SWAT Teams Storming Mississippi Jail; 142 Criminal Counts Against Holmes; U.S. Leads The World In Guns; Rower Perseveres After Sex Assault
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: They have behind just to save themselves. We're about to hear what's happening right there on the ground. Plus, I'll speak with someone who says watch out because a terror group may jump into this mess very, very soon. So we're going to take you inside Syria in just moments. But first, just into us here at CNN. We are getting word that SWAT teams are storming a jail where this standoff has been underway for hours between inmates and police. I want to go live to Jewell Hillery. She is our reporter from this affiliate WLBT. She has been on the scene since this whole thing started. And, Jewel, just back up and tell me when this started and what you're seeing right now.</s>JEWELL HILLERY, WLBT REPORTER (via telephone): OK. Good afternoon. Well, this all got underway extremely early this morning, about 3:00. And we're actually about a mile and a half to two miles away from where the actual Hinds County Detention Center is in Bramen (ph). We've been blocked from going to where the actual detention center is. However, we do have a helicopter up, our skycopter, which has video of this disturbance, this ordeal. Looks like it has wrapped up just within the past couple of minutes. SWAT teams from all across the area, as well as officials with the Hinds County Sheriff's Department, have gone in with force and have taken inmates out one by one, we're told. There are some that are running out, it seems like, in an orderly fashion. But also a number that are being taken out by the SWAT teams. Now, as I mentioned, this got underway about 3:00 this morning after a gentleman by the name of Kendall Jackson (ph), who was uncooperative during a routine security check, and he got out of an isolated pod, went into a larger pod, pod c, where he started to stir up a disturbance and that's when the situation just escalate and got out of hand.</s>BALDWIN: So, Jewell, let me just -- Jewell, let me jump in.</s>HILLERY: I spoke with the Hinds County Sheriff's Department earlier today and</s>BALDWIN: Let me -- let me jump in if -- Jewell, can you hear me?</s>HILLERY: But hadn't been able to. So they went in by force just not too long ago.</s>BALDWIN: OK. I don't know how well our connection is, so I don't want to ask you a follow-up question. But it sounds to me, Jewell, if you can hear me, that this thing pretty much is done, correct?</s>HILLERY: I'm sorry, can you repeat that?</s>BALDWIN: I just want to make sure -- you say -- you're saying that this has been going on since 2:00, 3:00 in the morning, but now you're saying that it's more or less an orderly fashion outside of this detention center. That everything is wrapped up. Do we have any accounts of any injuries on either side, police or inmates?</s>HILLERY: We haven't heard about any injuries. I know that one detention officer was taken to the hospital early this morning, but not because she was injured, because she went into shock. In terms of injuries, we have not heard any official word from authorities. However, we've gotten -- we've received lots of phone calls into our news room from inmates inside of the prison and people that work inside of the prison just saying how chaotic the situation is. And, you know, we haven't been able to confirm that, though. That's just calls that have been coming in to our news room. But from authorities, they say that they're still investigating and aren't giving us any information about anyone being beat or injured or anything like that.</s>BALDWIN: OK, Jewell Hillery, our affiliate WLBT there on the ground about a mile or two away from this detention center. As soon as we get video, we will bring that to you here on CNN. Thank you, Jewell. Now to this one. One hundred and forty-two, 1-4-2, criminal counts for the suspected movie theater gunman James Holmes. He was in court today. This is his appearance number two. Remember, we first saw him a week ago today. Here he is. These are just sketches because today cameras are not allowed inside the courtroom. And, today, for the very first time, we hear James Holmes speak. CNN's Ed Lavandera was inside that courtroom. He joins me live. And, Ed, from what I understand, it was about a 45 minute hearing. Can you just walk me through these charges? One hundred and forty-two counts in total. And what exactly is it that he did say?</s>ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we'll run over those charges very quickly. It is 142 criminal counts filed against him. Twenty-four of those are first degree murder, 116 are attempted murder, one for possessing explosives and another one is an enhancement because of the violence in this. Now, that 24 and 116 might be confusing to most people. There are 12 victims who died, 58 who were wounded. And essentially prosecutors were able to double up on those charges and file them twice because of two different stipulations in the law. One of them is because it was premeditated, a planned attack. And also another one had to do with the randomness and the indifference, the extreme indifference that he showed the victims. So, because of that, those counts are doubled up. The one time that we heard from James Holmes, and it wasn't much, it was the simple word, "yes." He was asked to speak with his attorneys. His attorneys were trying to delay and get some more time for the preliminary hearing, which is now scheduled for sometime in November, which is one of the first times we'll really start getting into the meat and the details of the evidence that will be presented against James Holmes. But the judge told him to confer with his attorneys and make sure that he understood what was going on with that. And the judge asked him if that was OK and he simply said "yes." Throughout the entire process, Brooke, he was very calm, very -- much more lucid than last time from what we saw. You know, we talked a lot about just how bizarre he acted. But this time much more lucid. And, you know, still very strange mannerisms, but I thought he was much more with it today.</s>BALDWIN: I do want to ask you a little bit more about who was in the courtroom, but to your point, just for the people who I know have been confused wondering, you know, because there were the 12 fatalities, but again he faces the 24 counts of murder. So I just want to play a little sound. This is from a legal expert. You touched on it, Ed, but this is something called depraved indifference. So let's just all take a listen.