Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
At Least Eight Killed in Indianapolis FedEx Mass Shooting; Bodycam Video Released of Police Fatally Shooting 13-Year-Old; Chauvin Invokes 5th Amendment Right, Chooses Not to Testify; CDC Advisers to Meet on April 23 to Discuss Johnson & Johnson Vaccine; More than 100,000 Dead from Virus in France; Germany's COVID-19 Death Toll Nears 80,000. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired April 16, 2021 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kim Brunhuber and we have breaking news this hour. At least eight people are dead in another mass shooting here in the U.S. This one at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis, Indiana. A number of people were wounded, and they are being treated in area hospitals. People say the shooter is dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and there's no active threat to the community. Now, police spoke with reporters on the scene in just the past hour and here is their account of what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OFFICER GENAE COOK, INDIANAPOLIS METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT: Just after 11:00 on Thursday evening the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department responded to 8951 Mirabel Road, the FedEx ground Plain Field operation center. We received a call referenced shots fired to that location. As officers responded they arrived to an active shooter incident at that location.
Preliminary information at this time is that the alleged shooter was taken his own life here at the scene. After a preliminary search of the grounds, inside and out, we have located eight people at the scene with injuries consistent to gunshot wounds. Those eight were pronounced deceased here at the scene. We have been made aware of multiple other people with injuries who have been transported to local hospitals or who have transported themselves to located at hospitals. IMPD detectives are working with the Indiana state police, detectives gathering information and interviewing not just those people who are here at the scene, but also those who have been -- have gone to area hospitals seeking medical treatment.
A family unification center has been established at the Holiday Inn Express, 8555 Stansted Drive. Our victims assistance units and chaplain's office are here at the scene and at the family unification center assisting with family members who have shown up to this area. Right now I want to make everybody know that people here at the scene are still being interviewed by detectives so they might not have an opportunity to contact their family, but as soon as they are available to they will.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Witnesses inside the building tell local media they heard multiple gunshots which they thought were coming from a car, then they saw a man holding a gun and a body on the ground. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIMOTHY BOILLAT, FEDEX EMPLOYEE: What happened was me and my friend like just got our lunch, we had sat down in the back of like this metal smoke shack kind of deal, we literally I opened my chips, got my sandwich, got to take a bite, he was going to take a bite out of his sandwich, and we heard two loud metal clangs at first, they didn't sound like gunshots at first.
Because there was -- again, there was a loud clang after the first two and then my buddy Levi stood up as he was like kind of squatting at the bench. And then looked over and out into the parking lot. Didn't see anything yet, then we heard three more shots and then my buddy Levi saw someone running out of the building and then more shots went off. Somebody went behind their car to the trunk and got another -- and got another gun and then I saw one body on the floor and that was the body behind the trunk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you doing?
BOILLAT: I'm a little -- I'm a little overwhelmed. I've worked here for ten years and I have never seen that happen in my life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: FedEx tweeted a statement last hour. The company says, we are aware of the tragic shooting at our FedEx ground facility near the Indianapolis airport. Safety is our top priority, and our thoughts are with all of those who are affected. We are working to gather more information and are cooperating with investigating authorities.
And U.S. Congressman Andre Carson represents Indiana's 77th district. A short time ago he tweeted, I'm heartbroken by the mass shooting at the FedEx facility here in Indianapolis and praying for all affected by this tragedy. I am communicating with local authorities to get all details of the attack and my office stands ready to help everyone affected any way they can.
Do be sure to stay with us here on CNN, we will bring you the latest on this breaking news throughout the coming hours.
Now, we are also following three fatal police incidents in the U.S. that have left communities demanding justice. In Chicago graphic body camera footage has been released, the police killing of 13-year-old Adam Toledo last month. In Minnesota hundreds gathered for a fifth straight night after Daunte Wright was shot and killed during a traffic stop. And just ten miles away at the murder trial for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is moving to closing arguments. So more now from Chicago and the new video showing the moments before
and after a 13-year-old was shot and killed by police just over two weeks ago. CNN's Randi Kaye is following the investigation and a warning, the video is disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's hard to watch the final moments of a 13-year-old boy's life.
The Chicago police officer's bodycam appears to show the teenage boy with what police say is a gun in his right hand turning toward the officer. In less than a second, he is fatally shot, a single bullet to the chest from the officer's gun. It happened on March 29th.
Chicago Police say officers were responding to a shots-fired-call on the city's West Side when they say they came upon 13-year-old Adam Toledo and a 21-year-old man walking down an alley.
