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New Timeline for Uvalde, Texas, Elementary School Shooting Indicates Gunman in School for Over an Hour Before being Killed; Ten- Year-Old Survivor of Uvalde Elementary School Shooting Discusses His Experience; From Yankees to Heat, Sports Teams Join Fight Against Gun Violence. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired May 27, 2022 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: About the timeline here. Here's what we know. The 18-year-old gunman was not confronted by law enforcement before he entered the building. And this is something that contradicts initial police accounts. That was something we were told over and over initially, that he was, he did encounter a student resource officer. That actually wasn't true.

Officers at the scene were calling for backup as shots were being fired inside the school, we learned. A source close to a teacher who was inside confirms the school was not on lockdown before the gunman entered, even though he had fired shots at two people near the school, we are talking just a few tenths of a mile from the school, a full 12 minutes earlier. Frantic parents arrived at the scene where police were, and they were held back by police.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SHOUTING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Officials say they had to hold the parents back because of the volatile nature of the situation.

And this morning, we're learning the identities of more young victims. Layla Salazar, who was 11 years old, she loved to run, film TikTok videos, and dance, and 10-year-old Alithia Ramirez loved to draw. She wanted to be an artist. For many of the young survivors, the experience left them shaken and scarred. Here's how a second grader described his ordeal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EDWARD TIMOTHY SILVA, ROBB ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SECOND GRADER: I was praying thinking what is this happening? I have the fear of guns now, because I'm scared someone might shoot me.

(END VIDEO CLIP) JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And again, we are beginning to hear from more children who were inside the school and nearby classrooms. Our Adrienne Broaddus is here with me now. And Adrienne, you sat down with a young boy who was in one of those classrooms who heard it all going on. Tell us about him.

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He described the gunshots as loud, louder than what he had heard before, pointing out that his grandfather is a gun owner, and he said the sound of this rifle was much different. He also said, as soon as those shots were fired, his teacher quickly locked the door, told the students to hide and be quiet.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

BROADDUS: Jayden Perez is better today.

JAYDEN PEREZ, SCHOOL SHOOTING SURVIVOR: I'm still sad about some of my friends that died.

BROADDUS: And the 10-year-old shooting survivor says talking helps.

PEREZ: It was very terrifying because I never thought that was going to happen.

BROADDUS: Inside the fourth grade classroom, the 10-year-old said he and his classmates hid near the backpacks. This photo of a classroom was taken long before the shooting.

PEREZ: The five of us hiding there and the rest under a table. But that didn't stop one of my friends getting hurt. The shooter shot through the window, and hurting my friend and my teacher, like my teacher got hurt on like, I don't know which side but she got hit, like hit on the side. And then my friend got like shot through the nose. And they had -- and they both had to get surgery.

BROADDUS: Perez said an officer helped him and his classmates escape through a window, but not before the shooter had killed his friends.

PEREZ: McKenna, Tess, Annabelle, basically almost all of them, basically almost all of them.

BROADDUS: Jayden's pain, not physical, but emotionally paralyzing.

PEREZ: No, because after what happened.

BROADDUS: Do you ever want to go back to school?

PEREZ: I don't want exhibit to -- no, because I don't want anything to deal with another shooting and me in the school.

BROADDUS: Are you scared it might happen again?

PEREZ: And I know it might happen again, probably.

BROADDUS: Jayden's mom Crystal (ph) shared these pictures taken about 90 minutes before the shooting. She's with her son at the school, celebrating Jayden's honor roll achievement. His mom said waiting, not knowing was tough.

What did you tell your mom when you finally saw her?

PEREZ: I left my water bottle at the school.

BROADDUS: Your water bottle. Did you hug her?

PEREZ: She hugged me first, and she was like oh.

BROADDUS: Was she so happy to see you?

PEREZ: Yes, and my dad and my grandma.

BROADDUS: What do your parents mean to you?

PEREZ: A lot, because they brought me into this world.

BROADDUS: A world where schools are also crime scenes.

Did you hear the gunfire?

PEREZ: Yes. You never know whenever you can lose someone close to you.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

[08:05:07]

BROADDUS (on camera): A child reminding us all to love and hug the people that we love while we can. Meanwhile, Jayden also tole me before Tuesday he wanted to become a police officer when growing up. Now, John, he says, he wants to be a surgeon so he can help people like his friends who were helped here.

