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WAPO: Kavanaugh Accuser Speaks Out On Sexual Assault Allegation; Feinstein Demands FBI Investigation Of Kavanaugh; 15 Killed, 900+ Rescued As Floodwaters Rise In The Carolinas; U.S. Border Patrol Agent Arrested In Murder Of Four Women; Family Outraged Behind Evidence Leaked In Botham Jean Case. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired September 16, 2018 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:00:00] ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: -- to Boris Sanchez and said at the White House. Boris, in the wake of this allegation, the White House had defended Kavanaugh when these assault allegations first came to light. Are they sticking by him today?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Alex. It is almost deja vu here at the White House. Raj Shah, Deputy Press Secretary pointed to a statement that he'd been previously put out by Brett Kavanaugh when he was first accused of inappropriate behavior before Christine Blasey Ford went forward to "The Washington Post" to make some very serious allegations about his behavior during a party in high school.

Effectively, the White House repeated the exact same statement they had put out previously, Raj Shah pointing to this statement that Kavanaugh put out writing, "I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time." The White House apparently feeling that that is sufficient in light of this new detailed accusations coming from Blasey Ford. And specifically, the question of this polygraph test that was administered in August by a former FBI agent, which according to Blasey Ford she passed.

As you recall, Senate Republicans had previously put out a statement, a letter from dozens of women who knew Brett Kavanaugh during this phase of his life saying that he had been nothing but respectful towards them. Unclear how Senate Republicans may respond to this moving forward.

But I did want to point to a statement just put out by Senator Dianne Feinstein, key member of the Judiciary Committee, the person who received this letter from Blasey Ford before she went forward to "The Washington Post." She is suggesting that a confirmation vote on Kavanaugh in terms of him being confirmed to the Supreme Court should be put on hold until after the FBI completes a probe into these allegations.

I also wanted to point to something that Senator Doug Jones of Alabama said earlier today on "State of the Union" with Jake Tapper, he said specifically that he would ask Kavanaugh about these allegations. But at that point this was still an anonymous letter. Doug Jones saying that it's really hard to pinpoint questions with an anonymous letter.

Now that this person has come forward, Christine Blasey Ford has come forward, it will be interesting to see how Democrats potentially use this as they attempt to sink Kavanaugh's nomination. Alex.

MARQUARDT: Yes. And so of course this throws everything into question. We know that the Senate Judiciary Committee was due to vote on Kavanaugh's nomination on Thursday. We'll see how whether this disrupts the timeline of that. The White House standing by Brett Kavanaugh for now, but we have not heard from the President which we always may be able to when he decides to pick up his phone and tweet something.

Boris Sanchez on the North Lawn at the White House, thank you very much.

So, let's get back to CNN's Ariane de Vogue who covers Supreme Court. Ariane, as I was saying earlier, we have known the broad strokes of this allegation since the story broke. We now have a lot more detail in this "Washington Post" report. Direct quote from Blasey Ford, what is she saying?

ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN SUPREME COURT REPORTER: Well, you're right. In "The Washington Post" she said that she attended this party in the suburbs of Maryland back in 1982. She says that Kavanaugh and a friend were, quote stumbling drunk. She laid that she was corralled into a bedroom, and at one point he tried to take off her clothes. And another point he put his hand over her mouth.

And she says at that moment she thought, "He might inadvertently kill me. He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing," she said. She then supposed she was able to escape the room.

And keep in mind, as we've reported, Brett Kavanaugh has vehemently denied this. And it's worth noting that in "The Post" she says she only shared the details of this later in 2012 with a therapist and with her husband. And according to the article, the husband recalled his wife using Kavanaugh's name, but the therapist notes which were reviewed by "The Post" don't mention his name.

And it's also worth noting that the other man or the teenager at the time who's mentioned in the article, he has come forward to say he saw no -- he has no memory of this. And it wasn't like Brett Kavanaugh to act that way. That's what he's told another publication.

MARQUARDT: Ariane, the big question at least as far as the Senate Judiciary Committee is concerned is how could this affect that vote on Thursday?

