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Texas House Report Shows Multiple Failures by Various Agencies at Massacre; Zelenskyy Suspends Two Officials, Accuses Staff of Working with Russia; More Than 40 Million Americans in Under Heat Alerts Today. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired July 18, 2022 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: He has been placed on administrative leave.

We see on new body camera footage obtained by CNN that a 911 dispatcher is relaying to officers about a child who was calling 911, reporting a roomful of victims. You hear that information relayed to the acting chief, but there's no audible response from him.

So, we're told by the city that they are reviewing his actions on that day and the law enforcement response. We also know, of course, the school police chief, he has been placed on administrative leave, and he has come under heavy criticism for treating this situation as a barricaded subject rather than an active shooter.

This report, as you mentioned, talks about a number of systemic failures, but take a look at this body camera footage where you actually see something that, quite frankly, I talked to a lot of law enforcement officers that's raising eyebrows, it's him attempting to appeal to the shooter. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you hear me, sir?

Sir, if you can hear me, please put your firearm down, sir. We don't want anybody else hurt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: Now, take a look at what the chief told this house committee. He said that when there's a threat, you have to visibly be able to see the threat. You have to have a target before you can engage your firearm. You eliminate the threat when you could see it. I never saw a threat. I never got to physically see the threat or the shooter. But that, of course, is raising questions. You didn't see the shooter because officers didn't rush in until over an hour. And so, again, a lot of criticism there for that police chief of the school.

Finally, we have to note as well that there are a lot of questions remaining for the Texas Department of Public Safety. We know that from the moment this incident began, there were questions about transparency. The head of that agency has been pointing fingers at local law enforcement, saying that they are to blame, that there was a failure to take leadership, a failure of command.

But, of course, in this new report that was just released, we see that there were several officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety who were there on that day. But we haven't heard that from these officials. They're quick to point to local law enforcement, but a lot of questions they have to answer as well. If they had officers there, why did no one step up and either assume command or at least tell the officers, we need rush this room, we need to save anyone who might on the other side of that door. Jim and Poppy?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, absolutely. Josh Campbell, thank you very much. I can't believe what we're seeing when we watch that video and we hear those shots and all the officers outside of the door. Thank you, Josh, for the reporting.

The families in Uvalde are pressing for answers in the wake of that video, this incredibly disturbing new report.

You're looking at a picture of nine-year-old victim Jackie Cazares. She is described in this report as a caring girl who loved singing, loved making TikTok videos. She loved animals. She wanted to become a veterinarian and she dreamt of going to Paris one day. She was known as someone who would go out of her way to help one while she was killed, murdered in the school that day, and so was her cousin and classmate, Annabelle Rodriguez.

My next guest is a close family friend, who was just like an uncle to Jackie. Jesus Rizo shared a special video of him dancing with Jackie at her first communion. This was just a few months ago. Watch.

It breaks your heart. I'm so glad you had that time with her, Jesus, but she was taken from this world, from all of you so unjustly. I'm sorry, and thank you for joining us today.

JESUS RIZO, FRIEND OF VICTIM JACKLYN JAYLEN CAZARES' FAMILY: Yes, ma'am.

HARLOW: This report that came out, one of the lawmakers who led on it said that it gives answers to the people who need it the most. Does this answer your questions about what happened that day?

RIZO: No. It kind of reaffirms what we had already expected. We were anticipating something like this, but (INAUDIBLE) came out and they did an investigative -- you know, job. They interviewed about 40 people or so. They put out a report, and the facts are the facts. This is the only preliminary report, from what I understand, but it's a beginning to an end. I don't know necessarily this is going to be a (INAUDIBLE) but something to you can work with though to begin holding people accountable.

HARLOW: The report says that there were so many failures on so many levels by so many different law enforcement agencies, that failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims, like Jackie, over their own safety.

[10:35:06]

Her father, as I understand it, Jacklyn's father, was one of several parents who that day, while the shooting was going on, tried to rush into the school, right? We know those parents were stopped. He tried to rush in to try to save his daughter. How do you wrap your head around such inaction at so many levels?

