Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Santorum's War on Porn; Massacre Suspect Meets With Attorney; School Shooting in France; GOP Hopefuls Move to Illinois; Swimsuit Model Turned Drug Kingpin; Protesters Demand Arrest of George Zimmerman
Aired March 19, 2012 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Now this. Top of the hour. Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
The American soldier accused of slaughtering nine children, three women, four men in Afghanistan meets with his attorney for the very first time today. He is Sergeant Robert Bales brought back from Afghanistan via Kuwait to the U.S. to face charges. And we're learning Bales' family was under some financial pressure.
Want you to listen. This is Sergeant Bales' attorney. This is John Henry Browne.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN HENRY BROWNE, ATTORNEY FOR ROBERT BALES: I think there's an effort to try to paint him as someone who, rather than having a serious brain injury and maybe he shouldn't have been there to begin with, had some other factors.
The financial situation for all of us is stressful, I think. But, you know, nobody goes and kills women and children because they had financial stresses.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Bales is being held now at Fort Leavenworth military prison in Kansas.
That's where we have Ted Rowlands standing by.
Ted, first up, do we even know if Sergeant Bales has met with that attorney yet today? Are we expecting also the attorney to come out and speak?
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are expecting him to come out and speak. We reached out to him via e-mail this morning beforehand and he said he likely would. He said possibly right afterwards.
We do know talking to people on the post that they have met, they are meeting at this hour and they apparently met for three hours this morning and had a lunch break and are at it again. According to a spokesperson here at Fort Leavenworth he is planning on staying through midweek, John Henry Browne. So this is the first of sounds like a couple of days of interaction with his client.
BALDWIN: Do we know yet, Ted, when Bales will be charged, what charges he could face, when and if that happens?
ROWLANDS: We don't know when. We do know that those charges will obviously -- likely, I should say, just to couch it include murder charges and likely 16 murder charges. So the timing, we don't know. And the military has as much time as they need to gather the evidence that they need.
And there's a lot of evidence to gather. And then at that point, it will go to a commanding officer and that officer will then prefer the charge, that's what they call it in the military legal system. Basically they will officially charge him and at that point, then they go into the slow-moving wheels of justice in the military style, starting with an Article 32 and then going on to a court-martial trial.
BALDWIN: Right, Article 32 being the evidentiary hearing. Let me just back up. As we mentioned, you're in Fort Leavenworth, and that's the military prison where he's being held. Do you know if he's in solitary confinement, what kind of access he has to other soldiers, exercise, down time, any of that?
ROWLANDS: They say he's being integrated like every other pretrial prisoner here. It's separated at Fort Leavenworth with the post-trial folks in the maximum security area and the pretrial folks, and he's a pretrial person, innocent until proven guilty. He's in a solitary -- he's not -- a single cell. However, he is, apparently, going through what everybody else does on a daily basis. And they're integrating him in now.
They are also doing some mental and medical evaluations during the morning hours. But according to a spokesperson, he's just one of the others that are here at this base in the pretrial mode.
BALDWIN: Ted Rowlands for us in Kansas, Ted, thank you.
Just a short time ago, I spoke with Afghanistan war veteran Nick Colgin about the extreme stresses of war in that country. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICK COLGIN, AFGHANISTAN WAR VETERAN: It's important to remember when you're deployed to Afghanistan, especially at a small fire base, it's not like the States when you go 9:00 to 5:00 and you only see the individuals you work with then.
When I was overseas, I think most nights I was never more than five feet away from my commander whenever I went to bed. You're with the guys you serve with 100 percent of the time. Any small changes in each other, you notice. It's almost like they become one with you. So it's hard to imagine that something like this could happen. It's important not to jump to stereotypes as well. But you spend a lot of time with your brothers and sisters in arms overseas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Nick Colgin, I thank you.
In Afghanistan, American soldiers urinating on the bodies of Afghan soldiers, massive protests after Korans were burned on an American base in Afghanistan. And now this American soldier accused of slaughtering 16 Afghan civilians. To say that tensions were high would be a gross understatement.
And our own Sara Sidner spoke with apparent witnesses to the attacks two Sundays ago. Take a look from Kabul.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Graves in (INAUDIBLE) a place now haunted by the memory of a massacre. Ali Ahmed (ph) describes what he saw.