DE VOGUE: Well, here's what's interesting because Dianne Feinstein actually received a letter from this accuser all the way back in July and she didn't release it not even to her colleagues because Feinstein later said that the woman didn't want to come forward. Well now Feinstein just a few minutes ago has released a statement and she said that she supports the woman for coming forward. And now Feinstein is calling on the FBI to induct an investigation. That's a different move because, before, the FBI didn't have the woman's name.

[15:05:08] So how it affects the vote, that's supposed to be on Thursday, Republicans are still saying that that vote will occur, but this may have a big impact.

MARQUARDT: That's going to have a huge impact and really set the tone right out of the gate tomorrow morning for what happens in this confirmation hearing. Ariane de Vogue in Washington, thank you very much.

Now, I want to turn to CNN's Brian Stelter, Senior Media Correspondent and Host of "Reliable Sources."

Brian, just an extraordinary report here, and I think we should start off by saying, you know, this was already a bombshell when it broke and the woman was unidentified and she had wanted to remain anonymous. Why do we think she decided to come forward now, publicly to the "The Washington Post?"

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, she is saying that she struggled with this choice practically all summer long. It was in July that she first reached out to "The Washington Post" through an anonymous tip line to say that this had happened to her. And she said she did that at the time because Kavanaugh was on the short list to become a Supreme Court nominee. He hadn't actually officially been nominated yet, but he was on the short list.

So in July, she reached out to "The Post," she reached out to her local congresswoman and to Feinstein's office. All of that happened in couple of months ago. Throughout the month of August, according to "The Post," Ford declined to speak on the record as she, quote, grappled the concerns about what going public would mean for her and her family.

And she's quoted on "The Post" story saying, all of what's happened in the past few days, the reporters knocking on her door trying to figure out who she is, people calling around to her colleagues. Those she says are exactly the ills that she was trying to avoid. "Now I feel like it is my civic responsibility that's outweighing my anguish and terror about retaliation."

She's being very candid here about being a reluctant accuser. Not wanting to speak on the record, but feeling now she has to because, as I mention, reporters for the last few days have known her name and were trying to get her to speak.

MARQUARDT: And in no uncertain terms, she is calling this a rape attempt. And I guess her focus in terms of staying anonymous was to keep the focus on Kavanaugh on the confirmation hearings. How does this change the story now that we have a name?

STELTER: Yes. Apparently, she also says she has kind of assumed that Kavanaugh would be confirmed and that her account, her allegation would not make it different. Now, I think we're a little bit in uncharted territory, we will see what these key senators say about this in the hours ahead. But if we can, I want to go back to that Feinstein statement, just the beginning of the statement that Ariane was mentioning. It's really interesting to see how Senator Feinstein is handling this. Now, she's saying, "It has always been Mrs. Ford's decision whether to come forward publicly. For any woman, sharing an experience involving sexual assault, particularly when it involves a politically connected man with influence, authority and power is extraordinarily difficult."

"From the outset," Feinstein says, "I believed these alligations were extremely serious and bear heavily on Judge Kavanaugh's character. However as we have seen over the past few days they also come at a price for the victim." And Feinstein went on to say, "I hope the attacks and the shaming of her will stop and this will be treated with the seriousness it deserves."

It is disappointing that we are in 2018 and yet there are immediate concerns about this woman being smeared, this woman being attacked for coming forward. She is a professor. She's been published in many journals. She has -- and maybe a small sense of what public life is like, but certainly not anything like this. It must have been very difficult for her to decide to actually speak out to "The Washington Post."

MARQUARDT: And speaking of the effects on the victim, Ford goes into great detail now about how she was feeling at the time --

STELTER: Right.

MARQUARDT: -- and the conflicting emotions.

STELTER: Right.

MARQUARDT: And remember, she was just 15 years old. She was a sophomore in high school.

STELTER: Yes, 1982.

