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School Shooting Near Columbine is America's 35th Since Fall; 6th Grader who Survived Shooting, His Father Speak to CNN; Sandra Bland's Own Video Surfaces from 2015 Traffic Stop; Uber, Lyft Drivers Protesting Today Over Wages, Job Security. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired May 08, 2019 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: I would've been so, so scared. And can I just say that you are so brave to be standing there with me today. And am in awe of you. Can you take me back to yesterday and tell me what happened?

NATE HOLLEY, 6TH GRADER SURVIVED SHOOTING AT HIS SCHOOL: So I have -- I have some -- I have sensitive ears. So they shot out the doors and I heard the gunshots and I just kind of froze. And then the siren came on. And our teacher -- and somebody started cracking a joke. And the teacher told them to shut up and then she had us hide behind her desk. And when the shooter got closer, she moved us into the closet.

I was hiding in the corner and they were right outside of the door. I had my hand on the -- on a metal baseball bat just in case. Because I was going to go down fighting if I was going to go down.

BALDWIN: You were going to do down fighting -- with a baseball bat. Nate, and again, how old are you?

N. HOLLEY: I'm 12 -- I'm 12.

BALDWIN: 12. Steve --

N. HOLLEY: Yes.

BALDWIN: Can I talk to your dad just for a second. I mean, this is your child. Thank you. I will. I will. Steve, I mean, I'm sorry, forgive me. Just to hear your precious child describing holding a baseball bat and hearing gunshots in the window, how do you process that?

STEVE HOLLEY, FATHER OF NATE HOLLEY: I don't think you can process that. I think this community -- right here in Colorado we've been through so much recently. As I mentioned in one of my first tweet -- the first tweet that I sent out was this is the third time I've had to pick up my kids from a lockdown after school due to a school shooting or threat of a school shooting. We don't live in this district. We choice in.

But we do live in the Littleton School District which is where the Arapaho High School shooting was a few years ago. And a dear friend of ours, lives across the street from us and she was a teacher there. And another dear friend of ours who was in the neighborhood. So it feels like this just for whatever reason continues to happen out here. And enough is enough. We need to make a change. And we need do something or else we're just going to continue failing our kids. The fact that my 12-year-old has to tell you that and everyone else that the situation that he went through. I certainly couldn't have done it when I was his age.

And I'm -- my wife and I we're still -- we've been on the verge of tears since so we're still trying to process this.

BALDWIN: When you're processing it, when you are sitting there at the gym -- which became what is known as the family reunification center. Right? And so that's where all of the parents go and that's where you're waiting for information on your son. And you are there yesterday for five hours. And so many parents can't even begin to comprehend what that must feel like, hearing names called out. Wanting to know if your child is alive and then not knowing. You could try to put that into words for me.

S. HOLLEY: Yes, I mean, we were -- I hate to use the word lucky. We were blessed in the situation that for the moment I heard something was going on and so the moment heard from Nate was quite literally seconds. My other son goes to school in a different school district and our car pool called and said, hey, do you want me to pick up your other son because of what is going on at Stem.

And I thought sure, free ride, why not. And Yes, that would be great, thank you. And I went on to Twitter and saw what was happening and almost immediately my phone rang and Nate had borrowed a friend's cell to give me a call and let me know what was going on. And I just told him to be brave and told him that I loved him and that his mom and I were on the way. When we arrived at the center, it was -- it was -- it actually wasn't chaotic.

We walked in with another father who -- I believe had heard from one of his children but not from the other so he was worried. And then his wife actually pulled in so he ran to be with her. When we got into the gym just -- there are over 1,800 students. So just imagine the parents of 1,800 students in this small gym all wondering what's going on and meeting each other for the first time or -- having been life-long friends.

And so we were just all kind of trying to gather as much information as we could. So most of us -- all of us were on our phones just trying to figure out what's going on social media and trying to parse out what was fact from what didn't sound to be true.

[15:35:00] BALDWIN: Of course. And I want to go back to your little man. Nate, I want to end with you. I have a couple more questions for you. OK.

N. HOLLEY: OK. Yes.

BALDWIN: My gosh. I'm in love with your child. Two questions. One, do you feel like -- did you practice for yesterday? Did you feel like what you had practiced for was kicking in? N. HOLLEY: Can you restate the question? Sorry, it is pretty loud

out here.

BALDWIN: Absolutely. So had you -- it sounds like -- did you run drills, do you know what a code red drill or were you prepared for what happened yesterday? Did you know what to do?

