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Ousted Dem Lawmaker Reinstated To Tennessee House; Mom Of Six- Year-Old Who Shot Teacher Indicted On Child Neglect Charges; Louisville, KY Officials Give Update On Bank Shooting. Aired 11:30a- 12p ET

Aired April 11, 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]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Evan Gershkovich, another wrongfully detained American. The Biden administration has urged the Russians to immediately release both of them. John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, first expelled and then just as quickly reinstated. Democratic Tennessee lawmaker Justin Jones is now back in his State House seat after Republicans kicked him out last week for protesting on the chamber floor. Nashville City Council voted unanimously yesterday to return him to that seat he was sworn back in on the steps of the state capitol surrounded by supporters there. He's one of three Democratic lawmakers who did face expulsion over the protest. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, they were kicked out. Gloria Johnson was not.

CNN's Isabel Rosales is in Nashville. Representative Jones has his seat again. What does he say he's going to do with it now?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): John, good afternoon here. Before I get into what Representative Justin Jones is doing now with his newly established seat again at the State House, let me first tell you that we did hear from the Governor, Bill Lee, here in the last hour. And he is announcing that in response to the shooting at the Covenant School that killed six including three nine-year-old students, he is now going to sign an executive order aimed at strengthening background checks when it comes to gun purchases.

He's also calling on lawmakers in a general assembly to essentially pass a Red Flag Law. This is a law that would allow judges to seize firearms away from people who are deemed to be a threat to themselves or to others.

Now, Justin Jones, he tells us that he plans to file legislation on gun reform that because he's a new member, he can now file 15 bills. And every single bill will deal with gun reform. He intends to file those bills by the end of the week. Now, shortly after that council vote to give him back his job yesterday, he gave a fiery speech. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN JONES, DEMOCRATIC STATE REPRESENTATIVE, TENNESSEE: Our local democracy is back to the People's House. They were sending a resounding message that democracy will not be killed in the comfort of silence. Today, we send a clear message to Speaker Cameron Sexton that the people will not allow his crimes against democracy to happen without challenge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: And Jones doesn't have a lot of time here because the legislative session ends here in about three weeks. Meanwhile, we're looking to tomorrow. That's another critical vote out of Shelby County.

We could see tomorrow the Tennessee three being reunited at the State House. That is because the commission of Shelby County there will vote on the next steps whether to give Pearson -- Justin Pearson his seat back. We'll be on the lookout for that, John.

BERMAN: Yes. How tumultuous can it get in Nashville. Thank you so much, Isabel, for your reporting. We'll check back in with you again soon. Sara.

SIDNER: New this morning. A grand jury in Virginia has indicted the mother of the six-year-old who shot his first-grade teacher back in January. Deja Taylor has been charged with felony child neglect and misdemeanor recklessly leaving a loaded firearm so as to endanger a child.

That is the legal verbiage there. That's according to prosecutors who say. This comes after a thorough investigation by the Newport News police and the Commonwealth's attorney's office.

Joining me now for more on this is defense and trial attorney Misty Marris. Misty, can you give us a sense of the charges? There's a lot of -- sort of legalese there. But what are we looking at here?

MISTY MARRIS, DEFENSE & TRIAL ATTORNEY: Yes. And this is interesting because remember, the person that pulled the trigger is a six-year- old. And it's very difficult under the law to hold parents culpable for the acts of their children. However, in this case, it's a bit of a different argument.

The first felony charge is a child neglect charge. It means that the mother had an act or omission relating to the care of her child that resulted in reckless disregard for human life. Now, the second charge is a misdemeanor charge. That relates to how the gun was maintained in the home, and it was accessible to this six-year-old. And it resulted in a risk of life or limb to a child under 14.

So, a couple of things here. Virginia, that statute is a bit different than you see across the country because it doesn't specify how the gun has to be maintained. It doesn't say locked in a safe --

SIDNER: OK.

MARRIS: -- it just says it has to be not accessible. And then the other component of it is most of the time, you see these charges brought against parents when the child themselves is injured after accessing a firearm.

