as you heard lee merritt say, wanda cooper prayed the initial prosecutor out of the way and basically prayed the winning prosecutor into position so that today could happen. i mean that's how the family feels. you just heard them thanking god, thanking the community, thanking each other. they thought that this day might never come. >> reporter: alisyn, can i say a couple of things. one, when you talk about wanda cooper-jones praying her way to justice, that is why the pastor's comment was so much more blown up because this is a person who didn't have anywhere to go to get justice. and to be clear, it wasn't just that she prayed, one of the prosecutors has been indicted by a grand jury because of her nonwork, if you will, on this case. i do want to mention what miss wanda cooper-jones said. i never thought this day would come. and she thanked not only the prosecutors, but she thanked the crowd. she thanked the people who have come out to protest in ahmaud arbery's name. you know him as ahmaud and now he will rest in peace. that's a really touching moment from his mother. then you heard

after court recessed for the day, attorney lee merritt said the arbery family appreciated the support to possibly interfere with the trial, itself. >> the community's presence here has been a great encouragement to the family but we cannot allow anything to disrupt justice in this case. >> reporter: prosecutors will have two hours for their rebuttal-closing arguments tomorrow morning. then, there will be the charging of the jury. and then, the case will be delivered into the jury's hands for them to begin to make some kind of judgment. that's about midday tuesday. then, there's wednesday and of course thursday's thanksgiving. many wonder what the impact of that kind of timetable could have on a jury's potential decision. john? >> martin savidge, thank you so much for being there for us. >>> ahmaud arbery's mother, wanda cooper jones, joins us now along with her attorney lee merritt. ms. cooper jones, i thank you once again for being with us tonight. i have heard defense lawyers, prosecutors over the last several hours say it was just out of line, what the defense attorney said about y

but as far as we are told, by lee merritt, that offer was made, it was rejected.tate would probably consult with the victim's family on any issue when it comes to possible kind of arrangement on a plea deal. so, again, it was rejected, it is an 11th hour kind of plea deal, and as you point out, it clearly would indicate there is real concern amongst the defense that the case is not going well for them. >> yeah. it is a fascinating development. martin savidge live there in brunswick, thank you. >>> also with us, cnn senior legal analyst, former federal prosecutor laura coates. great to see you. let's pick up where we left off with marty there. the timing of this, we saw two days of witnesses from the defense which largely focused on travis mcmichael. and then this sort of 11th hour request. what do you make of that? >> well, first of all, prosecutors don't give favorable plea offers or really any real plea offers after the case has been indicted. and certainly not after the trial has been empanelled. you have like a graduated plea offer in the sense of before you i

. >> i want to bring in lee merritt. lee merritt is an attorney for the family of ahmaud arbery. lee, thank you so much. i appreciate it. >> thanks, don. >> let me ask you because i want to play this and then i want to ask you the question. this is some of what ahmaud arbery's mother, wanda, said after leaving the courtroom today. here it is. >> mr. travis mcmichael killed my son all on assumptions. he had no real facts of where ahmaud was coming from, what ahmaud had done. he just took actions into his own hands. travis killed ahmaud all on assumptions. he didn't have any facts on hand when he chose to pull the trigger. not one time but three times. >> so my initial question was going to be that but i wanted to hear from her first. how's she doing? how's she feeling? >> she's excited about tomorrow, quite honestly. she's looking forward to the prosecution's cross-examination. we know that travis mcmichael set himself up to be impeached on a lot of the misinformation he tried during his direct examination. so she told me she may not sleep tonight. she's excited about the cross-ex

these men decided to take the law into their own -- >> i think we just lost our connection with lee merritty? i think we just lost you for a few seconds. i want to make sure you can still hear me. >> i hear you fine. >> go ahead. finish your thought. >> no, it is so similar. kyle rittenhouse case was a case about vigilanteism. this case is a case about vigilanteism, and i'm hoping that the jury doesn't take the same course as the rittenhouse jury. >> what's your sense of the justice system here in the united states right now. >> well, it doesn't work well when the victims involved -- i'm sorry, when the assailants are white. right now, you know, there's a long history of racism that exists within our courts. it's a reality. it's a statistical reality that we see playing itself out. we saw a successful outcome for the civil rights community in the conviction of the officer who murdered george floyd. but this kind of outcome is something that we have become more accustomed to than justice. and it's, you know, it's just a scary proposition as we approach closing statements in south georgia on

