Name: Sentencing trial resumes for Parkland shooter
Uploaded: 2022-07-19T09:01:00-0400
Duration: 3751248
Description: Watch live as the sentencing trial resumes for Nikolas Cruz, who pleaded guilty to the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed. Cruz faces a minimum of life in prison without the possibility of parole and a maximum of the death penalty.

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Watch live as the sentencing trial resumes for Nikolas Cruz, who pleaded guilty to the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed. Cruz faces a minimum of life in prison without the possibility of parole and a maximum of the death penalty.

its constitutional limits 14 Constitution, Article one, Section 19. This constitution will need six and 14 Original partial jury for the Constitution one, Section 16, Amendment six and 14 United States Constitution for the constitutional one, section 16 And then six and 14 United States Constitution For the Constitution, Article one, Section 17. And then that's 1814. The United States Constitution. Yeah, Article one, Section 2 of the Constitutions. How does it how a video of the actual incident depicting what happened violates his constitutional rights. Just what we're saying is that it's not it's not music in the background. That's not it's not been edited. It's it's it's an actual depiction of the incident that happened. Judgment. What we're saying is that the testimony that's provided by witnesses out The bill's already been established, right. Mr Cruz already pled guilty to seven counts of first degree murder and 17 kinds of attention golden is no longer an issue. The issue is what are its promoted to an aggravator to prove an aggregator or provide to disapprove. And again, the estimate that we had yesterday from two students that were there, Daniel Gilbert now, sorry, Dylan Kramer was obviously very impactful and they were able to express what was happening, but the of the surveillance footage and we would submit that the rest of the witnesses in this case, Judge wright will do the same thing. So we had the court has to ask itself goes to any has any program value judge first of all, I'm sorry. Yes, judge first of all. Um this is not a contemporaneous objection, so it has been waived, but even if it hadn't been waived. Um These these videos depict aggravating factors. The murders of each of the person, of each of the people who were killed is an aggravating factor for the other murders. So that alone um allows to miss its admissibility. It also establishes many other the aggravating factors such as uh heinous, atrocious and cruel, cold, calculated premeditated and great risk of harm to others, disruption of the governmental function, killing public officials. All of those are depicted on the video. Thanks. Just respond very quickly As I said two in the motion one day that was followed earlier this month. My you said to this case. Old Chief of the United States. It's a supreme court case from 1997 five Us 1 72 in the States. If an alternative is found to have substantially the same or greater program volume, lower danger of unfair prejudice. Sound judicial discretion with discounted value. First of all and excluded if it's discounted appropriate value were substantially outweighed by unfair, unfairly traditional rescue. That's a 12. I think the surveillance videos are absolutely relevant and probative. I don't think that there's a limit on the amount of evidence that the state can present. As far as proving these aggravating factors and an actual video depicting the shooting that happened in the manner in which it happened from all of the different angles is certainly a procreative to the aggravating factors and I do not find if there's any unfair prejudice to the defendant and that any, if there is any unfair prejudice appropriate value greatly outweighs the NPR Brigid is so respectfully in denying your motion and lemonade judge. Is that across the board? Because that's the D. M. I. Is pretty all encompassing in terms of photographs, holes, judge speakers. I I don't know what that comment meant. Um, he, he just directed his cut, his objection to 18 in evidence. The hard drive. The hard drive is the surveillance videos. Yeah, the hard drive that came in as a six hour video. This isn't the video that we're showing to the jury because it's in essence raw video the next witness of is, is going to, we hope to introduce uh, the video clips that are relevant to the time period I believe mr wheeler that were given to me advance that I that I was able to do the clips of the surveillance videos. So are you, are you, You're asking me whether or not, my ruling goes to all of the surveillance video clips with the court was denied 12 but is not just the surveillance footage, that's probably the subject at issue. It also encompasses autopsy photos, photographs. I don't think we're there yet because the state hasn't called a witness to show relevancy to those issues. So my ruling those solely to their surveillance eclipse. Thank you. Mhm. Okay. We're ready to bring in the jury Yes, yeah, that's it. Yes, there is an answering yeah, mm. Okay. Good morning ladies and gentlemen, it's nice to see you all today. Everyone else may be seated. State call your next witness. Thank you. Mhm. Thanks one. Good morning sir. Please raise your right hand. You follow me, swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give is the truth. The whole truth and nothing but the truth. Thank you. So you can put your hands and be seated and when you're seated, please state your full name and spell your last name for the record. My name is Ron Lowther and it's L. O. W. T. H. E. R. Thank you. Mr. Good morning. Good morning. What is your occupation sir? I work for the broader Sheriff's office in the covert electronic surveillance unit and I'm electronic surveillance technician. And what are your duties entailed? What I do is retrieve and process video evidence. Okay, uh and how long have you been doing that? I've been doing that for the last 24 years. And what training have you had? I Most of my training has been informal, but the I received what I have received training with the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and Glencoe Georgia. And the trainings that I've received were uh the video evidence retrieval program. And also uh cyber investigations and what is your experience, I mean what what are the things that you have done? Well, my my background is film and television production for the last 36 years, I've been a uh producer and director