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PRIMETIME JUSTICE WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Getaway Driver Charged With Murder; Mom and 8-year-old Son Suffered Multiple Stab Wounds Before House Fire; Manhunt: Day 21; Family Outraged; Terrifying Attack; Caught on Video. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired April 3, 2017 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[20:00:00] (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HLN HOST (voice-over): Deadly regrets -- she admits she drove the getaway car in a home invasion that cost her three friends their

lives.

ELIZABETH RODRIGUEZ, GETAWAY DRIVER CHARGED WITH MURDER: I`m just so sorry!

BANFIELD: On TV, giving details about a break-in where the home owner`s son shot all three dead.

911 OPERATOR: Was anyone shot?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, two of them.

RODRIGUEZ: Any time we robbed, we all knew what could happen.

BANFIELD: So why does she think it`s unfair that she`s been charged?

RODRIGUEZ: I didn`t plan to kill any of them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I miss my baby.

BANFIELD: A mom and her 8-year-old boy found dead in a house fire.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m scared it`s not going to get solved in time to save somebody else.

BANFIELD: But it wasn`t the flames or the smoke that killed them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Clear your conscience. Turn yourself in.

BANFIELD: The violent attack before the fire was sparked, and the utter mystery of who could do such a thing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her boyfriend`s over here. He has a loaded weapon.

BANFIELD: 911 emergency, a man with a gun threatening a mom of two. A caller later told something shocking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re going to handle it, ma`am. Just stop calling 911.

BANFIELD: Hours later, police say her boyfriend used an AK to kill her and her son.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s making (INAUDIBLE) second time she`s done it.

BANFIELD: Now her family wants answers from the cops.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To protect and serve who?

BANFIELD: Two masked men try to kidnap a woman in front of her kids, all of it caught on tape. Her fiance opens fire, chasing them off. So why is

he the one arrested and charged?

He disappeared with his 15-year-old student three weeks ago today. Now his wife has a message for Tad Cummins.

JILL CUMMINS, WIFE: Tad, this is not you.

BANFIELD: It starts with D and rhymes with divorce.

CUMMINS: This is not who you are.

BANFIELD: Carjacked at the gas pump. But the owner fights back with a nozzle full of gas. So did she save her car?

And what do you suppose happened to this guy?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happened, man?

BANFIELD: Teenager meets duct tape meets police.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They caught me (INAUDIBLE)

BANFIELD: You won`t believe how this turned out.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: Hello, everyone. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. This is PRIMETIME JUSTICE.

Depending on how you look them, Maxwell Cook, Jaykob Woodruff and Jacob Redfearn are three teenagers who died far too soon or they are three

teenagers who lived one home invasion too long and got exactly what they deserved because after breaking into a home where the victim had an AR-15,

they died in a hail of gunfire. And there are those who would say the good folks of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, will never be terrorized by them again.

Either way you look at them, their pal and alleged getaway driver Elizabeth Rodriguez is in a world of hurt tonight because she has been charged with

their murders. And for some unknown reason, she is spilling her guts all over TV about the crime. It goes without saying she probably has no idea

that she may be sealing her fate in what could end up a death penalty case.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`ve just been broken into. Three men, two I`ve shot in my house.

911 OPERATOR: Was anyone shot?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, two of them.

911 OPERATOR: Are they bleeding?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I believe one is down, one`s still talking. You need to get here now.

911 OPERATOR: And they broke into your home?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Well, It all started when her three friends broke into that home, all dressed in black and wearing masks. And the son of the home

owner opened fire. They were intruders. He then locked himself in a bedroom and made that 911 call.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RODRIGUEZ: I understand legally why they`re charging me with them. But did I kill them? Did I murder them? No. No, I don`t believe I did at

all. I tried to help them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Well, that was Elizabeth Rodriguez. She turned herself in not long after that invasion and the police say she told them she was there in

the getaway car, that she helped plan the whole thing. And she told "Inside Edition" that she does seem to understand, as you just heard, why

the home owner opened fire.

Elizabeth turned herself in and may not have known what that meant. It`s kind of what you call the classic felony murder. It means the getaway

driver can be charged with all three of those deaths, no matter who it was pulling the trigger.

Joining me tonight, Deputy Nicholas Mahoney from the Wagoner, Oklahoma, sheriff`s office, and "Inside Edition" correspondent Steven Fabian, who did

that interview with Elizabeth Rodriguez in the jail.

