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Woman Killed After Accidentally Turning Into Wrong Driveway; Western Officials: Russia Going Backwards On Military Equipment; Afghans Who Helped U.S. Are Being Hunted While Waiting For Visas; NFL's Damar Hamlin: I'm Blessed To Return To Playing. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired April 18, 2023 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: New details in a deadly driveway shooting in upstate New York, where authorities say 20-year-old Kaylan Gilles -- there she is -- was shot and killed after her friend just accidentally turned their car into the wrong driveway.

Gilles family is now speaking about their little girl. They described her as a beautiful soul. A ray of light. Authorities say this man 65- year-old Kevin Monahan fired two shots at the vehicle Gillis was riding in from his front porch as the friends were actually leaving. They realized they made a mistake. They turned around. Monahan is now charged in connection with her death.

CNN's Brynn Gingras, she's been following the story. Brynn, I mean, do we know any more details as to why he chose to fire from his front porch at these folks who made a mistake and it seems they were leaving as it happened.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim, I mean, we're getting a little bit more about what the defense strategy might be here. I talked to the attorney for Kevin Monahan, the 65-year-old man charged in this case, and he says his client says he felt threatened by this group of vehicles that approached his home. And he said it wasn't just one car. It was actually a motorcycle and a second vehicle carrying two people that pulled up into the driveway. He said they're rubbing their engines and he felt threatened and those were warning shots basically that he fired.

Now I did reach out to the sheriff, and he confirmed it was a motorcycle, a second car and then that third car that carried four people, including the victim, 23 -- or 20, year old Kaylan Gillis and her boyfriend, Evan. He says, they were driving up and down that rural road looking for cell phone reception to use GPS to find a friend's home. Went up the driveway. Quickly realized it was the wrong home and as they were turning around, he says, forensic forensics prove and witness accounts from those who were inside the car show that he fired those shots at that last car as they were all turning around.

They want you to hear more from the sheriff who was on our shows earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF JEFFREY MURPHY, WASHINGTON COUNTY, NEW YORK SHERIFF'S OFFICE: He has not made any statements. He obtained a lawyer before he came out of the house. Many has not made any statements and, quite frankly, it's not shown any remorse in this case.

He was not threatened at all. So, the kids didn't he get out of their cars. They didn't say anything. There was no words exchanged. You know, they were turning around as I said, leaving so there certainly was no threat. So, you know, I'm hopeful that will be able to get a successful prosecution in this case and that justice is served for the Gillis family and for Kaylan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: Now, Monahan's attorney says he actually -- his client didn't even know that he hit someone until the police actually took him into custody. Now at the end of the day, what is the end here, Jim, is that a 20-year-old is dead because of this senseless tragedy. Kaylan Gillis -- her family gave me a statement. I want to read a little bit too.

So, it describe who she was as a person, she said -- they said Kaylan was a talented artist, an honor student, a Disney fanatic and loved animals. She was looking forward to starting college in Florida to pursue her dream of becoming a marine biologist. She was taken from us far too soon, and we are devastated.

Understandably so. There is a GoFundMe page for her family.

SCIUTTO: And the defense argument seems to be here that the shooter felt threatened because the car was approaching his property. Brynn Gingras thanks so much. Boris, I've lost count of the number of shootings in the last 48 hours.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Many to keep track of unfortunately.

We want to update you now on some of the other headlines we're following at this hour.

[15:35:00]

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell says his party is not going to support Democrats effort to replace California Senator Dianne Feinstein on the Judiciary Committee. Remember Feinstein is battling a case of the shingles and has been sidelined since February. McConnell called the plan to remove the 89-year-old and extremely unusual request. He's accusing Democrats of trying to, quote, forced through their very worst judicial nominees.

Also for all of you procrastinators out there, you have until midnight tonight to file your 2022 tax returns. There are a few exceptions, though, for some states affected by recent extreme weather. If you live in a federally declared disaster area, or you have a business there. The IRS has already extended the deadlines.

And a bit of good news for people who have already filed. The pandemic backlog has subsided and refunds should be coming out in the next 1 to 2 weeks -- Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Mine is in.

All right, coming up, just how desperate is Vladimir Putin for weapons in his war on Ukraine? Well, enough to recommission tanks built right after World War II.

And NFL player Damar Hamlin saying today he died on national TV in front of the whole world. Now he's been cleared to play. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us on that.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: More than a year after it invaded Ukraine, Western officials say that Russia is struggling to equip its troops. In a briefing today, the official said that Russia is resorting to using old tank models, some of them dating back to right World War II. It comes as the NATO secretary general tells CNN he wants Ukraine's allies to do even more to supply weapons to Ukraine.

