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On the Frontlines in Baghdad; Another Hillary Clinton Staffer Out; Busload with Children and Women Taken From Polygamous Compound; Demonstrators Trying to Block Torch Runners in Streets of London
Aired April 06, 2008 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Another one bites the dust. Just two weeks before the Pennsylvania primary, another Hillary Clinton staffer is out. How will this shake up affect her campaign?
Plus, a bus-load with children and women are taken from a polygamous compound. Tonight, where those children had been taken? And the investigation into alleged physical and sexual abuse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very little eye contact and (INAUDIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: On the frontlines in Baghdad. Ground fighting and sniper fire like you've never seen before.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: He's got as many people as on the ground as I did.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: We are behind you 100 percent but you need to move forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Negotiations and the delicate art of cooperative war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Behold his mighty hand!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: You may know him as Moses, but he was also an actor with a cause. Heading up (INAUDIBLE) and fighting for civil rights.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm happy that we had a chance to see how great work he has done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Coming up, Mickey Rooney and Larry King join me to remember Charlton Heston.
It's not a war zone. Well, not officially anyway. We take you to the streets of Los Angeles, where murder is becoming a cottage industry.
It's all in the weekend rundown.
LEMON: And good evening, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, in tonight for Rick Sanchez. We start tonight with breaking news on the presidential campaign trail. The chief strategist for Senator Hillary Clinton's campaign is giving up his job.
Mark Penn and his consulting firm will keep advising the campaign but Penn will no longer hold the title of chief strategist. This follows a storm of controversy and criticism surrounding Penn for his role in promoting a pending free trade deal with Colombia.
It's a deal Senator Clinton has sharply criticized on the campaign trail. And tonight, reporters shouted questions at Clinton as she got off her plane in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As you can see, she did not answer. And you can simply see, she grinned and sort of cupped her hand to her ear, as if she couldn't hear them.
Her campaign did release a statement though. It says after the events of the last few days, Mark Penn, has asked to give up his role as chief strategist of the Clinton campaign. Mark and his consulting firm, Penn, Schoen, and Berland Associates Incorporated will continue to provide polling and advice to the campaign.
Well, there is certainly no shortage of people eager to advise Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama for that matter. So why does it matter if Mark Penn is leaving the Clinton campaign. Well, let's ask someone who knows.
Our senior political correspondent, Miss Candy Crowley. She joins me now by telephone. And she is from Washington.
Candy, what does this mean for the Clinton campaign?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's another thing that takes the headlines at a very critical time as we roll into this Pennsylvania primary on the 22nd.
Look, Mark Penn was key to this campaign. He was her senior strategist. He is the person that laid it out from January of last year, when she got in, all the way through now. So that's a hole.
Nonetheless, she does have other strategists obviously. It is clear to me that the Clinton campaign wanted to get this over with before we got any closer to Pennsylvania because you want to avoid all those campaign in turmoil stories. And clearly, this was a problem.
I mean, I take you back to Ohio when it was revealed that one of Barack Obama's advisers had met with the Canadian government to talk about the NAFTA -- the North American Free Trade Agreement. It became a huge storm because we were led to believe that this adviser had said -- listen, don't pay too much attention to what you're hearing on the campaign trail. And now, we have Mark Penn meeting with the Colombian government on a deal that his firm is promoting that Hillary Clinton is opposed to.
So they saw this one coming. It was a troubled weekend. And you also had Governor Rendell of Pennsylvania, who is a huge supporter and backer of Hillary Clinton saying on morning TV today, all but saying that Penn ought to leave. So I think the handwriting was there.
LEMON: Candy Crowley summing it up for us excellently. Candy, thank you very much for that.
Let's look ahead now and consider how Mark Penn's exit is going to affect the direction of the Clinton campaign.
And Bill Schneider is in Los Angeles tonight. He is of course our senior political analyst.
Bill, you hear Candy Crowley there. Obviously, this does not look good. A very critical time for her.
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right. It does not look good because it creates the impression without people knowing much about the details or really caring. It looks like a campaign in disarray. And as Candy said, they wanted to get this story over with as quickly as possible.
Still got more than two weeks before that crucial Pennsylvania primary which she has to win and she hopes to win big in order to make herself -- just stay competitive in this race.
Mark Penn, this was really a conflict waiting to happen. Because he remained the chief executive officer of a public relations firm, one of the biggest in the world -- Burson Marsteller. At the same time, he was chief strategist to her campaign.
And there were several clients with potential conflicts of interest with her campaign. Countrywide Financial, a major mortgage lender, Blackwater Worldwide, which is a security firm in Iraq that's under government investigation, and now of course, the government of Colombia, which is paying him to promote a trade deal that Senator Clinton herself has denounced.
