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MN Police Shoot and Kill Man Not Named in "No-Knock" Warrant; Travis & Gregory McMichael Face Federal Hate Crimes Trial for Killing Ahmaud Arbery After Plea Deal Withdrawn; Admiral Brett Giroir, Former HHS Assistant Secretary for Health, Discusses CDC's National Wastewater Surveillance System for Detecting COVID & Vaccines and Operation Warp Speed. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired February 04, 2022 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:34:16]
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: New details and new questions emerging about a no-knock police raid in Minneapolis that killed a young black man, Amir Locke.
In body camera footage, which some people might find disturbing, officers used a key to unlock an apartment door and then yelled, "Police, search warrant," as they burst inside.
Here's a look at this footage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Police, search warrant!
(SHOUTING)
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Police, search warrant!
(SHOUTING)
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Hands!
(SHOUTING)
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Get on the ground!
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Get on the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) ground!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Seconds after entering this apartment, officers encounter a man who appears asleep on a couch holding a gun. He was shot and later died.
[13:35:03]
CNN correspondent, Omar Jimenez, is covering this story for us.
Omar, Amir Locke, the young man shot by police, was not named on the warrant. What more can you tell us about this?
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Ana. He was not named in the warrant. And his family attorneys say that he was not the target of this homicide investigation.
We're also hearing from the parents of Amir Locke for the first time.
To take you back to why this was happening, the Minneapolis Police Department says they were executing a warrant for a homicide investigation tied to nearby St. Paul, Minnesota.
As I mentioned, Locke's name was not mentioned on any part of the search warrant, according to the Minneapolis Police Department.
But regardless, these officers pushed into this apartment, executing this warrant. Locke appeared to be woken up as he is seen wrapped in blankets.
Then as he tries to get up, a gun is seen. That's when those shots were fired.
Police say that gun was pointed at the shooting officer. But based on the videos and image they provided, we haven't been able to independently confirm that.
Bottom line, the parents had to watch that same video and had to see their own son get shot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAREN WELLS, MOTHER OF AMIR LOCKE: As his mother, I will make sure that as long as I'm on this side of this world --
ANDRE LOCKE, FATHER OF AMIR LOCKE: Yes.
WELLS: -- I am going to fight --
LOCKE: Yes.
WELLS: -- every day throughout the day, 365 days, to make sure that Amir Ricari Locke gets justice --
LOCKE: Yes, yes.
WELLS: -- for being executed by the MPD.
LOCKE: Yes.
WELLS: My son didn't deserve it.
LOCKE: Yes.
WELLS: The rest of the black males in this city and across this nation didn't deserve it.
LOCKE: He did what any reasonable law-abiding citizen would do, white or black.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ: Now the attorneys, along with the parents, said Locke was a lawful gun owner.
We also heard from the attorneys that, to the best of their knowledge, the police were acting on a warrant for a seizure of property, not necessarily a person.
But we haven't seen the exact warrant ourselves -- Ana?
CABRERA: Omar Jimenez, thank you for your reporting.
Now let me take you to Georgia. The father and son convicted on state charges of killing black jogger, Ahmaud Arbery, will stand trial on federal hate crime charges.
At a hearing just a short time ago, Travis McMichael indicated he has changed his mind and he will not plead guilty to the federal charges after a judge rejected the deal with federal prosecutors.
His father, Gregory McMichael, also withdrew his plea agreement.
CNN national correspondent, Ryan Young, is outside the federal courthouse in Brunswick, Georgia, with details.
Ryan, walk us through today's proceedings and what happens next.
RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ana, something that stands out, if you listen to the pain in the story that Omar just did, you think about the pain the family here had almost 700 days ago.
I remember Wanda Cooper Jones basically saying she would not stop until the killers of her son were brought to justice.
In the state case here, that happened. The jury found the three men guilty. Now there's this federal court case.
I'm not sure how we move forward on Monday because there's jury selection. But everyone in this community knows there was a plea deal that the judge basically rejected.
That plea deal was pulled back. But at one point, these men were going to plead guilty in federal court. Now, today, they pulled those pleas back.
And outside of court today, Ahmaud Arbery's father spoke about wanting justice for his son.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCUS ARBERY, FATHER OF AHMAUD ARBERY: I just got one word to say. All we want is 100 percent justice to the Arbery family. That's all we're looking for. God be the glory.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YOUNG: So you think about this, Ana. This court case will start on Monday with jury selection.
Remember, the last time, jury selection was tough here.
I talked to the community members before court today. They were telling me they were so happy with the way court moved forward the first time and how this community came together to see justice served.
This will happen again as community leaders are going out to the community to make sure they understand how this entire process works once again.
Also because it's federal court, there's no video from this case. And that's why people are wanting to know if there's going to be any sort of transparency as this case moves forward -- Ana?
CABRERA: Ryan Young, in Brunswick, Georgia, thank you.
[13:39:28]
There's a new weapon in the fight against the pandemic. And you may be flushing it down the toilet. We'll explain, next.