[20:05:00]First to you, Deputy. It is astounding to me that she is talking. And she is not just talking a little, she`s laying it all out.

Is she making your case for you? Is she making your investigation much easier?

DEPUTY NICHOLAS MAHONEY, WAGONER COUNTY SHERIFF`S OFFICE: Well, I know that that`s something the district attorney is going to look into. I`m

sure that they will get copies of all of these interviews that she`s doing and use that for, you know, trial evidence.

BANFIELD: I want to play for you one of the things she mentioned, as an alleged getaway driver. And I have to say "alleged" because, you know,

she`s going to go to trial on this, but she herself isn`t even calling herself an alleged getaway driver. She`s describing what it was like

watching one of her best friends coming out, sliding over her hood and dying in front of her. Have a listen.

RODRIGUEZ: I heard the gunshots. And then Jake came out, and I seen him by the gate. And he slid across my car, and all I could hear him say is, I

got hit. And he fell down in the driveway.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: This is just an unbelievable interview that you did. Jake is one of them. Jaykob is another and Max is a third. And Max is significant

in this because it was her boyfriend.

STEVEN FABIAN, "INSIDE EDITION": Sure. They were romantically linked. She referred to these three teenagers as her family. They made all these

decisions together. When they decided to rob a house or carjack somebody, they always made these decisions together. I think she does feel a great

deal of remorse for losing her three friends. Obviously, in the interview, you see she breaks down at one point. When we led her away after the

interview, cuffs went back on her. She broke down.

BANFIELD: Did she have any idea -- you know how this works, right? As a felony murder, doesn`t matter what you`re doing in the felony, you`re

responsible if anyone dies. And no, the home owner may not be a murderer, but it`s a murder and she gets -- you know, she gets stuck with it. Did

she get that?

FABIAN: It seems as though she understands the legality behind what`s going on with her right now. But at the same time, she still thinks Zack

Peters (ph), the -- the...

BANFIELD: The shooter.

FABIAN: The shooter, yes, who was defending his home -- she still thinks he should have shot to wound and not shot to kill. She said...

BANFIELD: Well, she`s adorable at age 21 with apparently an admitted string of break-ins and felonies behind her. That`s not the way the law

works in most states and certainly not in Oklahoma. It`s a death penalty state.

Real quick question. She mentioned something about having regrets. I want to play for our audience one of the pieces of the interview you conducted

and ask you about whether you believed her. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FABIAN: You could be behind bars for a long time because of this. Do you have any regrets?

RODRIGUEZ: Yes! Yes, a lot of regrets. A lot of regrets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Did you believe that she had any regrets about what happened or did she get -- she have regrets because she was caught?

FABIAN: I think she has regrets because she lost her friends, and I think she has regrets because of what her friends` families think about her now.

They`re not happy with her. I don`t think she...

BANFIELD: Is she sorry about the life of crime she -- I mean, this young woman at 21 years old -- we`ll get into her family life in a minute -- laid

it out saying, yes, we did this a whole bunch of times. We used to break in all the time. We used to plan. It was a family decision when we used

to do this kind of thing.

FABIAN: Sure.

BANFIELD: Does she care at all about doing that to people?

FABIAN: It almost seemed like she justified the criminal activity. It almost seemed like she didn`t feel so bad about, you know, being the

getaway driver for her three friends when they broke into somebody`s house and tried to, you know, steal as much stuff as they possibly could. I

think she just feels more bad that she lost her friends.

BANFIELD: All right. Real quickly, Deputy Mahoney, can I ask you a little bit about her background? She apparently has three children of her own at

age 21, I think ranging from 7 months to 2 years old. Where are they?

MAHONEY: Well, currently, they`re in the custody of her parents. That`s where they`ve been living for quite some time. It`s my understanding that

they`ve actually been staying with her parents, you know, on and off since they were born.

BANFIELD: Ah. So on the night of the deaths of her three pals, her partners in crime, as she admits, those children weren`t with her.

MAHONEY: No, they were not. They were in the custody of her parents.

BANFIELD: OK. Well, let`s just say thank God for that silver lining in this ugly story. There are unconfirmed reports that she`s pregnant. Do

you know anything about that?