i remember when this case first was brought to me by lee merritt and ben crump, we did it before the video came out because we believed you, and we believed the father. as we head into this week, what do you say to the people around the country watching about your hopes, your prayers, and how you hope they will react when the verdict comes either way? >> i'm going into next week very confident. i do believe that the god that answered prayers 18 months ago will continue to answer my prayers. so we will get a guilty verdict and we will file to get justice for ahmaud. >> thank you so much for being with us. we'll see you in a day or two, wander cooper-jones, the mother of ahmaud arbery, and attorney lee merritt. thank you both for being with us tonight. >> thank you. >>> as we mentioned earlier, yesterday a wisconsin jury found kyle rittenhouse not guilty on all charges, including homicide and intended homicide after he fatally shot two and injured others during a black lives matter protest in 2020. to me, this verdict was not only outrageous and dangerous, it was also an obvious signal

lee merritt, followed by the attorney general of black america, who flew in and out even as he handled other cases. these lawyers kept going to the wall and stood up. we walked out of court buildings with tears in our eyes. we cried inside. but they were tears of joy because people like thurgood marshall and others broke down barriers to produce a ben crump and a lee merritt. >> you all don't want to hear from me right now. you want to hear from the family of ahmaud arbery, as we all do, we want to wrap our arms around them. the only reason i'm speaking today is to provide an introduction for a praying mother. you all have known here now for the last 18 months. 18 months ago when she learned about the murder of her son, they told her she would just,to deal with it alone. they told her there would be no arrest, there would be no accountability, that there would be no justice. she made her son a promise before she laid him in the ground, that his mom would fight for justice for him. in order to do that, glenn county had to change. she couldn't find justice in the glenn county. there was

. >> attorney crump, you and attorney lee merritt have stood by this family and fought vigorously. i also see some parallels between this case u case and the kyle rittenhouse trial that is also under way. both cases have nearly all white juries, also the way the judges have handled the sensitive racial components and allowed obvious double standard in the courtroom is staggering to me. in the rittenhouse trial the two people shot dead are not even allowed to be called victims by the prosecution. taking note of this. do you think there is an alarming pattern in our legal system when it comes to making it difficult. for racial justice to be served? >> reverend al, as you know, in my fought overseas in the legalized genocide of colored people, it's almost as if they're killing ahmed aubrey again in brunswick, georgia with the implicit intellectual justification of discrimination and when you think about kyle rittenhouse, the obvious bias of the judge in favor of a young white man who killed two unarmed people and he just continues to grant ruling after ruling in his favor. could you i

civil rights attorney lee merritt represented lamb's -- represents lamb's family. >> this is historic. in it means something. this is going to mean something when you go back to georgia, it is going to mean something court ahmaud arbery, going to mean something for a tatyana jefferson, it is going to mean something for botham jean, for so many families that have been imcted, ronald greene in illinois -- these instances of justice in our system are far too rare. amy: we will have more on that story later in the broadcast. in wisconsin, an suv plowed through a christmas parade in the town of waukesha sunday, killing at least five people and injuring at least another 40. videos show the vehicle crashing through barriers and speeding down a road that have been locked off for the parade. police say they have detained a "person of interest, but no cause or motive for the deadly incident has been revealed. major protests against covid restrictions took place across europe this weekend, where the coronavirus is once again surging. in belgium, police deployed tear gas and water cannons as tens

and i think that what my good friend lee merritt said in that clip is correct more than it is incorrect. when you think about the people who are chanting how the justice system worked and it did what it had to do, you've just identified two different factors in addition to the fact that there was a video, that there's been an inordinate amount of emphasis place upon with respect to how the conviction came about. you change any of those one factors, and we put the outcome of this trial in serious doubt. that does not necessarily suggest that our system is working the way that it did. think about how many things had to go right. you had a prosecutor who wanted to shield three people who are now convicted murderers. you had two months where there arrest. were it not for the love of a black mother and a black father who fought to have the georgia bureau of investigations press forward and get this case moving, we might not be here today. that to me is not a sign of a case that's working or a system that's working. that is a sign of this being more of an anomaly than not, which is why we hav

