dishes to wash. this is "nightline." >> tonight, arizona on the brink. >> patients are patients are suffering. >> doctors are suffering burnout. >> we're leaving sometimes in tears. >> the dire warning from patients. >> i thought it was okay to go out. i had the mask. it's not as dangerous as everybody thinks it is. >> fears the state could be the next epicenter. indigenous girls learning the skills of survival. how the disappearance of one of their own moved a sisterhood to reclaim their power.

>> "nightline" starts right now with byron pitts. >> good evening. thank you for joining us. tonight, as the 4th july creeps closer, the explosion of cases of covid-19 across america. doctors in hot zones now asking for help. while warning the worst is yet to come. here's abc's kaylee hartung. >> honestly, i was an idiot, straight up. i know when i'm wrong. i didn't take this virus seriously. i didn't take my own health seriously. >> reporter: jimmy flores has a warning for everyone. don't be like him. the once-healthy 30 year old from scottsdale, arizona is now at home with covid-19. >> i got 103-degree fever. i started developing loss of sense of taste and smell e. >> reporter: he suspects he

contracted it after a busy night out at a bar. >> there was action that could have been better, like sharing drinks and whatnot. there was a really high risk of getting covid there. >> reporter: and as now he sees the number of cases explode he's urge being othevigilant. >> i was looking at my friends on facebook, still partying, still doing all this other stuff. >> reporter: 35 states across the country are seeing an upward trend in covid-19 cases. >> we are now having 40-plus thousand new cases a day, i would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around. >> reporter: arizona is one of eight states to hit record levels this week. republican governor doug ducey attributes it to more testing, but many think it's due to arizona's reopening last month. >> we knew as time went on the

numbers would increase. i don't know if we knew they would increase this fast. >> this is a dangerous virus, and we need to slow it down and contain it. >> reporter: yesterday, doocy announced closures for 30 days. >> today's executive order will pause the operation of bars, gyms, movie theaters, water parks and tubing. >> reporter: it comes as the number of people hospitalized in the state surpasses 4700. icu beds at nearly 90% capacity. has arizona lost control of the epidemic? >> i think arizona's on the bri brink of losing control of the epidemic. >> reporter: the concern of not only the infrastructure crumbling but the health care workers themselves. how close are health care workers to a breaking point? >> i would say a lot of them are at that point or past. myself and others are leaving the hospital at times in tears. >> reporter: the crisis in

arizona is evident here at banner university medical center, where icu beds are filling up fast. >> patients are dying. there are patients begging me not to put them on the breathing machine, because they know they might never talk to their families again. it's really difficult. >> reporter: dr. jennifer o'hay has worked there for 22 years. >> in the beginning we were watching and learning from new york. then all of a sudden things just exploded here. i would say that compared to march and april, i'm taking care of at least twice as many patients now as i was then. now, what we're seeing is a lot of our younger population getting sick. 20, 30, 40-year-old patients, they're on ventilators, ecmo. >> reporter: the upcoming weekend has many at this hospital worried that there will be an additional surge.

>> we have another increase like we did after memorial day, we going to become overwhelmed at the hospital level. >> reporter: as the numbers rise, health care professionals stress that the spread of covid-19 can be mitigated by wearing a mask. at yesterday's press conference, governor ducey encouraged residents to do so. >> i want to remind arizonans to please wear a mask. >> reporter: but he fell short of issuing a state-wide mandate. do you thatink that decisions me by arizona lawmakers cost lives? >> i absolutely think our leadership here in arizona cost lives. if people were masking weeks ago we could have prevented this. >> i thought as soon as the summer hit everything was going to be fine. >> reporter: some like jessica o'neill are living proof of how insidious the spread of covid-19 is even when you take precautions. >> honestly, until you are sitting here, not being able to see your family, not being able to breathe, being so

uncomfortable, you can't truly understand the pours of this virus. >> reporter: o'neill says she was being careful, wearing a mask, and still the 30-year-old single mother contracted the virus, she thinks from a single trip to the gym. >> after the gym i did not feel well at all. i was telling my daughter if i don't feel well in the morning i was going to go straight to the er. and then the coughing started. >> reporter: with multiple preexisting medical conditions she headed to banner university medical center. >> i've seen people young, old, it's everybody, it's not picking and choosing. it's serious. i don't know how to stress that enough. >> reporter: banner health became so overwhelmed with patients like o'neill they called for reenforcements, nurses like bridget harrigan answered. >> today was really busy. we transferring in and out patients all day. we're just growing by the