MAHONEY: You know, we`ve heard that rumor and we`ve seen that circulate on Facebook and social media, but you know, there -- we don`t know that she`s

pregnant. You know, during her intake in the jail, that`s a test that they`re given, that all female inmates are given, and you know, I haven`t

been made aware of any type of pregnancy.

BANFIELD: So she has not said to the jail where she`s being held I believe without bond, I got a condition and I need some special treatment. We

don`t know that.

[20:10:00]MAHONEY: Well, when she was brought into the Wagoner County jail, I mean, she was given a pregnancy test. So you know, that

information wasn`t sent up to me that she was, indeed, pregnant. So I don`t know for a fact. However, I know that we`ve not and our jail staff

has not made any type of prenatal care available. So...

BANFIELD: OK. I suppose we`ll find out soon enough. I think we`ll clearly be finding out soon enough whether we all have to bend over

backwards to make sure she`s looked after properly before she goes to trial and ultimately ends up, you know, in prison, if that`s what is going to

happen here.

Another quick question about something that`s new since we last told this story. And that is that she has told about another person present, a

passenger in the car with her as she sped away from her three dying friends. Who is this passenger?

MAHONEY: Well, we know that she`s a juvenile, and we know that she was in the car at the time. She actually reached out to investigators, and

they`re in contact with her now. So I don`t know what the extent of her interview has been. We`re treating her as a witness and not as a suspect,

but it is confirmed that she was in the car at the time.

BANFIELD: So we know it`s not a child of hers. We know that for sure. We know this is a juvenile. Do we know that this is somebody who was aware of

the plan as they drove to that home?

MAHONEY: Well, you know, Ms. Rodriguez said on, you know, a -- in one of her interviews that this young lady did not know that this was going to

happen, that she was just in the car at the time, that she didn`t have any knowledge. Now, I don`t know that for a fact. I know that our

investigators are talking to her and trying to sort that out.

BANFIELD: I want to bring in Randy Zelin, former prosecutor who is with us on set. He`s joining Steve and me here.

Randy, you know, we usually don`t get all these details before something actually ends up at trial, but she`s laid out almost the entire case.

RANDY ZELIN, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Yes, she has. And perhaps to the untrained eye, you would be, like, What is she, nuts? But I think to the

more trained eye, there`s a method to this madness, whether it`s on purpose or by accident.

Number one, as you aptly noted, felony murder is an extraordinarily unfair law because intent, what was going on in your head, doesn`t matter. If

someone dies during the commission of a violent felony, that`s it. It`s what we call in civil law strict liability. What`s going on here doesn`t

matter.

However, this is not the typical felony murder case, anything but. Felony murder was designed where an innocent bystander is killed, when a victim is

killed, not when a co-defendant or co-defendants are killed. So this is a very different set of facts.

And finally, she`s auditioning for a prosecutor. She`s auditioning for the jury without meeting with the prosecutor. They`re sizing her up and saying

to themselves, Do we treat her the way the felony murder statute was designed, or do we treat her differently and spare her?

BANFIELD: Right. OK, so I started this segment by saying, depending how you look at these three teenagers, you might be sympathetic to them or you

may think they got exactly what they had coming to them. Those three teenagers are dead tonight.

And believe it or not, there was this vigil afterwards where about 150 people showed up. I guess it didn`t last too long, though, because

somebody yelled shots fired and it was chaos and everybody scattered. No guns were found. Nobody was hurt. But I guess even their vigil didn`t

quite go as planned.

Steve, thanks so much for being here. Deputy Nick Mahoney, thank you, as well. Randy, stick with us. I got a lot more questions for you.

At first, the police thought they had it all figured out, a mother and her young son killed in a house fire. But now that the autopsies are finished,

there is some pretty shocking new evidence that has investigators in the middle of a murder mystery, and it is ugly, really ugly.

Also, police arrest this teacher for allegedly having sex with one of her students. But there is this whole other twist that has come to light that

brings it to a whole other level, and I don`t think you`re going to believe it when you hear it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:16:12]BANFIELD: In Texas, a married middle school teacher is accused of having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy. Her name is

Catherine Harper (ph). She`s 27 years old, a 7th grade English teacher, and police tell us that she is also pregnant.

According to court documents, she and the student met when she became his tennis coach. Afterwards, one thing led to another. At least, she led

things to another, allegedly. She`s been arrested for improper relationship between educator and student. That`s a felony. She`s been

released after posting bond. And as of right now, it is unclear as to exactly who the baby`s father is. Congratulations.