LEMON: Let's talk about the voters now. What this looks like to the voters and means to the voters there, Bill, because she has had some financial problems. We've reported about that. Now, we're reporting on this. And plus, you know, she has had someone resigned before.
Does this look to the public, to the voter, that it's a campaign that's becoming unhinged?
SCHNEIDER: Campaign in trouble would be the way it looks to most voters. There is something wrong here. The campaign is not doing as well as it's supposed to. Fingers are being pointed. People are being gotten rid of. Whenever that happens, people say, this campaign is in turmoil.
And she's hoping that she can get over this bit of bad news in time for the Pennsylvania primary. But you know, she's still behind in delegates. She's still behind in popular votes. And it would really take a very heroic effort for her to be able to catch up with Barack Obama. She doesn't need this kind of distraction, impressing voters that maybe this campaign is stalled or falling apart.
LEMON: Yes, OK. Thank you. Senior political analyst, Bill Schneider, joining us now from Los Angeles. Thank you, sir.
Hillary Clinton has been through some major staff changes in this campaign, as Bill mentioned. Back in February, Clinton's long time friend and adviser, Patti Solis Doyle, gave up her title as campaign manager. Several days later, her deputy campaign manager, Mike Henry, also resigned.
In other news now, it's been a dramatic and sometimes tense weekend at the Texas ranch that once housed members of a polygamist religious sect. When Monday morning arrives, more than 200 women and children will have been removed from the compound. The group was transferred today from a civic center at Eldorado to a shelter about 45 miles away in San Angelo.
They are being questioned about potential abuse inside the sect, which is accused of arranging marriages with girls as young as 13 years old. 18 of the girls officially are in state custody because authorities believe they had been victims of abused or at immediate risk of abuse. State officials say their first priority is protecting the children.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARLEIGH MEISNER, TEXAS CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES: I think they're doing remarkably well considering the circumstances. It's very difficult to any time child protective services removes children from their parents' home. It's one of the most difficult things that we do.
Those of you that are parents, you need to think for a second what that would be like for your children. To be uprooted like this from the only home they've ever known. And so we're very aware of that and we're really trying to make certain that their needs are met. But I would say right now, they appear to be doing very well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Well, authorities raided the ranch Thursday night after receiving a report that a 16-year-old girl was being abused. So far, that girl has not been identified, nor has she been located.
CNN's Ed Lavandera has been covering the scene there in Eldorado for us all week. And he joins me now. Ed, I want you to talk about how the community is reacting to the events of the last few days. ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Don, this has been a dramatic four days. When this polygamist sect started moving in to Eldorado four years ago, some residence in town described it as this alien culture landing in their backyard with spaceships. But over the last few days, these two very different cultures have come face to face for the first time.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA (voice-over): From a distance, the dresses and hairstyles suggest these sect members are from another time. But the images don't fully capture the drama several hundred woman and children have endured.
EVA JO SESSION, CHURCH VOLUNTEER: They just were so fearful. And all they have learned that we were of the devil. All the outside world was of the devil.
LAVANDERA: Helen Pfluger and dozens of other Eldorado residents spent the last four days setting up a temporary shelter for the sect members at a local Baptist church. The experience was eye opening. How do you react when a child looks confused by a crayon?
HELEN PFLUGER, CHURCH VOLUNTEER: The mother was maybe 16, maybe 16, didn't know what to do with Crayola. She said what are we supposed to do with these?
LAVANDERA: Inside the compound, there are no televisions, no newspapers, no magazines. But the volunteers here in Eldorado who had been taking care of these sect members, it's really the first chance they've ever had to come close to them.
Almost none of the women and children ever venture off the compound. In fact, only a few of the men have ever been seen around town. Several volunteers say many of the women and children sat huddled together. Many were described as non-responsive and that they even wanted their beds to be touching.
Pfluger said she heard one girl tell a child abuse investigator that it's an honor to be a teenage mother.
PFLUGER: It's a little girl, probably 8 years old. And she had one of the babies and you could have thought oh, that's her mother. She was learning at that age to be a mother, not with a doll because they don't have dolls. Their dolls are real.
JIMALEE DUTTON, CHURCH VOLUNTEER: The young pregnant girls was hard to watch or hard to see. Some of them, the way they would not look at you, would not give you eye contact, that was hard.
LAVANDERA: Investigators acknowledged the children are terrified of the world outside the compound. But people like Helen Pfluger and other volunteers are also terrified of what it's like inside the compound.
