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Teen Girl Shot Dead at Birthday Party: NO ARRESTS · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace and absolutely beautiful fifteen year
0:18
Speaker 1: old girl is dead? Why why her? Because she went
0:26
Speaker 1: to a birthday party? I mean, Nancy Grace, this is
0:30
Speaker 1: Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at
0:33
Speaker 1: Fox Nation and Serious XM one eleven. You may have
0:38
Speaker 1: just said, what what does she say? She's dead because
0:42
Speaker 1: she went to a birthday party. What does that have
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Speaker 1: to do with each other? Nothing? She is dead because
0:53
Speaker 1: she went to a birthday party. This teen girl, I
0:58
Speaker 1: had a pull a picture of her up. This one
1:00
Speaker 1: really gets to me. Here she is and her go
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Speaker 1: I could just see my daughter wearing this. My little
1:08
Speaker 1: girl is fifteen, she just turned fifteen. She and her
1:10
Speaker 1: twin brother Laila, has on this oh is skin tight
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Speaker 1: and it should be with a figure like hers. She's
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Speaker 1: got on this spaghetti stripe, beautiful, tight red type of
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Speaker 1: sheath dress. She's got her hair beautiful. She's got the
1:32
Speaker 1: perfect smile. Now. I don't know if this smile is
1:35
Speaker 1: natural or her parents paid twenty grand for those teeth
1:38
Speaker 1: out embraces, but it's beautiful. And she's got her nails done.
1:45
Speaker 1: And this is the part that breaks my heart. She's
1:48
Speaker 1: got on a little risk massage. She's going to a
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Speaker 1: dance in this picture, you know it was a prominent
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Speaker 1: her school and a look on her face. She's carefree.
2:04
Speaker 1: She's a little teen girl. She's got the world in
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Speaker 1: front of her. Why did she have to bleed out
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Speaker 1: dead at a birthday party? Why her? She's never done
2:19
Speaker 1: anything wrong, good student, beloved everything. First of all, take
2:28
Speaker 1: a listen to Sergeant Julia isaac Pio, Clayton County Police.
2:35
Speaker 1: At eleven pm, Clayton County Police Department responded to his
2:39
Speaker 1: ten seventy eight Citizens Parkway and reference to a person shot.
2:44
Speaker 1: Upon arrival to the scene, officers noticed hundreds of teenagers
2:49
Speaker 1: running away from the scene. Once they got up to
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Speaker 1: the location, they observed a female deceased from a gunshot
2:56
Speaker 1: wound in front of the entrance. During the investigation, officers
3:01
Speaker 1: learn that Layla Harris came to a high school party.
3:08
Speaker 1: Clayton County Police say fifteen year old Layla Harris was
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Speaker 1: doing what most kids do, enjoying a party thrown for
3:15
Speaker 1: Metro Areas students around eleven Saturday night on Citizens Parkway,
3:20
Speaker 1: but trouble started when someone at the party was escorted
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Speaker 1: off their property. He came back with an accomplice, and
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Speaker 1: he shot up the location. As students ran for cover,
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Speaker 1: Layla was hit and killed. I'm just thinking about this girl.
3:36
Speaker 1: You're hearing our friends at WSBTV and Sergeant Isaac's speaking.
3:43
Speaker 1: You know when you approach a sing and I've had
3:47
Speaker 1: it happen. I remember Daryl Cohen joining me, high profile
3:51
Speaker 1: lawyer of the Atlanta jurisdiction. Interesting former felony prosecutor, nothing
3:58
Speaker 1: but violent crimes like myself, like I prosecuted. I mean, Daryl.
4:06
Speaker 1: I remember one night I was going down to the
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Speaker 1: Red Oak Housing project and it was at night. I
4:13
Speaker 1: was with my bodyguard, my investigator, Earnest that you know,
4:17
Speaker 1: and I was going to a crack house. We get
4:21
Speaker 1: out and all of a sudden, everybody starts running. So
4:25
Speaker 1: right then, I know something bad is happening because everybody's running.
4:31
Speaker 1: We were unannounced, we didn't have a search warrant. I
4:34
Speaker 1: was just going to look for a witness, and I
4:37
Speaker 1: knew that was their crack house where they would frequent
4:41
Speaker 1: and I knew that it would be late at night,
4:44
Speaker 1: some time after you know, twelve am, and that's why
4:46
Speaker 1: we were there so late. And everybody starts running like
4:50
Speaker 1: roaches running out. We go in Daryl and there's really
4:55
Speaker 1: no furniture. There's one kind of a burned up plaid
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Speaker 1: sofa turned over. There's a big burn hole in the carpet.
5:04
Speaker 1: Not recent. I mean this was a flop house. It's
5:07
Speaker 1: a crack house where people go in there. There's a
5:09
Speaker 1: burn mark on the carpet because that's where they've been
5:12
Speaker 1: cooking up crack. So when you go to a scene
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Speaker 1: and all of a sudden you see everybody running, you
5:22
Speaker 1: know there's something really bad going on inside. Doesn't happened
5:26
Speaker 1: to you, Nancy, It happened several times. But also I
5:29
Speaker 1: want to point out that a lot of young kids,
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Speaker 1: when they see the police or someone that they think
5:35
Speaker 1: is law enforcement, they automatically run, And that's systemic in
5:39
Speaker 1: our society that we've got to change. But back to
5:42
Speaker 1: your question, Yes, when you show up and everybody runs,
5:47
Speaker 1: you know that they're not running to you, they're running
5:50
Speaker 1: from you, and there's something bad that has happened or
5:54
Speaker 1: is about to happen. So therefore, no one wants to
5:57
Speaker 1: be a part of where you are because they don't
6:00
Speaker 1: want to be arrested, They don't want to be questioned,
6:03
Speaker 1: they don't want to be stopped. It's not a good situation,
6:07
Speaker 1: but you know what you're getting into when you're there.
6:10
Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum joining me, expert founder of the Cold Case
6:13
Speaker 1: Research Institute. You can find her at Coldcase Crimes dot org.