BERMAN: That's such a lovely thought. And that face, how could you not want to hug that face. What an adorable, adorable boy. He went through so much. It's so hard for anyone to go through something like this. Children, it's even a separate thing. How did he seem to you? How much do you think he really understands about everything that took place here?

BROADDUS: He spoke with such clarity and conviction, and he told me after I asked him, does talking help you? And he said, yes. I want to talk about it. And before even I approached him, I saw him over, I saw this animated child. I said, I wonder what that little boy is talking about. And I asked his mom if it was OK for us to speak with him. And she said, yes, only if he wants to talk to you. And I said, well, what have you said to him? And she said, we've just been letting him lead the conversation, letting him lean in and feel and talk about what help wants to talk about.

BERMAN: It does seem that sometimes talking helps. We heard the same thing from one of the survives we spoke to. She wanted to let people know what happened. But these kids, they're going to need so much help. They're going to need so much support. And it's not going to be a short-term thing. Adrienne, really wonderful conversation. Thank you so much for being with us.

All right, joining us again is Dr. Lillian Liao. She's a pediatric trauma medical director at University Health in San Antonio. Her hospital has been caring for three of the victims of the shooting as well as the 66-year-old grandmother of the shooter. Dr. Liao, thank you, once again, for being with us. Can you give us an update on the condition of your patients this is morning?

DR. LILLIAN LIAO, PEDIATRIC TRAUMA MEDICAL DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY HEALTH: Thank you. Sure. We're happy, actually, to report that one of the patients has been discharged. And so we're currently caring for two children and one adult patient at University Hospital.

BERMAN: And their condition this morning?

LIAO: The adult is serious and one child is in serious condition, and another child is in stable condition.

BERMAN: Stable. Well, I know it doesn't sound like much, but that's an improvement across the board for all four of your patients, and we have been waiting for some good news. And the news that one of the patients has been discharged is wonderful to hear, and we continue to hope for the continued improvement of the other patients who are still there.

Yesterday, Dr. Liao, you told me about the types of injuries you are treating. I can't remember the exact terminology you used, but it was severe tissue damage. They had been shot severely. What do you have to do to treat injuries like that?

LIAO: Well, as a trauma system, what we have to do is first initially recognize which are the most severely injured patients. And the moment that they come to a hospital, and initially the most seriously injured patients all went to Uvalde Memorial Hospital. They were stabilized. Physicians and nurses there looked for areas that were severely bleeding and tried to control the bleeding and infuse blood, right, to these patients, because we can bleed to death in as little as five minutes.

They were stabilized, and the critical patients were airlifted to the nearest trauma center that is capable of taking care of the complexity of these injuries, these devastating and destructive body injuries. When we received the patients, our initial approach is to add trauma life support. It is an algorithm created in concert with multiple other emergency care organizations within the American College of Surgeons in order to have an algorithm and a methodic way to treat injured patients. And both of the injured patients who were airlifted here underlined that type of triage evaluation and stabilization.

[08:10:00]

And if and when we determine they needed to go to the operating room for any kind of operative care, they went immediately to the operating room. And so sometimes our goal is to get to the operating room in as little as 10 minutes. Other times, we evaluate the patient and feel like they potentially are stable enough to undergo imaging, radiographic imaging, to allow us to have a better roadmap of the extent of injury and internal injury. We may do that before going to the operating room. And so those were the algorithms we used to treat these patients.

BERMAN: And they're lucky to have you. They're lucky to have with you those systems in place. They're lucky that those systems are there. And they're also lucky to have someone like you who obviously cares so much about their well-being. And I know you have been watching the stories that we are now hearing. Yes, go ahead.

LIAO: I'm sorry. I just want to interrupt. And I know you kept saying you, but I really, really want to stress that I am the person talking. There are hundreds of people, my trauma surgeon partners, my specialty partners, it was an entire team of people, the trauma system, that came together to save these lives. I don't by any means want you to or anyone in America to think that one person can do this. Absolutely not. This is the work of a trauma system that were able to discharge the patient. The trauma system and hundreds of people came together so that we have four patients at our facility who are still alive today. I really want to stress that.

BERMAN: You are a team. You are an army of angels. I don't think anyone doubts that for a second. It took so many of you working together to save those four lives, even as so many others were lost here, Dr. Liao. And I know how much you care about your team. I know how much you care about your patients. I also know how hard it is for all of us to keep hearing these stories. And I know you have been listening in as we are hearing more of what took place inside this school and what these kids went through. And it's hard. How do you try to compartmentalize that as you do your work?

