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Press Conference for Relatives of Captured Ukrainian Fugitive

Aired August 30, 2001 - 19:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: To Sacramento, now, we promised that briefing with family members of Nikolay Soltys and also members of the Sacramento police force. They have come to the microphone and again we will take you live to Sacramento, California.

SHERIFF LOU BLANAS, SACRAMENTO COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: We have the family here of the victims on Mill Station. Before I get into that, we just met with them upstairs with members of the board of supervisors and the county executive. I'd like to introduce the board members who are up there. We have Muriel Johnson from the third district. We have Lila Collin (UNINTELLIGIBLE). We have Don Notolli from the fifth district and we have Roger Niello from the fourth district. He is chairman of the board of supervisors, and also we have Terry Shuck that's currently (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Roger would like to say a few words on behalf of Sacramento County.

ROGER NIELLO, SACRAMENTO COUNTY FOURTH DISTRICT BOARD MEMBER: Yes, on behalf of Sacramento County and our board, luckily most of us can't even imagine the depth of the tragedy that these people experienced and the emotion that they have been through over the last several days. We want them to know that they have the support of the community, the support of Sacramento County, and, obviously, the dedication of our sheriff's department and all of other law enforcement agencies that collaborated to bring this man to justice this morning. So with that, we just want to make sure the family knows Sacramento is with them. Thank you very much.

BLANAS: Thank you, Roger. During the course of the last several days, as I've told you all earlier, we had the family in protective custody here in Sacramento at a hotel in the downtown area for at least eight to nine days. During that period, we had a number of people who were providing protective custody or providing security services for them.

HEMMER: We will not leave Sacramento, but want to know -- let you know, rather, in the split screen you see on the left-hand side of your monitor. That is San Antonio, Texas, courtesy of KENS. As much as six inches of rain have fallen there. And again, what we are watching here is a high water rescue by emergency officials. We were not sure earlier what was taking place, but it appears that someone, possibly more than one person has been stranded there as the water moves across a roadway. We'll have that for you and conference from Sacramento live on CNN.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would like the introduce the family of the victims and the family is Boris, Kuharsky -- the first name is Boris, B-O-R-I-S. The last name is Kukharskiy, K-U-K-H-A-R-S-K-I-Y. His wife is Zoya Kukharskaya and the last name is K-U-K-H-A-R-S-K-A-Y- A. And they have two children, Victoria and Galina.

The other family is Sergei and Lubov. The last name is Kukharskiy, K-U-K-H-A-R-S-K-I-Y. And Lubov Kukharskaya K-U-K-H-A-R-S- K-A-Y-A. They have a daughter named Oxana and a little boy named David. Unfortunately, David is in a day care center. This is Sergei. This is Boris. This is the third brother. He came from Ukraine just for the funeral. His name is Vasilly. So there are three brothers.

This is Lubov Kukharskaya, and Zoya Kukharskaya. This is their children, Oxana Kukharskaya, Victoria Kukharskaya, and Galena Kukharskaya. HEMMER: Again as we keep one eye on San Antonio, Texas, it appears that emergency officials have removed at least someone from the minivan stranded in that stream of water and they moving now along a rope of some sort of fence set up. We will watch and also listen to Sacramento.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Everybody who was so feeling toward our grief. You all know what happens in our family. He thanks God, that God gave him so many friends here, that basically helped them a lot, and supported them during all this grief.

He thanks those people who took care of him from day one, from day one to the very last day, they were taken care of like little babies. When that happens they have a birthday -- they were very surprised. Even under protective custody, they had a birthday, and those people who were taking care of them basically made a birthday party. And they were so surprised and so deeply touched they didn't expect it.

They were very thankful to everybody who took care of them, who helped them, because alone it is impossible to survive in such a huge grief. Everybody was sharing their tragedy, their grief and basically taking pieces off their shoulders, everybody, through the Sacramento and whole United States.

We felt your support financially and physically. And your spiritual support, your prayers, they felt the prayers of each and everyone and God helped them go through the tragedy. He's thankful to everybody who was a participant in that issue. He has no words to thank everybody. He wanted to hug everybody. He doesn't know everybody's name who was helping him. He thanks the lady who was at the scene at the very beginning and she tried to save his daughter's life. He doesn't remember that lady's name.

He will pray for all of your families and all his family. He will remember your sharing and your help for all their life. It's impossible to forget. They are very thankful to everybody that they were standing shoulder by shoulder and helping him. He thankful to everybody, kids, bigger, their parents and everybody who helped them. It's impossible to express it by words. You have to feel it. Thanks everybody, and wishes that it never ever happens again in this country. And he want to tell to everybody, that all negative we can upper hand with kindness. Stand by each other. Because there is enough negative in this planet. And the only way to solve it to be united.

HEMMER: Clearly a difficult time with this family meeting with reporters. The brothers of Nikolay Soltys who noticed in their mother's backyard early this morning West Coast time, Nikolay Soltys had returned to his mother's home. It was then when they ran out of the house, raced down the street about two and a half blocks and called police.

Nikolay Soltys in custody tonight, accused of killing six members of his family last week. This concludes a 10 day national manhunt for the Ukrainian immigrant.

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