N. HOLLEY: No. It was really chaotic. This is never happened to me before. And I was really unsure. Like we had a drill, like once or twice this year, but I didn't know -- most of the kids didn't know what to do.

BALDWIN: And last question, what do you want everyone watching to know about you?

N. HOLLEY: I -- that is a hard question.

BALDWIN: I don't mean to stump you.

N. HOLLEY: Can I just think about that?

BALDWIN: You can think about it and you can get back to me. I'm going to go ahead and say you are brave. And everyone knows it.

N. HOLLEY: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Nate, thank you. Nate and Steve, what a moment. Thank you, guys, both so much. I'm so glad you are A-OK. And just to remind to everyone watching, this is the 35th school shooting since the fall. This is a crisis. You heard that child. We're back in a moment.

[15:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: It is only 39 seconds but the video you're about to watch shows the 2015 traffic stop from Sandra Bland's own perspective for the first time.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN ENCINIA, TEXAS STATE TROOPER: Get out of the car now.

SANDRA BLAND, ARRESTED AND FOUND HANGED IN JAIL CELL: Why am I being apprehended, you're trying to give me a ticket for your failure --

ENCINIA: I said get out of the car.

BLAND: Why am I being apprehended.? You just opened my car door. You just opened my car door. So you're going to threat to drag me out of my own car.

ENCINIA: Get out of the car. I will light you up. Get out, now.

BLAND: Wow --

ENCINIA: Get out of the car. BLAND: For failure to signal. You doing all of this for a failure to

signal. Yes, let's take this to court. Let's do it. For a failure to signal.

ENCINIA: Get over there.

BLAND: Right, yes. Yes, let's take this to court. Let's do it.

ENCINIA: Over there.

BLAND: For a failure to signal. Yup, for a failure to signal.

ENCINIA: Get off the phone.

BLAND: On my school.

ENCINIA: Get off the phone.

BLAND: I'm not on the phone. I have a right to record. This is my property. This is my property.

ENCINIA: Put your phone door.

BLAND: Sorry?

ENCINIA: Put your phone down, right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Until now the only view we had of the controversial stop was from the dash cam of Texas State Trooper Brian Encinia, as he pulled Bland over for failure to use her turn signal. Three days after her arrest she was found hanging in her jail cell. A death that authorities ruled a suicide. Bland's cell phone video was just published Monday by Dallas TV station, WFAA and Investigative Network.

But Texas Department of Public Safety tells CNN the video is not new, was not concealed and was referenced multiple times in the report under investigation of the case.

Writing in part, quote, the ranger report was made available to all of the litigants during the civil litigation filed by her family. At all times the department complied with its discovery obligations in the civil litigation.

Officer Encinia was indicted on a perjury charge and fired in 2016 after a grand jury said it didn't believe his statement that he removed her from the car so he could conduct a safer traffic investigation. But it was all dismissed in 2017 when he agreed to surrender his law enforcement license.

Sharon Cooper is Sandra Bland's sister and Cannon Lambert is the attorney for Sandra Bland's family. So thank you so much for being with me. And Sharon, just starting with you. I mean, I know you seen this now many, many times, this new video. But when you first saw it, what -- what did you think? SHARON COOPER, SANDRA BLAND'S SISTER: I think our family upon seeing

it, validates and confirms what we said from the outset. Which was that Sandra should have never been arrested. What she was arrested for at the core was a failure to use her turn signal. And unfortunately Brian Encinia's poor judgment and inability to de- escalate the situation ultimately resulted in her unlawful arrest and contributed to her wrongful death.

So it is infuriating and it feels a bit -- while it is validating and it provides the confirmation that we knew long ago, it's also -- it calls into question and continues to bring to the forefront the importance of police accountability in particular as it relates to law enforcement officials when they are working with citizens day-to-day. Specifically citizens of African American decent because those are the story that continue to end up in the headlines in a fatal way.

BALDWIN: I want to come back to you on that point. But Cannon, to you. I just read the statement. The Texas Department of Public Safety insists the video is not newly discovered evidence. So why is this the first time we're seeing this?

CANNON LAMBERT, ATTORNEY FOR SANDRA BLAND'S FAMILY: Well, I know it's the first time that we saw. I know that we got the Ranger report for the first time we saw it. And I think the most significant thing -- you know, it didn't affect the civil case in the sense that we were able to bring the resolution that we were able to bring.

[15:45:00] The Texas Tort Claims Act limited us to $100,000 from DPS and we accessed it. And so this video doesn't necessarily impact that portion of the situation.

