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Police Taser 18-Year-Old; DiMaggio Had Crush on Girl; Wildfire Rages in Southern California; Amityville Linked to Boy Killed

Aired August 08, 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: A newborn kidnapped for two years, returned to his parents, or so he thought. Turns out, decades later, he has now discovered a stunning mystery.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

In Music City, the race to save babies and families as floodwaters rush in.

One moment, he was apparently spraying graffiti. The next, he dies after being tasered by police. We're on the case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED POLICE CHIEF: Come and take it, (EXPLETIVE DELETED)!

(GUNFIRE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: CNN talks to the police chief who's leading his own militia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED POLICE CHIEF: Some people showed up with firearms, and I encouraged that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And, Sanjay's big confession.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think it's irresponsible of the medical community not to offer this as an alternative.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLADWIN: Why he changed his mind about marijuana.

Great to be with you on this Thursday. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Top of the hour. We begin with this story that has a lot of people, a lot of you absolutely outraged today. You see this young man? This young Florida artist is dead after police shot him with a Taser. Eighteen-year-old Israel Hernandez was spray painting an empty building in Miami Beach. Apparently his friends were there. They were on the lookout. But police spotted him. And you know what he did? He ran. They say he hid. He jumped a fence. Refused to obey their orders. So what did an officer do? Pulled out a Taser gun and Tased him. His friends say, as he lay on the ground, lifeless, that is when officers began to laugh and congratulated one another.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THIAGO SOUZA, FRIEND OF ISRAEL HERNANDEZ: I seen my friend lay down on the floor and they were just high-fiving each other and laughing.

FELIX FERNANDEZ, FRIEND OF ISRAEL HERNANDEZ: It's brutal. That's just brutal. It's a kid about my size and there was about 30 cops on him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I want to bring in Nick Valencia. You've been following this one for us. Also HLN law enforcement analyst Mike Brooks. Got a lot to talk about here.

First to you.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BALDWIN: I know you talked to his girlfriend. CNN's talked to dad, sister. They all say he was a good guy.

VALENCIA: That he was pure and innocent. Here the irony is in all of this that he just moved from Columbia. The family moved the family to the United States to get away from the violence, Brooke, only for something like this to happen with their son. One of our reporters in Florida caught up with the father. Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ISRAEL HERNANDEZ, FATHER OF TASERED TEEN (through translator): I find the strength in my hope for justice. We are in a country that defends human rights. A country that sets an example and dares to ask other countries that use excessive force. That is my son's case. Excessive force.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: Israel Hernandez was 18 years old. He was a popular graffiti artist there locally in Miami Beach. And his sister just spoke about the passion that he had for his artwork.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFFIR HERNANDEZ, SISTER OF TASERED TEEN: He was an amazing artist. A very passionate person. Very passionate artist. And that is unfair to end his life for something he loved. It was very unnecessary. And they went beyond the point. And I don't know what exactly happened. But if he died, they obviously went off the point (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: So as you mentioned, Brooke, a lot of people upset locally and nationally. They don't agree with the way the police handled this in Miami Beach.

BALDWIN: Obviously that's one side of the story.

VALENCIA: Correct.

BALDWIN: I want to ask you about what police are saying in just a second.

Mike Brooks, you're a cop for years and years.

MIKE BROOKS, HLN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Sure.

BALDWIN: You brought in a Taser gun. To be clear, there is no battery in this. There is no cartridge.

BROOKS: No cartridge (INAUDIBLE).

BALDWIN: We're safe.

BROOKS: Right.

BALDWIN: But why do police use Taser guns?

BROOKS: Well, I'll tell you, it's a great alternative to deadly force, because it's less than lethal. Just like pepper spray. Just like a police baton. But under certain circumstances, all of these could be lethal.

Now, we don't know what the autopsy says. We don't know if the Taser was the cause of death for this guy. But keep in mind also, if you're using a building as your canvas and you're a graffiti artist, you're also a vandal. They approached him. Why did he run? They wouldn't have Tasered him if he hadn't of run. And he did run. He eluded police. And when they got him, apparently, he didn't do what they said, so they did use a Taser. Which, I tell you, most departments that deploy Tasers, that gives Tasers -

BALDWIN: Yes.

BROOKS: The use of force complaints on police go down and the injuries to law officers goes way down, too, because you don't have to put hands on somebody and have to fight with them.

BALDWIN: What are police saying about this?

