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At This Hour

Police: Mother, Baby Killed In Cartel-Style Execution; Ukraine's First Lady Appears To World Leaders For More Aid; Biden Meets With Dutch Prime Minister At White House. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired January 17, 2023 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, police in California, they're searching for at least two suspects now after six people including a baby were found brutally murdered, killed in what's described as a cartel-style execution. Stephanie Elam is gathering more details on this for us. She joins us now. Stephanie, what are you learning here?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, this is a disturbing story coming out of California Central Valley, a town called Goshen, which is about a three-hour drive north of where we are. But this is what we understand happened in the early morning hours of Monday. There were so many gunshots when the call came into police that they thought it was an active shooter.

What investigator found were six victims killed. They found this -- and they're all members of one family. There was someone who was in the doorway, there were some people who were out on the street. And we also know that a 17-year-old female, as well as her six-month-old baby, were also killed, shot in the head unbelievably. This is what the sheriff's department said about this because they actually knew something about this household. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE BOUDREAUX, SHERIFF, TULARE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: We also believe that this is not a random act of violence. We believe that this was a targeted family. We believe that there are gang associations involved in this scene, as well as potential narcotics investigations. As of a week ago, we as the sheriff's office actually conducted narcotics search warrants at this residence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: So, the sheriff also said that this incident does bear the characteristics of being related to a cartel because of the brutality of it and also because of how sophisticated it was. They're looking for two suspects. We should hear more from the Tulare County Sheriff's Department later today when they had a press conference but anyway, you look at it, Kate, it is just a devastating story when you look at the fact that you have young people who lost their lives in such a brutal, brutal way. BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Stephanie, thank you for staying on top of it for us.

So, an Indiana woman is facing multiple charges now including attempted murder. Police say that she repeatedly stabbed a college student in the head. Authorities say that the woman told them, she did it because the student was Asian. Brynn Gingras has more on this. She's joining us now. Brynn, what else did the suspect say to police?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, Kate, this happened last week. And what we've learned from police is that it was an 18-year-old Indiana University student who was riding the city bus. When she got up off the bus to leave, that's when police say this suspect, 56-year-old Billie Davis who we saw right there, got up with a folding knife and attempted and did stab this 18-year-old student seven times according to the police report, and then basically just sat right back down. And when police arrested her, we're told that she said as you mentioned, Kate, that she attacked this victim saying it's because she's "Chinese" and also said that it would be one less person to blow up our country. Now, she is going to be back in court next week. She is being held on bond right now.

Now, as for this community, this university -- I mean, of course, you can imagine they are reeling from this. I want you to hear from two Indiana University seniors who are also Asian-American and talking about you know how this is something they live with every day.

[11:35:04]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AUDREY LEE, INDIANA UNIVERSITY STUDENT: Growing up, my parents here told me oh, keep your head down. If you come across any trouble, don't engage.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, just run.

LEE: Yes, exactly. But you know, if we keep running away, if we keep avoiding people in the community, then they will have more reason to dehumanize us and it'll be easier to commit these acts of anti-Asian violence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: And, of course, speaking out against this is one way to also help bring awareness to communities. I want you to know, Kate, as we know, ever since the pandemic, those hate crimes have been going up significantly within the last couple of years. And certainly, everyone banding together certainly around this university around this victim who is unclear at this moment how she's doing.

BOLDUAN: OK. Let's get an update on that. Thank you, Brynn.

GINGRAS: Yes.

BOLDUAN: I know you're going to stay right on top of it. Thank you. There's also a man in custody after this video we're going to show you shown on live TV of a toddler, that's a little toddler right there, waving a loaded gun even pulling the trigger. The child's purported father has now been charged with neglect. He's expected in court later this week. Jean Casarez is here with me. I mean, Jean, the video is terrifying. What happened here?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's take everybody through it as it happened.

BOLDUAN: Yes, please.

CASAREZ: The police were called to an apartment complex because the neighbors were saying there's a toddler in diapers and he's waving a gun and he's pulling the trigger. And so, they arrived. And the neighbor that had called police, she met them at the door. Listen to what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, my son opened the door and there's a little boy upstairs that's standing there with a firearm. And I looked out the peephole and was standing there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: So, that was a nine-millimeter pistol. So, they immediately go to the apartment. And they walk in and they do a cursory search, plain view. They did not see anything.

