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Latest on Woman Who Killed 1, Injured 37 on the Vegas Strip; Texas Grand Jury Does Not Indict Anyone in Connection with Sandra Bland's Death. Aired 6:30-7:00a ET

Aired December 22, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Answers are coming about why a woman plowed into pedestrians in the Vegas strip, killing a mother of three, injuring 37 others. This is the suspect. She is facing multiple charges including murder with a deadly weapon which is the car in this case and child abuse because her 3-year-old was in the car during the incident.

CNN's Ryan Young is live in Vegas with the latest. What do we know about her and what the motivation supposedly was, my friend?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, a lot questions about this one, Vegas, a busy area. Obviously, the strip of place where a lot of people were walking along when this thing happen. I mean a lot of people actually witnessed this and were very upset where they were banging on the windows to try to get her to stop from running people over.

The Sheriff says they believe she wasn't under the influence of anything and in fact that people were trying to get her to pay attention to them. But that did not happen. She kept running people over, then she went to another part of the strip, turned herself into a security officer saying she had run people over.

The sheriff's department believes she was maybe involved in a fight with her baby's father and that's the reason why she ended up down here where she was homeless for about a week -- about a few years ago. She was actually part of a system where she was talking about the idea of how she was fighting back from being homeless and being out there on the streets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAKEISHA HOLLOWAY, CHARGED IN LAS VEGAS HIT AND RUN: I was a scared little girl who knew that there was more to life outside of crime, drug addiction, lower income, alcoholism, being undereducated. All of the things I grew up being familiar with.

Today, I'm not the same scared girl I used to be. I'm a mature young woman who has broken many generational cycles that those before we hadn't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: As I -- Chris lose my attention. We had some people here on the strip screaming at us from behind the camera here. But look, the whole idea is people are trying to figure out exactly what happened to this woman, what led her down here to the Strip and led her to unfortunately run over so many people.

Now the question will come -- what will happen next? And obviously, she'll face a court appearance in the next few days. And in the next few days, hopefully, investigators will get to the bottom of this. This (inaudible) tragic thing happened here on the Strip. Chris.

CUOMO: Ryan Young, I got to tell you that video is very helpful and understanding just how wrong this woman's life went that she went up doing something so terrible. We look forward to more answers.

And my friend, I've seen you stay calm in a lot worse than the Vegas Strip. I've seen you in Ferguson. I've seen you in Baltimore.

YOUNG: This city (inaudible) didn't want you to hear all the cussing.

CUOMO: You are rock solid, my friend. There's no never question about that. Marry Christmas to you.

YOUNG: Thank you.

CUOMO: Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. No indictment in the case of Sandra Bland, that's the woman found dead in her jail cell. Did the grand jury get this one right? We'll break it down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:35:00]

CUOMO: Breaking overnight, a situation that's going to be met with controversy and outrage but requires a sober mind as we go through the facts. Here's what we know. A Texas grand jury deciding not to indict anyone in connection with Sandra Bland's death. You'll remember her. She was found hanging in her jail cell after allegedly assaulting an officer during a traffic stop in July.

What are the facts? What are the implications? Let's bring in CNN Law Enforcement Analyst and Retired NYPD Detective Mr. Harry Houck and CNN Political Commentator and Professor at Morehouse College, Professor Marc Lamont Hill.

Gentlemen, thank you both. Now, Mark, I'm going to start with you.

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes.

CUOMO: This is going to be a very controversial situation here because people, you know, you hear just the rough facts, traffic stop, dead in cell. It is upsetting. Let us remind people some of the sound and circumstances that came out about the actual traffic stop and arrest. Let's play that first.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN ENCINIA, TEXAS STATE TROOPER: I'm going to yank you out of here.

SANDRA BLAND, SUICIDE VICTIM: OK, you're going to yank me out of my car?

ENCINIA: Get out.

BLAND: OK. All right.

ENCINIA: 2547.

BLAND: Let's do this.

ENCINIA: Yeah, we're going to.

BLAND: Yeah. Don't touch me

ENCINIA: Get out of the car.

BLAND: Don't touch me. Don't touch me. I'm not under arrest -- you don't have the right to take me out of the car.

ENCINIA: You are under arrest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Now that is Sandra Bland in the car. That's the officer. They're in argument, trying into a tussle. She winds up getting arrested.

