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The Lead with Jake Tapper
Louisville Police Release Videos From Deadly Bank Shooting; Louisville Police Release Videos From Deadly Bank Shooting; U.S. In Damage Control Mode After Classified Documents Leak; MA Governor Stockpiles Abortion Pill Amid Legal Fight. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired April 11, 2023 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[17:00:00]
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Omar, do we know how much body cam video the police are expected to release?
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake, we know this is going to start momentarily. The mayor and interim police chief just walked past me here. You might be able to see them behind me walking into the room to get ready. The video is expected to be around six to seven minutes long showing different vantage points of body camera video. And as you mentioned, focusing on the interactions between the shooter and police.
The city is assured it's been carefully edited and respectful of the families that, of course, will have the ability to watch this along with the public as well. Though, we've been told they've been in contact with some of these families to make sure they at least get to see some of this video.
We've gotten clues up to this point as to how this warning sort of went down. Law enforcement source or a city official has said that at this point out -- well, Jake, I believe the press conference has started.
TAPPER: Yes, let's listen in. Thanks so much Omar.
SGT. SANDERS (PH): Defense will unfold. In just a minute, I'm going to turn it over to the chief of police. She'll offer her opening remarks, and then she will then turn it over to Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey, who will then play video that we have prepared for you all today. Deputy Chief Humphrey will do a play by play as the video unfolds. The video itself is about nine minutes in length.
After that, we'll take three questions and then we'll conclude the presser. Immediately following the press conference, I will upload the videos to all of our social media platforms.
Now, Chief.
INTERIM CHIEF JACQUELYN GWINN-VILLAROEL, LOUISVILLE POLICE: Good afternoon. To the mayor, elected officials here today, to the media and to the citizens of Louisville, April 10, 2023 will be forever etched in our memory. But this is truly a time for unity, healing and compassion.
Our freedom to live in safety and conduct business with peace of mind was challenged on yesterday. But be assured, it is a challenge that the men and women of LMPD are prepared to face and conquer just as was demonstrated by the heroic actions of our first responders to the Old National Bank.
These officers unflinchingly answered the call to protect and their duty to serve. They confronted acts of violence, head on and neutralize the threat. Tragically, lives were lost, but countless lives were saved.
Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey will show the body cam footage and he will walk us through the details as necessary. And again, we will answer three questions upon his conclusion of his presentation. Thank you.
DEPUTY CHIEF PAUL HUMPHREY, LOUISVILLE POLICE: OK. Thank you.
Again, as Sergeant Sanders (ph) said after the conclusion of this press conference, all videos as well as the officers' information will be posted to our social media platforms for everyone to be able to access.
So, on Monday, April 10, 2023, little (ph) Metro Police responded to 333 East Main Street at the Old National Bank on a report of an active shooter. Show you the overhead and we will walk through this entire situation. I will explain prior to each video what you're about to see so that you have an understanding of how events unfolded.
At 333 East Main, you can see that's the building they're right next to Louisville Slugger Field. Main Street runs east and west while Preston Street runs north and south. This is a street level view of the building that we responded to.
Officers from the first division were dispatched as rounded -- as well as officers from the surrounding divisions. What you will see shortly is the response from Officer Wilt and Officer Galloway's car. They will be coming up Preston Street. Preston Street runs to your right on the video, they will be coming from the river down towards Main Street, they will park approximately where that white van is. They will get shot at that location and then back up and exit their vehicles at that point.
So, I want you guys to understand how we talk about and how we train and prepare for active shooter situations. It's easy to tell an officer that you have to run towards gunfire. It's another thing for them to actually do it. Anybody who's ever been shot at can tell you it is not fun. And it doesn't matter how many times you get shot at, it doesn't get any easier.
Plain and simple, everybody reacts in different ways to gunfire. We have to train our officers and put it into them, into their care character that their job is to go towards that danger in order to protect others.
[17:05:05] Our decision making model that we use starts with our safety priorities. Our safety priorities are grounded in our ethics that all life is sacred. And decisions have to be based on who is in the most imminent danger right now and who has control of the situation, who can remove themselves from the situation. So when we prioritize how we make our responses they are based on, do we have hostages or victims? Obviously, in an active shooter situation, we already have victims who have been injured, who are who are currently at risk of dying, as well as other potential victims who cannot remove themselves from that situation.