MARQUARDT: Kavanaugh, allegedly, it would -- Kavanaugh at the time was a 17-year-old junior. And she went home and says that she didn't tell anybody. She didn't tell her parents, she didn't tell the authorities and didn't think that it really had an impact on her until later on she realized. And she says here in "The Post," "I think it derailed me substantially for four or five years. I was very ill- equipped to forge these -- those kinds of relationships."

And only -- she only told her husband this during couple's therapy 10 years after she'd been married.

STELTER: Yes, in 2012. And, by the way, this is a kind of a pattern if you've been paying attention to the last year of "Me Too" cases involving prominent men in various industries. You know, that people sometimes deny and push back and suppress those memories of that experiences. Try to forget that something happened. And then only years or decades later does it come forward. That certainly is something we've heard about quite number of times in the past year. The difference of course this time, it's a Supreme Court nominee. MARQUARDT: Right.

STELTER: And I think it's going to be important in this ongoing conversation and in the debate over what's going to happen here that she did talked about this in therapy in 2012. And that according to her husband, Kavanaugh's name was said out loud in 2012. That's going to be an important data point as some folks try to say she's making it up now all of a sudden because Kavanaugh is the nominee.

[15:10:02] And that's one of the thing I think it's important to Kavanaugh's denial here, because his denial was, in this few days ago, "I categorically and unequivocally deny this alligation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time."

Whatever happen in 1982, whether he denies up in 1982 or not, if that statement is true or false, that's a statement he made a few days ago. And there is going to be a dispute about exactly what happened at this party in 1982, but he's coming out a few days ago saying she's lying.

MARQUARDT: Right.

STELTER: And that's going to be the test going forward.

MARQUARDT: In here we're on a Sunday afternoon asking ourselves, how the President is going to respond, but if we're taking --

STELTER: Right.

MARQUARDT: -- past cases for any sort of guidance, Boris Sanchez was just talking about Doug Jones there who beat out Roy Moore in that special Alabama election. And there were serious allegations there that he had sexually molested underage girls and the President stuck by him. So, remains to be seen what the President -- how the President respond in this case.

STELTER: That's right.

MARQUARDT: Brian Stelter, thank you very much. Thanks for joining us. I know you will stay with us throughout the afternoon.

STELTER: Thanks.

MARQUARDT: All right. While Florence is just a tropical depression now, but flooding in parts of the Carolinas is still causing huge problems and could bring out some of the worst destruction yet. We'll take you live to Fayetteville, North Carolina in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:15:29] ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Erica Hill live in Fayetteville, North Carolina where the rain continues. The river levels continue to rise and the concern is rising right along with it. Mandatory evacuations were issued yesterday.

And in the area where I am for Fayetteville, part of Fayetteville, Cumberland County wade as well. Police officers, firefighters going door-to-door driving through neighborhoods with announcement telling people they needed to get out. The mayor telling us earlier, if you decide not to go, you'll need to notify your next of kin.

The storm is not done with the Carolinas. We can tell you that the death toll has now been increased to 15. A 15 storm-related deaths reported in South Carolina.

As for North Carolina, there are still hundreds of thousands of customers without power. There are parts of not just smaller primary, even secondary roadways that had been caught off to the flooding or down trees. We are talking about major portions of interstate of I- 95, of I-40. An entire community essentially cutoff due to the flooding. That means fuel can't get in to help first responders with rescues.

In some cases, as in Wilmington, North Carolina, the water plant there is saying if they don't get fuel in the next 48 hours, they may not be able to continue water service for residents in the area.

Our reporters are stationed across the region. We want to begin in Rocky Point, North Carolina, which is where I find Kaylee Hartung. Kaylee?

KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Erica, I'm actually in Wilmington at this moment. But Wilmington and surrounding areas are essentially on an island at this point. The mayor telling me, you can't get closer than 40, maybe 20 miles to the city and its surrounding areas at this point because of roads that have become impassible. And so this is a cautionary tale for anyone who is trying to come back to their property to see how it was damaged in the storm. They must stay away, they will be stopped by highway patrol if they try to pass these roads deep under water.