. >> i'm joined now by lee merritt, one of the attorneys for the arbery family. holiday weekend, especially after such a big week for you. but for many, as you know, the ahmaud arbery trial, it was something of a test case for racial justice. how do you view the outcome? >> i think the outcome tells us that the prosecutors did what they had to do to present a case before a jury pool that was already somewhat skewed both by those racially based use of the strikes and just by glynn county. it tells us a little about our progress, but it tells us that we still have a long way to go. >> indeed, and in fact, addressing racial bias, lee, that was not a focus in this trial, but it is certainly expected to be at the center of that federal hate crimes hearing. that is set for february. so given the state of polarization around race in this country, how do you judge the prosecutors' approach and how do you expect the upcoming federal trial to go? >> well, i think the prosecutor made the decision that she would not put race front and center before this nearly all white jury

. >> joining me now is wanda cooper-jones and her attorney lee merritt. thank you for being with us. we saw you in the courtroom yesterday, as the verdict was being read. take us inside there, that moment, what was it like for you to hear those words? >> i sat there patiently and heard the judge give the charges, and after the first charge, i heard guilty, i was overwhelmed with joy, because we finally got justice for ahmaud. the word guilty was the word that i wanted to hear 18 months ago. and we finally got that word of guilty. >> you talk about 18 months ago, and for me, the end of this trial made me reflect on the beginning of this all. the murder of your son, and then how long it took for this case to be taken seriously. what lesson have you learned from this? >> what i take away from this as mom is don't give up, continue fighting. earlier in the case it took us 74 days, 74 days to get an arrest. and i knew it was my job as mom to really find out what happened to ahmaud. i prayed, god answered my prayers. so i'm just thankful sitting here this morni

. >> i'm joined by lee merritt, the attorney for arbery's mother. welcome to you, what a graphic day in that courtroom for the entire arbery family. but lee, the fact that that video even exists, that's what's brought attention to this case, and it might not have otherwise been seen, right? how important is this video? >> the video evidence is critical in the case. we went for 74 days without criminal action in the case, no arrest, not a real thorough investigation before the georgia bureau of investigations got involved, and it was because of that video that was taken by one of the men who is now charged with felony murder in his death. >> remarkable, actually. another interesting point, and it's a major point of contention. that's the jury makeup. 11 white jurors, just one black juror. how does that happen in a county where about 27% of the population is black. you would think that at least three, if you were doing proportionate, right, breakdown, you've got the judge addressing this discrepancy this week. take a listen to what he said. >> this cou

lee merritt is an attorney for the arbery family. >> there was a thumb put on the scales of justice byefense to get a jury they thought would be more favorable for their clients. that's normal. but to use racial... discrimination to do so, it-- it shouldn't be allowed. >> reporter: investigators say arbery was out jogging in february of last year when he was chased down, shot, and killed. ( gunshot ) the men said they thought arbery was a burglary suspect, and shot him in self-defense. police arrested the shooter, travis mcmichael, his father, gregory mcmichael, and their neighbor, william roddie bryan, the man who recorded the video. >> i'm hoping that, even though we have 11 whites and one black, that they will be able to review all evidence and come out with a guilty verdict. >> reporter: this trial is expected to last several weeks. the mcmichaels and roddie bryan are also facing federal hate crime charges in a case that will head to court early next year. norah. >> o'donnell: omar villafranca, thank you. well, tonight, there's promising news about a vaccine aimed at preventing cer

lee merritt is an attorney for the arbery family. >> there was a thumb put on the scales of justice by defense to get a jury they thought would be more favorable for their clients. that's normal. but to use racial discrimination to do so, it shouldn't be allowed. >> reporter: investigators say arbery was out jogging in february of last year when he was chased down, shot, and killed. the men said they thought arbery was a burglary suspect and shot him in self-defense. police arrested the shooter, travis mcmichael, his father gregory mcmichael, and their neighbor william "roddie" bryan, the man who recorded the video. >> i'm hoping that even though we have 11 whites and one black, that they will be able to review all evidence and come without a guilty verdict. >> reporter: this trial is expected to last several weeks. the mcmichaels and roddie bryan are also facing federal hate crime charges in a case that will head to court early next year. norah? >> omar villafranca, thank you. >>> a warning from the faa. get unruly on a plane and you could face not just a fine, but criminal prosecutio

we heard from lee merritt that should americans have more faith in the justice system tonight.re your thoughts? >> i don't think that racism or bias or anything else changed after this verdict. this was certainly the right verdict by one jury. but no one should get complacent and the fact that the crime happened in the first place speaks to very dark factors that exist in american life dtoday. the manner in which the engineer came to their findings here is quite significant in that they broke down convictions for each of the defendants showing that they were really taking this seriously. right? three different defendants with three different levels of culpability, levels of blame, with travis mcmichael the person who actually pulled the trigger getting convicted of both felony and malice murder, two different types of murder. his father not getting the same conviction and then of course roddie bryan. so shows that the jury put thought into this. i think that it would be harder to take this verdict seriously if they had found everyone guilty of everything. they clearly worked th

