Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Putin Expected To Make A Statement Following Summit With African Nation Leaders; Four Injured In Kherson Missile Attack; New Charges Filed Against Trump In Classified Docs Case; 100m People Under Heat Alerts From CA To MA; Blinken Warns U.S. Support For Niger In Jeopardy; Officer Fired After Releasing K9 On Kneeling Black Man. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired July 29, 2023 - 11:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:41]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me this Saturday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

And we begin in Russia where Vladimir Putin may address reporters and make a statement on Ukraine following his meeting with African leaders in St. Petersburg.

Putin has been aggressively pursuing alliances with African nations for the past few years, but only 17 African leaders showed up to the summit, less than half of the 43 heads of state who attended the 2019 conference.

And it comes as fighting has intensified in Ukraine, particularly in the south where Ukraine forces are pushing ahead with their counteroffensive.

CNN's Alex Marquardt is covering the developments from Kyiv, Ukraine for us. Alex, what are we learning as this summit wraps up?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well Fredricka, we are still waiting to hear from President Vladimir Putin who has been meeting over the last three days with these African leaders.

This was supposed to be a two-day summit that spilled into a third. It was supposed to emphasize the close ties between Russia and Africa and the importance of Russia on the African continent.

But as you noted, it's been a little lackluster. Not as many African leaders showing up as was expected. Just 17, Russia blaming that on Western pressure.

Now what we've heard from the African leadership is major concern over the ongoing war in Ukraine and over Russia pulling out of that grain deal.

Remember, Africa is directly impacted, numerous African nations directly impacted by what happens here in Ukraine, notably in terms of grain and food supplies and now with Russia pulling out of that grain deal, that's going to cost food supply to dry up, food prices to go up.

So we have been hearing some pressure on President Putin from those leaders. They have been meeting last night and today about the war here in Ukraine. President Putin has said that he's open to discussing it. That he is open to discussing a peace deal that has been put on the table by the African leadership but at the same time, we did hear from President Putin in a statement last night continuing to blame Ukraine for this, saying that he is concerned about the lack of neutrality by Ukraine. The fact that they are moving closer to NATO.

So we will expect to hear from President Putin both in a statement and potentially in person but he continues to play the victim here, Fred. We should not expect him to we should not expect him to change his tone as a result of this meeting.

Now President Putin appeared to try to meet the African leaders halfway by saying we will continue to sell Africa grain at a commercial rate and even offering it for free to a number of countries, but the chairman of the African Union saying that that simply wasn't enough.

These African leaders really concerned about this war here. Certainly wanting to see it end.

So it will be very interesting to hear what President Putin has to say after this meeting, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Ok. Of course, we're going to be monitoring that as it happens.

Now, let's talk about these recent strikes both in southern Ukraine and just across the border in Russia. What can you tell us?

MARQUARDT: Yes, a flurry of strikes on both sides of the border. There was a very scary one on Dnipro on Friday night right in the center of town. Dnipro is the fourth biggest city in Ukraine, and we understand from eyewitnesses and official statements that at least two missiles fell into the city, were targeting the middle of the city.

A security building, the headquarters of the SBU (ph) the security services was damaged, as was a high-rise apartment building. Thankfully, according to authorities, no one was in those buildings, but there were some nine people who are injured.

And Fred, that's a similar number of people who were injured in southern Russia after they say two Ukrainian missiles were fired into southern Russia in the Rostov region. Russian air defenses taking those missiles down, but the debris falling to the ground caused significant damage to buildings and also injuring around nine people.

So you do have these attacks on both sides. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for that attack inside Russia. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't, but we have seen a growing number of Ukrainian attacks inside Russia with drones, with missiles, with artillery as they take the fight across the border, Fred.

[01:34:57]

WHITFIELD: All right. Alex Marquardt, thank you so much in Kyiv.

All right. We've got full analysis on today's developments. Let's bring in Steve Hall. He's a former CNN national security analyst and former CIA chief of Russia operations. And Kim Dozier is a CNN global affairs analyst and senior managing editor at the "Military Icon". It's good to see you both.

Steve, let me begin with you because you know, there are reporters this week that Putin is angry that so few African nations turned out for this summit. He clearly is worried about the optics, right because if the same amount of nations who attended in 2019 were to attend, then that would say something about his constant power. But instead, it's quite the opposite.

How much of an impact is this making on his level of confidence about having or not having power of support behind him.

STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fred. I think Putin and Russia more broadly and by that, this is the (INAUDIBLE) Kremlin, are becoming more and more desperate. I mean this is a desperate move.

They are trying to project power, but really what they are projecting is a great deal I think of weakness.

So you alluded to the numbers, you know, alone in terms of who showed up in St. Petersburg and most of the African nations. I think 17 is the total number that Alex was mentioning earlier. And, you know, that's less than half, if I understand correctly, from what they had last year.

So this is -- everybody is distancing themselves from Russia. And this is a big thing for Putin because international prestige, international recognition -- those are critical things. And you know, reading the statement that came out of the Kremlin was, you know, just something out of a fantasy world.

He was talking about the importance of national sovereignty of all things and anti-colonialism to the Africans which, of course, is the exact opposite of how Russia is behaving towards Ukraine.

So this is a very brittle and a very desperate regime I think at this point.

WHITFIELD: And then Kim, you know, after walking away from the grain deal with Ukraine, Putin is now saying, you know, he will send grain to African nations instead. Is that enough to win nations over?

KIM DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, the African leaders who did attend this summit said that the amount that he promised is helpful but likely not enough. So he did face a bit of a mild tongue- lashing over that. They urged him to restart the grain deal. But if you look at internal

Russian reporting on this summit, it paints a very different picture. It plays up the fact that those countries that decided to attend this summit are being rewarded with the forgiveness of some debts to Russia or the large part of their debt to Russia.

They are also starting to take part in a new Russian-African security deal. And there were other cooperative agreements like that that were announced that if you're inside Russia and reading this, it looks like this went over well.

And if you were an African leader who was torn between Moscow and Washington, you can say to Putin, I agree with you about the neo- colonialist threat of the United States and western powers, but you can say to Washington, see I brought up the peace with Ukraine and I brought up that he needs to return to the grain deal. So hopefully from their perspective they come out without getting dented by attending this summit.

WHITFIELD: Steve, also at this summit, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group on the sidelines there in St. Petersburg speaking with African leaders. In your view, why isn't he staying in exile in Belarus? How much of a surprise was this for you to see him in St. Petersburg?

HALL: Well, at this point, whenever we're talking about Yevgeniy Prigozhin or Wagner, you know, really nothing surprises me anymore. For me the biggest surprise is Prigozhin is still alive.

But, you know, clearly some sort of deal has been struck. Prigozhin -- the Prigozhin that we're seeing is a more, you know, a reduced figure, a muzzled figure. We see much less of him, you know, criticizing any part of the Russian government.

It looks like he and Wagner had been effectively removed from the Ukrainian fight. But more importantly I think Putin hopes that they have been removed as a potential threat to him. I don't think he's clear of that yet.

It is interesting to see Prigozhin planning, you know, some sort of semi-diplomatic, I suppose in St. Petersburg with these African leaders, Fred. I think that ties back to the idea of Wagner's continued influence and activities on the African continent on behalf of Putin.

So I think it makes sense. He probably -- Prigozhin probably knows a good number of these leaders and that probably explains his appearance there.

WHITFIELD: Yes. He's the go between. So meantime, Steve, you know, Russia says it shot down missiles on its side of the border with Ukraine and pledged to retaliate. Is it worth it for Ukraine to launch these kind of guerilla-style attacks on to the Russia side?

[11:09:55] HALL: Well, I think the Ukrainians clearly think so. I mean there's been a pattern of them doing this. They know they have to be careful because if they know that it makes the West and the United States specifically providers of the weapons that -- some of the weapons that they are using, nervous about attacking Russia inside of Russia with western weapons because there's always this specter, you know, of oh my gosh, what if the Russians, you know, all of a sudden decide to attack NATO or decide to make it a direct conflict.

And so they know that that's a problem. But you know, tactically, it makes sense when you're fighting a larger aggressor like Russia trying to keep your nation safe. So that explains, I think why they are doing it.

WHITFIELD: All right. Steve Hall, Kim Dozier -- we'll leave it there for now. Thank you so much.

DOZIER: Thanks.

HALL: Sure.

WHITFIELD: All right. Now to the mounting legal troubles for former President Donald Trump. The special counsel is charging Trump with three new counts in the classified documents investigation. Those charges include one additional count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional counts of obstruction.

Prosecutors say Trump, along with two employees, aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de Oliveira allegedly tried to pressure another employee into destroying security camera footage.