The officer's bodycam footage shows Toledo fleeing and the officer pursuing the teenager on foot yelling at him to stop.
OFFICER: Please stop. Stop right (BLEEP) now. Hey, show me your f***ing hands. Stop.
KAYE (voice-over): What happened next is still under investigation. But police say the bodycam video shows Toledo with a gun in his right hand as the officer once again yells for him to stop. As the boy turns around, the officer opens fire.
MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT (D-IL), CHICAGO: I've seen no evidence whatsoever that Adam Toledo shot at the police.
KAYE (voice-over): Police later tweeted out this picture of a gun they say was recovered from the scene and prosecutors say, Toledo's right hand tested positive for gunshot residue. But the family's attorney insisting the boy was not holding a gun when he was shot.
ADEENA WEISS ORTIZ, TOLEDO FAMILY ATTORNEY: Adam, during his last second of life did not have a gun in his hand. The officer screamed at him, "Show me your hands," Adam complied, turned around. His hands were empty when he was shot in the chest at the hands of the officer.
KAYE (voice-over): She later suggested Adam Toledo may have had a gun at some point but tossed it. On the video, the unnamed officer who shot the boy immediately calls for an ambulance and tries to render aid.
Police say, 21-year-old, Ruben Roman was with the teenager and is in custody. The charges against him include felony reckless discharge of a firearm and felony endangerment of a child.
Adam Toledo's family first saw the bodycam video of the shooting on Tuesday, the boy's mother sobbing as she questioned why anyone would kill her baby.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot also saw the video before it was released.
LIGHTFOOT: It was excruciating -- watching the bodycam footage, which shows young Adam after he is shot is extremely difficult.
KAYE (voice-over): The boy's family initially asked that the video not be made public right away. But later, attorneys for the family and the Chicago Mayor's Office agreed to release the video along with a slowed down version of it.
[04:10:02]
LIGHTFOOT: He is running through an alley. The raw video footage is extraordinarily jumpy. It's really hard to see anything, providing kind of a slowed down frame by frame opportunity to see what happened is going to be helpful to members of the public.
KAYE (voice-over): Adam Toledo's mother describes her son as happy, saying he loved animals, building Legos and playing with Hot Wheels. Now, so many questions about how he ended up dead in a Chicago alley at the hands of police.
Randi Kaye, CNN, Palm Beach County, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Hundreds of protesters in Minnesota Thursday defied a nighttime curfew to gather outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department. They've been demonstrating every night since the police shooting of Daunte Wright last Sunday. The former officer charged in Wright's death made a brief court appearance Thursday via Zoom. Kim Potter has been released on bail and faces second degree manslaughter charges. Meanwhile, Wright's mother spoke out and said her family will never see justice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATIE WRIGHT, DAUNTE WRIGHT'S MOTHER: Everybody keeps saying justice but unfortunately there's never be justice for us. Justice isn't even a word to me. I do want accountability, 100 percent accountability like my sister said, the highest accountability, but even then when that happens, if that even happens, we're still going to bury our son.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, in nearby Minneapolis the murder trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin is heading into closing arguments and law enforcement agencies across the country are preparing for a verdict. CNN's Sara Sidner has the latest from the courtroom.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEREK CHAUVIN, FORMER MINNEAPOLIS POLICE OFFICER: I will invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege today.
SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the first time since the start of the trial, former Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin spoke in court.
JUDGE PETER A. CAHILL, HENNEPIN COUNTY DISTRICT: Do you feel that your decision not to testify is a voluntary one on your behalf.
CHAUVIN: Yes, it is.
SIDNER (voice-over): He chose not to take the stand as a witness in his own defense, leading the defense to rest its case.
ERIC NELSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Your Honor, at this time the defense rests.
SIDNER (voice-over): The prosecution then brought back its star medical witness to refute the idea brought up by yesterday's defense expert.
DR. DAVID FOWLER, FORMER MARYLAND CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER: It is an extremely toxic gas.
SIDNER (voice-over): That exhaust from the squad car's tailpipe possibly led to carbon monoxide poisoning of George Floyd.
JERRY BLACKWELL, PROSECUTOR: Do you agree with that proposition that's highlighted there?
DR. MARTIN TOBIN, PULMONOLOGIST: No, I do not. It's simply wrong.
SIDNER (voice-over): The prosecution also attempted to introduce new lab result evidence about carbon monoxide poisoning.