But they see Shane Osborne come out and he had said, I was asleep, I didn't even know he went out the door, His mother is really sick, and I'm with him today but I've never brought a gun in here. I don't have a gun. I do have a cousin that sometimes leaves his gun here, usually in his own room when he feels mentally disturbed.

But they didn't see the gun, so they left. And so, then a neighbor stops them with the cell phone surveillance video of the little toddler. And you see him. And the officers realize there's a gun, so they immediately go back in the apartment, they get consent to search everywhere and they're in a desk with a rolling top, the little toddler actually directs them to it, they open it up and there is the gun. I think you're going to see it right there. And that it was folded. They had to open the --

BOLDUAN: Yes.

CASAREZ: Open the desk. But there it was. The officer immediately unloads it. 15 bullets, OK? But not one was in the chamber.

BOLDUAN: Oh, my God.

CASAREZ: And that's why the gun didn't go off as the video shows this little boy appears to be pulling that trigger. The father charged, he'll be in court on Thursday, neglect of a dependent.

BOLDUAN: All right, Jean.

CASAREZ: We'll see what prosecutors do. These are arresting charges.

BOLDUAN: All right, we will see. Thank you so much for running us through it. I appreciate it. Really terrifying.

Coming up for us. Ukraine is pleading for more help from world leaders today. Ukraine's first lady at Davos. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLENA ZELENSKA, FIRST LADY OF UKRAINE: (Speaking in a foreign language)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are facing the threat of a collapse of the world as we know it, the way that we are accustomed to it, or to what we aspire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:43:02]

BOLDUAN: A call for help today at the World Economic Forum underway in Switzerland, Ukraine's First Lady telling the leaders there that Russia's aggression is triggering the collapse of the world as we know it. It comes just days after a Russian missile strike killed more than 40 people in a Dnipro apartment building just obliterating that complex. One of the deadliest attacks on civilians since the start of the war there.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen is live in Dnipro for us once again. Fred, the search and rescue operations have really been nonstop since this horrible attack. What is happening there now?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they have been nonstop since especially the strike took place just about 72 hours ago. And Ukraine is now saying the search and rescue operation is over. You can see behind me it's a lot darker than it was before and there where that building stood you just have that gigantic void there now. Of course, dozens of families to call it their home, that was all obliterated by that massive missile, the Ukrainians say.

And, you know, despite the fact, Kate, that the search and rescue operations are over, the death toll actually increased by five just in the last couple of hours. That now stands at 45, including six children. As you can imagine, a lot of despair on the ground here. A lot of anger towards the Russians as well. And Ukraine's First Lady, Olena Zelenska, she also commented on what happened here in Dnipro at the World Economic Forum there in Davos. Let's listen in to what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ZELENSKA: (Speaking in a foreign language)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is nothing off-limits for Russia. As we speak in our city of Dnipro, people are still working on sorting through the debris of a residential area of a house that was destroyed by an anti-ship missile. These ordinary people at home on a Saturday, and that's enough reason for Russia to kill them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: So, there you have Olena Zelenska. The Russians, by the way, for their part, continue to deny that they were behind the strike. The Ukrainians say that that is not true. They say they tracked that missile all the way from the Sea of Azov to where it impacted this site right here. They simply don't have the means to shoot it down. So, what the Ukrainians are calling for is more modern air defense weapons. Of course, we have that meeting in Rammstein, in Germany, where possibly more military aid could be decided on, Kate.

[11:45:11]

BOLDUAN: Fred, thank you so much.

Here with me now, is CNN military analyst, retired General Wesley Clark. He's the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander. It's good to see you, General Clark, thanks for being here.

You've called the attack on that apartment building a war crime. One of many, of course, that Russia is accused of committing in Ukraine so far.

WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes.

BOLDUAN: You also described the attack as a challenge to the west. What should be the response?