of photography and uh film and television. Okay. And when with the sheriff's office you explain exactly what you mean by retrieval. So when when there's a crime that happens that involves any kind of video surveillance, I I um asked by investigators to retrieve whatever video evidence from DBRS and servers or any devices that contain video. Okay. And what are the some of the things that you can do once you retrieve the video? Well, I then would bring it back to the office and process the video is I would um whatever the detectives ask of me, as far as what they're looking for, I would put together presentations for them in to do with court, I would clarify any videos that are difficult to see or difficult to um playback. Okay. And how many times during your career, Mr Luther, have you done that? Oh, over 1000 times probably. Okay. With reference to this case, I want to show you state's exhibit number 18 that has been introduced into evidence? Mr Luther, would you examine that please? Solid state hard drive. Okay. And have you seen that before? Yes I have. And when is the first time, how did you get I received it from the FBI from a fellow by the name of Gaston. And once you received it, what did you do with it? I had derived some videos from the video files that are on here? Okay. Uh And when those video files are on there explain exactly what is on? Well there's a there are files that were derived from a server apparently. And there's player software with that. So you're able to view the files. Let me show you the space exhibit marked B. For identification. Mr. Lowther and ask you if you can identify this. It's V. For identification. Yeah. This is a flash drive that I had put some video clips on. Okay. And uh when you took Uh state's exhibit 18, it's been introduced in evidence. What did you do with it to put it on that flash drive? What what what is the difference between what's on them? State's exhibit 18 and your flash drive? Well I copied video files from the hard drive and from those I was able to produce videos that where actually put it in a format to be able to view the videos easily and clearly. And in doing so, were you able to link cameras for instance, As you probably know from viewing the 13 cameras in the 1200 building. Right. Were you able to link a person from going camera two camera. So good. What I did was I was able to put together a sequence that Um to follow the subject from camera to camera in a linear time frame continuously. Okay. And could you do that for um people other than the suspect the or the subject? Uh people that were in the 1200 buildings. Yes. Individual. What we call clips? Were you able to do that? Yes. I was able to create clips of other individuals. Okay. And how many individual clips did you make from that? 6? Our state's exhibit 18. I believe in total. There were 22 Okay. Of different people. And were you able to highlight the different people? Yes. There were some subjects that I had to highlight. So if and I want to put words in your mouth. But if there's a group of people in a group, were you able to isolate them? Yes. So I had whatever the subject was that I was trying to focus in on. I would put a circle around them. A graphic circle and uh follow them that way. You'd be able to follow them because there's so much activity going on in that in those frames that it isolates that one person to focus your attention to. Okay. And you were able to distinguish different people in the group's. Okay. Your honor At this time I'd like to offer States exhibit B. Okay. Okay. States the like victor for identification will be received as states 19. Your honor at this time. I'd like to play one of the clips. It's just material. Yes. It's just just for the jury. So do we need anything other than that? This This is this is this is video the the very cold, my memory's going uh the monitors, they're they're off. Right, okay. Alright. There are several clips on here. Young but for evidentiary purposes we're just gonna play the one of the suspect in this case. Okay. Mhm mm. Mhm. Mhm. Coming. Okay. Your honor. I have no further questions of this witness at this time. Thank you sir. You're excused. Is there any sound? Mr Okay. Thanks. State when you're ready, call your dan. Yeah. Please raise your okay into the truth. Thank you. So you can put your hand down and please be seated when you're seated, please state your full name and spell your last name for the record. My name is Daniel James Booth, B. 00. T. A. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Booth. What do you do for a living? I'm a software engineer at a vigilant. Okay. And what is a vigilante vigilance? A company that makes security cameras and video recording systems. And where are they located? Vancouver? Vancouver Vancouver Canada. Okay. And how long have you been employed there? Uh About 6.5 years. Okay. And what is your training? Uh So I've I've worked in the software industry for a number of years. I did some of a degree in the field. Okay. And where have you worked prior to a vigilante vigilante only. Um like an official employment? I had worked as a consultant before that. Okay, wow, what exactly are your duties? So I I I write software for our video recording systems and I provide guidance to more junior members of our team design of the software and systems and uh your experience with um software systems. What do you do with it? But pardon me what what's your what what are your duties you describe your title? What do you actually do? So I I write code and I I design the software architecture sometimes called software architect. And there's a vigil on where do they provide their products? They provide their products worldwide? They provide the worldwide worldwide. Okay. You're familiar with vigilante Um doing the software system back in February of 2000 And 18 at Marjory Gilman, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. And let me show you state's exhibit marked you for identification done by Gastonia Davis of the FBI. Yeah. Yeah. Yes I have. This was this was sent to me um sent to me last year in. And what did you do with that? Um So I I there's a copy of of the video data for for the date in question for for for the school surveillance system. Okay. And you looked at it? I looked at it and what were you doing when you were looking at it? What were you doing? I was I was validating that everything is as it should be that the system was functioning as designed? Okay. And what was your determination everything was operating as as usual. Okay. And did you compare um the extracted