"It was around 3:00 at night that they entered the room. They took my uncle out of the room and shot him after asking him, 'Where is the Taliban? 'My uncle replied that he didn't know."
Ahmed (ph) said the worst happened next door. "Finally, they came to this room and martyred all the children in the room. There was even a 2-month- old baby," he said.
Once the shooting stopped, the villagers said some of the dead were piled in a room and set on fire. At daybreak, in the back of trucks, evidence emerged of the burning of bodies and killing of babies. U.S. officials say this was the work of a single soldier acting on his own.
Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales is under arrest, accused in the crime. Most of the villagers say they do not believe the U.S. version. But when it comes to actual eyewitnesses, their stories conflict. One of the young witnesses said, "He was an American." "It was just one person," the boy next to him chimes in. But some adults in the village tell us they have evidence more than one soldier was involved, but none of them have said more than one soldier was following a weapon.
"They went through a field of wheat and there was more than one set of footprints. The villagers have seen them and signs of knee prints as well."
In an exclusive interview, a Taliban commander from the area told CNN, "We don't think that one American soldier was involved in the attack. The foreigners and the puppet regime are blind to the truth of what happened there, but if this was the act of one soldier, we want this soldier to be prosecuted in Afghanistan and according to Islamic law."
After the attack, the Taliban suspended initial peace talks with the U.S. He told us the reason was twofold -- the burning of Korans in February by U.S. troops, and he claimed the U.S. rescinded its offer to move five Taliban members from Guantanamo Bay prison to Qatar.
"Our peace talks with the Americans were limited to discuss the prisoner deal," he said. "And those promises were not kept by the Americans."
But the U.S. State Department said it has not made any decisions on the transfer. Back in the villages of Panjwai district, it isn't peace talks, but justice that's being demanded right now, something the U.S. has repeatedly promised will be done.
In the streets and in the Afghan presidential palace, anger and skepticism reign. So far, three protests have erupted in the last week with calls for justice and death to America.
(on camera): If you speak with everyday Afghans about what happened at Panjwai, they are outraged about the massacre and even more furious the U.S. soldier accused in the case has been sent back to America.
But so far, we have not seen the kind of massive, angry protests we saw after U.S. troops mistakenly burned Korans. Some people are worried that tensions are building. No one is sure what might happen next.
Sara Sidner, CNN, Kabul, Afghanistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Sara, thank you. Now this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what the politicians should focus on instead of promising lower taxes and lowering the gas and stopping pornography. You know what? I will pay the taxes, I will pay the high gas prices. But focus on this violence that's killing these kids.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: A 6-year-old girl shot to death in a drive-by while playing on her own front porch. Police say the guys behind the trigger are teenagers. You're about to hear how out-of-control the violence is getting in this neighborhood and across parts of Chicago. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: A 6-year-old girl is dead, shot while on her own front porch past weekend in Chicago.
Take a look at this picture. This is the little girl I'm talking about, elementary school student Aliyah Shell. Little Aliyah she was on the porch with her mom and her sister and a man and then police say a pickup truck pulled up to the house and shots rang out. Aliyah was shot twice in the stomach and she died later at the hospital. This 6-year-old she was drawing on the sidewalk in front of her house with chalk earlier that day. This neighborhood is absolutely furious. I'm furious. I'm sure you are as well. And police believe this shooting may be gang related.
They arrested two teenagers, 18-year-old Juan Barraza and a 16- year-old yet to be identified. They were taken into custody. They're now both being charged as adults.
And Aliyah certainly not the only victim of violence here -- 41 people were shot over this weekend in Chicago, 41.
Joining me now live from Chicago is Tio Hardiman. He is the executive director of a group. It's called CeaseFire Illinois.
Tio, let me just begin with this neighborhood. Tell me about it.
TIO HARDIMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CEASEFIRE ILLINOIS: Well, where the shooting occurred was the Little Village community on the South Side of Chicago.
You have a history of, you know, gang violence in that particular community. But more than anything else, people think violently here in Chicago and throughout the nation. And people think it's the norm to react in a violent way to any lightweight dispute.