Plus, a woman repeatedly calls 911 fearing that her boyfriend is going to hurt her and her family. But when one of her friends called, at least one

officer was not happy about it.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

911 OPERATOR: We`re going to handle it, ma`am. Just stop calling 911 and making accusations that you don`t know about, all right?

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Just hours later, that mother and one of her young sons shot and killed, several other members of her family wounded, including another of

her sons. And now that family is demanding answers, wondering if officers had taken her cries for help seriously, if things would not have been

different.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: A mother and her 8-year-old son are found in a blazing inferno in Oklahoma City. Firefighters rushed inside that house after witnesses

saw smoke pouring out. And inside, they found destruction, but they also found death, 41-year-old Julie Mason pronounced dead at the scene, her son,

Keagan Bruce, died soon afterwards.

[20:20:16]Days later, police made a stunning announcement. The mother and the son didn`t just die in that fire, they suffered violent and gruesome

deaths. And now an autopsy is revealing Julie had been stabbed more than 32 times in the head, the neck, torso, all over her upper body. Keagan`s

autopsy reportedly shows he died from blunt force trauma across the body and stab wounds.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I miss my baby. I miss my baby girl so much.

I`m scared it`s not going to get solved in time to save somebody else.

Why would anybody want to hurt her? Why would anybody want to hurt an 8- year-old boy?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Well, that was Grandma. Tonight, the investigators are trying to piece together the crime scene, the autopsy, and they`re trying to look

for a killer. Joining me now from Oklahoma City, Scott Mitchell, the host of "Mitchell Talks."

Scott, this is such a bizarre mystery. Do they have any leads? Do they know anything at all now three-and-a-half months after this has happened?

SCOTT MITCHELL, "MITCHELL TALKS" (via telephone): We don`t know of any new details in this, Ashleigh. It is so -- I think it`s telling that the

police are so tight-lipped about this because this is the sort of violence, like a Manson family killing just, and it happened just before Christmas.

And the fact that they`re are so tight-lipped about this leads people to believe in this town that maybe they`re on to something.

BANFIELD: OK. I`m glad you went there because that`s exactly where I was headed. I have covered a lot of ugly murders from JonBenet to Dr. Pettit,

awful, awful crimes where the police and communities are so outraged, they will beg for media attention. They want that story out there.

They don`t have a lead, they need help, and yet we couldn`t get an interview. We can`t get any feedback. We can`t get them to return our

calls. We find this very fishy. Are you finding the same thing?

MITCHELL: I`m the same way. In my -- over the years, my looking at these crime scenes -- the fact that this murder was done in such a way, so

graphic to even talk about, that`s a crime of passion, both for this little boy and for the mother. You know where they`re starting. They`re starting

on the inside and working out, and the fact that they`re not asking -- although they`ve gone through the motions of saying we want the public`s

help, but the fact that they`re not really putting a full court press on leads me to believe they have to have somebody as a person that they

suspect.

BANFIELD: OK. Who`s Keagan`s dad? I`m not seeing any material on -- I mean, first thing you look at is immediate family. You said you look from

the inside out. Who is the inside? Who is dad, and where is he?

MITCHELL: Cannot find any details, not on any reports. You Google this thing up. You look at TV reports. You look at print reports, nada,

nothing, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Did Julie have a relationship? Was there anybody in her life? Were there any signs of acrimony or matrimony or anything like that?

MITCHELL: The only thing we see in the reports has been from the mom, the distraught mother and grandmother and from the sister, who say this woman,

Julie Mason, did everything -- everything in her life revolved around this little boy. And that makes you think, was there a jealous angle somewhere?

But no mentions from any place about boyfriends, dads, any of that. Just completely like, it`s like it`s wiped from the face of the earth.

BANFIELD: OK. What about robbery? Was there anything that the police have at least said was missing? Or Ruthie (ph), Grandma Ruthie -- she was

about to move back into this home -- I think she was only two weeks away from moving back in with her daughter Julie and her grandson Keagan. Did

she say anything was missing? Was that maybe the motive for this? Was it random, a robbery?

MITCHELL: Well, there`s no indication of that, either. And in fact, when you read the autopsy, it`s very clear that what happened is that there were

two murders here, and the fire was set as a coverup.

