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ICE Target Killed, ICE Officer Hurt in Chicago Traffic Stop; Recent Survey Shows Consumer Sentiment Fell Unexpectedly; DOJ May Bring Federal Charges in Charlie Kirk Shooting; Meet Mom Driving U.S. School Buses into the Future. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired September 12, 2025 - 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 HOST: We're following breaking news out of the Chicago area, Homeland Security officials say an ICE operation left an enforcement officer severely injured and the target of a traffic stop dead.

Let's go to CNN Senior Crime and Justice Correspondent Shimon Prokupecz. Shimon, what are you learning about this incident?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so Boris, we just got here a short time ago. This happened several hours ago, but the information is just now coming out about what exactly happened here. And all of the I should point out that we have right now is coming from the Department of Homeland Security.

We're in the Franklin Park suburb of Chicago, about 15 miles outside of Chicago. And what we have learned from the Department of Homeland Security is that they were targeting an individual as part of their enforcement action here in the Chicago area. They've been surging ICE officers into this neighborhood for enforcement action, and that this individual was targeted as part of that enforcement action.

And that when ICE officers attempted to stop this individual, attempted to detain this individual, he was in his car. They did a car stop. And what they say is then that the driver dragged one of the officers in essentially an effort to evade the ICE officers.

What they tell us is that this was a vehicle stop, that the individual resisted arrest, striking an officer. And then the Department of Homeland Security says that one of the ICE officers was dragged during that time, and that is when this individual was shot by an ICE officer. That individual has died at a local hospital. The ICE officer also suffered injuries. He too is being treated at a local hospital.

I just want to get out of the way here, Boris, for a second so I could show you the scene here. Leonel is going to show you here.

That gray car you see there, that is the vehicle we believe the man who ICE and the Department of Homeland Security has identified as Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez was in when the ICE officers tried to stop him, pull him over, and detain him. And that's when the incident unfolded. It appears that at some point this car, you'll see that there's a truck there, that that car crashed into that truck, and then there was an incident that unfolded thereafter.

What we don't know right now is much about the deceased. We have his name, and that's about it.

The other thing that the Department of Homeland Security tells us is that this individual was being targeted because of their undocumented status, that they were here illegally, and that they have a record, a history of reckless driving. Right now, we have not been able to confirm any of that information independently. This is information that is coming from the Department of Homeland Security.

I will say to you that, as you know, and as our viewers know, Chicago area has been on a heightened sense of alert, anticipating enforcement action, preparing for enforcement action. And already here on scene, we're seeing some of the advocates, the community advocates, and from the community here, they're trying to gather information. But this is all we know right now at this point.

And as you saw behind me, there are a number of FBI agents here that are assisting in this investigation as they process these scenes.

SANCHEZ: Shimon Prokupecz, live for us near Chicago. Thank you so much -- Brianna.

[14:35:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: President Trump declared today that he solved inflation, but Americans are losing confidence in the economy as inflation rises and jobs disappear.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkovich is with us. All right, Vanessa, how do consumers feel?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, consumers feel worse about the economy this month than they did last month. Let's just take a look at those numbers.

Consumer sentiment, according to the University of Michigan, they put out this survey every single month. The preliminary reading for September suggests that consumers are feeling worse about the economy, sentiment dropping by almost 5 percent in the beginning of this month. And on an annual basis, look at this number, down 21 percent. Let's look at this in historical context.

Here's where we came from. COVID, obviously, you see that big drop off in how people were feeling. Slight recovery here.

This is in July of 2022, when inflation was 9 percent. People started feeling really terrible then. A recovery and then another drop when President Trump announced those tariffs, those wide sweeping tariffs in April People started to get nervous. A little bit of a recovery and then in this area right here, you can see people are starting to feel worse again. This report suggests that lower and middle income Americans are more

worried about the economy than higher earners. And we know that price pressures, price increases affect lower and middle income Americans more because they make less. And when prices go up, that hurts their bottom line a lot more.

Unprompted, 60 percent of consumers said in this survey that they're worried about tariffs still. And this is something that this survey has captured over the last couple months.

Also in this survey, major concerns, business conditions, labor market conditions, inflation, which I'll get back to in a second. But this month's reading of September is better in terms of how people are feeling compared to April and May when those wide sweeping tariffs were announced.