Marc, what's your primary reaction?

HILL: My primary reaction is this is the reflection of a dysfunctional system. The stop itself disturbs me. I wonder if it would have happened if she were someone else. What happened in the jail disturbs me. That's it. I'm not sure that an indictment was warranted. I don't have enough evidence. I don't have enough information to make that claim.

But one of the things that I wanted to see is evidence. I want to see transparency and I want to see the family involved in the process.

So for me it's not a question of whether or not the (inaudible) indictment is wrong. I don't think this is a Mike Brown/Darren Wilson situation.

I think the question is, is the system prepared to deal with these sorts of issues or is it a more fundamental problem here.

CUOMO: Now when talk about what the fundamental problem is, Marc is talking about the stop.

[06:40:05] What happens afterward, the three days in the cell, the plastic bag? What is alleged as a suicide by authorities and the medical examiner, the assault of an officer? Let's put that all after because it begins with what we just saw there. And where is that line about how you deal with this? Should we deal differently with these stops or are you still of the school that once you start down the wrong road it gets worse?

HARRY HOUCK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, what happens is, I mean the stop was perfectly legal and then she became uncooperative. Now at the time, listen, police officer can't tell you to put your cigarette out, you know, you smoke in your vehicle. And that's a question at whether or not he should have told her that or not. But the fact is that when an officer told her to get out of the vehicle now because she had started kept on some kind of an attitude or was getting combative to the officer. So the officer probably felt at the time that we better get her out of the vehicle for maybe his own safety at the time.

CUOMO: Right. Here's the question, here's the bump question on that. Does the officer have a responsibility in terms of how they conduct the stop to reduce tension and hostility? Because we all know the officer has...

HOUCK: Of course.

CUOMO: ... all the control of the situation. But if you tell me, put your cigarette out and you're talking to me like I'm a piece of garbage and you're pushing me to a point of disrespect, then I give you disrespect, now you have all the control and I'm immediately the bad guy.

HOUCK: Right but I didn't see any disrespect by the officer until she started getting combative.

CUOMO: Why?

HOUCK: All right. Once she got...

CUOMO: That's the question.

HOUCK: Right. Well...

CUOMO: You think she wanted to mess with the cop?

HOUCK: You're going to have to ask her. I can't tell you why.

CUOMO: Oh, we can't ask her.

HOUCK: You know, maybe she had some kind of an attitude. Maybe she didn't like the police. She didn't like the fact that she was pulled over for something. You could see that she's very combative. She said, "Oh, you know what? You're pulling me over for not, you know, for changing a lane without a signal." She was really upset about that, all right? But, you know what? That's against the law and that's why the police officer pulled her over.

CUOMO: Understood. Now, and again Mark, I'm not forgetting the circumstances under which Sandra Bland died. I'm just saying that they wound up not being germane (ph) to the indictment process according to what we understand about these eight hours that the grand jury deliberated. It was really about the context of the stop where they were considering indictments. So what's your concern about how this happens and where the responsibilities lie in terms of the conduct?

HILL: OK, so there's two things. One, in these circumstances and Harry makes an interesting point. He says you know we should ask Sandra Bland. And of course obviously Sandra Bland is dead. But that seems to be the outcome all the time, right? And then there's a questionable amount of facts in one of the key people in the situation is dead and it's always not the cop. I don't want to see anybody dead here, you know. But the reality is oftentimes we're forced to rely on the police's word against no one else's. And because the police have not been transparent about the process, in this case in particular, in other cases we often see this as well, it becomes a very frustrating circumstance.

HOUCK: They were transparent. The family even had a chance to meet with the district attorney's office and they refused to meet with the district attorney in this case. Basically they're listening to their attorney who's looking for a payday, all right? There's no evidence here that the police officer did anything wrong. The jail (ph) did nothing wrong, right? Ms. Bland is dead because she killed herself. It's not a result of the stop itself. She committed a crime and she got stopped, all right. She was arrested for that crime. She resisted arrest also. Another person came and helped that officer at the time. And they told her to calm down and calm down and she would not. So that stop has got nothing to do with her death.

CUOMO: Well, Harry here's what we know. At the end of the day, the grand jury met eight hours and they wound up returning no indictments. More information is going to come out about this. We know that. We'll pick up the conversation then.