this is this is arbery's mother, wanda cooper-jones, and the family's attorney lee merritt speaking toorters thursday outside the courthousen brunswick, georgia. >> it is unreal. i'm very shocked we only had one black, african-american man. >> for a family who just wants to hear -- they just want a fair day in court without racial bias, but it is inherently built into our system. weneed to coinue to change loss and improve our system so it doesn't continue, but it is there. amy: this comes as judge walmsley ruled thursday the jury will not see a toxicology report showing arbery had a small amount of thc, the psychoactive compound in marijuana, in his blood. this is the judge's exchange with one of the defense attorneys. >> brought up a small amount of t8 the means. close your going to prevent us from going to toxicology prevent us from talking about corroboration of thc unless perhaps we can come back and educate the court on thc causing confrontational behavior outside of a mental health diagnosis. amy: this comes as lawyers for travis mcmichael, who shot arbery with a shotgun, have t

. >>> we are joined by ahmaud arbery's mom, wanda cooper-jones and her attorney, lee merritt.ing to both of you. miss cooper-jones, i know it's been an incredibly difficult time, a long agonizing wait, almost two years for you and here we are thanksgiving morning. can you put into words how you are feeling and what this verdict means for you and your family? >> today is thanksgiving and i'm really thankful. my family and i are thankful for the verdict we got yesterday. >> take us inside the courtroom. you were there every step of the way during this trial listening to those horrifying details, watching videos over and over again. and then yesterday when the verdict is read, can you describe that moment for us? >> when i heard the judge read the charges and immediately after every charge he said the first guilty, i said to myself, we finally got justice for ahmaud. we finally got this and i was very, very thankful, very excited, i mean, really no words to explain all the emotions that i was going through at that time. >> as we noted earlier there were just one black juror in th

two weeks ago, i was in georgia, and the mother and father and the attorney lee merritt stood with med me to come stand with them at the trial. i'll be going to brunswick, georgia, this week to stand with them and local activists that's been with them since day one because i want that city to know that people all over this country support those local activists and support those parents. this is 2021, and we still are seeing almost all-white juries, and we're still seeing people because of the color of their skin being suspects of things that people take into their own hands. we'll be right back. r skin that never holds you back don't settle for silver #1 for diabetic dry skin* #1 for psoriasis symptom relief* and #1 for eczema symptom relief* gold bond champion your skin gold bond feel stuck with student loan debt? move to sofi and feel what it's like to get your money right. (phone chimes) ♪ ♪ ♪ i jump up on the stage ♪ ♪ and do my money dance ♪ ♪ i throw some money up ♪ ♪ and watch the money land ♪ ♪ i do my, i do my i do my money dance ♪ move your student loan debt to sofi - you co

it was an honor to help get these individuals charged and bring this case to light along with lee merritt make sure she's okay, but she's the strongest woman i have ever met and someone i look at as another mother now. >> before we go, looking back to the george floyd case, so influential in that trial, just the video of the moments as this happened. as erica is saying, jurors have been seeing, including the aftermath, pictures, as graphic as they are, of the gunshot wounds that he suffered. in your experience dealing with juries, how impactful can that kind of evidence be? >> it's critical because people actually see another human being deceased. though it's graphic and hurts our soul, you have to understand a soul was taken and the only way to do that is with the pictures, so you can humanize ahmaud and see he was just like your son or your daughter, and now he's been taken because he was hunltded. >> l. chris stuart, thanks for helping to waulk us through it all. >> anytime. >>> a new poll believe most americans believe some type of misinformation about vaccines and covid-19. what can

lee merritt, the attorney that represents want d cooper-jones said he'd been in contact with the prosecution said last night, kevin goff, the attorney for bryan came to them and wanted to make some kind of a plea deal. we don't know what the deal was, don't know the details. we do know that the prosecution rejected it. wanda cooper-jones going into court today said yes, it's true. then we had kevin goff coming into court today and he was peppered with questions. take a listen. >> did you offer a plea deal? >> that's bull [ bleep ]. >> what are you referring to? >> i'm not getting into it with you. denied. thank you, sir. denied, denied, denied. i don't know what y'all are talking about. >> reporter: that is read into by a lot of people as implying that the defense might be very fearful now of their case after everybody has rested. we'll have to wait and see. closing arguments taking place on monday. could be up to six hours or more. today they're going over the charges that will be explained to the jury then. kate? >> all right. much more to come. martin, thank you. joining me is cnn's senio