CNN's Zachary Cohen joining us right now with more on this. Zach, so explain what is in this superseding indictment and the new allegations against Trump.

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Fred. Two of these new charges stem from allegations that Trump and these two Mar-a-Lago employees tried to destroy surveillance video footage from Mar-a-Lago as a grand jury was effectively trying to get its hands on it so they could review it as part of the investigation into Trump's handling of classified documents.

Now it also provides evidence, the indictment says, that Trump himself was the one directing these two employees to destroy the footage to make (ph) -- and there's a reference in the indictment in a text conversation between Nauta and de Olivera where they refer to "The Boss" as wanting -- the one who wanted this footage to be deleted. So new evidence there. And then also the third charge relates to an additional classified document, one that we have heard about from an audio recording, you've seen them previously reported from 2021 where Trump is in his office in Bedminster.

But listen to the way Trump described this document that appears in the superseding indictment at that time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Wait a minute. Let's see here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TRUMP: I just found -- isn't that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know. Except it is like highly confidential.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TRUMP: I was just thinking because we're talking about it. And you know, he said he wanted to attack Iran and what -- these are the papers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You did.

TRUMP: This was done by the military and given to me. I think we can probably do that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know. We'll have to see. Yes, we'll have to try to figure out a --

TRUMP: declassify it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TRUMP: So as president I can --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Now I can't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: This document was noticeably absent from the first indictment, but we now know that it is real, the document is real. Despite Trump's claim to the contrary and now it is the 32nd count of willful retention of defense information.

WHITFIELD: So Zachary, this third defendant now, Carlos de Oliveira, what do we know about him based on these documents?

COHEN: Yes Fred. De Oliveira is described in the indictment as a 56- year-old property manager. The prosecutors sort of detail how he completes odd jobs around Mar-a-Lago. He's really painted as a normal Mar-a-Lago employee and one that rose through the ranks from valet all the way to the property manager job.

But then it goes on to really detail and describe Oliveira as a active participant in what frankly amounts to as an alleged coverup, this effort to delete the surveillance video. And prosecutor argue that de Oliveira, Nauta and Trump were all active participants and that Trump, of course, allegedly the one pulling the strings and ordering that to be done.

WHITFIELD: As they referred to him as boss, as spelled out in the indictment.

All right. Thank you so much. I guess we have time for one more. Yes?

COHEN: Sure.

WHITFIELD: Maybe, ok.

All right. So multiple sources are telling CNN that an indictment in the special council's January 6th investigation could come down, you know, at any time next week. What do we know about that?

COHEN: Yes Fred. We have obviously been watching this grand jury in D.C. and the other special counsel investigation overseen by Jack Smith. And you know, there is no indication -- an official indication from the Justice Department or the special counsel's office that an indictment is imminent but law enforcement officials here are planning accordingly and do believe it could come anytime within the next week.

So we're going to keep an eye on that for you, Fred.

[11:14:46]

WHITFIELD: All right. Zachary Cohen, thanks so much.

All right. With me now to talk more about these new charges, Nick Akerman. He is a former assistant special Watergate prosecutor and a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Nick, great to see you.

NICK AKERMAN, FORMER ASSISTANT SPECIAL WATERGATE PROSECUTOR: Good to be here.

WHITFIELD: All right. So you know, Trump was already facing 37 felony counts in this classified documents investigation. Now it's 40. How significant are these three new charges?

AKERMAN: Extremely significant. He's charged in the first indictment with obstructing justice on the first subpoena that he received to produce all classified documents. He's now charged with obstruction of justice on the second subpoena that he received for attempting to destroy the footage, the video footage of the people moving around the boxes of the classified documents which was part of the obstruction of the first subpoena.

So what it does is it spills out the entire story and provides the jury with the entire story of Donald Trump's obstruction and it goes to his corrupt intent and explains to the jury what he was doing and why he was doing it.

So it's extremely significant, even though it just adds a couple of counts to the indictment itself.

WHITFIELD: And you, of course, served as a Watergate prosecutor. These new charges center on allegations of attempts to destroy evidence. The indictment says Trump and his employees tried to -- I'm quoting now -- "alter, mutilate and conceal" evidence after trying to delete security camera footage.

Do you see similarities to, you know, the 18-minute gap in the Watergate investigation, as it pertained to the audio recordings that Nixon asked would be deleted or destroyed?

AKERMAN: No question about it. It's deja vu all over again, as Yogi Berra, the famous Yankee catcher said.