(OFF-MIKE)

Absolutely. Mark Lamont Hill thank you very much, and Harry Houck, as always.

Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK. Now to this developing story. The clock is ticking for rescue crews searching for dozens still missing after a massive landslide in China. We have the latest live for you from China, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:45:00]

Donald Trump upping the ante and the vulgarity in his war with Hilary Clinton. Trump calling Clinton bathroom break during Saturday's debate "Disgusting" and he also use the term unfit for morning television, referring to Clinton's 2008 primary loss. New poll members out this morning show Trump maintaining his national lead, Quinnipiac has Trump at 28 percent and Ted Cruz at 24 percent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: The man in San Bernardino accused of buying assault rifles for terrorist and offering other support is not getting bail. Federal Judge ruled Monday, Enrique Marquez remains it "Danger to the community." The 24-year-old also allegedly planned to other terror attacks with the male gunman and entered into a fake marriage with the member of the terrorist extended family. He has not entered a plea, due back in court next month.

CAMEROTA: The manhunt extending and intensifying for the Affluenza teenager Ethan Couch. Law enforcer believes that his mother Tonya is helping him, they've released photos of a black Ford truck they might be using. Couch killed four people into 2013 in a drunk driving crash but he was given only probation instead of jail time. He and his mother have been missing since he skipped a meeting with his probation officer last week.

CUOMO: As many as 80 people are still buried alive in China after a manmade mountain of debris collapsed. We're now learning that the company in-charge of the waste dump alerted the local government about the possibility of landslides almost a year ago.

CNN has Matt Rivers with the latest from Shenzhen, this is where this is going on. What do we know now?

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chris, this search and rescue operation has been going on for the better part of two and half days now. And as each hour goes by the chances of finding 1 of the 76 people that remain unaccounted for alive goes down, it's that kind of uncertainty that was on the minds of two young brothers that we spoke to earlier today who aren't sure if their parents are still alive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

The massive landslide came without much warming toppling buildings, swallowing dozens of people inside. This morning only a handful have been rescued, many are still missing. Silent tears from 6-year-old Hong Laibao, his parents among those unaccounted for, his aunt and 16- year-old brother are looking after him, they all went to the scene on Monday.

[06:50:03] Their aunt breaking down saying the young boy would trade all of the money in the world just to have his parents back.

Chinese state media said it was a 20-storey pile of earth and construction debris that collapsed. As for the cause, conflicting reports and state media blamed both poor construction management and lack of government inspections.

This is just the latest in the string of deadly accidents in China this year. In June, over 430 people drowned after a river boat full of vacationing seniors sailed into a storm. Two months later, a large chemical explosion in the port city of Tianjin after authority say a company illegally stored combustible chemicals in a residential area. More than 160 people died. And now this, a manmade landslide that may have rendered two brothers orphans.

HONG LABAOHANG LAIBAO: (Speaking Foreign Language).

RIVERS: I just want my parents back, Laibao says. But despite the massive rescue effort underway right now as the hours and days go by the chances of a reunion grow faint.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

And this operation here in Shenzhen judging by the amount of activity that we've seen here in this site quickly turning towards an operation that was from rescue oriented to one more towards recovering. Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right Matt, we'll hold out and hope. Thank for the report, we'll check back with you later in the show. Let's take quick break.

Now, provocative question, while some say the Miss Universe mess may have been contrived...

CAMEROTA: That's you.

CUOMO: ... we dismissed that as an offer. And in alternative we have the truth from someone who was there and has new information about what went wrong, next.

Was it me?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:55:00]

CAMEROTA: An update now on the stunning outcome of the Miss Universe contest during which time the host Steve Harvey crowned the wrong winner.

CUOMO: What?

CAMEROTA: Well we now have new info on why that might have happened.

CNN contributor and Entertainment Tonight host Nischelle Turner was a preliminary judge...

CUOMO: And the true winner.

CAMEROTA: ... and backstage -- she should be -- and backstage at the pageant. OK, Nischelle, Entertainment Tonight is reporting that Steve Harvey missed a critical portion of rehearsals during which they figured out how the ending would go. What have you learned?

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, what we are reporting that a source is telling us that he may have missed at least an hour of the rehearsals. That he wasn't at the beginning of the rehearsals and he may have missed at least an hour of the rehearsals and that he did not practice the ending. Now, usually what they do in rehearsals are, they go through the whole show a few times and they do practice announcing the winner, just kind of a test run and they'll maybe say different names.