pastors al sharpton, jesse jackson, jamal bryant, martin luther king iii, and attorneys ben crump and lee merritt joining the arbery family for a prayer vigil an event organized by the reverend al sharpton. also today the attorney for roddie bryant jr. saying his client will not testify in his own defense. >> mr. bryant has no intention of testifying at the trial of this case. if the state wants the testimony of mr. bryant they can dismiss the indictment in this case against him with prejudice as to all counts. then there would be something to talk about. >> reporter: for a third time, he was denied when calling the reverend's sharpton and jackson to be kept out of the courtroom. the judge once again denying the motion. later on objecting to this question from the state. >> do you believe that someone stealing is deserving of the death penalty? >> irrelevance, your honor. >> reporter: calling for a mistrial. >> given all the time that we've put into this trial -- >> reporter: it was denied but the judge admonished the prosecutor and instructed the jury to disregard the question. >> now we're hear

lee merritt as well, thank you so much. we'll continue to follow this.sage about inflation after months of claiming rising prices were temporary. ok everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. whoo hoo! ensure, with 27 vitamins and minerals, now introducing ensure complete! with 30 grams of protein. from the very first touch, pampers, the #1 pediatrician recommended brand, helps keep baby's skin drier and healthier. so every touch will protect like the first. pampers >>> the white house is changing its tune on inflation after promising for weeks that inflation is only temporary. president biden's now saying that higher prices are slowing down the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. the biden administration is also bracing themselves for high inflation to persist into 2022, posing a major political problem no doubt for democrats ahead of next november's midterm elections. joining us now, someone who knows something about dealing with a financial crisis in the white house. cnn's senior political co

but there was also this story that came out because attorney lee merritt says he approached the prosecutionas denied. that really set him off today. but take a listen to this exchange in court that was quite explosive. >> just because they haven't put a gallery up -- what -- they haven't put up a podium outside with a hang man's noose doesn't mean this isn't a trial despite the best efforts of this court, this isn't a trial that's been affected by mob violence of a woke left mob. >> when you think about this, anderson, you're talking about maybe 400 to 500 preachers that showed up and they were just talking about the lord and praying outside. and there was a march here. there was never any talk of any violence. so, a lot of people were surprised by the strong language that was used in court. of course this is not the first time that kevin goff has done this. we should keep in mind, monday is the big day for closing arguments. we believe it could be tuesday by the time the jury gets to deliberations on this. but once again, explosive comments in court touching on the racial sensitivity of th

um, and you know, i heard lee merritt say on your network earlier today that this verdict is an anomaly. um, it cannot be an anomaly. i mean, i can't tell you the countless ahmaud arberys that i have represented, have come across in the course of my career, who have been utterly screwed by the system because of the color of their skin. because they don't have a video and because they are dealing with a prosecutor who won't do his damn job. and so, we can't sit down, especially those of us who work in the criminal justice system, this one verdict and one trial is not definitely not systemic change, by any means. >> but it is accountability, bakari. and i want you to talk a lit bit more about the sig naf dance of accountability here. >> what it shows it -- and this is the bright spot and i'm -- you know, i have been weighing this in my head and hesitant about how to talk about it but look, the fact is 11 white jurors in south georgia saw the fact as presented by on outstanding prosecutor. a very fair and able judge. i have been on this network and criticized the judge in kenosha. so i got

national bar association members, ben croft, like me a past president of the bar association, and lee merrittstanding, stellar members of the national bar association, there with the family seeking justice. i think all of those things together happened. >> thank god that video was leaked, otherwise this trial would not have happened, these men would not have been found guilty of the guilty of ahmaud arbery, and boy, were they found guilty. kristen, i'm just remembering that moment a couple of days ago with the defense attorney for greg mcmichael, laura hough, getting up there and trying to play on race with the jury, talking about ahmaud arbery's long, dirty toenails, and the gasps in the courtroom when she said that and ahmaud arbery's mother had to leave the courtroom, tripping as she tried to get out as quickly as she could. it seems as if that sort of race-baiting, as many have described it, backfired. >> absolutely it backfired, because i think at the end of the day we're talking about a young boy who lost his life. whether he had clean fingernails or dirty fingernails is completely irre

