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At This Hour
Near-Collision of Planes Spikes; Girl Accidentally Kills Gun Instructor; Heroin Use Exploding in America; Chicago Honors Little League Team.
Aired August 27, 2014 - 11:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: I don't know about you but I think most of us are kind of guilty of taking plane travel for granted, however there have been several recent incidents of collisions being narrowly averted.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The number of close calls being reported is growing, that's according to the FAA.
Our aviation correspondent, Rene Marsh, has all the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A near midair collision in April over Newark, a United Airline landing with 167 passenger comes within 150 yards are of a United Express regional jet preparing to take off.
(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)
PILOT: Yeah, we're putting the nose down and, yeah, he's real close.
(END AUDIO FEED)
MARSH: It's the fourth time this year a near collision has made headlines. CNN has learned the number of close calls nearly doubled in 2013 over the previous year. A closer look at the FAA's newly released stats show 38 were considered high risk. That's actually three fewer than the previous year, but the number of medium and low- risk incidents soared. And in 2014, there have been other close calls. April 25th, a United flight cruising at 33,000 feet over the Pacific gets too close to a U.S. Airways plane. Passengers say the aircraft plunged to avoid disaster. May 9th, in Houston, two United Airlines flights come less than a mile of each other, when a controller gives one pilot the wrong instructions. The mistake quickly corrected.
(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)
TOWER: United 601 stop your turn, stop your climb, stop your turn, United 601.
(END AUDIO FEED) MARSH: May 10th in New York, two JetBlue planes come within a mile of each other as one takes off and the other prepares to land. All of those close calls, what the FAA calls loss of separation, usually come down to pilot or controller error.
ROBERT SUMWALT, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: Any time there is a loss of separation, we are concerned about it because it's not supposed to occur.
MARSH: The FAA attributes the spike to its voluntary safety reporting system, which allows employees to submit safety incidents confidentially. The FAA says that's led to increased reporting, so it's not known if the actual number of incidents have gone up. The agency tells CNN more than 99.99 percent of all air traffic operations occur with no loss of separation, which helps make the U.S. airspace the safest in the world.
Rene Marsh, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PEREIRA: So?
BERMAN: Safest in the world?
PEREIRA: But if they are on the rise, that's concerning.
BERMAN: Yes.
PEREIRA: We'll keep an eye on it.
@THISHOUR, a serial killer taking aim at random in Los Angeles. Four dead, three fighting for their lives. Authorities say they've got their man.
PEREIRA: A girl accidentally kills her shooting instructor in Arizona with an Uzi. She was nine. Details ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PEREIRA: The latest chapter of a horror story is seemingly come to an end in L.A., with a man that police call a serial killer. He's now behind bars. Police suspect 34-year-old Alexander Hernandez of randomly shooting seven people, four of them died, during a five-day spree in Southern California. Three of those shootings happened within an hour of one another on Sunday. Hernandez is also accused of shooting and killing two dogs.
BERMAN: Police say they believe Hernandez was working alone, taking aim at random victims with a pistol-grip shotgun that was found in his possession. He is due to be arraigned today. Charged so far with capital murder and two counts of attempted murder plus animal cruelty.
A shocking story. A lot of people talking about this in Arizona. A nine-year-old shot and killed a shooting instructor by accident.
We want you to watch this video. This shows the moments before the shooting.
PEREIRA: The little girl is being instructed by Charles Vacca on how to use an Uzi submachine gun. She loses control of the weapon, ends up shooting Vacca in the head. He did not survive his injuries.
We want to bring in our legal analyst, Danny Cevallos; and criminal defense attorney, Midwin Charles.
Heartbreaking to just put aside what this child is now going to have to deal with, and hopefully they are going to find some help for her to deal with what has happened.
But, Danny, let's start with you. Are there laws that are preventing children from using Uzis?
DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: There are child access prevention laws in different states. Many states have them. Unfortunately, Arizona is not one of them. Even if it did, child access prevention laws really focus on whether a weapon has been left negligently around so someone can discover it. But ultimately, they all sort of focus on whether it was done negligently and a lot of them have provisions that as long as there's some supervision, the law might not apply. And that's just a general broad stroke.
BERMAN: This is the definition of supervision. It's at a shooting range with an instructor.
MIDWIN CHARLES, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: That's right. It actually doesn't get better than that with respect to supervision, not only is it an instructor, it's someone who is trained and experienced and it's also taking place in a location that is licensed to do this. Now, of course, there are questions as to whether or not this gun range would think that it is reasonable that a child that small could handle an automatic weapon. In other words, it's reasonably foreseeable that the sort of kickback that happened with that gun would happen with a child that small.
PEREIRA: Yeah, she's a little girl.
Bullets and Burgers, the name of this shooting range, allows children to use a weapon if they are accompanied by a parent or guardian. Danny, the next question, are parents liable at all? Could they face?
CEVALLOS: Two kinds of liability. You got civil and criminal. But in this case Arizona has civil liability where your child does something maliciously and hurts somebody, but you know there's no malice here. This looks to be a clear accident. So on the civil side, even then that's capped at $10,000 believe it or not, the law mostly applies to vandalism, but on the criminal side, is there potential parental liability. Again, most laws that deal with this focus on whether there was some negligence or some bad choice on the part of parents in allowing their child to obtain a gun. And that's where those child access prevention laws come into play.
BERMAN: It doesn't get to the central question that a lot of people ask the second that they hear this story, which is, a 9-year-old with an Uzi, question mark?
CHARLES: That's the question. Danny is right when he talks about whether or not the parent has instructed the child or allowed the child to engage in willful and malicious behavior. But I think what this will come down to is whether it is reasonable for a parent to think that it is appropriate for a child to fire off an automatic weapon such as an Uzi. It's one thing for perhaps a handgun or a rival, but an automatic weapon requires a person of a certain height and weight. Those issues will come into play. But again this gun range is licensed and that instructor was trained and experienced and it's my guess that I wouldn't be surprised that he signed some sort of disclaimer understanding that he might be hurt on the job. There's a bit of an assumption of risk here going on here.
PEREIRA: Just the heart break for that child, the family, his family. He's no longer here. That child potentially has to live with that, the fact that her hand was on the trigger. What a horrible, horrible circumstance.
BERMAN: It was a New York family on vacation in Arizona.
PEREIRA: I know. I know. What a horrible situation.
Danny, Midwin, thank you.
CHARLES: You're welcome.
BERMAN: A look at the growing crisis, the rise of heroin use in the United States. We really have a remarkable story. This is going to make you think, ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PEREIRA: We're covering a story here on CNN in a series called "Deadly Fix," abuse of prescription painkillers in the U.S. Experts are calling it worse than the crack cocaine epidemic in the 80s. It's leading to an explosion of heroin use across the country.
BERMAN: Yeah, but the connection is fascinating and frightening. Heroin deaths spiked more than 80 percent in New York from 2010 to 2012. It's not an inner city crisis. This is in Vermont, too. The governor there devoted his State of the State address to it. He says it's a full blown crisis there. The primary reason for the heroin explosion, it is cheap, sometimes selling for as little as $6 a bag.
Deb Feyerick has a remarkable look at this American epidemic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LT. DAVID BETZ, CHELSEA MASSACHUSETTS POLICE DEPARTMENT: He's coming up, side street, behind where you're at.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's just after dinner on an ordinary Thursday night in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: We've got a visual on the guy. BETZ: Yeah, the buyer. We have the buyer. I guess the buyer texted
them to say he's on the way.
FEYERICK: Lieutenant David Betz and his narcotics officers are gathering intelligence on a controlled drug deal.
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: What did he buy? How much is it?
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Five bags.
