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Buffalo Hearing Resumes After Victim's Family Member Lunges at Suspect; Miraculous Survival Stories as More People Pulled Alive from Rubble; Discount Retailer Tuesday Morning Files for Bankruptcy. Aired 10:30-11a ET
Aired February 15, 2023 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:30:00]
AREVA MARTIN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Phone calls and now this letter is accurate. It appears to be because it was found by the FBI in Bryan Laundrie's backpack. This confirms that this family knew that Gabby Petito, something horrible had happened to her, that perhaps she had been murdered by their son and they would not come forward with that information. I think a jury would not take kindly to knowing that information.
ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: So, Areva, though, to Jim's point, if some of this does come out in this civil case, could it ultimately lead to other criminal charges?
MARTIN: You know, that's a great question. The question becomes, you know, some kind of obstruction, perhaps, charge against the Laundries, that they knew information, perhaps, that their son had killed someone and they didn't come forward, they didn't participate. We don't know what the interaction was during this time between law enforcement and the Laundries.
Now clearly if law enforcement was asking that family if they had information about Gabby Petito and they lied, if they, you know, lied to law enforcement, then, of course there could be serious implications and perhaps charges against at least the mother who apparently wrote this letter.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Goodness. Shocking developments. Areva Martin, thanks so much.
MARTIN: Thank you, Jim. Thanks Erica.
HILL: This just coming in to CNN, really dramatic moments in court. This is at the sentencing hearing for the gunman in the mass shooting at the Buffalo Tops Supermarket. Now we talked about this just a short time ago with Omar Jimenez. One of the victim's family members, here's what happened there, lunging at the shooter.
Stay with us on the other side of the break. We'll tell you more about what happened in those moments.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [10:36:12]
SCIUTTO: This just in to CNN. Dramatic moments ago, just moments ago, in a Buffalo, New York, courtroom where the man who shot and killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo is now facing sentencing. Barbara Massey, the sister of one of the victims was speaking when all this unfolded. Have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARBARA MASSEY, SISTER OF VICTIM IN BUFFALO SUPERMARKET SHOOTING: My sister Katherine Massey was a great person. Katherine didn't hurt anybody. (INAUDIBLE). You don't come to our city and decide you don't like black people, man. You don't know a damn thing about black people. We're human. We like our kids to go to good schools. We love our kids. We never go in no neighbors and take people out. Don't do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez back with us. The hearing just resuming now, but as we see that unfold, do we know who this man was who rushed?
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We don't at this point, but obviously the audience was filled with a lot of family, a lot of people who were directly related, either friends or otherwise, with the people that were killed by Payton Gendron who -- of course he's been convicted about at this point.
And look, we knew this was going to be emotional. We knew that there were going to be up to 17 people who were going to speak. Obviously this is a tragedy that has shaken not just Buffalo but places across the world to its core, but especially in Buffalo. But to see this level of anger was something I think you could see the surprise on a lot of people's faces when this happened.
But obviously, right before that, the victim impact statement that was being given by Barbara Massey was already emotional. She wasn't speaking into the mic. She was turned and speaking directly at Payton Gendron. She wanted him to understand what he had done to this community, to these people, to these loved ones for everyone that was sitting inside of there.
Another thing was that now the hearing is back on track. We should say. That the judge trying to get things back under control did acknowledge that we know this is emotional, we know that this may be difficult for people to hear, but please leave the courtroom if you feel like you can't control that. Also saying that we are better than this as far as acting on some of those aggressive emotions, perhaps.
But obviously it's indicative of what we are dealing with in the sentencing hearing and those moments are among the most dramatic I think I've seen in recent memory.
SCIUTTO: I got to say, I'm amazed it doesn't happen more often. I can only imagine the anger and the hurt of the people involved there.
Omar, thanks so much for bringing that to us.
HILL: Absolutely.
Well, continuing as we update you on the situation in Turkey and in Syria, remarkably people still being pulled alive from the rubble nine days after that devastating earthquake and series of aftershocks. We're going to bring you some more of these miraculous stories of survival just ahead.
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[10:43:42]
HILL: It's been nearly 10 days now since that catastrophic 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria, and we are still seeing incredible stories of survival. So far more than 41,000 people have been confirmed dead. That quake, of course, reducing cities to just piles of rubble and debris.
SCIUTTO: Toppling like houses of cards, and remember, there are people under all that rubble. Rescuers, though, have not given up. And more than a week and a half after the quake, they are still somehow finding survivors. Among them, this woman, 77 years old, discovered after 212 hours under the rubble. It's almost 10 days. And Turkish media reported just a short time ago that a woman and two children, they were rescued after 228 hours.
CNN's Sara Sidner has more on these remarkable accounts of survival.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Firefighters scan the debris in Hatay for signs of life.
They ask him if there's anyone else with him and about his condition. It's OK, the 65-year-old Syrian man tells them. It was the 208th hour, the ninth day, since the powerful earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria.
