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At This Hour

Woman Killed by Illegal Immigrant; Gunfire Erupts in Ferguson; Urgent Message to U.S. Citizens in Istanbul, Turkey, After Consulate Attack; Companies Say Yes to Paid Maternal Leave, Carly Fiorina Against Mandating It. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired August 10, 2015 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00] KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: AT THIS HOUR, angry words from a police chief after a woman was sexually assaulted and beaten with a hammer allegedly at the hands of an undocumented immigrant. Police say 64-year-old Marilyn Pharis, who worked for the Air Force as a civilian contractor, died from her injuries. Victor Martinez is the man, and he had been arrested at least four times since 2009.

The chief of police blamed policies in Washington, D.C., in part, for Ms. Pharis' death.

Stephanie Elam joins me now from Los Angles with more details.

A horrific, tragic death, Stephanie and a very big, damning statement from that police chief.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Definitely, Kate. This is coming from the police chief in Santa Barbara County. He represents Santa Maria. His name is Ralph Martin.

Let's take a listen to what he says. He says this is about the policies in place and why this man was free to do this in the first place. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RALPH MARTIN, CHIEF, SANTA MARIA POLICE DEPARTMENT: Two weeks before this murder, San Rafael police officers arrested him for possession of meth. Do you know what he had to do? We had to sign him out. That's the problem with the system.

This is a national issue. I think it starts in Washington, D.C., with this administration that we see and their policies. And I am not remiss to say that from Washington, D.C., to Sacramento, there's a blood trail into the bedroom of Marilyn Pharis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: And what is interesting about this case and why this police chief is saying what he's saying, this man has been arrested before. We know this started back in 2009, when you take a look at Martinez's tangle with law enforcement, driving without a license. In 2014, there was a felony drug and assault charge changed to a misdemeanor battery. Then he had a drug paraphernalia possession and a concealed dagger. But the issue they're talking about now is that he was released from jail five days before this happened, the tragic crime. They said, because of that, they had to let him go and they didn't receive word from ICE. This is a statement that came from ICE about, relating to Martinez here. They are saying they were not notified before Martinez was released "to enable the agency to take custody to pursue possible administrative immigration action. Available records indicted that Mr. Martinez was released by local authorities a week later without ICE receiving notification."

A lot of people are asking questions now, Kate, about whether or not this is an issue about an undocumented person doing this or if this is an issue about how quickly they move to respond to something so that someone cannot do anything so violent.

BOLDUAN: It does sound a little bit, at least, similar to that case involving the young woman in San Francisco. You'll be sure folks will be looking into seeing the connections there, if this system is broken and how this works, the sanctuary cities as we call them. What is going to happen to this guy now?

ELAM: Right. Santa Maria is not a sanctuary city, in Santa Barbara County. We did look into that. But we can say this is -- you know, this is first-degree murder. The woman was the one able to make the call herself saying she needed help. But she died five days later. When that happened, it now became a first-degree murder charge. And he has a special occasion of torture as well being included in this charge. That means he would face the death penalty. They are looking for who they believe was his accomplice, also arrested later, a 20- year-old man born in San Francisco. If this continues, he could be looking at losing his life because of this very brutal attack against this woman.

BOLDUAN: Just a horrific situation.

Stephanie, thank you so much.

Coming up for us, heavy gunfire erupts in Ferguson forcing demonstrators to run for cover. New protests are expected soon. So will we see more violence this afternoon?

And more companies are saying yes to paid parental leave. But Republican candidate, Carly Fiorina, is taking a stance against mandating it. We'll discuss it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHANTING)

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[11:37:46] BOLDUAN: Peaceful protests turn violent in Ferguson, Missouri, overnight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) (GUNFIRE)

(SCREAMING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Gunfire -- you hear that right there -- triggering chaos on the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown's death. Police are battling rocks, bottles and bullets. A man with a stolen handgun is in critical condition after exchanging gunfire with police. Four people have been arrested.