Let's walk over to the magic wall now and Cedric Leighton. He is a retired Air Force colonel and a CNN military analyst. Colonel thanks so much for sharing part of the afternoon with us. Let's start with the map. Because we want to break down the gains or lack thereof that Russia has made in Ukraine.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Absolutely Boris. Well, one of the key things to think about is, you know, when everything started back in February of last year, the Russians were coming really close into Kyiv, and they could have -- they could have if everything had worked out for them taking that capital within a few days. That was their plan. It obviously failed. And the reason that it failed was that they didn't have the equipment that they needed. They didn't have the wherewithal to make it happen.

But then fast forward you've got in this area around Kharkiv, this area in the south. So, through the spring, summer and the latter part of summer and early part of fall, the Ukrainians were able to recapture all of these areas right here. That was significant, and that really put the Russians on the on the back foot when it came to their ability to occupy parts of Ukraine.

SANCHEZ: Let's zoom in quickly on that eastern front because within the last few days, Vladimir Putin made a secret surprise visit to certain areas.

LEIGHTON: He sure did. And in fact, he was -- well, he was basically down in the Luhansk area right here. So. this part right here. And then if we go into the southern area, he was actually in Kherson, not the city, but in the region that has the same name right across the Dnipro River from that area.

So, he was pretty close to the Ukrainian lines right there, and he's definitely trying to copy a bit of what Zelenskyy has been doing all this time.

SANCHEZ: Right. And let's get a look at some of these tanks because this is one of the craziest things to me. This T-55 tank is being refurbished for use in this invasion in 2023. This was rolled out in the 1940s.

LEIGHTON: That's right. This is one of Stalin's favorite tanks. In fact, over 100,000 T-55 have been produced throughout the history of this particular tank, and they're being used all over the world. But the Soviets and then after them, the Russians have used them to great effect. They replaced them with a bunch of tanks like the T-72 in 1972 and the T-80 and 1976. But these were all Cold War era tanks. The closest one in time to our period right now is the T-90, and that one has a lot of capabilities that the West, you know, has emulated in some respects and they also served to actually use as part of the model for developing our tanks.

But the key thing here is these tanks are really old, really stalwart, but they have no way to survive the armor piercing shells that the Western allies have right now.

SANCHEZ: It tells you how the war is going for Russia.

LEIGHTON: It really does. And right now, that war is going really badly because the -- if they bring these things out of mothballs the T-55 or the T-72s, for example, that means that there's a real shortage of tanks and a real shortage of munitions that they would need in order to prosecute their war.

SANCHEZ: Stalin's favorite tank being taken out of mothballs. Cedric Leighton, thank you so much for that -- Brianna.

KEILAR: There's a new report that shows just the horrific circumstances facing Afghan citizens who supported the United States mission in their country. According to the Association of Wartime Allies, it takes almost three years on average to get them to the U.S. on a special immigrant visa all while the Taliban tried to hunt them down.

We have CNN's Jake Tapper, who is going to have more on this in "THE LEAD." You actually have a very interesting guest who's going to get at this very point.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR "THE LEAD": Yes, we actually have the stars of this new movie coming out this Friday. It's called "The Covenant." Jake Gyllenhaal and Dar Salim are there. It's an action movie that actually has this moral message, which is about the commitment that the United States made to these Afghan interpreters and how we have left so many of them behind. So, they'll be talking about the film.

[15:45:00]

And also, this moral imperative. As you noted, The Association of Wartime Allies has this quarterly report in which it says that at the current rate that the U.S. is allowing these interpreters through the special immigrant visa program, it's going to take 31 years before they're all here.

And meanwhile, as you note, they're being hunted down and killed. This is not an abstraction. This report says that eight female and 130 males were victims of targeted killings by the Taliban. These people did so much serving with U.S. service members for an average of like 4.5, 5 years to try to help our service members during that 20-year war. And so many of them were left behind. And at the rate we're going, a lot of more of them are going to get killed.

KEILAR: And just be left behind, right. Because it's a harrowing escape at this point in time to get out of Afghanistan.

TAPPER: That's right, and the point of the Association of Wartime Allies is that the U.S. needs to do much, much more. And I think this film, by Guy Ritchie, with Jake Gyllenhaal star starring in it. We'll actually maybe help that happen. Because it really in a very powerful way sends the message to the American people when they see this movie. That's just really on one level just a great, thrilling action film. They'll see like there is a message here. There -- we left these people behind and it's not right.

KEILAR: Can't wait to see that coming up here in about 14 minutes on "THE LEAD," we'll see you there. Thanks, Jake.

TAPPER: Thanks Brianna.