data to the raw data? Yeah. So there was a copy of the raw data from the server and a copy of the extracted data that would be used to produce clips and so on. And I compared the two and they were the same. Okay. And you've watched the video? I did yeah. The substance is coming down from the ceilings. Did you observe that? Yes I did. What effect if any does that have on the system that existed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on february the 14th 2018. All the way the system was configured, it would record when motion is detected from a camera when that dust came down. It obscured the motion of a of a person who's who's sort of deep foreign in the scene and the motion no motion is no longer detected. And so there are gaps in recording because no motion is detected. And what happens after that? Is the camera refocus and come on again when they when the camera detects motion. Yeah when when motion is detected it begins recording again. So that would explain the skips. That would explain the skips. Thank you Mr Booth and I have no further questions. Mr Booth. Thank you. Okay thank you. So you're excused. What? Oh yeah yeah I want you to move that station. Yeah. Is there any objection. Just we would rely on our previous objections. Defense objection states you for identification will be received as State 20. Yeah. Mhm. Next witness Christopher again. Okay, good morning. Please raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give is the truth. The whole truth and nothing but the truth. Okay, thank you. You can put your hand down and be seated and when you're seated please state your full name and spell your last name for the record Christopher. McKenna. M. C. K. E. N. N. A. Thank you. Mr McKenna. What do you do you go to school or work? I am a second year student in college. And where do you go to Gardner Webb University? Uh where did you go to high school? I went to Marjory Stoneman Douglas and I graduated 2021. Okay and did you go all four years to Douglas high school? I'd like to call your attention Mr McKenna to February 14, 2018. Remember that date? And what year were you in on that? I was a freshman. Okay. Uh on that date on Wednesday february 14th 2018. 4th period, remember where you were? Yes I was in room 12 16 in english class with MS Haas Miss house? This house. Okay. Okay and what happened during 4th period? Therefore it is a normal day at the beginning um around 221 I asked to go to the bathroom raised my hand, got the bathroom pass and everything and I walked out of the classroom, made a left past 12 room, 1217 I believe it was or 1218 both of them and I saw martin and luke and I high fived martin and I walked by him like it was normal walk into the staircase and I walked into a man, he was wearing a uh, a maroon shirt with a charity, she shirt with a backpack and hat on, black pants, had a rifle in his hands. I walked, I was kept, I was stunned just one second and he said to me, get out of here, things, everybody get bad and I walked through the double doors, I sprint as fast as I can. I was, I was in the room in the staircase for about seven seconds and I ran out and I ran to the north side gates, it was called our senior lot and I ran into coach Fice Coach fights with unlocking the senior gates at as he normally does with around 20 minutes left to school And he told me to be calm and get into his golf cart. So I got into his golf cart, he dropped me off in the 1300 building, which was the building adjacent to the freshman building and he took me in the back there and then that's when I heard the fire alarm go off when I was standing right in front And I was, I was hearing shots and you're still hearing shots. I was as I was I was in the golf cart driving over to the 1300 building. Okay. And coach was driving the golf cart. Yes. Okay. And then what happened? And then he told me he's gonna go check it out. So I waited there and then I start hearing shots and all the students in the 300 billion started running out. So I started running with them. And I used to run all the way through West Glades, which is the school adjacent to our school and through West Glades into walmart, which is also next to West Glades. Okay. And then what happened? And then from there, I ran all the way over to one of my friend's house and he lived across the street. I was calling my dad, my dad, my dad is he works for law enforcement at the time and okay. Everything. Everything Okay. All right. I want to show you state's exhibit Mark A. That's been introduced into evidence and you see that. Okay. So there's an illustrator. Do you know what I mean by that? The end. Can you put that up on the screen for him? Do you see what, sorry? Okay. Okay. So would you indicate what, where you ran out and you said you ran right on right around here at that door. Okay. And where did you run to, ran along here? Over to here and then Coach Vice was unlocking the gate. That's right around here and then where did he take you? He took me into his golf cart which was sitting here over until there's a doorway over here behind that little alcove. Okay? And when you said you bump fist was with martin and luke it's martin okay? At this time your honor we'd like to play the snip that involves Mr mechanic. Okay And this is something that no should not be shown. Mm is that you in the yellow circle? Yes sir. Mhm. Is that you and Coach Vice? Is that accurate and true? That happened on February 14, 2018. Mr McKenna. If you saw the person that was in the stairwell with you would you be able to identify him? You see him in the courtroom today? I do. Which which person you point to? Okay? Sitting next to mr wheeler. Yes. Alright. The honor with the coach mission. Can wreck reflected. Mr McKenna has identified the defendant. Nicholas Cruz, please thank you Mr McKenna have no further questions your honor. No better thank you sir. You're excused state whenever you're ready make your next witness. Okay ladies and gentlemen we're going to take a very short recess so that you all can we're gonna take for five minutes. Whenever you all are ready please let the bailiff know so that we can bring you back in here but for now please do not discuss the case. Remember the roles you can't start deliberating, You can't discuss anything that goes on in here and we'll be back with you shortly. Thank you so much. Four years ago. Just take our morning break early. One of the jurors needed to use the restroom so You may as well take our morning break now for 15 minutes. Um So we're in recess for 15 minutes. Thank you. Mr stats.