FEYERICK: Chelsea is north of Boston, just over the bridge, across the Mystic River, and like many other cities and towns across America, police here have seen demand for heroin skyrocket.
BETZ: Drugs are -- you hate to say they are as American as apple pie. They are here. They are not going anywhere.
FEYERICK: The growing epidemic is fueled in part by people increasingly hooked on prescription painkillers, people looking to heroin as a cheaper way to get high. People like Marie, who grew up here and took her first hit two decades at age 16. We agreed to protect her identity.
(on camera): How often do you do heroin now?
MARIE, DRUG ADDICT: Several times a now. Like right now, I've already done two no 40 packages today.
FEYERICK: Do you have one dealer or multiple?
MARIE: Multiple. You also need multiples dealers because sometimes one ain't around so you need to back up dealer.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Police here say the majority of drugs at 60 percent are sold in and around the public park by Chelsea town hall, an endless flow of traffickers, suppliers, sellers, and buyers.
(on camera): How do they find they are way here into a place like Chelsea?
BETZ: They almost have like a network of runners or suppliers and they will send them out like delivery guys in a pizza store and say you go to Chelsea for the day. You go to another city for the day and they will basically network like that.
FEYERICK: What's the most number of times somebody has been arrested?
BETZ: Oh, that I've seen?
FEYERICK: Yeah.
BETZ: Well over 200.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Back at Chelsea police headquarters, the evidence room is nearly filled to capacity. BETZ: These are all heroin cases and cocaine cases that we've work on
and the twist is just the corner of a sandwich bag that they will take.
FEYERICK (on camera): Can I hold it?
BETZ: Go ahead.
FEYERICK: A twist of heroin that costs a fraction of a single prescription pain killer. This batch of heroin is worth $300 dollars.
(on camera): So if you have the same amount of Oxycotin or any of those drugs, what would it be?
BETZ: A little over $2000.
FEYERICK: Police say they're not even from here, they don't live in Chelsea. They're coming from other cities and towns.
BETZ: We know more cities are more affluent. We'll ask them, how did you end up here from a suburb of million dollar homes? They'll say they got hooked on opiates, you know, they ran out of money, they're not available there, like they are here.
FEYERICK (voice-over): And though she grew up in Chelsea, Marie says she wants to move first chance she gets, hoping to run from the addition she calls a life sentence.
(on camera): You O.D.'d five times. Did you ever once think, oh, why did I wake up?
MARIE: Yes, every single time. Every time I woke, I woke up pissed off. Like, I'm such a screw up, I can't even die right. I'd rather be in the ground than continue with this.
BETZ: Coming up there now.
FEYERICK: An endless cycle of drugs and small towns trying to stem the tide.
BETZ: If I woke up tomorrow, I'd do it all again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: I want to bring in clinical psychologist and addiction specialist, Howard Samuels.
Howard, you're a recovering heroin addict. We heard the woman say she overdosed five times. The cops say he's arrested the same person 200 times. How do you break a cycle like that?
DR. HOWARD SAMUELS, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST & ADDICTION SPECIALIST: Well, I got to say, I mean, I'm sober 30 years now. I'm sober because I was arrested numerous times and the courts mandated me to a treatment program instead of going to prison. And I think that that's really what has to happen here. We have to have larger drug courts that are sentencing these people not to prison but to mandatory drug treatment programs so they can really get the help that they need.
PEREIRA: I think so many of us have been shocked by the rise of this. It was interesting to learn why. Because of the expense of these prescription drugs, heroin's cheaper, more readily available. Talk to us though about -- if someone uses stops, they risk overdose more so. Why is that?
SAMUELS: If you stop using opiates for a few days, then when you go back to using the opiate, your tolerance level is much lower. So -- but in your mind, you're thinking that you need the same type of shot you had a week ago to get you high, but in reality, you probably need half of that. And that's where the O.D.s and the deaths happen, because they take too much and their body can't handle it.
