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Pennsylvania Shooting; How Arteries Become Blocked; George W. Bush Has Heart Surgery; Air Force Plane Flies Out of Yemen; Secrets Kept as Babies Die in Hospital; Beauty Queen Bomb Arrest

Aired August 06, 2013 - 14:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Tragedy at a sleepover. Two little boys strangled after a python escapes and finds a way to kill.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

A blockage discovered in the heart of George Bush. We will take you inside of this type of surgery and his outlook.

Beauty queen bomber. A Miss Utah-hopeful behind bars for allegedly wreaking havoc on neighborhoods.

Plus, in the same hospital wing, babies died within weeks of each other but the hospital is keeping secrets as parents demand answers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think they're hiding something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: CNN investigates.

And the Army psychiatrist accused in the Fort Hood massacre gets ready to question victims face to face.

Great to see you on this Tuesday. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Want to begin with a tragedy out of Pennsylvania. You know, it was supposed to be just a routine government meeting in this rural part of the state, but this ended -- this meeting ended with a burst of gunfire and three people dead. It could have been even worse. The accused gunman, still firing, was tackled, not just by one, but by two very courageous people.

This all happened last night. This was the board of supervisor's meeting in Saylorsburg, in Ross Township, just about 70 miles north of Philadelphia. We are still learning this afternoon a bit more about this alleged gunman and the victims, plus these two men who are being hailed as heroes through all of this. CNN's Poppy Harlow has been tracking this story for us. She joins us live.

And, Poppy, first of all, tell me about the victims.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Hi, Brooke. We have been tracking this since it broke last night. Let's talk about the three people that died. They were shot to death right behind me here at this typical Monday night council meeting. Three of them, three men, James LaGuardia, 64 years old, Gerald Kozi, 53 years old, and also Dave Fleetwood, 62 years old, just beloved members of this community. I have been told so many stories about them just today alone from people that loved them.

Three more people were injured and treated at area hospitals. But this could have been so much worse. And that's what's important to emphasize here as well is the heroism that played out behind me as this gunman was shooting rampantly around the room. Two men stepped up, tackled him, took him to the ground and prevented him from killing anyone else. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. COL. GEORGE BIVENS, PENNSYLVANIA STATE POLICE: Two very courageous individuals positioned themselves in a way that they were able to jump on this subject as he came through the door. They wrestled with him in an attempt to subdue him, even while he was firing rounds from that .44 magnum revolver.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: And we know from police that he had 90 more rounds in his car, Brooke, that he could have fired off inside, but he couldn't because of those two men. I talked to one of them on the phone for a long time today. He didn't want me to use his name because, he said, I don't want the attention or the glory. I just did what I needed to do. He told me how they jumped on him, held him down, tied the shooter's hands behind his head with his jacket until police arrived.

BALDWIN: Wow. So this shooter, Poppy, what do we know about him?

HARLOW: Yes.

BALDWIN: Has he been at all cooperative with police post, you know, arrest?

HARLOW: A lot of very troubling details that have come out. A suspected shooter. He hasn't entered a plea yet. His name is Rockne Newell. He's a local. He lives around here. And this all erupted, police say, because he was so angry about a conflict over his property. He had been in a year's long fight with the town over his property. He had been evicted just last week apparently. And he, in the police affidavit that we just got our hands on, it says that he was specifically targeting this meeting so that he could get all the town leaders that he was angry at in one place at the same time. The affidavit goes on to say, Brooke, that as he was being walked out of the building behind me he said, and this is a quote, "I wish I had killed more of them."

Now, I talked to a police source who told me that while at the hospital, because this suspect was shot in the leg, not killed but shot in the leg, that he went on to be pretty calm and talked police through what led him up to this. He did not say that this was an admission of guilt, but told police how he was so upset about the property battle, what led him to this, that he was calm, collected, seemed relatively normal, but it is a bizarre scenario that played out like this and chilling when you think that, according to police, he said, "I wish I had killed more of them."

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Over land. Poppy Harlow for us in Pennsylvania.

HARLOW: Yes.

BALDWIN: Poppy, thank you very much.

HARLOW: Sure.

BALDWIN: To the West Coast we go. Los Angeles. A court appearance is expected today for the driver of that car that plowed into a crowd over the weekend on the famous, the beautiful Venice Beach Boardwalk. This was Sunday afternoon. The 38-year-old driver is charged with murder. One person was killed. Italian tourist Alice Gruppioni was on her honeymoon when she was hit by this car and her husband, obviously, he's in shock. He can't believe it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIAN CASADEI, WIFE KILLED IN VENICE BEACH HIT AND RUN: The reason for the -- that explain what happened and what I feel so I want to come back in Italy with her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Fifteen other people were also injured, three of them seriously.