And it's also pointing an arrow to a big problem that you mentioned, getting fuel into this city. I can say that the mayor says there is no threat of the water plant or the sewage treatment plant being shut down. He says they have found a storage of diesel fuel in their port that will help those operations continue to run as planned.

You mentioned Rocky Point, North Carolina, that is just north of where I am now in Wilmington. That's within Pender County, one of those counties under mandatory evacuation.

And as we try to understand how quickly these floodwaters are moving, I want to show you these two pictures. Yesterday, I was on this family's property as they were packing up their belongings, evacuating in that moment, afraid that with the rising northeast Cape Fear River, they would lose everything. Erica, about 20 hours after I left their home yesterday where we were standing in about ankle deep water, they sent me a photo of what that property looks like now. The water almost rising to the second story of a home that was built after the home that it previously been there was destroyed by Hurricane Floyd nearly 20 years ago.

I think these pictures help us show people how quickly these waters are moving and how quickly that threat is escalating. Erica. HILL: Absolutely. And so important to give that context and just to see in less than a day what has changed. Kaylee, appreciate it.

I want to bring in now CNN's Polo Sandoval who's in Lumberton, North Carolina, an area that was hard hit during Hurricane Matthew, just a little bit south of where I am. And Polo, just before we spoke with you in the last hour, really important development and as you put it, it was a worst case scenario. Where do we stand now in terms of the Lumber River and flooding there?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lumber River that you mention there, Erica, a source of so much concern at this hour for about 20,000 people who call Lumberton home here. The main point, however, coming from city officials is that the main levee along the banks of the rising Lumber River is OK. That is very important to keep in mind.

However, in the last few days, we have seen this secondary system that was literally built by members of the community, the U.S. National Guard and also the community members here comprised of gravel, sandbags. This is a manmade makeshift levee that was put in a certain part of the city, that it was the main access point for the floodwaters during the 2016 Hurricane Matthew. So what we saw in the last hour as we were riding along with members of the U.S coast guard was the breech of this system that had been placed there as you might be able to see from some of the video that we shot earlier, really within the last hour, that system was, as city officials describe it, compromised. What does this mean?

[15:20:14] We can't expect further flooding in nearby communities. One good bit of news is that a majority of these communities did evacuate. There's a mandatory evacuation in parts of Lumberton, which means that a majority of the homes that would be affected in the next several hours are hopefully empty.

However, the infrastructure of the city is what is at an extreme risk. Two years ago, the water plant that supplies the residents with their water was crippled. They left them without water for up to a month. So the concern now that this water is flowing, more of it coming from the Lumber River, is it could have a negative effect on some of those facilities that are crucial for the infrastructure of this.

For now though, as you see the yellow bus is behind me, they are stage here at the emergency operation center in Lumberton, North Carolina. They are preparing for more evacuations because, as I heard from some residence, they are choosing to stay put even though some of them have seen the dangerous flooding potential during Matthew. So it really does go to show you, Erica, that the threat far from over especially for the communities inland, those like Lumberton that are sitting on the banks of the swilling river.

HILL: Yes, only just beginning in so many ways. Polo, thank you.

Also, I want to bring in now CNN's Scott McLean who's in South Carolina. And don't you forget, South Carolina also being significantly impacted by the storm. Scott, what do you see? SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Erica. So we're starting to see the first bits of flooding in Conway, South Carolina. I'm about 15 miles inland from Myrtle Beach, and I'm standing on what would normally be a roadway, which is now been flooded out. If you look down there you can see a bridge, that's the Ogre's (ph) swamp. What usually runs under it seems to a back-up into this area. It's been this way since yesterday. It's only gotten worse and it will probably get even higher than this before it's all said and done.

You can see this house, the water. It is right up to that top step right at the door. And then there's this truck, this older truck in the backyard that did not fare so well. And even if you look over to the left, you can see a pool there that is now completely covered over in floodwater. This house over here will likely have some flooding before this is all said and done.