</s>PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: In most states, and Colorado like most states, you have first degree murder, which could consist of an intentional murder. You point a gun at somebody with the intent of killing them, you premeditate, that's first degree murder. But there's a second type of first degree murder, and that's called a depraved indifference murder. So let's say you -- he went into allegedly to the theater and just randomly sprayed shots around the theater, maybe not intending to kill a particular individual. That would be a form of what we call depraved indifference murder and it's functionally the same thing.</s>BALDWIN: So I just wanted to play that, Eddie, so we could kind of understand a little bit better the 24 counts of murder in the first degree. Back to the courtroom. You were in there. I understand there was just about 100 seats in that court. Half media. Tell me who else was in there. I presume victims, victims' families.</s>LAVANDERA: Yes, there were a lot of victim survivors who were actually there in theater number nine. There was also an overflow room of people who were brought and allowed to listen to this. We've been talking to several of them as they've been leaving the courthouse. Those who have, you know, chosen to speak publicly and with reporters about -- their thoughts about, you know, being in that same room with the man who has caused -- allegedly caused so much destruction and pain and tragedy in their lives. And what was interesting was is that after the court hearing, we were told that the prosecutor in this case went with those victims and the survivors into another room and explained their reasoning behind the charges and why they were going though. We asked a couple of them if they thought 142 criminal counts was enough. There had been some people who suggested, you know, they would have like to have seen terrorism charges or something like that. One person said, you know, that the prosecutors explained to them that they were charging what they could theoretically handle in an expeditious form. So if they just started throwing the book and piling on and piling on a mass amount of criminal charges, that that would delay this process and make this last much longer than they felt it need to. So clearly prosecutors kind of targeting exactly the criminal charges and strategizing what they wanted to go after. And from the victims' families that we spoke with, that's kind of what they explained to them in that meeting that they had just after the court hearing today.</s>BALDWIN: Again, in all, 142 counts. Ed Lavandera for us there. Ed, thank you. And one argument here in the gun violence debate, I know we've been talking about this the last week or so, is this. Don't look at the people. Look at the guns. And the U.S. has more than any other nation in the world. CNN's Fareed Zakaria has a look at that.</s>FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST, CNN'S "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": The United States stands out from the rest of the world, not because it has more nut cases -- I think we can assume that those people are sprinkled throughout every society equally -- but because it has more guns. Look at this map. It shows the average number of firearms per 100 people. Most of the world is shaded light green. Those are the countries where there are between zero and 10 guns per 100 citizens. In dark brown you have countries with more than 70 guns per 100 people. The U.S. is the only country in that category. In fact, the last global small arms survey showed there are 88 guns for every 100 Americans. Yemen is second at 54. Serbia and Iraq are among the other top countries in the top 10. We have 5 percent of the world's population and 50 percent of the guns. The sheer number of guns isn't an isolated statistic. The data shows we compare badly on fatalities too. The U.S. has three gun homicides per 100,000 people. That's four times as many as Switzerland. Ten times as many as India. Twenty times as many as Australia and England. Whatever you think of gun rights and gun control, the numbers don't flatter America. I saw an interesting graph in "The Atlantic" magazine. On a spectrum, from yellow to red, red being the worst, it shows the number of gun related deaths by state. Now, if you add one more piece of data, gun control restrictions, you see the state with at least one firearm law, such as the assault weapons ban or trigger locks, tend to be the states shaded in lighter colors, meaning fewer gun related deaths. Conclusion. Well, there are lots of factors involved, but there is at least a correlation between tighter laws and fewer gun related deaths.</s>BALDWIN: So given what you've just heard, you would think that crime in the U.S. has gotten worse, right? No. Listen to what surprised Fareed in all that research.</s>ZAKARIA: And the U.S. is actually getting safer. In the decade since the year 2000, violent crime rates fell by 20 percent, aggravated assault by 22 percent, motor vehicle theft by 42 percent, murder by all weapons by 13 percent. But guns are the exception. Gun homicide rates haven't improved at all. There were roughly the same levels in 2009 as they were in 2000. Meanwhile, serious but nonfatal gun injuries caused during assault have actually increased in the last decade by 20 percent as gun laws have gotten looser and getting weapons has become easier.</s>BALDWIN: Just a little context and perspective in a heated national debate. A lot more news coming at you this hour, including this. A huge hour for the Olympics in London. We're going to bring you results live during this hour. Also, Piers Morgan's going to join me live. We'll talk about this whole uproar over NBC's taped delay. I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now. A rower, who's on a mission to dominate Lake Michigan, says she was trapped and raped and today she's telling me her story, live. Plus --</s>MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is Iran that is the leading state sponsor of terrorism.</s>BALDWIN: Mitt Romney gets forceful on Iran, as one magazine causes quite a stir. And, first, big gulps. Now, baby milk. Why Michael Bloomberg's new health crusade includes hiding formula from new moms in the hospital.