(bright music) - [Announcer] This is a production of PBS Charlotte.

(bright music) - [Presenter] "Carolina Impact" is brought to you in part by Bragg Financial, serving high net worth families with portfolio management and planning advice.

Bragg Financial is committed to our clients and our community, braggfinancial.com.

- Just ahead on "Carolina Impact," mass shootings continue to claim lives nationwide, but Charlotte police equip residents with life-saving skills.

Plus, a rare cancer diagnosis threatened a toddler's life, but her remarkable fight for survival inspires hope.

And a father and son pepper challenge sparked a family business that now chases big dreams and delivers fiery flavors.

"Carolina Impact" starts right now.

(bright music) Good evening.

Thanks so much for joining us.

I'm Dara Khaalid.

Gun Violence Archive is a nonprofit research group that tracks shootings in the United States.

They define a mass shooting as any incident in which four or more people are shot in one location at the same time.

According to their statistics through September, a total of 361 people have been killed and another 1,500 wounded across 365 total shootings.

So what can be done to protect yourself?

"Carolina Impact's" Jason Terzis joins us with our story.

- Well, it's unfortunately become so common, unless you're glued to local TV news, you may never hear about the latest mass shooting.

While debate about Second Amendment rights and the right to bear arms is constantly at the forefront of American politics, the fact of the matter is mass shootings are simply a part of everyday American life.

That's where the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is trying to help.

- 345 Park Avenue, this is in Midtown Manhattan.

- [Jason] The program begins, not with a typical welcome or even introduction, but straight to a real-life active shooter incident.

- There was a cleaning lady working in there.

She'd been working there for about 27 years and she comes into contact with the killer up on the 33rd floor.

- [Jason] And that's how CMPD's How Will I Survive an Active Shooting training begins.

Officer Jonathan Frisk jumping right into the program before introducing himself.

- If you go onto any site right now and somebody's doing a presentation, the first thing they open up with is, "Hello, my name is so-and-so, and this is how long I've been with this company."

I stayed away from that.

I want to get something that's going to get somebody on the edge of their seat.

Now this morning, we will talk about difficult topics and difficult subjects.

We are talking about people who have lost their life, and especially when we're talking about children that have lost their life.

It's difficult to talk about that.

It may be difficult for you guys to listen, but I want you all to understand there are lessons learned when people lose their lives and we have to discuss them.

I am Officer Jonathan Frisk with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

I've been a police officer for 24 and a half years now.

- [Jason] CMPD created the active shooter training program a little more than a decade ago.

It's free to businesses, schools, churches, any organization.

- When we think about active shooters, a lot of our memories, we go all the way back to April 20th, 1999.

Columbine High School, the nation was shocked.

I could tell you in 2025, I did about 175 active shooter trainings all at two hours apiece.

- [Jason] Its main goal, prepare anyone where split-second decision-making could mean the difference between life and death.

- I want you all to understand an active shooter, their goal and their purpose is to come into the building, come into a confined space to shoot and kill as many people as they can.

Hence why the entire program is based off of action.

- A full two hours is a long time to listen to any speaker.

Officer Frisk is well aware of that.

- And that's one of the things that we realized up front.

Two hours, how do we actually keep the people engaged?

- I thought that I should double up on my coffee 'cause I was probably going to fall asleep and then I saw we were in the front row and I was like, "Yeah, I'm definitely going to fall asleep."

- What I will do is put the tools around your tool belt to give you all the best opportunities, the best options to survive an active shooter.

- [Jason] So Officer Frisk developed a program to keep it fast-paced with his booming voice providing a plethora of information, visuals, and hands-on training.

- I think in anything you do, you have to have a passion for what you do.

And there's no doubt about it.

I have a passion.

So the second thing is you have to know the material.

So how do you know the material?

Well, you have to do a lot of research.

- [Jason] Much like a student studying for an exam or an athlete preparing for a game, Officer Frisk spent time working on his craft, studying the traits of skilled engaging speakers.

- If you watch a lot of presenters, they're going to have a lot of words up there and a lot of times they're going to be reading off of those words.

And I knew that that was something I did not want to do.

If I have 100 or 200 people in the room, I want to make eye contact with them.

- Officer Frisk kept us engaged.

It was never a dull moment and you had to pay attention because they'll call on you, which is good.

You got to participate.

- Be honest with you, who in here does not think they could physically or willingly attack or grab the gun?

You don't think you could, man?

No?

Well, thank you for volunteering.

Step on up for me.

