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At Least Eight Killed in Mass Shooting at Indianapolis FedEx Facility; Chicago Police Release Video of Officer Shooting 13-Year-Old Boy. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired April 16, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

POPPY HARLOW, CNN NEW DAY: Today.

[07:00:00]

Let's go right into CNN and bring in our Jason Carroll. Jason, you have been on the ground there for just a little while, literally racing the overnight as this happened. What can you tell us?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I just got off the phone with Indianapolis Metro P.D. just trying to get more information about the suspect, trying to push them in terms of any description, whether or not the suspect was a former employee, any sort of information, Poppy, and they say it's just too early at this point for them to give us any more information about that.

They did go into some more details describing what happened when the suspect got to this facility. He apparently started shooting the minute he got to this parking lot, started shooting in the parking lot, got inside, apparently didn't get very far inside and kept shooting as well.

The calls actually came in to Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department at about 11:00. Once officers got here to the scene, they said that they were met with what they called an active shooter situation. They said that the suspect in this particular case shot himself, killed himself almost immediately.

Many eyewitnesses, as you can imagine, were here, employees were scrambling to get out of the building. One of those people described what he saw. He said he heard the gunshots, didn't realize they were gunshots at first. But once he realized that there was someone inside and shooting, he knew he had to act quickly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIMOTHY BOILLAT, FEDEX EMPLOYEE WHO WITNESSED SHOOTING: And we heard two metal -- loud metal clangs at first because they didn't sound like gunshots at first.

Then we heard three more shots and then my buddy, Levi, saw someone running out of the building and then more shots went off. Somebody went behind their car to the trunk and got another gun and then I saw one body on the floor. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Eight people dead, according to investigators on the scene, four transported to hospitals, one in critical condition. They're still trying to get a handle on a number of those who were injured, because what is clear is there were a number of walking wounded people who were shot or otherwise hurt and took themselves to local hospitals. So they're trying to get a handle on that.

They do have a FedEx representative at a family reunification center which is located at a Holiday Inn Express, not far from where we are right now. Apparently, some of the employees are not allowed to have cell phones on the floor of the facility, and so when they ran out during all of this gunfire, as you can imagine, they didn't have their cell phones on them. So it's hard for some of them to reach some of their family members. A FedEx representative, I'm told, at that Holiday Inn Express, is trying to get that all sorted out with family members there.

We do have a statement from the FedEx facility. They tell us the following. We are deeply shocked and saddened by the loss of our team members following the tragic shooting at our FedEx ground facility in Indianapolis. Our most heartfelt sympathies are with all of those affected by the senseless act of violence. The safety of our team members is our top priority and we are fully cooperating with investigating authorities.

So, again, at this point, investigators are trying to get and FedEx employees reunited with their families, in addition to that, Poppy and John, trying to come up with some sort of motive for why all this happened. John?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Jason Carroll rushing to the scene in Indianapolis, working the phones all morning long, we appreciate your reporting. Please keep us posted as to what you learn.

We're expecting more information in a press conference scheduled later this morning. We did find out a whole bunch of new details when we spoke to the Indianapolis Police Department's deputy chief of investigations a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN (voice over): walk us through what happened.

CRAIG MCCARTT, DEPARTMENT CHIEF OF INVESTIGATIONS, INDIANAPOLIS METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT: Well, so our officers received a run late last night, referenced shots fired at the FedEx facility, and they arrived, obviously, to a very chaotic scene with victims and witnesses running everywhere.

When they entered the facility, as you said earlier, they encountered the suspect who immediately took his own life. And then as they made their way through the facility and the parking lot outside as well, they were able to locate eight deceased victims, and then they also had some other folks who were hurt and taken to the hospital. There were four others who suffered non-fatal gunshot wounds, and then there was another who was transported to the hospital with an injury believed to be caused from shrapnel.

BERMAN: Do you know if the shooter was a FedEx employee?

MCCARTT: You know what, we don't yet, because we are still -- this is really just in its infancy, and so we are still out there processing the scene right now. So we are still working to identify both victims and the suspects.

[07:05:02]

So until that's done, we can't really confirm whether or not the suspect was an employee.

BERMAN: Do you ever any information about the weapon or weapons that were used?

MCCARTT: Again, we're still processing things, but we do believe that the suspect had a rifle of some sort.

BERMAN: Just one?