RIZO: You really can't. I mean, it's anger. You know the training that the officers have to go through. All types of DPS, Border Patrol, local, UCISD, and yet you see them stand there. You know, the parents -- many of the parents, Javier was one of them, they tried to get in, they wouldn't allow them go in. You just see total inaction. And I can only imagine what was going through their minds. His daughter, you know, just -- it's heartbreaking.

HARLOW: You know, one of the things that you've said, Jesus, that I was so struck by is that even if they couldn't have saved all of those lives rushing in, maybe the officers could have saved some or they could have been there with these children, with these teachers, and held their hand as they were dying, right, so they wouldn't be alone.

RIZO: That's correct, ma'am. As humans, we're not designed that way. We should care for each other. And I think that's what bothers a lot of us, that there could have been a time that they could have rushed in, maybe not all of them are going to make it, but at least in their final moments, to hold their hand, to comfort them, to let them know that they're with them.

But they did the total opposite of that. They stood there as people bled out. They stood there as they took their final breath. You know, an article on A.J., he sees his friend taking his last breath, gurgling the blood. That just totally breaks my heart and can't help but wonder what A.J. was thinking.

HARLOW: Yes, and that's right. I mean, Jackie can't be brought back, Annabelle, her cousin, can't be brought back. But what would help you and the community most right now? What do you want? What's accountability?

RIZO: Accountability, in my opinion, begins with the top of the food chain, in this case, the superintendent, the chief of police, Sheriff Nolasco. That's where it begins. I mean, you can discipline all these employees, but if you continue to leave the leaders that are in charge that failed us, what is the point? The expectations are going to be same. So, you've got to start almost from scratch.

HARLOW: Jesus Rizo, thank you so much. And we're all so, so, so, so, so sorry for your loss of your beautiful, beautiful girl, Jackie.

RIZO: Thank you, ma'am. I appreciate you.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Poor, poor family.

Well, still ahead, another story we're following, President Zelenskyy of Ukraine has now suspended two high ranking officials in his own government. Why he's now questioning their leadership in the midst of the ongoing war, that's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:40:00]

HARLOW: Welcome back. This morning, Ukraine's president has suspended two top officials, the prosecutor general and the head of state security services there.

SCIUTTO: Yes, right from his inner circle. Zelenskyy says the reason is he lost faith in their leadership because he claims that some of their staffers have collaborated with Russia.

CNN Senior International Correspondent Ivan Watson joins us now from the central Ukrainian city of Kryvvi Rih.

This is remarkable here. I think we need to be clear to our viewers, he's not accusing these officials of collaborating with Russia but in fact saying they did not police it well within their ranks. What do we know?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And just, Jim and Poppy, right before going to air, the air raid siren went off here, just if you're hearing that in the background. This is a reshuffle, the biggest reshuffle of the security services since Russia invaded Ukrainie on February 24th.

In his speech last night, Zelenskyy announced that there were more than 650 criminal cases of treason currently being investigated within some of these security services. He went on to say that there were more than 60 people from within the prosecutor's office and within the intelligence bureau, the state security office, who, in fact, had stayed on Russian-occupied territory effectively supporting the Russian invasion against the defending Ukrainian government.

And partly as a result of that, he was suspending the general prosecutor and the head of the state security officer, who was a close political ally and a childhood friend of his, not directly accusing them of any wrongdoing. He also pointed out that there was a security chief for the south of the country who had already been suspended already. That person now formally suspected, detained on charges of treason.

[10:45:02]

Back to you.

HARLOW: Ivan Watson, thank you on the ground for that update and to your whole team there for reporting.

Meantime, more than 40 million Americans are under heat alerts this morning, temperatures soaring in the U.S., but really, really also in Europe. SCIUTTO: Yes. I mean, it's so out of the pattern here, the extreme heat. It's become deadly in Europe. The historic heat wave has fueled massive wildfires, already claimed hundreds, you heard that right, hundreds of lives.

Meteorologist Chad Myers is in the CNN Weather Center. And, goodness, I mean, echoes of the western United States, but what's going on here?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, it's Northwestern Europe. It's the U.K. It's Britain, Wales, Scotland. Those are the areas that are hot today along with Paris and down toward Lyon and all of the Iberian Peninsula here in Spain.