So what happened over Little Village like I said over the weekend in Chicago, we had 41 shootings and 10 homicides. There's definitely a spike in violence in Chicago, but most people think it's the norm. So there are a lot of issues over in the Little Village community, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Interestingly, Tio, when we pulled out the Google maps today, and I want to walk this, the street view, and I'm sure you have done this before. You can see a typical day in the life of a typical block looks like. Here it is.
Here we see what appears to be some undercover police activity. Looks like a guy with his hands on the hood. We see kids, also see school bus, kids getting off the bus in this neighborhood. A couple of kids here hanging out on the stoop right across the street. This is actually right across the street from Aliyah's home and the back alley here behind her home.
Police said that this particular alley, it is known for drug sales. Tell me a little bit more about what you know. And you mentioned, you know, this is an area that knows violence. Is it a hot spot for the Latin Kings; is that correct?
HARDIMAN: Yes, it's a hot spot for two different gangs in the area, and what you have going on is a 30-year war in the Little Village community with the two. I don't usually mention the gang names. But you just mentioned one of them.
But you have a rivalry that's been taking place for 30 years. OK? But, see, the police can only do so much, Brooke. You have to work more on the behavioral change of bringing -- and interrupting the violence before it happens. And that's what we specialize in as it relates to CeaseFire, because we have relationships in that particular community.
But we can't catch everything because we only are working in one- third of the city of Chicago that we need to work in.
BALDWIN: Yes. How do you do that with CeaseFire?
HARDIMAN: k. We hire professionally trained credible messengers, guys and young women that come from the element. They know how to get in and intercept whispers in order to stop a shooting.
As a matter of fact, in year 2011, we worked with 1,150 high-risk individuals like the young men you see that have been charged for shooting this young girl. And we also mediated over 480 conflicts where we stop people on the front end from taking the life of another person.
We have about 130 staff working throughout Chicago right now and we're doing our best. Everything about CeaseFire is scientifically proven. We had an evaluation done on our work by the Department of Justice and we're doing our best to just change the way people think about violence, because if you grew up in a violent area and the mind- set is it's OK to be violent, you have to work with people to help change the way you think on a regular basis.
I know some people might say it's all about law enforcement. But law enforcement, they definitely play a role, but law enforcement can't be out there 24 hours a day.
BALDWIN: I know you know this firsthand. I have read all about you. You grew up in a Chicago housing project. You have dedicated your life to this, particularly, Tio.
Tell me, though, this is horrendous, because we have the 6-year- old and as you mentioned 41 people over the weekend. But at least these two -- and I say kids -- they're teenagers caught. What is working? What are you and police doing right in Chicago and what else needs to happen?
HARDIMAN: Well, OK, yes, more behavioral change and more intervention on the front end. Like I said earlier, the police cannot just solve all the issues by themselves.
Also the community needs to step up. Most of the guys that are out there shooting one another, they come from halfway decent homes. Their parents have to stop them before they leave out the door. I had a guy that told me he would put me to sleep, Brooke, if I kept trying to intervene in a particular conflict on the West Side of Chicago in the Austin area.
And I had to save the life of an 18-year-old young man. I'm still here today and I'm grateful for that, but in order to prevent a homicide or talk somebody down, it is going to take some type of confrontation. People don't just put their guns down because you talk to them.
We have a professionally trained staff. We have replicated the success of CeaseFire time and time again. We're working in 15 cities across America now, in two to three additional countries throughout the world. So CeaseFire works, but CeaseFire can't solve all the issues alone. Our job, we are like a parallel approach to law enforcement. We stop a guy from crossing the line. And when a guy crosses the line, that's when law enforcement gets involved.
BALDWIN: Tell me quickly as we're looking at your Web site for people who want to be educated on what it is you do, Tio, what is the Web site for CeaseFire?
HARDIMAN: Well, it's ceasefireillinois.org. You can go to ceasefireillinois.org and find everything out about CeaseFire. And we really appreciate the support.
Brooke, I would love to have you come to Chicago one day, so I can take you out on the streets of Chicago.
BALDWIN: I have been. I have met with a member of a gang. I have been there and done it, but I would be happy to come back. It's an issue and we're constantly reporting on it I feel like here and there on CNN.
Tio, I appreciate it. Thank you.
Coming up next, a huge development in a school shooting. We have just learned the gun used to kill a teacher and three kids today is the same one used to kill two soldiers. Also, now France and parts of New York are on alert. Back in 60 seconds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Just into us here at CNN, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is suspending his reelection campaign until at least Wednesday.
