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Grieving Families Begin Planning Funerals For 21 Uvalde Shooting Victims; Sandy Hook Survivor Says, Ten Years Later I Still Don't Feel Safe; Happening Now, FDA Commissioner Faces Senate Committee Over Baby Formula Shortage. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired May 26, 2022 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:01]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And they say it's literally like what you see in warzones.

Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, we do appreciate you taking the time this morning.

REP. VERONIC ESCOBAR (D-TX): Thank you, Jim.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Still to come, how the Uvalde community is coming together to support one another and to honor the victims as families are still searching for answers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIAN MORENO, GREAT-GRANDFATHER OF SHOOTING VICTIM LEX RUBIO: We just don't understand all that took place. I live close by and I heard all the shooting, and ran towards the school, and soon realized that it was not just shooting between the perpetrator and the police, I heard one of the officers say that the man had walked into the school. And when he pointed to the building, I knew that my granddaughter was in that building.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[10:35:00]

HILL: The families of the 19 students and 2 teachers killed in Uvalde, Texas, are now beginning the incredibly difficult task of planning funerals for their loved ones.

SCIUTTO: For their children. It is just impossible to imagine. Hundreds of mourners gathered last night for a community prayer vigil to begin to remember those killed at Robb Elementary School.

CNN's Rosa Flores is in Uvalde, Texas. And, Rosa, I brace myself as I'm sure folks watching you for these moments where another child victim is identified, but we do have another name. ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We do. And like you said, it is very difficult for all of this community. I have talked to so many people here, Jim and Erica, and they say that there is just such a mixture of emotions because they are grieving, they are in pain, they are asking why, why them, why this community, why these children. And then there is also anger. They are angry because this happened here in their little, tiny town.

I am in the town square, and I can tell you that I talked to people here who have said that they have to just get out of their house. This was one woman was holding a Uvalde Strong sign and said she could not be in her house anymore. She could not watch the news anymore. She had to be out here in the community with some of the other members of the community who are grieving, just like her.

We've seen prayer circles here in this park as well, and as you mentioned, a very emotional vigil last night. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIZA CAZARES, RESIDENT OF UVALDE, TEXAS: My heart aches trying to find all these kids that were missing. And then, finally, at the end of the day, they were not able to come home to their parents, you know? And that is sad. And like I said, I couldn't imagine my life without my daughter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: That was Liza Cazares. She knows multiple individuals who died in this tragedy. And she was telling me that it is so difficult for her to hug her children, to know that they are fine, yet the children of other individuals in this community are not, that those families are now planning funerals.

CNN has just obtained the photo of another one of the victims. Take a look. This is nine year old Eliana, known as Ellie, Garcia. And her grandparents told the L.A. Times that she loved the movie, Encanto. She loved cheerleading, basketball, and that she dreamed with becoming a teacher. So, imagine, for this little girl who was in that classroom, in those intense moments when this terrible tragedy happened, she was there with her hero, her teacher. And it is just really difficult for this community to grapple with that.

Now, if you look very closely at the photograph we are showing on your screen, on the upper right-hand corner, it says Happy Mother's Day. And we are all very familiar with the drawings that children make at school and then bring home to their mothers. So, imagine this mother who now has the drawings from Little Ellie and now planning her funeral. Erica, Jim?

HILL: It is in unimaginable pain and circumstance. And that beautiful little face, and you mentioned how Ellie wanted to be a teacher. And we have heard so much about how likely her, as you point out, Rosa, her heroes, her teachers did everything to protect their students, their children in those moments. Rosa, thank you. Still to come here, for the survivors of Tuesday's school shooting, not all of the wounds and the trauma are visible, as we were just hearing from Rosa. A Sandy Hook survivor says, ten years later, her healing is still ongoing. The support she says these families will need for years to come, that is next.

[10:40:00]

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HILL: This morning, we are hearing from the families of the children who survived the Uvalde school shooting. Justin Rodriguez's nephew was hit in the calf by a ricochet bullet on Tuesday, and he describes how his nephew was doing the next morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN RODRIGUEZ, UNCLE OF BOY INJURED AT ROBB ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: It was very hard for him to wake up this morning. He said he was yelling and he was saying, mom, we need to hurry up and leave, he is coming.

[10:45:03]

That right there is just -- I just couldn't take it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: The scars from gun violence from the trauma do not heal quickly.

Sandy Hook survivor Maggie LaBanca told CNN her healing, understandably, is still a work in progress ten years later.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAGGIE LABANCA, SANDY HOOK SURVIVOR: All of those memories, all of those audio noises, all of those quick visions that kind of relate to that day, they stay with you. I mean, I can't go outside when I hear fireworks. I shudder when there's a closed door. I'm always looking over my back. It's ten years later, and I don't feel safe yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Joining us now is John Woodrow Cox. He's a Washington Post Enterprise Reporter who has covered the subject of child victims of gun violence almost exclusively for five years. He's the author of Children Under Fire, An American Crisis.