But what it does do is it calls into question if the special prosecutors had the video why they then dismissed the charges. It doesn't make any sense. This video clearly shows that Mr. Encinia had no reason to claim that he was in fear for his safety. And if there's no reason for him to be able to claim that he was in fear for his safety, there's every reason that these special prosecutors had to prosecute the case like they promised the family they would.

BALDWIN: I know, Sharon, I've watched interviews of yours and you talk about transparency. Right. That's what you wanted from law enforcement. And so, how concerned are you now that we are seeing this? How concerned are you that there could have been more evidence that you still haven't seen?

COOPER: I think there is a heightened level of concern from our family with any type of engagement that we have with the Texas officials just because they weren't transparent with us from the outset, a part of what was -- what contributed to our interest in moving forward with the civil case. Was because we weren't getting the answers -- we weren't getting answers to the questions that we were asking and we would have to repeatedly ask questions.

So our faith in the Texas Department of Public Safety along with Waller County officials has never been on solid ground. Because of their consistency with being nontransparent. With not sharing information with us and instead sharing it with other parties.

BALDWIN: What about your sister, the fact she was found hanging in her jail cell three days after that arrest. I know the details surrounding her death have been a mystery. Do you know what happened?

COOPER: Unfortunately, we don't know what happened. But I will tell you this, Brooke, I think that what our family has done, we have managed through sheer will, persistency and determination to try to move forward in a way that honors Sandy's life and her legacy. And that celebrates her life in the way that she lived, not in the way that she died. Which happens far too common with those who are victims of police brutality. What we've attempted to do is to amplify her voice.

That is what the pin means that you see on my lapel. Which says, Sandy still speaks. Is to communicate to Brian Encinia and the State of Texas and to Waller County officials that despite his desire to prematurely take her voice, we still hear her. On behalf of not just herself but others who are impacted by police brutality.

BALDWIN: Sandy still speaks. Sharon, I'm so sorry. And just thank you so much. And Cannon Lambert, thank you as well.

COOPER: Thank you for having us, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Any moment now, the House Judiciary Committee will vote on holding Attorney General Bill Barr in contempt. As the President responded by invoked executive privilege over the entire Mueller report this morning. Stand by.

[15:50:00] COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The adult suspect in the Colorado school shooting just walked into court for the first hearing moments ago. These are actually live pictures from Highlands Ranch. You can see for yourself. We will keep you updated on a news we get from inside that courtroom.

Want to spend more time discussing the hero in the shooting. The hero who lost his life, 18-year-old Kendrick Castillo was killed just days before his high school graduation. And his parents spoke with CNN's Scott McLean and shared the heartbreaking story of how they found out he died trying to save his friends.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN CASTILLO, SON KENDRICK KILLED IN SCHOOL SHOOTING: Told me she was getting a text he might have been at Littleton, Aventus. So we had a police officer take us over there, rush over there into the ER. They told us he wasn't there and then that's when they broke the news to us in a small room that was adjacent to the nurses' station. You know, after we identified him that he had passed and was still at the school at the scene and that's when we found out.

You know, but I kind of knew when he wasn't answering. You know, it's like, you expect your kid to pick up the phone and tell you. You know, leave me alone. I was a little bit guilty because as I was trying to call him, I thought, well maybe this is a wrong thing. Maybe I'm putting his life in jeopardy by having the phone ring. So I was texting. I tried to facetime him. I was getting nothing. My anxiety and the lump in my chest was growing. You know, I just couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that this was happening to my son.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Two days from now Uber is set to announce its blockbuster IPO. But a strike over decent wages and job security could damper the ramp-up. Drivers from ride share services, Uber and its competitor Lyft, are on a one-day strike.

Workers in Europe, Australia and several major U.S. cities turned off their apps today in protest. They are demanding better employment and pay practices.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STELLA LAWSON, LYFT DRIVER: It feels like the company has used its drivers. You know, they started paying them 80/20 when they first started and as the company started succeeding and making money instead of pay going up, the pay goes down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Lyft drivers just hit the picket lines just before his company's IPO announcement in March. Both companies offered drivers who meet certain thresholds cash bonuses ahead of going public.

And just a reminder, while watching and waiting any moment now the House Judiciary Committee -- the chairman there, Chairman Jerry Nadler. They'll be holding this vote on holding Attorney General Bill Barr in contempt. The President has responded by invoking executive privilege over the entire Mueller report. He declined to speak to reporters, moments ago as he left the White House for Florida.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me today. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts now.

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