MCCARTT: We know that he had one. There have been reports maybe of two, but, again, that's not confirmed at this point in time.

BERMAN: What information do you have about the duration of the event itself from when the shooting began to when the shooter took his own life?

MCCARTT: Well, preliminarily, the information that we have is that it was very short. The suspect came into the parking lot, and I believe he exited his vehicle and quickly began shooting. It wasn't precipitated by any kind of a disturbance or an argument with anyone there, that he just immediately started shooting.

So the first shooting occurred in the parking lot and then he went inside. And he did not get very far into the facility at all. So I think that it probably only lasted one to two minutes, from what we're hearing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: let's bring in CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst, former FBI Director Andy McCabe. Andy, I'm not sure if you caught the whole interview John did about an hour ago, but we did learn a lot. He talked about victims running everywhere. He talked about how quickly people were killed in a matter of one to two minutes total, both outside the parking lot and then inside right by the metal detectors at the front of the facility. What does that tell you this morning?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, Poppy, we have a lot to learn about this incident. We still don't know exactly what sort of weapons the shooter was using. We don't have really a clear understanding of the sequence of events just yet, understandably, with the chaos that's going on there on the ground. But I will say that one of the reasons in many of these mass shootings, again, possibly not this one, but in many mass shootings where we see the use of semiautomatic weapons, particularly high- powered rifles, like A.R.-15 styled rifles, one of the things that makes them so deadly is the high capacity magazines they carry, so they have the ability to fire many bullets very quickly, and the fact that with multiple magazines, you can reload those weapons very quickly. So it enables a shooter to put out many, many more rounds in a very short period of time.

So it's not surprising to me that someone in a crowded area could deliver lethal rounds to 8 people, 10 people, 12 people in a minute or less. That's essentially what those weapons of war are designed for.

BERMAN: Andy, you know that gun violence was knocked down during the pandemic, during the one year where people were staying at home. Gun violence was not down, it was up. However, since we started seeing restrictions lifted in the last month or so, just a number of mass shootings events we're seeing, it just feels like it's constant. I suggested moments ago it almost feels like we can safely say there is an active shooter situation in America.

And I'm wondering why that might be after these restrictions have been lifted, what concerns you might have about where we are and what could happen in the coming weeks and months.

MCCABE: Well, it's really hard to say, John, and I think that people really need to take academics, folks in the FBI, other places, really need to take a hard look at the numbers once we get a little perspective on it.

But there could be a number of different factors involved. First, as you know, mass shootings are not new to this country. We experience mass shootings in the United States at a record, you know, on the order of magnitude 10, 20, 30 times higher than many similar nations. So they were down for a while during the pandemic while people were largely locked in their homes, so there is an understandable depression there.

The other thing I would cite is there is no question that people in this country are feeling great stress and, in many cases, depression and friction about family and work matters as a result of the pandemic. So you have this -- maybe a perfect storm of issues coming together at the same time. People are returning to the workplace, they're under great stress economically, socially within their family units, and the combination of those factors could be playing out in this very violent and tragic way.

But, again, we need to get some perspective on these events and take a hard look at them.

BERMAN: Andy McCabe, thank you very much for being with us. As we said, we're just getting details and scant details at this point from Indianapolis.

[07:10:02] It is developing throughout the morning. We'll speak to you again. Thank you.

In the meantime, other major news, a deadly police shooting, this time the victim 13 years old in Chicago. What the newly released body camera video shows before and after this tragic encounter.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Breaking news this morning, a mass shooting at a FedEx facility near the Indianapolis Airport. At least eight people are dead from it this morning, several others are injured, at least one of them in critical condition. The shooter killed himself at the scene. We do have a live report ahead.

And now to Chicago, angry reaction to disturbing and graphic new police body camera video. What it shows is this boy, a 13-year-old named Adam Toledo, being shot and killed by police. It sparked protests if downtown Chicago. The city's mayor and the Toledo family are calling for calm.

Our Ryan is on this story. He joins us live this morning in Chicago with all of the details. Ryan, what can you tell us?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Poppy, so many questions about this. Of course, if you watch the video in real-time, you realize just how fast this happens.

[07:15:03]

When you slow it down, you start revealing more context in terms of what the officer may have seen. There are some people who say they didn't even see the gun when it first plays, but when you freeze certain images, you can see what police was a weapon in the teen's hands.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG (voice over): The tragic moments of a 13-year-old boy unfolding in just a few seconds. Chicago Police releasing this body camera footage, and we warn that it's disturbing, showing Officer Eric Stillman responding to a shots fire call before chasing one of the suspects down in an alley.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please stop. Stop right there now. Hey, show me your hands. Drop it. Drop it.