What happened there was that Richard Nixon, just like Donald Trump had one of his subordinates -- in this case, Rosemary Woods, his secretary -- essentially delete 18 minutes of a very significant tape that was -- took place in his Oval Office in a conversation that was produced to our office. 18 minutes was missing. Nixon accomplished what he did.

Trump for some reason was unable to delete this. We don't know exactly why, but I think at trial we're going to find out exactly what else happened and why it was that Donald Trump wasn't successful in deleting that evidence.

WHITFIELD: A part of these new charges for the former president focused on a top secret document that Trump discussed at a 2021 meeting at his New Jersey golf club. Let's listen to that recording.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Wait a minute. Let's see here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TRUMP: I just found -- isn't that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know. Except it is like highly confidential.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TRUMP: I was just thinking because we're talking about it. And you know, he said he wanted to attack Iran and what -- these are the papers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You did.

TRUMP: This was done by the military and given to me. I think we can probably do that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know. We'll have to see. Yes, we'll have to try to figure out a --

TRUMP: Declassify it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TRUMP: So as president I can declassify it --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Now I can't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So Trump has, you know, denied that document was real claiming in an interview that it was just newspaper clippings, but we now know that Trump returned the document to the National Archives last January and it was actually a classified document about military action in Iran.

So here we're talking about audio tapes that is used as evidence, whereas the flip side, Watergate we're talking about, you know, 18 minutes that was missing. So how serious, in your view, for the former president is this new allegation and this kind of evidence?

AKERMAN: Well, this kind of evidence in fact in Watergate, I mean they may have deleted 18 minutes of one tape, but there were lots of other Oval Office tapes that basically convicted all of President Nixon's chief aides, including his attorney general.

So there was very significant tape recorded evidence that was very powerful in that case. And the same is true here.

This evidence on this case (ph) would seem to suggest that clearly there was a classified document that Donald Trump was referring to. But then afterwards in response to press questions, he was trying to claim these were magazine articles, that these were not classified documents.

[11:19:49]

AKERMAN: Well, this new count in the indictment totally blows that out. Completely undercuts and destroyed any defense he has there, plus the government is able to use his false exculpatory statement to show his state of mind and to prove the fact that he knew that he was dealing with classified information and providing it to people who had no right to be anywhere near that information.

WHITFIELD: How are his attorneys going to defend him when you have evidence like this that we know about that has been revealed to us, the general public?

AKERMAN: Bottom line is there's no real defense here. The problem is Donald Trump is not going to take a plea. Most individuals under these circumstances would get their defense lawyer to go in and see what kind of a deal they can make.

This is not going to happen here because Donald Trump thinks he's still going to run for president. And I don't see him caving in and seeking a plea deal here.

WHITFIELD: All right. We'll leave it there for now. We'll talk some more about it in the near future. Nick Akerman, thank you so much.

AKERMAN: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up an unrelenting heat wave continues to scorch much of the nation. Is there a break in sight? The forecast is next. [11:21:13]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. It's very hot out there, everywhere you look. More than 100 million people in fact are under heat alerts from coast to coast today. New York Mayor Eric Adams has announced cooling centers will be open and the city is also extending hours at public pools to help residents stay safe.

CNN national correspondent Athena Jones is live for us from Washington Square Park in New York City.

Something tells me that fountain is not a cooling place. I'm sure it's pretty hot right now as is the air. So what are the concerns overall with this kind of heat? It's putting a real stress on the power grid as well.

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi Fredricka.

Let's talk about the heat for a moment. This fountain is now on, thank goodness. Yesterday it was under repair for part of the day. And the temperature has reached about -- the real temperature has reached about 85 degrees, but the feels-like temperature with the humidity and the sun is in the low 90s. It's expected to creep into the mid-90s later today.

This is a far cry from what we're seeing in Phoenix at over 110, but in New York it's not a dry heat. There's a lot of humidity. That's why the National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory until 8:00 p.m. for southern Connecticut, northeast New Jersey and southeast New York, which includes all of New York City.

And that is why we're seeing warnings from the folks like Mayor Eric Adams, opening cooling centers here and from the governor, Governor Kathy Hochul, telling people to take precautions and stay inside as much as possible.

But I mentioned those cooling centers in part because of concerns about this extreme heat taxing the power grid. Not just here in New York, but across the region. We know that PJM Interconnection which is the largest power provider in the area. It provides power to more than a dozen states, they are saying that people have got to be careful and not overuse the power.

