Chicago Father Arrested After 6-Year-Old Kills 3-Year-Old; Interview with Rep. Michael Turner.
COSTELLO: A tragic shooting in Chicago and now a Chicago man is behind bars, charged with child endangerment, after his young son found a loaded handgun in the house and accidentally killed his younger brother. Evelyn Holmes of affiliate WLS explains how the child was able to get to the weapon.</s>EVELYN HOLMES, WLS REPORTER (voice-over): A grieving family walks out of court after a judge calls this case the ultimate tragedy. A 6- year-old accidentally shoots his 3-year-old brother to death. eIan Santiago was killed with a loaded gun his father Michael Santiago kept wrapped in pajama pants on the top of the family's refrigerator.</s>ISRAEL LASALLE, GRANDFATHER OF EIAN SANTIAGO: You know how kids are. They get into everything. That is not a safe place that you can put a gun, where a kid can't reach it. You know, or can't find it.</s>HOLMES: Eian's grandfather had no idea Santiago kept a loaded gun in the house until Israel LaSalle heard the shot. LaSalle was watching Eian and his brother while Santiago was at work and the boys' mother was at the store. The shooting happened about LaSalle sent his 6-year-old grandson downstairs to get something in the kitchen.</s>LASALLE: I look out and he was running up the stairs and tells me somebody that shot his brother. And I told him, well, who's going to shoot your brother? There's nobody down there. But at the same time, I was running down the stairs with him. And I seen him laying on the floor in the kitchen and I went and got him.</s>HOLMES: Eian died at the hospital. His father, Michael Santiago, is charged with felony child endangerment. Prosecutors say Santiago was a former gang member who bought the gun on the street to protect himself from another gang member. Santiago did not have FOI card or a concealed carry license.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't want to blame him, but in reality there's just a little negligence. Negligence in the sense he was not being careful. Take the gun, hide it somewhere. I mean, deeply hide it, where that child would not find it.</s>HOLMES: Israel LaSalle doesn't want to blame Santiago other, nor does LaSalle think the 25-year-old father should be charged with a crime. But LaSalle says a loaded gun should never have been within his grandchildren's reach.</s>LASALLE: It's stupidity, to keep something dangerous in the house where your family could get hurt.</s>COSTELLO: Evelyn Holmes from our affiliate, WLS, thanks for that report. We'll take a closer look at the legal aspects of this case in our next hour.</s>COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. A showdown is brewing on Capitol Hill. In a matter of days. Hilary Clinton will make a high-profile appearance and testify before a House Benghazi Committee. Lawmakers are expected to grill Clinton about the 2012 attack in Libya that killed four Americans. The Republican congressman in charge of that committee, Trey Gowdy, is sending a firm message to members of his own party when it comes to talking about Clinton: Shut up. Listen to what he told CBS.</s>REP. TREY GOWDY (R-SC), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE SELECT CMTE. ON BENGHAZI: I have told my own Republican colleagues and friends, shut up talking about things you don't know anything about. And unless you're on the committee, you have no idea what we've done, why we've done it, and what new facts we have found. We have found new facts, John, that have absolutely nothing to do with her.</s>COSTELLO: Congressman Gowdy says Clinton is one of many witnesses and that his focus will be on e-mails sent by Ambassador Chris Stevens, one of the victims in the attack, asking for more security. As for Hillary Clinton, she says she will do her best to answer questions from lawmakers.</s>HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've already testified about Benghazi. I testified to the best of my ability before the Senate and the House. I don't know that I have very much to add. I will do my best to answer their questions, but I don't really know what their objective is right now.</s>COSTELLO: The Benghazi attack is one of the many hot-button issues lawmakers are expected to tackle this week now that Congress is back in session. Cue the partisan bickering over the budget. First things first, lawmakers have about two weeks to raise the debt ceiling. On one side, you have the White House, which says it won't negotiate over the increase and wants Congress to raise the borrowing limit. On the other side, Congress. Keep in mind lawmakers also need to pass a new government funding plan, which expires in December. One of the areas bound to come up, of course, the defense budget. My next guest is a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee and warns cuts to the defense budget could have devastating consequences to the country's national security. Republican Congressman Mike Turner of Ohio joins me right now. Thank you, Congressman, for coming in. Appreciate it.</s>REP. MICHAEL TURNER (R), OHIO: Thank you for having me.</s>COSTELLO: So you wrote a letter to the House leadership urging lawmakers to stop kicking the can down the road when it comes to defense spending. Is that possible? Because probably not many Americans think it is.</s>TURNER: Certainly, we are somewhat having a showdown there on Capitol Hill in that, as the president is asking for the debt limit to be raised, he's not in agreement as to what we should be spending. So if you don't know what you're going to be spending, it's hard to agree what the debt limit should be. But the president just last week made an announcement that he's going to keep troops in Afghanistan. But as we look to next year for 2016, he's not yet agreed to sign the National Defense Authorization Act that would fund the troops in 2016. Now, the men and women in uniform need to know they're going to have the equipment and funding necessary. We have a bipartisan bill headed toward his desk that he's saying he's going to veto. But yet he has committed that troops will be staying in Afghanistan.</s>COSTELLO: As you well know, Congress is in complete chaos right now, with the speaker situation and all that. So how can there be any agreement between the parties while that's still going on?</s>TURNER: Well, there can be agreement. The White House hasn't even appointed negotiators with a Congress, as the president said he's not even negotiate.