(END VIDEOTAPE) LAVANDERA: Don, all of the volunteers we spoke with say they have been dramatically changed by their experience -- their brief interactions with these women and children over the last few days. They say it has been incredibly eye opening and they hope it has been the same for them.
Don?
LEMON: Ed Lavandera. Thank you so much for that, Ed. The Olympic torch relay hit some hurdles, Sunday, in London. Human rights activists and others were out in force to protest China's role as Olympic host.
LEMON: You can see demonstrators there trying to block the torch runners as they made their way through the streets of London. One man tried to put out the flame with a fire extinguisher. Another tried to snatch it from one of the runners.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, someone -- as I speak, someone has tried to grab the torch (INAUDIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: When the relay ended, the flame was still burning. But about three dozen people had been arrested. A Chinese government spokesman says in Beijing condemned what he called attempts to sabotage the relay. This could be a sign of things to come. The torch heads next to Paris. And on Wednesday, it makes its only U.S. appearance in San Francisco. The route there will take the flame along the city's famous waterfront, including the Fisherman's Wharf area.
Police in East Lansing, Michigan said they had no choice -- no choice, but to use tear gas. A festival with a long standing tradition for out of control crowds followed suit early this morning.
This video you're looking was taken just blocks from the campus of Michigan State University. A crowd of 3,000 to 4,000 people becomes unruly. Brick, bottles, cans, it didn't matter. Nearly every officer at the scene reported being pelted by something. And police initially used smoke bombs and noise makers to disperse that crowd. But when that didn't work, they went for the tear gas.
In the end, 52 were arrested. Another 48 are facing fines. Not all of them, though, not all university students but the ones who are could face long-term suspensions.
We have a tragedy to tell you about. That's far too common in American cities and the terrible impact on those left behind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every morning, he would come and he'd have to kiss me and he'd have to tell me he loved me. And I have to tell him, get out of here, leave me alone, you know. But I miss that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: What do you do? What do you do when murder becomes an epidemic? We take a look at one city struggle.
And from urban war zone to actual war zone. We go along with the U.S. forces to the frontlines of the fight in Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is he on the ground?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Well, three U.S. soldiers were killed today in rocket attacks in Iraq. One of the attacks happened inside the green zone. That's in Baghdad. Two soldiers were killed in that attack. And 17 others were wounded.
Also today, a soldier was killed and 14 wounded in an attack in a military outpost in Southeastern Baghdad. Meantime, President Bush is planning to address the nation about war on Thursday. His speech will follow two days of congressional testimony from General David Petraeus. The top military commander in Iraq.
American and Iraqi troops have been trying to take one of those rocket firing insurgents, I mentioned. While covering the action, CNN's Nic Robertson found himself in the middle of a firefight in Sadr City, which is clearly not under government control.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): As gun fire erupts, American soldiers take cover.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: Is he on the ground or is he on the rooftop?
ROBERTSON: Captain Logan Veath must find the gunman and stop the attack.
CAPT. LOGAN VEATH, U.S. ARMY: We've got one or two shooters located. They PID them or positively identified where they're at. They're being signaled on the rooftops by a couple of guys with flags.
ROBERTSON: This is Sadr City. An impoverish Baghdad slum. Home to more than 2 million Shiite where militias loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took control two weeks ago during a show down with Iraq's prime minister.
For the past ten day, U.S. and Iraqi forces have been trying to take control of these neighborhoods. Neighborhoods, militias have been using to fire rockets with the U.S. embassy in Baghdad's allegedly secured green zone.
U.S. Army Colonel Dan Barnett, under huge pressure to stop the rockets, but the militias were waiting.
LT. COL. DAN BARNETT, U.S. ARMY: They had deliberately set up fighting positions to prevent our maneuver forward to secure the rocket sites.
ROBERTSON: The streets torn up by the heavy fighting. Militias turning the people against the U.S. troops.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: They turned us into the guys that moved forward and shot innocent women and children deliberately and that didn't happen.
ROBERTSON: U.S. forces can patrol barely one-fifth of Sadr City because of Iraqi government restrictions.
(on camera): About 800 yards, about half a mile up the road here is the vast majority of Sadr City where U.S. troops are only allowed to go on very rare occasions. It's become they say an effective safe haven for the militias from where they're able to plan and prepare their attacks.
(voice-over): But there's one more problem here. U.S. troops must let Iraqi soldiers take the lead in fighting the militias. Captain Veath must convince his Iraqi counterpart to go after the gunmen. And it's not going well.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: OK, he told me he have little forces.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: Little forces?
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: Yes, little forces.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: He's got as many people as on the ground as I do.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: There is no reason that you cannot do this. We are behind you 100 percent, but you need to move forward.