This news comes after a gunman shot and killed a teacher, the teacher's two sons and a little girl at a Jewish school in France. The New York Police Department in addition to this has now increased security in Jewish neighborhoods and institutions across the city.
And this is all again with regard to the shooting this morning in Toulouse, France, and this is the third shooting in the southern part of France in the last 10 days. Police say the same gun was used in all three cases.
CNN's Jim Bittermann is following the story for us from Paris.
And obviously the big, I guess, what's connecting all of them, it's the same gun.
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Exactly. Police really don't know what they're dealing with, except they do know that this is probably the same shooter. In fact, as far as we know, they're only looking at one person here. Basically the method of operation is the same.
The gunman drives up on a motorbike, bursts out shooting and apparently fairly randomly picking his targets and then gets on the motorbike and races away. So police are looking for the guy, there's no question about it. But they don't have a whole lot of leads. They have had eyewitnesses who have given descriptions of the motorcycle.
They believe the motorcycle is the same one used in all three cases and that it's a stolen motorcycle. So they have that to go on. But in fact, the shooter has been wearing a motorcycle helmet so there's been no real visual identification of the person involved.
So there are a lot of theories about what might be happening here. There's a theory that perhaps some of this is racist oriented because the four soldiers who were shot, three of them died, in fact, were from North Africa. And then, of course, the shooting at the Jewish school this morning suggests perhaps there's some racist element to this, Brooke.
BALDWIN: And now all of this is affecting now security. NYPD, they don't want to take any chances. They're now upping awareness and security at synagogues and things like that at different predominantly Jewish neighborhoods.
Jim Bittermann, we appreciate it, as French police are still looking for that shooter. Meantime, coming up next, Wall Street investors, they were all waiting to hear Apple's big decision today. What would the company do, what would you do, with the almost $100 billion it has in cash? Well, today, we found out.
Plus, as Rick Santorum promises this war on porn, one senator strikes back. Back in 70 seconds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)
BALDWIN: Next here on "Reporter Roulette," the duchess of Cambridge delivers her very first official address.
Max Foster is at the children's hospice center where Kate Middleton spoke today.
Hey, Max.
MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Brooke, the duchess was clearly nervous going into this speech. Her hands were shaking.
Fair enough. This was her first public speech. She was supporting one of her key charities. And there was an audience of millions watching around the world with a live TV feed. In the end, she delivered it calmly in a very measured way and very slowly. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATE MIDDLETON, DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE: I'm only sorry that William can't be here today.
(LAUGHTER)
MIDDLETON: He would love it here.
A view of his that I share is that through teamwork, so much can be achieved.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: The duchess also spent time with young children with long-term illnesses here at the hospice, a hospice which her mother- in-law, Diana, also supported.
Fashion watchers were also very quick to notice that the duchess was wearing a dress that her mother had worn before, in fact, two years ago to the races. So that got a few chins wagging as well. This was the last chance to see the duchess in public for some time.
Her husband, Prince William, is on his way back soon from a tour of duty in the Falklands and they want to spend some private time together. So we're not expected to see them in public for another month or so -- Brooke.
BALDWIN: Max Foster, thank you.
Next on "Reporter Roulette," tomorrow is Illinois's turn as the state count downs to its primary.
Let's go to Joe Johns in Moline, Illinois.
Joe, when you look at the latest numbers that were out today, Romney has like a double-digit lead over Santorum. So what is the Santorum strategy here?
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think when you look at this thing in totality, quite frankly, the only thing he can do is hope for a brokered convention, Brooke.
You know, the numbers seem to be working against him, but the one thing that the Santorum crowd can do is try to pick up as many delegates as they can, at the same time, try to keep Mitt Romney from getting as many delegates as possible and hope that going into the convention in Tampa this summer, at that time, they might be able to dissuade some people, perhaps, from voting for Mitt Romney, in other words, to sort of change allegiances in a brokered convention.
That's the best bet for Rick Santorum. He said he does best among rural voters, among suburban voters. The fact of the matter is Mitt Romney does pretty well among suburban voters, too. But then again, the math right now is working against Rick Santorum -- Brooke. BALDWIN: We know you have the Puerto Rico primary over the weekend. Romney won. Santorum took a little time for some R&R though poolside. I believe we have the picture. OK, we're working on the picture.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: But give me some context. He had an hour to kill.