LIAO: I was actually doing a pretty good job compartmentalizing the work and the focus on the patient care, not just these mass casualty victims, but at our trauma center, all the other trauma patients that we're taking care of, until I listened to the lead-in with the interview of the little boy who survived this. I think our training and our job as trauma surgeons is to focus on individual tasks at hand, and without that focus, we wouldn't be able to call ourselves trauma surgeons.

BERMAN: I know it's hard. You also know how many people have been listening to you, listening to you describe what your team has been doing, and they're just so grateful. I think everyone is so grateful for the work that you are all doing, but also grateful for your humanity. Dr. Lillian Liao, we thank you so much. We thank you so much. And please let everyone there know how grateful this community is for everything that's been done for them.

LIAO: Thank you. We are very grateful for all the outpouring of support to our team.

BERMAN: And again, the news we just heard from Dr. Liao, one of those patients they have been treating has been released, which is wonderful news. The other three patients, two of the children have been upgraded to serious condition. And the woman we know to be the grandmother of the shooter who was also being cared there, her condition slightly improved as well. They were all in critical condition yesterday. They're all at least a tick up from that. Their lives likely saved by Dr. Liao and her team.

We're going to have more on our exclusive conversation with one of the survivors, a little girl who was inside the classroom who saw her teacher killed. What she says the shooter said, what she says he did, playing music, and the lengths she went to survive.

Plus, this is interesting, this is something we haven't really seen before. Pro sports teams from around the country joining in the fight against gun violence. Bob Costas joins us live on NEW DAY coming up.

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[08:18:37]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Sports teams across America joining in the calls for action against gun violence. And that includes the Yankees and the Rays, who last night devoted their Twitter feeds to gun violence statistics instead of baseball.

And during the NBA Eastern Conference Finals, this message could be heard throughout the Heats-Celtics game.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: The Heat organization, the Boston Celtics and the NBA family also mourn those who lost their lives in the senseless shooting that took place yesterday at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

The Heat urges you to contact your state senators by calling 202-224- 3121 to leave a message demanding their support for common sense gun laws. You can also make change at the ballot box. Visit heat.com/vote to register. Let your voice be heard this fall.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Joining us to discuss is CNN contributor Bob Costas.

Bob, it is great to have you here this morning. As we are seeing really the sports world, sports icon teams, sportscasters mobilize, have you seen this before?

BOB COSTAS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah. It's to varying degrees. Certainly after the George Floyd murder, the Black Lives Matter movement. You have to make a description between the concept and cause of Black Lives Matter and organization Black Lives Matter.

[08:20:09]

Those two should not be confused. You can have a problem with the latter while embracing the former. So I have seen it.

But this rises to a certain level. I saw the clip you played from my friend Rich Eisen in the last hour. You know what will be heard from some quarters. Stick to sports. Stick to sports, which really is hardly a consistent principles, Brianna, because those people put sports figures and entertainment figures on as long as they say what they agree with and want to hear.

Rich Eisen is a citizen. His outrage and concern was well-articulated. The same thing with some other sports figures including Steve Kerr.

I thought it was significant, the Heat-Celtic game. It's in Florida. I'm not trying to say the attendees at and in NBA game who have the means to purchase the tickets on the interest in the NBA represent a cross-section of Florida's populace. It is taking place in Florida.

And the resounding cheers when the PA announcer called for support for common sense gun safety measures, which is not a first step, despite what alarmists and extremists say. It's not a first step towards taking anyone's legitimate Second Amendment rights away or confiscating anybody's guns. Common sense safety gun measures are very close to universally approved by the American people.

KEILAR: I mean, that seems to be where the conversation is going. Even what Rich Eisen was saying, too, he says, I don't care about guns. I care if my kids go to your house and you don't have them properly secured.

I wonder if you think the sports world can make a difference here.

COSTAS: Oh, I don't know if they can make a direct difference. But these voices are heard. It's a part of the discussion. So, it may move the needle in some respects.

It's going to get some blowback. Steve Kerr is already getting blow back. As you probably know, Brianna, he has a personal stake in this, at least an emotional stake because his father Malcolm was assassinated by Islamic jihad. He was the president of the American University in Beirut, some 40 years ago.

So gun violence plays a part in Steve Kerr's life so that accounts for some of the passion with which he responds to this.