ROBERTSON: The gunmen are still shooting. The Iraqi captain reluctant to lead.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: Yes. We can provide support but we need you to action it.
ROBERTSON: Just when it's all agreed.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: Now is not the time...
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: To support...
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: OK, it is -- to move out.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: I need you to get your forces over to the mosque and to isolate it.
ROBERTSON: They discover the Iraqi troops have gone to lunch. Fortified with food, they head off around the corner to take on the gunmen. The shooting intensifies. Captain Veath follows.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: Let's go men, let's go.
ROBERTSON: Ready for backup. Raging into a store for cover, he loses contact with the Iraqi captain.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: We're here and a lot of volume of fire. I've got to figure out what's going on. If they're taking it or if they're giving or receiving.
ROBERTSON: Ten minutes later, Iraqi troops return. Three soldiers are injured. They say they killed one of the gunmen.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: I'm proud of your men after what they (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: I swear you have my (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: OK, OK, thank you so much. Thank you very much.
ROBERTSON: As we leave, the shooting intensifies again. The battle for control of Sadr City, a long way from being over. Nic Robertson, CNN, Sadr City, Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: And CNN will cover General David Petraeus, as he delivers his assessment of the Iraq war. That will happen next week. The top U.S. commander in Iraq will speak before a congressional committee on Capitol Hill. And you can watch it live, right here on CNN.
Searching for a killer. A mother's plea for help following the murder of her marine daughter.
And honoring a legend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, HOST, LARRY KING LIVE: It's funny being a legend, isn't it? It's kind of weird to be a legend.
(CROSSTALK)
CHARLTON HESTON, ACTOR: In my own lifetime.
KING: What's left? There's nothing left for you to win. No accolades to left be accorded. HESTON: You can get it absolutely right one time. That's my goal.
KING: Still haven't?
HESTON: Still haven't. No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: We will hear more from Larry King and talk to Mickey Rooney about the death of Charlton Heston.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: The Los Angeles City Council made an unusual request of its residents this weekend. Stop killing one another for 40 hours. That's to mark the 40 years since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. It may sound like a gimmick. But there have been, listen to this, 104 homicides in Los Angeles this year. And it's only the beginning of April.
CNN's Kara Finnstrom met up with a reporter from the "L.A. Times," who doesn't want the victims to be forgotten.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Suspects opened fire with, we believe, three different weapons.
KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Murder in Los Angeles.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were gang signs flashed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somebody has come to the conclusion that black lives are not worth it.
FINNSTROM: Another day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shoot out with a murder suspect.
FINNSTROM: Another death.
JILL LEOVY, L.A. TIMES REPORTER: This dense concentration of violence. It's unlike anything.
FINNSTROM: "L.A. Times" reporter, Jill Leovy, ventures beyond the headlines. She spends most days in the county's most violent neighborhoods. One year ago, she made a commitment to cover not only the county's high profile murders but every single murder.
Leovy, created the "L.A. Times" homicide report in online blog.
LEOVY: You basic mention that the journalist you bare witness. You see things that are unseen. It sort of awful to think of people being murdered and nobody seeing it. FINNSTROM: Last year, Leovy blogged the lives and deaths of about 900 people. Going into neighborhoods, interviewing families, and police. Blogging as much detail as possible, covering on average, at least two murders a day. She wants to show the gruesome toll on Latino and black families.
LEOVY: Here is this glaring, glaring category of suffering that is so extremely divided along racial line. Where some people must watch their sons day and night and contemplate the idea of them being - they're being murdered
FINNSTROM: We followed Leovy through one day in that universe.
LEOVY: I always like to keep records of the T-shirts and stuff. It's kind of language of mourning down here that everybody seems -- the shrines just go up immediately. And there are certain traditions.
Have you solved anything else lately?
FINNSTROM: Detective Sal Labarbera talks with Leovy often.
DET. SAL LABARBERA, LAPD: Almost 70 percent of our homicides here are gang related. Our biggest obstacle has always been winning over witnesses. There's still that mindset of, you know, retaliation by gang members.
FINNSTROM: Across town, an arrest has been made in the murder of Barbara Pritchett's 15-year-old son, Devon.
LEOVY: Barbara?
FINNSTROM: But that hasn't eased this mother's grief. Six months after Devon's murder, she has not returned to work and has trouble just functioning.
BARBARA PRITCHETT, MOTHER OF VICTIM: Every morning, he would come and he'd have to kiss me and he'd have to tell me he loved me. And I have to tell him, get out of here, leave me alone, you know. But I miss that.