So it's not like they were practicing announcing the actual winner. But they would have rehearsed how to go about announcing it. So, he may have missed that ending, so that may have contributed to the flub a little bit. But, you know what? Maybe it didn't, maybe he just got caught up in the moment.

CAMEROTA: Maybe.

CUOMO: Or...

TURNER: I don't want to play Chris Cuomo's reindeer games because...

CAMEROTA: He's always filled with reindeer games. Did you know...

TURNER: I know.

CAMEROTA: But back to Steve Harvey for a second. You know, he got a lot of credit (ph) because he immediately came out and said, hey, my fault, I take responsibility for it but if he missed a critical portion of rehearsal that does suggest more carelessness than originally thought.

TURNER: You know it would. It definitely would. And it will be interesting to see kind of where it goes from here if that is in fact the case. You know, we did reach out to Steve as well for comment as well, as many people wanted to talk to him yesterday and he was unavailable were we told. But he did, after the pageant go to the backstage press conference and he repeatedly said, it was an honest mistake, it was an honest mistake. So, you know, at this point I think we have to take him for his word unless he actually comes out and maybe says that I missed part of it.

CUOMO: Well I believe that the tone of both of you is somewhat conspiratorial and I will step aside...

CAMEROTA: Of course you do.

CUOMO: ... and defend Mr. Harvey. There is no chance that what they would have practiced in the time that he may have missed would have changed what happened at the end of this. But here's why. Because I would bet that they tell you a million times what's happening at the end of that pageant. That they're in your ear, that there are all kind of coaxing so that you have to default to the idea that he simply made a mistake. He simply got it wrong. There was nothing more nefarious.

CAMEROTA: That doesn't make sense.

TURNER: No -- and the card lays out, you know, very clearly, second runner-up.

CUOMO: Yes, rehearsal would have helped.

TURNER: Miss Universe. So it lays it out very clearly. I believe that it was an honest mistake.

CAMEROTA: Yeah, and then it may have been an honest mistake. Obviously no one told him in his ear, its Miss Philippines. It's Miss Philippines.

CUOMO: We don't know that.

And he could have been caught in the moment.

TURNER: Yeah, they may have.

CUOMO: That's the last thing.

CAMEROTA: Because it would -- then he would have said its Miss Philippines.

CUOMO: Or, he got caught up in the moment and he screwed it up because the card has a little bit odd, it is odd that you don't announce the winner, you announce the first runner-up and then intuitively it becomes the other person.

CAMEROTA: Nischelle, can you get to the bottom of that?

TURNER: So hold on. Chris Cuomo, are you now saying that this -- you don't believe that this is a conspiracy? You don't believe that there was a setup? Because yesterday...

CUOMO: Why would I ever believe that?

TURNER: Thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: He is. Back, back, back, back, back.

CUOMO: I am disappointed in both of you. Expect coal.

CAMEROTA: You know what Chris? We have the tape from yesterday.

CUOMO: What tape?

CAMEROTA: We could replay it.

CUOMO: It's all digital, granny.

CAMEROTA: We could replay it. My point there, we could replay it. Don't push us.

CUOMO: I dare you.

Time to go. CUOMO: Producers? He's thrown down the gauntlet. Roll the tape.

CUOMO: A lot of people say that something was going on there, that it may have been intentional. It may have been a press ploy, it's all over the place.

CAMEROTA: A lot of people in your head.

CUOMO: What was that?

TURNER: Well here is the deal. I think, you know, most of us knows Steve Harvey and we know the man that he is...

CUOMO: Good man.

TURNER: ... and I don't think there's any amount of money that they could pay him that would make put his reputation and his good name on the line like that. I mean, I just don't believe it, I don't even know why people are having that conversation, really.

CAMEROTA: There you go. Nischelle Turner, thank you, great to see you.

CUOMO: And I submit that it is better for him going forward because he is a man of integrity. Anybody can make a mistake, a few own it.

A lot of news this morning what they say? Let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNIE SANDERS, (D) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Demagogue coming along, people like Donald Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hell no, Hillary Clinton will not be apologizing.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDA: When you see Hillary, I mean did you watch that -- what happened to her? The last president that she wants against is me.