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Two More People Charged In Kansas City Super Bowl Rally Shooting; American Airlines Raises Checked-Baggage Fee; Houthis Launched Barrage Of Missiles, Drowns On U.S. Ships In Red Sea And Gulf Of Aden; Elon Musk: Subject In Human Trial Moves Mouse Just By Thinking. Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired February 20, 2024 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:30:00]
JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris, a significant development. Prosecutors just addressing the public a short time ago in announcing these charges. We know that this was a large crime scene involving multiple individuals that were allegedly opening fire, so police have been working through to try to gather evidence to determine who those individuals were.
Today, authorities are announcing that two men, they're described as adults, one individual named Lyndell Mays, another individual named Dominic Miller, have both been charged for their alleged role in that Kansas City celebration shooting. Now, I'll go through the charges. There are a number of charges each man is facing.
The most significant among them, as you mentioned, murder in the second degree. That carries up to a life sentence if convicted. Another charge of unlawful use of a weapon, specifically shooting at someone. That carries up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Now, we're working to determine if either of those individuals has attorney representation at this hour. Authorities have walked through a bit of the timeline, giving us a clearer understanding about what actually transpired.
They indicated that the one individual, Lyndell Mays, as the celebration was wrapping up, got into some kind of verbal altercation with an unknown person. He then allegedly pulled his weapon. The prosecutor says at that moment, multiple people pulled guns at the same time. Shots began to rang out. We, of course, saw on our screen people fleeing, numerous people injured. One woman was killed.
Based on ballistics, authorities now believe that it was the second individual, Dominic Miller, who actually fired the fatal shot who killed Lisa Lopez-Galvan. We're waiting for additional information about the status of these individuals. Interestingly, they are now in the hospital right now because they were among the injured.
They are under armed guards, authorities say. But we're waiting to hear what additional charges could be forthcoming. Prosecutors say they're still seeking to bring charges against other people. And then finally, they're asking the public, if you were injured on
that day fleeing -- they know the number of gunshot wounds -- but if you were injured as you were fleeing the scene, they want to hear from you, which tells us they continue to build this case on all those who are involved, you guys.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yes, a major update in this case. We look forward to more in the near future. Josh Campbell, thanks so much for the update. Stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We're back in just a few minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:36:53]
SANCHEZ: Today we're learning there is now more incentive to pack light when you fly. American Airlines just announced it is hiking the fee to check that first bag at the airport.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Yes, we're talking $40. So that is up $10 because it was already $30. It's not like it was cheap before. We have CNN correspondent Pete Muntean joining us now.
These fees, I mean, you just can never really tell what it's going to cost to fly. Why raise these fees now?
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You know, this really only feeds into my big top travel tip, which is always check a bag -- or always not check a bag. Always carry on. And I screwed that up off the end of the gate.
KEILAR: Don't check the bag.
MUNTEAN: Don't check a bag. You know, the only every time I see Wolf Blitzer, he goes, Pete Muntean, don't check a bag. So he gets --
KEILAR: I have children, Pete.
MUNTEAN: Well, and that's the rub here, right?
SANCHEZ: Like some people don't have any other choice. Go ahead Pete.
MUNTEAN: Now the issue is here is that American is really at the top of the pack when it comes to these mainline carriers for these baggage fees. The ultra low cost carriers are charging even more.
Spirit 89, Frontier 79 for a check bag. Allegiant 75. The big question now is whether or not other airlines here will follow suit because American is getting a lot of money from this. And so many airlines are really almost leaving money on the table now.
Just last year, in 2022, American got $1.4 billion in revenue from check bags. So you can see why the airlines are doing this.
And the genesis of all this was really the 2008 recession. And they started to do this at American Airlines. 2018, they hiked this to 30 bucks. Now they've hiked this to $40 to really try and keep up with inflation. I checked on the inflation calculator. It's about on par with inflation. And then also to offset rising labor costs, they say.