VALENCIA: Well, they're not saying very much. They're saying that they had to Tase (ph) him because they had to arrest him and they had to use that force in order to arrest him. But the police report, it doesn't give a lot of details about what happened. Just that he ran. And like Mike was saying, you know, he was popular locally, but he's not without criticism. He was defacing private property and he took off when police told him not to.

BALDWIN: You know, I guess it just got us talking in our meeting this morning how often - this seems pretty rare to hear of a Taser death.

BROOKS: It is.

BALDWIN: And so we don't know, as you point out, appropriately so, you know, the autopsy hasn't been done or the results haven't been released. You know, his nickname is "Reefa."

VALENCIA: Right. His girlfriend said that he's not -- he didn't smoke pot. He --

BALDWIN: I was about to get there, Nick Valencia. Doesn't do - doesn't do drugs. But, nonetheless, it got us wondering, if you are high, if you are drunk, and if you are on the receiving end of a Taser, does that change given what could be in your system?

BROOKS: Well, you could also - you know, you could die of excited delirium because that has happened a number of times. And we'll wait for the toxicology reports -

BALDWIN: Yes.

BROOKS: To come back before we say, let's take a look again at the Taser use, OK? But a lot of times people also have pre-existing conditions that they die of. You could have a heart murmur that's - but the Taser would not contribute to that.

Think about this.

BALDWIN: Yes.

BROOKS: A defibrillator. When someone dies or, you know, is dying and they use a defibrillator bringing them back, that's 360 jewels of electricity.

BALDWIN: OK.

BROOKS: A Taser is 0.07 jewels. It's 50,000 volts, but extremely, extremely low average.

VALENCIA: In deadly force circumstances in Florida, usually the Florida Department of Law Enforcement gets involved. Third party to investigate this use of deadly force. But in south Florida, police departments like to take the lead on their own investigations. So right now, as it stands, it's just Miami Beach.

BALDWIN: We'll see where it goes.

BROOKS: Absolutely.

BALDWIN: Tragic nonetheless. Guys, thank you both very much.

BROOKS: Sure.

BALDWIN: Now this.

Want to take you to Texas now. The Fort Hood shooter back in court today after a shocking twist in the courtroom just yesterday. We talked about this. Major Nidal Hasan representing himself during this trial over the shooting massacre that happened four years ago.

But yesterday his team of standby lawyers, they've been giving him guidance, they asked the judge if they can cut back their involvement. Why? Because they believe he is trying to get the death penalty for himself and they didn't want any part of helping him fulfill that death wish. Hasan denied that that was his goal. Denied that he is seeking death. But today the court ruled, denying those stand-in lawyers' requests saying Hasan has the right to determine his trial strategy and they should stand by him.

In southern California here, police say they have received more than 100 tips thus far in the hunt for Ethan and Hannah Anderson. Thing is, nothing has panned out yet. These children have been missing ever since their mother's body was found Sunday inside that burning home near San Diego. That home belonged to this man, James DiMaggio. He is a longtime family friend who spent a lot of time with the Andersons, was described as being like an uncle to these little kids. This FaceBook photo shows him and Hannah together. She is the young woman who is missing. A witness says DiMaggio may have even had a crush on this young girl.

An intense nationwide search is on for DiMaggio and his blue Nissan. An Amber Alert was extended through yesterday into Oregon after unconfirmed sightings of the vehicle in northern California and in southern Oregon. DiMaggio is suspected of kidnapping Hannah, possibly her brother as well, although it now seems a bit more likely that Ethan died in the fire along with his mother. And an incredibly anguished father talked to Chris Cuomo this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Let's take a step back if we could. This story is confusing to a lot of people. Explain the relationship between your family, your kids, their mother, and Mr. DiMaggio.

BRETT ANDERSON, FATHER OF MISSING CHILDREN: Mr. DiMaggio came into our lives about six months before Hannah was born. He and I had a very close relationship over the years. And we've done many, many things throughout the years together. And he is basically became like part of our family. He was always around and we always did stuff together as a family. Sometimes he took the kids camping.

CUOMO: We have heard these rumors, as have you, that your 16-year-old daughter, Hannah, had become uncomfortable around him. He'd expressed that he had a crush. We don't know the context. We don't know what really happened. But had you heard anything about that until now?

ANDERSON: I had not heard anything about that. If I had heard something about that, or my wife had heard something about that, it would have been cut off. CUOMO: No question about it?

ANDERSON: No question about it.

CUOMO: And this guy, DiMaggio, was one of the people you thought you could depend on in your absence to make sure that your wife and your kids were OK. Is that true?

ANDERSON: Absolutely. You know, I spoke to him often and, you know, and he would help get my son to football practice.

