Stay updated with breaking news from Me angel. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
We re back on bourbon street just about 10 minutes down the road from where we were the last time we spoke. people are starting to come out and take a look at the damage that was done here. a lot of the shop owners who call bourbon street home are able to come out and take a look and see, did their sandbags work? did the boarding up of the windows work? we saw some shops where they decided not to board up. their windows were busted out. that is what we re seeing this morning as people come out and assess the damage here on bourbon street. we spoke with one woman who lived in new orleans her entire life in the same home she grew up in. she s 75 years old. her name is angel. people say she s the angel of the neighborhood. listen to her describe the storm last night. i ve never, ever, they say it was 185 miles per hour winds. i believe it. and the tree, you know, that was something hitting my glass. i feel like 1,000 instead of 75. ....
you survived so many storms. that s why maybe they called me angel. everybody calls her angel. and she was sitting out on her front porch as she does every day, checking in with all of her neighbors, and the neighbors were coming up to her, checking on angel at 75 years old, making sure that she had survived the storm. and that s what we ve seen really all across new orleans. people are picking up. they re doing it together as a community. we ve seen new orleans ems officers out. police officers out patrolling the streets as well, helping where they can. it s been neighbors helping neighbors. that s something you see in only special communities after big storms like this. nadia, we heard from the governor this morning who is essentially saying shelter in place. stay where you are. do not venture out because it is too dangerous. of course, some aren t even connected to enough power to even hear his warnings and suggestions. ....
Somebody can hear you. you just got to keep moving keep asking for help. somehow, sway help will appear. that s what i did. i met great people along the way, they helped me out with letters and recommendations and so on. it was hard but it is not impossible when you keep on fighting. angel, i am showing a picture on screen of you on the right and you more than 21 years ago. we can tell it is you, but a lot of water crossed under that bridge in those 21 years. what was it like late last night when you got home. paint the picture for me angel. oh, man, it was such a great, great night. all my family was waiting for me with some food and some family members i don t recognize, but it was great, team of lawyers with with me vanessa, gina all of them they were great. i don t think i had words to describe how happy i was. ....
With, you know science needed to advance so that we could get proof of his innocence. he tried fighting from day one and he obtained an earlier round of dna testing around 2001 but that testing wasn t able to provide conclusive results and the innocence project came on board a couple years ago and thanks to new technology we were able to develop the dna profiles of the two people who committed the crime and neither of those profiles matched angel gonzales. it was conclusive scientific proof of innocence, and led to that conviction finally being vacated. and vanessa, angel was here on a visa that expired during 21 years he was in prison. what s his legal status? well that s you know one of the great tragedies of this case that angel was on the pathway to citizenship. ....
His family lived here. he had applied for a visa he had been approved. while he was, you know confined in prison on this wrongful conviction, that visa expired, so but for the fact that the state threw him in prison for a crime he didn t commit he would be a naturalized citizen along with the rest of his family today, we are confident of that so we are hopeful, we are getting him back on the path to citizenship and optimistic that he is going to be able to remain with his mother and father and siblings who are all living in illinois. and angel, i was struck last night by your comments when you were freed that you had no bitterness, you were not mad or angry. no, i don t feel that way. i just feel like when you find yourself in that place, and things happen in life that you don t have control over, and you ....