And heart surgery for a former president. George W. Bush is in a Dallas hospital today recovering. Just a couple hours ago, the former president had a stent placed in his heart to ease a blockage in an artery. A spokesman says doctors (ph) discovered this blockage yesterday during the president's annual physical exam. The 67-year-old is said to be, and I'm quoting them, "high spirits" and is expected to go home tomorrow. Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, explains exactly how plaque builds up in your arteries and how there can sometimes be no symptoms.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We all know plaque is bad. It blocks your blood vessels. Plaque is formed by LDL cholesterol in the blood. The bad cholesterol. Think of it as "l" for lousy, building up on the walls of your arteries forming plague. It can accumulate slowly overtime narrowing the blood vessels like something building up inside a pipe. This narrowing in the blood vessels leading to your heart can cause chest pain called angina. It can also cause a heart attack. Did you ever wonder how seemingly healthy people can have a heart attack? This may surprise you. Most heart attacks happen in people with no symptoms. In people whose arteries are less than 50 percent blocked.

Here's how. Cholesterol can cause unstable bubbles or blisters of plague to form in your arteries. These can be incredibly dangerous. Most are covered by a cap, but inflammation and stress can cause the cap to thin and rupture resulting in a clot that blocks the flow of blood to the heart. Robbed of oxygen, the heart muscle can't function properly -- heart attack.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: So let me just be clear. We aren't sure if President Bush had symptoms, but as Dr. Gupta explained, a blockage can happen to anyone.

So to Washington we go. CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger joins me here.

And, listen, you know, we're seen a fair amount of George W. Bush recently. Looks good. Sounds like a pretty healthy guy. He works out. He likes to mountain bike. Goes to Africa in July. What happened?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you know, as Sanjay was saying, maybe nothing. You know, maybe he just had his annual physical and this was discovered when he had a test. I mean, this is somebody who mountain bikes 20 to 30 miles on his own property in Texas, who, as you point out, was just in Africa, who had his library opening, who is very physically fit. So we don't exactly know what happened, but what we do know is that he had this surgery and will be ready to leave in a day. So all's well that ends well.

BALDWIN: Thank goodness for physicals. I know I need to get on my doctor's schedule and make sure I get one this year, right?

BORGER: Me too.

BALDWIN: But as you mentioned all these, you know, we see the president sort of returning to the spotlight. He's been laying low the last couple of years.

BORGER: Right.

BALDWIN: How much, Gloria, might this slow him down, do we know?

BORGER: We don't know if it's going to slow him down. I would wager that it wouldn't knowing George W. Bush and how important physical activity is to him.

BALDWIN: Huh.

BORGER: And what we've seen political from Bush is kind of interesting, too. Because as you point out, he's laid low but lately he's been dipping his toe back in the political waters. We've seen him talk about the need for immigration reform. You know that he tried to do that during his administration. It didn't work out so well. I think he'd like to see it done now.

And by the way, he's coming back up in popularity, you know. He's still not regarded as a very popular ex-president. But five in 10 now see his presidency as a failure. However, Brooke, that's not great, but it used to be that seven in 10 saw his presidency as a failure. And as he's fond of saying, he'll be long gone when the history books try to judge just what he did and how he did it.

BALDWIN: Well, we wish him well.

BORGER: Yes. Absolutely.

BALDWIN: And, again, note to self, go see the doctor.

Gloria Borger, thank you very much.

BORGER: Right.

BALDWIN: And the threat of a terrorist strike, at this hour, appears to be ongoing. Right now the nexus is Yemen. Take a look with me. You will see westerners. These are westerners heading out, getting out of Yemen while they can. At dawn, an unknown number of Americans left on a government flight arranged by the State Department. They are on their way to Germany. At last word, not quite there yet.

But we told you about these embassy closures. They remain in effect. Look at all of them. They remain in effect - this is across the Middle East, parts of Africa as well. And now we've got the fingerprints of al Qaeda. Sources are telling CNN that Osama bin Laden's successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, this is him on the left here, Zawahiri sent an order to his top lieutenant in Yemen saying, do something. And that was in addition to the purported terrorist chatter that set off all these alarms in the first place.

So, Nick Paton Walsh is watching this story for us develop from Lebanon.