This area has already gotten about 13.5 inches of rain. It's expected to get about another inch or so before this is all done. But it's all the rain water in this area over the last couple of days since Florence started moving through. That's the problem, because eventually, it has to work its way down into these local watershed.

The one here is the Waccamaw River. It is expected to rise a couple of feet. Meaning, flooding will get worse. Now they are preparing in Conway, one of the things that they are doing, the National Guard, the U.S. Army Corp Engineers is that they are aligning one of the main thoroughfares between Conway and Myrtle Beach with massive sandbags in preparation for that water rising.

But the local city council, they are taking issue with it. They actually filed within the last two hours an emergency injunction to try to get that work paused, because they are concerned that essentially clogging up that area and not allowing as much water to pass through might flood some additional homes in Conway. So then they are working with the state and with Horry Country to try to get that resolved before they give their blessing.

So, the Waccamaw River, though, it will crest later this week in the Friday, perhaps beyond that. And so whatever work is done or not done perhaps, Erica, will need to be done quickly.

HILL: All right, Scott, I appreciate. Scott McLean, there in Conway, South Carolina.

Meteorologist Allison Chinchar is in the CNN Weather Center and joins us now with a closer look at how much longer this will last, because obviously that impacts the flooding stages and the swelling of these rivers and creeks as well, Allison.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, because you have to understand it's hard to gage exactly where a lot of these rivers and creeks will crest. We don't know that for sure until it actually stops raining. And the problem with that is, it's not going to stop raining for a while.

And we also have the severe start, a brand-new tornado warning just west of Lumberton that is valid until 4:00 Eastern time this afternoon. And we've been seeing that happen in the last couple of days, the sporadic tornado warnings that keep coming through in addition to the very heavy rainfall. Notice, even as we push into Monday, look at some of these new bands that want to form around Myrtle Beach, in Wilmington, in Lumberton, in Fayetteville. Meaning, that even though the main storm itself is expected to push off to the North. You're still going to have redevelopment of some of those outer bands of that storm that produce heavy rainfall.

As of right now, we have eight rivers at major flood stage, eight of them at moderate stage. But watch how widespread it becomes as we push this forward a couple of days. Once we get to Tuesday and Wednesday, when a lot of these are expected to crest, you have about 25 majors and over a dozen moderate flood stages. One of those in particular we are concerned about is the little river at Manchester.

[15:25:02] Again, right now, gauge about 24 feet. It's expected to jump an additional 10 feet on top of where it is right now. The record is 32 feet. So we expect it to be about 2.5 feet above where the previous record already was. The Cape Fear River at Fayetteville, this is the one that likely right about now just barely under 40 feet, that puts it at minor flood stage. It will crest likely about 62 feet in major flood stage.

Keep in mind, Friday, this was about 10 feet. That means, it will eventually jump about 50 feet total before this finally crests. And the reason for that is all of the rain that we have seen these last few days. So take a look at this. Because again, this is impressive, 33 inches in Swansboro. Again, some of these other totals, we have numerous ones, Erica, that had been over two feet. And while those numbers are very impressive, the key take away is these numbers are still going to rise before this rain finally comes to an end.

HILL: Allison with the very latest for today. Our Allison Chinchar, thank you. I wish to point out too, we are still under flash flood warnings here where we are in Fayetteville. So the threat is certainly, as Allison pointed out, it is ongoing.

If you want to help, there are ways that you can. CNN has put together a list of different organizations that you can find them at cnn.com/impact. Stay with us. We're back with continuing coverage on the other side of this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:31:01] HILL: There are so many stories of rescues. There are stories of flooding and there is a story of need that this is developing as well. As we continue to cover this developing story what is now tropical depression Florence.

We are here in Fayetteville, North Carolina. But I want to get you a sense of how things are in Murrayville, and that's where we find CNN's Derek Van Dam. We are having a little trouble getting Derek's shot- up, so we're going to keep working on that.