JOHNS: Right. Right.
This is one of those stories that goes into the context of politicians caught with their shirts off. It's happened to President Barack Obama. It's happened, I think, to a bunch of other people, including the former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger at the wrong time perhaps, even, I think, Newt Gingrich.
BALDWIN: There it is.
JOHNS: So Rick Santorum decided he would take just a little bit of time at the pool, took off his shirt. And next thing you know, somebody snaps a picture and it is on a blog.
And everybody is talking about it. I think it's been trending a bit on Twitter and some other places. He has apologized. He has pretty good-natured about it, said, look, maybe picked up 15, 20 pounds, what can I say? Sorry about that, folks, and hopefully end of the story for Rick Santorum. Still, a lot of people having fun with that, I think.
BALDWIN: Senator Scott Brown, Massachusetts, having a little bit of fun. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. SCOTT BROWN (R), MASSACHUSETTS: I see that both Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum now have Secret Service with them on the campaign trail. And in Santorum's case, I think it's the first time he's actually ever used protection, so, yes, yes.
(LAUGHTER)
BALDWIN: Ba-dum-bum. I guess he has got a chance for payback tonight, huh?
JOHNS: Yes. That's a really good line.
When I saw it, I laughed out loud, the contraception line, because Santorum has been talking so much about that. But, actually, I think if you check the Internet, and I'm not completely sure about this, but perhaps a comedian who's on one of our sister networks, Conan O'Brien, told that joke a couple of weeks ago.
BALDWIN: Oh, really?
(CROSSTALK) BALDWIN: Interesting.
JOHNS: Yes, there you go.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Here we go.
JOHNS: Plagiarism is a form of flattery, or so they say.
BALDWIN: He's on -- Scott Brown is on with Piers tonight. We will get Piers to ask and see if he was watching Conan.
Interesting, Joe Johns. We will be seeing much more of you, I know, for the primary tomorrow there in Illinois. Thank you, sir.
And that's your "Reporter Roulette" here on this Monday.
Coming up next, though, police arrest a swimsuit model who's the alleged mastermind of an international drug ring. Wait until you hear how investigators say she operated. Sunny Hostin is "On the Case." She's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: A swimsuit model is in the headlines not for how she looks, but for what she allegedly did outside her photo shoots -- deal drugs around the world.
She's known on Facebook as Simone Starr, but her international arrest warrant calls her Simone Farrow, wanted on charges of running a global drug ring, and officers just caught her in Australia. She was on the run for a month.
CNN legal analyst, Sunny Hostin, is back with us on the case here. According to these allegations, how did she run this operation?
SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Wow, it's really quite surprising. Apparently, she was shipping crystal meth via FedEx, sometimes also using the postal service, and she shipped it allegedly in shipments of bath salts, Brooke.
And, so, the allegations -- yes -- the allegations are that she was involved with at least seven other people and they're describing this as an ongoing criminal enterprise from her Hollywood apartment.
BALDWIN: OK, so we have some YouTube video. And ABC News is reporting she skipped out on bail. How does that impact the people who bailed her out?
HOSTIN: Well, it really does impact them because apparently they put up about $150,000 of bail and she did skip out, as you mentioned. They found her in Australia. Typically, that money is forfeited and so my understanding is a friend of hers put that money up. That money is now gone. It becomes the property of the government.
BALDWIN: Do we know quickly how long she allegedly ran this global drug ring?
HOSTIN: We are not sure, but it's been several years in the making. So this investigation has been going on for quite some time.
BALDWIN: Let me ask you about this. There's suddenly a mistrial in the "Desperate Housewives" lawsuit. Actress Nicolette Sheridan was suing ABC for her termination after she complained about how the show's creator was allegedly treating her.
What do you know?
HOSTIN: Isn't that something? Apparently, the judge has called a mistrial because the jury was deadlocked. They couldn't reach a verdict here, a unanimous verdict. They needed at least nine jurors to agree.
Get this, Brooke. It was 8-4, an 8-4 split in her favor and so who knows. Will she bring this case again? Is this now a case ripe for settlement now that the other side realizes that they came just this close to losing on a very, very big monetary amount? Who knows?
