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Teen Girl Shot Dead at Birthday Party · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Greece 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'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.
0:31
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation
0:33
Speaker 1: and Serious XM one eleven. You may have just said,
0:38
Speaker 1: what what does she say? She's dead because she went
0:43
Speaker 1: to a birthday party. What does that have to do
0:47
Speaker 1: with each other? Nothing? She is dead because she went
0:53
Speaker 1: to a birthday party. This team girl, I had a
0:58
Speaker 1: pull a picture of her up one really gets to me.
1:01
Speaker 1: Here she is and her go I could just see
1:05
Speaker 1: my daughter wearing this. My little girl is fifteen, she
1:09
Speaker 1: just turned fifteen. She and her twin brother Leila has
1:13
Speaker 1: on this oh is skin tight and it should be
1:16
Speaker 1: with a figure like hers. She's got on this spaghetti stripe, beautiful,
1:24
Speaker 1: tight red type of sheath dress. She's got her hair beautiful.
1:32
Speaker 1: She's got the perfect smile. Now. I don't know if
1:34
Speaker 1: this smile is natural or her parents paid twenty grand
1:37
Speaker 1: for those teeth out embraces, but it's beautiful. And she's
1:43
Speaker 1: got her nails done. And this is the part that
1:46
Speaker 1: breaks my heart. She's got on a little risk massage.
1:50
Speaker 1: She's going to a dance in this picture, you know
1:57
Speaker 1: it was a prominent school, and a look on her face.
2:02
Speaker 1: She's carefree. She's a little teen girl. She's got the
2:07
Speaker 1: world in front of her. Why did she have to
2:11
Speaker 1: bleed out dead at a birthday party? Why her? She's
2:18
Speaker 1: never done anything wrong, good student, beloved everything. First of all,
2:28
Speaker 1: take 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
2:52
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
3:11
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
3:24
Speaker 1: off their property. He came back with an accomplice, and
3:28
Speaker 1: he shot up the location. As students ran for cover,
3:31
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 scene 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
4:09
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
4:59
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
5:18
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. Does never
5:26
Speaker 1: happened to you, Nancy? It happened several times. But also
5:29
Speaker 1: I want to point out that a lot of young kids,
5:32
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. They don't want
6:00
Speaker 1: to be arrested, they don't want to be questioned, They
6:03
Speaker 1: 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.
6:16
Speaker 1: Cheryl Yere I think still in the midst of raising
6:20
Speaker 1: to college units, 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
6:44
Speaker 1: o'clock on Saturday night, that she should still be safe.
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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
6:57
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
7:15
Speaker 1: know teenagers, but he sticks out. He's a problem. So
7:19
Speaker 1: to be a problem in that atmosphere with music and
7:22
Speaker 1: talking and dancing, for somebody to be able to know
7:25
Speaker 1: you're such an issue, you've got to go and be
7:28
Speaker 1: escorted out. He was already a problem before the shooting started.