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Speaker 1: Cheryl Year, I think still in the midst of raising
6:20
Speaker 1: to college stunits, and I remember my curfew. I had
6:25
Speaker 1: to be in the house by eleven. This is when
6:28
Speaker 1: I was on up in high school, like twelfth grade.
6:30
Speaker 1: It's eleven o'clock. This girl is just eleven o'clock at night.
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Speaker 1: She's at a party, whether about a one hundred kids
6:37
Speaker 1: or more, an open venue, and I think it was
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Speaker 1: at a home, So you would think it's just eleven
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Speaker 1: o'clock on Saturday night, that she should still be safe.
6:48
Speaker 1: You would think she'd be safe, especially surrounded by all
6:51
Speaker 1: of her friends and classmates. But Nancy, my understanding is
6:54
Speaker 1: this was a birthday party at a venue and they
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Speaker 1: had hundreds of teenagers from all metro high schools. So
7:03
Speaker 1: my question is what did the gunman do to get
7:07
Speaker 1: escorted out? Was there a fight? Was there drinking? Was
7:11
Speaker 1: there some Because you're told about hundreds of students you know, teenagers,
7:16
Speaker 1: but he sticks out. He's a problem. So to be
7:19
Speaker 1: a problem in that atmosphere with music and talking and dancing,
7:24
Speaker 1: for somebody to be able to know you're such an issue,
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Speaker 1: you've got to go and be escorted out. He was
7:29
Speaker 1: already a problem before the shooting started. Plus Gudgeon, the
7:32
Speaker 1: source for answers, joining me a special guest from Fox
7:35
Speaker 1: five Atlanta, Rob Drienzo, Thank you for being with us.
7:39
Speaker 1: Tell me about the venue. Well, it's essentially this space,
7:43
Speaker 1: and I would say, kind of an industrial lot. There's
7:46
Speaker 1: a startup church right next to it, and then there's
7:49
Speaker 1: are what it was, kind of this like startup church
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Speaker 1: founded in this essentially the shopping plaza in this industrial
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Speaker 1: area in Clayton County. So it wasn't exactly the spot
8:01
Speaker 1: or where you would expect to find a child's birthday
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Speaker 1: party just in this kind of like I said, industrial
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Speaker 1: area in Claytons. Okay, and wait a minute, it's beside
8:10
Speaker 1: a church in a strip mall. Yeah, exactly, and right
8:13
Speaker 1: next to it is another business. It really isn't, like
8:18
Speaker 1: I said, a venue that you would expect to find
8:21
Speaker 1: a child's birthday party. We tried to reach out to
8:23
Speaker 1: the event hall owner who seems to want to create
8:26
Speaker 1: a larger business out of it. Haven't heard anything back
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Speaker 1: from them, but clearly there was not adequate security there
8:32
Speaker 1: that night. Trying to figure out, Okay, what kind of
8:36
Speaker 1: a party was it? Guys, take a listen to our
8:39
Speaker 1: friends at Fox five. We need your assistance to find
8:43
Speaker 1: justice for Layla Harris. Investigators who made that plea to
8:47
Speaker 1: the public after the maryat A team was shot and
8:50
Speaker 1: killed outside a massive high school party on Citizens Parkway
8:53
Speaker 1: in Clayton County on Saturday night. On Monday, we saw
8:56
Speaker 1: the windows next to the event hall shattered and a
8:59
Speaker 1: bullet on the ground. Clayton cops say when they got there,
9:02
Speaker 1: it was already too late to save fifteen year old
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Speaker 1: Layla Harris. Officers noticed hundreds of teenagers running away from
9:09
Speaker 1: the scene. Once they got up to the location, they
9:12
Speaker 1: observed a female deceased from a gunshot wound in front
9:16
Speaker 1: of the entrance. Layla's cousin told me on the phone
9:18
Speaker 1: that they're hoping to fly her body back home to
9:20
Speaker 1: Saint Louis, writing on go fund me, sadly she was
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Speaker 1: tragically killed while attending a birthday party, just doing what
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Speaker 1: any fifteen year old likes to do, trying to have fun,
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Speaker 1: and now we've lost her to a senseless act of violence.
9:33
Speaker 1: To doctor Angie Arnold joining us, We're now a psychiatrist
9:36
Speaker 1: in the Atlanta jurisdiction. You can find her at Angela
9:39
Speaker 1: Arnold MD dot com. This is not unusual. You have
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Speaker 1: a party at a venue and this one tells that one,
9:51
Speaker 1: and that one tells this one, and pretty soon there's
9:54
Speaker 1: one hundred people there. That's not unusual at all. No,
9:57
Speaker 1: it's not Nancy. And it happens all over the city.
10:00
Speaker 1: Doesn't just happen down in Clayton County. It happens in Buckhead.
10:04
Speaker 1: It happens in a lot of different places. And you know,
10:08
Speaker 1: and yeah, they're problems with these events, but nobody attends
10:12
Speaker 1: this event thinking they're going to get shot and killed.
10:16
Speaker 1: They're attending the event. They have fun time stories with
10:32
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace. I think about these events. I've covered several
10:38
Speaker 1: cases where girls, young ladies show up at a party
10:45
Speaker 1: that's basically turned into an event, and what they don't
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Speaker 1: get when they show up is it's not like a
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Speaker 1: party in your house or your backyard. These are people
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Speaker 1: that are not connected in any way. You don't know them.
11:02
Speaker 1: It's not like I'm knowing me Jackie's twenty first birthday party,
11:06
Speaker 1: because she's going to have her family there, she's gonna
11:08
Speaker 1: have some other people that work on crime stories, and
11:11
Speaker 1: we're going to all generally know who each other is.
11:14
Speaker 1: And I get together like this, you don't know each
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Speaker 1: other at all, Doctor Angie. That's exactly right. And but Nancy,
11:22
Speaker 1: here's the other thing too. You're talking about fifteen year old.
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Speaker 1: Fifteen year olds aren't thinking that far in advance to think, well,
11:28
Speaker 1: I'm not going to know anybody that's here. They are
11:31
Speaker 1: going because of the fear of missing out. They want
11:34
Speaker 1: to go, they want to be seen there, they want
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Speaker 1: to have a good time, but they don't think about
11:40
Speaker 1: the repercussions of what can happen. I mean, Nancy, I
11:44
Speaker 1: am sure you are telling your kids all the time
11:47
Speaker 1: about what to look out for whatever they're doing, right, Yeah,
11:51
Speaker 1: but I don't want to go so overboard that they're scared.