second, really. >> reporter: we first met her a week ago. >> today is my first day on the floor on my own. it's exciting, but it is a little bit scary. to be putting me in the covid unit for the full time. i was meant to go help on the front lines in some way. >> reporter: she just traveled to phoenix from queens, new york, where she spent a month working in the icu at elmhurst hospital. >> when i got there, it was like a disaster zone. it was how you do disaster nursing and triage and everything. >> reporter: she told us last week she was preparing for arizona to hit crisis levels. >> it's not new york but it has every capability of getting there. >> reporter: now her concerns are becoming a reality. how intense is the environment inside here right now? >> the staff here, the nurses, the doctors, everyone, i can tell they're nervous to be thinking, okay, nothing i can't

handle, i just came from new york. i dealt with that, but i can see the nurses around me who haven't dealt with that, who look terrified, honestly, and very stressed out. >> reporter: dr. brad dreyfus feels if they don't get a handle on the virus quickly, the health care workers themselves will have to decide how to ration care. >> we're the ones holding hands at the bedside. it's devastating. >> reporter: he says if arizonans want to help get it under control, there's one thing they can do now, mask up. >> if you care about america being a world leader, mask up. this is not a partisan issue. do it for your community. >> our thanks to kaylee. up next, black feet boxing. how a generation of girls is learning to fight for their lives. it begins? heartburn happens when stomach acid refluxes into the esophagus. prilosec otc uses a unique delayed-release formula that helps it pass through the tough stomach acid.

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montana's a new generation is learning to fight back in the ring and in

the streets. here's juju chang. >> reporter: for boxers, the gym is a sacred space. inside, amongst the orchestra of work, the outside world dims. you can find yourself, your strength, and at this gym with these girls, that takes a whole new meaning. >> it gives you like this sense of empowerment. it's bringing out someone that you never thought you would be. >> i tell all my kids in the boxing club, there's your psychologist right there. whatever's baring you, you take that bag until you can't hit it anymore. >> reporter: frank kip is the man in charge. before he opened this gym in 2003, he worked as a probation officer here on the blackfeet reservation in montana. >> i'll never forget one little girl who was raped and the guy beat her up. and she had black eyes. i called up. and the rape kit was lost. and i started thinking, what can

we do better? how can we keep these girls from harm's way? the only answer was this club. >> reporter: in the new film "blackfeet boxing", it documents how kip and his club help indigenous girls to protect themselves by getting in the ring. what motivates frank to train these girls to do what they do? >> fight is such a rich and deep word. it can be seen very negatively and it can be seen very positively. for franks, he understands the power of that nation. what he wants most is to develop the arsenal of self-esteem, determination and protection. and that's why frank does some things which are incredibly unconventional as a boxing trainer. >> he showed us how to break somebody's arg somebody's arm, take somebody's eye out.

i said what does this have to do with boxing? he said i'm teaching you to defend yourself on the streets. >> reporter: a sprawling reservation near glacier national park. the beauty and resiliency of those who call it home belies generations of trauma that today manifests with high drug abuse rates and crime. more than 100 indigenous women and girls have gone missing or been murdered since 2018. just an epidemic across swaths of america. at least 4,000 missing in the united states, only a quarter of those logged in namu >> what do i teach you to do? >> fight back. >> why? >> because it might be the last time. >> it might be the last time we see you. >> reporter: you've encountered

and told a multitude of stories of phenomenal coaches, people who make a difference in so many young people's lives. >> people won't know frank kip's name the way they know mike krzyzewski or of nick saban or any of the legendary and great coaches, but i will tell you this. he has had every bit as great an impact on the lives that he touches. >> reporter: if there's one crime on the reservation that hits closest to home, while serving as a cautionary tale, it is the 2017 unsolved disappearance of ashley loring heavyrunner. >> there was like a cloud, and everybody felt this like, "will it be me next"? >> when ashley went missing t brought a huge influx into the gym. >> reporter: one of those girls, kennedy. >> she's tough. you look at her eyes, you know