Do we have other bystanders and civilians in the area who aren't the direct targets of that violence but still need to be protected? Officers come next in protecting ourselves in order to deescalate the situation, because we have a duty to respond and we have a duty to protect, and we have the tools and the authority to protect others.
Finally, the suspect, the suspect has the ultimate say in every situation. We pray and we hope that the suspect gives up and complies peacefully prior to our arrival. But if they don't, then the officers have to take the appropriate action to make sure that they protect lives as they go throughout these events.
The mission of being the police is fundamentally to protect lives and protect constitutional rights. That is absolutely what these officers did today or yesterday.
You will see Officer Wilt's video. Officer Wilt was a brand new officer, he had no experience. He was going based on two things, his training and his character. And you will see that he never hesitates even after getting shot at.
This young man went back in to the line of fire in order to protect others. And you're going to see that and how he made his decisions and how they ultimately protected other people's lives.
Here's a quick chronology of events of the initial response by officers. So at 8:38 officers are initially dispatched and they arrive on scene by 8:41. You will see when we show the video from Officer Wilt, that they are immediately shot out while they're still inside the car or at least shots are fired in their direction. They do not know exactly where the shots are coming from exactly. But you will see that they're coming from the front lobby area of the building.
At 8:42, they have redeployed, exited their vehicles and began to ascend the stairs going into the lobby area of the building at which time Officer Wilt get struck. Officers then continue forward in order to make an entry and respond to the shots. Officers rescue Officer Wilt, and I'll describe those events as they happen.
Next, what you're going to see is -- and I'll give a disclaimer here, there is some graphic images but all of the really graphic images have been blurred out but we are trying to give you an accurate portrayal of the events as they happen. You will not see any victims from the active shooter situation. This is simply the encounter between officers and the suspect. This is a still image of the suspect inside the hallway prior to the event. This is still image of post shooting of the active shooter victims where he then went to the front lobby and set up an ambush and waited for officers to respond. He remained in that front lobby where he shot at another couple of people who passed by and then he waited and wait a lot (ph) and wait for officers to respond. And as soon as he saw them he shot at them. That's where he shot Officer Wilt.
Officers cannot see inside this area. It is darker inside than it is outside and this subject is looking from a higher vantage point out onto them where they cannot see inside what they are approaching.
You'll now see Officer Wilt's video. Officer Wilt is in training. And he is the one driving the vehicle of his training officer, Officer Galloway. You'll see them approach on Preston. They will park and immediately backup as they get shot out and then reapproach after they redeploy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pull up. Pull up, pull up, pull up. Pull up, pull. Go, go, go, go, go.
[17:10:04]
Stop. Stop right here.
(INAUDIBLE) Stop right there. Open the trunk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) shot fire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bank (INAUDIBLE) entry from the east side at Preston lane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUMPHREY: So as you saw there after they received the shots and they reapproached, Officer Wilt got on the radio and started communicating that they had already been shot at while remaining calm and collected and getting out the proper information.
Next you'll see Officer Galloway's video. Officer Galloway was Officer Wilt's training officer who was riding in the passenger seat. He deploys with his patrol rifle that he retrieved from his trunk and moves towards the shots that were fired coming out of the lobby area of the location.
What you will see is the continuation all the way through this event at this point. So Officer Wilt will be shot, he will not -- you will not see that part on the video as Officer Wilt is just a step behind officer Galloway. Officer Galloway will then move across the lobby area outside where he is shot and he will fall down and roll and return to cover on the opposite side on the main street side. He will take cover there behind a large planter box and try to assess the situation and get some situational awareness of both his status as well as the status of the downed officer and try to ascertain where the shots are exactly coming from.
He received the minor gunshot wound but he continues to stay in the fight and try to assess exactly where the -- this shooter is. While he's doing that he is going back and forth. He is also communicating on the radio trying to get a good view of the shooter. You will not hear the radio transmission from him because he has an earpiece. You will later hear transmission from the radio that picks up on the officer that walks up behind him.
As Officer Wilt is there and other officers begin to arrive, they attempted to go up the steps to rescue Officer Wilt. As they go up the stairs and attempt to rescue Officer Wilt, the suspect fires at them trying to kill them and their process of trying to save Officer Wilt.