But it's a mistrial that has been declared in the "Desperate Housewives" suit. 8-4, though, Brooke, was the last count.
BALDWIN: We'll see if a settlement happens. Sunny Hostin, thank you.
Coming up next, a major development in the search for that hot air balloon pilot. Plus, find out what he told the skydivers standing right next to him way high up in the air right before trouble hit.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just in love with, enamored with, the design of the human body, its elegance. Nature has often these very powerful principles, if captured in a technology, in a device can be very, very extraordinary in their capacity to help people move again.
So, that's the basic thesis of our work. We steal from the cookie jar of nature and we apply that and we build synthetic constructs that emulate that functionality.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Crews found the body of a missing hot air balloon pilot who saved the lives of five skydivers before plunging to his death. His name? Ed Ristaino. His balloon hit a storm that made it go way too high up in the air, but he managed to get all of the sky divers to jump out with their parachutes and then here's what happened next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SHERIFF BOBBY MCLEMOREIS, BEN HILL COUNTY GEORGIA: An updraft took him up to about 17,000, 18,000 feet in which the hot air balloon collapsed and started spinning and twisted his ropes up. We had a lot of hail, lightning, heavy rain, wind. It was a bad storm.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Ed Ristaino is being called a hero for saving those five skydivers.
And, now, the 911 calls are finally released in the case of a neighborhood watchman who shot a teenager to death. There are all kinds of new questions in this mystery.
Coming up next, I'm going to speak with a Florida law student who's part of this protest group demanding an arrest. Find out why she's also afraid.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Just leased 911 calls are intensifying this firestorm over the death of Florida teenager, Trayvon Martin. A neighborhood watch captain shot and killed Martin, who was 17 years of age, after calling 911 about a suspicious person.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
GEORGE ZIMMERMAN: Something's wrong with him. Yep. He's coming to check me out. He's got something in his hands. I don't know what his deal is.
DISPATCHER: Are you following him?
ZIMMERMAN: Yes.
DISPATCHER: OK. We don't need you to do that.
ZIMMERMAN: OK.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Well, a flurry of phone calls followed. Callers described to dispatchers a fight between two men, calls for help, and then the fatal gunshot.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
DISPATCHER: So, you think he's yelling help?
CALLER: Yes.
DISPATCHER: All right. What is your ...
CALLER: There's gunshots.
DISPATCHER: You just heard gunshots? CALLER: Yes.
DISPATCHER: How many?
CALLER: Just one.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Protests have been happening ever since Martin's death.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He could so easily have just been any one of us, so I feel like the reason you all are out here is because you all are affected the same way I was affected.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Today's demonstration in Florida involves law students who demanded to meet with the state's attorney who now has the case.
And I want to bring in one of those law students, Ese Ighedosa, one of the protesters, live there in Orlando.
And, Ese, why protest today? Specifically, what action do you expect to see taken?
ESE IGHEDOSA, PROTESER: We are demanding an immediate arrest of George Zimmerman. That's what the family wants. That's what we want as law students and that's what we want as Floridians.
We want to feel safe and we don't feel safe with him out there and we don't feel like justice was served without an arrest. And that's what we demanded from the state attorney and from the assistant state attorney, Pat Whitaker.
BALDWIN: You and this group wanted to meet with Pat Whitaker, the state's attorney. Tell me about the meeting. Have you ever met him before?
IGHEDOSA: No, I've never met him before. We walked in. It was a group of us, three students and an attorney. We requested a meeting and we got the meeting within ten minutes and we met with him for a little less than an hour.
And we expressed our concerns and our questions about the shooting, about the investigation of the Sanford Police Department and about the current status of the investigation that the state attorney is conducting.
And we wanted answers and we wanted to express our disappointment and our concern with what we feel like is injustice.
BALDWIN: Did you get your answers? What did Pat Zimmerman say to you?
IGHEDOSA: He basically ...
BALDWIN: Pat Whitaker.
IGHEDOSA: Pat Whitaker said that they have taken over the investigation from the Sanford Police Department or the Sanford police department handed it over to them, better yet, and that they are pretty much redoing everything.