Con Edison here in New York is calling on folks to reduce their use of appliances. For instance, If you're going to use an air conditioner and you have more than one, don't run all three or four air conditioners you have in every room.

Make sure that you are conserving that energy so that we can avoid blackouts because that's the last thing we want to see here in New York. And so people who are looking to cool down are coming to places like this. Shade, wind and a breeze and of course, fountains. We have seen some dogs so far taking advantage of the fountain but not people yet. It's going to get much hotter today, Fredricka. WHITFIELD: And sometimes carrying an umbrella helps as well. Just to

give yourself a little extra shade when you can't find --

JONES: Or a fan.

WHITFIELD: -- there you go, and a nice fan.

All right. Athena Jones, thanks so much.

All right. I want to bring in now CNN meteorologist Britley Ritz who is tracking all of this from the CNN Weather Center here in Atlanta. So Britley, give me a new word to describe all this. I remember once upon a time it was ridiculous.

BRITLEY RITZ, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know.

WHITFIELD: What is it this weekend?

RITZ: Ridiculous.

Awful, deadly, potentially deadly, disastrous in some cases. But Fred, sometimes you just need to stay indoors. And the best time to get out and about would be in the morning and then later on into the evening.

Peak heating times are usually around 1:00 and about 4:00 in the afternoon. We're talking about potentially deadly heat. It's very dangerous.

I mean Phoenix, 115 degrees. Typically we should be around 106. We're about 10 degrees above normal. And we have had 29 consecutive days where our temperatures have been over 110 degrees. We're adding to that today. So it will be 30.

We have temperatures all across the country above normal if not just closer to where we should be now that the cold front has worked its way through like Chicago at 80 degrees. But Louisville, you're at 96, 95 in Atlanta, 95 in D.C.

When you factor in dew points of 70 plus, you get what's called the heat index or the feels-like temperature. And that happens a lot of times across the Ohio Valley down through the southeast and up into the northeast where temperatures feel like they are in the triple digits -- D.C., 103.

And now we're talking about record-breaking high temperatures, not just record-breaking high temperatures but record-breaking low temperatures where they are at their warmest.

So 80 plus possible over the next two days' time. We have heat advisories for much of the Plains back into the lower Mississippi Valley up into the mid-Atlantic and the northeast. Just south of D.C., we have excessive heat warnings and St. Louis and Phoenix all included in that excessive heat warning and excessive heat watches down across the Florida panhandle.

Fred, it's just one of those days you want to stay indoors and avoid it all. But if you have to be out and about, I say no more than ten minutes at a time in this heat.

WHITFIELD: Good advice. All right. It is everywhere, that heat. Oppressive.

All right. Britley Ritz, thank so much.

[11:29:51]

WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up, outrage in Ohio after an unarmed black man was attacked by a police K9 as he surrendered, hands up. Now he's speaking out to CNN about the terrifying ordeal straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The European Union said today it is halting financial support and security cooperation with the African country of Niger following a military coup in that country.

On Friday coup leaders said they were suspending the country's constitution and institutions that came out of it. The U.S. is warning that a military takeover could put its financial assistance in peril.

CNN's State Department reporter Jennifer Hansler is joining us right now with more on this. Jennifer, what more about the U.S. reaction to what's going on in Niger?

JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT REPORTER: Well Fred, the U.S. has strongly condemned what is happening in Niger and they have urged the coup leaders to step back and allow President Bazoum, who is the democratically elected leader of Niger to resume his place in power.

[11:34:58]

HANSLER: There's been a flurry of diplomatic activity. We have seen Secretary of State Tony Blinken, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas Greenfield speak with Bazoum. Vice President Kamala Harris has also been involved in these efforts. But they are warning, as you said that unless power is restored to Bazoum that the U.S. could cut critical assistance to Niger.

Secretary of State Tony Blinken talked about this overnight. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Our economic and security partnership with Niger which is significant, hundreds of millions of dollars depends on the continuation of the democratic governance and constitutional order that has been disrupted by the actions in the last few days.

So that support is in clear jeopardy as a result of these actions, which is another reason why they need to be immediately reversed.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HANSLER: And one thing I should note Fred, is that experts told CNN that this is a really tricky spot for the United States because Niger is such a key partner there in that Sahara region. They have been a bastion of democracy over the last few years. The U.S. has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance to that country and there are about a thousand U.S. troops who are assisting in counterterrorism efforts there.