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CABRERA: I must warn you before we dive into this next story, it's kind of gross.
But the experts say it's also a very real and useful new tool in tracking the spread of coronavirus and its variants across the United States.
Here's the news. For the first time ever, the CDC is publishing data from testing what goes down your toilet. Health officials can monitor levels of COVID-19 in wastewater across 19 states.
And they say it's actually super effective, able to detect the virus when just one person out of 100,000 is infected in a certain area.
And you can access it on the CDC's COVID tracker.
For more on this, we're joined by Admiral Brett Giroir, former assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services. He also led the Trump administration's COVID testing efforts.
[13:45:08]
And, Admiral, the CDC started to develop this Wastewater Surveillance System at the end of the Trump administration. So explain how this works and the significance of these results from testing wastewater?
ADM. BRETT GIROIR, FORMER HHS ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH: Well, thank you for having me on.
This is really an important moment.
As early as May or June of 2020, we had very early suggestive evidence that not only could you detect COVID in wastewater, in sewage, but it predicted and preceded by four to six days a rise of cases in emergency rooms and hospitals in the community.
So as you said, we did start in the Trump administration. I convened the first federal working group in July.
I started the National Surveillance System at CDC in September and funded it for $50 million in November of that year. So it's great to see this up and running.
And just think how important this is, Ana, because as, hopefully, COVID goes down and we get to a lower endemic level, we can now monitor and predict what parts of the country, what parts of communities may have rises in cases.
So that's where we can surge things like mask wearing and testing and all the other mitigation efforts, as well as oral antiviral medications.
This is an important moment And I'm really pleased the CDC did this.
CABRERA: This, obviously, doesn't require people to report positive tests. So could the data be more accurate, do you think?
GIROIR: Well, it's going to be a better, broader view, right, because we can look at square miles of communities or whole communities and you don't have to do tests to report them. It's really free. It's right there in the sewage.
We can't track that to an individual person, so you don't have to worry about that. But it will give us an idea what's going into the community which is incredibly powerful.
In the other applications we talked about is, for example, large areas where there are nursing homes or assisted living facilities or even college campuses where we're very concerned about the rise and fall of the disease. You can do that simply by a sewage sample.
And in the future, we really got interested because not only could you do that, but you could track things like Hepatitis C outbreaks. You could detect antimicrobial resistance, those Frankenstein bugs.
And you can even look if there's a spike in opioid use or methamphetamine or dangerous drugs in the community and surge public health.
So it's a very exciting moment. And it's going to be the future. It's going to be an important tool in the future for public health.
CABRERA: It does sound promising.
Let's talk about our current testing methods, what they show.
Because cases are dropping significantly, thank goodness. But COVID deaths are still high. Averaging more than 2,400 new COVID deaths every day here in the U.S.
And the latest CDC data shows un-vaccinated people are 97 times more likely to die of COVID than people who are vaccinated and boosted. Yet, there's a lag in people getting boosted.
So if you look at those eligible -- again, these are people who initially got vaccinated -- only half have gotten that booster shot.
Admiral, how concerning is that?
GIROIR: Well, we certainly urge everyone to get vaccinated and boosted if you're in an eligible category. It is your best protection against getting hospitalized or dying.
What we're seeing right now is what we saw all during, and that is what we call death is, quote, "a lagging indicator." Although the cases are going down, you'll see hospitalizations lag and deaths lag by several weeks.
So unfortunately, that death toll is going to be up there for another short period of time and then should drop.
But I've always urged and still urge vaccination is your best protection. Please get your two shots. Please get boosted if you're eligible.
Although Omicron is less serious overall, there are a lot of people still dying as your data just showed.
CABRERA: Again, more than 2,400 people every day here in the U.S. are dying with COVID.
I want to put the graphic back up because I want to reiterate the un- vaccinated are 97 times more likely to die from COVID than people who are vaccinated and boosted.
Yet, even given those facts, there are tens of millions of people, Admiral, who are refusing to get the first shot.
There have been a lot of analysis done that find states or counties that voted for Trump have higher un-vaccination rates and higher COVID death rates than those that voted for Biden.
And a quarter of Republicans just this month, in a Kaiser Family Foundation survey, 26 percent continue to say that they will definitely not get vaccinated. That has held steady since December 2020.
This goes back to the tone and misinformation that took root during the last administration, which you were a part of.
Bottom line, too many people don't believe or they don't care about the facts.
GIROIR: So there was -- there was no -- there was no misinformation about vaccination --
(CROSSTALK)
CABRERA: But let me ask the question.
GIROIR: In fact, your -- your --
(CROSSTALK)
GIROIR: -- network failed to carry --
CABRERA: -- science around COVID.
[13:50:02]
Excuse me. Let me ask the question because I wasn't trying to point fingers here.
My question is, how do you break through to the people who are dug in and say they won't get vaccinated, in part, because of all of the misinformation that they have been fed? Is it too late to reach them?
GIROIR: It is never too late. And we need to keep trying.
But I do want to say -- and you did point few fingers.