So look at the industry wide baggage fee total here. In 2022, airlines got about $7 billion. American's getting about a billion dollars in total from check bag fees. United, Spirit, Delta, all around three quarters of a million or more. So they're getting a lot of money out of consumers out of this.
And this is what has really riled up the Biden administration. They say that airlines need to do away with these junk fees. To your point, Brianna, it's hard to know exactly what airlines are going to charge you the totality of what a triple charge is.
KEILAR: Yes, and also that joyous process of loading and unloading. So great when everyone does and checks their bag. It's just the best.
MUNTEAN: It's like the J.J. Cale song. Traveling light's the only way to fly. Gotta do it.
SANCHEZ: Pete Muntean, chock full of great advice.
MUNTEAN: Even though I screwed up my top tip.
KEILAR: Don't check your bag.
SANCHEZ: Still a good tip.
KEILAR: Almost by messing it up, you brought more attention to it.
SANCHEZ: Don't pack your kids either, Brianna. You've got to stop doing that.
Pete Muntean, thank you so much.
KEILAR: I'll stop. All right, still to come, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels launching a new barrage of missiles and drones toward U.S. commercial ships in the Red Sea. What we're learning about this fresh round of attacks after the break.
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[15:44:24]
SANCHEZ: Houthi rebels in Yemen launched another round of missiles and drones in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden on Monday, two U.S. commercial ships were hit.
Attacks on vessels in the Red Sea have been growing since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The Houthis, who are backed by Iran, aren't just targeting ships. A U.S. official tells CNN that a Houthi missile also likely shot down this U.S. Reaper drone in Yemen.
Let's take you now to the Pentagon with CNN's Oren Liebermann. Oren, bring us the latest. What are you hearing about this?
[15:45:00]
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Boris, the U.S. lost an MQ-9 Reaper drone on Monday, but at the time it was unclear if the drone was shot down or if it crashed.
Now a U.S. official says they were able to confirm and find out that it had, in fact, been shot down by Houthi rebels, the Iran-backed rebel group. It is the second time they have shot down an MQ-9 Reaper drone, an important drone that's used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and is capable of carrying out strikes as well.
The Houthis, meanwhile, only say they shot it down with what they called a suitable missile. But, of course, as you point out, this didn't happen in a vacuum. There were a number of Houthi attacks on commercial vessels throughout the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, including earlier Monday against two U.S.-owned ships, the Sea Champion and the U.S.-owned Marshall Islands flag, Navis Fortuna. Both of those were hit, suffered minor damage, but were able to continue on their way.
However, that wasn't the end of it. Later on Monday, the Houthis struck the U.K.-owned bulk carrier, the Rubymar. That crew had to be rescued from the ship. So you can see the escalating severity of these continued attacks. And then over the course of several hours on Monday evening, the U.S. and other forces shot down a total of 10 one-way attack drones launched from Houthi territory in Yemen.
So the U.S. has carried out repeated strikes, not only on Houthi weapons in Yemen, but also intercepted many of the launches coming from the Houthis.
But, Boris, you get the sense here, the challenge is the U.S. doesn't know effectively how much stuff they have, how much weaponry they still have. Clearly, they have enough to very much threaten shipping. One of the world's most critical waterways there.
SANCHEZ: Oren Liebermann, thank you so much for the update.
Still to come on NEWS CENTRAL, Elon Musk says his Neuralink brain chip is making good progress. What he says the first human test subject can do with their mind, just weeks after having a computer chip implanted in their brain.
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[15:50:14]
KEILAR: Elon Musk says he has revealed a new level of brain power. He told listeners on X about his company Neuralink's progress with their first trial that involves a human participant.
The person, Musk said, was able to maneuver a mouse by thought alone -- imagine this -- after Neuralink implanted a chip in the person's brain.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ELON MUSK, NEURALINK OWNER: Patient seems to have made a full recovery with no ill effects that were aware of, and um, is able to control the mouse -- move the mouse around the screen just by thinking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Let's learn more about this technology from Cristin Welle. She's Associate Professor in Neurosurgery and Physiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Professor, thank you so much for being with us this afternoon.