SIDNER: Right.

MARRIS: So, the legal theory here is a bit different in the way that it's being used to prosecute the mother for the injury to the teacher.

SIDNER: It's interesting that you say that in Virginia, there is no specifics on exactly how a gun should be stored. In other words, some statutes might say they should not have bullets in them, they shouldn't be loaded or they should be in a lockbox but that is not the case of Virginia, so she could argue. And she is innocent until proven guilty. She could argue look, I didn't put it in a place, I have no idea how he was able to get it, correct?

[11:35:02]

MARRIS: Yes. So, in places like Massachusetts, Oregon, many states across the country, very specific how a gun needs to be maintained. Now, she's already said she had a trigger lock on the gun, and that the gun was on a top shelf in her closet. So, that's what we anticipate her defense. Whether or not that's true, that will be a finding of fact for the jury.

SIDNER: Right.

MARRIS: But the questions I would be asking a trial, well, did you know -- has he accessed that closet before? Was he able to unlock that trigger lock? It required a key. Did he know where the key is? Had you seen him actually access that gun in the past?

A lot is going to be hinging on how this gun was maintained, whether or not it was known that the child could access it, and how that actually happened. And so, that's really what this case is going to be about.

SIDNER: You know, this has got to be hard for everybody involved. I mean, I know the six-year-old was not charged, correct because he's only six years old.

MARRIS: Right. So, in Virginia, the juvenile justice system is for children 11 and over. So, while there's no statute precluding this, charging a six-year-old under that system, there's an infancy defense. It means that a child of that age cannot have the mindset to develop the elements of intent necessary to charge for the crime. But there will be some -- I'm thinking likely some social services that might be court-ordered --

SIDNER: Yes.

MARRIS: -- there were at the beginning of this case, and that may go on because clearly there's an issue and the child does need some help.

SIDNER: It was terrifying for the teachers and for the -- for the teacher and for the students. And, some of the evidence that we heard from law enforcement was that they do believe he knew exactly who he was -- he was shooting. This wasn't accidental. So, I want to ask you about a lawsuit that's being brought by the teacher. She was shot. I mean, it had to have been a terrifying moment, not only for her, but she's trying to also save her children. She is now going forward and saying, look, this isn't just about, you know, the mom in this case or even the child in this case, but I was not protected by the school administration. Tell me more about this.

MARRIS: Yes, Sara. So, I'm not surprised that this lawsuit came down the pike. So, first of all, on the criminal side, there's still a grand jury convening to identify whether or not there might be criminal culpability.

SIDNER: Right.

MARRIS: That's one aspect. But we're talking about the civil suit. Now, the civil suit says that there were actually three opportunities where there were warnings that this child had a gun and the school failed to act, the school failed to search and didn't call the police, didn't remove him from the classroom. They had ample opportunity to, they failed to do so.

So, this is really what we call a negligence case, meaning that they failed to act. And that would result in liability. And I think from the teacher's perspective, not only does it relate to this particular classroom but it's a lesson learned on the broader sense about how to handle these types of cases to call in law enforcement when there's even a question mark to avoid a tragedy.

Luckily here, it stopped with just this horrific injury and obviously the fear but this could have been a much worse situation. And that's what this lawsuit is going to look into and dig into on the facts.

SIDNER: Thank you for all this. We have some live breaking information. We are going to go to Louisville now where there was yet another shooting -- a mass shooting. Let's listen in.

CRAIG GREENBERG, MAYOR OF LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY: Thank you all for joining us. Yesterday was an incredibly difficult day for all of us in Louisville. I want to start by saying thanks again to everyone who pulled together to get through yesterday and to continue on today and the days ahead.

First, that starts with our police officers. Chief to you and your entire team, thank you all very much. In particular, thank you to Officer Wilt, Officer Galloway, who two of the first officers to arrive on the street on the scene to confront the assailant and to save lives. You and all of the colleagues at LMPD are true heroes yesterday and every day.

