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Tyreek Hill's Agent Slams Police Treatment Of Dolphins Star As Union Defends Officers Involved; Suspect's Mom Drove 200 Miles To His School After Getting Text; Venezuelan Opposition Leader Flees To Spain After Disputed Election; Apple: New Series 10 Watch Can Alert You To Sleep Apnea. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired September 09, 2024 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: -- in handcuffs on the ground after an alleged traffic violation. Hill was eventually allowed to go and went on to score a huge touchdown in the Dolphins win over Jacksonville and celebrated by simulating being put in handcuffs.

Hill's agent is appalled by what happened to his client before the game. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DREW ROSENHAUS, TYREEK HILL'S AGENT: We would have thought after George Floyd that we would still see people treated like this unfairly and unnecessarily. If Tyreek wasn't a world class athlete in an incredible shape, who knows how this could have impacted him. He was sore, he was hurting, he was physically and mentally distraught. This is something where we're seeking answers and we will pursue this to the fullest extent of the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: CNN's Sports Anchor Don Riddell joins us now. Don, what more is Hill saying about all of these?

DON RIDDELL, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Hey, Boris. Well, Tyreek Hill hasn't said anything new today, although we can bring you up to date with what he said after the game yesterday. The latest information we have is a statement from the local police union, which has come out within the last hour or so.

They are saying that at no time was Tyreek Hill ever placed under arrest. They said that he was not immediately cooperative. He was put into handcuffs according to policy and for the safety of the officers present. They then said that he remained uncooperative, at which point he was, quote, "redirected to the ground."

The local police union say they are standing by their officers based on the information they have about the way this all played out. As I mentioned, Tyreek Hill did speak with the media afterwards. He was very measured in his comments and this is what he had to say. He said he's still not quite sure why it played out the way it did. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TYREEK HILL, MIAMI DOLPHINS WIDE RECEIVER: No idea, man. It's crazy. No idea. I wasn't disrespectful, you know, because my mom didn't raise me that way. Didn't cuss, didn't do none of that. So, like I said, I'm still trying to figure it out, man.

But I do want to say I do want to be able to use this platform to say, like, what if I wasn't Tyreek Hill, bro? Like, worst case scenario, you know, because it's crazy. Like, I want to be a cop one day. I got a state trooper had all that, you know, so I got a lot of respect for cops, man. But, obviously, you know, everybody has bad apples.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIDDELL: Remember, one of the police officers involved was placed on administrative duties later on Sunday afternoon. One of Tyreek Hill's teammates, Calais Campbell, has been speaking as well today. He was one of the players who arrived on the scene trying to help out, trying to deescalate the situation. Calais Campbell says that he was also placed in cuffs.

Boris, CNN has reached out to the Miami-Dade Police Department requesting access to the video materials, the body camera footage that was shot and we were told that they will not be sharing any of this footage while an internal affairs investigation is underway.

SANCHEZ: Don Riddell, thank you so much for the update.

Let's get some perspective now with sports analyst and host of "The Right Time" podcast, Bomani Jones. Bomani, thanks so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us. I want to get your reaction to the statement from the South Florida police union saying that Hill was uncooperative and that he was never arrested.

They claimed that he was driving in a manner in which he was putting himself and others in great risk of danger. Despite the statement, Miami-Dade police not yet putting out the body camera footage. What do you think?

BOMANI JONES, SPORTS ANALYST: Well, I mean, Miami-Dade police and the police union are not the same entity and this is kind of just how police unions get down. I wouldn't be surprised if they already had that thing on the hard drive and just like, give me the number five, right?

Like, no matter what happens in a circumstance like this, the police union is not going to give an inch. The question that I would ask when they say that Tyreek Hill wasn't cooperative, but it's entirely possible. The question is, what were you asking him to cooperate with?

Like that's a broad term. Just the idea that you're going along with whatever it was asking, hey, what's going on here? I could make an argument that's uncooperative if I wanted to. That doesn't necessarily mean it's supposed to leave. You put me down face first on the concrete with my hands behind my back. SANCHEZ: And what did you think of Tyreek's reaction to all of this and also the leagues, because as you all know, Bomani, historically, they've lagged or been silent on issues of police brutality.

JONES: Well, I mean, my biggest surprise is Tyreek Hill saying that he wants to be a police officer. I would love to get to the bottom of the origins of that one and what path he has taken to get himself away. One day he gets to be officer friendly. I'd love to see that.

But, I mean, his reaction is his. He gets to have it. I don't know how to tell somebody to respond after something like that has happened. Although I would say when he asked the question, what would happen if I wasn't Tyreek Hill? It didn't look like they gave a damn if he was Tyreek Hill at all.

[14:35:04]

If we're going to be honest, like what would happen if he wasn't Tyreek Hill might have been exactly what happened to him. And just because he didn't die doesn't mean that it wasn't a ridiculous way to go about handling that situation. At least that's what it looks like from here is that they handled it ridiculously.

SANCHEZ: I've also heard several commentators likening this to Scottie Scheffler, the golfer who had the run in with overzealous police. He got charged and he got cleared. How do you think these two incidents compare?