Jessica Patrick

Sentencing trial resumes for Parkland shooter

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Meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner, we're going up to some cloud cover and some cool temperatures this morning. It's a little bit breezy too. That's making it feel a little cooler than it really is. We take a look at futurecast and roll forward. We're going to see cloudy skies for a good bit of the day. Once we get past lunchtime, we may see a few holes in the clouds, a few breaks here and there, but we're not going to clear out and the clouds will linger into tomorrow. We have wind that's coming off of the North Atlantic right into North Carol. So that's bringing us some cool moist air that's creating this deck of clouds that we're seeing this morning. You can also see a few sprinkles that show up there on future cast. That's certainly a possibility, but we won't see any measurable rain. And if you do see a Sprinkle, it will really be just that no significant rain. It is a bit breezy. This morning, we have winds steady at about 5 to 10 MPH. It's making it feel cool. We may see some gusts up to 15 MPH today, but not a lot of real strong wind, just a bit damp and chilly this morning. 45 in Roxboro and South Hill. 51 in Fayetteville, 49 in Goldsboro. That's what it's going to feel like. If you're stepping out the door between now and say 9 a.m. featuring hast wind direction again, you can see that wind coming across the Atlantic into North Carolina again, that cool moist air off the ocean is helping to bring us that deck of clouds. It'll keep our temperatures cooler than yesterday. Yesterday. We hit upper seventies, 70 in Raleigh 68 in D mid seventies in Fayetteville. Lots of events happening this weekend. There's a special, special brigalow tasting this evening between six and 10. Temperatures will be in the sixties and it will be mostly cloudy so it'll be jacket weather for sure. The cooler than normal temperatures are only with us for a couple more days. Once we get to Sunday, watch the yellow and orange color contours taking over. That's where temperatures are above normal. And we see that almost all of next week. Our normal high is 70 five or 70 today, 74 Saturday. And then we're into the eighties and not too far from records. We're probably not going to set any records. Monday 87 and the record is 91 Tuesday 88 and the record is 90 Wednesday 89 but the record is 92. So we're probably going to miss it by a few degrees. But still, we're not far from it. It's also a dry period too. We've had a very dry April and that continues this week. Our only chance for any rain would be a 20% chance on Tuesday night.