And, Nick, it has been five days since we first became aware of this terrorist threat. And from what we have seen today, you know, the threat is clearly still ongoing. So why else would the U.S. -- why would Britain, why would those folks be getting out of Yemen?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly the threat has, whilst being at the start (ph), anything from West Africa to Bangladesh near India. It's become much more specific to Yemen. And, in fact, even when they though it was going to potentially be last Sunday, it's now ongoing. So no one's exactly clear where this is has come from. The State Department's saying they're continuing to evaluate new information.

That withdrawal of diplomatic staff you've been talking about, that has been in motion, really, for a couple of days. Although the U.S. did specifically repeat its normal travel advice to all Americans to get out of Yemen right now and never travel there anyway. So, a certain escalation on their part today. Many asking, is it possibly the drone strikes overnight against militants in Yemen that may have contributed to that. That's now bringing it to four in as many as 10 days. Or is it what Yemeni officials are talking about, the potential of al Qaeda operatives have moved into the capital, San'a, in the past few days? All really unclear at this point, but there has been this obvious, significant escalation in the mind of U.S. officials to the need to do something more to protect Americans in Yemen in the past 24 hours.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: And I know, Nick, a lot of people are saying, well, why now? And when you look back, we know that the terrorists, they're big on staging attacks on certain dates and then, you know, low and behold here, it turns out tomorrow, Nick, is actually the 15th anniversary of the deadly embassy bombings both in Kenya and in Tanzania. You had simultaneous truck bombs, hundreds of people killed at those U.S. compounds in Africa. And believe it or not, those were the attacks that put Osama bin Laden on the radar. Could those bombings, Nick, could they be worth considering as all as we try to understand what the threat right now might be?

WALSH: The timing is, to many people, very opaque. They were concerned it may have been Sunday, because that's a key day in the Muslim calendar. Yes, you're right, we have these key anniversaries coming up, plus September 11th, which is now not only the attacks on Manhattan and Washington, but also the anniversary of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. So many of those potential, important anniversaries that al Qaeda have liked to strike on before.

But let's just bear in mind, we're talking about a very different al Qaeda than we did back then. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, who many are worried about staging this attack inside Yemen. Well, many analysts say they're not really that powerful. They can't really strike much outside of Yemen, so it's in the country the greatest fear is despite the fact that all these diplomatic posts have been closed around the world and will remain closed until the weekend, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Nick Paton Walsh for us in Beirut. Nick, thank you.

Coming up next, a special CNN investigation. Two babies dye in the very same wing of this children's hospital within weeks of one another. And inside that hospital, there is a secret. Parents are furious because they're not getting answers. Do not miss this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you feel like there are things they're just not telling you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think they're hiding something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: You are about to hear a heartbreaking story with no answers. Want to take you to a town in Kentucky in the same wing of the children's hospital there. Not just one, but these two babies died within weeks of each other. Just put yourself in the parents' shoes. They're sad and they're furious as well because the hospital will not elaborate or reveal details about its mysterious history. In fact, the hospital is even keeping secrets from the attorney general. CNN's senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, with this special report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the surface, Kentucky Children's Hospital is all kittens, murals and smiling faces. But inside, there's a secret. Last August, six month old Connor Wilson died after having heart surgery.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His lips were blue. His eyelids were blue. His fingers were blue.

COHEN: And another baby, Rayshon Louis Smith (ph), died after heart surgeries.

Newborn Waylon Rainey had surgery and went into heart failure. He barely survived.

Jaxon Russell had heart surgery and his parents say it was botched and a surgeon at a different hospital had to fix it.

SHANNON RUSSELL, JAXON RUSSELL'S FATHER: He said there was a lot of scar tissue and infection that was left behind.

COHEN: All of this happened within eight weeks.

It was a crisis, to say the least. So in October, Kentucky Children's Hospital, a part of the University of Kentucky, stopped doing heart surgeries and put its chief heart surgeon, Dr. Mark Plunkett, on temporary leave.

Now the question is, were these four babies the only ones who suffered? How many other babies died or had complications at Kentucky Children's? No one knows. Why? Because the hospital refuses to say. Heart programs at many other children's hospitals report their mortality rates right on their websites, but Kentucky Children's refuses to release their mortality rate. They won't give it to us. They won't give it to parents. They won't even give it to the Kentucky attorney general. The parents are angry and demanding answers.

COHEN (on camera): Do you feel like there are things they're just not telling you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think they're hiding something.

COHEN (voice-over): The attorney general ruled that by withholding the data, "the university was in violation of the state's open records act." The university has appealed that ruling. We asked a hospital executive about the heart surgery mortality rates. He said they were average.

DR. MICHAEL KARPF, EXECUTIVE V.P. HEALTH AFFAIRS, UK HEALTHCARE: They were OK. And OK isn't good enough for me. It's got to be better. It's got to be good.