11:53
Speaker 1: And you know, this is reminding me of another case
11:57
Speaker 1: that I covered for a long time. Forever. It felt
12:02
Speaker 1: like there was no resolution and the disappearance a gorgeous
12:06
Speaker 1: young girl Chelsea Brook. Chelsea had gone to which she
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Speaker 1: thought was going to be a party with maybe fifty
12:15
Speaker 1: or sixty people there. It was a Halloween party, and
12:19
Speaker 1: to further complicate her disappearance, she was dressed as the
12:24
Speaker 1: arch villain Poison IVY, complete with the green outfit, the
12:30
Speaker 1: flask of poison, and a red wig. As I recall,
12:36
Speaker 1: Chelsea Brook was blonde underneath. So when people were shown
12:41
Speaker 1: Chelsea's picture, they went and so did you see her?
12:45
Speaker 1: Nobody could identify her. First of all, there were only
12:48
Speaker 1: two or three of her girlfriends. They went together. They're
12:51
Speaker 1: the only ones that knew what Chelsea really looked like.
12:54
Speaker 1: She had on Halloween dramatic makeup, the red wig, the costume.
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Speaker 1: No one what turned out to be over a thousand
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Speaker 1: people show up at the party because they got posted online.
13:11
Speaker 1: No one could identify Chelsea. It was a long time,
13:17
Speaker 1: months and months and months that passed before cops thought
13:21
Speaker 1: they found her tights that she was wearing that went
13:25
Speaker 1: with her outfit. And ultimately the purp's name was Daniel Clay,
13:30
Speaker 1: that lured her away, raped and murdered her. Now, what
13:36
Speaker 1: was the stumbling walk in the investigation? A big party
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Speaker 1: like this one, and no one could identify Chelsea, and
13:44
Speaker 1: no one could identify who poison Ivy left with because
13:49
Speaker 1: nobody knew each other. And even right now, we have
13:54
Speaker 1: no idea who was the guy that was kicked out
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Speaker 1: of this party that came back and started shooting and
14:01
Speaker 1: murdered a fifteen year old innocent girl who is planning
14:06
Speaker 1: to get home before her curfew that Saturday night. How
14:10
Speaker 1: can we get justice for Layla Harris. Listen to this.
14:15
Speaker 1: This glass taped up its shatter at the top of
14:18
Speaker 1: you where at least one of those bullets went into
14:20
Speaker 1: the window on the ground, glass still there from what
14:24
Speaker 1: went down here over the weekend. And get this, that
14:27
Speaker 1: is not even the venue we're talking about. It's next
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Speaker 1: door over here at Sweete or Layla Harris, where she
14:33
Speaker 1: was at a party, a birthday party, according to her family.
14:36
Speaker 1: Saturday night, officers noticed hundreds of teenagers running away from
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Speaker 1: the scene. Those teams were running from this venue. It
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Speaker 1: was a high school party on Saturday night, Clayton County
14:46
Speaker 1: POLICEE hundreds of students from Metro Atlanta showed up, but
14:50
Speaker 1: at some point one guy was kicked out. He came
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Speaker 1: back with an accomplice and he shot up the location.
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Speaker 1: Clayton County Police say Layla Harris was shot in killed
15:00
Speaker 1: just outside the front door at the point that everybody
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Speaker 1: was scattering and running. She was caught in a crossfire.
15:07
Speaker 1: As her go fundi page states, Leila lost her life
15:10
Speaker 1: to a senseless act of violence. I did reach out
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Speaker 1: to this venue several times today for a comment on
15:16
Speaker 1: what happened and to find out really who threw this party.
15:18
Speaker 1: So far, they've not returned to any of my emails.
15:21
Speaker 1: I bet they haven't because they're afraid. They're afraid to
15:25
Speaker 1: get involved. There's already one dead body. I'm a fifteen
15:28
Speaker 1: year old girl. You know with me is Bruce Griggs,
15:31
Speaker 1: executive director of Operation Correct Start. It's a youth of
15:35
Speaker 1: violence prevention expert, and you can find him at correctstart
15:39
Speaker 1: dot org. Bruce, when you're a child says hey, mom,
15:44
Speaker 1: can I go to this birthday party? That sounds so benign,
15:49
Speaker 1: doesn't it? Can I go to birthday party while behind
15:51
Speaker 1: my twelve? Doesn't that sound like that's okay on a
15:54
Speaker 1: Saturday night to go to a friend's birthday party. Well,
15:58
Speaker 1: back when I was up, it did. But nowadays there's
16:02
Speaker 1: no way that you should allow your child to go
16:05
Speaker 1: to an event where you haven't checked out the facility,
16:08
Speaker 1: whether they have proper security, You should even know exactly
16:14
Speaker 1: who's given the event and some of their friends. You
16:17
Speaker 1: just can't let your kids go out, especially the kids
16:20
Speaker 1: that are grown up in the culture that this young
16:22
Speaker 1: lady got killed in. Kids are effectively silenced from confronting
16:28
Speaker 1: violet incidents like this by what we call the notion
16:31
Speaker 1: of the commandments of violence. Everybody's heard of the commandments
16:35
Speaker 1: of the Bible, but these kids nowadays live by not
16:38
Speaker 1: the commandments of the Bible, and the first commandment is
16:42
Speaker 1: thou shall not snitch. They truly believe in that. They
16:46
Speaker 1: will go to their grave trying to make sure. We
16:49
Speaker 1: have to teach them that, and we do this in
16:52
Speaker 1: our program that snitching is when you tell to get
16:55
Speaker 1: yourself out of trouble when you deserve it. Then helen
16:58
Speaker 1: is to help. I'm gonna set You have the right
17:01
Speaker 1: to want to help, You have the right to want
17:02
Speaker 1: to be safe. We have to make sure. There are
17:05
Speaker 1: a lot of kids that want to be safe. They
17:07
Speaker 1: don't want to be in an environment where they're shooting.