FINNSTROM: Devon's story is told in the homicide report. Leovy has profiled his family for months going into more detail than as possible with all victims.
LEOVY: You say, I'm sorry you lost your son. They'll say no, my son was murdered. My son, Devon, who was a class clown (INAUDIBLE), who was kind of tall for his age was murdered by another human being.
FINNSTROM: The blog recounts how an argument led to a man shooting children at a city bus stop.
PRITCHETT: (INAUDIBLE) they just came in and opened fire. And my son was shot one time in the head.
FINNSTROM: What's next for you?
PRITCHETT: I don't know. I'm lost.
FINNSTROM: Leovy wants to do more in-depth stories about all the reasons murder is destroying families like the Pritchetts. She worries slapping a gang related label on violence oversimplifies the problem, making it easier for society to dismiss murder.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was shot last year in October.
FINNSTROM: She's heading off writing a homicide report to journalist, Ruben Vives.
RUBEN VIVES, L.A. TIMES REPORTER: You feel guilty that you don't spend enough time with somebody that you want to. And figure out what happened.
FINNSTROM: Leovy will now have the time she needs to dig deeper. Knowing the blog she started will keep sharing the grief, the horror of homicide one victim at a time. Kara Finnstrom for CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All right. Well, joining me now are two L.A. activists fed up with the violence. Earl Ofari Hutchinson and Eddie Jones. The 40 hour murder moratorium, it was their idea.
Gentleman, police tell us, at least two people were shot to death just yesterday and it broke that moratorium. So do you think any of these -- any of this that's going on -- this moratorium, or what you're trying to do, the blog that she's doing, is it going to make a difference?
EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON, CIVIC ACTIVIST: Well, I think it does make a difference. Let me say this. It was tied in directly to the 40 year anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. One of the world's foremost champions of non-violence -- himself, is a victim of violence.
What we did is and as you've seen from Jill Leovy and the reports there, the pain and the suffering and anguish of murder victims, we have had a big spike up of murder violence in Los Angeles.
We wanted to tie it in with King and we wanted to say -- look, it was a challenge to the city of Los Angeles, to the officials and LAPD and certainly residents saying look Dr. King gave his life for a cause. He was a victim of violence. He championed on violence. We have blood on the street in Los Angeles.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: And Mr....
HUTCHINSON: Let's do the same, let's challenge.
LEMON: I understand what you're saying. But did you hear what I said during that? Two people were killed during the moratorium. And it didn't even get 40 hours. So again, I'll ask you the question or I'll ask Mr. Jones the question. Do you really think it's going to make a difference? I think that you may need some stronger things in place there in order to do it.
MR. EDDIE JONES, PRESIDENT, L.A. CIVIC ACTIVIST: Well, you know it's amazing. I understand your question, and your question -- let me give you this answer. We never said that there would -- that we would completely stop homicides. But we wanted to cut down on the violence. I think a lot of people did not go out with violence on their mind this weekend because there could have been a lot more homicides, and there were not.
So I thank God that a lot of people did light their candles. A lot of people did participate and the word did get around the Los Angeles community.
LEMON: You're saying that even though there are two people, its less than it might have been. And just so -- just to give people an idea, because we're talking about numbers here. But these two people were shot, one sitting on the front porch, another standing in an alley and police again say it was gang related. I want you to take listen to the mayor real quickly, and I want your response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA, LOS ANGELES: Gang violence in this city hasn't picked sides so much as it's chosen to throw a cloak of fear over the entire community. Fear of violence and retribution that will only dissipate when we all come together, the community, city, school district, the police department, the entire community.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: You heard the mayor there. The mayor referred to it as gang violence. And then you heard the activist in the story. She said, gang related, that oversimplifies the violence making it easier to write off.
HUTCHINSON: Yes. And let me go back on the point about the two that were killed. We never said in the beginning that you're going to end homicide. That's ridiculous.
LEMON: That was the idea for 40 hours?
HUTCHINSON: No, it wasn't. No, it wasn't. No, that was a misrepresentation. The idea behind it was two-fold. One, tribute to Dr. King, tied in with violence.
The second thing, and even more importantly, to engage people in dialogue, involvement, and certainly engagement at every level. It's not a police problem. We said it over and over again. The community, as the mayor said, has to be involved. That was a challenge to the community. And quite frankly, we were very pleased with the response from many people.
LEMON: What do you mean? The community has -- go ahead I'll let you go.
JONES: You have to also remember -- Lavari Elsie (ph), the shooter of Lavari Elsie (ph), the 6-year-old was turned in by community members.
The shooter of Jamiel Shaw, they were turned in by community members. A lot of communities, constituents, and stakeholders were very, very happy that this moratorium did go from 6:01 on Friday.