But let me just give you a sense of where we are. So right now, we're next to it's known as Cross Creek in downtown Fayetteville. This is part of Linear Park, if you're familiar with the area. We have a picture that I think we can probably put up that we took at 10:45 this morning when we first came upon this park. And what's remarkable in that picture -- I'm just going to move out of the way here so my photographer, Ben, can get a better look for you guys -- what's remarkable is how little water there was. Despite the fact that there was already flooding.

So the lamp post that you see, we could see the base of that lamp post. Beyond it, there is a bench against that stone wall. We saw the full bench. We saw the bench's leg. There are some plants that are just a little bit in front of this lamp post here, that area is now completely flooded. We could see the sidewalk there. This is all moved up in just a span of a few hours.

The Mayor was here with us before. We showed him our picture from 10:45. He looked at where we're at now, and he said that water is moving so fast.

Keep in mind, during Hurricane Matthew, the Cape Fear River had 53 feet of water. It's expected to crest anywhere between 60 and 65 feet. This entire park during Matthew was under water.

I think we were able to establish contact with Derek Van Dam. Again, he just filed this report for us out of Murrayville.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Imagine if this was your home. Imagine if this was your car. This is what people are dealing with in Murrayville, North Carolina. We are very close to the closed Interstate I-40, a major artery for this location.

We just got on to the scene here. I'm going to double check to make sure that no one's in this house. The doors are locked. Hopefully they have been evacuated.

But obviously a dire situation for people here, floodwaters rose very quickly last night. You can see homes behind me here that are also flooded out. Residents telling me that they have never seen flooding this bad, even with their benchmark storm, Hurricane Floyd back in '99. This is going to be one for the record books. In fact, Florence already setting state records for tropical rainfall well over 30 inches and it's not gone yet.

I'm CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam from Murrayville, North Carolina. Back to you.

HILL: As Derek mentioned those records and that the fact that they are not done yet. Something else to keep in mind, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper saying today at a press conference a short time ago, the storm has never been more dangerous than it is now. Here in Fayetteville, the Mayor warning, if you do not heed this mandatory evacuation, you need to call your next of kin. If that is not sobering, I'm not sure what is at this point.

Stay with us. CNN's live continuing coverage of Florence is on the other side of this break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:38:52] MARQUARDT: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. And the other major story we're following this hour, Texas authorities say they've made a stunning arrest in the recent murders of four women, a U.S. border patrol agent. Investigators say Juan David Ortiz went hunting for a specific type of victim.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ISIDRO ALANIZ, WEBB COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Did you consider this to be a serial --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Serial killer.

ALANIZ: -- serial killer? It meets the qualifications or definition of being a serial killer. In this case, we have four people that have been murdered.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

MARQUARDT: Now according to a criminal complaint, Ortiz was arrested in Laredo, Texas and confessed to killing four people whose bodies were found over the past two weeks. Authorities are also not ruling out the possibility that there may be more victims out there.

So for that, we bring in CNN's Joe Johns who is in Laredo. Joe, four women, that we know of, killed by Ortiz. What more do we know about the man who authorities, as you just heard, are calling a serial killer?

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, let me put a finer point on that, Alex. It's a five victims total, four women and one man. One of the women actually got away. So there is still apparently a signature to this. The suspect is alleged to have taken all of his victims out to the outskirts of town, used a firearm, shot them in the head.

[15:40:10] But there was one woman who got away and that was the undoing of the suspect, authority say. This was a woman who told authorities that she went to the home of Juan David Ortiz. After that, they left, got in the car, started talking about another woman who had actually died very recently, a victim of these gunshot wounds.

And that is when she said Ortiz became agitated pulled out a firearm. She escaped, he apparently pulled her top off, she ran over to a state trooper, told the state trooper about that. And that is how it all unraveled.

We are expecting a news conference tomorrow for a little bit more information about all of these. Because it's not are necessarily over yet. There are questions about whether there could be other victims.

And then there's the larger question of who this man was. What we know about him essentially at least according to a court document that was released some years ago about a person who was of the very same name, Juan David Ortiz, who worked for the border patrol. Apparently he went to American Military University. He worked in the navy from 2001 to 2009. Was very so closely associated with and learned a lot about interdicting both drugs and sex trafficking here along the I-35 Corridor where all of these events have taken place.