BLACKWELL: It was discovered yesterday by Dr. Baker. It would return a value for the carbon monoxide content and it will show whether or not that result is in the normal range or not.
SIDNER (voice-over): The defense argued such a late evidence entry by the prosecution should lead to a mistrial.
NELSON: It's our position that these new test results should not go in front of the jury first and foremost. And second, if they were, I would be moving for a mistrial.
SIDNER (voice-over): The judge agreed.
CAHILL: The late disclosure has prejudice to the defense. It's not going to be allowed.
SIDNER (voice-over): A short time later, all witness testimony came to an end.
BLACKWELL: The State of Minnesota rests.
SIDNER (voice-over): Now, after the prosecution called 38 witnesses to make their case that Chauvin's knee on Floyd's neck when he was handcuffed in a prone position caused his death and was an unjustified use of force. DR. LINDSEY THOMAS, PROSECUTION WITNESS, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: There
is no evidence to suggest he would have died that night except for the interactions with law enforcement.
SIDNER: And after the defense argued the use of force was by the book with their expert witness testifying that the cause of death was inconclusive.
FOWLER: I would fall back to undetermined.
SIDNER: The judge expects closing arguments to begin on Monday and the jury could have the case the same day and begin deliberating.
Now we're standing outside of another memorial, the memorial of Daunte Wright because one of Floyd's brothers, Terrence Floyd, he's been watching the trial all along and he said he felt he had to come out to this memorial to pay his respects.
Sara Sidner, CNN, Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: We're still waiting for a decision on the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine after reports of rare and severe blood clots. The CDC says it needs more time, but that could come at a high price. We'll explain.
[04:15:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRUNHUBER: All right, here's the latest on the breaking news out of Indianapolis, Indiana. Police say at least eight people are dead in a mass shooting at a FedEx facility. A number of others have been taken to hospitals. A police spokesperson says the gunman is dead apparently taking his own life and there is no active threat to the community. FedEx says it's aware of the tragic shooting and their thoughts are with all those affected. Again, at least eight people plus the gunman dead in a mass shooting in a FedEx facility in Indianapolis.
Pfizer's CEO says people may eventually need to get a third vaccine dose to be better protected against the coronavirus and that shot may need to happen as soon as six months after the first round.
Now, when it comes to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the CDC still has to decide whether it will change distribution recommendations, but that could come as soon as next week as CNN's Alexandra Field reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The future of the Johnson & Johnson single-dose COVID vaccine still in limbo.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: Hopefully, we will get a decision quite soon as to whether or not we can get back on track with this very effective vaccine. FIELD (voice-over): Following reports of at least six cases of rare
and severe blood clots among women who had been given the shot including one death and a similar case involving one man in the vaccine's clinical trial, a CDC committee chose not to vote on next steps, citing a need for more information, fueling mounting frustration among some in the medical community.
DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Every single day there are tens of thousands of people who will get infected by COVID, hundreds of people are going to die.
[04:20:00]
And so I think they could have done something.
FIELD (voice-over): Also frustrated, some Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, one of them took on Dr. Fauci today about the pandemic's future.
REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): What measure, what standard, what objective outcome do we have to reach before -- before Americans get their liberty and freedoms back?
FAUCI: You know, you're indicating liberty and freedom. I look at it as a public health measure to prevent people from dying and going to the hospital.
JORDON: You don't think Americans' liberties have been threatened in the last year, Dr. Fauci? They've been assaulted, their liberties have.
FAUCI: I don't look at this as a liberty thing, Congressman Jordan.
JORDON: Well, that's obvious.
FIELD (voice-over): Today the CDC unveiling new evidence showing the number of fully vaccinated people who still contracted the virus also known as breakthrough illnesses. With more than 78 million Americans fully vaccinated the CDC is now reporting 5,800 cases of breakthrough infections, among those 396 hospitalizations and 74 deaths. Experts call this very rare and stress the need to keep vaccinating.
FAUCI: If we can get more and more people vaccinated we almost certainly are going to be able to blunt an increase that's a sharp surge in the virus.
FIELD (VOICE-OVER): New COVID cases are climbing in more than half of states, the nation averaging more than 70,000 new cases daily. And a crisis in Michigan growing more worrisome, the state's largest health care provider reporting its hospitals are already 90 percent to 95 percent full.