CLARK: Well, I think, first of all, there's not right now adequate air defense in the West that can be provided to Ukraine to stop an attack like this. That's the first thing to understand. But the only way to get through this war successfully and answer Mrs. Zelenskyy's report is got to give Ukraine the weapons to eject Russia. Russia is not relenting in what it's doing. Putin is mobilizing more force as he's planning for another offensive. And you know, we're just penny- pocketing the supplies out. You know, it's great that we're giving them 10 tanks from Britain. But 10 tanks? Ukraine needs 300 -- 500 tanks.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

CLARK: It's great that we're stuck trying to send them a few more howitzers, but it's not enough. So, we've got to get serious about this. The only way to stop this is for Ukraine to defeat Russia and eject them from all Ukrainian territories. And then, it's up to Mr. Putin to survive, maybe he won't. And we've got to move -- the leaders in the -- in the west and at Davos, have to move past the idea that, well, this is going to be over and then we'll go back to business as usual, and yes, so Mr. Putin will come to our conferences.

Mr. Putin is a war criminal and needs to be indicted. And that's -- this -- we're going to have to face and move forward. And this means, Kate, that for the West, we're going to have to invest more in our military-industrial base. We simply can't produce enough ammunition to supply Ukraine's needs, much less if something worst were to happen. So, we've got our own homework to do here and some serious investments in Europe and the United States.

BOLDUAN: I was -- I mean you're getting to it, I was going to ask you know it might be two different things, really, which is what you think should need to happen. But also, when you see the focus that you're seeing Ukraine's First Lady, Ukraine's president that making clear that Davos is a critical opportunity to appeal for further aid. What do you think can actually be accomplished this week in these appeals when you see how the trajectory of aid coming to Ukraine has gone?

CLARK: Well, I think these appeals are very important because they keep the issue in the minds of Western leaders and more importantly, in the minds of the public. So, it's very important because part of this war is the war in the -- what we call the information space. Putin knows that if he can discourage the United States from supporting Ukraine, that Ukraine will fall rather quickly. And so, he's working against the American public opinion, and also against public opinion in Europe so when President Zelenskyy and Mrs. Zelenskyy go out and speak like this, what they're doing is they're offsetting Mr. Putin's own information warfare.

But, Kate, where we're -- where we're not effective yet, is in the opposite. We don't seem to have any way of getting information and the arguments on our side into Russia and affecting the public opinion in Russia. This is a real problem for us.

BOLDUAN: Yes, going forward for sure. It's good to see you. Thank you so much, General Clark.

Back here in the United States, some relief for parents coming who have been trying to find pain and fever medicine for their kids, purchasing limits being lifted. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:52:14]

BOLDUAN: President Biden is meeting at the White House right now with the Dutch Prime Minister. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We spend many, many meetings together, but it's good to have you here in the Oval Office. And you're welcome, despite the World Cup match.

MARK RUTTE, DUTCH PRIME MINISTER: Yes, sorry.

BIDEN: And despite of that, you know, you're one of our strongest allies and personal friends, and you've been a great, great personal ally as well. Together, we're stepping up our protection for democratic values across the world and we're, you know, including standing strong with Ukraine. And you've been very, very stalwart. And I look to you, as well, to make sure we have a coherent European response, on your response to Ukraine. And Russia is just continuing to act in ways that are almost unbelievable, and the brutality which is (INAUDIBLE).

Together, we're promoting human rights and the rule of law and we will be co-hosting the next summit, the summit in democracies in March, which will be together again. And there's a lot that we have to work on together. And together, we're working on how to keep a free and open Indo-Pacific, and quite frankly, meet the challenges of China.

Simply put our companies -- our countries have been so far and just lockstep in what we've done in our vision for the future. So, today, I look forward to discussing how we can further deepen our relationship and securing our supply chains to strengthen our transatlantic partnership. And thank you again, Mr. Minister, we've had a great relationship with other countries, firstly, and I look forward to discussing a lot more detail.

RUTTE: Thank you -- thank you so much. And also thank you for hosting me. It's the first time in my five phases at a fireplace.

BIDEN: (INAUDIBLE).

RUTTE: It's all. And typically, I would start with the economy, and then I would have told the press that we are the second biggest investor in the U.S. and the United States is the biggest investor in Europe. But I think we should talk Ukraine. And we have seen this terrible footage coming out of Dnipro this weekend, where innocent children, men, and women, again, are on a rocket fire in this apartment building was hit and many people died. These are horrible victims. And I think it strengthens, even more, our resolve to stay with Ukraine.

And I want to commend you, personally, and the United States for your leadership. I'm convinced that history will judge that in 2022 if the United States would not have stepped up like you did, that things would have been very different at a moment in the fight between Ukraine and Russian aggression.