Now if the U.S. were to cut assistance, there are concerns that those efforts could suffer. And we could see groups like the Wagner group, that infamous mercenary group, come in to try to take advantage.

We have already seen the head of that group, Yevgeniy Prigozhin try to take advantage. His propaganda is that he's blamed it on the West. And so the U.S. is concerned that they could exploit it, but they said they've had no role thus far, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jennifer Hansler, keep us posted. Thank you so much.

All right. Still to come, new details in the case of an Alabama woman who admitted to staging her own kidnapping. Why police say they felt compelled to bring charges against her. Straight ahead.

[11:36:50]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back.

Police are investigating a mass shooting that left five people injured in a south Seattle parking lot last night. At least two suspects opened fire at a community outreach event. Four victims were taken to the hospital. Two of them in critical condition. One victim was treated at the scene and released.

And now officials say it's time to get guns off the streets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF ADRIAN DIAZ, SEATTLE POLICE: Right now, we really have to get guns off the streets, right. We have had to recover probably the highest amount of guns in the 15 years that we have been tracking this ever.

And honestly, this is really disturbing when you have victims that are really just trying to do an outreach effort, trying to help people out and get people on the right path. And this is what they end up getting hit with is via different rounds being fired at them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Police are still investigating the motive behind the shooting. The suspects remain at large.

Quoting now, "I didn't want to die in the hands of police". That's what an Ohio man told CNN after he was attacked by a police K9. Jadarrius Rose was unarmed and on his knees with his hands in the air when an officer released a dog on him. The officer has since been fired and Rose is considering filing a lawsuit.

CNN correspondent Isabel Rosales is covering the story for us. So Isabel, bring us up to speed and you had a chance to talk with him.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I did and his mother and Ben Crump, who's the attorney, the same civil rights attorney that is now representing him.

So Rose is not only just facing a felony from this police pursuit that happened across three counties, but he's also been terminated from his job as a truck driver for Western Express. Not only him, but also the officer who released that K9 on him, Ryan Speakman.

The police union the Ohio Patrolman's Benevolent Association has filed an official grievance with the police department asking him for him to get his job back saying he was fired without just cause.

So let me bring you back to July 4th when all of this happened. It started with a motor carrier enforcement inspector, who noticed that Rose driving his truck did not have a rear mud flap. So he turned on his sirens. He turned on his light to get him to stop. Rose does not stop.

And in that pursuit, we know from Rose in the interview with him, he called his mother who told him, hey, if you didn't do anything wrong, just stop the truck. But Rose initially did stop and then noticed all of the guns pointed at him he said. And that is why he was afraid.

So he got back on the road, called 911 telling the dispatcher that he doesn't know why they are pursuing him. He's afraid for his life.

He does eventually bring the truck to a stop. He has his hands up. He's surrounded by law enforcement officers, a state trooper not only gives him commands, but also to a Circleville police officer saying hey do not release that dog on him, he's got his hands up.

And despite these warnings, these repeated warnings, and we're not clear if that state trooper was heard, Officer Ryan Speakman releases the dog. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do not release the dog with his hands up. Do not release the dog with his hands up. Do not release the dog -- with his hands up. Don't -- get the dog off of him.

JADARRIUS ROSE, TRUCK DRIVER: They just let a dog bite me. All you had to do was come to me.

I was coming out, all the guns were pointed at me. (INAUDIBLE) You've got a gun pointed at me, There's like 20 of you all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All you had to do was stop, brother. ROSE: I did stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: And hear it straight from Jadarrius Rose what went through his mid as that dog attacked.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROSE: When the dog was biting me, I just was terrified. I thought I was going to lose my life. I was in pain. I really couldn't see what the officer was doing because the dog was biting me. I just was in fear for my life. I was screaming in pain. I just -- I just didn't want to die. I didn't want to die in the hands of the police.

[11:44:58]

BENJAMIN CRUMP, LAWYER FOR JADARRIUS ROSE: It's the fear of most black people in America that when the police pull them over that it's possible they could be the next hashtag.