When the suspect does this, he breaks out the glass and shoots again through the glass breaking it out where Officer Galloway can finally get the vantage point to see where this threat is coming from. Once he is able to see the threat he then engages with threat, shoots and kills a suspect. You will not be able to see that on the camera just because of the vantage point of his camera is on his chest versus his eye level which is a little bit higher over the steps as well as the distance. This was not a close range shot from Officer Galloway.
After the suspect is down, they will then approach the suspect while other officers are rescuing Officer Wilt. That is off camera, you won't even be able to see that, you will see that the suspect is down with a rifle next to him, that is blurred out because of the graphic nature of that image.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold it. Cover for me.
113 Baker, we're making entry from the east side at Preston, the main (ph).
Officer.
God damn it.
[17:15:06]
The shooter has an angle on that officer. We need to get out there. I don't know where he's at, the glass is blocking him.
He's shooting straight to these windows right towards the officer. Build the plates somehow feel to get there and pull him down from the stairs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, we'll get you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that blue talking?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, blue talking.
(INAUDIBLE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, don't run an angle.
I think I got him down. I think he's down.
Your down, drop now. Make it down to the stairs.
I think he's down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Suspect down. Get the officer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, move here. Hey, park it inside here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Huh?
(INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. He's down. Get the officer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUMPHREY: All right. So, just to give you a couple of understanding about a couple of phrases that you might have heard in there. One was, is that blue talking? They were talking about is that -- those other officers that are talking versus civilians. He also said we need to -- we need to play the officer. So, he's talking about being able to get something between themselves and the shooter that will stop bullets, to put some kind of hard plate in between them so they can affect that rescue.
I think you can see the tension in that video. You can understand the stress that those officers are going through. Response wasn't perfect, but it was exactly the response we needed. I think I would love to have either one of those officers ride with me any day. They did absolutely exactly what they needed to do to save lives.
Once officers arrived on scene, not another person was shot. Not a single person received any further injury once officers arrived on scene, and that's what we're here for.
So, 1/3 perspective on this was a bystander video from across the street that was taken on a man cell phone. This will be from the south side of Main Street just behind where Officer Galloway ends up at the bottom of the stairs. There is no audio that goes along with this video.
[17:21:44]
So that video does eventually cut off. We did not cut that video off, that is the length of that video. So, following the approach to the suspect, Officer Wilt was rescued by officers and transported in the back of a police car to university, a local hospital where he received treatment.
Officers immediately, along with fire, EMS and other agencies entered that building and searched that entire building multiple times to make sure there were no more threats. When they did that, they also took medical supplies and began immediately treating and triaging and transporting victims of that shooting.
From our conversations with medical staff, it is 100 percent certainty that officer's medical treatment saved lives that day. The actions that they took to follow up after being shot at themselves, to be compassionate and provide medical treatment, absolutely saved lives that day.
There's going to be a million stories that will come out of this. But as they keep rolling in, and one of them that happened that we just learned about a few minutes ago was EMS was treating victims and they were short staffed and they needed people to be in the back of the EMS wagon with them. And a lieutenant from Metro Police got in and drove the EMS wagon so that EMS workers could treat one of the victims on the way to the hospital. That's what we do, right, we improvise. And we make sure that we do everything that we can to keep people safe and take care of them.
What you saw on that video was absolutely amazing. It's tragic, but it's absolutely amazing. There's only a few people in this country that can do what they did. Not everybody can do that. They deserve to be honored for what they did because it is not something that comes easily, it is not something that comes naturally.
Anybody who gets shot out reacts. For people to react by staying there, staying in the fire and going back inside the scene, keeping themselves in danger, that's superhuman. Those men are amazing. The women that responded are amazing. The EMS workers, the firefighters.
If you guys don't know EMS and fire go inside that scene with us before we're able to say that it's safe. Sheriff's officers, off duty officers all came out and went inside that scene before we were able to guarantee that it was safe. And those actions absolutely save people's lives.
And we want to focus on those victims. We want to focus on those people that lost their lives that were injured. We also want to recognize those heroic efforts that also saved lives.
As I said before, this, you know, this video will be posted in its completion along with the personnel files of the officers that will be available. But I'd be remiss if I didn't say that, you know, the most heroic things at the peak of our career that we do are shrouded in other people's tragedy.