Shots fired, shots fired, get an ambulance up here now.

YOUNG: The officer firing a single fatal shot into the chest of Adam Toledo. Despite efforts to save him, the teen was pronounced dead at the scene.

MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT (D-CHICAGO, IL): No parents should have a video broadcast widely of their child's last moments, much less be placed in a terrible situation of losing their child in the first place. YOUNG: Chicago Police say Toledo had a gun in his hand before the shooting and that they recovered one from just behind the fence, highlighting it in this video and released by the department. But the body camera footage appears to show Toledo had his hands up and was not holding anything at the time that he was shot, a crucial detail his family's attorney says is important in the investigation.

ADEENA WEISS ORTIZ, LAWYER FOR ADAM TOLEDO'S FAMILY: If he had a gun, he tossed it. The officers said, show me your hands, he complied, he turned around.

YOUNG: Toledo's family agreed to the release of the video after viewing them at the Chicago mayor's office earlier this week. Now the officer who shot Toledo is on administrative leave, his attorney telling CNN he was left with no other option, adding, Stillman was well within his justification of using deadly force.

But for protesters and Toledo's family, there are questions about his death that need to be answered.

ORTIZ: All I know is an officer is trained to not shoot an unarmed individual, not to shoot an unarmed child.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG (on camera): Yes. The 21-year-old who was with the 13-year-old has been taken -- has been arrested. When you think about this, shots fired technologies all throughout the city. This city definitely struggles with gun violence. There are more guns confiscated in this city than New York and L.A. combined. JOHN, we talk about gun violence all the time. You can call it an epidemic in terms of the number of shootings that happened. When you think about some of violent weekends we have, the conversation is ever evolving.

But then you add on the police department, the fact that they're responding to a shots fired call, and then only happening in a split second. So many questions about what other people may have been done, but, of course, all of that is mute when you have a 13-year-old who ends up getting killed and it just being so tragic.

BERMAN: Ryan Young for us in Chicago, thank you for your reporting on this. Joining us now is CNN Legal Analyst and Civil Rights Attorney Aleva Martin and retired LAPD Sergeant Cheryl Dorsey. She is the author of the book, Black and Blue.

Sergeant Dorsey, I just to want to start with you with your experience looking at this video. What jumps out at you?

CHERYL DORSEY, RETIRED LAPD SERGEANT: Well, first of all, it's a tragic situation, and my thoughts and prayers go out to the family. But I hear everybody saying that officers only have a split second to respond. This is true and this is why we spend an inordinate amount of time in training. We have shoot/don't shoot scenarios all the time when targets turn and faces us in a second, and we have to quickly ascertain whether or not that target is someone that we would shoot if given a real life situation. And so you want to rely on that training when you're in the field. Why ask a suspect to drop their gun, show you their hands, if you're going to shoot anyway?

And the other thing that we consider is the age of a perpetrator, and we have a 13-year-old child here, and it sounds like none of that was considered in this deadly shooting.

HARLOW: Areva, when you look at legally what this means, the attorney for the family, the Toledo family, will join us next hour, and her argument is that Adam Toledo did not have a gun in his hand, she says, when he was shot, and the body cam of the video seems to show it at that moment that he did not, and she says it is irrelevant whether he had a gun in his hands in the moments leading up to that when the foot chase was going on. What's your take?

AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: My take is that this is a very disturbing shooting, and I am in agreement with the attorney to the extent that she talks about what was happening at the moment that this young boy was shot. His hands are up. We can clearly see that he didn't have a gun. He wasn't pointing a weapon at the police officers.

[07:20:02]

We know this is a police department in Chicago that is fraught with issues with regards to excessive use of force, particularly when it comes to African-Americans and Latinos in that community. We also know this is a police department that has been under a consent decree, and by the mayor's own admission, they have not been following the policies and recommendations of that consent decree as it relates to de-escalation, as it relates to respecting the sanctity of life.

So when you look at Chicago's history of excessive force, when you look at this shooting, I think there are some real questions here. And I agree that the attorney should be pressing the city and the police department for answers to these questions. And we shouldn't just assume, as police have come out and said, that this is a justified shooting. I don't think that conclusion should be reached at this point at all. I think there needs to be a lot more investigation and potentially charges filed against this police officer.