JONES: Well, I mean, I don't know how fruitful it is to do that. Like one big difference that happened here was that Tyreek Hill actually got up and got to go to work where Scheffler had to actually go in and they put them through the whole process and everything else.

I don't know which is better or worse. I don't really, like, my head doesn't go there where my head goes to on this one is 10 years ago. We'd have been ready to burn something down metaphorically speaking, of course, about something like this.

Our ability to sustain outrage at these sort of things is kind of God. I think there's a lot of reasons that that may be the case, but we are 10 years and one month removed from Mike Brown being killed in Ferguson. We are four years of change removed from what happened with George Floyd.

The police still engage with people generally and black people specifically in the same ways that they have throughout this course of time. Nobody can get in front of you and put some numbers that show some great improvement in terms of their ability to treat people with a measure of dignity under these circumstances.

The problem that was there before is still the problem now. I think there's a question that we got to ask ourselves, which is, why we don't seem to care so much about the fact that nothing happened with the problem, right? Like, there's a level of exhaustion, I suppose, that gets there. But I think the lesson that we need to learn about this is that if you ever needed to be diligent about an issue, chances are you always need to be diligent about an issue.

And this issue that was an issue with Trayvon Martin, although that wasn't the police, but all the way down in the ways that those movements went, that issue still remains. And this is just another example of that issue. We just don't have the capacity to dial it up for those sorts of things like we used to.

SANCHEZ: How do you feel about how the league should move forward with a situation like this? What would you like to see from Roger Goodell and from the owners?

JONES: Well, ideally, the league would stand on the side of one of its players in a circumstance like this. They would say that we stand with Tyreek Hill, whatever that happens to mean. That to me is ideally what you would want to have in that circumstance.

Of course, a lot of the people at high levels of the league ownership in particular are a bit politically compromised. Great example, Stephen Ross, the owner of the Miami Dolphins, who is a big Trump supporter. Also, the man behind rise, an organization that works toward the eradication of racism in sports.

If I'm not mistaken, Trump has said in the course of this election cycle, he wants police to get immunity for just about everything that they could possibly do. So who's side is Stephen Ross going to stand on under these circumstances? The guy that's on his team or the guy whose team he's on? Chances are he's going to go with the guy whose team he's on.

So, yes, ideally, the league will stand up and say, Tyreek is our guy and we stand behind him and we believe that he has been treated unfairly. But I don't think there'll ever be a circumstance where those people at those levels of power will ever stand on the side of their players opposite the police.

SANCHEZ: Bomani Jones, always great to have you on. Thanks so much.

JONES: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, new questions are being raised about efforts to prevent the deadly shooting at a Georgia high school. What we're now learning about a text message sent from the accused teen gunman to his mother that sent her racing the morning of the shooting. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:43:12]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: The sister of one of the students killed during last week's Georgia school shooting says the rampage was, quote, "preventable 100 percent." The family of victim Christian Angulo is learning that the alleged gunman's mother made a frantic effort to reach the school after she received a cryptic yet alarming text from her son on Wednesday morning. That is according to the suspect's grandfather. The 14-year-old shooting suspect is accused of murdering Angulo, another student and two teachers who were remembered in vigils at Apalachee High School last night. Today, students are returning to campus to retrieve what they left behind during the chaos.

CNN's Rafael Romo is there in Winder, Georgia at the school. Rafael, what did this text say from the shooter to his mother?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it was a little bit of a cryptic text, Brianna. It says -- it said, I'm sorry, and it was directed to the suspect's mother. And so it's something that people here are talking about because for the first time since the shooting, students were allowed to return to the school.

Barrow County school system officials sent parents a message telling them students would be allowed between noon and 3:40 p.m. to return to school, but only to pick up their belongings. And this is happening as we have learned new revelations regarding apparent efforts by the mother of Colt Gray, the 14-year-old student accused of the shooting to alert school officials that's something was terribly wrong before the shooting.

Marcee Gray called the school counselor roughly 30 minutes before the shooting and described a, quote, "unspecified emergency" as first reported by the Washington Post and later confirmed by CNN. What prompted her to call was this alarming and apologetic text from her son saying, quote, "I'm sorry, Mamas."

[14:45:05]

We were able to confirm with the suspect's maternal grandfather. It was after receiving that text that the mother placed a call to the school before beginning a 200-mile drive from Fitzgerald, Georgia to here in Winder. But by the time she arrived, the tragic shooting had already happened.

Earlier, I spoke with a student who told us she believes this tragedy could have been prevented. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIANNA MORENO, APALACHEE HIGH STUDENT: If the school had a warning about it, I'm not sure why they didn't take into consideration. And it's rather be safe than sorry. They should have just let kids, like, have an early release. But, you know, I guess they kind of -- they didn't take it serious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Now, Brianna, earlier today, we got in touch with the family of Christian Angulo, a 14-year-old student who was among the four people killed in the shooting. Lisette Angulo, the student's 25-year-old sister, told us the following, and here I quote, "Yes, we believe it was preventable 100 percent because they knew of the situation beforehand and didn't take the proper action to prevent this from happening. And, yes, we do think that the first responders acted efficiently and appropriately as well."

