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Search For Man Accused Of Shooting, Killing 5 Neighbors; JPMorgan Chase Buying Failed First Republic's Assets In Rescue Deal; Clashes Break Out In Paris As Thousands Protest. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired May 01, 2023 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:05]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: An accused mass murderer on the run. Hundreds of officers are searching for this man, suspected of killing five of his neighbors including a nine-year-old boy. What the FBI is saying about the manhunt this morning.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So what is happening with your money this morning after the second largest bank failure in U.S. history.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And CNN is live in Saudi Arabia where a U.S. ship carrying American fleeing the violence in Sudan has just docked. We're following these developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

SIDNER: This morning, a manhunt across the state of Texas for the man accused of shooting and killing four adults and a nine-year-old child. Officers say the incident was sparked all because someone simply asked him to stop firing his gun at 11 o'clock at night because of baby was sleeping.

And $80,000 reward is being offered for his arrest. CNN's Josh Campbell is joining us now. Josh, there is a huge number of officers searching for him but right now we're hearing there are zero leads.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right about 250 FBI agents, other federal state and local law enforcement officers have fanned out across parts of Southeast Texas. This is just north of Houston, where on Friday authorities say that this man, the 38-year-old Francisco Oropeza conducted this brutal killing of five of his neighbors. Now they originally were able to track his cellphone. He discarded that phone, authority said.

And so at this hour, no leads. But as you mentioned, an $80,000 reward right now for information leading to his capture. Now just to walk you through these events, witnesses say that on Friday, neighbors went over to the suspect's home because they kept hearing the sound of gunfire. And they asked him, hey, can you shoot on the other side of your house, there's a baby here that is, you know, being disturbed by this ear piercing gunfire.

Rather than stopping shooting, the suspect allegedly soon charged into the home of his neighbors, opening fire, killing a woman in the doorway, killing three other people and then killing a nine-year-old boy. Now one man who was inside that home who was able to escape, he lost his wife. He lost his child in that killing, but he spoke in just an emotional press conference describing what that incident was like. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILSON GARCIA, FATHER OF 9-YEAR-OLD SHOOTING VICTIM (through translator): One of the people who died saw when my wife fell to the ground and was dying. And she told me to throw myself out the window because my children were already without a mother, so one of us had to stay alive to take care of them. And she was the person who helped me throw myself out the side of a window. But she's still failed. She died.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: And again, there's $80,000 is what has been offered as a reward. The authorities are asking for anyone with information about the suspect to call police but they're saying don't approach this person. He is obviously being considered armed and extremely dangerous.

Also told authorities are essentially going door to door asking neighbors, do they have any type of ring doorbell camera footage, for example, anything they can get to try to piece together what his timeline of movements were and of course, hopefully trying to identify where he is right now, Sara.

SIDNER: Well, thank you so much, Josh Campbell, live there for us on that horrible, horrible killing there in Texas. John?

BERMAN: Thanks, Sara. So dramatic moves overnight after the second largest bank failure in U.S. history. Regulators seize control of First Republic Bank and its $233 billion worth of assets. Then a few hours later, JPMorgan stepped in as a buyer.

First Republic, the fall again, the second largest bank failure the U.S. has ever seen. It's the largest since the 2008 financial crisis in the third U.S. Bank to fail since March.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is outside one of the bank locations here in New York City. Vanessa, I guess it says First Republic but this morning it's actually a JPMorgan, right?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And you know, this bank opened this morning as a JPMorgan owned and operated bank but it's business as usual inside. But we're learning new details this morning from CEO Jamie Dimon on a media call about how this deal came together.

Late yesterday, they made a bid to buy First Republic. They were -- it was a very competitive bidding process. The bidding close at 4:00 p.m. and JPMorgan was the winner. It then took 800 JPMorgan employees and others at the FDIC and Treasury to close this deal and the FDIC announcing this deal early this morning. As part of the deal, the main thing that customers probably want to know is, is my money safe? The answer is, yes. It's part of the deal.