17:09
Speaker 1: But there's so much pressure on them to not tail,
17:12
Speaker 1: to not snitch. Even now, it's like pulling a tooth
17:17
Speaker 1: to find out who was throwing the party, who could
17:20
Speaker 1: have been there? How was everyone invited to the party.
17:24
Speaker 1: I got a question for you, Rob Derrienzo Fox five.
17:29
Speaker 1: Did it go out on social media? How did everybody
17:32
Speaker 1: know about the birthday party? That's what the prevailing theory is.
17:35
Speaker 1: Right now. We've been actually looking for this post that
17:38
Speaker 1: apparently circulated for a few days and we haven't been
17:40
Speaker 1: able to find it. But essentially, it was an open
17:43
Speaker 1: invite to any teenager in the Atlanta metro area, and
17:47
Speaker 1: you can imagine how wrong that can go. As we saw,
17:51
Speaker 1: but she seemed to think it was a birthday party. Yeah,
17:53
Speaker 1: it seemed like it was a birthday party with an
17:55
Speaker 1: open invite, so you didn't have to know the person
17:57
Speaker 1: whose birthday it was in order to attend. Okay, Cheryl
18:01
Speaker 1: McCollum joining me, Cheryl, could you explain everybody what it's
18:04
Speaker 1: an open invite party? Yeah, that's just when you put
18:07
Speaker 1: it out there and just all come, you're just saying, hey,
18:10
Speaker 1: we're gonna be at this location at this time. Everybody
18:13
Speaker 1: wants comes invite it it's exactly what it says. Open.
18:17
Speaker 1: I've got a problem with Cheryl McCollum. You're the forensic expert.
18:20
Speaker 1: Are you telling me cops can't find the invite online? Oh,
18:23
Speaker 1: they can find it. And not only that, they know
18:25
Speaker 1: the person that hosted it. They already know that. And
18:28
Speaker 1: more importantly, they know the person that escorted this person
18:32
Speaker 1: out of the party. So that gives you a person
18:34
Speaker 1: that could do a composite and whatever issue they had inside,
18:37
Speaker 1: whether they were argument or fighting with another person, that's
18:40
Speaker 1: a second witness that could possibly give you that information.
18:43
Speaker 1: Kids were also you know, taking pictures, taking selfies, taking videos.
18:48
Speaker 1: That shooter is somewhere in those pictures as well. Absolutely,
18:52
Speaker 1: And to tell me you can't find the invite, that
18:55
Speaker 1: you can't get in the facts straight, guys, take a
18:57
Speaker 1: listen to Sergeant Julia Isaac Clayton County. It was hosted
19:04
Speaker 1: by unknown individuals and it was held for students for
19:10
Speaker 1: the metro area. At this time, we're asking for assistance
19:15
Speaker 1: from the public. We're asking for anyone to come for
19:19
Speaker 1: it that has any information and reference to this shooting.
19:24
Speaker 1: We need your assistance to find justice for Leila Harris,
19:29
Speaker 1: one of those shots hitting the window here, you're looking
19:32
Speaker 1: at that right about now. It is boarded up. The
19:34
Speaker 1: owners of this business did not want to speak with
19:36
Speaker 1: us on camera for safety reasons, but did share that
19:39
Speaker 1: they were just here yesterday working and decided to take
19:43
Speaker 1: the day off. So long, sory short. You're hearing the
19:46
Speaker 1: sergeant with Clayton County and you're in our friends at
19:48
Speaker 1: Fox five that nobody wants to get involved, Nobody wants
19:52
Speaker 1: their face seeing, nobody wants to be on any official
19:54
Speaker 1: documents because they're afraid. They're afraid they'll be targeted if
19:59
Speaker 1: they help cops catch the killer of this fifteen year
20:04
Speaker 1: old girl who seems to have thought she was just
20:08
Speaker 1: going to a birthday party. How did it all go
20:13
Speaker 1: so wrong? And why aren't other members, other people that
20:18
Speaker 1: attended the party having their phones confiscated and all of
20:23
Speaker 1: the photos being examined? You know, do you, Daryl Cohen?
20:28
Speaker 1: How often when you were prosecuting are you confronted with
20:32
Speaker 1: nobody saw anything, nobody heard anything, nobody knows anything, but
20:37
Speaker 1: that is wrong. Somebody did see, did hear, and does know,
20:41
Speaker 1: but nobody will fail. Divide, divine the conqueror, Divide and conquer.
20:47
Speaker 1: That's the only way people suddenly remember, Oh yes I
20:51
Speaker 1: saw this, Oh yes I heard that. No I wasn't there,
20:55
Speaker 1: Oh yes, I guess I was. And Nancy, let me
20:57
Speaker 1: say this, and I've been waiting. I'm fear is with
21:00
Speaker 1: the parents. You can't change what happened this fifteen year
21:04
Speaker 1: old girl. She's dead. But let's stop it. Let's where
21:07
Speaker 1: the heck or the parents allowing fifteen year old to
21:11
Speaker 1: go halfway across the city or all the way across
21:14
Speaker 1: the city to go to a party. This is completely
21:18
Speaker 1: in my view, on the parents as well as the shooter,
21:22
Speaker 1: as well as the venue. There was no security that
21:26
Speaker 1: was adequate to take care of all of this. Well,
21:28
Speaker 1: I mean, for Pete's saying Daryl coeh in their high
21:31
Speaker 1: school seat, it's why they're not thinking about security. Well
21:33
Speaker 1: I am, and mom and dad should be. And mom
21:36
Speaker 1: and dad should say. You're fifteen. Your curfew, as you
21:40
Speaker 1: pointed out when you were younger and I was younger,
21:42
Speaker 1: was eleven or eleven thirty? Well, can I tell you
21:44
Speaker 1: what just happened this past weekend? My son, You know
21:48
Speaker 1: my children, John, David Lucy, they just turned fifteen and
21:53
Speaker 1: my daughter is very petite. My son is six to five,
21:57
Speaker 1: but he is a gentle giant, and he got invited
22:01
Speaker 1: to a birthday party and it was going to be
22:03
Speaker 1: at six Flags at night, and of course all I
22:07
Speaker 1: could think about is murder, mayhem, robbing's armed robberies at
22:14
Speaker 1: this big venue. I was the only mom, as it
22:18
Speaker 1: turns out, that asked the host parents, Hey, are you
22:21
Speaker 1: guys gonna be with them? Yeah, I've got a son
22:25
Speaker 1: six five, and I'm worried about him going to six
22:29
Speaker 1: Flags without a parent there. And it all turned out
22:35
Speaker 1: just fine. As it happened, my husband and I suddenly
22:40
Speaker 1: had dinner plans, believe it or not, right there at
22:43
Speaker 1: six Flags. Isn't that crazy that it worked out in
22:46
Speaker 1: that way? So unbeknownst to him, do not repeat the
22:49
Speaker 1: story to my children. Mommy was not far away, and
22:54
Speaker 1: Dad also reluctantly was nearby as well. You know, Bruce Griggs,
22:59
Speaker 1: I think I'm not planning on bleating the parents here
23:02
Speaker 1: because I don't even know if they really need where
23:04
Speaker 1: the venue was. But it shows that you're just not
23:08
Speaker 1: safe letting your child go to a party. And by
23:13
Speaker 1: the way, everything was absolutely fine at six Flags, just
23:17
Speaker 1: like those parents said he had a great time. There
23:20
Speaker 1: was not even a hint of gang activity, of anything threatening. Nothing.