More than likely, and there's actually a video of this online where somebody actually grabs it when someone's pulling that trigger, it will jam the gun and she's got two hands on this gun.

- Definitely didn't fall asleep.

Officer Frisk is very engaging.

I didn't feel like I was here for two hours.

To be fair, he did call me a lot, so very interactive.

- Guys.

- [Jason] While discussing lessons learned from previous shooting incidents, Officer Frisk never mentions or shows any mass shooter by name, only showing the victims and heroes of those tragic events.

- Tell me, when these incidents occur, specifically active shooter incidents, a lot of times the media outlets or social media feeds, a lot of times, who's the one person they're showing us?

The who?

Shooter, right?

Glorifying them and sensationalize them.

We have to show what they did because we also want to show what some of the victims did and then what some of the victims maybe should have done.

So that's part of the training.

(911 caller speaking faintly) - [Caller] Kennedy building.

There's been a shooting.

- [Jason] Playing a 911 call from the 2019 UNC Charlotte shooting, Officer Frisk makes a point to recognize Riley Howell, one of two students who died that day.

- He should be recognized because he did the right thing.

He went after the shooter and he slowed down the shooter or he stopped the shooter and he saved lives on that day.

After Columbine, a couple programs started to come out.

One of the first ones, some of you, you might be familiar with it, it is called Run, Hide, Fight.

Quick show of hands, who's heard of Run, Hide, Fight?

- [Jason] As for some program specifics, the Run, Hide, Fight theory you may have heard about is considered outdated.

- We, with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, we have never utilized the Run, Hide, Fight program.

- [Jason] It's been replaced with ABC, Avoid, Barricade, Counter.

- Because we are talking about movement and distance.

That is the key thing.

That is kind of the meat and potatoes that a moving target's very hard to hit.

We want people essentially to actually get out of the building.

If you thought about trying to maybe have a conversation with him, if you thought about trying to pray with him, if you thought about trying to deescalate the situation, if you thought about trying to play dead, I'm going to prove to you throughout the presentation, those responses alone will get you killed.

It's that simple.

Now, for those of you who made the immediate decision to get up, to get out of this room, to get out of this building and get as far away as you can, that's taking an action.

- [Jason] If unable to get out, don't just hide, but lock doors and barricade them.

- If there's furniture, like in this room right here, if that door locked over there, we would lock it and then every piece of furniture, we would put it in front of the door.

- The only wrong answer is to do nothing.

- [Roger] Closing in on 2,000 overall presentations, it's obvious Officer Frisk enjoys his way of serving the community.

His program is so popular, it has a two-month waiting list.

- Sometimes we're desensitized to these things because they happen so frequently, but like hearing it again and kind of brushing up on your survival skills, it was necessary.

- Now, Jason, what else can you tell us about mass shootings specifically here in the Carolinas?

- Yeah, some interesting statistics.

Of those 365 total shootings that we told you about at the beginning of our story, 26 of them have happened in the Carolinas, 10 in South Carolina, 16 in North Carolina.

It's hopefully something each of us never has to face, but if we ever do, the more knowledge, the better, especially it's those split second decisions that we all going to maybe have to face.

- Absolutely, and like I told you before we started, I just did my training yesterday with CMPD and great information there and it really helps you think like, what would I do in that situation?

- Yeah.

- A few seconds, like you said, can save a life.

- Makes a difference.

Yep.

- Thanks for sharing, Jason.

For our next story tonight, 16-month-old Magnolia Rodriguez loves playing, laughing, and spending time with her family.

But just months ago, her parents feared they might never experience those moments again.

A rare cancer diagnosis forced the Mint Hill toddler to endure chemotherapy and undergo a life-saving liver transplant.

Now, her family cherishes every little milestone while navigating new challenges.

My colleague, John Branscum and I, bring you their story tonight.

Little fingers tap colorful keys, creating a sweet melody that fills the Rodriguez family's playroom.

- Oh my.

- [Dara] 16-month-old Magnolia has discovered her new favorite instrument and her parents have discovered something even more precious.

Their baby girl can finally stand and play all on her own.

- Oh my gosh.

She's standing for a while.

- She is.

- We've had her stand up before, but we're like assisting her.

And like this time she was just like all by herself.

- [Dara] Every wiggle, every reach, and every new moment marks another victory.

But just months earlier, Magnolia's parents feared they might never watch their daughter take her first steps.

One February night, Rubia Rodriguez felt something unusual while rubbing her baby's tummy.