The St. Louis police chief expressed his frustration with the violence that broke out. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON BELMAR, CHIEF, ST. LOUIS COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT: Here's a small group of people out there who are intent on making sure that we don't have peace that prevails. We can't afford to have this kind of violence, not only on a night like this, but at any point in time if we are really going to move forward in the right direction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: With me now is Michael Skolnik. He's the president of Globalgrind.com, and he's been a very outspoken voice on what's happening on the ground in Ferguson.

Michael, great to see you.

And amazing you were there. You have been up all night in this and just got to New York. You were in the middle of it, what happened?

MICHAEL SKOLNIK, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GLOBALGRIND.COM & ACTIVIST: I arrived, I was at a hip-hop concert in St. Louis celebrating the commemoration of Mike Brown's death. And I got to West Florescent, walked out of my car and it was complete chaos. There was gunshots and people running and cars going 100 miles an hour down the street doing U-turns. As I got closer to where the gunshots were coming from, all the young people were just saying that they just shot my friend, they just shot my friend. People were in delirium of what happened.

BOLDUAN: You sit there and wonder, how is it possible on the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown's death, peaceful protests turn into tear gas, gunfire and someone in critical condition and people arrested in violent clashes breaking out once again in Ferguson?

[11:40:00] SKOLNIK: It was a bad night. It was a bad night. But it was also a beautiful day. I was there in the morning with Mike Brown's family at this place where he was killed. And there was a dove released at the end of the ceremony. It was so beautiful and peaceful and loving and compassionate. And people, young children, old grandmothers and students, all coming together. And last night was bad. And there was a lot of young people, the night before there were gunshots on the same street. I was there that night as well. So there were young people, this violence in this country, not just on this street but across the country where young folks are shooting at each other and hurting each other.

BOLDUAN: I had one of the recently elected council members on earlier in the show and said, you can't stop criminals from invading a peaceful protest. Is that what you see it as? You can't stop people peacefully protesting?

SKOLNIK: I think it is challenging to label a set of people or young people as criminals. I think there are young people across this country for decades who have anger inside of them and are reacting to each other. They are hurting each other. And then on top of that the police are hurting them. And we had this weekend, 12 people were killed by police in this country this weekend alone. 714 this year alone. Over a thousand since the death of Mike Brown. And I want to push back a little bit. Because you said in the opening that the exchanged gunfire, that's alleged. So we need to --

BOLDUAN: That's what police say.

SKOLNIK: I was with the girlfriend of the victim last night. And she's saying a different story. They ran across the street to take cover. So I think until we get all the information, we have to be careful how we paint the young people.

BOLDUAN: Especially in the early stages when things --

(CROSSTALK)

SKOLNIK: Especially as we see in this country that police have not always told the truth.

BOLDUAN: And Ferguson has a bad track record with the Department of Justice. There are reports that have said a lot and called for changes. That's why I wonder, you have been an outspoken voice after Michael Brown's death, is it getting better in Ferguson in what do you think? The council member says it's taking time but putting things in place is getting better. What do you think?

SKOLNIK: I saw an effort in police to have a better relationship. I would think the police chief's press conference this morning was a different tone. The release of information was done differently than in it's past. There were mistakes made, we got the young woman in the car, the victim of the car, to get her out of the scene. And the police leadership allowed her to leave. As they left, cops didn't know who she was and pulled her machine guns on her. Then they stopped them in the middle of the streets. There needs to be better communication in the moments and at those moments. I think there's a better effort to build a stronger relationship, but we have a long way to go. And it's going to take both sides to come to the table and say, look, we have to rebuild trust. We have to have a better conversation. We have to have, you know, better schools, better job trainings, better safety in our streets for our young people, because the anger is so intense. I mean, last night, it was tough.

BOLDUAN: You could see it still.

SKOLNIK: It was tough.

BOLDUAN: Well, it's great to have your voice here speaking out about it.

Michael, great to see you. Thank you so much.

SKOLNIK: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, breaking news. An urgent message to U.S. citizens living and working abroad in Istanbul, Turkey, after an attack on the consulate there.