23:27
Speaker 1: It was absolutely fine, thank god. But you just never knew.
23:33
Speaker 1: But what's the cross between living a normal lot and
23:37
Speaker 1: living in fear something's going to happen to your team? Kid? Well,
23:40
Speaker 1: we've got to all understanding that youth gun violence has
23:45
Speaker 1: reached epidemic proportions. As a parent, that's the first thing
23:49
Speaker 1: you should be able to pay attention to. But as
23:52
Speaker 1: a community, we have to come together to try to
23:55
Speaker 1: prevent and reduce violence not only buy but also against
23:59
Speaker 1: the youth. It's it's gotten to a point throughout the
24:03
Speaker 1: nation where we've got to treat this violence as a disease.
24:08
Speaker 1: We got to start treating as a public health issue
24:11
Speaker 1: the same way that we were looking at COVID nineteen. Well,
24:13
Speaker 1: how are we going to do that with defund the police? Huh?
24:17
Speaker 1: How are you going to get more cops out there
24:19
Speaker 1: to help when we don't even have enough cops? I'm
24:22
Speaker 1: not saying it caught for the answer. Oh okay, then
24:25
Speaker 1: how are we going to control the dispersion of guns?
24:29
Speaker 1: Let me let me explain. To listen real closely. When
24:32
Speaker 1: you treat violence as a disease. You've got to attack
24:35
Speaker 1: the problem where it is. You know, a lot of
24:37
Speaker 1: people would argue that they believe they're safe because they
24:41
Speaker 1: live in filling the blank, or they're going to a
24:46
Speaker 1: private school, or they are in their office in a
24:51
Speaker 1: very calm office district, or their home on has a
24:56
Speaker 1: burglar alarm on it, or they've got a fence around
24:59
Speaker 1: their yard. That is not true to you, Daryl Cohen.
25:07
Speaker 1: Violence seeps into your life no matter what community you're
25:12
Speaker 1: in or where you're from. Would you agree? I mean,
25:17
Speaker 1: you and I prosecuted and you've defended violent crimes all
25:21
Speaker 1: across Fulton County. I've had murders for all the millionaires live.
25:28
Speaker 1: I've had murders in housing projects. I've had murders in
25:32
Speaker 1: single family homes. I've had mass shootings on a playground.
25:36
Speaker 1: For Pete's sake, Crime seeps in everywhere. Each of my daughters,
25:41
Speaker 1: I tell them, and you know one of them very well,
25:44
Speaker 1: keep your head on a swivel. Yes, there's more likely
25:48
Speaker 1: crime going to happen in certain neighborhoods, but yes, crime
25:52
Speaker 1: happens everywhere, and it happens when you least expect it.
25:56
Speaker 1: It happens in the middle of the day, it happens
25:59
Speaker 1: in the middle of the night, more likely late at
26:02
Speaker 1: night when it's dark. But it happens everywhere. And if
26:05
Speaker 1: the parents don't take responsibility for their kids, that who
26:10
Speaker 1: in the world is going to be able to take responsibility.
26:14
Speaker 1: I disagree with you on that, Darrel, because no parent
26:16
Speaker 1: when their child says, hey, mom, can I go to
26:19
Speaker 1: a birthday party? I'll be home before midnight? And she has.
26:24
Speaker 1: The parents have never had any problem with this girl
26:27
Speaker 1: at all, I can. I just can't lay the blame
26:30
Speaker 1: at their door yet, although apparently they did not know
26:34
Speaker 1: the zenue, which is troubling. I want to go back
26:37
Speaker 1: to Leila Harris too. Doctor Jeffrey M. And Jetson joining
26:43
Speaker 1: US Professor forensic Pathology, Director of Autopsy Forensic Services, University
26:48
Speaker 1: Michigan Medical School, former medical examiner in Milwaukee County. Never
26:53
Speaker 1: lack a business there, Doctor Jensen. How is it that
26:58
Speaker 1: this young girl bled out so quickly she never gotten
27:04
Speaker 1: to tell cops anything about who may have been her killer? Well,
27:08
Speaker 1: of course, Nancy, I determined it is determined by which
27:12
Speaker 1: body area in which Oregon is struck by the projectile.