As a profession, we are here to save people. And even though we save lives that day, there are people that lost theirs. We need to honor and respect them and make sure we pray for them and take their families under our wing and take care of them.
[17:25:10]
And we also need to do the same for those officers because they're hurting as well. They're not just physically hurting, this hurts emotionally. So we need to make sure that we take care of them and we understand the sacrifices they make every day.
We'll turn it over to questions at this point.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When Officer Galloway was outside by the planter, where exactly is the shooter (INAUDIBLE)? Where is he (INAUDIBLE)?
HUMPHREY: So I'm not going to make a comment about any communication that happened. But he was moving around inside the front lobby area. So there's a front foyer where the elevators and things like that are as well as some offices. And he was moving pretty deep in the structure.
So when you open up the front door or the front glass door, there's a space with a second secondary set of doorways, and then doorways that go to offices on either side with elevators. And so he was moving in and out of that space. So he was pretty far back in there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess the (INAUDIBLE) of the gunman itself particularly in the ambush collusion inside the building, could you speak to that a little bit more, I think we saw that one still photo (INAUDIBLE) context.
HUMPHREY: So when I say that he went to the front lobby after assaulting the victims in the office area, and he could see out where no one could see in, because he's, like I said, two sets of doors deep. When you combine that with that non reflective glass, the sunshine, the elevated position, officers could not see inside those doors on their approach. Whereas he could see out to them. And so that's why he was able to fire on them before they ever saw where he was.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It appears that (INAUDIBLE) waiting for the police to come (ph)?
HUMPHREY: It appears that way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last question.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The two officers arrive on the scene very quickly. And watching this it feels like it goes by very slowly as we're watching. But do you have a sense of how long it took other officers to arrive on scene and begin providing backup to the two officers who arrive?
HUMPHREY: So that, again, was -- it was less than another three minutes. So, it feels like eternity to watch. You can only imagine how it felt for them being there in that moment.
These types of events are a little weird from the standpoint of time compression and memory and those types of things. But they feel like they happen like that. They also feel like they take forever. So, yes, that was a tough three plus minutes to watch while they waited for officers to get there and take care of business. Thank you.
MAYOR CRAIG GREENBERG (D), LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY: I'm going to make a quick -- just a quick closing comment is just, again, to reiterate what the deputy chief and chief have said, but a giant debt of gratitude is owed by our entire community to Officer Wilt, Officer Galloway and all of the heroic men and women on LMPD and the other first responders that responded to this. We thank you for your service yesterday, and we thank you for your service every day.
As we move forward from here, LMPD and our administration will continue to provide information about the investigation as it continues. We know there are still a lot of unanswered questions, you want answers, we want answers, the public wants answers, and we will continue to provide that information as it is available. We expect within the next 24 hours we will be releasing various 911 calls and audio tape of that. And then the investigation will continue and as more information is available, we'll continue to make you aware of that. Thank you all very much.
TAPPER: All right. We've been watching a news conference out of Louisville, Kentucky. Police just released a live body cam video, police body cam video showing officers their point of view responding to the active shooter at a local bank there yesterday. And as you may recall, five innocent people were killed in that incident, eight were injured, and then of course the shooter was also killed.
I want to bring in CNN's Josh Campbell, Shimon Prokupecz and John Miller. Also with us, former Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Juliette Kayyem to help us digest everything we just understood.
So, John, the deputy police chief, he underlined there that this was not a perfect response, but he praised his officers for their actions and noted that he would go anywhere with them, have them have his back on that they saved lives on the scene. What did you make of what you saw?
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, they went by the book, which is immediate action, rapid deployment. Don't wait, move towards the danger. And, you know, they didn't have to move far for the danger to find them, they barely got to the steps when the gunman, not only laying in wait, but also operating from a position of advantage higher up behind glass in the dark with them in the light.
They had every tactical advantage they could have in that situation. As as they advanced, Officer Wilt is shot. And Cory Galloway, who is the training officer is now putting over information on the radio, trying to get a beat on the gunman, giving a direction for additional officers to respond. So they don't arrive into the field of fire, and trying to signal them to, a, rescue his partner, his trainee and, b, who can see that gunman and it is he who finally takes the gunman out.
So again, nothing is ever perfect. What do they say? All plans are useless in battle. But I'll tell you what was perfect is, they never stopped coming or backed up.