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Good evening. I'm Gail. Hi, welcome to tonight's drawings for Thursday, April 25th, 2024. Well, let's get started tonight with our Carolina pick three. Our first winning number is a one. Our second number is eight and our third number tonight is a nine and our pick three fireball number is eight. Again, join me for tonight's joining us on Auditor from mcconnell and Jones L LP. Now let's move to the Carolina pick four. Good luck. Everyone who's their first winning pick four number. It's a six. Our second number is eight. Third number tonight is eight again and our fourth number is a three in our pick four fireball number. There it comes. It is a one. Well, turning now to the Carolina cash five and no one wins our prize tonight. Tomorrow's, our prize is estimated at $721,000. Good luck. Everyone here's our first winning cash five number. It's the number eight. Our second number is five third number. Tonight is seven. Our fourth number here it comes. It's a 41 in the final number, NRC five. This evening is 27. The North Carolina Education Lottery has contributed over $10 billion to education. Get your winning numbers right here every night in your exclusive station for the North Carolina Education lottery. Thanks for playing. Have a great night.

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Gov. Roy Cooper, museum leaders and museum paleontologist Dr. Lindsay Zanno on Thursday preview Dueling Dinosaurs, a brand new exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. The exhibit opens to the public Saturday.

In that institution's history. But all of you can and I have seen that enthusiasm and that understanding that you are part of something special over the past few years as you have prepared for this day. So to the staff of the museum, thank you. And it's not just staff, a project like this wouldn't have been possible without a lot of important partners on behalf of everyone involved in this immensely successful public private partnership. And in addition to the General Assembly's extraordinary investment, I would like to take a moment to thank some of the very generous supporters of the Dueling Dinosaurs capital campaign, the SECU Foundation, the Bank of America Duke Energy, the North Carolina Glaxo Smith Kline Foundation, Wake County, friends of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences who really not only helped us in, in raising the funds but also in making this day happen and this opportunity happen. And so many others who are recognized on the campaign do donor wall just to the right of the exhibit entrance. So I encourage you as you go through there today to make sure you take a look at that wall. Now, along with the state's investment. This village of support has enabled the museum to open this new globally unique visitor experience. And on that note, I would like to invite Secu Foundation board chair, Chris Ayers to speak to the foundation's leadership gift, Chris. Thank you. Well, good morning fellow paleontologists. Um I'm excited to be here today representing the SECU Foundation and the over 2.7 million members of state employees credit union who fund that foundation. So this is a great day of celebration for the State of North Carolina, the Department of Cultural and Natural Resources and the many museum supporters and friends who have joined together to make this day a reality. I can tell you the foundation, the State Employees Credit Union has been looking forward to this day for a long time, going all the way back to when we got a sneak peek when they first rolled these fossils into the museum uh a number of years ago. So today's ribbon cutting ceremony shines a brilliant light on the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences as a research institution and the largest museum in the southeast of its kind. The work of the museum professionals and the world class facility benefits more than 1 million visitors each year. And we're delighted to help fund the Secu Dino Lab, which will be enjoyed by students, teachers and families from across the state and beyond. In addition to the SECU Diner lab, the foundation support of the museum also includes the large icon globe that we're in right now that you see outside the building, uh The SECU Daily Planet. As longtime supporters of the museum SECU is pleased that our collaborative efforts help bring the museum and our state to the forefront of natural sciences, education and research, innovative initiatives like this can only be achieved through incredible teamwork and support from the community if it isn't obvious. Let me say that we are so happy to be part of this team and we feel really lucky to have our SECU headquarters and our Sal Salisbury Street branch right next door where we get to see the daily droves of visitors year round. SECU is built on the principle of people helping people and our members live that philosophy through our support of nonprofits that uplift people and communities throughout our great state. For those of you who may not know the SECU foundation is funded through a unique concept known as the power of a dollar where SECU members contribute through the reallocation of their $1 monthly checking account fee. Collectively a dollar truly can make a profound difference. As you see here today, this summer marks the foundation's 20th anniversary. And over the past 20 years, our foundation's commitment to North Carolina nonprofits has surpassed a quarter of a billion dollars for scholarships, grants, financing for education, housing, health care, human services, all benefits to our great state. And we're going to celebrate that 20th anniversary. This fall dueling Dinosaurs is history in the making right here in downtown Raleigh. And we're so lucky to have a front row seat to marvel at the Scientific Discovery and the World of Paleontology. We at the SECU Foundation are honored to be part of this and I want to thank everyone for the great work and contributions that so many of you have made to make this day in this exhibit a reality. Thank you, Chris. Now I mentioned earlier about our staff and they really are all superstars, but there is one particular staff member who has as this project has developed over the recent years, kind of reached celebrity status. If you read Walter magazine, you probably read a profile of her and her work and how that has contributed to uh this particular exhibit. I'm pleased to introduce that person to you this morning. None other than uh the individual who had the vision to make this happen. Doctor Lindsay Zano, head of Paleontology here at the museum, Doctor Doctor Zano. Good morning. It's wonderful to be hosting you all this morning. You know, every week I get an email from a parent who wants their child to meet and talk to a scientist every single week. They want to fuel that child's love for science, encourage them to pursue their dreams. But more than anything they want that science to be real, they want it to be accessible, meeting those