7:32
Speaker 1: Plus Gudgeon, the source for answers, joining me a special
7:34
Speaker 1: guest from Fox five Atlanta, Rob Drienzo, Thank you for
7:39
Speaker 1: being with us. Tell me about the venue. Well, it's
7:41
Speaker 1: essentially this space, and I would say, kind of an
7:45
Speaker 1: industrial lot. There's a startup church right next to it,
7:48
Speaker 1: and then there's are what it was, kind of this
7:51
Speaker 1: like startup church founded in this essentially the shopping plaza
7:55
Speaker 1: in this industrial area in Clayton County. So it wasn't
7:59
Speaker 1: exactly the spot or where you would expect to find
8:03
Speaker 1: a child's birthday party, just in this kind of like
8:06
Speaker 1: I said, industrial area, It in Claytons. Okay, and wait
8:09
Speaker 1: a minute, it's beside a church in a strip mall. Yeah, exactly,
8:13
Speaker 1: and right next to it is another business. It really isn't,
8:17
Speaker 1: like I said, a venue that you would expect to
8:20
Speaker 1: find a child's birthday party. We tried to reach out
8:23
Speaker 1: to the event hall owner who seems to want to
8:26
Speaker 1: create a larger business out of it. Haven't heard anything
8:29
Speaker 1: back from them, but clearly there was not adequate security
8:32
Speaker 1: there that night. Trying to figure out, Okay, what kind
8:36
Speaker 1: of a party was it? Guys, take a listen to
8:39
Speaker 1: our friends at Fox five. We need your assistance to
8:43
Speaker 1: find justice for Layla Harris. Investigators who made that plead
8:47
Speaker 1: to the public after the maryat A team was shot
8:49
Speaker 1: and killed outside a massive high school party on Citizens
8:53
Speaker 1: Parkway in Clayton County on Saturday night. On Monday, we
8:56
Speaker 1: saw the windows next to the event hall shattered in
8:59
Speaker 1: a bullet on the ground. Clayton cops say when they
9:01
Speaker 1: got there, it was already too late to save fifteen
9:04
Speaker 1: year old Layla Harris. Officers noticed hundreds of teenagers running
9:09
Speaker 1: away from the scene. Once they got up to the location,
9:11
Speaker 1: they observed a female deceased from a gunshot wound in
9:16
Speaker 1: front of the entrance. Layla's cousin told me on the
9:18
Speaker 1: phone that they're hoping to fly her body back home
9:20
Speaker 1: to Saint Louis, writing on go fund me, sadly she
9:23
Speaker 1: was tragically killed while attending a birthday party, just doing
9:27
Speaker 1: what any fifteen year old likes to do, trying to
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Speaker 1: have fun, and now we've lost her to a senseless
9:32
Speaker 1: act of violence. To doctor Angie Arnold joining us, we're
9:35
Speaker 1: now a psychiatrist in the Atlanta jurisdiction. You can find
9:38
Speaker 1: her at Angela Arnold MD dot com. This is not unusual.
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Speaker 1: You have a party at a venue and this one
9:50
Speaker 1: tells that one, and that one tells this one, and
9:52
Speaker 1: pretty soon there's one hundred people there. That's not unusual
9:56
Speaker 1: at all. No, it's not Nancy. And it happens all
9:58
Speaker 1: over the city. Doesn't just happened down in Clayton County.
10:02
Speaker 1: It happens in Buckhead. It happens in a lot of
10:05
Speaker 1: different places. And you know, and yeah, they're problems with
10:10
Speaker 1: these events, but nobody attends this event thinking they're going
10:14
Speaker 1: to get shot and killed. They're attending the event. They
10:17
Speaker 1: have fun crime stories with Nancy Grace. I think about
10:36
Speaker 1: these events. I've covered several cases where girls, young ladies
10:43
Speaker 1: show up at a party that's basically turned into an event,
10:48
Speaker 1: and what they don't get when they show up is
10:53
Speaker 1: it's not like a party in your house or your backyard.
10:57
Speaker 1: These are people that are not connected in any way.
11:01
Speaker 1: You don't know them. It's not like I'm knowing me
11:04
Speaker 1: Jackie's twenty first birthday party, because she's going to have
11:07
Speaker 1: her family there, she's gonna have some other people that
11:09
Speaker 1: work on crime stories, and we're going to all generally
11:13
Speaker 1: know who each other is. And I get together like this,
11:16
Speaker 1: you don't know each other at all, Doctor Angie. That's
11:20
Speaker 1: exactly right. And but Nancy, here's the other thing too.
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Speaker 1: You're talking about fifteen year old. Fifteen year olds aren't
11:26
Speaker 1: thinking that far in advance to think, well, I'm not
11:28
Speaker 1: going to know anybody that's here. They are going because
11:32
Speaker 1: of the fear of missing out. They want to go,
11:35
Speaker 1: they want to be seen there, they want to have
11:36
Speaker 1: a good time, but they don't think about the repercussions
11:41
Speaker 1: of what can happen. I mean, Nancy, I am sure
11:44
Speaker 1: you are telling your kids all the time about what
11:47
Speaker 1: to look out for whatever they're doing, right, Yeah, but
11:51
Speaker 1: 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
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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
12:23
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 Brooke was blonde underneath. So when people were shown
12:41
Speaker 1: Chelsea's picture, they went and so did you see her?