Musk has not offered a whole ton of details about the outcome of this operation. So we're just going off his word here. What's your reaction to his announcement? Do you have any skepticism?
CRISTIN WELLE. ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN NEUROSURGERY AND PHYSIOLOGY: Yes, first off, thank you so much for having me. You know, I think that this is -- it is an exciting development.
And it is, you know, it's great to see more companies like Neuralink joining the brain-computer interface space. But this is a really non- traditional type of announcement. Most research breakthroughs are announced in scientific literature, and the results have been reviewed and validated by scientific peers.
And so, there is a degree of concern that, you know, maybe things really aren't as Elon Musk is describing them. So, you know, I would love to see these results being vetted by the scientific community.
KEILAR: Yes, because let's be honest, sometimes things are not as Elon Musk describes them, right? That is just the truth here.
But this is a little bit more of what he's saying, as you said, in this very non-traditional announcement about this person in this human trial and what they can do.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MUSK: We're trying to get as many, um, button presses as possible from thinking. So that's what we're currently working on is, you know, can you get left mouse, right mouse, like mouse down, mouse up, mouse, you know, left mouse, you know, sort of left button down, left button up, which is like kind of needed, like you want to like click and drag something, you need sort of mouse down and to hold on mouse down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: What would you rather be hearing than an announcement like that or a description like this? Because as you said, there are some really interesting things that what he's describing brings up. But what questions do you have about what he's saying?
WELLE: Yes, well, you know, one thing that's, I think, first important to recognize is that, you know, Neuralink and Elon Musk are not the first to have a person control a cursor with their thoughts. In fact, BlackRock, the company, along with their collaborators at BrainGate, have been doing this for decades. So actually what he's describing is not particularly new in the broader scheme of scientific literature.
What is new is Neuralink has developed some technology. They've taken, sourced some great ideas from different labs around the nation and around the world and created some novel technology. And so it would be really great to see all of those details spelled out, along with the results from their patient in a peer-reviewed format. I'd love to see that.
SANCHEZ: Cristin, we should point out you're a former FDA official as well. I'm wondering what concerns you might have about studies like this with this technology that involve human patients.
WELLE: Yes, absolutely. You know, again, these types of studies have been done before and I think they have -- they offer hope to patients who have conditions such as paraplegia, tetraplegia. And so, you know, on one hand, this is a really exciting development in a series of developments.
But what's different now is that Neuralink is a for-profit company. And so the neural data and essentially what Neuralink and others have done is put little electrodes into the brain and they're listening to what the neurons are in the brain are saying to each other. And that communication, that conversation is now in the hands of a for-profit company. And there are a lot of concerns about how that data could be used, could be monetized in a for-profit world.
[15:55:04]
And I, you know, my concern is that the regulators are not ahead of this space. They're lagging behind the technological developments at this point.
KEILAR: Yes, that sounds like a very merited concern there. Cristin Welle, thank you so much for your insights here. Really helpful. And we'll be right back.
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KEILAR: All right, listen, there's a satellite. It's the size of a school bus. It's hurtling towards Earth right now. It's going to come crashing down this week, maybe tomorrow. Don't worry, though. Maybe.
More than a decade after finishing its mission observing Earth's land, oceans and polar caps, this is happening.
[16:00:00]
SANCHEZ: Yes, this is the European Space Agency's 5,000 pound ERS-2 satellite launched almost 30 years ago, April of 1995.
Now it's making what's called a natural descent, which is why the space agency can't really predict exactly where or when it's going to come down. The latest prediction is that it's largely going to burn up in the atmosphere, make its re-entry sometime around now, tomorrow.
Authorities say there's very little concern it's going to affect people. The odds are it's going to fall in the ocean. But these things sometimes do crash into homes and hurt people. It's happened before, but there's like a one in a billion chance of it actually happening. So you may want to wear your helmet tomorrow.
KEILAR: That's right. I'm going to.
"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.