Children is wonderful. It's also not enough because not every parent has the resources of the opportunities to reach out to a scientist and arrange a one on one meeting for their child. Most of the Children who are interested in science will fall through the cracks and every public event I attend, I have a conversation with someone in our community who doesn't see the relevance of science to their daily lives who's never been invited to peek behind the proverbial curtain to see who scientists are and what we do and how we go about solving problems that are relevant to our communities. Today, we mark the next step in the evolution of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. We celebrate the opening of the dueling dinosaurs experience. This is one of the most daring public science projects ever imagined at its heart is a world class specimen and the barrier breaking sccu Dino lab that houses it. The specimen represents a single moment in time 67 million years ago when behemoths like tyrannosaurs and triceratops battled for life. The lab is a place where there are no walls between the scientists and the communities that we serve. One where the term behind the scenes loses all of its meaning. A place where every kid regardless of their socioeconomical status can talk to a scientist every day, any day, a place where they can look in the face of a scientist and see themselves staring back at them a place where science is done for the public with the public and transparently in front of the public and for those that cannot make it to us on site, we're broadcasting this project all over the world. Now, the dueling dinosaurs experience is fueled by an amazing team of scientists who I'm so proud of. And in the past two years, we've grown from 6 to 14,000. And that's because a year and a half ago, we launched our public science project Cretaceous Creatures. And already over 14,000 middle school students from around the state have made once in a lifetime scientific discoveries as real members of our scientific team. And we are just getting started. I want to close this morning by thanking the state all of our incredible donors, my amazing museum colleagues, and especially my team for believing in this project, for believing in my vision. I want to thank them for tirelessly working for eight years to bring this project to the people of North Carolina and beyond. You are all dreamers and I could not be more honored to be on this journey with you. One thing we can all agree on is the world loves dinosaurs. So today we're going to bring the next generation of leaders in science and technology and engineering and innovation and have them born right here in North Carolina. Let's show the world how it's done. Thank you. Make sure I didn't mess up the screen and dropping that. Um Thank you, Doctor Zano and I don't know what the acoustics are back there. But standing up here as you were talking about Children in that next generation from up here, you could hear all the Children up there in nature Research Center visiting the labs and it just kind of brought to life. What you're talking about this experience will mean it's now my pleasure to introduce to you, my boss, uh Secretary Reed Wilson. Now I can tell you, Secretary Wilson, this is a special project. He does a lot of openings, ribbon cuttings for our sites all across the state, state parks aquariums and not to play favorites. But I know this one ha holds a special place in his heart. He was telling someone this morning that he's been working on this project for seven years and so Secretary Wilson, I'm pleased to introduce you and we finally got here. Thank you, Jeff. Good morning, everybody. Uh Thank you all for being here this morning and to all involved. Uh Congratulations. This is an amazing huge day for North Carolina and for this museum, you know, making doing dinosaurs a reality has been a collective effort. And I want to thank some people that have already been thanked, but you can never thank these people enough. First, our sponsors, we would not be here today without your generous support. No doubt about that. I also want to thank the board and the staff of the friends of the Museum of Natural Sciences and three of the four board presidents who have been presidents during this period are here with us today. Um, but the whole board has been invested in this and not only did you all raise significant sums of money, but you tiptoed way out on that branch of risk. I remember the conversations. Well, we really sure we wanna do this. Uh But you were, you made the decision to, to just dive in um because you kept your eyes on the prize and, and understood what the risk was, but all that risk went away. Uh I wanna thank the museum staff. Um Thank you so much. I know that every section of this museum has been involved with this. And I, I dare say that there isn't anyone on the staff of this museum who wasn't involved in this project at some point. Um And obviously to Doctor Zano and your paleontology team. Um Y'all are just amazing. You're brilliant. All of you. Um Javin Sutton and your ex exhibition team, Christy Flint and your education team. I mean, I could mention everybody in this museum, everyone's been involved. It's been a long process and you've done a phenomenal job because here we are today and of course, we wouldn't be here without substantial public support. Thank you to members of the General Assembly um who prioritized the investment in this state of the art lab in particular. I do want to thank the leadership of the legislature speaker Moore, Senator Pro TEM Berger, minority leader, blue and minority leader Reeves. Uh, they're unable to join us today, but I think we should give a round of applause to the entire general assembly who supported this project. So it's taken us a while for us to get here today. And as Jeff mentioned, I've been involved with this one probably since the first week I was in this department in early February 2017. Um So it's not been quite 67 million years, but sometimes it felt like it. Um Is that my wife laughing? I remember, I do remember vividly the early Sunday morning in April 2017, almost exactly seven years ago to this day when these specimens arrived. I watched as the movers painstakingly removed them from the tractor trailer truck and carefully moved them into their hidden storage places. It was definitely a goose bumps moment for hours and then we had the groundbreaking in the midst of COVID, uh which complicated everything. And as I said, then at the groundbreaking, when this lab opens, our state will become a must see destination for dinosaur lovers everywhere, from young kids to academics to anybody. Um And so here we are and it's even better than I think any of us dreamed it could be. You will see when you go in there. What a special exhibit this is. We have the best dinosaur specimens in the world and the best setting for people to see them and learn from them. Hundreds of moments and of awe and wonder will unfold in there every single day. And I