CUOMO: Do you have any idea where he would think he could go, what he would think he could do in a situation like this?

ANDERSON: I have no idea. He -- he's into camping. He could be anywhere. That's why people that are going out to different camp spots, please keep your eyes open. I don't care where it is. I just have no clue. Like I said, it's surreal to me. I can't imagine this even happening. And just kind of taking it day by day and hoping for the best.

CUOMO: What is the hardest thing for you emotionally in this, dealing with having your wife, your daughter and your son all in some type of not being with you anymore? What's the hardest thing for you emotionally in dealing with this?

ANDERSON: I believe the hardest thing emotionally is still to come when I have to go and start cleaning out their apartments and rooms. But I have a lot of support here with me and we'll try to get through it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Your heart just absolutely goes out to that father.

Paul Vercammen, he's been working this story for us since this whole thing broke.

Back to DiMaggio, Paul. Tell me more about these possible sightings in southern Oregon.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, Brooke. They happened yesterday. And first there was a sighting allegedly in Modoc County in the small city of Alturas. From what we understand, an employee at a motel thought that she saw that Versa, wrote down a license plate and reported that to the county sheriffs. I talked to the Modoc County sheriff. One problem with that report is that she said she might have seen as many as four people in that car. That would be problematic, somewhat illogical.

Now, also across the border in southern Oregon, as you pointed out, another sighting. So that's why they extent the Amber Alert into Oregon and Washington. But thus far, nothing else since those possible sightings. No one who's seen anything and that car not turning up on any surveillance video or that type of thing, Brooke. BALDWIN: And you hear the father in that interview with Chris talking about DiMaggio, you know, a close family friend. Someone they would trust. Does this guy have any, you know, previous run-ins with police?

VERCAMMEN: He does. He has a misdemeanor in Texas. Now, granted, it's a misdemeanor, but it's interesting because it was for fleeing from police. And at one point he was headed down a dirt road going 60 or 70 miles per hour, according to a police report that we obtained. And something that sheriff's deputies here have been warning about or cautioning about, he is an outdoorsman. He is a camper. It stands to reason he was somebody who, if he wanted to evade authorities, would be very good and very skilled at using back road - back roads. Back to that police report, he sure was speeding down a dirt road in Texas 18 years ago, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Paul Vercammen for us in California. Paul, thank you.

Coming up next, dramatic rescues in music city. You have folks trapped in homes, in cars, up on roofs. Even a baby, look at this, rescued by the floodwaters.

Plus, it has been more than a month since those 19 firefighters, those 19 heroes, lost their lives in the Yarnell Hill tragedy. But now the only Hotshot to survive is talking about his lost brothers. Wait until you hear what he has to say, coming up.

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BALDWIN: Rescue crews are working around the clock right now in Nashville to save these people who are trapped in their cars, their homes, because of this fast rushing floodwater here. You have heavy rain, caused widespread flash flooding across the area throughout middle Tennessee today.

And I want you to watch this because you don't see this very often, thank goodness, but look at this. Emergency workers rescuing an itty bitty baby trapped in a home. They carried the baby to safety through almost waist high water there. Some people had to climb up to the roof just because the water was that high.

And the water, we're told, could get even higher later today. Another two to four inches of rain is expected to fall. No deaths have been reported. But we can tell you, one person has been injured.

And folks in Nashville, they are not the only ones getting out as quickly as they can. Fifteen hundred people, this is just outside of Los Angeles, they were forced to leave their homes just a short time ago. And you can see why here. This is a fast moving wildfire burning nearby in the Banning and Riverside County areas. It's called the Silver Fire. It has already scorched 10,000 acres of land and damaged buildings and homes.

Just a short time ago, new mandatory evacuations were issued for several communities. Stephanie Elam is on the ground for us there in Banning.

And, Stephanie, I see the smoke there behind you. Set the scene for me.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's true, Brooke, we've watched this fire which basically started around 2:00 in the afternoon Pacific Time yesterday exploding into 10,000 acres at this point. We know four firefighters have been hurt. One civilian also hurt. We're hearing that that person may have been badly burned. We're working on getting confirmation about that.

But the fire, it started this direction. And as you can probably tell by my hair, the wind is blowing this way. And that is the way that the fire is going. It's been a long fire line that they've been fighting with 1,000 firefighters overnight.

And, Brooke, there's one thing I really want you to hear. There's this woman that we met last night and she evacuated her house. But listen to how close things came for her.

BALDWIN: Keep going, Stephanie. I apologize. We don't have it.