The Trump administration was pro-vaccine. We developed the vaccine. We developed Operation Warp Speed. And we sent them out.
We had day-long seminars about the vaccine that was not carried by CNN, by the way.
We'll all been vaccinated and promoted it.
But I do --
(CROSSTALK)
CABRERA: We carry all of the public COVID briefings. And I have to make sure that we clear the record there.
(CROSSTALK)
CABRERA: And the other fact about the matter is --
(CROSSTALK)
GIROIR: Did you cover Operation Warp Speed, the Operation Warp Speed four-hour --
CABRERA: -- at the time.
GIROIR: -- seminar from the White House? CABRERA: But the president at the time was really speaking gibberish
about the science and was really casting doubt on the science.
Remember, the talk about Hydroxychloroquine, about bleach, and other things, casting Dr. Fauci in a negative light at times.
So there was this anti-science mentality that --
(CROSSTALK)
GIROIR: It was never anti-science. I was never censored. I always spoke the truth in science.
We followed the science as well as the Biden administration did. More people have died under the Biden administration than under Trump.
This is not --
(CROSSTALK)
CABRERA: Does the president always follow the science?
GIROIR: The more that we politicize this and the more we have this kind of political decision, the less those people who are concerned about getting vaccinated are going to get vaccinated.
That's the issue. It's not political issue.
CABRERA: But the numbers don't lie. The numbers don't lie though.
Why is it just the red states have the lowest vaccination rate --
GIROIR: It's not the --
(CROSSTALK)
CABRERA: -- and higher COVID death rates? It is a fact.
(CROSSTALK)
CABRERA: Those are the numbers. That is the statistics.
GIROIR: I understand that. There are a whole lot of demographics involved there.
And I think the reason is because the Biden administration has failed to reach out to the Republicans. They've politicized vaccination, which we warned against from day one.
We all have to join hands, get rid of your political affiliations, and try to get people vaccinated to save this 2,500 --
(CROSSTALK)
CABRERA: How have they -- how are we politicized the vaccinations? Let me -- let me ask you this question, and ask it in a different way, to take it away from the higher level in terms of what is happening in this administration versus the last administration.
You still have Republican governors like Ron DeSantis who won't even say if they've gotten the booster.
Or you have his state selected surgeon general, who is a doctor, who danced around questions about the vaccine's effectiveness, would not answer directly about the vaccine's effectiveness.
What is your message to them?
GIROIR: I didn't see those press conferences.
I want to reiterate that the vaccines are highly effective. The vaccines we have now are overwhelmingly safe. They're overwhelmingly effective. That's why we developed them under Operation Warp Speed.
And I urge everyone who is eligible, certainly all eligible adults and teenagers -- we're still talking about the lower age groups and we know as for a different time -- but should get vaccinated and should get boosted.
It is your best protection against hospitalizations and death.
This is not a political issue. I think we should be square with the American people.
Two vaccines don't prevent you from getting Omicron. They're not perfect. But they do prevent you with a high degree of certainly from hospitalizations and death.
That is the message we need to keep pushing in a nonpolitical way.
CABRERA: Well, I appreciate your message.
And you're right, it shouldn't be a political issue. But there are still members of the Republican Party who are making it look like vaccines are not your friend, are not that savior that they have been for so many people in this pandemic.
Admiral Brett Giroir, thank you as always for your time. I really respect you and I appreciate the conversation.
GIROIR: Thank you, Ana.
[13:53:58]
CABRERA: Right now, a dangerous winter storm is affecting nearly half of the U.S., with hundreds of thousands already without power. Millions under winter weather advisories. We'll bring you the latest, next.
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[13:58:34]
CABRERA: A massive winter storm has now arrived in the northeast, with heavy know, ice, freezing rain, and sleet.
As of this morning, more than 85 million Americans, from Texas to New England, were under winter weather advisories or warnings.
This sprawling system has wreaked havoc all along its path. Look at the back-up on Interstate 10. This is in Texas. Officials say it will take hours to clear.
And in the Midwest, more than a foot of snow fell across several states with parts of Chicago metro area seeing nearly 11 inches.
Travel is not only being disrupted on the roads. Over the past two days, airlines have canceled more than 8,000 flights.
At least 300,000 customers are still without power in six states.
Now in Minnesota, where winters are long and the snow is deep, a beloved workhorse snowplow is embraced and given a name.
So here are the results of the state's annual Name a Snowplow Contest.
The top spot, a tribute to the late actress, "Betty Whiteout." And the distant runner-up, with barely half of the votes, "Control-Salt- Delete."
Rounding off the top five, "The Big Leplowski," "Scoop Dogg" and "No More Mr. Ice Guy."
And I just wanted to mention, I am wearing red today for National Wear Red Day in honor of the Go Red for Women movement.
[13:59:57]
And it is meant to draw attention to women's heart health because heart disease is the number-one killer of women, claiming a woman's life every 80 seconds, according to the American Heart Association.
So to all of the moms and daughters and sisters out there, please take good care of yourself.