But let's take a look at inflation and where we are right now. This is what businesses are paying. Actually, in the month of August, declined. Inflation for businesses declined in the month of August and on an annual basis at 2.6 percent. The decline though, Brianna, came because businesses were absorbing more of the costs of tariffs and weren't passing those costs down to consumers as much.

However, we have seen consumer inflation start to heat up just a little bit again, up 0.4 percent in August, holding steady at 2.9 percent. But of course, not at that 2 percent inflation target level that the Federal Reserve wants to see, but also not that runaway inflation that many economists were predicting.

And just lastly here, we're seeing that consumers are concerned about the labor market. We saw this week that unemployment claims were up by about 30,000 in terms of first time unemployment claims. That's the highest level since 2021. So starting to look at that.

Also, we got a big report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that saw between April of 2024 and March of 2025, nearly 1 million fewer jobs were added. And finally, the jobs report in revealed that a weaker 22,000 jobs were added, Brianna. And don't forget, a revision came actually in this report that showed in the month of June we actually lost jobs by 13,000.

That was the first time we saw that in nearly five years. And that is why, Brianna, consumers are not feeling too great about the economy right now.

KEILAR: Yes, that really paints the picture of it. Vanessa, thank you for that.

And still to come, federal charges could soon be filed against the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk. How president Trump is responding.

[14:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We're following new developments in the Charlie Kirk shooting. Multiple sources telling CNN that the justice department is considering federal charges against the suspect, which could be filed as soon as this afternoon. The suspect is currently being held on initial state charges, including murder.

And it's not clear if any federal charges would be in addition to or would replace any state charges.

Joining us now is former state attorney, Dave Aronberg for Palm Beach County, Florida. He also worked with attorney general Pam Bondi in Florida's AG's office. Dave, thanks so much for being with us. What federal charges could you envision this suspect facing?

DAVE ARONBERG, FORMER STATE ATTORNEY, PALM BEACH COUNTY: Boris, I could see him facing interstate murder. I could see him facing (INAUDIBLE) of a firearm. There could be conspiracy if there was someone else involved. After all, he said that the rifle was left for him. So maybe there's a second person involved in this. We'll see what the facts say.

But the reason why the feds would want to file charges ahead of the state is that under federal law, it's more likely he would be eligible for the death penalty than in Utah. I'm not sure based on what we know now that he truly would be eligible for the death penalty in Utah, but then again, it's still early.

SANCHEZ: Yes, we heard President Trump earlier say that he hopes that the suspect receives the death penalty. He said that Governor Cox is quote, very intent on the death penalty in this case. How do prosecutors go about determining whether to try for the death penalty?

ARONBERG: Well, there are aggravating factors that are necessary to get the death penalty, Boris. Same thing under state law in Utah and under federal law. But under federal law, there are broader statutes like you can get the death penalty if someone committed a murder in furtherance of a political or social objective. That's terrorism. That's what appears to have happened here, domestic terrorism.

Also, if it took substantial planning and premeditation. Also, if there was a great risk of death to people other than the victim. He shot in a huge crowd, even though he only shot one bullet.

[14:45:00]

So I think under federal law, it's more likely he would be eligible for the death penalty than under state law, which is more restrictive. And I'm not sure it would apply here.

That's why if the feds go first, I think they would get the death penalty here and then it'd be game over.

SANCHEZ: On the question of figuring out a potential motive, the things that were engraved in some of the bullets and on the weapon itself. And in terms of the fact that it's reported that he had a conversation with a family member who told him that Charlie Kirk spews hate and there was some disdain expressed toward the conservative advocate. I wonder how far that goes in proving that politics was a motive and whether that then factors into what kind of penalty this suspect could potentially face.

ARONBERG: Yes, that's going to play a big part because you want to show that this was motivated by a political objective. Hatred for someone from the far right. That could be domestic terrorism right there. That would make him eligible for the death penalty. If he was trying to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, that could be too. That's a conservative crowd there on that college campus.

Also, all the premeditation that he had, the planning involved, that's going to be used against him as well. So I think that's what the prosecutors are going to focus on at the federal level. Now, I do think that if the state wants to go first, the feds could just call them off. Generally, state prosecutors, Boris, will defer to the feds if they want to go first.

SANCHEZ: Dave Aronberg, appreciate the expertise. Thanks for joining us.

Still to come, we bring you the story of a mom who has become a champion for change by making school bus stops for kids safer.

[14:50:00]

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SANCHEZ: All this week, we're shining a light on innovators, those who have found creative ways to solve problems in their communities and around the world. We call them "CHAMPIONS FOR CHANGE".