TAPPER: And Juliette, you hear the officers say it's hard to see because of the glass, the sunlight, how far the shooter was inside the building, the officers were responding to a situation where they couldn't see the attacker and didn't really know much in terms of what they were going into.
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: That's exactly right. And I think it explains this sort of three minutes that we were wondering about or that, you know, in terms of the seven-minute episode, what's happening there. And so we call it situational awareness and the deputy police to talk about that.
What's happened is they've been shot at and now they need to figure out where the shots are coming from. And obviously, protect everything that's going on in the bank, in terms of other victims. So what I thought was interesting is they had enough, they knew that at this stage, they had distracted the gunmen, that's the most important thing. Essentially, they have now engaged him, they now know he's not killing anybody else.
That matters, because then they can take those two minutes figure out where he is. And then it's a single shot into the bank or however many shots to get him down. Like John Miller, you know, people are going to look at this. Like he's said, people are going to look at this and say, oh, this than that.
This was near perfect, they distracted the gunman, took the shots, essentially, and then eradicate the threat. And then everyone rushes in to protect and save lives. So that's that three minutes that I think, are that what we call situational awareness or trying to capture it.
TAPPER: CNN's Omar Jimenez was just in the news conference and saw that all live. Omar, just seconds after the body camera video starts, officers are shot at and they drove straight into the danger.
JIMENEZ: Straight into the danger. And for one, Officer Galloway is either he realized Officer Wilt have been shot or not. He rolls towards cover. And then there's this tension that was felt not just in the video, but in the room itself, there's tension of knowing that there is someone inside this building that you can't see because of the light direction going into the glass.
But at the same time, you know, he has something capable of deadly force and may have just used it on one of your fellow officers. And over the course of him, Officer Galloway going back and forth from that structure, a structure that we've been reporting live outside of over the course of this, over the past 24 hours trying to look into the lobby area.
We knew from from the deputy chief who was explaining what was happening around the body camera video that as officers were arriving, this shooter was moving throughout the lobby, some points even deeper into the lobby making it more difficult. And the shot that eventually hit him he acknowledged and as we saw on body camera was a shot from quite a distance.
You couldn't even see him at a point on the body camera video. And partly that's because the cameras facing one direction eyes or facing another but at the same time, it gives you a sense for what these officers were actually working with. Another detail that stood out to us was when we first got to the scene in the aftermath of this yesterday we saw all the glass shattered on the ground. And obviously as details were coming out, we were trying to piece together how exactly this happened was this -- as a result of the shooter trying to get to these victims, as a result of the firefight. And we obviously saw it was a result of this firefight, but we did not know how much of a barrier that actually was.
And the final note that stood out to me was once they actually got to the shooter, the -- Officer Galloway realized, all right, the suspect is down and they started moving in. The deputy chief explained that they moved throughout the buildings try and clear it out but also that other responders.
[17:35:02]
EMS, fire officials were starting to move in as well even before they knew the building was safe because they realized that there were folks that needed care. And in all of this, the deputy chief said, obviously, these were heroic actions. But as anyone in law enforcement is especially those that we speak to say, the most heroic things that we do are shrouded in people's tragedies. And I think this is no exception.
TAPPER: Yes, obviously, that's sadly accurate.
Josh Campbell, we don't often get to see on video, an ambush style situation. You worked at the FBI, what was your big takeaway from the presentation just now?
JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think it's important to note that law enforcement officers obviously trained to a certain baseline when it comes to tactics, when it comes to principles. By now, all of our viewers understand this concept since Columbine, that you go to the sound of gunfire. But officers as they're approaching, as we saw on that video, they don't always know what type of terrain that they're going to be encountering.
And so, you know, as you mentioned, Jake, you see an ambush for yourselves on that police body camera footage. And at some point, what the officer does, Officer Galloway is what officers are trained to do when you are in a dangerous situation, you have gunfire coming your way, you'll seek either what's called cover or concealment. Cover is something you can hide behind that won't necessarily stop a bullet. Concealment is something that will stop a bullet. And that's what he does, as you see him go behind that planter.
And officers are constantly gathering information in real time about what's happening before them. I think this Officer Galloway and all of us for ourselves now see that it appears it was the movement of the officers themselves that draws the gunfire. That's important for officers to know.
