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Six Dead, Suspect Arrested in Illinois Shooting; Police Release Bodycam Footage in Fatal Akron Police Shooting; Walker's Family Wants Justice for Wayland; Biden: Much More Work To Do To Stop Gun Violence. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired July 05, 2022 - 04:00   ET

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

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MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Max Foster in London. Just ahead --

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our community was terrorized by an act of violence that has shaken us to our core.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About 30 pops, and there was a pause in between, a set of pops and then a second set of pops.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Multiple nurses taking care of one patient at a time because there is family members, emotional support is needed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is devastating that celebration of America was ripped apart by our uniquely American plague.

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ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster.

FOSTER: It is Tuesday, July 5th, 9:00 a.m. here in London, 3:00 a.m. in Highland Park, Illinois. The Chicago suburb dealing with yet another tragic mass shooting. At least six people are dead, more than two dozen wounded and a suspect is in police custody now. The shooter started just after 10:00 a.m. local time Monday as people lined the parade route along Central Avenue in the suburb north of Chicago. We have video from the scene, but we have to warn you that it is disturbing.

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(GUNFIRE MULTIPLE ROUNDS)

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FOSTER: Investigators believe the gunman climbed an unsecured ladder in an alley and opened fire from a rooftop. Police say the gun was a high powered rifle, the attack appears to be random and intentional. The suspect was arrested without incident a few hours later identified as Robert Crimo III. Police have not said anything about a motive that Crimo had posted ominous music videos online under the name "Awake the Rapper."

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CHIEF CHRIS COVELLI, LAKE COUNTY MAJOR CRIME TASK FORCE: This individual is believed to have been responsible for what happened in the investigation will continue. Charges have not been approved yet at this time and we're a long way from that, there is still a long investigation and there are a lot of efforts that are going to continue tonight.

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FOSTER: More now from CNN's Adrienne Broaddus.

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ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Investigators say it was a north Chicago police officer who found that 22-year-old investigators believe who was responsible for this crime scene behind me. That officer called for backup, there was a short vehicle pursuit. Investigators say they took that 22-year-old into custody without incident. Meanwhile, earlier in the day we did hear from people who were attending the parade including one woman who sheltered behind a dumpster. Listen in.

ZOE PAWELCZAK, WITNESSED PARADE SHOOTING: I saw people shoot and pulled around me and a lot of people hiding. A man actually went at one point to find his son and he asked me to watch his kids.

So, we were all hiding behind a dumpster together, and little kids, really little kids were like, what's going on? I'm like, it's just fireworks, you know, people get silly with fireworks. And I just stayed with them for about half an hour, while the guy was out looking for his other son.

BROADDUS: She also shared with us that the father, before taking off to look for his other son, put his children inside of the dumpster for protection. Meanwhile, six people were shot and killed. Five of them died on scene here. A dozen of others injured. The motive still unclear.

Adrienne Broaddus, CNN Highland Park, Illinois.

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FOSTER: Earlier Highland Park Police identified the suspect as being 22-years-old, but later a FBI bulletin reported he was 21. CNN has reached out to the authorities for more information on that.

Now earlier a father who witnessed the attack described the initial panic and the confusion after the first shots rang out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JEFF LEON, WITNESS (via phone): We heard -- it sounded like a string of fire crackers going off inside of a big metal trash can. And at first that's what I thought that's what it was, 20, 30 maybe. And then I looked up to my right, and I saw the police started to act, and I saw people falling, and my wife and I took off.

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And directly behind the store we were sitting in front of, there's a parking lot, and so we started sort of, you know, going from car to car, running. We were at the parade because our 14-year-old twin boys are marching with the high school football team.

And we knew they hadn't yet made their way up the parade route, and so we were going to try to get them, and after about ten minutes of this sort of duck and hide, duck and hide, people were seemingly calmly walking away from the scene.

And we passed a man who was leaning against an apartment building who had an obvious fairly deep bullet graze wound along his right side of his head, above the temple. And that was the point when we knew for sure it wasn't fire crackers. It was a shooting. Which is just inconceivable in a community like Highland Park, Illinois.

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FOSTER: And Illinois state representative was riding on a float in the parade and spoke about those horrifying moments.