[11:55:07]

And we have decided to spend another two and a half billion of helping Ukraine's war efforts. If you compare this to the size of America, it will be over $50 billion dollars -- $52 billion. We have the intention to enjoy what you were doing with Germany on the bedsheets project. So, the air defense system, I think that is important and we joined that discusses also this morning this all of shows of Germany.

And then on accountability, we can never accept that Putin and Russia get away with it. So, our accountability to take them to court to make sure that this all gets done in also in a legal way is crucial. And I know that you and I are working on this. But again, your leadership, the United States, you personally have been cautious so on again, I want to thank you for that. And let's stay closely together this year. And hopefully, things will move -- yes, forward in a way which is acceptable for Ukraine. They've done so much. And this year will be important. That's what I think.

BIDEN: Yes, in war things, I might just add very quickly. Europe continues to step up, respond to Russian action, it has more to do and we have to stay together and it's been really, really, really important that you've been there every single step of the way. So, thank you. Thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. Thank you so much. Watch your step up so don't trip. Thank you -- thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's keep moving. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's go. Thank you, guys.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Appreciate you. Thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: All right, President Biden clearly not taking questions at the end of that meeting with the Dutch Prime Minister in the Oval Office, and among the many topics and many issues that obviously the two leaders will be getting to. It's very clear the focus, at least as part of this meeting is Russia's aggression in Ukraine, the war in Ukraine, and the latest attack, one of the -- one of the deadliest attacks on civilians since the beginning of this war, the attack on the apartment building that we were just talking about with Wesley Clark and Fred Pleitgen in Dnipro. We're going to continue to bring you more headlines that come out of the meeting between the Dutch Prime Minister and President Biden as we get them.

But I do want to turn to this. An important update for parents right now. Walgreens is removing online purchase limits for over-the-counter children's fever and pain medications. They were put in place of course after weeks of really high demand and a lot of worries over shortages that people are saying. Dr. Tara Narula is here with me right now. It's good to see you. Thanks for being here.

DR, TARA NARULA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BOLDUAN: This shortage was real and it was pretty widespread.

NARULA: Correct.

BOLDUAN: Where do things stand with us now? NARULA: So, this is great news for some parents we see that supply is really catching up now finally to demand and so Walgreens has removed as you mentioned, that online purchase limit. There was no in-store limit with Walgreens.

BOLDUAN: OK.

NARULA: CVS still has an in-store and online purchase limit of about two products. We did reach out to Rite Aid. They have not commented yet. But overall, it does seem like the picture is looking better. Also, numbers improving, you know, flu and RSV, both seeming to have peaked and those numbers coming down.

BOLDUAN: I was going to ask about that because that continues to be -- I mean, any family, anyone with children in school you know that it's coming and it has been kind of coming in waves these illnesses. And flu is hit really hard this season.

NARULA: Yes.

BOLDUAN: But where are we? Where are the numbers suggesting when it comes to this winter season flu and RSV included?

NARULA: Yes. So, it does seem like we've peaked with flu and RSV, which is good news. There are about 24 million illnesses overall for flu, over 200,000 hospitalizations, 16,000 deaths.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

NARULA: About a typical year, maybe a little on the high side did seem to start earlier. And with RSV, we know that about five in a thousand kids under five -- under the age of five had been hospitalized. So, it's welcome relief to parents to know who have little kids that hopefully this is, you know, on the downtrend now.

BOLDUAN: And it is really nice to know that it -- maybe it's not entirely clear yet if it's because the demand is actually lower for these fever and pain relievers --

NARULA: Right. More of that with supply --

BOLDUAN: Or of -- supply chain is actually catching up because what we don't want is to see anyone get caught in this circumstance again. When you need children's Tylenol, you need children's Tylenol.

NARULA: Yes. As parents, we know how scary it is to open your medicine cabinet and not see those two classes of drugs there to help your kids so.

BOLDUAN: Exactly. The -- it's great to see you.

NARULA: You do.

BOLDUAN: Thanks for bringing that I really appreciate it. And thank you all so much for joining us at this hour. We're going to keep an eye on the White House as we know the Dutch Prime Minister meeting with President Biden, there's going to be a lot going on there from the White House today.

Thanks for watching AT THIS HOUR, I'm Kate Bolduan. "INSIDE POLITICS" with John King starts right now.