And to our other first responders, EMS, local fire department, and Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, the 911 operator at Metro Safe who handled calls and dispatch so efficiently and well into our state and federal partners, thank you. And also, a special thanks to Dr. Smith. To you and all of your colleagues at the University of Louisville Hospital, thank you for saving lives yesterday and for saving lives every day. I also want to acknowledge the rest of our metro government team who dealt with the challenges adapted to the circumstances and did what was asked of them yesterday to help others in our community. Thank you for embodying the best of public service. As we talk about what's happened since yesterday, I have to acknowledge the painful fact that this awful act of violence at Old National yesterday has taken another life.

[11:40:12]

Late yesterday, we learned that Deana Eckert passed. She was 57 years old. She was an employee of Old National Bank.

I knew Deana also. Deana was a very kind and a very thoughtful person. She was a wonderful woman who will be missed. Her death means another family in mourning and adds yet another layer of tragedy to this moment.

I want to briefly read a statement from Old National Bank CEO Jim Ryan, who has asked me to read this on behalf of him and his colleagues at Old National. "There are no words to adequately describe the sadness and devastation that our Old National family is experiencing as we grieve the tragic loss of our team members, and pray for the recovery of all those who were injured.

Obviously, this is an incredible difficult situation. And our entire focus is on making sure that everyone affected has the support and assistance they need. On behalf of everyone in Old National, I also want to acknowledge and thank Louisville law enforcement, the medical community, and state and local officials for their incredible response to this tragedy. And finally, we asked you to please continue to pray for all those affected."

Again, that was Old National CEO, Jim Ryan. Our thoughts are with the families who've lost loved ones. And we're also thinking and praying for the people who were injured in this attack, including our police officers. So, for an update on their condition, I first would like to welcome Dr. Jason Smith, Chief Medical Officer at UofL Health. Dr. Smith.

DR. JASON SMITH, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE HEALTH: Thank you, Mayor. So, from UofL Health and UofL Hospital, I want to send my prayers and thoughts out to all the families that were affected yesterday, both those we treated and unfortunately those we did not. An update from us. We still have four patients in the hospital. Two remain in the ICU. Officer Wilt still -- Officer Wilt still remains in critical condition. But we have been able to upgrade our other patient in the ICU to stable condition. The other two remain in the hospital being treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

I want to thank my team, again, the emergency department, physicians, and nurses, my trauma team at UofL Health, and all those who supported us yesterday. I also want to send a thank you to the American Red Cross. We use the 170 units of blood yesterday to treat these victims, which far outstrips our hospital capacity. And their ability to get us that blood to save those lives helped save those lives. So, I want to thank them for that. I'll be happy to take questions at the end of the press conference. Thank you.

GREENBERG: Thank you, Dr. Smith. Now, for a brief update on some information about things that we've learned about the events and the assailant yesterday, I'd like to call on our chief of police Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel. Chief.

JACQUELYN GWINN-VILLAROEL, INTERIM CHIEF, LOUISVILLE POLICE: To the mayor and everyone who is in attendance on today, we have learned that the suspect in this incident was a current employee with Old National Bank. We have also learned that he purchased the weapon used in this tragic incident on yesterday, on April the fourth. He purchased the weapon legally from one of the local dealerships here in Louisville.

We have executed a search warrant on his residence and we have recovered items. And we cannot get into specific details on what we recover at this time because again, the investigation is ongoing. And we want to make sure that we're providing accurate information. The family deserves that and the community deserves that.

We also would like to share that later on this afternoon, we will be releasing body-worn camera footage of the incident. And so that information at the time will be released to you and the location, so everyone will be privy to that information. Thank you.

GREENBERG: Thank you, Chief. We need to acknowledge that a tragedy like this affects everyone. I've already talked about some of our first responders and colleagues in Metro government. Thanks also to the faith leaders and social workers and mental health professionals who provided comfort and counsel to people in understandable distress.

[11:45:12]

I also want to acknowledge the teachers and parents who had to have difficult conversations with our children throughout our community about this inexplicable act of violence and cruelty. We're all feeling shaken by this and scared and angry, and a lot of other things too. It's important that we come together as a community to process this tragedy in particular, but not just this tragedy.