And the fact that they live in Memphis, Tennessee where Tyre Nichols, an unarmed black motorist was completely compliant, but yet he got brutalized to the point of where he lost his life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: And the Circleville police department would not talk to us on camera. In fact, ignored several e-mails and phone calls, but they did put out a statement defending the training of their K9 unit saying quote, a use of force review board found that quote, "The department's policy for the use of K9s was followed in the apprehension and arrest. But still the police department terminated Officer Ryan Speakman saying in part here Officer Speakman did not meet the standard and expectation that we hold for our police officers.

So these two men have lost their jobs. With Rose, he faces a felony failure to comply. Crump is hoping that this is ultimately in the purview of the prosecutor whether to move forward on this charge. He's hoping that he will cancel out those charges, he won't go through with it.

WHITFIELD: All right. Keep us posted as you learn more information. Isabel, thank you so much.

All right. Straight ahead, a burglary bungled after a suspected bank robber fell from a ceiling and then right into the trash bin before getting nabbed by police. Details, straight ahead.

[11:46:29]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A second crack was discovered on one of Charlotte, North Carolina's fastest and tallest rollercoaster. This is the same ride that was shut down last month after a visitor spotted a major crack on one of its supporting pillars, that it was moving as the cars were flying by.

The coaster reaches speeds of nearly a hundred miles an hour and peaks at 325 feet. Park officials say the ride will remain closed until further inspections and repairs are made.

The Alabama woman who faked her own kidnapping is now under arrest. Carlee Russell gained nationwide attention earlier this month when she called police claiming she saw a toddler on the side of a busy highway.

But when police showed up, all they found was her empty car and her cell phone.

CNN's Ryan Young has more on how this evolved.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A lot of fascination about this story, especially when it comes to Carlee Russell. Where did this young lady go for several hours. It was 49 hours, to be exact of how long she was missing. She was on the side of the road when she called 911 and said that she saw a toddler on the side of the road.

When police arrived, they found Carlee Russell's car, but they didn't see a sign of her or that toddler.

49 hours later, when she showed up to her parents' home, she had a story about a man with orange hair who had kidnapped her along with a woman who she said she'd never seen before.

At some point she was able to break away from this story that she was telling police and they were able to discover that what she was saying was a hoax.

Police also went through her social media and they were able to figure out also through her phone and her searches that she looked up a one- way bus ticket and travel outside the city and the movie taken.

Listen to the police chief talking about the charges he decided to place against Carlee Russell.

CHIEF NICK DERZIS, HOOVER POLICE: I know many are shocked and appalled that Miss. Russell is only being charged with two misdemeanors despite all the panic and disruption her actions caused. Let me assure you I too share the same frustration, but existing laws only allow the charges that were filed to be filed. I can tell you that I will be contacting our state legislatures on behalf of law enforcement in Montgomery and asking them to look at this law applied to these facts and urge them to add an enhancement to current legislation when somebody falsely reports kidnapping or another violent crime.

YOUNG: Those charges are false reporting to law enforcement authorities, and falsely reporting an incident. Now both ended up being about $1,000 bond. Carlee Russell was arrested and she was released. At this point, there is talk about whether or not there could be more

charges. But because of the way the laws are set up in Alabama, that is not the case as of right now.

There is also talk about the economic impact to the police departments that were involved in this. Well a lot of discussions but what we do know is she was arrested, charged and bonded out. A weird ending to this entire saga.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Weird indeed. Ryan Young, thanks so much.

All right. Straight ahead, are you feeling lucky? The mega millions jackpot has now soared to more than $1 billion. When you'll get your next shot at the prize coming up. And a quick programming note to tell you about from love and hip-hop to "America's Next Top Model", "SEE IT LOUD" looks back on the rise of Black unscripted television.

A new episode of "THE CNN ORIGINAL SERIES: SEE IT LOUD, THE HISTORY OF BLACK TELEVISION premiers tomorrow at 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

[11:54:29]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Ok. In Ohio, a moment that must be seen to be believed. This happened in the city of Huron which is between Toledo and Cleveland.

And a suspected robber is caught on camera dropping down from the ceiling of a bank drive-through and literally managing to fall right into a recycling bin. Oh boy, that moment.

Police were called to the scene long before he made his attempted getaway. So they were at the ready to nab him there. The man had a backpack of tools and is now charged with breaking and entering and safe cracking.

[11:59:45]

WHITFIELD: All right. The mega millions jackpot has soared to more than $1 billion after lottery officials say no winning ticket matched all six numbers -- 5, 10, 28, 52, 63 and Mega ball 18 drawn last night. But even though no one hit the jackpot last night, some people did score some pretty big prizes.