Obviously, if they're hearing gunfire, particularly if it's getting more faint inside that building, that could indicate that the shooter is going after innocent victims inside that would obviously want a much different response. But you see here time and again, that video of the movement of the officer is what draws the fire. And that's actually a tactical advantage as you're waiting for backup to come if you can get enough officers surrounding and hold that position and keep the attention of that shooter as long as innocent people, you know, aren't being targeted, the shooter is coming after you that can be an advantage.
And, you know, obviously we saw for ourselves it was that high powered weaponry that appeared that Officer Galloway had that was advantageous there to be able to take out that shooter from a long distance. So I think bottom line, what you're seeing here, you know, the deputy chief said himself, nothing is perfect, but you see those baseline tactics at play here.
And this is why also it's important to note that, you know, we can't compare everything to Columbine, into Uvalde, into, you know, the Aurora shooting because officers trained for that baseline. But you never know what you're going to encounter, particularly a situation like this, officers ambush as they run into a threat.
TAPPER: Yes, they're all different. And yet, Shimon, I can't help but think that this response that we saw was a sharp contrast to what we saw from the police in Uvalde, a story that you followed very closely over the last year.
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: You're absolutely right, Jake. And for me personally, this is so difficult to watch, because I've seen hours of footage in Uvalde. And I saw a completely different response from police officers in Uvalde from what I saw here.
That when officers were fired on in Uvalde, they retreated, they went back. Here, completely different situation. Officers were fired on. And they continued to move forward because they knew they needed to eliminate the threat, because they knew people were inside. And if they didn't eliminate the threat, if they didn't distract the shooter, more people would have died.
What that deputy chief said, I mean, when you look at Uvalde, he said that only a few people in this country can do what they did, meaning these officers. Stay there in the fire, keeping themselves in danger. And that's what we saw. And it's incredible footage to watch officers just moving forward.
The training, this one Officer Wilt to a shot, only four shifts, 10 days on the job and to be able to be so courageous, and to move this way to try and eliminate this threat, it's just remarkable. When you look at what happened in Uvalde, you look at other situations, and how these officers behaved here and what they did.
The other thing, Jake, that I think is important here because this has come up a lot in the Uvalde situation is that officers now trained in these situations to give medical treatment because many times they are the first ones in there to do tourniquets to stop the bleeding, stop the dying. And that's what we saw these officers do. And the chief there said that it is because of their actions, because they were able to get in there, they saved lives. The doctors have told them that by giving medical assistance as quickly as they did, they save lives. That is something we did not see in Uvalde. Children inside classrooms, teachers. That is now leads investigators wanting to know whether or not some of them died because they bled to death while they waited for help here.
Here, the quick actions of these officers save lives, stopped the dying, stop the bleeding and got these victims out. It is remarkable to see.
[17:40:05]
TAPPER: Yes. And of course, after watching that, we should take a moment to acknowledge, o course, the victims of the shooting at the Louisville bank just yesterday. Deana Eckert and Joshua Barrick and Thomas Elliott and Juliana Farmer and James Tutt, the five innocent, slaughtered victims from Louisville yesterday.
We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TAPPER: In our world lead, it is all hands on deck at the Pentagon as officials raised to figure out who leaked that trove of highly sensitive, classified documents. Some even speculate it could have been the child of a Pentagon official wanting to show off to his friends on social media that we do not yet know for sure.
But now Egypt one of the world's top recipients of U.S. military aid has been forced to deny a damning report from the leaked documents that Egypt plans to supply Russia with 40,000 rockets. The White House's John Kirby just weighed in and said there's no indication Egypt is providing any lethal aid to Russia.
CNN's Oren Liebermann has much more now on the monumental fallout from this massive leak.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[17:45:08]
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, top U.S. officials trying to get ahead of the damage caused by a leak of highly sensitive documents.
LLOYD AUSTIN, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I will tell you that we take this very seriously and we will continue to investigate and turn over every rock until we find the source of this and the extent of it.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin promising results from an investigation just getting underway. While Secretary of State Anthony Blinken worked to reassure foreign nations.
ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: We have engaged with allies and partners at high levels over the past days, including to reassure them about our own commitment to safeguarding intelligence and of course, our commitment to our security partnerships.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): The Department of Justice is handling the criminal investigation of the leaks while DOD is part of a broader look into how the leaks have impacted national security. The leaks have reached across the globe revealing U.S. spying on adversaries including Russia and China but also on U.S. allies and partners among them Israel, South Korea and many more.
Some of the documents reviewed by CNN offers sensitive details and Ukraine's military capabilities or lack thereof, including critical shortages of air defenses and overall casualty assessments after more than a year of war. Ukrainian officials downplayed the significance of the leaks saying some of the information wasn't secret at all.
But a source close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the military has already changed some of its plans because of the leaks. In a new set of leaked documents obtained by the Washington Post, the U.S. learned Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi was considering providing 40,000 rockets to Russia for its war in Ukraine, but to do so quietly to avoid problems with the West since Egypt is one of the largest recipients of U.S. military aid.
CNN has not seen the documents and cannot confirm their authenticity. Egyptian state media called the report an informational absurdity while the Kremlin called it another hoax. And the U.S. says they've seen no signs of Egypt providing lethal aid to Russia, but it underscores the far reaching consequences of the leaks.
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D), FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: I want a briefing on the logistics right on how this information got out there. But we also need to get briefings on the substance.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): The leaked documents appear to be part of a daily intelligence briefing prepared for the Pentagon senior leaders, official said. The documents can be accessed by hundreds if not thousands of people across the government with the proper security clearance.
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LIEBERMANN: And it's disseminated not only on secure tablets, but also printed out in some cases, certainly as we see here, as well as disseminated via email and forwarded. So some of that creates an electronic trail that can be tagged. Jake, some of it does not. And that compounds the problem, as well as the motives of who might do this and why. Certainly countries like Russia and China have tried to use leak like this to their advantage in the past.
TAPPER: All right, CNN's Oren Liebermann at the Pentagon for us, thank you so much.
Turning to our health lead, a new poll shows that more than half of the American people think that medication abortion, the abortion pill, should be illegal in their state. The Pew Research Center poll found 53 percent of Americans wanted the pill to remain legal. 22 percent say it should be illegal. 24 percent said they were unsure.
The poll was conducted in the days before that federal judge in Texas halted the FDA approval of the abortion drug mifepristone. While the future legality of access to the abortion pill remains up in the air, the leader of one state Massachusetts, has been stockpiling that drug.
Governor Maura Healey of Massachusetts joins us now. Governor, in the wake of the Texas judge's ruling stripping the abortion drug mifepristone of its FDA approval, you've taken three actions as I understand it, correct me if I'm wrong. You announced that UMass Amherst ordered roughly 15,000 doses of mifepristone last week.
You signed an executive order, clarifying a law from last year which protects abortion providers from out of state legal action. You say that this also will apply to prescribing mifepristone. And thirdly, your administration said you're going to chip in $1 million to buy even more mifepristone. Why are you taking all these actions and why are you stockpiling mifepristone and not misoprostol, which is the other abortion drug, which has not yet been challenged in court, but could be?
GOV. MAURA HEALEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Well, great questions. And I guess I'd begin with this, Jake. The battle to ban abortion has been waged in the states. And I believe that the battle to secure abortion, to protect abortion and women's access to reproductive health care is going to be one in the states. So that is why as governor, I acted through my executive authority, to do two things.
One, to make sure that whatever is happening out there, Texas court elsewhere that nothing was going to impact a woman's ability to access mifepristone here in Massachusetts. So that's why we stockpiled. We asked our University of Massachusetts system to make purchases, they did. We had a number of private hospitals also make purchases.
[17:50:03]
So the good news is mifepristone will be available to women in Massachusetts for an indefinite period, for a long time. That's how much we were able to secure.
The second thing, Jake, is we don't want doctors, prescribers, pharmacists, other providers to be scared to think that their professional licensure is going to be potentially taken away, or that their malpractice insurer is no longer going to cover them. So again, through my executive authority made clear that under Massachusetts law, their license will be protected, insurers need to continue to cover these individuals.
So it's really two things, making sure we have access to medication, and making sure that we have people here ready to provide that medication.