LEMON: Real quickly. We've got a few minutes here. But if you've got people who are shooting at people on crowded bus stops; you got a little boy who's going across the street to pick lemons out of his neighbors' yard; you got a star football player in a high school.
I mean, these are random shootings that are gang related. Do you really think that the community is going to want to reach out and do that? They're afraid.
HUTCHINSON: That's why we called the moratorium because of the fear factor. Let me say this. We went to the streets for two days. What people didn't see behind the cameras, we actually talked to a lot of young people, a lot of gang members, ex gang members, and this is what they said -- across the board, we're happy that you were there. We need this.
LEMON: OK. Earl Ofari Hutchinson and Eddie Jones, thank you very much for joining us this evening in the CNN NEWSROOM. Best of luck to you as well.
HUTCHINSON: And thank you.
JONES: Thank you very much.
LEMON: Also tonight, we're remembering an actor of epic proportions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOSES: The Lord of hosts will do battle for us! Be hold his mighty hands!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: That's a classic. You may know him as Moses or Ben-Hur. But he was also an actor with a cause. Heading up the NRA and fighting for civil rights. Coming up, Larry King and Mickey Rooney join me to remember Charlton Heston.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Well, Hollywood has known few actors like Charlton Heston. Tonight, the world is remembering the man we came to know on- screen. His one of the best in the business and off screen, a passionate activist.
Heston has died at the age of 84. No official word on the cause yet. But several years ago, we learned the actor was facing a hopeless battle against Alzheimer's.
He died at his Beverly Hills home this weekend with his wife of 64 years at his bedside.
Tonight, we're honored to have the legend, himself, Mr. Mickey Rooney. He joins us along with another legend, our own Larry King.
Larry, do you remember this sound bite? Take a listen real quick.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, HOST, LARRY KING LIVE: We're back with Charlton Heston. It's funny being a legend, isn't it? It's kind of weird to be a legend.
CHARLTON HESTON, ACTOR: I'm legend in my own lifetime.
KING: What's left? There's nothing left for you to win? No accolades left to be accorded.
HESTON: You can get it absolutely right one time. That's my goal.
KING: Still haven't?
HESTON: Still haven't, no.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: April, Larry, of 1996 -- do you remember that? He also won the Medal of Freedom. He's talking about all the accolades he got but he never quite got it right he said.
VOICE OF KING: I interviewed him on TV about five times -- radio about five times. I spent a lot of time with him. I also had lunch with him a lot when he comes to Washington. He was an enigma. He was a man, a great actor. His contributions are incredible.
He was a strong liberal. He marched at Selma. He was a major supporter of Adlai Stevenson and John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. And then suddenly, late in life, he got into this National Rifle Association thing. It hurt him a lot with his liberal friends in Beverly Hills, and he knew that.
LEMON: And it's interesting that you say that he's a liberal when you think about that, the NRA. It's not necessarily perceived as being a liberal organization.
KING: No, no. He knew that he had taken a different turn with that buddy. He saw it as the Second Amendment. He didn't waver from that.
By the way, he was a great actor. I'm sure, Mickey, will tell you. He did movies like "Touch of Evil" with Orson Welles and "Planet of the Apes." He did a great movie with Edward G. Robinson years ago called "Soylent Green."
He was historic. He did historic -- he directed "The Caine Mutiny" in China. He had an interpreter with him. And he directed the play of "The Caine Mutiny." He took chances, he took risks, and he was an easy, extraordinary guy to know.
LEMON: Mr. Rooney, I was looking at your face on the monitor here when I was reading and you saw the pictures of him coming up. And you were smiling as I was reading that. Why is that?
MICKEY ROONEY, ACTOR AND MUSICIAN: Because, well, I'm very honored to have been asked to speak about my friend, Charlton Heston. And I'm happy that we've had a chance to see all the great work that he has done and left for us.
He hasn't left anything but memories of greatness. And "Soylent Green," "Agony and the Ecstasy," "Presidents," "Andrew Jackson," he played them twice. He never stopped -- a hundred pictures.
LEMON: How are you doing today, Mr. Rooney?
ROONEY: Well, I'm fine. My wife, Jan and I are doing our show. Let's put on a show. He was married to Lydia, his beautiful wife, in Greensboro, North Carolina. We just returned from there, where we did our show. "Let's Put on a Show." Jan Rooney and myself.
KING: Don, he started in live television. He did "Playhouse 90." He did a lot of those historic shows in the '50s. He had a lot of guts.
LEMON: And Larry...
ROONEY: I did...