But the problem here when we talk about the U.K. or London, in particular, only 5 percent, only 5 percent of the homes actually have air conditioning. And you look at 97 and you're in Phoenix and you're going, wow, that's a great day, yes. But you are going to be able to get inside either with a swamp cooler or with an air conditioner and cool yourself.

The houses in London are made to stay warm. They're not be cool. And so these temperatures still going up, likely will get to 104 sometime either today or tomorrow. That would be an all-time high for any day, any month, any year in any part of the U.K. And that's likely broken. We're probably 80 percent chance of that.

France is hot too, and you are going to stay hot for a couple of days. We are going to see some cooler air by Tuesday night into Wednesday but that's how long it's going to take.

Also, the drought conditions here, causing and fueling those fires. There are fire weather conditions all across Southern Europe right now. Poppy, Jim?

HARLOW: Wow. It's incredible to see those numbers there. Chad, thanks very much for the reporting.

Still ahead, we're going to bring you some -- a great slice of humanity, if you will. 4,000 beagles freed from a medical testing facility, and our next guest is one of many helping them find forever homes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:00]

SCIUTTO: So, looking for a little good news, this is a relief. Nearly 4,000 beagles, 4,000 have been saved from a research facility in Virginia. Now, they're one day closer to a new home. Rescue organizations from across the country have answered the call to transfer them these dogs from their current home to shelters.

HARLOW: The beagles were bred for pharmaceutical research and testing but the facility was found to be in violation of several federal regulations. Let's bring in John Ramer. He is the executive director of Kindness Ranch, it's located in Hartville, Wyoming. This morning, he's in Virginia because he's arranging to pick them up and transport all of these beagles. John, thanks for what you're doing. You give us hope in humanity. Just tell us about this process, how you saved them, where they're going, how people can adopt them.

JOHN RAMER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, KINDNESS RANCH: Well, thank you for having me. We haven't saved them yet. We're in the process. We will start picking them up later on this week. Myself and two (INAUDIBLE) homeward trail and (INAUDIBLE) in California will be transporting a little over 200 to 280 dogs out later on this week, and then making multiple trips back to pick up more. It's quite an undertaking, as you can imagine.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I'm sure. Listen, when I heard about the story, we were talking just in the break, I had no idea that dogs were able to be used in research, in this case, pharmaceutical research. What exactly are the laws and what kind of pharmaceutical research were these beagles used for?

RAMER: So, the beagles that we're going to be picking up, they actually haven't been used in research as of yet. They were waiting to be distributed to different research facilities throughout the country. So, I guess one of the benefits that we have is we are kind of interrupting the supply chain of beagles and being sold to the facilities.

So, instead of dealing with the dogs with withdrawals from any pharmaceuticals or narcotics or trauma from being handled, these dogs will most likely just be a little undersocialized but should be able to be rehabilitated quickly and easily and moved into homes without too much time.

HARLOW: But what you're saying, I think I'm hearing you say, they do drug testing on these dogs, like serious drug testing on them, right?

Some facilities do, yes. Some is something as simple as nutrition testing or flea and tick research. Kindness Ranch doesn't get into the labs themselves. We focus on trying to secure the animals once they're done with testing and transition them into homes.

SCIUTTO: This is legal, though. Should there be changes to those laws?

RAMER: Well, you know, again, that is above my pay grade. What happens in the facilities is regulated by the USDA and monitored by several other organizations. And it is legal.

[10:55:00]

And they do have varying degrees of discomfort that the USDA regulates, everything from flea and tick research to terminal studies that are used. There are tens of thousands of dogs being bred and used in research (INAUDIBLE). HARLOW: I'll say, when I told my six-year-old daughter we were going to have you on, she went in full campaign mode for us to get a beagle. We've already have one dog, but we'll think about it. John, thanks for all you do.

RAMER: Thank you very much.

SCIUTTO: And if you want to help at home, if you would like to be one of the folks who adopts these dogs, search for a rescue facility near you at humanesociety.org. Look at that picture.

HARLOW: So cute. Thank you all for joining us today. We'll see you back here tomorrow morning. I'm Poppy Harlow.

SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto. At This Hour with Kate Bolduan starts right after a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. At This Hour, a damning report spotlights systemic failures across agencies.