BANFIELD: OK. So Scott, I`m not going to make any guesses about your town, but Oklahoma City is a big town. It`s a big city, and I can only

imagine that people are upset. If something like that happens in a place close to me, I`m scared. Is that the case where you live?

MITCHELL: It`s an interesting question and I`m glad you ask it. It`s the timing. You know that there becomes a media blackout about the middle of

December on until the first of the year. These murders occurred in the middle of December, and it`s almost like it didn`t happen until the

autopsies were released this week by the medical examiner, and I think that has something to do with it. But yes, this is a sort of a graphic,

horrible murder that people, if they are not, should be very frightened and making sure those doors are locked at night.

[20:25:00]BANFIELD: OK. Don`t go anywhere, Scott. I want to bring in Dr. William Morrone, who`s a medical examiner. You know, Dr. Morrone, I want

to read for our audience just so that they are real clear what happened to these two people, a mom and an 8-year-old son, because when Scott says this

was a crime of passion and it was incredibly graphic and violent, that doesn`t even, like hit, you know, the tip of the iceberg.

I`m going to give you the details from the autopsy, and then I need you to tell me what your expert eye tells you about this. Julie died from sharp

force trauma and blunt force trauma across her body, at least 32 stab wounds, 25 stab wound to the back of her body, back of the head and the

neck, six stab wounds were consistent with defensive type of wounds, the left arm, the left and right hand, one stab wound on her upper abdomen.

She had a broken jaw. She had the tip of a sharp instrument found in a wound to her face. She had first degree and third degree burns to her

body. Her death, of course, ruled a homicide.

Moving on to Keagan Bruce -- this is her 8-year-old son -- he died from sharp force trauma and blunt force trauma across the body and smoke

inhalation both, multiple stab wounds, five stab wounds to the head, four cut wounds to the left side of the face, seven cut wounds to the neck, one

cut wound to the left arm and one cut wound to the right forearm.

He suffered extensive thermal wounds from the fire ranging from first degree to third degree burns to his body. His death was also ruled a

homicide.

Dr. Morrone, Keagan was alive when they got to him. He was not dead. He was suffering through the fire. They got him to the hospital, and he died

there. So whoever did this basically burned a young 8-year-old boy alive.

DR. WILLIAM MORRONE, MEDICAL EXAMINER: And based on the trauma from the autopsy and the soot, his mother was alive and breathing in the fire

because they document soot in the nose, mouth and airway.

So she took this tremendous blunt force injury and then sharp force injury. And as you noted, the tip of a weapon was found in the head. When you look

at how many wounds she had on her back, they start three inches from the top of the head, and the autopsy documents (INAUDIBLE) I show you all the

way down, two dozen wounds from three inches to 27 inches as they`re measured from the top of the head.

And you have to recognize -- look at this. Look at this real close. This is the inside of a skull. To take this knife through that bone in any man

or woman is a tremendous amount of force, and it wasn`t just once. We`re looking at head wounds that top out almost near 10 or 12 and two dozen in

the back.

So not only was it a crime of passion, but it was repeated. And the stage where the mother and the child had exactly the same series is really

important. The fact that the tip of the weapon broke off in the brain and in the skull shows you how hard somebody was going, alive, breathing in the

fire and stabbed almost three dozen times.

BANFIELD: It is astounding! It is absolutely astounding, the unbelievable amount of violence that mother and that child both endured.

Scott Mitchell, button this up. Only Ruthie, Grandma Ruthie, seems to be offering any kind of incentive to get the public to help here, a $25,000

reward apparently out of her own pocket. Is that likely to change any time soon? Is there anyone else that`s going to get on the bandwagon to find

this monster, whoever did this?

MITCHELL: Well, I hope so. This is one of the most heartbreaking stories I`ve ever seen, and Ruthie Mason is putting her own money out there and

saying to the community, Help me find the killers of my loved ones. Please. She`s begging people to do it. And you know, I would beg people

in the city of Oklahoma City, somebody who knows anything to contact police. Please, for the love of God, let`s find this person.

BANFIELD: Well, there is someone who knows something. There`s someone who watched all of this happen, the person who did it. Scott Mitchell, thank

you. Dr. Bill, Morrone, thank you both. Appreciate it.