And incredible video of a car being thrown to the side. It looks like a toy. And disappearing after a powerful tornado goes by. Details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:47:14] BOLDUAN: The U.S. government is warning U.S. citizens to avoid the around the U.S. consulate in Istanbul after two women attacked the consulate this morning. Authorities there say one woman is in custody. The other is still at large. Turkey is saying the women belonged to a group that's been designated as a terror group by Turkey and the United States and the European Union. There was also, an attack at a police station in Istanbul. A bomb went off in Istanbul this morning wounding 10 people. Several hours later, gunmen shot at security forces guarding the damaged station. A police officer and two gunmen were killed in that.

Frederik Pleitgen is in Syria following the story.

Fred, what more are we learning about the attacks in Turkey?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kate, right now, there is a manhunt going on to try to apprehend that second woman that got away. The interesting thing about this organization, the Turkish government says this is the same group that claimed responsibility for the attack on the U.S. embassy in Ankara in 2013. One Turkish security guard was killed in that incident. Now the Turkish authorities also say they recovered a rifle, a long-range weapon from where the two women opened fire. And they also recovered considerable amounts of artillery. It is unclear however what kind of artillery that is. The U.S. is saying to also not go around the area of the U.S. consulate and to also be careful when being around large gatherings in Istanbul and other Turkish cities. A lot is going on there at the moment -- Kate?

BOLDUAN: At the very same time, the United States just deployed F-16s and hundreds of military personnel to Turkey to help in the fight against ISIS along that Syrian/Turkey border. Is there any connection that anyone is making between this deployment and the violence?

PLEITGEN: Well, it's not clear at this point but it certainly isn't out of the question, Kate. One of the things we have seen in the past is that a group like the one Turkey says is responsible for the attack on the consulate, have called the U.S. the archenemy of the people in the Middle East and the entire world, so there is animosity among the left-wing groups towards the United States.

At the same time, look at the Turkish security environment as well. Turkey aside from the U.S. using that air base to launch attacks against ISIS, also ramped up their campaign against ISIS, and, at the same time, against left-wing Kurdish rebels from the PKK. There have been several attacks on Turkish soldiers and bomb attacks in Turkish cities. So there's a whole security situation where Turkey is facing a lot of obstacles and it's not out of the question that the U.S. is ramping up its campaign could play into that -- Kate?

[11:50:02] BOLDUAN: Fred, you here in Syria. You're on the ground there. What are Syrians saying about this latest effort from the United States to help in the fight against ISIS?

PLEITGEN: Well, you know one of the things the Syrian government has been trying to do is get on board in the fight against ISIS, to be a part of the coalition. But the U.S. says it is out of the question at this point, given the fact it has stated in the past it wants Bashar al Assad to leave power, so there is no cooperation between the U.S. and Syria. So therefore, a lot of people here -- I'm in the government-controlled territory in Syria. They don't believe these air strikes will make much of a difference. They believe it's the Syrian military doing the brunt of the fighting. But, of course, we have to see the Syrians have lost a lot of ground to ISIS in the past. So certainly, at least on this front, the U.S. and the Syrian military and a lot of rebel factions have the same enemy in ISIS. A lot of people here in Damascus will tell you they want the U.S. to do more. They want more than air strikes. They would even like boots on the ground. They don't think that the six jets that are going to be flying from that air base will make much of a difference. But they certainly do have a big fear of ISIS.

BOLDUAN: Definitely. It sure seems like there's a big difference between what the Syrian people want and what President Obama is prepared to offer in terms of the fight against ISIS on the ground in Syria because boots on the ground, not on option at this point, for sure.

Fred, great to see you. Thank you.

We want to show you this. Here is a tornado like you have probably never seen before, and would never, ever, want to see in person, up close. A driver's dashboard camera was rolling when a twister hit Taiwan. You're going to see it sweep away -- you probably saw it. It swept away the white vehicle. Then you see that person on the ground, crouching there as the funnel cloud blows over. Truly unbelievable. It appears as if that person is OK after all of this. We'll show you this video again. The white car completely swept away in this. This reportedly happened in the weekend after a typhoon hit the area. Amazing to see and hopefully that person is OK.