TAPPER: So I know you've assessed that your stockpile, which I believe is about 15,000 doses of mifepristone, that that would be enough to last Massachusetts girls and women a year. But what happens when it runs out? HEALEY: Well, look, we'll continue to order as we need to, that's probably a year or maybe even two years worth. And in addition, we've had a number of conversations with our hospitals and healthcare systems. You know, again, Massachusetts is home to some of the greatest hospitals and healthcare systems in the world. And so they've already made their purchase orders as well.
So we're going to continue to keep medication abortion here and available in Massachusetts, frankly, for women here, but also for others who may need it. And, you know, it's unbelievable that we're having this conversation that one alone judge, in Amarillo, Texas soffit up end what has been decades and decades of the way that the FDA does its business.
And in Massachusetts, where not only are we proud of protecting abortion access and reproductive freedom for women, were also home to life sciences, and the discovery and innovation of so many drugs and research. And so, you know, it's very disturbing that any court let alone the Supreme Court, would let stand a ruling that effectively throws out what has been the way of research and innovation when it comes to medication in this country for decades.
So we'll continue to fight that in court. But in the meantime, Jake --
TAPPER: Yes.
HEALEY: -- it's important to know that (INAUDIBLE) governors like me, are fighting back and we're going to continue to make medication abortion available.
TAPPER: Well, there are those who say that the FDA should just ignore the judge's ruling. Specifically Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, a Democrat from New York and Congresswoman Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina. Do you agree? Should the FDA just agree, ignore the ruling, or do you see that as setting a dangerous precedent?
HEALEY: I think what's a dangerous precedent is what this judge, this extremist judge who was put there for one reason by Donald Trump has done. That's what's upsetting. And that was -- is what is so problematic. I mean, it was bad enough to have to go through Dobbs last year, 50 years of Roe reversed by the court.
Here we have 20 years of medication, abortion, safe and effective. It's been tested time and time again, it's the gold standard of medication abortion, which is the way that the vast majority of women access abortion care across our country. The idea that the FDA is no longer supposed to engage in what has been the uniform way of doing work is just outrageous.
So obviously the Biden administration's appealing that's important. I know, our state in a number of states will support that appeal. Right now, I don't think the FDA needs to do anything but to continue to do business as it does business. And, you know, this really gets to the heart of, you know, are we a country that believes in medical expertise, scientific expertise, research, and knowledge and innovation?
It's pretty scary, because last week, it was mifepristone. What are the next set of drugs? And what are the implications for that, if this kind of ruling were allowed to stand? And it's why I'm very clear, Jake, that, you know, not on my watch at Massachusetts, we're going to make sure that medication abortion --
TAPPER: Yes.
HEALEY: -- remains safe and legal and accessible. And I expect the FDA will come out the same way.
TAPPER: So with respect, you didn't answer my question, do you think that the FDA should ignore the judge, or do you think the FDA should continue to just follow the basic legal procedures?
HEALEY: They should follow the legal procedures, they shouldn't change course, until and unless it is something radical changes in terms of an opinion. But look, this is a district court order. It's essentially on appeal right now. It's likely to be stayed.
And in the meantime, the FDA should continue to do what it does, which is to make sure that women and folks across this country are able to access proven, safe and efficacious medication. Mifepristone included.
TAPPER: Democratic Governor Maura Healey of the Great Commonwealth of Massachusetts, always good to see you. Thank you so much.
HEALEY: Great to be with you, Jake.
TAPPER: Turning back to our national lead, that deadly bank shooting in Louisville, let's bring in Wolf Blitzer who is getting ready in The Situation Room. And Wolf, you're about to talk to Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg.
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WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We're going to not only talk to him, we're going to have a lot more on the just released body cam video, Jake, from that bank shooting. The Louisville mayor will join us live with his instant reaction to the footage and what it reveals about the police response to this massacre. We'll also pressed the mayor for the newest details on the investigation as he continues to make a very emotional and very personal plea for gun reform in the state. It's all ahead at the top of the hour in The Situation Room, Jake.
TAPPER: All right. I will be watching. Thanks so much, Wolf. We'll see in a few minutes right next door in The Situation Room.
Until then, you can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter at JakeTapper. You can tweet the show at TheLeadCNN. If you ever miss an episode of the show, you can listen to THE LEAD wherever you get your podcasts whence you get your podcast all two hours just sitting there like a like a delicious bunch of buffalo wings in honor of my friend Wolf Blitzer who is in "THE SITUATION ROOM" right next door. That's next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