Today marks the beginning of the fourth week in the search for a missing Tennessee high school teacher and the 15-year-old girl he is accused of

abducting. Not long after the two went missing, his wife made a tearful plea for Tad Cummins to come home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CUMMINS: Tad, this is not you. This is not who you are.

[20:30:00] Your family wants their Poppy back. Please do the right thing and turn yourself in to the police and bring Beth home!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: For 21 days, Tad Cummins has managed to elude authorities. Police say they have absolutely no idea where he nor Elizabeth Thomas are although

he faces some pretty serious charges when he`s found. And there is also something else he`s facing, apparently family doesn`t want poppy back that

much because Jill Cummins, the woman you just saw, has officially filed for divorce.

Court documents, she is accusing her husband of quote, inappropriate marital conduct. And this isn`t the only recent development in the case.

Just days ago, investigators released these images of the two at a Walmart in Oklahoma City. They were taken just two days after the pair disappeared

where investigators say Tad Cummins used cash to purchase food items. Since then, the trail has seemingly gone cold.

Tonight, the search continues, so if you recognize these images, look at her hair, it is very different. It is red. She seems to be wearing the same

clothing, though, that shirt, that flannel checkered shirt. They ask you to call police if these two look at all familiar to you anywhere in the

country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: A woman carjacked at the gas pump. How she tried to fight the attacker off by spraying him with the fuel that she was using for her SUV.

Did it work? We`re going to find out.

And also, a woman and her young son gunned down in a domestic dispute.

(START VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: The family members are saying why did this happen? She called 911. Lots of people called 911 and those calls were ignored. We`re gonna

talk to the Sanford Florida police chief about it next.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[20:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: In Sanford, Florida, in the middle of the night, a man and his girlfriend argue at a gas station over a set of keys, of all things. After

a call to 911, the police come out and they try to calm them down. This was caught on an officer`s body cam. But were there any warning signs in that

altercation that an alleged double-murder was in the air? Was there anything they missed? Worse yet, was there anything they dismissed?

(START VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Listen, we`re trying to sort this out, but you keep talking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mam.

LATINA HERRING, KILLED BY ALLEN CASHE: Please. (inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whenever y`all got.

HERRING: He got my keys.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just figure it out. Y`all need to figure it out.

HERRING: He`s got the keys to my house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: You all need to figure that out. That`s what the officer said. You all need to figure it out. Police say they did search the ex-boyfriend,

Allen Cashe. Searched his car as well. But found no weapons.

(START VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Still that woman you heard, Latina Herring, was afraid. And then she called her friend because of that. Her friend called the police and

asked the police to help her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello? Hey, could you send an officer to (inaudible). her boyfriend is over here. He has a loaded weapon. He`s outside. He`s in a

white Buick LaCrosse. He has a loaded weapon. Her name is Latina, please hurry up. She`s outside her house arguing with him right now. He has a

loaded weapon. Please hurry up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: It sounds pretty urgent, doesn`t it? From the sound of the officer on the body cam footage, once they got to Latina`s home, not

everyone may have been taking this as seriously as it turned out to be. Here is what police were saying while they were still on that scene.

(START VIDEO CLIP)

HERRING: He was driving and I gave y`all my keys and told y`all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You need to relax. You calling 911 making false calls.

HERRING: He`s trying to leave with the keys.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You ain`t leaving. You ain`t going nowhere. Make sure she doesn`t leave.

HERRING: He`s having the keys. Hello? I`m going to call my daddy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you go inside the house or not?

HERRING: My daddy is here. I just called my daddy. Told my daddy not to let him in the house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Three hours later, Allen Cashe allegedly showed up at Latina`s home and had an AK-47, and allegedly fatally shot her.

(START VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: He also allegedly shot her two young sons, killing one, critically injuring another. And critically injuring her father. And

critically injuring two bystanders who were shot. So all and all, six victims, two of them dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Joining me now on the phone, Sanford Police Chief, Cecil Smith. Chief Smith, thank you so much for being with us tonight. I have a lot of

questions about this case. 911 call came in. Things were not looking good between this man and this woman. And from the sound of much of what we

heard on several different body cam clips, it seemed as though the officers were being dismissive. Am I wrong?

(START VIDEO CLIP)

CECIL SMITH, SANFORD, FLORIDA POLICE CHIEF: You are. A very, very bluntly guess. I believe the officers were performing in a merit to try to resolve

and deescalate

[20:40:00] what turned out to be a civil dispute over a set of keys.