12:44
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.
13:00
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
13:57
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
14:40
Speaker 1: the scene. Those teams were running from this venue. It
14:43
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
14:53
Speaker 1: back with an accomplice and he shot up the location.
14:56
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
15:03
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
15:13
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
15:27
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? Mom? While
15:51
Speaker 1: behind my twelve? Doesn't that sound like that's okay on
15:54
Speaker 1: a Saturday night to go to a friend's birthday party. Well,
15:58
Speaker 1: back when I was on up, it did. But nowadays
16:02
Speaker 1: there's no way that you should allow your child to
16:05
Speaker 1: go to an event where you haven't checked out the facility,
16:08
Speaker 1: whether they have proper security. You should even though 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: violence 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
16:51
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 of You have the
17:01
Speaker 1: right to want to help, You have the right to
17:02
Speaker 1: want to be safe. We have to make sure there
17:05
Speaker 1: are a lot of kids that want to be safe.
17:06
Speaker 1: They 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
17:35
Speaker 1: is right now. We've been actually looking for this post
17:38
Speaker 1: that apparently circulated for a few days and we haven't
17:40
Speaker 1: been able to find it. But essentially, it was an
17:43
Speaker 1: open invite to any teenager in the Atlanta metro area,
17:46
Speaker 1: and you can imagine how wrong that can go. As
17:50
Speaker 1: we saw, but she seemed to think it was a
17:52
Speaker 1: birthday party. Yeah, it seemed like it was a birthday
17:54
Speaker 1: party with an open invite, so you didn't have to
17:56
Speaker 1: know the person whose birthday it was in order to attend. Okay,
18:00
Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum joining me, Cheryl, could you explain everybody what
18:04
Speaker 1: it's an open invite party? Yeah, that's just when you
18:07
Speaker 1: put 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
18:27
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.
18:47
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 story 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
20:46
Speaker 1: conquer that's the only way people suddenly remember, Oh yes
20:51
Speaker 1: I saw this, Oh yes I heard that. No I
20:54
Speaker 1: wasn't there, Oh yes, I guess I was. And Nancy,
20:57
Speaker 1: let me say this, and I've been waiting. I'm fear
21:00
Speaker 1: is with the parents. You can't change what happened this
21:03
Speaker 1: fifteen year old girl. She's dead. But let's stop it.
21:07
Speaker 1: Let's where the heck or the parents allowing fifteen year
21:10
Speaker 1: old to go halfway across the city or all the
21:14
Speaker 1: way across the city to go to a party. This
21:16
Speaker 1: is completely in my view, on the parents as well
21:21
Speaker 1: as the shooter, as well as the venue. There was
21:25
Speaker 1: no security that was adequate to take care of all
21:28
Speaker 1: of this. Well, I mean, for Pete's saying Daryl coeh
21:30
Speaker 1: in their high school seat, it's why they're not thinking
21:32
Speaker 1: about security. Well I am, and mom and dad should be.
21:36
Speaker 1: And mom and dad should say. You're fifteen. Your curfew,
21:39
Speaker 1: as you pointed out when you were younger and I
21:41
Speaker 1: was younger, was eleven or eleven thirty? Well, can I
21:44
Speaker 1: tell you what just happened this past weekend? My son?
21:47
Speaker 1: You know my children, John, David Lucy, they just turned fifteen,
21:51
Speaker 1: and my daughter is very petite. My son is six
21:56
Speaker 1: to five, but he is a gentle giant, and he
22:00
Speaker 1: got invited to a birthday party and it was going
22:03
Speaker 1: to be at six Flags at night, and of course
22:07
Speaker 1: all I could think about is murder, mayhem, robbing's armed
22:12
Speaker 1: robberies at this big venue. I was the only mom,
22:18
Speaker 1: as it turns out, that asked the host parents, Hey,
22:21
Speaker 1: are you guys gonna be with them? Yeah, I've got
22:24
Speaker 1: a son six five, and I'm worried about him going
22:28
Speaker 1: to six Flags without a parent there. And it all
22:34
Speaker 1: turned out just fine. As it happened. My husband and
22:39
Speaker 1: I suddenly had dinner plans, believe it or not, right
22:42
Speaker 1: there at six Flags. Isn't that crazy that it worked
22:46
Speaker 1: out in that way? So unbeknownst to him, do not
22:49
Speaker 1: repeat the story to my children. Mommy was not far away,
22:53
Speaker 1: and Dad also reluctantly was nearby as well. You know,
22:58
Speaker 1: Bruce Griggs, I think I'm not planning on blaming the
23:02
Speaker 1: parents here because I don't even know if they really
23:04
Speaker 1: need where the venue was, but it shows that you're
23:08
Speaker 1: just not safe letting your child go to a party.