LEMON: And Mr. Rooney, we're talking about his friends here. Obviously, Mr. Rooney, you were a good friend of his. And I have to call you Mr. Rooney because I, you know, watched you all the time and I respect you. And you know, you're a legend.
Let's talk about Nancy Reagan. She responded today. A good friend of Mr. Heston's. She said "I was heart broken to hear the death of Charlton Heston last night. He was one of Ronnie and my dearest friends. I will never forget, Chuck, as a hero on the big screen in the roles he played. But more importantly, I will consider -- I considered him a hero in life for the many times that he stepped up to support Ronnie."
Mr. Rooney, what do you have to say to that?
ROONEY: I was going to -- well, there's so much to say about Charlton Heston and his lovely wife, Lydia. We get a Christmas card every year from the Hestons, which we treasure. And he never forgets and neither does Lydia.
LEMON: Is there one moment you'll remember about him most?
ROONEY: I beg your pardon?
LEMON: Is there one moment or one thing that you remember about him most?
ROONEY: Yes. I remember that he was in the army, and he left and served his country and he did so many wonderful things that we'll all be able to laugh and smile about, "Agony and the Ecstasy," "Cleopatra." How about "The Greatest Story Ever Told."
LEMON: "The Greatest Story Ever Told." Hey, Larry, I got to ask you real quickly here, you interviewed him a number of times. He was such a big brawny guy, and had a very big strong personality.
ROONEY: 6 feet 3.
LEMON: 6 feet 3, a handsome guy. Were you ever intimidated by him?
KING: Oh, no, no. He never let that happen. He made it too easy to be around him. He was a great interview subject. He gave you what you want. He responded. He had passion.
What you wanted in an interview is what he gave you. That was -- whether he was, the railing on the National Rifle Association or discussing his films or supporting a presidential candidate. There was no one like him.
LEMON: CNN's Larry King, and of course, Mr. Mickey Rooney. Thank you both for joining us. Sorry for you loss.
KING: Thank you.
ROONEY: Thank you very much. And a great American, let's never forget, Charlton Heston. Thank you.
LEMON: Thank you, sir.
Coming up, a marine is murdered. Now, her mom is speaking out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My concern is I want women to be better protected.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: It has been almost three months since the body of Marine Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach and her unborn child were pulled from a fire pit in a fellow marine's backyard.
Corporal Cesar Laurean is accused in both death and is still on the run. Now for the first time since her daughter's death, Mary Lauterbach, is sharing with CNN images of Maria that had never seen publicly. She spoke exclusively and candidly with our Susan Candiotti.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She is a mother in pain. Mary Lauterbach visits the graves of her murdered pregnant daughter, Maria, and unborn grandson, Gabriel Joseph.
MARY LAUTERBACH, MOTHER: Preparing for Easter is very hard because Maria want holidays.
CANDIOTTI: Just a few years ago, her daughter was playing high school soccer and dreaming about a bright future. This is the first video of Maria made public.
MARIA LAUTERBACH: For after High School, I am going to Marines. So I'll probably going to be doing that for about 20 or 25 years and then hopefully after that becoming a cop.
CANDIOTTI: Two months after Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach was found murdered, her body pulled from a fire pit in a fellow marine's backyard. Her mother is on a mission.
LAUTERBACH: My concern is I want women to be better protected.
CANDIOTTI: Last April, 20-year-old Maria was working the night shift in an office at Camp Lejeune with fellow Marine Corporal Cesar Laurean, when she claimed he locked the doors and attacked her. A month later Maria called her mom.
LAUTERBACH: And said, you know, mom, I've been raped. Maria, you have to report this because you have to protect all the other marine women to make sure that doesn't happen to anyone else. She said, OK, mom. So the next day she went in and reported it.
CANDIOTTI: Corporal Laurean denied the rape. Maria Lauterbach became pregnant.
LAUTERBACH: If there are perceived credibility issues, you still must protect the person making who is making those claims. You have to protect them. The problem is, when someone has a perceived credibility issue, they make themselves the perfect victim.
CANDIOTTI: While waiting for investigators to finish, Lauterbach reported being punched on base by an unknown attacker and having her car keyed. Then last December, about a month before Lauterbach's due date and a rape hearing on base, she disappeared. Her roommate found a note.
(on camera): So the note said, I could not take this marine life anymore so I'm going away. Sorry for the inconvenience, Maria. Does that sound like your daughter?
LAUTERBACH: It shocked me. No. And she never gave me any indication that she was leaving.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): A month later, Maria's body was dug up. Investigators say Laurean told his wife he had buried Maria under his barbecue pit after she slit her throat. He ran. The (INAUDIBLE) says Maria was killed by a blow to the head. REP. MIKE TURNER (R), OHIO: And this is a matter that deserves a higher scrutiny.