[10:45:03]
Six hours later, 77-year-old Fatma Gungor is pulled from under the rubble in Adiyaman. As the death toll climbs at terrifying speeds, these are rare rescues and they've become the only source of hope.
This has largely turned into a recovery operation. Focus is shifting towards sheltering tens of thousands of people made homeless by the disaster and burying tens of thousands of others. Families don't want to leave the site of their collapsed homes, hoping and praying to find loved ones. Clinging to news of miracles.
Brothers 17-year-old Muhammed Enes Yeninar and his 21-year-old brother Abdul Baki Yeninar were pulled from under a collapsed eight-story building in Kahramanmaras on the 198th hour. They stayed alive by eating protein powder. In Adiyaman, rescuers tunneled through the debris to pull out 18-year-
old Muhammed Cafer Cetin. This is well beyond the critical first 72 hours when most rescues happen. Now, many calls for silence to hear the faint voices of trapped survivors are met with deafening silence. Until another miracle happens. This 7-month-old baby was pulled from the rubble after 139 hours.
After 167 hours under the suffocating debris, this man managed to pull himself out. Joyous moments keep up the spirits of exhausted rescuers.
These brothers were pulled one after the other in Hatay after more than a week with little or no water under entangled slabs of concrete and steel. Many, though, will face a long recovery.
Ferriss and Fatma (PH) were pulled out on the 209th hour. Their five children are believed to still be trapped underneath. The bitter realization that some people are the only surviving members of an extended family.
But that does not stop the celebrations or the hope for yet another miracle.
Sara Sidner, CNN, Adiyaman, Turkey.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCIUTTO: Well, small glimpse of hope in the midst so much suffering here.
Still to come this hour, a rise in retail bankruptcies. What is sparking that wave? We're going to discuss.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:52:21]
SCIUTTO: New this morning, retail sales smashing expectations in January. Numbers from the Census Bureau show sales up by 3 percent. Economists had anticipated a rise in just about half as much after a decline in retail sales in December largely blamed on inflation.
HILL: We see that increase in spending, though, as bankruptcies in the retail sector are actually starting to pile up.
CNN business reporter Nathaniel Meyersohn with us now.
So the latest one is Tuesday morning. It's a discount chain and it's the second time they've filed?
NATHANIEL MEYERSOHN, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right, Erica. So despite the strong retail numbers today, the retail apocalypse, it's starting to creep back. Tuesday Morning, which is a discount home furnishing chain, they filed for bankruptcy yesterday. They're the latest retailer to file, joins a growing number of companies, you think of Party City, they filed for bankruptcy recently, Serta Simmons Bedding, which is one of the largest bedding manufacturers in the country, and then a large independent pet store chain.
And this is a reversal of what we've seen the last couple of years from the retail sector when consumer spending was strong, they were buying clothes, furniture, television. But now they're being squeezed by inflation. They pulled back some of their discretionary spending and that's hurting these vulnerable retailers.
We also look at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. That's another retailer on bankruptcy watch.
HILL: Yes.
MEYERSOHN: They're closing 400 stores and people are expecting they could file for bankruptcy this year.
SCIUTTO: When those stores close it's obviously a lot of empty space. I mean, what happens to all that empty retail space?
MEYERSOHN: Well, so the last couple of years we've seen all of these store closures and these zombie type of malls and so that's going to create more challenges for stores moving in. This year about 2800 stores are expected to close, an 8 percent increase from a year ago. There are some retailers that are expanding. TJ Maxx could move into some of the stores, but landlords and malls, they're going to have to get creative to fill those spaces.
We could start to see office buildings or apartment buildings move in. Doctor's offices, those have been popular, or we could see Amazon warehouses start to replace those empty malls.
SCIUTTO: Nathaniel Meyersohn, thanks so much.
Well, we were wondering, and it's not us by the way, but we do want to know who won the record-breaking $2 billion Powerball prize that was drawn about three months ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALVA JOHNSON, DIRECTOR, CALIFORNIA STATE LOTTERY: The long-awaited mystery is now over. The name of the person who is the only player to match all six numbers of the historic Powerball drawing last November is Edwin Castro.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: So Edwin Castro did not appear at that news conference.
[10:55:00]
We can tell you he opted for the lumpsum payment of $997.6 million. He wants everyone to know, though, he doesn't think he's the real winner here. In a statement Castro said, "As much as I'm shocked and ecstatic to have won the Powerball drawing, the real winner is the California public school system." That's because California public schools will get $156 million. Also not a bad payout.
But here we are, Jim. Still playing.
SCIUTTO: That's right. That money comes -- that comes from the Lottery Commission, not from Castro, right?
HILL: That's my understanding. Not from Castro directly, but I'm sure if he wanted to donate more money to the public schools they would probably take it.
SCIUTTO: Well, it's quite a figure even in the lumpsum. Billion dollars.
HILL: Yes. Not so bad.
SCIUTTO: Yes. We didn't get it.
HILL: But we can't win if we don't play. So we better get on that, Sciutto.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
HILL: Thanks so much for joining us today. I'm Erica Hill.
SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto. Jake Tapper continues our coverage right after a quick break.
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