27:19
Speaker 1: If a projectile struck the heart or major artery, death
27:24
Speaker 1: would occur within a matter of second to less than
27:27
Speaker 1: a minute. Other times you've got injuries related to the
27:32
Speaker 1: extremities where the victim will will basically round or try
27:37
Speaker 1: to extricate themselves from a scene, only to bleed out
27:42
Speaker 1: blocked later from the scene. In this case, I'm kind
27:45
Speaker 1: of interested in the fact that a bullet was seen
27:49
Speaker 1: or a projectile was found next to the window area,
27:54
Speaker 1: and in this case we probably expect to find a
27:58
Speaker 1: typical entrance wounds on the body and indicating that there
28:02
Speaker 1: was a intermediate target that impeded the bullet before it
28:08
Speaker 1: struck the young the young woman. So it depends. All
28:12
Speaker 1: depends on where the death, where the injury occurred. It
28:16
Speaker 1: may be immediate, if it immediate, if it strikes the
28:19
Speaker 1: brain or some other vital area. It was some of
28:22
Speaker 1: the injuries that you suggested may happen. Do the lungs
28:27
Speaker 1: actually fill up with blood and you can no longer breathe.
28:30
Speaker 1: That's one of the causes of death as um large
28:34
Speaker 1: major vessels are struck and then the person may aspirate
28:38
Speaker 1: or inhale the blood as it fills up into the lungs,
28:44
Speaker 1: but typically it's related to exanguination, in which the blood
28:49
Speaker 1: is exiting the blood vessels and filling up the large
28:53
Speaker 1: chest cavities with blood. Would she have suffered, doctor Jensen,
29:00
Speaker 1: or would she be dead instantly? You know, that's the
29:03
Speaker 1: classic question that families ask us on every case. And um,
29:08
Speaker 1: you know again it the term. It's determined on you
29:12
Speaker 1: know what kind of injury you have. If the brain
29:15
Speaker 1: stem or the brain is affected, of course the person
29:18
Speaker 1: dies immediately. There are issues of pain and suffering when
29:23
Speaker 1: an individual maybe bleeding and basically you know, I know
29:30
Speaker 1: that they're going to die because of the amount of hemorrhage.
29:34
Speaker 1: It all depends on the site, and we try to
29:38
Speaker 1: be as as sensitive to the families as we can
29:41
Speaker 1: and know that in many cases these young people are
29:45
Speaker 1: in shock and don't necessarily feel pain. Crime stories with
30:03
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace, you know, to doctor Angela Arnold, renowned psychiatrist
30:10
Speaker 1: joining us, Doctor Angie, I like to tell myself that
30:14
Speaker 1: when my fiancee was murder he didn't feel anything, that
30:18
Speaker 1: he just blacked out and one instant he was here
30:23
Speaker 1: and the next instant he was in heaven. It's just
30:26
Speaker 1: like that. And I was just noticing recently, doctor Angie
30:31
Speaker 1: that the family of the Idaho the four Idaho students
30:37
Speaker 1: that were slaughtered, one of the family members said, well,
30:41
Speaker 1: you know, it was very quick. They don't have time
30:44
Speaker 1: to really feel anything. I think we tell ourselves that
30:47
Speaker 1: to make ourselves feel better, because I don't want to
30:51
Speaker 1: think about my fiance Keith lying there in pain, knowing
30:59
Speaker 1: that he's dying, not being able to move or call
31:04
Speaker 1: out for help because nobody's there, and I wonder about that,
31:10
Speaker 1: and then I always say, well, you know, you probably
31:12
Speaker 1: didn't feel anything, because it's easier to think that to
31:16
Speaker 1: go about your day. Just like in Layla's case, it's
31:19
Speaker 1: easy to say, oh, this little team girl at a
31:22
Speaker 1: birthday party, she didn't really feel anything. It was just like,
31:25
Speaker 1: one moment she's here, one moment she's gone. That's not true.
31:29
Speaker 1: Let's just talk about the truth. I mean, Nancy, can
31:31
Speaker 1: you imagine the fear first of all, that she felt
31:34
Speaker 1: because she was shot running out of the house or
31:37
Speaker 1: whatever the venue was, So there was fear inside of
31:41
Speaker 1: this place. She's running out and then she gets shot,
31:44
Speaker 1: and I'm sorry, nobody can convince me that it doesn't
31:47
Speaker 1: hurt to get to have a bullet go through you.
31:51
Speaker 1: I mean, if we cut ourselves, it hurts. For God's sake,
31:55
Speaker 1: it had to hurt for some period of time. But
31:58
Speaker 1: you're exactly right, Nancy. People are going we have to
32:01
Speaker 1: do what we can to protect our memories and to
32:05
Speaker 1: and to try not to feel the amount of pain
32:08
Speaker 1: we are feeling at this little girl's loss. And so
32:11
Speaker 1: what do we do We come up with things like that.
32:14
Speaker 1: And let's not blame the parents either in this regard. Guys,
32:18
Speaker 1: like I said, these parties go on everywhere around Atlanta,
32:24
Speaker 1: and we I mean it's sad to say, but do
32:27
Speaker 1: you always know where your children are going? Well, for me, yes,
32:31
Speaker 1: but I don't know about everybody else. Yeah, I know
32:34
Speaker 1: where they are right now. I know where they were
32:37
Speaker 1: last night, the night before that. I know what they're wearing. Nancy.
32:40
Speaker 1: Can I jump in, Yeah. I think one of the
32:42
Speaker 1: most important things is going to be the timeline when
32:45
Speaker 1: he the shooter was escorted out of that party. How
32:49
Speaker 1: long was he gone before that he came back and
32:52
Speaker 1: was shooting. That's going to give them a parameter that
32:55
Speaker 1: he left there was back in fifteen minutes, forty minutes,
32:58
Speaker 1: an hour and a half, whatever it was, And that'll
33:00
Speaker 1: give you an area of how long it took him
33:03
Speaker 1: to go get this fool accomplice and a gun and
33:05
Speaker 1: come back. Well, what if what if that was just
33:06
Speaker 1: another party goer and the gun was in the car
33:09
Speaker 1: and they had to work their courage out again. The
33:11
Speaker 1: timeline will tell you that maybe maybe I usually agree
33:14
Speaker 1: with you, but I don't know if I do this time.
33:16
Speaker 1: But yes, that is a very valid, very valid supposition.