So, a lot more information we're hoping to learn from the authorities. Back to you, Alex.

MARQUARDT: And still a lot of questions in what's a really truly disturbing story. Joe Johns, thank you very much.

Now we're going to stay in Texas. Demonstrators rallying in Downtown Dallas this weekend protesting the police shooting of Botham Jean. The protesters demanded that the officer who shot and killed Jean be fired and charged with murder instead of manslaughter.

Jean was killed inside in his own apartment last week by a white off- duty officer who claims that she mistakenly entered his apartment thinking it was her own.

CNN's Ryan Young got an exclusive look inside Jean's apartment, and has more details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Unit 1478 was Botham Jean's apartment. It's where the 26-year-old young life was cut short when he was shot by a police officer in his living room. A small memorial of flowers and a photo with his mother adorn his front door.

ALLISON JEAN, MOTHER OF VICTIM: At 26 years old, he had done so much.

YOUNG (voice-over): With permission from the family, we are getting a look inside Botham's apartment. It's a typical single man's apartment except for the bullet hole in the wall indicated by an evidence marking more than six feet high. There's also a pool of blood on the floor which we will not show you.

There's laundry pile on the couch and Botham's half eaten bowl of cereal still had milk in it. He may have been reading one of the many books littering the apartment before he was shot and killed by Officer Amber Guyger.

This is video witnesses of Amber Guyger pacing around upset moments after the shooting. Office Guyger tells investigators she shot Jean after mistaking his apartment for her own. Guyger tells investigators that after work, she parked her car on the wrong floor, walked to the wrong apartment that Jean's door was slightly open.

In her statement to police, Guyger says she gave verbal commands before firing two shots. Lee Merritt says, witnesses tell a different story.

S. LEE MERRITT, JEAN FAMILY ATTORNEY: They both heard a knock or a pounding on the door followed by a female voice saying, open up, let me in. She said the voice didn't sound like an officer command but sound like someone who wanted to be let into the apartment. She said that was shortly followed by the sound of gunshots and a sound of a man's voice saying what she believed to be oh, my god, why did she do that?

YOUNG (voice-over): The Jean's family's attorney and the family are now upset by the leak of a search warrant that indicates officers went inside Jean's apartment looking for drugs. Officers say they did find and removed several items including a small amount of marijuana. The warrant does not indicate who the items belong to. It's unknown if the search warrant was executed at the officer's apartment.

MERRITT: Twenty-six years on this earth. He lived his life virtually without blemish. And it took being murdered by a Dallas police officer for Botham Jean to suddenly become a criminal. There is a clear intent here to smear the name of Botham Jean.

YOUNG (voice-over): During a moving funeral service, we learned much more about Jean and his accomplishments. Family and friends talked openly about his love of people, for singing and the fact that he was a high achieving employee on a partnership track at the accounting firm, PWC.

TIM RYAN, SENIOR PARTNER & CHAIRMAN, PWC: PWC is hurting. Not just in Dallas, but all across our country.

[15:45:04] ALEXIS STOSSEL, FRIEND: He was so joyful and we know how much he loved to sing. You know, he was the biggest extroverted accountant you'd ever find.

YOUNG (voice-over): Amber Guyger is on administrative leave during the investigation. The D.A.'s office will take the case before a grand jury to determine the next course of action.

CNN has reached out to the officer Guyger's attorney and they have not returned our calls for a heartbroken mother wants answers.

JEAN: So, I'm calling on the Dallas officials. Please, come clean. Give me justice for my son. Because he does not deserve what he got.

YOUNG (voice-over): Ryan Young, CNN, Dallas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUARDT: Horribly sad story. Our thanks to Ryan Young.

Now, still ahead, updating conditions in the Carolinas as flooding from Hurricane Florence continues to be a major concern. That's coming up after the break.