And he used the exact words that they need to greatly up supplement the Sanford Police Department's investigation which led us to question, well, if it needs to be supplemented, then that means there were things that weren't done and that the original investigation was inadequate.
And that's what we expressed to Mr. Whitaker. He also told us it was looking like a couple of weeks. And I expressed to him that us, along with the family, we feel like a couple of weeks isn't good enough.
You know, justice delayed is justice denied and the family doesn't want to wait any longer to get an arrest of George Zimmerman. And, so, I think that I told Pat Whitaker there needs to be a sense of urgency and the public doesn't feel it, the family doesn't feel the sense of urgency, and neither do the students of Florida.
BALDWIN: CNN has been trying to get some sort of response from George Zimmerman, this security volunteer. His father, Robert, did say this to the "Orlando Sentinel."
I want to just quote him here, quote, "He would be the last to discriminate for any reason whatsoever. One black neighbor recently interviewed said she knew everything in the media was untrue and that she would trust George with her life."
That said -- again, that from the father -- you were quoted today, Ese. I read a quote from you saying that not only were you angry, but you're afraid. What are you afraid of?
IGHEDOSA: I'm afraid of George Zimmerman. I'm afraid of any man that can shoot and kill a child who is screaming for his life. Not only am I afraid, but everyone around me. I have a little brother as well and I'm not OK with a man who can shoot someone who's crying for his life and they don't even get arrested.
And with a concealed weapon and he has a concealed weapons license, he can go out today and buy a concealed weapon and that's what scares me. I have been outspoken about the case and he could easily find me and he could find anyone. He's a loose cannon and he still can purchase a gun. That's why I'm afraid.
BALDWIN: Again, we would love to hear the side of George Zimmerman. Thus far, he has not spoken up. Ese Ighedosa, thank you.
Coming up, a woman videotapes a tornado coming straight for her home. On that tape, you will hear the words she will ever utter to her husband. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: In case you don't know, all the anchors here at CNN were facing off in this fierce "March Madness" competition.
So, after a weekend of upsets and big surprises, it will be very hard to find a bracket out there that's perfect, but there's one, Chad Myers, that's pretty darn close to perfection. That would be mine.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, the top of the CNN leader board, as well, Ms. Brooke B., at CNN. There you go. Four wins in the first round, you got all of those play-in games correct. That was impressive. That was really, really good stuff.
And then you got 11 games in the second -- in the third round here. So, let's go to your bracket and then we'll go to my bracket and we'll show you that they're just not very different except that I'm way in the bottom and that's just how it goes.
He's your bracket, Brooke. You have Kentucky, Ohio State, UNC, and Michigan State going to the Final Four.
BALDWIN: My alma mater, UNC, I'm really worried about Kendall Marshall, our point guard. He had surgery on his right wrist.
MYERS: Yes, but ...
BALDWIN: I'm nervous.
MYERS: But he's left-handed.
BALDWIN: He is left-handed. He got some screws put in his wrist. We'll see. Obviously, I'm paying attention.
MYERS: But just to show you how, you know, we were thinking along the same lines, except for one, UNC, right there in the middle.
Except I have this team right here, Murray State. Look all these losses I have. Memphis? Nope. Long Beach State? Nope. Murray State? Nope.
So, that leaves me with only three teams in the Final Four and less of a chance of actually getting anywhere.
BALDWIN: How about that Wolf Blitzer?
MYERS: Mr. Wolf Blitzer is in it, too. He's like in third place, but his difference is that he has Syracuse, the win. He has all four teams going in, but Syracuse is his winning team and I wonder if he knew that the ineligibility of that center would play such a big role in Syracuse's run to the Final Four. We'll have to see.
BALDWIN: We'll see. We'll see.
Wolf Blitzer, coming up here on "The Sit Room." Doing well with the brackets. Not quite as well as myself. Let's talk about what you have coming up. Who are we talking to?
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S "THE SITUATION ROOM": I knew that that center was ineligible. I could have changed my bracket, but I went with my gut. I went with my heart. As you know, it's a scientific notion.
I'm from upstate New York. Syracuse is in upstate New York, so I figured if I changed it and decided I was going to do something else, it would be bad. So, I stuck with Syracuse, I'm going with Syracuse, I'm in it all the way with Syracuse.
But all my, you know, final picks are still there, so that's good, right, Brooke?
