Up First from NPR - Georgia School Shooting Investigation, Venezuela Opposition, NFL Player Arrested

Episode Date: September 9, 2024

New details have emerged about the Georgia school shooting, including a phone call from the alleged gunman's mother warning the school just before the attack. Venezuela's opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez, believed to have won the presidential election, has fled to Spain. And, Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill was detained by police just hours before the first Sunday of the NFL season, raising questions about his treatment during the encounter . Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Russell Lewis, Tara Neill, Donald Clyde, Mohamad El Bardicy, and Lisa Thomson.It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Iman Maani, Nia Dumas and Lindsay Totty.We get engineering support from Carleigh Strange and our technical director is Zac Coleman.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The mother of a 14-year-old warned a Georgia school of an emergency. She called a school counselor half an hour before a mass shooting. What did she say and why wasn't it enough for authorities to stop the gunman? I'm Steve Inskeep with A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News. The candidate widely believed to have won Venezuela's presidential election had to flee the country. He says he'll continue to fight for freedom, but how could he do that from Spain? Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill was detained by police before kickoff on the first Sunday of the NFL season. What if I wasn't Tyreek Hill? Lord knows what that guy or guys would have did.

Hill was released in time to play. What led to the incident and how will the investigation unfold? Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day. What do you think are the greatest things to come out of your city? Well, get ready to defend your argument because It's Been a Minute is bringing the Smackdown, a debate series to cities all across the country. Serena Williams

versus Muhammad Ali, the Peanuts versus Prince. Listen to Smackdowns you never saw coming on the It's Been a Minute podcast. One year ago, the event that changed a region. Heavily armed Palestinian militants in Gaza flew across the border. The October 7th Hamas attacks on Israel. Israeli ground troops have entered northern Gaza. How the war unfolded and where it could be headed. Pagers carried by Hezbollah members began exploding in cars. Listen to a special episode of the podcast State of the World from NPR. This Hispanic Heritage Month, Code Switch sits down with Mexican-Cuban-American journalist and author Paula Ramos to discuss the rise of U.S. Latinos to the far right. It's a small but growing shift in American politics.

Paula Ramos thinks she knows what's behind it. Listen on the Code Switch podcast from NPR. We've learned new details about the mother of the alleged gunman in last week's school shooting in Winder, Georgia. That's where four people were killed and nine others were injured. Yeah, the mother called the school the morning of the attack to warn administrators about her son. Appalachian High School will remain closed while the investigation continues. With us now is Chase McGee of Georgia Public Broadcasting. Chase, what can you tell us about the phone call the alleged shooter's mother made? Yeah, so Marcy Gray is the mother of the alleged 14-year-old gunman Colt.

Text messages surfaced over the weekend about conversations that she'd had with her sister, Colt's aunt, about a phone call she made to the high school, and she was worried about her son. She'd apparently received some alarming messages from him that morning. So she called a school counselor and spoke to that person about 10 minutes, for 10 minutes, about 30 minutes before the shooting started, and administrators seemed to take that call seriously. We know someone went to go to a classroom where he was supposed to be, but he wasn't there. So then the school administrator leaves, and it's not much later that the alleged gunman tried to enter that classroom,

but was prevented because there was a locked door in between him and the class. Okay, so administrators did act. Did they do enough, though, to react? Yeah, I'll say, since these text messages have come to light, the school district and other educators have referred questions to authorities. But we know from witnesses inside the school that the school might not have ordered a lockdown as quickly as they could have. There was also some confusion, because there was another student with a similar name

who happened to be in that same algebra class, but wasn't there when the administrator came in could have. There was also some confusion because there was another student with a similar name who happened to be in that same algebra class, but wasn't there when the administrator came in after the phone call with the suspect's mother. And I'll say there's still a lot of unanswered questions. We're hoping this next week will give us some clarity as the investigation moves forward. So on that investigation, where do things stand? Yeah, last Friday, we saw the alleged gunman appear in court along with his father. The son is charged with murder and will be tried as an adult. He is 14 years old and the maximum sentence for him would be life in prison. Like I mentioned,

the boy's father also had his day in court. He was arrested Thursday night, the day after the shootings. He's being charged with murder because he bought the gun for his son that was allegedly used in those shootings, and they're both currently being held in state custody. We're expecting to hear that they'll have new legal counsel representing them soon. Their next court appearance isn't until early December, and we're waiting to hear more from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. They're leading up the investigation on this case. Yeah, it's been five days since the shooting. I mean, how are people doing there? Well, I'll say it's really tough. One thing we heard from people right after the shooting is that this isn't the kind of thing that happens in Winder.