lee merritt as well, thank you so much. we'll continue to follow this.fter months of claiming rising prices were temporary. like jack. he wanted a streamlined version he could access anywhere, no download necessary. and kim. she wanted to execute a pre-set trade strategy in seconds. so we gave 'em thinkorswim web. because platforms this innovative, aren't just made for traders - they're made by them. thinkorswim trading. from td ameritrade. emergency planning for kids. we can't predict when an emergency will happen. so that's why it's important to make a plan with your parents. here are a few tips to stay safe. know how to get in touch with your family. write down phone numbers for your parents, siblings and neighbors. pick a place to meet your family if you are not together and can't go home. remind your parents to pack an emergency supply kit. making a plan might feel like homework, but it will help you and your family stay safe during an emergency. >>> the white house is changing its tune on inflation after promising for weeks that inflation is only t

to benjamin crump, who has been here with the family, helping to represent the family along with lee merritt. there have been a lot of racial over and undertones in this trial and some moments that have been very upsetting to the family. >> to say that we refuse to allow black pastors in, it was just so arrogant. it was the essence of white supremacy mentality, almost like thinking because a black man is jogging, that ordinary white citizens can stop him and make him comply. and if he dares not follow their orders, then they have the right to kill him. and to say that that's okay. >> reporter: so you heard there from benjamin crump, who has been with the family and hearing their concerns throughout this trial. we have also heard from the attorney for william "roddie" bryan, he was the person who did not know greg mcmichael and travis mcmichael, but took part in this chase. and his attorney says he expects his client to be exonerated in this case. the jury is the one that decides all this. and we're just waiting for that, expecting to hopefully hear something, sometime soon. guys, back to you

pastors al sharpton, jesse jackson, jamal bryant, martin luther king iii and attorneys ben crump and lee merritt joined the arbery family for a prayer vigil, an event organized by the reverend al sharpton, joining a march afterwards to honor arbery. earlier kevin goff, attorney for william "roddie" bryan making a motion to keep jesse jackson out of the courtroom. the judge once again denied the motion and goff called for a mistrial after objecting to this question from the state. >> do you believe that someone stealing is deserving of death penalty? >> relevance, your honor. >> the mistrial request was denied, but the judge admonished the prosecutor and instructed the jury to disregard the question. by the end of the day, the defense rested their case. >> with that understanding, we rest. >> nothing in rebuttal. >> ahmaud arbery's mother sounded hopeful after court ended for the day. i want to remind you that there were 74 days that we went without an arrest. things happen and now we're here and i am very confident that we will get a guilty verdict. very confident. >> martin, what's next in the

the fox theater and lake merritt ktvu crime reporter henry lee as the story.oss oakland city council members lauren taylor and trevor read, say the violence is unacceptable. it's draining traumatizing on our oakland residents, this destructive violence just the malicious acts of crime. they're tearing our hearts. they're tearing our families, the ring of lights around oakland's lake merritt and the alameda county courthouse, a jarring contrast to flashing police lights and yellow crime scene tape. just before one thursday morning a man and a woman sitting in a car were confronted by armed robbers on the lakeshore avenue called a sack near first avenue. they try to get away and the robbers fired as many as 16 rounds, hitting the 22 year old woman in the head. officers found the woman unconscious and barely breathing. she's reported to be in grave condition and homicide investigators have now taken over the case. police told this chevy tahoe from the scene. at about 9 30 wednesday night, a 68 year old man was shot numerous times and critically wounded on 97th av

merritt. and a security guard who was protecting a television news crew on assignment was shot last week and died over the weekend. ktvu crime reporter henry leeddressing the problem. we have taken an unprecedented number of guns off the streets, but clearly that is not enough. oakland mayor libby schaaf says she's heartbroken with at least two more lives lost of violence over the weekend. there is nothing progressive. about unbridled gun violence. early saturday, security guard kevin machida died three days after the retired police officer was shot while protecting a crime for reporter downtown. kevin shida is someone who dedicated his life. to keeping others safe , as well as to supporting a free press is unbelievably tragic to see that he lost his life in the performance of those duties and those ideals. on sunday afternoon, a man was shot and killed while confronting a car burglary suspect near lake merritt. the victim interrupted a auto robbery in progress. um and was shot by the passenger and the suspect vehicle. the violence comes as the number of police officers in oakland has fallen to 677. that's one officer below the minimum require