33:21
Speaker 1: But I don't get it's why a fifteen year old
33:24
Speaker 1: girl at a birthday party of hundreds, hundreds of high
33:28
Speaker 1: school students. They can't id the killer. He was at
33:34
Speaker 1: the party and got thrown out, or at least that's
33:37
Speaker 1: the working theory. There is a man hunt going on
33:40
Speaker 1: right now for the shooter of Leila Hair. It's just
33:44
Speaker 1: fifteen years old at a high school party. Take a
33:47
Speaker 1: listen to Sargeant Julia Isaac. An individual was escorted off
33:52
Speaker 1: of the property, he came back with an accomplice and
33:57
Speaker 1: he shot up the location. I'm so at the point
34:00
Speaker 1: that everybody was scattering and running. She was caught in
34:04
Speaker 1: the crossfire. At this time, the investigators are following all leads,
34:08
Speaker 1: so that will include us trying to look for any
34:10
Speaker 1: video that's available. I just want to say if anyone
34:13
Speaker 1: knows what happened, if they have any information, to please
34:16
Speaker 1: come forward. Someone at the party should know who he is.
34:21
Speaker 1: We're still following leads, so it's still in the preliminary
34:26
Speaker 1: phases at this time. Brendon Wilcox sumes the business next
34:29
Speaker 1: door She's been worried about parties like this before because
34:32
Speaker 1: at two, three, four o'clock in the morning, I'm seeing
34:34
Speaker 1: that there's teenagers still hanging out often here, the conversations,
34:38
Speaker 1: and it's like, man, something can happen at any given time. Now,
34:42
Speaker 1: with another life lost to gun violence, community leaders in
34:45
Speaker 1: Clayton County say change can't wait. We need to come
34:49
Speaker 1: together and rise up in unity. We need to go
34:52
Speaker 1: back to the days where the neighbors see your child,
34:55
Speaker 1: they're calling the parents. It starts at home. Clayton police
34:59
Speaker 1: believe students from across several Metro Atlanta high schools attended
35:03
Speaker 1: Saturday's party, and they believe someone knows who the shooter is.
35:07
Speaker 1: And now we have police begging for help to identify
35:11
Speaker 1: the shooter. You know, I find it really heart to
35:14
Speaker 1: believe Rob Derienzo that nobody knows who the shooter is.
35:19
Speaker 1: I mean, he was thrown out of the party, or
35:20
Speaker 1: at least that's the working theory, isn't it. Well, yeah,
35:23
Speaker 1: that's exactly right. And it's important to note that we
35:25
Speaker 1: obviously don't know what investigators have in their back pocket
35:28
Speaker 1: and what they're working on behind the scenes. Well, they
35:30
Speaker 1: just issued a public play for the idea of the shooter,
35:33
Speaker 1: so that tells me they don't know who he is yet. Yeah,
35:36
Speaker 1: and it's important to note that they're you know, hopefully
35:38
Speaker 1: scouring social media and trying to track down the source
35:42
Speaker 1: of this post that circulated the invite, and then obviously
35:46
Speaker 1: any videos or any fallout from the shooting. So that's
35:49
Speaker 1: all going to be part of their work. But I
35:51
Speaker 1: think Bruce touched on it a little while ago. This
35:53
Speaker 1: niche mentality is pretty endemic, especially among young people here
35:58
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, where they don't they don't want to say anything,
36:01
Speaker 1: even if they have videos of the events, even if
36:03
Speaker 1: they know exactly who did it. They're afraid of being
36:06
Speaker 1: called a snitch or having a target on their back.
36:09
Speaker 1: You know, my son told me in the third grade.
36:11
Speaker 1: You're never gonna blame this show. I'm third grade. Snitches
36:14
Speaker 1: get stitches, I said, if where did you hear that?
36:17
Speaker 1: He didn't tell me. They didn't want to tell him
36:19
Speaker 1: because he didn't want to snitch. Snitches get stitches. I
36:22
Speaker 1: mean it's ingrained in young people brace scraggs. I think
36:26
Speaker 1: you're right. I wish people would truly understand that these
36:29
Speaker 1: kids are really being silenced, not just here in Clayton County.
36:34
Speaker 1: There was another player of visual that happened in the
36:36
Speaker 1: cab County. A guy walked up up at the prayer
36:39
Speaker 1: of Visual and shot and kill somebody. Everybody saw it happened,
36:42
Speaker 1: having them knew him. Nobody said a word. Nobody said
36:46
Speaker 1: a word. There's some commandments that go along with these kids,
36:50
Speaker 1: the commandments of violence. I keep telling you, bashiell not
36:53
Speaker 1: snitches the first one. It's not the only one, but
36:56
Speaker 1: it's the most important one. Bashil handleby business. Bashiel do
37:00
Speaker 1: what I gotta do. That shall be no pump, that
37:03
Speaker 1: shall carry a pistol. These are the commandments that these
37:06
Speaker 1: young people believe in. They don't believe in the commandments
37:09
Speaker 1: of the Bible. Like we grew up to let me
37:11
Speaker 1: ask you, Bruce Greggs. Bruce is the executive director of
37:14
Speaker 1: Oppression Correct Start. Where are teens, young teams and younger guns?
37:25
Speaker 1: Where are they getting these guns? Yes? Well, let me
37:28
Speaker 1: say this when when first of all, when the the
37:31
Speaker 1: law came about that that you could carry to have
37:34
Speaker 1: a permit to carry in Georgia, what that's translated, everybody
37:39
Speaker 1: needed to have a gun. So you got mothers providing
37:42
Speaker 1: guns for their fifteen, twelve, thirteen year old kids. Everybody
37:46
Speaker 1: has a gun. Then you've got these kids who continuously
37:50
Speaker 1: are out under control, not being being properly supervised, that
37:54
Speaker 1: break into these cars, and these games are paying them
37:58
Speaker 1: to get these guns. Okay, hold on there, I think
38:00
Speaker 1: you're right about that. Take a listen to our cut
38:04
Speaker 1: thirteen Sergeant Isaac. I just asked that the parents know
38:09
Speaker 1: where their teenagers are. We get multiple reports a week
38:13
Speaker 1: of juveniles running away or sneaking away from home, and
38:16
Speaker 1: then they're coming back a couple of hours later or
38:18
Speaker 1: days later. It also it's like a revolving door because
38:21
Speaker 1: we do have mostly teenagers that break into cars. If
38:25
Speaker 1: they see guns inside of the cars, they're gonna break
38:29
Speaker 1: the window to get that gun, and in turn they
38:32
Speaker 1: use that gun to commit another crime. It's a full circle.