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BOB MORGAN, ILLINOIS STATE REPRESENTATIVE: My parade float was about two blocks away from the shooting. We heard rapid fire, sounded like firecrackers, very quickly became clear it was gun violence. We saw a lot of people running in all directions trying to get away from that section. And once I got my volunteers and my family, my two children, my wife, once I got them to safety, myself and a few others went frankly right to the scene to see what we could do to help. And it was a pretty horrible scene. It was exactly what you would imagine seeing gunshot victims and just seeing a horrible scene of just marring this amazing day that everyone was so excited to be at. And there were so many happy faces and so many parade floats and just to see it all wiped away by this one person.

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FOSTER: Police aren't saying much about the suspect at this point, but CNN law enforcement analysts and contributors have discussed how investigators will handle this case.

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STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: What they're going to do is try to figure out everything that motivated him from the beginning to the time he was captured. You're also going to try to determine what things were public, what things were known, that could have tipped law enforcement off. There are several phases of this. Number one, you will want to work on the prosecution. Number two, you're going to want to prevent it from ever happening again.

So, you may have literally two teams working on this trying to decide how it happened, how -- and how we didn't interdict it. And then there's going to be the determination of how he got his weapon. Before you do a large sweeping removal of these weapons, is you have to work right now to keep them out of the hands of the mentally ill.

We don't just have a gun plague going on here, we have a mental illness plague in America. You can't tell me that the last 10 or 11 shooters have been all mentally sane. So, we have to look at it from both the gun aspect and the mental illness aspect. What we've learned in Chicago, which has had strict, strict gun laws for years, and has the highest gun homicide rate in the United States, we've learned that just outlawing the guns aren't going to solve the problems. Until you deal with the reasons people are shooting them because they will find the weapons.

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: There's no question that every one of these mass shootings has an inspirational effect on other angry heavily armed young men with grievances about one thing or another. So, we always have the chance that this person's actions today could cause someone else, inspire someone else to go out and act.

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FOSTER: And there are concerns over the potential for future violence, has some putting the focus back on gun legislation of course. We'll hear from one U.S. lawmaker about the recently passed bill just ahead.

But before but go, these stirring images continue to come in from the scene of the Illinois shooting. Chairs, bicycles and other items abandoned as people ran for their lives. More on our top story after the break.

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MAYOR NANCY ROTERING, HIGHLAND PARK, ILLINOIS: On behalf of the city of Highland Park, our hearts are broken for the victims and their families. As we always do, we support each other. We are highland park strong.

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J.B. PRITZKER (D) ILLINOIS GOVERNOR: It is devastating that a celebration of America was ripped apart by our uniquely American plague. A day dedicated to freedom has put into stark relief, the one freedom we as a nation refuse to uphold, the freedom of our fellow citizens to live without the daily fear of gun violence.

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FOSTER: Now the Illinois governor speaking there expressing his frustration and anger over a mass shooting during a Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park. At least six people were killed, dozens of others injured. The suspected shooter identified as Robert Crimo III, was arrested hours later after a brief car chase. We've learned the gunfire during the parade came from a rooftop about 20 minutes after the event began. CNN's Brian Todd explained the details while speaking with Wolf Blitzer.

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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 25 miles due north of downtown Chicago. That's where we start in the broader context, here. But let's go to the parade route. Because this is where we can pinpoint some key activity according to witness accounts and official accounts of what happened today.

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First, the parade route, according to the city's website was to start here at the corner of Laurel Avenue and St. Johns Avenue, was to go north, then turn left, head west on Central Avenue, go all the way down and then end at Sunset Woods Park there. But what we can tell you from witness accounts telling us that some of the activity occurred in this area here. Now, we have to stress these are witness accounts, not always accurate. And that officials have not formally discussed the exact location of where they believe the shooter was.

But according to one witness named Jeff Leon, he said he was sitting in front of a store called the Blue Mercury, right here. He was sitting in front of that. He believes that the shooter was either across the street from him or catty corner -- that's what he told CNN earlier today.

Another witness name Zoe told CNN that when police were clearing the area and trying to get people to safety, they got them into us store called the Gear Head Outfitters. It used to be called Uncle Dan's Sporting Goods. But this is where police took people for safety. Another witness said they believe the shooting occurred near Walker Brother's Original Pancake House. So, we can tell you that according to witness accounts, some key activity is here. And here's some aerial video of the area where we're talking about.