COHEN: And still he won't release the mortality rates.

COHEN (on camera): Why won't you give it to parents whose babies are in your hospital?

KARPF: As a -- as I said, I have not been asked by a parent about data personally.

COHEN: We talked to plenty of parents who said, we want this data. So I'm surprised you don't know that parents want this data.

KARPF: It's not gotten to me.

COHEN: But don't you think parents want data? I mean they're having their baby's heart operated on. Don't you think they want to know the success rates?

KARPF: You may be sophisticated and ask about data. Most of our patients want to come in and they want to be assured that we're committed to doing the very best they can for them. Most of them would have a hard time understanding data. Data -- data is a complex issue.

COHEN (voice-over): These parents say they understand numbers just fine.

LUCAS RAINEY, WAYLON RAINEY'S FATHER: My first question was, I want to know statistics. I want to know hard facts. I want to know chances, possibilities. I want to know everything you could tell me.

COHEN: Dr. Karpf says there's another reason they won't provide the mortality rate. He says it would violate patient privacy, even though the data is just numbers. There are no patients identified.

And what of Dr. Plunkett? He resigned and he has a new job at the University of Florida doing the same surgeries.

Kentucky Children's Hospital says after an internal review, they will start doing heart surgeries again. And Karpf says this time he'll make sure that the program is top notch. But these parents say, as long as the death rate remains a secret, it's not safe for any child to have heart surgery at Kentucky Children's.

TABITHA RAINEY, WAYLON RAINEY'S MOTHER: I'm standing up for the ones who have lost their kids. The moms that I've had to stand in the hallway with and try to console because they lost their children and they don't know what's happened and there's still no answers given to them.

NIKKI CREW, CONNOR WILSON'S MOTHER: I said, it's scary to think that maybe, you know, the reason that they had been shut down could have been prevented and our child could have still been here today. COHEN: Elizabeth Cohen, CNN reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Elizabeth, thank you.

And this outrage, it's not going anywhere because there is now an online petition for parents of kids who have heart defects to try to get this hospital to release its numbers.

Coming up, a beauty queen under arrest for allegedly tossing a homemade bomb. You heard me, bomb. At homes in a Salt Lake City suburb. Why? What was she really up to? And could she face jail time? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A beauty queen in Utah has bigger problems than winning the swimsuit competition because she is now facing charges for allegedly making homemade bombs. She and three other 18-year-olds call it a prank. The police, yes, they're not laughing here. Kylie Bearse from our affiliate KTVX has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVE WILLIE (ph): It's pretty scary to hear that that went down in our neighborhood.

KYLIE BEARSE, KTVX REPORTER (voice-over): Steve Willie wasn't home Friday night when the explosions happened, but word spreads fast.

WILLIE: That really concerned us a lot. Yes, absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean I'm OK, but I'm just glad it didn't happen to me. That would totally freak me out.

BEARSE: Neighbors called police after what sounded like bombs going off. Witnesses say someone threw bottles from a car that then exploded. Unified fire officers found those bottles and say while small, they have the potential to cause a lot of damage.

CAPT. CLINT MECHAM, UNIFIED FIRE AUTHORITY: You get a little bit of shrapnel or fragmentation effect from the container, as well as the chemicals.

BEARSE: Four teens, including recently crowed Miss Riverton, Kendra Gill, could be facing felony charges.

MECHAM: Ten counts. I mean there could be potentially a good deal of jail time here.

BEARSE: For Gill, the consequences could go even further.

GRETCHEN JENSEN, FORMER MISS USA: Most definitely she should not keep her title, in my opinion, because you're not the epitome of what that role model needs to be. BEARSE: Gretchen Jensen is one of the hosts of "Good Things Utah" and a former Miss USA. So she knows a thing or two about this.

JENSEN: When you get right down to it, you are a goodwill ambassador. You are an ambassador of your city. You represent your city, which means you represent everybody there.

BEARSE: Something that worries neighbors we talked to as well.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't want to put a bad name to Riverton City, because this is an awesome city.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Kylie Bearse from our affiliate KTVX with that one.

The Fort Hood shooting trial of Nidal Hasan is underway today. And some of the victims have already taken the stand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STAFF SGT. ALONZO LUNSFORD, FT. HOOD SHOOTING VICTIM: When I got hit the first time, the first round was a head shot. And as I was laying on the floor, he hit me again in my back. I decided then that I wasn't going to die. I had to fight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That is Alonzo Lunsford speaking with Piers Morgan back in June. But with Nidal Hasan representing himself, Staff Sergeant Lunsford may have to answer questions from the man he says shot him. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)