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[15:50:34] HILL: We want to show you some live pictures now out of Conway, South Carolina which where some residents are lining up now that this evacuation orders have been listed to make their way back to their homes. Keep in mind, we are hearing from officials in that area, they're concerned stretch into the coming week because they are concerned about rivers cresting, they are concerned about possible flooding to come even as some of those evacuation orders have been lifted. But, again, this picture of folks lining up to get back and to see their home.

For many people in North Carolina, getting home is going to be difficult. It could be days away and they don't know what they may find when they get there.

Kaylee Hartung who's been doing excellent reporting over the last week here knows of one family who was so concerned, they got out saying that they didn't know what they would find when they came back. Kaylee, I know you went back to their house not even a day later. Not much left there.

Kaylee is joining us now from Wilmington, North Carolina. One of the areas that's been especially hard hit and at that is really, at this point, Kaylee, cut off.

HARTUNG: It is, Erica. This is an entirely different phenomenon. This is something we haven't experienced before.

That is how Wilmington's Mayor, Bill Saffo described the situation. The city of Wilmington and the surrounding areas within this county are in right now.

You said it, Wilmington essentially cut off right now. The mayor telling me you can't get any closer than 40, maybe 20 miles to the Wilmington area before you run into roads that are impassable because of the water that has overtaken those roads. You know, that points to a problem for anyone who's trying to get back into Wilmington, just as you mentioned people lining up trying to get back in to Conway, South Carolina.

You know, that's something officials are really trying to deter people from doing because you don't know what you will find when you get home. Here in Wilmington, not only are streets flooded like the ones behind me but also downed trees and power lines. And we know that the damage that the storm will do our understanding of it is so far from over.

And yet we came across this family, you mentioned them, Erica, yesterday. Rocky Point, North Carolina, a family who thought they could lose everything in this storm. And yet, today, less than 24 hours after we last spoke with them, they sent me photos of their home with water approaching the second story.

HILL: Kaylee Hartung with the latest reports from Wilmington. Kaylee, thank you.

Also, I want to bring in now state Senator who's joining us. You put at a call actually sir, Danny Britt, yesterday on Facebook, on social media asking for folks to come out and to help especially in the areas of Lumberton because you knew what was coming. And as I understand it, residents really responded to that call. DANNY BRITT (R), NORTH CAROLINA STATE SENATE: Yes, ma'am that's correct. We had an issue with an intersection of CSX railroad and I- 95 where we had catastrophic flooding in South Lumberton, West Lumberton here in Robeson County, caused loss of life, caused loss of property to hundreds and hundreds of people. And we were trying to do what we could to prevent that.

HILL: We've been hearing from and monitoring the situation with our reporters on the grounds there in Lumberton. Where do things stand at this hour and what's your biggest concern at this point?

BRITT: Well, right now, the barrier that we built, we had to kind of do it last minute. We were informed by CSX they would not consent to us putting anything on the track or next to the track to prevent the flooding in that area. So we had to act very fast.

We have crossed out and standby so we had to have filled and then we place sand, we placed jersey barriers. I put a post on Facebook and had closed to 80 to 100 civilian volunteers. I also request to North Carolina National Guard support, city employee support, myself, and the County Emergency Management Director, Stephanie Chavis, worked hard to get that support down here. And we placed those 5,000 sandbags in less than four hours.

And where we stand right now is doing its job. It's flowing the flow. But there is still -- But there is now water starting to come over those sandbags. We are hoping that it flows slow enough that it does not cause the same damage that it did last time. What it has done absolutely is that it's allowed enough time for those folks who live in that community to have plenty enough time to evacuate.

[15:55:05] HILL: And we are hoping that they are listening to those evacuation orders. State Senator Danny Britt, appreciate you taking the time. Sir, thank you.

BRITT: Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

HILL: Florence may be a tropical depression, but the storm is not done. Rain expected to continue at least through the next 24 hours. And that is not what folks want to hear, obviously.

There's also concern people could be lulled into a false sense of security. It's not raining very much. We can go outside. That is exactly the wrong attitude we're told by officials. The key message today, do not become complacent.

CNN's live special coverage of Florence continues. Stay with us.

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