And we've heard that after mass shootings across the U.S. There's been a number of vigils. And yesterday we saw church sermons where pastors reflected on the difficult moments and the immediate aftermath, but also the really difficult couple weeks to come. In Winder, the state is opening what's called a community recovery center today. People can go there for spiritual and mental health care. There will be representatives from several faith-based organizations. But the wounds of what happened are running really deep. And it's not just for people who were inside the school. It's the hundreds or thousands of others traumatized by what happened this past week. Georgia Public Broadcasting's Chase McGee, thank you very much.

Thank you. The candidate who is widely believed to have won the July presidential election in Venezuela is no longer in the country. Edmundo Gonzalez was facing arrest for challenging the results of that election, defying authorities. Instead of being arrested, he flew to Spain over the weekend where he has been granted political asylum. Reporter John Otis has been covering the story. He joins us now. John Gonzalez appeared to have won the election by a landslide, but instead of moving into the palace, he fled to Spain. So what happened? Yeah, it's quite a twist. Most electoral observers believe Gonzalez won the July 28 election.

In fact, the opposition published voter tally sheets showing Gonzalez leading President Nicolás Maduro by a two-to-one margin. The problem is that Maduro controls all branches of power in Venezuela and is backed by the military. He could also face arrest overseas for drug trafficking and other crimes if he were to actually step down. So Maduro simply declared that he won the election, and then he launched a brutal crackdown on the opposition. His regime has now jailed more than 2,000 people, and they were about to arrest González, who hid out in the Spanish embassy in Caracas. So how did he manage to get out? Well, there were a lot of behind-the-scenes negotiations, and then over the weekend, the Maduro regime came out with a statement saying

González could leave the country. So then along with his wife, he boarded a Spanish military aircraft and flew to Madrid. And once there, he released this brief message to his followers. So here Gonzalez is saying, my departure from Caracas was surrounded by acts of pressure, coercion, and threats. I trust that we will soon continue our fight for freedom and the restoration of Venezuelan democracy. So how can he do that if he's now in exile? Yeah, I mean, that's a good question. Gonzalez joins an ever-expanding group of exiled Venezuelans who've gone to Spain. That includes four previous presidential hopefuls. But once politicians leave, it usually means that they're

gone for good. It's starting to resemble Cuba's exile community that's based in Miami but has really very little political influence on the island. So in the end, the Maduro regime, it may be that they're quite pleased that Gonzalez is no longer inside of Venezuela. But is there anyone left inside Venezuela that maybe can fight for democracy? There is. There's still Maria Corina Machado. Remember, she was going to be the opposition presidential candidate, but she was banned from running and selected Gonzalez as her last minute stand-in. Machado has gone into hiding, but she was banned from running and selected Gonzalez as her last-minute stand-in. Machado has gone into hiding, but she's also been making some dramatic appearances at

opposition rallies. However, at this point, the opposition really is up against a wall. They were hoping the U.S. and other countries would recognize Gonzalez as Venezuela's new president-elect, but now that seems out of the question, now that he's out of the country. And it seems like that all adds up to Maduro being around for a while. Yeah, that's exactly what it does look like. Despite his dismal showing at the polls,

Maduro is insisting that he won another six-year term. And that's on top of his ruling party already controlling Venezuela for the past quarter century. That's John Otis, who's been reporting on Venezuela for us. John, thank you. Thanks. Hours before kickoff on the first Sunday of the NFL season, police detained a star wide receiver, not far from Miami's Hard Rock Stadium. Tyreek Hill of the Dolphins was released in time to play in yesterday's game, but the incident unsettled him and players across the league. NPR sports correspondent Becky Sullivan is now here. Becky, what happened? Yeah, so videos on social media appear to show the receiver being detained by cops next to his car, like a luxury sports car.