Now, we tried to reach both the Barrow County school system and school officials, but we're unable to get an answer. The Barrow County Sheriff's office referred us to the district attorney where we also couldn't get a reaction to the new revelations. Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes. Heartbreaking for that family, for all of these families.

Rafael Romo live for us in Winder, Georgia. Thank you so much for the report.

Venezuela's opposition leader fleeing to Spain after authorities issue a warrant for his arrest. The latest on Nicolas Maduro's political crackdown next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:51:22]

KEILAR: New today, the man widely seen as the legitimate winner of Venezuela's presidential election is now spending his first full day in exile. Opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez fled his country yesterday, arriving in Spain, where he will be granted political asylum.

SANCHEZ: This is a major blow to millions of Venezuelans who place their hopes in his campaign. CNN's Juan Carlos Lopez joins us now with the details. Juan Carlos, the opposition in Venezuela claims that there was immense pressure being put on him by the Maduro regime. Maduro denies that, though.

JUAN CARLOS LOPEZ, CNN EN ESPANOL ANCHOR AND CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: Well, think about this scenario, Boris. Hi, Brianna. You have a sitting president running for re-election. The polls say that he's not doing well. Exit polls say he's lost. Then the voting tally, the Venezuelan voting system, you have voting machines that give receipts. So the opposition gets the receipts.

And with these receipts, they're able to prove that Maduro lost 2 to 1. So what does Maduro do? He gets the electoral authority, which he controls, to declare him the winner. But nobody believes him because the vote was 2 to 1. So he goes to the Supreme Court, which he controls, and the Supreme Court says that he won. But nobody believes the Supreme Court.

So what do they do? They tell Gonzalez that he has to show up. He doesn't go because he doesn't trust the system. They get the Attorney General, who is also controlled by Maduro, to indict him for publishing the list, about 80 percent of those votes. They had the paper trail, publishing it and showing that Maduro lost 2 to 1.

So, it was a matter of time. He was in hiding. He expected to be arrested. And before that happened, there was a negotiation, and he was able to leave, and he's in Spain now.

KEILAR: So, Juan Carlos, what happens now with the disputed election results?

LOPEZ: Well, right now, it's more of an issue of political pressure, international pressure. The difference this time around is that you have governments who are seen as friendly to Venezuela and Maduro, like the government of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the left leaning president, the president of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, trying to get Maduro to come to the table and negotiate.

So far, he hasn't followed their request, but there is a lot of international pressure, not only from the U.S., but from countries that were seen as allies to Maduro, telling him that this is unacceptable. So far, he's holding on to power and he's been doing it for over a decade. So there is -- the expectation is that Gonzalez being in Spain is more of an asset to the opposition than being in a jail in Venezuela.

SANCHEZ: He becomes only the latest opposition figure in Venezuela to seek exile.

Juan Carlos Lopez, thank you so much for that update.

We have a massive rollout from Apple to tell you about. The company's CEO, Tim Cook, unveiled the latest Apple Watch, AirPods and iPhone just now. In the presentation, Cook described the iPhone 16 as the first mobile device built from the ground up to better support the company's new AI software called Apple Intelligence.

Cook also says the new iPhone's camera comes with the highest resolution and frame rate yet. The iPhone 16 starting price 1,000 bucks.

KEILAR: $1,000. Meantime, the company also unveiled its new series 10 watch, which they say can detect sleep apnea. The feature is awaiting approval from the FDA and is expected to be available in over 150 countries and regions later this month.

The new series 10 watch that's going to run you about 400 bucks. And then there are the new Apple air pods, which the company calls its most comfortable set yet. They will have a handful of features like active noise cancelation. They also come with more control to play and pause music, starting calls, longer lasting battery life, got to love that.

[14:55:10]

The new AirPods 4 will cost $129, and AirPods 4 with the active noise cancelation feature, a little bit more $179.

SANCHEZ: Feels like a lot of the changes other than the sleep apnea thing, which, I don't know, would you use that? I don't know.

KEILAR: If I had -- if I -- you know, I hope someone else could tell me if they heard me sleep apnea-ing, you know, but --

SANCHEZ: Yes. KEILAR: -- I think that's actually very good for a lot of people. It affects their health.

SANCHEZ: Other than that, most of these changes are cosmetic. I don't feel like there's enough of something different to merit getting a new one, nevertheless.

KEILAR: Yes.

SANCHEZ: I'm putting my in order before the end of the day for sure.

KEILAR: Yes, I'm not that person. I've got like the really old ones and until I lose them, which will happen. I don't buy the new ones.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Maybe a good Christmas gift along the way.

KEILAR: All right.

SANCHEZ: We'll see.

KEILAR: For me, from you.

SANCHEZ: Yes, yes.

KEILAR: Thanks. Thanks, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Yes, perhaps. What did I just sign up for?

KEILAR: Right.

SANCHEZ: Still to come, the Princess of Wales says her chemotherapy treatment is done. The latest on her condition and the perspective she says she's gained during her cancer battle. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)