[Costello:] Police are now looking into what happened at the Cincinnati Zoo before the little boy fell into the gorilla exhibit. Investigators are focusing on the boy's family that day. We don't know much about the boy's family except that the boy's mother is daycare worker who wants to remain anonymous. The family did, however, the family released a second statement. It reads in part, quote, "some have offered money to the family, which we do not want and will not accept. If anyone wishes to make a gift, we recommend a donation to the Cincinnati Zoo in Harambe's name," the name of the gorilla. The family's new statement coming amid ongoing scrutiny of what the boy's mother was doing before the little boy fell into the exhibit. A witness who filmed this video you're looking told CNN what she saw.
[Kimberley O'connor, Witness:] The little boy was a typical little boy at a candy store. Can I get this, can I get that? And he was jokingly and bantering to go in and see the monkeys. The mother was, no, you're not, no, you're not. And I think as they got ready to leave, that to tend to the other children, gather them up, get them in the stroller and move everyone along, I think in the 60 seconds, he got away.
[Costello:] And CNN's Jessica Schneider live in Cincinnati with more. Good morning.
[Jessica Schneider, Cnn Correspondent:] Good morning, Carol. And that woman will certainly be a key witness in this police investigation. There's been intense scrutiny surrounding this incident and a lot of internet backlash. A lot of people are wondering, what were the parents doing in the minutes before the 3- year-old boy got into the gorilla enclosure? That will be what police hone in on. They want to learn about the parents' action or potential inaction in all of this. Now, the family did release a statement this morning and they talked about the welfare of their child. They say that he's doing okay. And they said, in part, "Our child has a checkup by the doctor and is doing well. We continue to praise God for his grace and mercy and to be thankful to the Cincinnati Zoo for their actions taken to protect our child." But people really want to know, how did that child get into the gorilla enclosure? We heard from the woman who filmed it all and said, where there's a will, there's a way.
[O'connor:] I think there was some level of difficulty. If he was adventurous enough and really motivated, he could have gotten in with fairly ease at that point. But I think, with the amount of people that were around, you would think that he could have been caught. Or somebody would have seen him. Somebody would have pulled him back. But with some relative ease, he could have gotten in there if he really wanted to.
[Schneider:] Now the zoo has stressed that the barriers are secure. They have never had an incident since the gorilla world exhibit has been opened. It opened in 1978. As for the zoo itself, police have stressed that the zoo is not a focus of this investigation. In fact, the zoo falls under the purview of the USDA last here to check the zoo for an inspection in April Carol.
[Costello:] All right. Jessica Schneider reporting live from Cincinnati. With me now to break this all down, CNN legal analyst, Paul Callan. Hi, Paul.
[Paul Callan, Cnn Legal Analyst:] Good morning.]
[Costello:] OK. So, the Cincinnati police are reviewing this case. What do they need to find in order to file charges against these parents?
[Callan:] Well, they would have to find that the parents committed a form of child abuse or child endangerment under Ohio law. And most of the statute has to do with torturing a child or depriving him of food, that sort of thing. There is a general provision that if you create a substantial risk to the welfare of the child, by placing him in a dangerous situation, that can be child endangerment. But is bringing your child to the zoo child endangerment? I mean, I think a lot of parents would assume that these exhibits are secure enough that a 3 12-year-old couldn't figure out how to get into the place where they keep a 450-pound silverback gorilla. So, I think when I look at this pattern, I don't see the parents being charged. I see on the other hand the zoo better have a better look at how to get into these exhibits.
[Costello:] So unless the mother picked the child up and put him on top of the gorilla enclosure of the wall and said, hey, climb over, would it have to be that extreme?
[Callan:] Well, it wouldn't have to be that extreme. Obviously, if the mother just forgot about the kid and was wandering around the zoo for 15 to 20 minutes, you could make an argument there that that was child endangerment. And remember these other cases we covered last year? Leaving a baby in a hot car, a clear-cut there, that would be child endangerment.
[Costello:] A lot of people likened this to leaving a baby in the hot car, you're not paying attention to them, you're leaving them.
[Callan:] I was watching the witness and I see this happening in court so often. She said, you know, the mother's attention was only diverted for 60 seconds, she said. Thinking, and I can tell she's thinking that is a short period of time, well, 60 seconds is a long period of time. I'm betting it is probably going to turn out to be 30 seconds or something while putting another kid in a stroller. And a toddler running around at high speed, they are hard to keep track at a zoo. So, easily 30 seconds, maybe the toddler is out of your sight.
[Costello:] The other curious thing is once the kid got up on the wall, why didn't anyone reach over the wall and pluck the kid out? Why didn't that happen?
[Callan:] I don't know. It's shocking. And, you know, you watch the film and the bystanders are they are watching the child and yelling down into the enclosure. All of this time goes by, there was so much time he could have been killed. It's really a miracle the child is alive.
[Costello:] OK, let's talk about the couple at the zoo itself. It's under the purview of the USDA, right? So, the Cincinnati police wouldn't investigate the zoo. But what could happen to the zoo?
[Callan:] I don't think you'll see very much happen to the zoo, even if there's a finding that they could have done a better job in setting up this gorilla exhibit. The reason I say that is, one, there's a tendency in zoos nationwide to create a more natural environment for the animals and to look more like their natural environment. Now, to do that you can't have barbed wire and huge fences and everything else. This particular exhibit has been in place since 1978. It's been inspected by outside agencies. And the zoo says it always got a clean bill of health. So, this is the first time they became aware that this sort of breach could happen, particularly with such a young toddler.
[Costello:] But it is curious that 38 years this has never happened before. Maybe this kid was incredibly clever or incredibly fast or
[Callan:] It could be. And there are complaints of a couple other incidents at the Cincinnati Zoo. I saw one where a couple polar bears got loose. But that seem to be somebody left the door open in their enclosure which is an entirely different thing as opposed to designing a secured facility.
[Costello:] It didn't danger the public but the zoo workers, right?
[Callan:] Yes, it did.
[Costello:] So, my last question because I'm curious about this. At first, there seemed to be no interest in investigating the family for what happened at the zoo. But now, Cincinnati police are investigating. So, what do you think changed? Was it public pressure? Or do they really think that there's something there?
[Callan:] Well, you know, you have to I always look at the craziness of social media. Immediately, you know, thousands of people were signing a petition that when I went to sleep last night, I think there were over 100,000 signatures indicating that, you know, the parents should be investigated, and people you know, they should go to jail. And, you know, a lot of the animal rights activists are saying. I think that maybe public pressure had a little bit of influence. But on the other hand, I would just expect in a situation like this, the police would have a look at it. I'll be shocked if any charges brought against anybody. I think it's a sad situation. But we got out of it fortunately without the child being killed. It's a tragedy we lost the gorilla, but it is just one of those things that happened.
[Costello:] Paul Callan, thanks so much.
[Callan:] Thank you.
[Costello:] Still to come in the
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