can't wait to just wander over here sometimes to watch the kids' eyes pop open. Now, at the heart of this project is the science. Our paleontologists will make discoveries as they carefully uncover these and analyze them. Science will be happening in front of the public's eyes. Um And so do doing dinosaurs is an excellent way for the state to engage students in scientist scientific discovery and to develop greater science literacy. So why is that important? Um It's important because the only way we're going to solve our big problems is to rely on the science and the experts who know what they're talking about. And the key to getting to that point is to expand science education to make sure that every child understands the value of science and how scientific discovery works. The Dueling Dinosaurs exhibit is going to pull people into this amazing world of science that's so important to our future. So I am now pleased to introduce a leader who uses science and facts and data to make his decisions as governor of the state of North Carolina and he has supported this project throughout its duration. Everyone please give a warm welcome to our Governor Roy Cooper. Thank you, Secretary Wilson. I'll tell you when we have cabinet meetings every Monday. His is always the coolest report, particularly when we get the updates on the dueling dinosaurs. Uh I am so grateful to everyone who helped to make this happen. The partners. Thank you so much for the work you've done all of the contributors. Uh My family, Chris is proud that our state employees credit union accounts that $1 a month is going to things like this. That is so exciting. And when I think about this week, I spent Monday Earth Day on the Blue Ridge Parkway looking at our amazing vistas uh in Western North Carolina on Tuesday and Wednesday, I got to spend time with North Carolina's own astronaut Christina Cook who set records for time that a woman astronaut spent in space and space walking. And she actually presented us with a lob Lily pine that had been germinated on the moon. Native plant, Karen, first lady made sure it was a native plant, uh excited about planting that in our pine forest at the executive mansion. And she presented us with the North Carolina flag that flew with her on her mission in the International Space Station for 11 months, presenting it to the people of North Carolina. Then I got to come over here with Doctor Zano, doctor Doctor Young and to go through this exhibit and to talk to these scientists and see see these dinosaurs and think about how amazing it was that this was happening right here in North Carolina. You know, North Carolina is the first and best in so many things. Now, we're the best in dinosaurs. I love it. You know, it is amazing and extraordinary that we have the best preserved and most complete tyrannosaur and triceratops in the world. Right here at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Scientists. This exhibit will add to an already excellent rep reputation that North Carolina has as a world class research university community College state. And I'm excited about that. I have been through this exhibit and, and to see the faces of the paleontologist, how excited energetic that they are. And they're also excited and maybe even a little bit nervous about sharing their work as they do it with the world, with the cameras on top of them, with their brushes and their equipment as they make discovery after discovery. And I said, you know, you're gonna get comments and praise and maybe some criticism from science, all scientists all over the world. They said, we know we know and we're ready for that and that's what makes this so special. Uh Doctor Young Doctor Zano, thank you for leading me through. Thank, thank you for the work. I asked Doctor Zano what she was gonna do this summer? She said, Utah, Montana and Mongolia. Wow, that's cool. Bring some stuff back with us uh to, to us but to compete, compete in today's world stem and steam classes. Are more important than ever. And our next generation of leaders will be walking through this museum every day that it's open and this exhibit will stimulate interest in a lot of them. I have declared 2024 as the year of public schools in North Carolina. And I am deeply grateful that the legislature stepped up and invested in this exhibit. Uh It, it took a lot of work to pull everything together and their work was instrumental and I am encouraging them now also to invest more in our public schools in our early childhood education. Our state has a history of investing in public education in order to fuel our innovation and our discovery. And when these young students learn in their school classes and they get to come here and meet face to face with these sci scientists. It's going to develop interest and it's going to create our scientists of the future this state of the art secu diner lab and the dueling dinosaurs belong to the people of North Carolina. It's open to everyone free of charge. That is amazing. Thanks to everybody who made this happen. This is a proud day for the state of North Carolina. Thank you so much. Thank you, Governor Cooper. Uh It truly is an exciting day for all of us and thank you for being here. Now, at this time, I would like to invite everyone to join us just outside the auditorium here. A little bit to the right at the at the entrance for doing dinosaurs for the official ribbon cutting. And I want to invite all of you up there on the 2nd, 3rd floor. Presents. Come on down and join us. So let's go celebrate. Thank you. Yeah, we're at the back line up a little bit. It's gonna be quite a few people here. They are going to be coupled. OK? Don't cut it. Yeah, check, check, get out. OK. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Right. The the face. Thanks this chair, right. You all right. So fantastic. Hey guys for media. We questions afterwards over step on. This is the best to the future. This very good virtually. Yes. Is young. Was it? How about that? This is Yeah, you and then I now make the tea for. Can you be away if you're gonna be here? J JJ? Yeah, I was gonna have how many we have to get here in the morning right here. I didn't see anyone. All right, I need to tell everyone you should never put your hands inside the mouth of a tyrannosaurus. It's very sharp, well done on the end. Just a little bit here. Thank you. All right, just in the position. All right forward. Creep forward. Look for the fray. There we go. 321. Hold on. Is there we go. No cool, cool. The skin is tough. It's a meat eater. Not a ribbon eater. So OK. Sorry. OK. Barry can we do one more second? Let me fill in real quickly with one more. Yeah, they have thank you. Who gets to keep this to bring here? Let's get next to a do what you want us here. That be perfect. And can I get you on? So right here, you know what the secret with you and, but yeah, one photo, 12 and three. All right, thanks everybody. Right. If we have five, hello, if you guys want to come over here, I'll stand where the governor is gonna be. I.