You see that right there? That's the Blue Mercury, that's where that one witness, Jeff Leon, said he was sitting. We do know when the video goes down here, there are buildings across the street here.

Another official told us, Wolf, that the shooter had access to a building through an unsecured ladder in an alley. That's the only other clue we have right now as to kind of how the shooter got up to possibly get to one of these rooftops. There you see some of the roof tops there were all of this activity could have been taking place. But it looks like this area here, near that Blue Mercury store, is a key focus of where investigators are looking for where that shooter might have been.

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FOSTER: U.S. President Biden says he was shocked by the shooting and vowed to keep fighting what he called the epidemic of gun violence. He also held a moment of silence for the victims and their families as the White House marked Independence Day. Phil Mattingly has more on that in Washington.

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PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Biden like every other American had what he expected to be a celebration of the nation, July 4th celebration, shattered. Once again in his administration, an administration who has seen so many mass shootings that actually led to the most substantive gun reform law in more than 30 years. A bipartisan law the president signed in to law just a couple weeks ago, now experiencing another one.

The president getting on the phone with the Illinois governor, with the mayor of Highland Park, pledging federal resources and surging federal law enforcement for that manhunt. He acknowledged the shooting in his July 4th remarks for a picnic of service members on the South Lawn. Take a listen.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Before I left for Europe, I signed a law, the first real gun safety law in 30 years. And things will get better still, but not without more hard work together. You all heard what happened. You all heard what happened today. And each day, we're reminded there is nothing guaranteed about our democracy, nothing guaranteed about our way of life. We have to fight for I, defend it and earn it by voting.

MATTINGLY: The president also held a moment of silence for those killed and injured during that shooting. Later during the musical performance, again the picnic, the celebration, the Fourth of July continuing here at the White House, but so is the sorrow, the recognition that this just keeps happening. The president in his statement acknowledging that more needs to be done. Certainly, an accomplishment already on gun safety, but when it comes to gun violence, it's such a pervasive problem in the country. The president making clear that what they have done so far isn't enough.

Phil Mattingly, CNN, the White House.

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FOSTER: The Illinois governor says he spoke with President Biden and that they both believe this madness must stop.

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PRITZKER: If you are angry today, I'm here to tell you be angry. I'm furious. I'm furious that yet more innocent lives were taken by gun violence. I'm furious that their loved ones are forever broken by what took place today. I'm furious that children and their families have been traumatized. I'm furious that this is happening in communities all across Illinois and America. I'm furious because it does not have to be this way. And yet we as a nation, well, we continue to allow this to happen. While we celebrate the Fourth of July just once a year, mass shootings have become our weekly, yes, weekly American tradition.

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FOSTER: There's also been reaction from Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois who visited Highland Park just hours after the attack on the Fourth of July parade. Here's what he had to say -- or part of it.

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SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): There are people around this country who are poised to do terrible things if we do not intervene and try to change their lives. Some of them we know as children who need that kind of a helping hand. I don't know the circumstances with this gentleman and I won't say anything about him. But that is one of the things that we just did with this gun bill. The gun bill that we passed in the Senate, the bipartisan gun bill addresses many of the aspects of these mass shooters and some of that involves mental health counseling, trauma counseling. We've got to reach out at an early age to turn these lives around once we see the clear indicators. What will happen in this circumstance with this particular individual, I don't know. I just don't know his story. But I will tell you that that part of the bill is important for the future.

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FOSTER: While Senator Durbin touted the recently passed gun legislation, he also said that there were things that the bill didn't address like a ban on assault weapons.

Now Akron, Ohio is under a curfew right now after weekend protests over the fatal police shooting of Jayland Walker, an unarmed black man. Police say the majority of protestors were peaceful but the mayor says that there was a significant amount of property damage after nightfall. About 50 people were arrested for violating the curfew. All this is just hours after officials released body cam footage showing the final moments of Walker's life. CNN's Polo Sandoval has more from Akron.