The area felt rock hard and concern quickly turned into fear as doctors discovered a large tumor growing inside Magnolia's liver.

- We had heard words that no parent wants to hear that your child has cancer.

- [Dara] Doctors diagnosed stage three hepatoblastoma, a rare childhood cancer that grows inside the liver.

The National Cancer Institute says it most often strikes children younger than three.

Magnolia's tumor hadn't spread beyond her liver, but its size threatened her life.

Chemotherapy began just days later.

Then on May 16th, surgeons at Duke gave Magnolia a new liver.

But issues followed.

Excessive bleeding and swelling complicated the transplant while restricted blood flow forced another surgery.

For two weeks, her parents waited, fearing their little girl might need another liver.

- I remember her oncologist saying that she had to state it because everybody needs to know there was a possibility that she wouldn't be here with us today, that she wouldn't make it through the process.

- Through each frightening turn, Rubia and Brian clung to their faith, each other, and the hope that Magnolia would one day come home.

- [Brian] She's ready.

She knows where she's going.

- [Dara] Now, gentle pushes send Magnolia swinging through the afternoon air.

Her wide brim hat shields her face while her mom and dad soak up the smiles they once feared loosing.

Nearby, a tiny playhouse invites more adventures as Brian helps his daughter slice toy fruit.

- She's really tough for her size, for her age, for what she's gone through.

I mean, she's gone through a lot.

I mean... Oh, thank you.

But she's definitely amazing.

- [Dara] Those simple pleasures now carry extraordinary meaning.

After months of treatment, Magnolia has started crawling, standing, and showing her family the playful personality they always wanted to know.

- She doesn't take any second for granted, despite going through that tough situation in her life at such a, you know, young age and still keeping a smile, you know, that's kind of what, you know, lets us know like, you know, we'll be okay.

- [Dara] But each new day also brings a delicate routine.

Rubia crushes pills, measures medication and fills syringes while bottles crowd the family's kitchen counter.

- You know, I wanted to learn how to bake before I ever did this.

- [Dara] Magnolia's new liver requires lifelong anti-rejection medication and complications still threaten her recovery.

With doctor's visits, scans, and medication costs continuing, relatives and neighbors have joined the family's journey.

Magnolia's aunt, Liliana Guzman, now helps coordinate a community campaign through COTA, the Children's Organ Transplant Association.

Church picnics, food sales, and volunteer events have united neighbors, friends, and strangers, all hoping to ease the family's lifelong transplant expenses.

- When you see everyone come together, I think it's one of those things where it's... I know it's cheesy, but it feels so wholesome.

I am so honored and I'm so happy to have been a part of this.

- [Dara] Their generosity has given this family something money alone could never buy, the comfort of knowing they don't have to face every challenge by themselves.

Back inside the playroom, Magnolia's tiny hands find the piano keys once more.

Each note reminds her parents how close they came to losing these precious moments.

- I don't know.

It's beautiful.

It's one of the greatest sounds I've ever heard.

It makes you really think about, you know, how every day is so precious.

And I'm just so grateful personally to be able to be her mom.

- [Dara] A little girl, a room full of love, and a family cherishing every note.

Well, the story definitely touched my heart.

Magnolia was so precious.

Now, her family says her medical journey continues.

Doctors continue to monitor blood flow through her transplanted liver as they consider another possible surgery.

Meanwhile, community volunteers race to raise $50,000 by November 18th.

The Children's Organ Transplant Association will contribute an additional $5,000 if they reach their goal.

Well, if you want to build something that'll last, you have to do it the right way.

For Dr.

Scott Hofert, that can apply to building a family, a community, or even a business.

After spending his 20s working in humanitarian aid and his 30s creating a family, he decided to spend the next part of his life following his passion for leather working.

Named after his two sons, he started ColsenKeane Leather Goods and Provisions with the same dedication and commitment, creating leather goods that can last generations.

Producer Russ Hunsinger introduces us to Dr.

Scott.

(upbeat music) - The very first thing that people are going to notice is that it smells really good in here.

- Oh, the smell.

It smells incredible.

- Then they'll see the folks over at the benches and really wonder what's going on here.

I think a lot of people don't realize that when we say everything is made here in the studio, we mean it.

- I was turning 40 and I was tired of looking at screens all day and having nothing physical to show for my work.

And so I thought, "Well, what can I play with at night when I go home?"

A lot of people work with steel or they play an instrument or they work with wood.

And so I thought, "Well, I love leather."