JPMorgan has assumed $92 billion in deposits as well as $173 billion in loans. And to close this deal, JPMorgan paid the FDIC $10.6 billion. But the question is here, is this the last of the bank failures we're going to see? Remember, this is one of three that has happened in just seven weeks, or are there more to come? Jamie Dimon addressed this on the media call earlier this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[11:05:20]

JAMIE DIMON, CEO, JPMORGAN CHASE: This is getting near the end of it. And hopefully this helps stabilize everything. The American banking system is extraordinarily sound, you know. And obviously, if going forward, you have recessions and, you know, rates going up and stuff like that, you will see other cracks in the system. But that's to be expected. The system is very, very sound.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH: Now, Jamie Dimon also saying that he doesn't believe that this deal will impact a recession in any way. He also said that he did not close this deal to try to stave off a recession. If you remember though, JPMorgan led a 30 billion cash infusion along with other banks just six weeks ago into First Republic.

He said that he hoped it wouldn't come to this. But ultimately, that $30 billion was meant to buy First Republic some time, ultimately, JPMorgan making the purchase at the end of the day. John?

BERMAN: Look, we're talking about huge sums of money here. People want to know what it means for them. Right now, the market seemed to like it. Vanessa Yurkevich, great to see you there. Thank you so much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: And so how exactly did First Republic get to this point, you may be wondering this morning. The root of their issues can largely be traced to Silicon Valley Bank, more specifically, the fear that spread following the collapse of SVB. First Republic counts many wealthy clients as customers.

That's part of what is led to this as well with most of their business, First Republics focused on the coast. They have branches in places like Beverly Hills, Silicon Valley, Palm Beach, Florida, New York, Greenwich, Connecticut, there's no problem there.

But many of their affluent customers, they held large balances with the bank, which eventually meant two-thirds of its deposits were above the amount of the -- that the FDIC insures and that was at the -- as of the end of 2022.

And then after SVB failed, First Republic customers, they got spooked quite simply and started pulling the money out fast. First Republic reported last week that customers had pulled $100 billion in deposits out just in the first three months of this year. And that happened after as Vanessa was just talking about, 11 other banks had come together in mid-March to give first Republicans $30 billion lifeline. It gave them time, but it did not save them. Share prices were down by 97 percent since early March. On March 1st, the bank was trading at around $122 a share. Since then, the stock price just has plunged now below $4 a share. All of this adding together and making it pretty clear as the end of last week that First Republic's fate was sealed. Sara?

SIDNER: It's rough. Let's keep the conversation going now with CNN anchor of State of the Union and chief political correspondent, Dana Bash, she is here in person live.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's good to be here.

SIDNER: It's so good to have you in person. After Silicon Valley Banks collapsed, lawmakers held some very heated hearings. And in the background of the failure now of First Republic Bank, there is this fight over the debt ceiling. What are you hearing? Are they going to come together and get this done? Are they going to let something further hurt the economy?

BASH: It's the question. If you were to watch State of the Union yesterday, you would have said, wow, this is never going to get done. Because you had on the one hand, Bernie Sanders saying we are absolutely not, we can negotiate on spending cuts, maybe. But we're not going to negotiate on the debt ceiling.

And on the other side, you had the Republican whip Tom Emmer, who helped to muscle through very narrowly the Republican plan, which has, you know, over $4 trillion of spending cuts last week saying, we won't let the nation default on its debt.

But we're not going to deal with what the Democrats want to deal with. So that's where they are publicly. This to me is sort of exhibit A of why people are so fed up with Washington. I know there's exhibit A, B, C, and all goes to Z. But this is really important, especially now, especially as you've been reporting all morning about the failure of this bank, because people don't want more chaos and disruption at all in their wallets and in their bank accounts.

And so they're saying, they're talking past each other. They're doing it to pasture. And eventually, it is hard to imagine that they will not find a way to for both sides to claim victory, and both sides to figure out a way to make sure that the nation doesn't default on its debt. It's going to be ugly. It is ugly now, but I mean, you heard Dick Durbin with John Berman just on the show.

SIDNER: Yes. We're going to hear from him just now. Durbin spoke to John Berman, the senator from Illinois. And was asked about this fight and here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[11:10:05]

BERMAN: In your heart of course though you do suspect that they will talk at some point?