BANFIELD: So the civil dispute over a set of keys ended up escalating into now what we have a double-murder and four other victims who have been shot.

One of them I believe a 7-year-old son of Latina, as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: I don`t understand how police can turn out to two different locations where there is this, you know, this civil unrest between these

two people and yet he`s able to come back a third time sporting an AK. How did that happen?

SMITH: Well, we --

(START VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: We look at the circumstances. This is a choice and a decision that was made by Mr. Cashe. The Stanford Police Department and officers perform

in a manner of ensuring that the two people got away from each other. There was no reason for us to make an arrest on anything at that point. If you go

back and you look at all of the videos, there are questions the officers ask her, are you in danger or have you been hurt?

Has this turned into anything physical? In her answers, no. She indicated that she was -- in any way never indicated that she was in fear of

something occurring to her. But I don`t want to victimize the victim again. It`s really disheartening to think that people would think that officers

would walk away from something if they saw something additional there.

BANFIELD: Okay. So I respect that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: I also know that many domestic abuse victims are loathed to say that they are in trouble in front of their alleged, you know, abusers. I

want to play a quick moment from one of the body cam scenes that played out because her friend had actually come to her aid saying she`s in trouble and

the officer you`re going to hear on this body cam is actually speaking to the friend on the phone, not to Latina who is in the view of the body cam.

Have a look at this.

(START VIDEO CLIP)

HERRING: That wasn`t me. I got no problem with you calling the 911 operator. That wasn`t from me. I never called to say he had a gun. I don`t

play those kinds of games. I never said that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think you`re not getting the story, mam. You`re just getting one part of the story, mam.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay. Listen, we`re going to handle it. Stop calling 911 and making accusations that you don`t know about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Stop calling 911 and making accusations you don`t know about. At other moments, you`re making false calls, you need to relax. Stop making

false calls. I mean, clearly these weren`t false calls, chief.

And now ultimately, we have a dead woman on our hands and this is one of the things I found the most sad and disturbing. On the body cam, you can

hear a police officer telling Latina and I will quote directly, he`s not coming back out tonight.

(START VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: And if he does, he`s going to be escorted out by police. So ultimately, this woman was told she would be served and protected and this

woman and her child are dead and four others are shot. I put it to you, chief, do you know not bear some responsibility here?

SMITH: I find it really interesting you`re only showing bits and pieces of the body cam. There is a great deal of additional information there, a part

that you did not and indicate was when the officer was talking to the third person that`s on the phone. He`s not talking to Latina about making a false

complaint.

He`s talking to her friend on the telephone. When the officer is asking him would you please come out or come out and make a statement so that we have

verifiable or additional information to show that she told this to you. The friend said no, I`m not coming. That`s on the body cam, as well. You know,

it`s interesting that we only show bits and pieces, one of the reasons why as a department, we were being very transparent.

We put all of our information out there. We gave everybody all of the cad information and the cad is the computer aided dispatch. We gave them all

the 911 calls so that all the people have an opportunity to hear everything that took place that night.

BANFIELD: I do appreciate you coming on the show, Chief Smith.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: I will reiterate when it comes to domestic violence. I don`t have to tell you. Most of the victims of domestic violence are terrified to say

that they are in trouble and will probably say I did not call 911, everything is fine because the perpetrator is right in front of them.

I think there will be a lot of more questions than answers as the days go on. Sir, I do appreciate you coming out and talking to the media. That`s

not an easy call and I appreciate your time. Thank you.

SMITH: Sure, have a good one.

BANFIELD: You, too. Surveillance video captured the harrowing moments. Two masked men

(START VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: tried to abduct a woman in front of her home and in front of her kids.

[20:45:00] Her fiance was the one who scared off the suspects by firing a few shots. So here is a question, why is he the only one whose been charged

and is sitting in jail?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: It is a nightmare that came true in Texas. A young mom returning to her Texas home with her kids.

[20:50:00] Four years old, nine months old. She`s taking them out of the car as we all do. And two men approached wearing dark clothing, ski masks,

and gloves in Texas.

(START VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: They attacked the woman, putting her in a headlock. It`s on video. They pulled her to the front yard. And suddenly before things can

get even more direr, her fiance fires several shots from inside the house. Those men let go of the woman and they make a run for it. Fiance gives

chase.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: And fires bullets. And guess what? The police say he`s the reckless one. Because he fired in the direction of homes and cars. If you

think this man saved the day and saved his fiancee, guess what?