So I bought a fistful of tools, a hide of leather, and went to my back porch and started playing.

(upbeat jazz music) I had just started messing around with playing with leather.

Maybe a month or so later, Steve Jobs came on the scene with an iPad that millions of us purchased, shows up to my house and I Googled a case for it and they didn't exist.

So I thought, "Well, what if I go back to my trusty little leather bench and I took a piece of leather, basically it's all one piece of leather, and cut it out, folded it and stitched the sides, and put my iPad in there and thought, I wonder if other people would want this?"

And so I put it on Etsy.

That was really the impetus to our company.

I thought, "Well, what if I make other items, belts and wallets and journals and all tho kind of things?

Would people buy them?"

And they did.

You know, having something made here in the States, here in Charlotte, and having handmade by people that we train, so most of the leathersmiths that we now have that are professional and expert at what they do, they learn their trade here.

- We offer a five-week immersive workshop, so it's going to be called our internship.

Each one of the internships will be a cohort-style offering, so that means that there are three spaces available within each cohort.

The cohorts are going to allow everybody to kind of work together and feel a little bit less siloed, and that it's not super independent because they'll have the opportunity to meet new folks that are trying to learn the same thing as they are within our studio.

- I started as an intern.

I was right out of high school just wanting to look for some things to do.

The internship experience was really great.

They made it really wonderful.

They made everything just feel like family and be very open and welcoming to a new person, especially someone who was young, like me.

They allowed me to join this wonderful thing, and it led to me finally actually being able to work here.

(upbeat music) - I've always done sewing and weaving, so I want to combine those mediums.

I really wanted to understand leather and how it works and understand the different types and come up with ways that you can combine those with vintage textiles and handwoven pieces and hand-knit pieces.

I think that would be really unique and something fun.

So I've played around with some designs and I think I can apply some of the things I learned in the internship to those pieces in my own art.

- I really just love getting to give every customer something unique.

Every single bag is going to be a little bit different and develop its own character, not only when it leaves the shop, but also how it develops over time, where every person holds a bag will cause that leather to patina differently, which just gives, I don't know, a soul back to it.

(upbeat music) - The smell of that rich leather and just smelling the different nuances and hearing sounds and seeing everybody smiling and talking and it was just the energy here was upbeat.

Beautiful, beautiful space.

- At this place in my life, it's not about necessarily acquiring a bigger business or just more clients for the sake of more clients, but what's it mean for us to have a client that walks in here and they value deeply their experience that's meaningful or an intern or a staffer that their life is hopefully better because we get to do this together.

- Thanks, Russ.

Dr.

Scott continues to work in humanitarian aid and serves others.

He's one of the founding board members for Equitas Incorporated, a Charlotte-based 503c dedicated to improving educational opportunities through building schools in Malawi, Africa.

Well, finally tonight, Elijah Morey grew up trying to keep up with his dad.

In their family, that meant growing hot peppers together and finding out who could handle them.

"Carolina Impact's" Chris Clark shows us how those backyard challenges became something the whole family had a hand in building.

- Hot, hotter, hottest.

This one is a little bit more savory.

- [Chris] Elijah Morey was six when he walked into the garden with a question for his dad.

- What do I have to do to be the youngest person to eat the hottest pepper in the world?

- [Chris] Brett started him with a hot banana pepper, and that first lesson didn't last very long.

- All of a sudden, he ran out of the garden fast as he could up to the house to get water.

- [Chris] For some kids, that might have been enough, but Elijah kept coming back.

- It was, I'm trying to show him that I've got what it takes to eat something just as hot as he can.

- [Chris] And dad wasn't handing out trophies.

They had their own way of deciding who won.

- So whoever gets the water first loses.

- [Chris] It wasn't long before their competition moved beyond the garden.

They started putting bottled sauces to the test, and some had them shaking their heads.

- Some sauces were just nasty and really hot and didn't taste like much.

- [Chris] For Elijah, all those disappointing sauces eventually gave him an idea.

- [Elijah] Could we not make a better one of these, something that is hot and tastes good?

- [Chris] That's when the family kitchen became their lab, pots bubbling, peppers cooking, and experiments that occasionally got a little out of hand.

- The windows would be wide open.

One time in particular, I remember I came home and immediately started coughing.

- [Chris] Turns out, creating the perfect blend of flavor and fire wasn't so easy.

Three years of trial and error produced plenty of frustration, but very little sauce.

- So we went from a quart pot to a bigger pot to an even bigger pot over the three-day period, and more and more ingredients.