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL), MAJORITY WHIP: History says that finally people come to their senses, but I don't want it to be at the expense of working families and businesses across America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: So finally, people come to their senses. The first part of that was what you just talked about. Maybe for the base, this yelling, and this, we're not compromising works. But when it comes to the nitty-gritty and getting this done, it sounds like behind the scenes, there's some talking going on.

BASH: Well, there's acknowledgement that talking will have to happen. I mean, yes, it's like the old Soviet days where they have to negotiate the size and the shape of the table before they can actually sit down. We're kind of at that point right now. They are still showing their various constituencies that they are sticking out the positions that they want.

And so they're not at the time -- at the place where they're sitting down at a table like this. I'm not saying right now that something wild will not happen in Washington. I mean, it was 2011, they didn't allow America to default on its debt. But they came so close that the rating, got a downgrade, which had never happened in America's history.

So look, I think the thing that people need to know is that, despite the sort of, frankly pandering that we're seeing on both sides, from politicians, they do in their heart of hearts, understand the stakes, and the stakes are incredibly high when it comes to the financial stability of the American economy and voters and their pocketbooks.

SIDNER: This is money that has already been spent.

BASH: That's so important to repeat.

SIDNER: So if I go with my credit card, and I spend a ton of money, and then I go, you know what, I'm going to pay this right now. I get hit with all kinds of fees. And it messes up my credit, same thing with United States, it turns out, correct?

BASH: Yes, yes. And look, so what Republicans are doing is they are using the threat of default, just to as leverage, which you know what, that happens in Washington all the time, you use a must pass piece of legislation as leverage for what you want. And so that is what we saw last week, Republican, the White House had said, show me where you want to cut Republicans well, they did it. They're very large cuts. It's dead on arrival. There's no question about it.

But now they have -- they've sort of again, positioned themselves so that they can inch back to some kind of -- and this -- let me just actually say this because it's so complicated I think for a lot of people. When you hear the Democrats saying, we're not going to negotiate on the debt ceiling, were because it is, as you said, the bills that have already been, the money's already been spent. These are bills that we have to pay.

But what they're likely going to do, which is what Dick Durbin told John Berman is to have a negotiation on the budget, which is going forward and how the money is going to be spent so that probably all sides will be able to claim victory at the end.

SIDNER: Dana Bash, congratulations on your new show.

BASH: Oh, thank you.

SIDNER: And thank you so much for coming up.

BASH: It's nice to be here.

SIDNER: Love to have you. We'll have you back. John? Right, John?

BERMAN: Dana Bash in CNN News Central right here.

All right, Russia blasting cities across Ukraine overnight in a new wave of missile strikes, including targeting Bakhmut.

From Minnesota to Missouri, flood warnings in place as communities brace for the Mississippi River to crest.

[11:13:42]

And tear gas fills the air in Paris, police and protesters clashed. You're looking at live pictures from the streets right now. This could be the largest May Day demonstration that the country has ever seen. We are there live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: All right, this morning, we are seeing escalating clashes between police and protesters in Paris. One officer we are told was hit by a Molotov cocktail and now suffering burns, that is according to police. Riot police have been using water cannons to disperse protesters, thousands are taking to the streets and what is shaping up to be the largest May Day protest that France has seen in years.

Today's demonstration over labor rights comes after months of protests against President Macron's controversial overhaul of the pension system there, which raises the retirement age by two years. Our Melissa Bell has been on the streets of Paris where it's all been happening. Melissa, if you can hear us, give us a sense of what's going on around you.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, let me give you an idea what the plaza (inaudible) looks like right Now. These are the Black Bloc protesters that have now made it to what is the end point of today's march. The unions and the many tens of thousands of more peaceful protesters are following.

But here for the last hour or so what we've been seeing, John, it is regular pitch battles between the riot police and these more far left extremists members of the Black Bloc determined to see confrontation with them. They've been using water cannon. There's been an awful lot of tear gas.

And what's been remarkable, I think about today's meeting protests compared to some of the other protests we've seen these last few weeks, John, that we've been speaking about together. It's not just the number of those Black Blocs that have been out on the streets, they're really much more substantial than what we've seen over the course of the last few months.