It is an American crisis. It is a uniquely American crisis, as unfortunately we say every time, yet here we are again. As you look into that trauma for survivors, there is so much focus in the days after these tragedies. But the long-term impact, do we even understand at this point, John, how deep that trauma goes, how long lasting it is for people like Maggie, for example?

JOHN WOODROW COX, ENTERPRISE REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: We have no idea. It is a thing that researchers cannot predict, which children are going to deal with this maybe a day afterwards, and which children are going to deal with it decades later.

I have been reporting on children who many, many years later are still dealing with the sort of effects that that young woman described, kids who are six years past shootings and they are still having to take anti psychotics and anti depressants. They are still threatening to harm themselves. They are still dealing with guilt, that they couldn't save their classmates on the playground. These are things that, even in a moment, a shooting that can last in a matter of seconds, can affect them for decades. This was a shooting that lasted far longer than that. So, these kids are going to be dealing with this burden in some way for the rest of their lives.

HILL: There has also been a significant increase this week and we've seen in the numbers, the number of kids who may have to deal with this, right, is increasing as gun violence in this country increases. We saw before the pandemic, but certainly since. What are we seeing in terms of data specifically about school shootings?

COX: Yes. So, a few years ago, as part of the reporting for my book, I went to South Carolina and reported on a school shooting that almost no one remembers. One child was shot. And I found that the kids there who were just on the playground or inside the school were so deeply, profoundly affected that it led me to think, how many kids do these children represent?

That number now dating back to Columbine in 1999 is over 311,000 students who have been on a K through 12 campus when a school shooting occurred. A meaningful number of those kids will deal with what they saw, what they heard forever. They will deal with it forever.

HILL: It also struck me in some of your reporting, as we look at who is carrying out these shootings, that the median age of a school shooter is 16?

COX: Yes. Yes, it is. I mean, that is the typical age. And that tells us something else. You know, there is all sorts of forms of gun violence in this country. 100-plus people a day die in America by gun violence. But for some Americans, the only thing that gets their attention is a school shooting.

And when I tell people all the time, if that's the only thing you care about, then consider this. If after Columbine, if the one change America made was to prevent children from getting access to firearms, more than half of the school shootings in that time would not have happened. They would just not have happened. If we just only did that one thing, is just prevent children from getting access to guns.

So, that is something that doesn't require any changes to the Second Amendment. It doesn't even require necessarily legislation. We're just asking gun owners to be responsible with the guns that they have.

HILL: Yes. What it requires sometimes is to stop and listening instead of speaking first, and perhaps just reading some important reporting like yours. John Woodrow Cox, thank you for joining us, and thank you for the work you are doing. It cannot be difficult to live that every day. Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

SCIUTTO: Happening right now, the FDA commissioner is facing tough questions on the FDA's role in the baby formula shortage. When more formula is expected to be available, more failures were made. That's coming up.

[10:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: Happening, now the head of the FDA facing another day of grilling on Capitol Hill over the baby formula shortage that continues to drag on across the country.

SCIUTTO: It's, of course, created a dire situation for parents, you might be among them, and it has even lead to hospitalizations for some children.

CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now. The FDA has a lot to answer for here, the long timeline here and perhaps, it seems, not being conscious of shutting off half the nation's supply.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Jim, yes, they do have a lot to answer for. Why the supply has gone down so dramatically, and, really, the big question is should they have known this? There were so many signs that happened many months ago, even before that Abbott plant was closed down.

So, let's take a look at the timeline and then we can talk a little bit about what the discussion will be like today.

So, in October 2021, so way back in October, there was a whistleblower report to the FDA citing safety problems at the Abbot plant. Yesterday, Dr. Califf said, those reports never made it all the way up to the top. There will be lots of questions about why that happened.

And then, a month later, Walgreens alerted its customers of possible temporary isolated shortages, not because of the Abbott plant, the Abbott plant was still working at that time, but because of supply chain issues.

[10:55:02]

But that far back, there were stores saying, wait a minute, we have a problem.

In January, formula inventory was down 17 percent nationwide. And then between the end of January and March, the FDA visited the Abbott plant and cronobacter in it. So, the question is, why did all of this happen and why, when and more action wasn't taken?

I was in Frankfurt, at the Ramstein Air Force Base, this past week, saw that formula being flown in from abroad, why wasn't done sooner? Jim, Erica? SCIUTTO: A lot of foot dragging. Elizabeth, thanks so much.

And thanks so much to you all for joining us today. I am Jim Sciutto.

HILL: And I am Erica.

Stay tuned. At This Hour with Kate Bolduan starts after a quick break.

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