form, their brains don't until they are 25 or so. it's unfortunate but if you're in the criminal justice system, you see it all the time. this is a national and international story in terms of it's attraction to the media. unfortunately, it happens way too often on an everyday basis in the criminal justice system. >> crystal, it's sad and we can't jump the gun here, innocent until proven guilty. sad to look at the young faces. you say it's not a gun problem but a break down of the black family. how so? >> i want to go back to what mark was saying. this is about race. it might not necessarily be a hate crime but about race, and what bothers me and strikes me about the media's char actorization of this case is never once do we hear the fact, two of the killers are black, two black teens killing a young white male and when we contrast that to trayvon martin, the news media rushed to judgement quickly and said before charges were brought against george zimmerman, remember, a white man that gunned down a black teen and i think this tells us america has gotten used to and numb to the fact that young blackmails are doing the killing and however, at the same time when the news media reportsen a crime, a heinous crime like christopher lane there is no acknowledgement of the reason why young black mails are killing. this was a crime and he did post white hate on twitter, facebook and glorified hip-hop, which is also part of the problem. so yes, the fact that 73% of all black babies are born into households where they don't have two parents is a huge problem, and i want to know when are we going to honestly talk about the problem? >> mark, it's open and shut? so it's open and shut when a black -- when black kids kill a white boy, it's open and shut. but it's not -- oh, god, it's not open and shut when we know that white -- and george zimmerman, by the way, was not quite, he was conveniently recast as a white hispanic, right? the case should have never been brought to trial this makes me upset to my core because this is a set back for race relations in america on the 50th anniversary of what martin luther king fought for. >> michaela jump into the conversation here because you have now -- you have now this one being thrown into the political debate, like trayvon martin, for better or worse. where is jesse jackson, where is al sharpton, blow back saying they jumped into the trayvon martin case demanding action. where are they now? i'm having a hard time with this. do you see a parallel? >> no, i don't. i'm having a hard time managing the different things crystal just put into the pot, and, you know, when -- >> i'm sure you are. >> when civil rights leaders speck out there is usually an injustice in place, right? so in this case they have been arrested. they are not waiting 45 days. so the system worked, and i think what is terrible about this is that criminality is usually connected more through poverty than through race, and we've made this way of looking at black and brown kids kill more versus people that live in poor communities have more -- have more violence and have more crime. so we need to look at this more in a social point of view and also, in his hometown in australia, they definitely saw this as a gun problem. this is -- this is a growing sentiment around the world that it's dangerous to come to america because you can be gunned down, the sentiment there is a gun for every american. so i think the issue is we've got three young men who are in a horrific place mentally, emotionally, what is wrong with our boys? and why are they so violent? and why can they get guns? and it's easier for them to get a gun than vote. these are the issues. it's bottom feeding to make this about race. sometimes it is -- >> well, okay, but -- >> but this is such is a stretch -- >> it's not a stretch. >> the da, australia, his family doesn't see it as race. we need to deal with what is at hand versus shaming the president, leaders, shaming -- >> let's talk about facts. i'm going to agree with you. >> just -- i'm not sure it's a healthy thing at all when the politicians jump into these cases although i think i understand the president's personal comments when it comes to trayvon martin. >> this is part of the problem with the criminal justice system. we poll litized the criminal justice system. remember, there was three boys involved in this case, not just two, crystal. >> the black boys were responsible for shooting at the unarmed white kid gnat back. >> he was charged with accessory to murder. >> i think you're emotionalizing it and we should talk about facts. according to the justice department -- >> crystal, why don't you just hamp it down for a second and talk act the facts in this case and instead of ignoring the facts in this case. the fact is that there were three boys involved. two were black, one was not. why don't you talk about the facts that they were arrested immediately, unlike trayvon martin who bares no resemblance to trayvon martin, except you got black and white. the justice system, at least so far is working. the people who alleged to be responsible were arrested first and you ask questions later. >> john, can i address facts, please? >> sure, let's address facts. go ahead. >> okay. two things, first of all, according to the justice department, young black men are six times more likely than young white men to be victims of homicide and young black men are seven times more likely to kill with a gun. second of all, mark, what did the jurors say after the trayvon martin trial was over? that this case never should have been brought to trial. charges never should have been filed, and when the fbi investigated and did an investigation last year on the killing of trayvon martin, they found race was not a motivation in it and i really take offense at what was just said about oh, this is a problem, yes, it is a problem with young blackmai mal because they are doing most of killing and terrorizing like in chicago. black on black crime is what we should be outraged, frankly, if we believe in saving downlives, but i don't see this outrage when pendlet was gunned down. where was the president with that? the president needs to call the family of christopher lane and i think we deserve comments about this because -- >> wait a minute, there is a young man being shot right now. the president -- >> why isn't he talking -- >> mckayla, jump in. >> the president can't make a phone call every time a young man is killed -- >> oh, oh, really? he did with trayvon. >> these are two very different cases. >> no, they are not. >> the way that violence is happening so rampedly, he would never get off the phone if he called every person. >> so he shouldn't have stuck his neck out like john said on trayvon martin, period. it's not a very different case. >> the president felt the entire community and entire world was mourning with trayvon martin, was mourning at sandy hook. they are bigger issues. >> no, australia and the united states are mourning over christopher lane. this is sad. this is hypocrite kill. i can't even believe you're saying this. >> i'm going to end this conversation tonight, but as the case goes forward, i think we'll air out the disagreements over everything, charges, whether politicians should get involved. >> guns. >> chris, angela, michaela, angela davis, crystal wright, mark geragos, thank you-all. we'll continue this conversation next with the parents. the fort hood killer, here is the verdict from a military jury. details of that ahead anncr: expedia is giving away a trip every day.

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