38:35
Speaker 1: If we can take all of our belongings out of
38:37
Speaker 1: the car, maybe they won't steal the guns. If we
38:40
Speaker 1: keep our kids and pay attention to them and keep
38:43
Speaker 1: them home, know where they are, maybe they won't sneak
38:47
Speaker 1: out to break into someone's car. You know, I appreciate
38:49
Speaker 1: everything the sergeant just said and agree with it, but
38:53
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of taking the focus off the
38:54
Speaker 1: fact that they can't find the killer. So it's back
38:58
Speaker 1: on the parents. Wild parents, You should watch children. They
39:01
Speaker 1: need to be finding the killer. They've got a bullet.
39:04
Speaker 1: Can they not trace the bullet back to a known
39:07
Speaker 1: gun and the ballistics database waiting to find out about that.
39:11
Speaker 1: They can't tell me that no one has a picture
39:15
Speaker 1: of the perpet that party, Nobody knows who is invited,
39:17
Speaker 1: nobody can identify who was thrown out. All of that,
39:21
Speaker 1: every bit of it is a lie. But I want
39:24
Speaker 1: to follow up on what Bruce Griege just says. Try McCollum.
39:27
Speaker 1: It is true. Juveniles and I've seen this as as
39:30
Speaker 1: a prosecutor are asked to do crimes so the adult
39:37
Speaker 1: doesn't face a stiff penalty, Like you give a twelve
39:39
Speaker 1: year old dope to go sell in the corner, So
39:42
Speaker 1: the twenty five year old supplying the dope won't go
39:45
Speaker 1: to jail. The twelve year old will get three weeks
39:47
Speaker 1: in the juv jail for Pete's sake. So explain about
39:50
Speaker 1: the stealing the guns, okay, And again that's nothing new.
39:53
Speaker 1: This has happened since Clinton was president and the three
39:56
Speaker 1: strikes you're out came about. Everybody started using juveniles to
40:00
Speaker 1: you know, run their business is criminal. So what happens
40:03
Speaker 1: is every single time you have an entering auto, pretty
40:06
Speaker 1: much the center console and the glove compartment is open. Well,
40:09
Speaker 1: that's just telling you they're only looking for one thing,
40:11
Speaker 1: and one thing only. They're not looking for computers and
40:14
Speaker 1: things like that. They're looking for guns. In Georgia, an
40:17
Speaker 1: illegal gun is going to bring you about two hundred bugs,
40:20
Speaker 1: but in New York it's twelve hundred. So if you
40:23
Speaker 1: can get fifteen or twenty teenagers out there, they're only
40:26
Speaker 1: going to go to juvenile if they're called. And they
40:29
Speaker 1: can get you seventy five guns and you drive them
40:32
Speaker 1: up to New York, that's a good day. That's a
40:35
Speaker 1: really good day. But you know, when you start investigating
40:39
Speaker 1: a murderer, and this is a murder, we have to
40:42
Speaker 1: find out everything we know about the victim, what is
40:46
Speaker 1: connecting her to the killer? If anything, what's making this
40:49
Speaker 1: case so difficult to solve is that we now believe
40:53
Speaker 1: this teen girl, Lela Harris, had no connection to her killer,
40:58
Speaker 1: much as we're seeing in the has student killings. When
41:01
Speaker 1: there's no connection between the victim and the killer, it's
41:05
Speaker 1: much harder to solve. It's a needle in a haystack.
41:10
Speaker 1: But straight out to you, Daryl Cohen, this is absolutely
41:15
Speaker 1: a murder case. Why it could have been argued the
41:19
Speaker 1: defendant was angry from for getting thrown out of the
41:22
Speaker 1: party and that he acted in anger, which could if
41:27
Speaker 1: a defense attorney got the right Jorry, reduce it down
41:29
Speaker 1: to voluntary manslaughter. But here we have a cooling off period,
41:35
Speaker 1: explain Nancy. It goes from murder to voluntary manslaughter if
41:42
Speaker 1: there is no cooling off period, and that's only a perhaps.
41:46
Speaker 1: But here our shooter, whoever he was, and I assume
41:49
Speaker 1: it say he was removed from the party, came back
41:53
Speaker 1: some time later, may have been thirty seconds may have
41:56
Speaker 1: been thirty minutes, may have been an hour, and shot
41:59
Speaker 1: up the place. The fact that our victim was not
42:03
Speaker 1: necessarily his target doesn't mean he's not guilty. It means
42:08
Speaker 1: he's guilty of murder. And let me say this, Nancy,
42:11
Speaker 1: teenagers talk. They're going to find him in a week
42:14
Speaker 1: or two, because too many people who saw nothing are
42:18
Speaker 1: suddenly going to be talking to their friends talking about
42:21
Speaker 1: who he is. Or I'm not interested in ballistics yet,
42:25
Speaker 1: I'm interested in eyewitnesses, and I think you will find
42:28
Speaker 1: that they will talk and he will be apprehended fairly shortly.
42:32
Speaker 1: For those of you asking, there was no Surmilli's video
42:36
Speaker 1: at the scene of this birthday party, this so called
42:39
Speaker 1: birthday party. If you know or think you know anything
42:44
Speaker 1: about the murder of this young girl, Laela, please dial
42:47
Speaker 1: seven seven zero four seven seven three seven four seven
42:52
Speaker 1: seven four seven seven three seven four seven. Now I
42:57
Speaker 1: learned on day one arguing to a jury, you are
43:00
Speaker 1: never allowed to put a jurar in the place in
43:06
Speaker 1: the shoes of the victim. But just think about it.
43:12
Speaker 1: What if this were your daughter at a birthday party,
43:19
Speaker 1: coming home in a box and no one has been apprehended,
43:25
Speaker 1: We wait as justice unfalls. Nancy Grace Crimes story, signing
43:30
Speaker 1: off goodbye friend,