CANDIOTTI: Lauterbach's home town Congressman Mike Turner wants answers from the Marine Corps, including why Laurean didn't submit DNA during the investigation. The Marine Corp defends its action as an appropriate and as expected to reply to the congressman soon.
(on camera): What worries you about other women who might be rape, who are in the arms service, and whether they will come forward after they look at this particular case?
TURNER: Are they going to be very concern about their own safety and they're going to wonder whether or not, like Maria, as if they're alone in coming forward with the accusation. That fear has really have -- got to have a chilling effect.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Authorities are still waiting for the results of the paternity test to confirm whether Cesar Laurean is the father of Maria Lauterbach's unborn baby.
(on camera): Charged with murder, Laurean remains on the run, believed to be hiding in Mexico. Will he be caught? Authorities say they hope so. Trying their best to cut off his resources. Susan Candiotti, CNN, Dayton, Ohio.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Well, I want you to take a good look at these two pictures. This is Corporal Cesar Laurean. The one on the photo on the left is a photo investigators were showing when he first went missing. The one on the right that is the most recent photo.
Authorities think he's hiding somewhere in Mexico and he may have grown this beard and possibly is a little tanner than he was when he took off a few months ago.
A little girl choking on a toy. Her mother and brother frantically trying to save her. We'll tell you how the drama played out.
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LEMON: Welcome back, everyone. I'm Don Lemon. Little sisters often look up to their big brothers. But in this next story, one little girl says her brother is her hero. Shelly Walcott from our Milwaukee affiliate, WTMJ has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHELLY WALCOTT, WTMJ REPORTER (voice-over): Things weren't nearly this happy at the Lamb home last Sunday. 7-year-old, Madison, found herself in a life threatening situation.
SARAH LAMB, MOTHER: I was scared, I really was.
OPERATOR: 911 emergency.
S. LAMB: My daughter is choking on a bouncy ball.
WALCOTT: Madison had swallowed a ball slightly bigger than this one. It was lodged in her throat and she couldn't breathe.
TYLER LAMB, SAVED HIS SISTER: I heard her coughing and when I ran in my room, I saw her like holding her throat.
WALCOTT: Tyler started performing the Heinrich Maneuver, something he was taught back in elementary school. His mother, Sara, stayed on the phone with the 911 dispatcher and gave her son extra instruction.
S. LAMB: Up and towards her. Up and towards her. Keep going. Oh my God, she's turning purple.
WALCOTT: After 15 tries, nothing. And you can hear, Tyler, on tape getting more and more terrified.
S. LAMB: A little bit higher than the abdomen. You're hurting her, Ty.
T. LAMB: I can't do it.
S. LAMB: Keep trying.
WALCOTT: The little girl finally coughed the ball out. So what does she think of her brother now?
UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: My hero.
T. LAMB: I would do anything for them even if it means like dangerous things. I would so look after all of them.
S. LAMB: We are so proud. We just cannot believe, you know, what he did.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: And a very big thanks to Shelly Walcott, from our Milwaukee affiliate, WTMJ. Thank you for that story. And we're glad everyone is OK with that.
40 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr.'s voice was silenced. Tonight, in a CNN special presentation, hear the voices of those closest to King and some of those closest to his killer.
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LEMON: Well, it's been a rough day for flying. Thanks to some severe weather. And a rough day down in South Florida as well. Bonnie Schneider checking it all out for us.
Bonnie?
(WEATHER REPORT)
LEMON: Well, my colleague, Soledad O'Brien and CNN special investigations unit put together a revealing documentary, "EYEWITNESS TO MURDER: THE KING ASSASSINATION."
It is a must-see, two-hour event that we'll show you in just a few minutes. First so, take a listen to Soledad's conversation with Jerry Ray, brother of James Earl Ray.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JERRY RAY, BROTHER: He don't deny that he didn't rent the room, he don't deny he didn't buy the gun. The only thing he denied is that he was in that room.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The only thing he denies is that he shot Dr. King.
RAY: That's the only thing because that's the only thing he didn't do.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Jerry Ray says before the shot was fired, his brother drove the Mustang away to try to get a spare tire fixed.
(on camera): No witnesses have said, yes, he came in to get the spare tire fixed. Yes, I saw that man. We were too busy, we couldn't take him, but he was here. Nobody. There is not a one witness who has talked about a man coming in to get a spare tire fixed.
RAY: Well, I don't know for sure. I don't know if nobody admitted that he was in there or not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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