BERMAN: You know, it's interesting, you know, Phillip Seymour Hoffman's death was a few months ago. This is affecting people at all economic levels of society --
PEREIRA: Oh, absolutely.
BERMAN: -- isn't it?
SAMUELS: It is. You've got two sorts of groupings here. And at my treatment center, the Hills, I have a woman who is 40 years old with a 3-year-old child and she takes 50 Vicodin a day. She doctor shops because she has, quote, "back pain," OK? Now, you have a huge group of professionals and women that do not hit the street but go doctor shopping. Then I have an addict at my treatment center that's 22 that is shooting heroin so much she has no veins left. So you've got these two types of grouping that create an epidemic with opiate addiction.
PEREIRA: What's interesting, too, with some people, it starts with an injury. They start taking a painkiller. And they develop an addition from there. It's a slippery, slippery slope for them.
SAMUELS: Well, it's very true. But usually what you're going to find out, if it turns into addition before the painkillers got involved, they were usually abusing other drugs, like marijuana, like alcohol. So they were prone to addiction to begin with.
PEREIRA: All right. Well, we appreciate you joining us. It sounds as though this is a real issue for the United States. We're going to have to continue to follow it. Dr. Howard Samuels joining us here.
We'll continue the conversation throughout the week here on CNN. You can visit CNN.com/deadlyfix.
After the break, we want to take you to a special celebration, a very special celebration in Chicago for a bunch of shorties. They did some things at the Little League World Series. Very proud of them. We'll take you there, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: You're looking at live pictures of the place to be right now. That is Chicago. A parade honoring the country's greatest current team, Jackie Robinson West, their little league team.
PEREIRA: The spirit of Jackie Robinson is strong in these ones. They came in second but they're champs in our books.
Our George Howell is on scene as the excitement in Chicago welcomes and congratulates these kiddos.
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michaela, John, what a great day in Chicago. This is where it ends here, in Millennium Park, the parade coming here to downtown where the entire city will celebrate.
When you think about the stories, many of the things we cover in the south side, the shootings, the tragic stories, this is a high point for the city, for many people in that community.
And Trey Hondras tells it best when he explained what it was like to be celebrated today. I want you to listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: What's it like to do this in this community?
TREY HONDRAS, LITTLE LEAGUE PLAYER: It's real big because now like everybody in the whole city is coming together and make it sound positive.
HOWELL: Have you ever seen it like this?
HONDRAS: No, never.
HOWELL: What does it mean to you?
HONDRAS: It's real big because I don't like all this negative stuff around Chicago. It's not safe for young athletes like us.
PEREIRA: Will people see what they've done and will they follow their lead?
HONDRAS: I hope so, yeah.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: First time a little league team in Chicago has won since 1967. It's a big deal here, John, Michaela.
Like I said, there's a big parade happening now. Thousands of people were at a rally that just wrapped up in the south side. People are headed here. It is supposed to be a big celebration.
PEREIRA: They captured our hearts in that game. I would scream at the top of my lungs at my television set. We're so proud of them. We're so proud of the accomplishments. 10 kids from the south side of Chicago taking -- making Chicago proud right now and the world.
BERMAN: I love the fact they're so grateful to Chicago right now.
George Howell, thank you so much --
PEREIRA: What a treat.
BERMAN: -- for bringing us these pictures now.
My boys went to soccer practice yesterday. They wanted to know, daddy, if we play well, can we end up on TV? We've been watching the little league on TV.
PEREIRA: Daddy does have a TV program.
BERMAN: Yes, it's true. I hadn't thought of that.
PEREIRA: Really? That's why I'm here, John.
That's it for us @THISHOUR. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Michaela Pereira.
BERMAN: And I'm John Berman.
"Legal View" with Ashleigh Banfield starts right now.
(CROSSTALK)
PEREIRA: Go, Jackie Robinson West.