Because the reality is that we have already lost 40 people to gun violence in Louisville this year, including another young man yesterday, just a few blocks away from Old National Bank shortly after this tragic incident happened. That was a separate targeted incident but the result was the same. Needless tragedy, needless loss of life.

In order to help the people of our community -- of our great city come together and deal with this outbreak of tragedies, to grieve, to pray, to unite, I'd like to announce that we are going to be hosting a vigil tomorrow, Wednesday, at 5:00 p.m. at the Muhammad Ali Center Plaza. This vigil will be to acknowledge the wounds, physical and emotional, that gun violence leaves behind. It will be an interfaith opportunity for our entire community to come together to grieve, to heal, to begin to move forward.

We also know that Wednesday is a night of worship for many across our city. And so, working with Paul Callanan and his colleagues at the Office of Safe and Healthy Neighborhood, we will be having grief counselors at over a dozen churches throughout our city that have regularly scheduled worship on Wednesday evenings as well. We invite the entire community to join us at the Muhammad Ali Center tomorrow at 5:00 p.m.

And also, if you prefer to worship on your own, again, we will be providing some grief counselors and we'll have a list of those churches where members of offense safe -- Office of Safe and Healthy Neighborhood will be located by mid-afternoon today. And I want to thank the Muhammad Ali Center for hosting this vigil on such short notice.

One really loving thing in the midst of this tragedy has been the sheer number of people locally and around the world who have sown -- shown such love and support for our city. It means a lot to my wife. Rachel, and I. We are deeply grateful on behalf of everyone in Louisville, for those who have reached out from beyond and within our city borders. There are so many people who want to do something who have offered to help who see this nightmare unfold and want to make it better somehow. We love and appreciate that so much.

For those of you who are looking to take action right now to show your support for the first responders who are trying to save lives and for the victims of gun violence, one great way to do that is to donate blood. According to Johns Hopkins University, gunshot wounds require much more blood than other types of induced -- injuries. You just heard Dr. Smith talk about the amount of blood that was needed and used yesterday. He mentioned his thanks to the Red Cross.

We're very thankful to the American Red Cross. So, we encourage people to make an appointment to donate at Red Cross -- redcrossblood.org That's redcrossblood.org. We encourage everyone to donate blood. And if you can't, there are other ways to support the American Red Cross with donations or your time.

So, next, I'd like to call up Steve Cunanan who is CEO of the Louisville Red Cross. Steve.

STEVE CUNANAN, CEO, LOUISVILLE RED CROSS: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Our thoughts and our deepest sympathies are with the people of Louisville and those that have been impacted by Monday's tragic shooting. At the request of local emergency management on Monday, the American Red Cross Louisville area chapter and its volunteers help support a family reunification center.

[11:50:06]

The Red Cross continues to work with local authorities and their community partners and is helping to provide aid and assistance to those people affected by this tragedy. At this time, the American Red Cross is working closely with the University of Louisville Hospital. And as Dr. Smith has mentioned, it has provided our -- we have provided more than 170 units of blood products to the hospital to treat those that have been affected by this.

The Red Cross stands ready to provide additional blood and blood products upon the request. And as the mayor has mentioned, volunteer blood donors are needed each and every day to help save lives. This tragedy illustrates that it's the blood that's already on hand and on the shelves that helps during an emergency.

Type O Negative is the universal blood type. And that is what the emergency room personnel use and what they reach for when it's time -- when they don't have time to determine a blood type. And that's one of the types that is needed most. The American Red Cross is grateful to all those donors who generously give blood throughout this country. Thank you.

GREENBERG: Thank you, Steve, to all -- you and all of your colleagues, the Red Cross.

There's one more topic that we need to talk about today, and that's guns. Yesterday's tragedy brings us to 40 people who've been shot to death this year in our city. That level of gun violence is beyond horrific and it's beyond anything we can and will accept in our community.