KEILAR: And today we're taking a ride with CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir. He travels to California to meet a mom who pioneered the first fully electric powered school bus fleet in the country.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For 100 years, the wheels on the bus have gone round and round, round and round with very little improvement. Yellow diesel dinosaurs belching fumes all through the town and with no way to track America's most precious cargo.

NARAYAN: Like you can track your pizza, you can track your packages, but you have no idea where your children are.

WEIR: My champion for change is a mom/engineer who set out to reinvent the school bus. It's a company called Zum.

WEIR (voice-over): When Ritu Narayan moved to Silicon Valley and started a family, she found the same child transport challenge her mother faced back in India.

RITU NARAYAN, FOUNDER AND CEO, ZUM: Nothing had changed. This problem is generational. It is very much societal.

Why is the technology not applied and how I can revolutionize this whole thing?

WEIR: Even in the epicenter of door to door on time delivery, we didn't think in this way when it came to our kids.

NARAYAN: Yes, it is a problem hidden in plain sight. Like nobody realizes it's the largest mass transit system in the country. 27 million kids commute twice daily on this infrastructure.

WEIR: Hi Mateo, I love your shirt. I love that dragon shirt. That's so cool.

WEIR (voice-over): And for special needs families like Mateo's, knowing exactly when a safe, quiet ride will arrive at both ends is an educational game changer.

LIZBETH ZAMORA, MATEO'S MOM: Sometimes they'll tell you like it's coming a little early or it's running late, but right now it's still on schedule.

WEIR: That's so great. And our driver is Diana.

ZAMORA: Yes. So it gives you the driver's information.

ZAMORA: Ready? All right. Have a good day. Bye Mateo.

WEIR: So he rode a diesel bus, right? His first year.

ZAMORA: Right.

WEIR: What was that like for him? I mean, he has autism.

ZAMORA: Right. So it was a little uncomfortable because he had the noise. So he was just sometimes like cover his ears, you know, it bothered him. Now with these buses, like you can barely hear them. So that's not an issue anymore.

WEIR (voice-over): Oakland became Zum's first big customer thanks to Kimberly Rainey, who came from package delivery at FedEx.

KIMBERLY RANEY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF TRANSPORTATION, OAKLAND UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: We gave him a little bit of a shot. We also tried him on our most difficult students to see really how well the app and the technology held up. And it was great. Our parents loved it.

We like to call it like Uber Lyft meets FedEx type Amazon meets Tesla. And we've merged them all together into almost the exact perfect operation.

NARAYAN: Normally school buses stop for three minutes every stop. And the reason for that is they want to make sure the kid is there and nobody has missed each other. In our case, we are able to reduce that boarding time to eight seconds per stop.

WEIR: By trying to solve one problem, she ended up solving all kinds of other problems. WEIR (voice-over): Since there is a national shortage of bus drivers,

smarter routes make the most of everybody. And the extra juice saved gets used after school because these aren't just buses. They are giant portable batteries, which get plugged into the grid after school and during summers.

NARAYAN: Seventy four buses in Oakland are giving 2.1 gigawatt hours of energy, which is equivalent to powering 400 homes annually. Zum is in 14 states, 4,000 schools across the country, and we are rapidly growing. So our mission is to enable 10,000 buses in the next few years.

WEIR: School bus by day, power plant by night.

NARAYAN: That's right. That's right.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[14:55:00]

WEIR (on camera): When the Biden-Harris administration announced a $5 billion grant program, it was hugely, hugely popular. Boris and Brianna, you know, dozens of school districts around the country. President Trump tried to claw back some of that money. Two federal judges got involved to try to release those funds. Some of it has gone back. Some school districts, like one in Pittsburgh, just canceled over frustration.

But Ritu says she wants to build a company that doesn't need any incentives, that is just better, faster, cheaper, cleaner, healthier, all the way around. And it seems like these ideas are certainly spreading globally, if not very fast here in the U.S.

KEILAR: Yes, what a great report. And it's so interesting to see how she's doing it. And also to hear you sing a little bit. I really enjoyed that.

SANCHEZ: Thanks, Bill.

KEILAR: More of that.

WEIR: I'll take requests.

KEILAR: All right. We'll send them in. Bill Weir, thank you so much.

And be sure to tune in tomorrow at 10 p.m. Eastern for the "CHAMPIONS FOR CHANGE" one-hour special that's hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta. And we'll be right back.

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