ELAM: We don't have that, but we'll try to get that for you in the next - that's OK. We'll try to get it to you in the next hour. But I want you to hear basically she said that she went - they - she has a bird. They helped her get the bird out. She needed to go back to her bedroom to get her medicine and her purse, because that's where her wallet was. They said there wasn't time. So she spent the night in her car last night because she had no other place to go.

So a lot of people evacuating out, just worrying about their animals, worrying about their homes and not being able to get back up there.

But I do have a sliver of good news, Brooke. They're now saying that this fire is 10 percent contained. So the firefighters making progress. We've seen that they have 13 helicopters out here as well that are dropping water and just trying to get their hands around this fire.

BALDWIN: Wow. Obviously, you know, people's lives, the number one priority, their safety. But as far as, Stephanie, you know, damage to any buildings in the area, do we have any estimate on that?

ELAM: Yes. Right now we know that about 15 buildings have been damaged. Now, what we don't know is how many of those were homes. We do believe that some of those properties were homes. Some could have just been outhouses or sheds or something like that. They're hoping to get up there now that daylight is here and get out there and assess just how badly these properties have been damaged, what has been damaged, because also, besides the fact that they need to do that, there's also a lot of anxious people out here who are wondering how their homes are doing.

BALDWIN: Stephanie Elam, thank you very much. We will see you next hour.

Meantime, real life murders and a silver screen curse. A boy in Brazil murders his family and then kills himself. We'll tell you how a famous movie plays into all of this, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: "The Amityville Horror" case -- you heard of this -- may have inspired a 13-year-old to kill his family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is an amazing house. You are going to love it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy - that's the deal of a lifetime. So, what's the catch?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was a crime. A murder.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the house?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Several people, a family --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That 2005 "Amityville Horror" remake was inspired by claims of paranormal activity in a Long Island home after a 1974 family massacre. So now police in Sao Paulo, Brazil, say a 13-year-old obsessed with "The Amityville Horror" murdered his family this week. Police say the teen grabbed a gun, killed his father, mother, grandmother and great aunt. After the rampage, he went to school, acted calm, typically day, it seemed like. After classes ended, he returned home and killed himself. Senior Latin American affairs editor Rafael Romo is working this one.

It's horrible. All the way around in this fascination, this obsession with "Amityville Horror." Where did that come from for him?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Well, that's exactly right. Well, it seems like the teenager was obsessed, not so much with the movie, but with the real life murders that inspired this movie. And something else, Brooke, he apparently told a friend years ago that he wanted to become a hitman, kill his parents and move away.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROMO (voice-over): A young boy giving the thumbs up, proudly posing with his father, a police officer in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It seemed like a picture perfect family. But Brazilian police say it appears the 13- year-old boy shot dead both his father and mother. She was also a police officer. Police say the boy also apparently killed his grandmother and great aunt. Went to school the following morning and returned home where he shot himself in the head.

All five bodies were discovered Monday afternoon when a cousin of the boy's mother went looking for them at the home. Authorities say they all had gunshot wounds to the head. Police say this surveillance video shows the boy parking just outside his school at 1:20 on Monday. That would have been after the shootings. Five hours later, he casually walks in front of the camera, apparently on his way to classes. A friend of the boy said the 13-year-old had made disturbing comments in the past. "He always told me that he wanted to run away from home because he dreamt of being a hitman," the friend said. "He wanted to kill his parents, drive away in their car and go live somewhere else."

Gun powder tests on the hands of the boy were negative, according to this police investigator. But a commander says a finding of the family's car may explain why.

"He had a pair of gloves inside the vehicle," this commander says. "We now need to verify whether he used them in the murders."

The funeral for the entire family was held two days after the shooting, but questions have not yet been put to rest. The entire country is still asking why.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMO: And the story gets even more complicated. Brazilian media is reporting that apparently the parents were whistle blowers and they're talking now, Brooke, about a possible conspiracy theory because they told superiors about some fellow police officers who were stealing money from ATMs. But, again, police is not saying that that's what happened. At this point, they're investigating. And they're going with the theory that it was the teenager who killed his parents. Also one of the guns used was his father's service gun.

BALDWIN: I was wondering where he might have gotten it. Incredibly gruesome all the way around. Rafael, thank you very much.

And now, coming up, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, have you heard, changing his mind about marijuana. Sanjay explains the decision that's got the medical community buzzing today.

And later, look at this. That is Leonardo DiCaprio on top of these awesome boots. What is he doing? We're going to go there with Chad Myers, coming up.

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