23:12
Speaker 1: And by the way, everything was absolutely fine at six Flights,
23:17
Speaker 1: just like those parents said he had a great time.
23:20
Speaker 1: There was not even a hint of gang activity, of
23:24
Speaker 1: anything threatening. Nothing. It was absolutely fine, thank god. But
23:32
Speaker 1: you just never knew. But what's the cross between living
23:36
Speaker 1: a normal lot and living in fear something's going to
23:38
Speaker 1: happen to your team? Kid? Well, we've got to all
23:41
Speaker 1: understanding that youth gun violence has reached epidemic proportions. As
23:47
Speaker 1: a parent, that's the first thing you should be able
23:49
Speaker 1: to pay attention to. But as a community, we have
23:53
Speaker 1: to come together to try to prevent and reduce violence
23:57
Speaker 1: not only buy but also against the youth. It's it's
24:02
Speaker 1: gotten to a point throughout the nation where we've got
24:05
Speaker 1: to treat this violence as a disease. We got to
24:08
Speaker 1: start treating as a public health issue the same way
24:11
Speaker 1: that we were looking at COVID nineteen. Well, how are
24:14
Speaker 1: 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 cots 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. Listen real closely, when you
24:32
Speaker 1: treat violence as a disease. You've got to attack the
24:35
Speaker 1: problem where it is. You know, a lot of people
24:37
Speaker 1: would argue that they believe they're safe because they live
24:41
Speaker 1: in filling the blank, or they're going to a private school,
24:47
Speaker 1: or they are in their office in a very calm
24:53
Speaker 1: office district, or their home on has a burglar alarm
24:57
Speaker 1: on it, or they've got a fence around their yard.
25:00
Speaker 1: That is not true to you, Daryl Cohen. Violence seeps
25:09
Speaker 1: into your life no matter what community you're in or
25:13
Speaker 1: where you're from. Would you agree? I mean, you and
25:17
Speaker 1: I prosecuted and you've defended violent crimes all across Fulton County.
25:24
Speaker 1: I've had murders for all the millionaires live. I've had
25:28
Speaker 1: murders in housing projects. I've had murders in single family homes.
25:34
Speaker 1: I've had mass shootings on a playground. For Pete's sake,
25:38
Speaker 1: Crime seeps in everywhere. Each of my daughters, I tell them,
25:42
Speaker 1: and you know one of them very well, keep your
25:44
Speaker 1: head on a swivel. Yes, there's more likely crime going
25:48
Speaker 1: to happen in certain neighborhoods, but yes, crime happens everywhere,
25:53
Speaker 1: and it happens when you least expect it. It happens
25:57
Speaker 1: in the middle of the day, it happens in the
25:59
Speaker 1: middle of the night, more likely late at night when
26:02
Speaker 1: it's dark. But it happens everywhere. And if the parents
26:06
Speaker 1: don't take responsibility for their kids, that who in the
26:11
Speaker 1: world is going to be able to take responsibility. I
26:14
Speaker 1: disagree with you on that, Darrel, because no parent when
26:16
Speaker 1: their child says, hey, mom, can I go to a
26:19
Speaker 1: 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 venue, which is troubling. I want to go back
26:37
Speaker 1: to Leila Harris too. Doctor Jeffrey M. And Jenson 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
27:31
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 depended. 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 u 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,
28:43
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