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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Authorities in the city of Akron released about 18 minutes of body camera videos. Each offering a different perspective showing eight responding officers before they opened fire shooting and killing Jayland Walker. After the release of the footage, Akron's police chief said those the officers will have to be accountable for each one of the shots they fired.

STEPHEN MYLETT, POLICE CHIEF, AKRON POLICE DEPARTMENT, OHIO: They need to be able to articulate what specific threats they were facing and that goes for every round that goes down the barrel of their gun. And they need to be held to account.

SANDOVAL (voice-over): Investigators over the weekend shared more about the possible perceived threat the officers faced during the pursuit including a single gunshot that allegedly came from inside Walker's car while police were chasing his vehicle. They say this muzzle flash image captured by state traffic cameras is evidence and investigators later recovered a shell casing at that scene.

It was shortly after the car chase turned foot chase that you can see in this video those eight officers opened fire with a barrage of bullets. Officers described Walker reaching for his waistband right before they shot him -- according to the police chief. Walker was unarmed at the time of the shooting.

The Akron Police Union released a statement saying: The decision to deploy lethal force as well as the number of shots fired is consistent with use of force protocols and officers' training.

The medical examiner's report showed Walker's body had at least 60 wounds as a result of gunfire. Walker's family attorney --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you have a gun on you and you drop your weapon and leave and you see him running across the parking lot, you can't drop him and seize his body with bullets.

SANDOVAL (voice-over): After the release of body cam footage nearly a week after the shooting, tensions flared sparking a fourth day of protests in Akron.

ROBERT DEJOURNETT, JAYLAND WAS HIS COUSIN'S SON: What I did see is, you know, him get out of the car and start running and people firing on him. And does it take that much.

SANDOVAL (voice-over): Walker's family says they want to get justice for Jayland in a peaceful and dignified way.

DEJOURNETT: We don't want any rioting or anything like that. We want answers. We feel that, the pain and, you know, personally, I want to scream out and be mad, but what is that going to do. We want to take that anger, we want to use it for the benefit of systemic change.

SANDOVAL (voice-over): Polo Sandoval, CNN, Akron, Ohio.

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FOSTER: We're also following a developing story in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where two police officers were shot during a Fourth of July celebration. Authorities say both officers suffered graze wounds. One to the head and the other to the shoulder. They were taken to the hospital where they were treated and released. No one has been arrested, but social media video shows crowds of people running down the street where a concert and fireworks were taking place. Police say they're following up on leads but asking for anyone with information to come forward.

Now gun violence has also shaken people in Denmark in the wake of a rare shooting in Copenhagen. A 22-year-old Danish man is being held in a psychiatric facility for 24 days as police say he is suspected of killing three people and wounding several others at a shopping mall on Sunday. Social media footage shows people fleeing the mall and heavily armed law enforcement on the scene. Witnesses say it was chaos.

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MAXIMILIAN VON RENTEIN, WITNESS: I mean, people didn't really know where they were running. They just -- even when they were outside the mall, they were running in different directions and trying to find different routes and jumping over fences. It was quite chaotic.

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FOSTER: Authorities say the suspect was known to people in the psychiatric field. They added there is no indication that he was acting with others nor was it an act of error, but the investigation is ongoing.

Still ahead, after a key Russian victory in eastern Ukraine, Moscow is setting its sights on a new target.

Plus, Sweden and Finland are one step closer to officially joining NATO. A look at what is next in the membership process and the impact it will have on the Alliance and to Russia. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

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FOSTER: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. If you are just joining us, an update on our top story this hour. America's Independence Day turned tragic on Monday when a gunman killed at least six people and wounded dozens more at a parade in Highland Park, Illinois. Police say the suspected shooter used a high power rifle to fire at people from a rooftop of a nearby business. Authorities say the attack appeared to be random and intentional.

After a brief chase the person of interest was taken into custody without incident, ending the intense manhunt in the Chicago metro area. He's yet to be charged. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been at least 311 mass shootings in the U.S. so far this year, 14 of them just this month.

CNN spoke with a woman who says she was near the center of the shooting area right across the street from where the police believe the shooter was. The woman says the gunshots first sounded like fireworks but a bad feeling prompted theory to grab her father and take cover.

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ZOE PAWELCZAK, WITNESS: I saw a wonderful parade turn into a very scary moment.

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