she's a fighter. she's war-like. >> all the boys that i sparred, they all got scared. they all didn't want to spar me. >> she could be an olympic champion. she's got the gift. >> mimi actually received several academic scholarships. she's not just promising inside the gym but promising academically. >> reporter: mimi's fright future similar to ashley's. >> everyone time i think about her, i think about her smile. everybody wanted to talk to her. she was beautiful and outgoing. >> reporter: a loving sister. a doting godmother. a star athlete in high school, known for her contagious smile. she excelled at college, until her light began to dim. she'd begun dabbling with drugs and running with an older crowd,

in part to numb the pain of losing her beloved grandfather. and then she vanished in june 2017. >> she told me she loved me and tried giving me a hug. i didn't give her a hug. and then she left through the door. and that was the last time i saw her. >> reporter: for nearly two years, "nightline" followed ashley's family on their desperate journey to find their loved one. >> oh, my gosh. >> reporter: leading the charge to bring ashley home, her older sister, kimberly. from searching the vast reservation to even testifying on capitol hill. kimberly is committed to her sister. >> our girls, our people and our men are important. >> reporter: it's been three full years now since ashley disappeared, and the family still has no answers and no

ashley. you've been dogged through all of this. you have been your sister's boldest advocate, and, you know, i have sisters myself, but everyone would want you for a sister. >> it's ashley's love that makes me strong. >> reporter: we're revisiting ashley's story, because these girls are so inspired by her, driven by her and determined to fight in ashley's name. >> i'm really happy that they wanted to fight, they wanted to keep going, and then that ashley's story inspired them, because it should, because back home all the girls should be strong. all our girls should be headstrong as well as being able to fight, because we are fighters, and we come from a tribe that are fighters. >> reporter: the blackfeet nation are warriors. >> yes, we are warriors. >> glory is forever. >> reporter: in ashley's memory, now a group of warriors, taking matters into their own hands,

and for kip's daughter donna, also fighting for something greater. >> for each fight, i write mmiw. it's so powerful when you see a girl just wise beyond her years and seeing her prepare for this huge match and wrapping her hands and writing "mmiw", missing, martyred indigenous women. that's the thing she's going to dedicate her life to. >> the blackfeet nation! donna kip! >> full film is available now on espn.com. and on the espn app. next, remembering a king of comedy. until i found out what it actually was. dust mite droppings? ewww. dead skin cells? gross! so now, i grab my swiffer sweeper and heavy duty dusters.

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and finally tonight, celebrating a comic legend. for more than 60 years, carl reiner was the comedy genius behind and in front of the camera, starting on "your show

of shows" in the 1950s, creating the "dick van dyke to "the jerk" and the "oceansd n something franchise. carl reiner was 98 years old. >> if you have a prom, ject, god work on it. >> a life filled with laughter. it was the great charlie chaplin who said a day without laughter is a day wasted. that's "nightline" this evening, thanks for the company, america, goodnight. ♪ ba, da, ba, ba, da, ba, ♪ ba, da, ba, ba, da, ba, ♪ ♪ jimmy kimmel live this is ridiculous. >> jimmy: hello, i'm jimmy. i'm the host of this house. thank you for braving the curfew to be here. although we didn't have a curfew in l.a. tonight for the first time this week. we did have an earthquake.

we had a little shaker here last night. a 5.5. and on top of everything else, there's an asteroid heading our way. on saturday night, an asteroid that is said to be the size of the empire state building will pass close by earth. who knows? maybe we'll get lucky and it'll hit us. as of today, several hotel casinos are open for business in vegas, with safety measures in place. this is at mgm. they've got hand-washing stations, glass partitions at the craps tables. playing blackjack now is like visiting a relative in prison. how do you let the dealer know you want another card? do you tap the glass? you can see, they have plenty of hand sanitizer. even the go-go dancers are wearing plastic face shields. it's like "blade runner." how this is safe, i don't know. going to a casino during a pandemic is that gray area between regular roulette and the russian kind. a day after charges were filed against all four officers inlv