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 fiance 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,
31:09
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
31:25
Speaker 1: like one moment she's here, one moment she's gone. That's
31:28
Speaker 1: not true. Let's just talk about the truth. I mean, Nancy,
31:31
Speaker 1: can you imagine the fear first of all, that she
31:34
Speaker 1: felt because she was shot running out of the house
31:37
Speaker 1: or whatever the venue was, So there was fear inside
31:41
Speaker 1: of 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, pull 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
32:36
Speaker 1: last night and the night before that. I know what
32:39
Speaker 1: they're wearing. Nancy, Can I jump in? Yeah. I think
32:42
Speaker 1: one of the most important things is going to be
32:44
Speaker 1: the timeline when he the shooter was escorted out of
32:48
Speaker 1: that party. How long was he gone before that he
32:51
Speaker 1: came back and was shooting. That's going to give them
32:54
Speaker 1: a parameter that he left there was back in fifteen minutes,
32:57
Speaker 1: forty minutes, an hour and a half whatever it was,
33:00
Speaker 1: and that'll give you an area of how long it
33:02
Speaker 1: took him to go get this fool accomplice and a
33:04
Speaker 1: gun and come back. Well if what if that was
33:06
Speaker 1: just another party goer and the gun was in the
33:08
Speaker 1: car and they had to work theirself their courage out again,
33:11
Speaker 1: the timeline will tell you that maybe maybe I usually
33:14
Speaker 1: agree with you, but I don't know if I do
33:15
Speaker 1: this time. But yes, that is a very valid, very
33:19
Speaker 1: valid supposition. But I don't get it's why a fifteen
33:23
Speaker 1: year old girl at a birthday party of hundreds, hundreds
33:28
Speaker 1: of high school students. They can't id the killer. He
33:33
Speaker 1: was at the party and got thrown out, or at
33:36
Speaker 1: least that's the working theory. There is a man hunt
33:39
Speaker 1: going on right now for the shooter of Leila Hair.
33:43
Speaker 1: It's just fifteen years old at a high school party.
33:47
Speaker 1: Take a listen to Sargeant Julia Isaac. An individual was
33:51
Speaker 1: escorted off of the property. He came back with an
33:55
Speaker 1: accomplice and he shot up the location. I'm assume at
34:00
Speaker 1: the point that everybody was scattering and running. She was
34:03
Speaker 1: caught in the crossfire. At this time, the investigators are
34:06
Speaker 1: following all leads, so that will include us trying to
34:10
Speaker 1: look for any video that's available. I just want to
34:12
Speaker 1: say if anyone knows what happened, if they have any information,
34:16
Speaker 1: to please come forward. Someone at the party should know
34:19
Speaker 1: who he is. We're still following leads, so it's still
34:25
Speaker 1: in the preliminary phases at this time. Brendon Wilcox sumes
34:28
Speaker 1: the business next door He's been worried about parties like
34:31
Speaker 1: this before because at two, three, four o'clock in the morning,
34:34
Speaker 1: I'm seeing that there's teenagers still hanging out often here
34:37
Speaker 1: the conversations, and it's like, man, something can happen at
34:41
Speaker 1: any given time. Now with another life lost to gun violence,
34:44
Speaker 1: community leaders in Clayton County stay, change can't wait. We
34:48
Speaker 1: need to come together and rise up in unity. We
34:51
Speaker 1: need to go back to the days where the neighbors
34:54
Speaker 1: see your child, they're calling the parents. It starts at home.