Our police did a heroic job yesterday and every day. And we are already doing a lot to reduce the amount of gun violence in our city and make Louisville safer. We're investing in neighborhoods and in people who have been overlooked for generations so every child has an opportunity to succeed and pursue their hopes and dreams.

We're going to invest more in mental health care. We're working to make universal pre-K a reality. Workforce development initiatives for young and older adults alike. These are all important. These are all also long-term solutions.

We have to take action now. We need short-term action to end this gun violence epidemic now so fewer people die on our streets and in our banks and in our schools and in our churches. And for that, we need help. We need help from our friends in Frankfort and help from our friends in Washington, DC.

This isn't about partisan politics. This is about life and death. This is about preventing tragedies. You may think this will never happen to you. Never happened to any of your friends or loved ones. I used to think that. The sad truth is that now, no one in our city, no one in our state, no one in our country has that luxury anymore.

Last year, I survived a workplace shooting. And now, yesterday, I've lost a very close friend in another workplace shooting. Five more families have lost a loved one. It has happened in Louisville. It could happen in Paducah in Pikeville or in Covington.

This is happening in America everywhere and will keep happening until we say enough and take meaningful action. Congressman McGarvey will talk about some things at the federal level. So, I'll address what we can do at the state level.

I have two requests today for every Kentucky State senator and every Kentucky State representative who wants to join me in reducing the amount of gun violence in Louisville. First, if you support police officers, like Officer Wilt and Officer Galloway, who heroically ran into a barrage of fire from a waiting assailant with an assault rifle, if you support local decision-making to address local issues, if you want to help our state's largest city thrive, please please give Louisville the autonomy to deal with our unique gun violence epidemic.

[11:55:16]

Let us, the people of Louisville, make our own choices about how we reduce gun violence in our city. Other communities should be able to make the policies that work for them. Let us implement policies that work for us. So, please change our state law to let Louisville make its own decisions about reducing the amount of illegal guns on our streets, and gun violence that is killing far too many people in mass shootings, in individual shootings, in any shootings.

Let me be clear. I don't care about finger-pointing. I don't care about blame. I don't care about politics. I'm only interested in working together with our state legislators to take meaningful action to save lives to prevent more tragic injuries and more death. Arguing is not a strategy. Doing nothing is not a strategy. It's not a solution.

The second thing. And to those in the national media that are joining us here today, this may be even more shocking than it is, to those of us locally who know this and are dealing with this. But under current Kentucky law, the assault rifle that was used to murder five of our neighbors and shoot at rescuing police officers will one day be auctioned off. Think about that. That murder weapon will be back on the streets one day under Kentucky's current law.

My administration has already taken action to remove the firing pin before turning confiscated guns over to the state because that's all that the current law allows us to do. That's not enough. It's time to change this law and let us destroy illegal guns and destroy the guns that have been used to kill our friends and kill our neighbors.

I know every member of the State Legislature, like everyone else in our state and in our country, is horrified by what we saw yesterday, by what we see in other cities around the country. None of us wants this to happen again. None of us wants this to happen in our neighborhood. But it will keep happening that's why we have to do more than what we've already done.

Let's change the state laws. That would make me a criminal for trying too hard to stop the real evil criminals who are taking other people's lives and who are eager to make a spectacle of mass murder. The laws we have now are enabling violence and murder. It's time to change those laws to save lives and keep our people safe.

To those in the Kentucky State Legislature, let's work together. I look forward to working with you on this. Now, I'd like to welcome Congressman Morgan McGarvey.

REP. MORGAN MCGARVEY, (D-KY): Morning. Thank you to Mayor Greenberg and your team, Rachel, for your leadership through this. I'm not here today, simply as a congressman. I'm a lifelong Louisvillian, born and raised here, and my heart hurts.

I got the call yesterday when I was in Washington, DC and we didn't know exactly what had happened yet. But you've got that feeling of dread that something's wrong. This isn't normal.

And then more information starts coming out and the heartbreak begins. And the name starts coming out. And we know them and their friends because this is Louisville. Louisville, Kentucky. The biggest small town in America.