Preview of Dueling Dinos, opening Saturday in Raleigh

Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday Powerball drawings, as shown live on WRAL.

Ball. Good evening, Ruan, I Randy trainer. Tonight. We have another life changing jackpot. It's worth an estimated $130.2 million. So, get your tickets ready here. Come, tonight's winning numbers. Let's start things off this evening with the number 26. Right after that America. We have the number two and congratulations to Gina Magnum from North Carolina. She won $50,000 playing powerball. All right, the rest of your winning numbers tonight 20 47. And let's round it out tonight with the number 22 and tonight 20 powerball number, that's gonna be 21 and your power play multiplayer is four. Let's take another look at tonight's winning numbers. We'll see you back here on Saturday night. It's time to play America's favorite.

Powerball Drawing

Brian Shrader flies over the site of a plane crash at Raleigh-Durham International Airport approximately three hours after the accident.

Seen some activity just in the past 10 minutes or so. I want to take you outside Sky five right now for a live look at the scene. We saw a van being escorted to the runway there and someone got out and now there appears to be a really careful inspection of the debris going on. So we're working to confirm if that may be the NTSB investigation team arriving at the scene. Let's zoom out and give you some about where this is. There are two main runways at RDU International and this is in the grassy field next to the runway that mostly serves terminal one on the east side of the airport, that runway remains closed while this investigation continues at the top of your screen. That is the other main runway that serves terminal two, mostly that runway is open. So we have two things going on here that could affect your flights for the rest of the day and maybe even into tomorrow, the airport takeoff and landing capacity is roughly reduced by half because they are only working with one runway. And if you have a flight coming out of terminal one, maybe Southwest, you're going to have to take that crossover all the way out to that other runway. It's going to add a lot of extra time.

Sky 5 flies over RDU plane crash 3 hours later 

A UNC Health physician and pilot were taken to the hospital Wednesday after a small plane crashed at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU).


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