SUSAN GRANT, CHIEF NURSING OFFICER FOR BEAUMONT HEALTH: This time last year none of us would have imagined going through that extraordinarily difficult time that we would be here again, same time this year. FIELD: Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla is now saying there will very likely
be a need for a third dose of the vaccine within six to 12 months. He says protection does remain extremely high after six months but that it does go down over time and that the possibility of an annual revaccination remains a likely scenario.
In New York, Alexandra Field, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: COVID-19 has killed more than 1 million people in Europe now. The World Health Organization says the milestone was passed last week. It warns the situation on the continent is still serious with 160 new infections reported every minute. France alone accounts for more than 100,000 of those deaths. The W.H.O. says ICU admissions in April there reached the highest levels since last year.
Well we have Melissa Bell with us from Paris and Fred Pleitgen is standing by in Berlin where lawmakers are debating new federal laws that would enforce restrictions under certain scenarios. Melissa let's start with you. Infections are soaring to record levels in some countries, you are in one of the hot spots. What's the latest?
MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: Well, still under a partial lockdown here, Kim, and the peak of that third wave still not reached. That's what the French government authorities say. That the number of people in ICUs you say we simply hadn't seen it in a year, more than 5,900 people and that is likely to continue rising over the coming days simply because you have that gap between when partial lockdowns were put in and the effect is seen on ICU entries.
Still we're seeing daily infection rates of around 30,000 to 40,000 a day on average, that is pretty high historically. And the authorities say that it will take some time to translate into ICUs being under less strain.
Still, some light at the end of the tunnel according to French authorities and that is down to that vaccination campaign, 12 million French people have now been partially vaccinated with a vaccine campaign that has picked up pace these last few days and weeks. It has seemed to improve. The French government now says that it will be able to look at a very slow and progressive reopening of the economy starting with things like terraces and museums from mid-May should the situation allow.
And on that vaccine front, we've been hearing this morning as well, Kim, from the man who is the head of the EU vaccine task force who's been saying that the European Union is now the largest producer of vaccines in the world and that better production facilities that they've seen in Europe with more and more production sites now producing these vaccines -- at least the four that have been approved for use by the European Medicines Agency. That he said has allowed Pfizer to increase the number of doses by 50 million in the second quarter that will be delivered to the EU.
What he also said, Kim -- and this is important -- is that by mid-July the European Union countries will have enough to give two doses to 70 percent of their population, the rest he says is now down to them in terms of delivering that.
BRUNHUBER: All right, hopefully, that ramped up production will turn the tide there.
And Fred, in Germany I understand the situation there has authorities and politicians weighing the merits of a curfew.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they certainly are, Kim. And we can certainly say in Germany that the situation is really is growing worse by the day.
[04:25:00]
We haven't reached those record numbers that Melissa was just talking about there in France, but so far just look at the numbers this morning. They are definitely considerably higher than they would have been on the same day of last week and they have been continuously rising. Germany also very much in that third wave and right now really no way to stop that third wave at this point in time.
The big problem that they also have here in Germany, Kim, is that the new measures that be being debated right now that is taking a very, very long time. It was quite interesting. I was watching Angela Merkel who spoke in front of the German Parliament about an hour ago and she was saying time is of the essence. The virus doesn't slow down, you have to be faster than the virus. Well politicians in this country have been debating these new measures for a little over a week now and so far nothing has yet happened, and they have not yet been put in place.
Again, German Parliament speaking about it today, there will have to be several sessions of German Parliament to try to make it happen. But then you're absolutely right, one of the things that they are talking about is a nighttime curfew in places that have a lot of coronavirus infections. Certain level, 100 per 100,000 three days a week. The curfew would be from 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. But that's only one of the measures.
There's also restrictions on the amount of contact people then are allowed to have. There's certain restrictions also from certain levels for schools that would have to stop operating if there's high incidences of new coronavirus infections.
So it's a flurry of measures, measures that the Germans have a word for, the Bundes notfall bremse, which means "federal emergency break" in German and that's exactly what this is. This is something where the Germans are saying the measures that have been in place so far simply aren't working and this is something that they feel needs to happen now.
By the way -- and this is the last thing -- politicians are debating this right now, but polls have shown consistently that the majority of Germans are for a harder lockdown because all of them or a lot of them certainly are seeing that right now the vaccinations not enough of them yet to stop this third wave that's still going across this country -- Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, all right, thanks so much for the update there, Fred Pleitgen in Berlin.
All right, just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, an update on the breaking news from Indianapolis where at least eight people are dead in another mass shooting.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