- [Chris] By the time they had finished, their taste buds had taken a beating, but somewhere in that growing pot of possibilities, they'd found what they were looking for.

- It's got the flavor and sure enough, it's got the heat.

- [Chris] They bottled samples and sent them out to others to try.

What began as a backyard competition was becoming Elijah's Extreme, and Brett was already dreaming beyond their kitchen, drawing up plans to put their creation on grocery store shelves.

- When him and Elijah would talk more frequently about it, I knew it wasn't just a passing thing.

- [Chris] Elijah had already shown a knack for making a buck, buying and selling things on eBay, and his dad saw something in him that couldn't be taught in a classroom.

- He was just born with like that entrepreneurial spirit, like that desire to just kind of be his own boss, do his own thing.

- [Chris] But behind the business plans and big dreams, Brett and Monique carried a concern that had little to do with hot peppers.

Elijah has lived with Crohn's disease since childhood, a chronic condition that causes inflammation in the digestive tract, often bringing pain, fatigue, and urgent digestive issues that can strike without warning.

It's an illness that can turn even the simplest plans into a question mark.

- It's kind of like I always feel like I have a tether to my house and I don't want to go too far.

- [Chris] His parents had watched him miss out on things other kids took for granted, and as he grew older, they wondered how he'd navigate a world built around schedules that don't always bend.

- We knew that 9:00 to 5:00 probably wasn't going to be a possibility.

- [Chris] For Brett, the answer wasn't simply finding Elijah a job.

It was building him a future where he could make his own opportunities.

- The original intent was this is going to be for him.

We're going to build this for him.

- [Chris] Of course, getting the orders is only half the battle.

Somebody still has to fill the bottles.

And tucked away in the mountains near Candler, North Carolina, the Moreys found a partner with the perfect place to handle their growing demand, an old fire station.

Where firefighters once answered the bell, Joel Morey now answers the call for hot sauce.

His firehouse bottling company produces sauces for roughly 35 businesses, including Elijah's Extreme.

- The nature of our business being spicy food makers, we weren't good to have around for a whole lot of other people.

- [Chris] These days, the firehouse is filled with bottles, labels, and the unmistakable aroma of peppers.

The operation stretches well beyond these walls.

Just a few miles down the road, Joel's work begins in the fields.

15 acres of peppers grow against the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

- We've got, you know, warm days and cool nights, you know, fairly high humidity, so we've been very successful growing chili peppers.

- [Chris] Back inside the firehouse, the work comes full circle.

Today, Joel's crew is bottling Elijah's Reaper sauce.

The filling, capping, and labeling are a far cry from those early experiments in the Morey family kitchen, but the idea that started it all hasn't changed.

- Flavor first was kind of the concept and then you know, it's got just enough heat to kind of keep you bringing back... Coming back for more.

- That one's called Extreme Regret.

- [Chris] For customers, it's another bottle of hot sauce.

For Monique, every one carries a little piece of the family's journey.

- I see a lot of dedication and sacrifice that goes into those bottles.

- Garlic, habanero, it's... This was actually our most mild sauce.

- And perhaps nobody understands that sacrifice more than Elijah.

A recent complication with Crohn's disease lasted nearly 12 months.

It forced him to confront the very uncertainty his parents had worried about all those years ago.

And in the middle of that difficult stretch, he came to understand just how much their faith in him had meant.

- I don't know where I'd be.

- I would be on their couch or I'd be fully homeless or something.

I don't know where I would be if I didn't have the, the people around me.

- [Chris] What started as a father teaching his son to handle a little heat has become something neither could have imagined back in that garden.

And while Elijah's Extreme may have been built around hot peppers, its foundation has always been something a whole lot stronger, family.

For "Carolina Impact," I'm Chris Clark.

- Thank you, Chris.

And fun fact about me, I actually love spicy food, so I'll definitely have to keep my eye on this company to see where they go in the future, but Elijah tells us that he hopes the company can go beyond hot sauce.

Now, with those ambitions, he's thinking of including chips and beef jerky, so his goal for Elijah's Extreme is to become a household name around the world.

Brett says they're working toward the day his son runs the company without him.

Well, do you have a cool story like this one?

Don't keep it to yourself.

Email the details to stories@wtvi.org.

And that's all the time we have tonight.

Thank you so much for joining us.

We always appreciate your time and look forward to seeing you back here again next time on "Carolina Impact."

Good night, everyone.

(bright music) (bright music) - [Announcer] A production of PBS Charlotte.