[11:20:07]

The police presence on the streets of France, say 12,000 policemen were posted out to try and keep the peace, John, because authorities knew that they should expect the worst, partly because this reform has now gone through the pension raise, age is being raised from 62 to 64. It's in fact from September the French will start having to incrementally work longer than they did before.

But because it is traditionally a day of protests, people had expected, the authorities had expected that it would be perhaps an even more violent and confrontational occasion for the protesters to make their anger plain. And certainly what we've seen for the course, over the course the last few hours, that it does appear to have been how it's played out. John?

BERMAN: All right, Melissa Bell on the streets there. Melissa, you and your team, thank you for being there. Stay safe. Sara?

BERMAN: From Minnesota to Missouri, flood warnings remain in place as some communities prepare for snow melt to cause historic spring flooding. In Iowa, floodwaters from the Mississippi has already spilled over into downtown Davenport threatening businesses there.

The crest in the Quad Cities is expected today at 21.6 feet, that ranks among the top 10 for historic crests. CNN's Adrienne Broaddus joins us now from Davenport. Adrienne, how are people holding up there? They have been dealing with this for quite some time.

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know what they have in history, sometimes Sara is the best teacher. I'll talk more about the people in a moment. But I want you to see what we're seeing right now. So we're on River Street, which is quite literally looks like a river right now.

To the right, you'll see this venue has a barrier around it. Those are sandbags and you'll see that throughout the downtown area, we returned to a bar we visited on Thursday night. And it was open for business Sunday. And James Perez, who we spoke with told us their efforts are working and they're confident those sandbags will hold. Listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES PEREZ, BUILT SANDBAG BARRIER: So this time around, this time around, we knew ahead of time what to do. So I don't know I just kind of take charge, Bobby, let me take charge. And I took all the volunteers who weren't sure what to do, and organize them into, you know, a team, thank you, teamwork. So yes, I probably laid about 90 percent of these by hand. But it worked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROADDUS: And Sara for the most part, people are trying to make the best out of what could be a really bad situation. One of our affiliates shared some video with us of people in a neighboring town in Buda Vista, using their canoes to get around their neighborhood. They did not evacuate their home. And they've just been really optimistic. But many of them survived the flooding of 2019. And they're taking this with stride. Sara?

SIDNER: The Mighty Mississippi brings beauty but also destruction so often. Adrienne Broaddus, thank you so much for that report. Kate?

BOLDUAN: And Sara earlier this morning Adrienne Broaddus was on, there's a train going behind her. It was like an island of a train. And also I think I saw ducks swimming passed her, behind her. I mean, it was like really quite a scene that they're dealing with in Devonport still, still, still.

Still ahead for us, the Supreme Court is facing a growing push to embrace changes to their -- to how they report their financial disclosures. This isn't coming out of left field either. There have been a series of reports now showing justices have failed to fully disclose gifts and real estate deals. And tomorrow a Senate committee is holding a hearing on the -- on this very issue. Up next, what the Chief Justice says he will not be testifying.

[11:23:50]

Plus, time is running out to stave off a major writer's strike in Hollywood. What the writers are asking for and how studios are preparing for the possible walkout that could happen in a matter of hours. It's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow about Supreme Court ethics after a series of revelations that some justices failed to disclose guests, many believed could lead to potential conflicts of interest. Democrats are calling for reform but all nine justices says no to change as being needed to current ethics guidelines. CNN's Jessica Schneider joins us now. Jessica, Chief Justice John Roberts said he will not testify tomorrow. What can we expect from the hearing then?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we'll expect a lot of criticism maybe of that, Sara, also more of a push from Democrats, even some Republicans to get those nine Supreme Court justices to really prescribe to a more robust code of ethics.

So far, we've seen the Democrat Chairman Dick Durbin, quite outspoken. You know, but even last week, independent Senator Angus King, Republican Lisa Murkowski, they introduced a bill that actually would require the Supreme Court to enact its own code of conduct within one year. [11:29:48]

Chief Justice John Roberts, however, he's really pushing back on this idea that more needs to be done. He's not only declining to appear at tomorrow's hearing, but he also submitted a letter where he said that all the justices are already doing more than enough so he wrote this to Chairman Durbin last week.