Does he get heat and blowback and disagreement? Sure he does. But a lot of people are applauding what he and others have said.

KEILAR: What strikes me about what he said and got blowback for is he doesn't care. He went on to talk about it again. So let's listen to this. He is basically saying, this isn't about gun control. It's about talking about it, it's public health. So let's listen to this.

COSTAS: That's right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE KERR, HEAD COAHC, GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS: For whatever reason, it's a political issue. It's really a public health issue. So, as soon as we can just shift the dynamic to this being a public health issue, then you get momentum. There is lots of amazing gun safety gun prevention groups out there.

Call your senators, calm your representatives. It's all very helpful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: I also wonder about the responsibility that a lot of these figures feel, because you know we have been telling people about these 10 and 11-year-olds who died. We have been saying they love to dance to TikTok videos. They love the Astros.

I mean, these are the, these kids, their favorite things some of them were sports teams. I wonder what kind of responsibility is then incumbent on these teams and figures?

COSTAS: I don't know that there is a specific responsibility or that everyone is required to express themselves. But certainly it's a free country and these players and other sports figures have a platform and they have every right to use it.

I don't know how much time have you here, Brianna, so stop me if I am taking up your time.

KEILAR: We have time.

COSTAS: But -- OK, what we always hear in the aftermath of this, from certain quarters on the spectrum, let's talk about mental health. Let's talk about the police response, let's talk about security at the perimeter of schools. All of those are reasonable things to talk about.

But there is one thing that is always off the table. That's common sense gun safety measures. If you had a doctor that you went to and you had multiple conditions and they were all significant, but for whatever reason, he was not allowed to tell you about one of them and not allowed to treat one of them, he was allowed to prescribe treatment for the others, but not for the one that might be the most significant or certainly as significant, would you continue to go to that doctor?

This is off the table for many right wingers and many lawmakers, supposed lawmakers who won't make laws that will deal with this because they treat the Second Amendment as if it were a sacrament.

[08:25:10]

But long ago, a Supreme Court justice said the Constitution is not a suicide pact. In the same world, would any gun dealer look at the ID of an 18-year-old kid, see that this is his 18th birthday, he wants to buy an AR-15. He comes back two days later. He wants to buy another one.

If there were a common sense registry, we'd know like with prescription drugs that he brought ammunition, a whole bunch of it in the intervening day. In the same world, why would anyone want that young man who we know now is troubled, who was a murderer, why would we want him to walk out of that gun dealer's store with two AR-15s? In the same world, this is a law and order issue. It's not a liberal issue. It's not a take down the Second Amendment issue. No one says because we have regulations, we have traffic laws, you have to have a license, you have to have insurance, your car inspected, nobody says, you know what, this is the first step to confiscating our cars. Pretty soon we'll all have to go to grandma's house on Thanksgiving in a horse and buggy.

They don't say that, because it's insane. So is some of the response to this. It's just insane.

KEILAR: How do you see the conversation, the sports figures using their platform playing out? I mean, do you think they will keep doing this over time? Because this country famously loses momentum and interest in the wake of some of these that tragedies?

COSTAS: Well, we'll see. And I think we should stipulate sports figures are going to address whatever the issue is with varying levels of insight, varying levels of how well informed they are. I don't feel like we should nod and ascent to everything that some ball player tweets or random comment. In some cases we would agree. In other cases, we take exception or disagree with parts of it. Everything they say shouldn't automatically be accepted, but they have a voice.

And I think in this case, the overwhelming voices, not just the sports figures, but of Americans across the political spectrum, common sense gun safety laws, background checks, c'mon, show a little backbone, show a little concern for the citizens you are supposedly representing.

And isn't, I'm not a constitutional scholar, isn't the first obligation of government the security and safety of the citizenry?

KEILAR: Yeah. Look. We normally talk about sports, but this is what we are talking about today. When you talk about the hierarchy of needs of our children, safety in schools is number one. They love their sports, but being safety in a day.

How are they going to enjoy all these wonderful things they want in life. They can't go to school and be safe.

Robert, it's always great to have a conversation with you. We really do appreciate it.

COSTAS: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: We have more on our exclusive conversation with one of the survivors from inside of the classroom where the gunmen took the lives of most of his victims. The chilling details of what he did inside. The music that the little girl says she could hear him playing, that she believed he played as he killed the children and the lengths that she went to, to survive. Stay with us.

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