So you can see four officers surrounding him. In one video, you can see an officer that's seeming to, you know, the view is kind of blocked, but you can see the officer kind of shoving or kicking him. In another video, you could see an officer kneeling on his back as they put him in handcuffs. Hill appears to be calm and still throughout the videos. It's unclear exactly what prompted the encounter besides that he was pulled over for a traffic incident. Reportedly, he was cited for reckless driving, but certainly no explanation as for why he was handled so physically. Hill was on his way to the stadium for Sunday's game between the Miami Dolphins and the Jacksonville Jaguars. And so, you know, his teammates were also on the way to the game.

And at least one, the defensive lineman, Calais Campbell Campbell stopped to try to deescalate the situation. And he also said that he was handcuffed, uh, incited with disobeying a police order. So just a chaotic situation for sure. Yeah. Really unsettling way to begin a game day. So what did Hill and the Miami date officials say afterward? Well, I should say the players were released in time to play, uh, which, you know, the incident didn't seem to affect Hill at all. In fact, he scored this like pretty flashy touchdown and to celebrate, he had a teammate pretend to arrest him. But afterward, he talked to reporters and he asked, you know, what would have happened if he hadn't been a star for the football team? I don't want to bring it race into it, but sometimes it gets kind of iffy when you do,

you feel me? So what if I wasn't Tyreek Hill? Lord knows what that guy or guys would have did. You know, and as for the police, Miami-Dade Police Director Stephanie Daniel said the department has placed one officer on administrative leave, and then just overall the incident is under investigation. So this kind of reminds me of what happened with golfer Scotty Scheffler. Definitely. Not that long ago, right? Definitely, yeah. That was back in May. He was arrested by Louisville police outside a golf tournament that was being held there. So Scheffler, you know, was booked, faced four criminal charges, ended up going on to play in the golf tournament that day. The charges were ultimately dropped a couple weeks

later. He did not end up with his face on the pavement like Hill did yesterday. A big difference, of course, being that Scotty Scheffler is white, Tyreek Hill is black. Hill's agent says he will seek legal recourse for what happened yesterday. And of course, we'll wait to find out whether there's any body camera footage or whatever else the Miami-Dade police can find as they investigate. All right, so a question,

another question off the field. Dallas Cowboys quarterback, Dak Prescott, signed a new contract, $60 million a year. Oh, yeah. So I realize quarterback is probably the most important position in any team sport anywhere, but $60 million. Yeah. And the other thing is that $60 million is almost all of it is guaranteed, which means if he gets hurt or if he just doesn't play very well, he'll still get paid. It's an astonishing amount of money. And so to give you

a sense, the salary cap for an entire NFL team is about $255 million. That's got to pay 53 players. So to spend almost a quarter of that on one guy, on one hand, that's wild. But on the other hand, as you say, we're like in this era now at the NFL where a quality quarterback is just simply the most important piece of any team. You just can't contend with a Super Bowl without one. And so, you know, when you're Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs, a contract like that is worth it, no question. Now, where the question comes in for Cowboys fans is whether Dak is. So statistically, he's quite a good quarterback,

but he just doesn't do well in the playoffs. He's led the Cowboys to the playoffs five seasons, but has only won two games. So, you know, was that enough to commit some big money to him or would it have been better to walk away? The Cowboys chose the former. That's NPR's Becky Sullivan. Becky, thanks. Thanks.

And that's a first for Monday, September 9th. I'm E. Martinez. And I'm Steve Inskeep. For your next listen, consider, consider this from NPR News. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump debate on Tuesday and within moments afterward, we will see the parodies on TikTok and Instagram. How did political comedy move online? Today's episode of Up First was edited by Russell Lewis, Tara Neal, Donald Clyde, Mohamed El-Bardisi, and Lisa Thompson. It was produced by Zia Butch, Iman Maani, Nia Dumas, and Chris Thomas.

We get engineering support from Carly Strange, and our technical director is Zach Coleman. Join us again tomorrow. Happy Hour is there to serve you recommendations and commentary on everything in the pop cultural universe while helping you snap out of that doom-scrolling mindset. It's important to stay informed, but you also need to take care of yourself. So treat yourself to a new episode about the pop culture you love on Pop Culture Happy Hour, only from NPR. For a while now, you've probably been hearing about book bands, how they're gaining momentum everywhere in Texas, in Missouri, Florida and Pennsylvania. On the Code Switch podcast, we're taking a look at why. Why are so many books suddenly considered so dangerous to kids? Listen to our new series on the Code Switch podcast from NPR.