34:59
Speaker 1: Clayton police believe students from across several Metro Atlanta high
35:02
Speaker 1: schools attended Saturday's party, and they believe someone knows who
35:06
Speaker 1: the shooter is. And now we have police begging for
35:09
Speaker 1: help to identify the shooter. You know, I find it
35:13
Speaker 1: really heart to bely Rob de Rienzo that nobody knows
35:18
Speaker 1: who the shooter is. I mean he was thrown out
35:20
Speaker 1: of the party, or at least that's the working theory,
35:22
Speaker 1: isn't it. Well, yeah, that's exactly right. And it's important
35:24
Speaker 1: to note that we obviously don't know what investigators have
35:27
Speaker 1: in their back pocket and what they're working on behind
35:29
Speaker 1: the scenes. Well, they just issued a public play for
35:31
Speaker 1: the idea of the shooter, so that tells me they
35:34
Speaker 1: don't know who he is yet. Yeah, and it's important
35:37
Speaker 1: to note that they're you know, hopefully scouring social media
35:39
Speaker 1: and trying to track down the source of this post
35:43
Speaker 1: that circulated the invite, and then obviously any videos or
35:47
Speaker 1: any fallout from the shooting. So that's all going to
35:49
Speaker 1: be part of their work. But I think Bruce touched
35:52
Speaker 1: on it a little while ago. This niche mentality is
35:55
Speaker 1: pretty endemic, especially among young people here in Atlanta, or
36:00
Speaker 1: they don't they don't want to say anything, even if
36:02
Speaker 1: they have videos of the events, even if they know
36:04
Speaker 1: exactly who did it. They're afraid of being called a
36:06
Speaker 1: snitch or having a target on their back. You know,
36:09
Speaker 1: my son told me in the third grade, you're never
36:11
Speaker 1: gonna blame this show. I'm third grade. Snitches get stitches,
36:15
Speaker 1: I said, if where did you hear that? He didn't
36:18
Speaker 1: tell me. They didn't want to tell me because he
36:19
Speaker 1: didn't want to snitch. Snitches get stitches. I mean it's
36:23
Speaker 1: ingrained in young people brace scraggs. I think you're right.
36:26
Speaker 1: I wish people would truly understand that these kids are
36:30
Speaker 1: really being silenced, not just here in Clayton County. There
36:34
Speaker 1: was another player of vigil that happened in the Cab County.
36:37
Speaker 1: A guy walked up up at the prayer of Visual
36:39
Speaker 1: and shot and kill somebody. Everybody saw it happened, having
36:42
Speaker 1: them knew him. Nobody said a word. Nobody said a word.
36:47
Speaker 1: There's some commandments that go along with these kids, the
36:50
Speaker 1: commandments of violence. I keep telling you, bashiell not snitches
36:54
Speaker 1: the first one. It's not the only one, but it's
36:56
Speaker 1: the most important one. Bashil handle by 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 other commandments that these young
37:06
Speaker 1: people believe in. They don't believe in the commandments of
37:09
Speaker 1: the Bible like we grew up to. Let me ask
37:11
Speaker 1: you Bruce Greggs. Bruce is the executive director of Oppression
37:15
Speaker 1: Correct Start. Where are teens, young teams and younger guns?
37:25
Speaker 1: Where are they're 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 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 right there, I
38:00
Speaker 1: think you're right about that. Take a listen to our
38:04
Speaker 1: cut thirteen Sergeant Isaac. I just asked that the parents
38:08
Speaker 1: know where their teenagers are. We get multiple reports a
38:12
Speaker 1: week of juveniles running away or sneaking away from home,
38:15
Speaker 1: and then they're coming back a couple of hours later
38:18
Speaker 1: or days later. It also it's like a revolving door
38:21
Speaker 1: because we do have mostly teenagers that break into cars.
38:25
Speaker 1: If they see guns inside of the cars, they're gonna
38:29
Speaker 1: break the window to get that gun. And in turn
38:32
Speaker 1: they use that gun to commit another crime. It's a
38:34
Speaker 1: full circle. If we can take all of our belongings
38:37
Speaker 1: out of the car, maybe they won't steal the guns.
38:39
Speaker 1: If we keep our kids and pay attention to them
38:43
Speaker 1: and keep them home, know where they are, maybe they
38:46
Speaker 1: won't sneak out to break into someone's car. You know,
38:49
Speaker 1: I appreciate everything the sergeant just said and agree with it,
38:52
Speaker 1: but I think that's kind of taking the focus off
38:54
Speaker 1: the fact that they can't find the killer. So it's
38:57
Speaker 1: back on the parents. Wild parents, you should watch your children.
39:00
Speaker 1: They 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 in 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 as UV 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 happened
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 murder, 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 ida A student killings.
41:01
Speaker 1: When there's no connection between the victim and the killer,
41:04
Speaker 1: it's 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
42:43
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,
43:18
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,