KEILAR: Jim.

SCIUTTO: Coming up Damar Hamblin has just been cleared to play. If you could begin it -- if you believe it. After, in his words, dying on the football field. We're going to have Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us.

Plus, what we're learning about a very small White House intruder.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) prep

SCIUTTO: This is a pretty remarkable story. Buffalo Bill's safety Damar Hamlin has been fully cleared to return to playing football. This is just 3.5 months after he suffered cardiac arrest. His heart stopped on the football field. We all remember seeing him collapse after making a tackle during a game against the Bengals. Here's what he had to say about that today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAMAR HAMLIN, BUFFALO BILLS DEFENSIVE BACK: I died on national TV in front of the whole world. You know what I mean? So, I see it from all perspectives. And you know for them to still have me around and for me to still have them, you know, it's like, it goes both ways. And you know, I lost a bunch of people in my life. I know a bunch of people who lost people in their lives, and I know that feeling, you know. So that right there is just the biggest blessing of it all is for me to still have my people and my people still have me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: I died on national TV he says. CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins me now. Sanjay, I mean, this is a remarkable turnaround given it's only been 3.5 months. The simplest question I have, is it safe for him to go back to playing professional football?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, Jim, it's emotional, no question. And as he said, people essentially saw him -- saw this all transpired on live TV.

But you know that for the last 3.5 months what they've sort of been trying to figure out is just how safe it would be for him to return. And we talked to a lot of people about this. A cardiologist, including our own, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, about this, and they're not surprised most of them that he could return.

What it basically means is a few things. One is that his heart function returned to normal. He has no underlying problems with the anatomy of the heart itself, and he has no underlying electrical problems. So, that that's the most important thing. And the way they figured that out over the last 3.5 months was to do a lot of tests. I mean, this is the types of tests that they've been doing to try and make sure there wasn't some sort of underlying problem.

Look Jim, this is rare. So, there's not a lot of data on this sort of thing. You can't say look based on 10,000 patients we know this. But the American Heart Association does weigh on this way -- weight in on this, along with the American College of Cardiology, basically saying, if none of these abnormalities are found, no underlying cardiac abnormality is found, then individuals can safely resume training and competition after resuscitation from commotio cordis, which we now know is the diagnosis.

SCIUTTO: As you explained so well, when it happened blunt force at a particular time in your heartbeat causes the heart to stop.

GUPTA: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Is there any -- if you've had it once, does it make it more likely to have it again, or is this really one of those just remarkable, you know, instances of chance?

GUPTA: It really doesn't seem to be something that is likely to recur. And put more simply and sort of the way we think about this in medicine, is his risk higher than someone in the general population who was like him? And the answer really seems to be no. There's really not been cases of recurrent, if you will, commotio cordis.

It's a very fair question, Jim. Like, for example, if concussion -- if someone has had a concussion, we can now pretty reliably say they are more likely to have a second concussion because they have brains that are more easily concussed. That does not seem to be the case with commotio cordis. Take a blow to the heart at that exact second and the heart right when it's about to relax. Hearts are constantly beating, relaxing, beating, relaxing. Right at the second going to relax, it takes the blow. It can't relax and the heart essentially goes into a sort of fibrillation. That's what causes the cardiac arrest.

[15:55:00]

Now keep in mind, I mean, Jim, you know he had a on the football field cardiac arrest, which would be called an out of hospital cardiac arrest, but the resources and the number of people that went to his side and those seconds was incredible. It's essentially like what would have happened inside a hospital. And I think that also played a big difference overall in terms of his long-term recovery.

SCIUTTO: Yes, the resources he had around him there. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much -- Brianna.

GUPTA: You got it, Jim.

KEILAR: An intrusion has been reported at the White House, albeit a tiny one. Secret service says a dangerous cute toddler crawled through the White House fence and onto the lawn, triggering security alerts. Officers managed to safely apprehend the miniature suspect and reunite him with his family. And if you're wondering, no, this is not the first time that a toddler has been able to crawl through the White House fence. It happened back in 2014 as well -- Boris and Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I saw the video, I want to make sure very quickly that wasn't one of my kids that has gotten (INAUDIBLE).

SANCHEZ: Hopefully not everybody thinks it's all fun and games and it's all cute. Guys, this is how we lost Harambe, the gorilla. I'm still really broken up about that. People got to watch after their kids.

KEILAR: No, but I just, you know, he's never going to live that down. Kind of a cool moment.

SCIUTTO: I wasn't thinking we're going to be talking Harambe the gorilla today.

SANCHEZ: Never forget.

Hey, thank you so much for watching CNN NEWS CENTRAL today. Don't go anywhere. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts after a quick break.