BERMAN: Well, for one thing everyone can agree on is there is a 13- year-old boy dead, and that's a tragedy. And that just shouldn't happen in America, period.

The circumstances with which the officer was in that alley and there was that confrontation, Cheryl -- Sergeant Dorsey, is there something leading up to that moment where that might have been avoided? Is there a process you can carry out not to get to that split second where you have to make that decision?

DORSEY: Well, there certainly are considerations that could have been had. I mean, we see an officer running down in the middle of a well- lit alley in pursuit of a suspect with a gun, as what he was told, shots had been fired. And I don't know if the officer was considering looking for cover and concealment as he ran down that alley.

And another thing that's very troubling to me is that we see officers, white officers, confront male white suspects armed who assert their Second Amendment rights, who refuse to drop their weapon and they almost lay down and tickled on their little underbelly. Yet you have a 13-year-old Hispanic child who has not given an opportunity to do that very thing that the officer said, drop your weapon, show me your hands, and then taken into custody without incident like we see so many times with white armed suspects.

HARLOW: Areva, this is part of the statement from the Chicago Officer. The officer's name is Eric Stillman. His attorney, Timothy Grace, issued this statement, quote, the juvenile had a handgun his right hand, given verbal direction, told to drop and stop and to adhere to the police officer's valid, lawful orders and the juvenile begins to turn. At that moment, officer has no cover, no concealment, he has left with no other option.

He goes on to say, how horrible the officer feels about this, but then ends the statement by saying he is justified in his use of deadly force. What is your reaction to that assessment?

MARTIN: Poppy, we hear that assessment all the time. There's a playbook that police departments across this country have been using that Americans are tired of. And the playbook is demonize the victim and then justify the actions of the police, no matter what has occurred in the situation.

There is a legal standard here, Tennessee versus Garner, a Supreme Court case, 195, that talks about what the police's narrow abilities are to use excessive force, or to use deadly force, I should say, in cases where a suspect is fleeing. So that case is going into consideration, as well as the ground be common standard that talks about proportionality.

But I think it's very difficult to tell a suspect to turn around and raise your hands, put your hands up, and that suspect does that, and you don't give that suspect an opportunity to leave that situation, not be shot, not be fired upon.

So I think the police have some real questions to answer with respect to this shooting. It's very troubling, a 13-year-old shot in an alley with his hands up. Lots of questions to be answered by this police department and it doesn't end with that justification because we've seen that same statement played out over and over again.

And, quite frankly, Americans are tired of that kind of policing that says the lack of respect for particular communities of color has been and continues to be accepted in this country in a way that, quite frankly, we've got to move away from. We are tired. We're sick and tired of being sick and tired of black and Latino kids and men and women being shot by police.

BERMAN: Areva, I do want to ask you, because the Derek Chauvin trial, the defense rested, closing arguments at the beginning of next week. The lawyers, I'm sure, now closed up, figuring out what they are going to present in their closing arguments. What do you think the prosecution needs to do?

MARTIN: Take that jury back to that videotape. That is the most powerful piece of evidence that has been presented in this case by the prosecution. We need to remind the jurors that your eyes don't lie. You saw it with your eyes. You now heard a parade of expert witnesses, police, including the chief of police all tell the jury that the conduct of Derek Chauvin was outside of the standards of policing for that police department, that it was still illegal under the standards set by the Supreme Court, that the actions of Derek Chauvin caused the death of George Floyd, and don't allow the distractions by the defense to cause them to set their common sense aside.

[07:25:22]

What they saw in that videotape, the nine minutes and 29 seconds, the actions of Derek Chauvin caused the death of George Floyd.

And I think if they keep taking jurors back to that powerful piece of evidence, the bystander video and some of the body cam video, that is what will resonate with the jurors.

BERMAN: Areva Martin, Cheryl Dorsey, thank you so much being with us this morning.

HARLOW: Thank you both.

MARTIN: Thanks, John, thanks, Poppy.

HARLOW: Breaking news, another mass shooting in America, eight people killed overnight at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis. We are getting new reaction from the city's mayor. Another live report from the scene after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: The breaking news, at least eight people are dead this morning after a gunman opened fire at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis.

[07:30:02]

Overnight, authorities say four others were shot and wounded, and you have additional people in the hospital.