Coming up for us, unlimited parental leave. It sounds like a good benefit in the workplace, right? But not everyone seems to agree. Our next guest says one company's move to extend family leave could lead to guilt and resentment. Why?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:55:01] BOLDUAN: A new company joining Netflix and Microsoft in expanding parental leave. Adobe is now offering 26 weeks of maternity leave, 16 weeks of paternity leave. One presidential candidate says that's great -- but that the government should be staying out of the conversation.

Republican presidential candidate and former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Carly Fiorina, she told CNN yesterday that her company offered paid leave for parents but that businesses don't need the government telling them what to do on this front. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLY FIORINA, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER CEO, HEWLETT- PACKARD: I don't think it's the role of government to dictate to the private sector how to manage their businesses, especially when it's pretty clear that the private sector, like Netflix, like the example that you just gave, is doing the right thing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Let's talk more about this. Joining me now, Kelly Wallace, CNN's digital correspondent; and "Slate's" L.V. Anderson.

Great to see both of you.

L.V., you wrote about this recently. And part of it is something that stuck with me. You said the unlimited leave policy at Netflix, that it offers, it may not actually be a good idea. A recipe for confused, resentful, and stressed out employees is how you put it. Why?

L.V. ANDERSON, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, SLATE MAGAZINE: Well, first of all, Netflix's policy offers new moms and dads a year -- potentially up to a year of paid time off after their child is born, which sounds like a really great idea. But in practice, companies that have instituted, quote/unquote, "unlimited vacation time and sick days," found that their employees usually take less time off than they would if they had well-defined entitlements to, you know, three weeks off or four weeks off a year. They think that's because if it's up to you you're worried about looking like uncommitted to the company, you're worried that you're not actually -- that you're going to be letting down your team if you take that time. Is so the fear is with Netflix's unlimited parental leave, the same thing will happen, moms and dads will feel guilty about taking the time off so it won't benefit families the way it's intended to.

BOLDUAN: But there are a lot of people on the other side who say this is absolutely the right thing to do because the federal government hasn't stepped up.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: And I would say what we need to do is to create the culture where it's OK to take the leave. People are looking at leadership, Mark Zuckerberg, right? He talked about how he and his wife are going to be having a child, wonderful news. Will he go ahead and take the paid paternity leave that Facebook offers? So if we see more leaders doing it, if we see more managers do it, if we create a culture where it's expected, you won't have people saying, "I'll look uncommitted if I don't take the leave."

BOLDUAN: Talk about culture, Kelly, why does it seem to be the tech industry that's leading in this?

WALLACE: Part of it is attract the best talent. It's competitive. I feel like everyday we'll hear another tech company offering a more generous paid parental leave. That's great. Attract the best people, retain women and men but guess what? But, Kate, a lot of workers don't benefit and that's why we have to see more and more companies and why we need to see the government mandating paid maternity and paternity leave.

BOLDUAN: To that point, Kelly, it seems like we're seeing a trend, at least in the tech industry, all trying to one up each other in terms of the benefit they're offering to parents. With that in mind, you heard Carly Fiorina talking about it, should this become a bigger issue on the campaign trail?

WALLACE: Yeah. That's why she says she doesn't need to do it, because companies are doing the right thing. But I think it's about 12 percent or 13 percent of U.S. workers, only about 12 percent or 13 percent are getting paid leave. That leaves a lot of workers out. And you have the Family and Medical Leave Act where you can get 12 weeks of unpaid leave, but you have to work with companies with 50 or more employees.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: And have to have been there for a year.

WALLACE: Yes. So about half of the workers in the country are not benefiting on that, so more needs to be done.

BOLDUAN: And we're the only industrialized nation, as the president points out, the only industrialized nation without some tax benefit for maternity leave.

Kelly, great to see you.

L.V., thanks so much.