(START VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: His reward was a charge. This is Jeremiah Morin, facing third- degree felony, deadly conduct. And Jeremiah could face up to 10 years behind bars. And those guys that you saw in the gloves and masks in the

heat of Texas who started all of this, they are still on the run tonight. I want to bring in Jeffrey Boney.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: He is an associate editor for the Houston Forward Times. Jeffrey Boney, this does not smell right. What am I missing?

(START VIDEO CLIP)

JEFFREY BONEY, ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR THE HOUSTON FORWARD TIMES: Well, they are saying, I`m talking about Montgomery County Sheriff`s Department

deputies that, Morin very well may be a member of the Tango Blast, as a gang member, which the victim of course is vehemently denying.

The police charged him because they believe he acted irresponsibly by shooting down the street towards those men after of course, he came to save

the day, but they are saying that this guy is not the victim and the hero that people are making him ought to be. They are saying that this very well

may be gang-related, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: So I get it. Okay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Maybe he didn`t live the cleanest life according to the police, but that doesn`t mean that this young woman wasn`t getting dragged in front

of her children

(START VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: To some kind of fate no one knew what about. So, even criminals can be victims. Why does that not apply here?

BONEY: I think that of course during the entire investigation, that would have probably given them a little more leniency. Detectives are saying that

they were met with resistant and a lack of cooperation from both Morin and his fiancee, the victim, as to the motive and the details surrounding the

attack. And they stated both of them refused to complete statements.

They say that both of them were more upset with their neighbors calling the police about the shooting than what most victims tend to be more upset

about, actually being attacked. Oddly enough, Ashleigh, also neither one of them wished to press any charges against the attackers. And even more

interestingly, Ashleigh, neither the victim nor Morin ever called the police after the incident.

BANFIELD: Okay. I want to bring in Randy Zellin on this one because I don`t know if this is going to go to trial.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: But if you have 12 members of a jury who see that video and then see the guy who scared off those bad guys actually charged, are they going

to care about his background?

ZELIN: They are not going to care about the background. But the burning question is, Mr. Boney just put it, is if in fact what we saw is true, I

mean no questions asked, who doesn`t call the police after an attempted abduction? Who does not fully cooperate with the police after an attempted

abduction? So if we work backwards, what I suspect is going on here, that the police believe that Mr. Morin is the reason.

BANFIELD: This happened.

ZELIN: . for the attempted abduction to begin with, there is some kind of retaliation, some kind of turf war, some kind of gang thing which is why

he`s not talking. So what the police are going to do is say listen, you don`t want to talk, that`s your right.

Well, there is a statute for you. When you fire a weapon, and the bullets end up across the street in someone`s house, well you closed your eyes to

the high probability that someone might be in the house.

BANFIELD: Yeah.

ZELIN: And you could have killed them.

BANFIELD: You were scared enough to fire at them but not scare enough for her welfare to call us in, to find these bad guys. Hold that thought for a

minute. An alleged carjacking caught clear as day on a convenient store surveillance video. But it`s what the victim did

(START VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: When the accused crook hopped into her driver`s seat. Let`s just say she really hit the gas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[20:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Police in Massachusetts say a woman at the gas pump tried to fight back when a guy tried to steal her SUV. So check out the surveillance

video from the convenient store. This is in Tewksbury.

(START VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: You can see the woman just, you know, pumping gas, back turned to her open driver`s side door. That`s the first mistake. Guy walks right up

and gets into the SUV. But she turns around with the nozzle that is blowing with gas and sprays him with it. Maybe that will work? I don`t think so.

She opens the door. The two begin to struggle. Aims that nozzle right at him. Dowsing him. And that happened.

She tried to fight him off but to no avail. He was determined to get the car and he did. Knocked her to the ground also in the process. Police have

now released two images that they hope will track this guy down. This is the still image of the suspect. And then just a short time ago, they

released this picture, nice and clear shot of him. Because it`s a mug shot.

His name is William Tighe. He is 32 years old. And police say if you see this guy, please call them and let them know where he is because they think

that he`s the one that did that. They like him off the streets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[21:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: My thanks to Randy Zelin for being here tonight. My thanks to you for watching, everyone. I`m Ashleigh.

END