BALDWIN: Pretty good. Pretty good. Although you don't have Carolina winning all the way. I do have crazy love for you, Wolf Blitzer.
BLITZER: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Just, you know, I don't know about that. Anyway, what are you talking about on the show today?
BLITZER: We've got a lot of hard news coming in at the top of the hour, two hours worth, including all the political stuff going on and there's a lot of political stuff going on, the acrimony between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum heating up rather dramatically right now. A lot of Republicans on the sidelines are wondering, is this really good for the Republican candidate, whoever that happens to be, come November.
And where is Newt Gingrich right now? Why isn't he campaigning in Illinois as he should be if he's serious about winning the Republican nomination. Instead, he's not been campaigning in Illinois.
BALDWIN: Checking out the cherry blossoms.
BLIZTER: Yes, I love the cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C., too, but if I were running for the Republican nomination, I think I would be out there campaigning, if not in Illinois, at least going to Louisiana which is coming up on Saturday or some of the other states. We've got some big states, Wisconsin, Maryland, other states as well.
So, you know, we're going to be delving into as well.
So, and also, I think Chad is going to be joining us. We've got some bad weather, as you know, in -- BALDWIN: Bad weather in the mid-section of the country, right.
BLITZER: Let's see if these tornadoes do materialize.
BALDWIN: Wolf, thank you. We'll see you in a few.
Now, this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His body was up against me here and we had arms around each other and he said, "I love you," and I said, "I love you, too."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Speaking of tornadoes, a powerful twister races toward one couple's home, their very final words to one another caught on video.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: You are about to hear a couple's final moments together after 40-plus years of marriage. With a tornado bearing down on their home in Henryville, Indiana, they grabbed their cameras. They watched the twister through their window until decision-time and one of them won't make it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LENORA HUNTER: I'm recording it now.
WAYNE HUNTER: This is crazy.
LENORA HUNTER: I have never seen one. I finally get to see one. Maybe the last one I see.
WAYNE HUNTER: Yes, that's true. Man, that's a big one, too. It's a huge one.
LENORA HUNTER: Listen to it. It's coming right toward Henryville, maybe we should tell them. It's coming here. It's picking up. It's picking stuff up. Look, you can see it rotate.
WAYNE HUNTER: I hope it goes to the north of us. It looks like it's getting right toward us.
LENORA HUNTER: Maybe we should get away from the window? Look at it picking stuff up. Well, we need to close this window, I'm sorry, I'm going to have to close the window. I got to close the door. Oh, my god!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Susan Candiotti spoke with Lenora Hunter about her last few minutes with Wayne.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The last thing she remembered was her ears popping then she blacked out.
The twister threw the couple outside their home. Neighbors came looking and heard a noise. COLE BELCHER, NEIGHBOR: Well, it sounded like a baby crying is what I thought, which Mike said it sounded like a cat meowing. That's when I hollered at Mike, I was like there's somebody in there, you know. We've got to go over there.
So, we ran in the house and flipped the wall off of her and got her out and she immediately started saying, "My husband. My husband."
Well, right next to her, we looked and we could see his feet underneath the refrigerator.
LENORA HUNTER: And I knew, you know? I just knew when he was laying there like that he didn't make it.
CANDIOTTI: Amazingly, Lenora Hunter, badly bruised, survived. She lost her husband of 41 years and virtually everything she owns, but has her family keeping her strong.
And he has the videos, a bittersweet memento.
L. HUNTER: I have never seen one. I finally get to see one. Maybe the last one I get to see.
WAYNE HUNTER: Yes, that's true.
CANDIOTTI: When you think back and you remember saying, I hope it not the last? It turns out ...
L. HUNTER: It was. It was for Wayne. So, it was for him and he never liked them anyway.
CANDIOTTI: She will rebuild right here where the couple retired and where she says she has to be.
L. HUNTER: This is going to be my home.
CANDIOTTI: This is where you and Wayne wanted to be?
L. HUNTER: Right. This is our home. And it will be my home forever.
CANDIOTTI: Lenora Hunter, rebuilding a home and her life after so much loss.
Susan Candiotti, CNN, Henryville, Indiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer starts right now.
WOLF BLITZER, ANCHOR, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Brooke, thanks very much.