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Shootings in Ferguson; Political Headlines; Texas Teen Shot Dead. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired August 10, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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


[14:00:09] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Brianna Keilar, thank you so much, my friend.

Great to be with you on this Monday. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN.

And we're going to begin this hour in Ferguson, Missouri, where new protests are expected soon after the city again became a flash point of violence.

A barrage of bullets overnight forcing peaceful protesters to run for cover one year after unarmed teenager Michael Brown was shot and killed and sparked really this nationwide movement to protest police treatment of African-Americans.

But what was supposed to be a peaceful weekend of commemorations spiraled into this, violence and chaos overnight on the streets of Ferguson with at least four people behind bars after multiple shootings. And I want to warn you, we're about to show you some new and graphic video showing the aftermath of one of those shootings. You'll see it with me. Police surrounding a suspect's body after police say the man in his 20s used a stolen handgun to fire a, quote, "remarkable amount" of bullets at plain-clothed officers. The alleged gunman now listed in critical condition.

So let's begin our coverage with my colleague Sara Sidner who is there in Ferguson.

And, Sara, the first question is, you know, you were there. You tell me what you saw last night and what the streets look like right now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I was at a function. I was just coming back from a church where a lot of people had gathered who had come here to remember what happened here with Michael Brown, but also remember that this really did create a new movement, a new civil rights movement.

Going down the street and suddenly I was stopped. There were a lot of police around. I got out of the car to see what was going on and we noticed the chief. And as this protest was going on, we've got a line of people in front of police protesting back and forth, face-to-face with police.

Suddenly I'm speaking to the chief, listening to what he's saying, and this is what happened. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just want to be as patient as possible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A message to those who are looting -

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gunfire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cover!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cover!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cover!

SIDNER: That's gunfire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: You could hear me saying, "that's gunfire." It was just a barrage going over and over and over. And that was just the first round of gunfire. About a few minutes later, we heard another round of gunfire, which is likely the gunfire of police engaging with the suspect. They say that the suspect, they went after him. That he then turned and tried to shoot at police after being in a confrontation with someone else that began all this and that police fired back. They say they found a .9 millimeter - a stolen .9 millimeter on him as well.

And then there was a third shooting, Brooke, along Canfield Drive. And you will recognize that name. That is the place where Michael Brown was shot and killed. The protesters very upset with this because police have said this was not protesters, these were criminals, trying to take advantage and use protesters as a smoke screen for some of the activity that they wanted to take part in.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Sara Sidner, thank you.

Police battled rocks and bottles and bullets as the night turned tense and protesters chanting, "we're ready for war."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: We're ready for what? We're ready for war! We're ready for what? We're ready for war! We're ready for what? We're ready for war! We're ready for what? We're ready for war! We're ready for what? We're ready for war! We're ready for what? We're ready for war!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The St. Louis County police chief expressing his frustration with the violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHIEF JON BELMAR, ST. LOUIS COUNTY POLICE: There is a small group of people out there that are intent on making sure that we don't have peace that prevails. We can't afford to have this kind of violence, not only on a night like this, but at any point in time if we're going to really move forward in the right direction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Jamilah Lemieux was there. She is the senior digital editor at "Ebony" magazine.

Jamilah, thank you so much for joining me.

I mean, obviously, I read your piece in "Ebony." You were there. You know, before we even get into really what you saw, I thought it was really poignant, you wrote that this was a painful reminder of the work that had only just begun. Do you feel like progress has been made since Michael Brown's death?

JAMILAH LEMIEUX, SENIOR DIGITAL EDITOR, "EBONY" MAGAZINE: I think the fact that we're having a national conversation about the way law enforcement acts in terms of African-American citizens is a sign of process. There's been a sea-change in how media reports officer- involved shootings. At one point in history, the police account of a shooting was the official account of the shooting and, quite frankly, the media took that to be law without interrogating police officers in the way that journalists should. That has completely changed since Michael Brown was shot.

[14:05:25] BALDWIN: I think it's not just the media. I think just, you know, people taking officers at their word. Sometimes, you know, reporting things absolutely accurately sometimes. Obviously, we have to sometimes go beyond the police report.

You were there last night. You spent about an hour and a half on West Florissant. I want you to tell me what you saw.

LEMIEUX: You know, I saw a lot of young people, mostly young people, out there who were very upset and who were very frustrated. We arrived sometime after the young man had been shot. People thought that he was dead. There was a lot of confusion and some rumors about his condition at that point and so people were very upset and hurt that allegedly the police had killed another young black man, who many of them believed to be unarmed - on the - the one-year anniversary of Mike Brown's death.

Many of the people who were out there a long time, protesters who have been doing this work for the past year, some of them were community members who came out for the first time. But the general sentiment was just a frustration. People wanted answers. And instead they felt that they were being met, once again, with a very militarized police force. There were various chemical agents being used. There were police officers carrying large rifles. It was a very tense and uncomfortable situation for all parties.

BALDWIN: at the same time, you know, there was looting that occurred. There was this criminal element. They were burglarizing some of these businesses that had, you know, been burglarized before. How frustrating is that for those protesters and - I mean I can't even imagine Michael Brown's family, knowing that here, one year later, this has happened on these very same streets. How frustrating is that from a peaceful protesting perspective?

LEMIEUX: Well, I would imagine that it's incredibly frustrating that a few small incidents of looting - and that's not to discount what looting means to a business owner or to a community member - but those incidents of looting are being used to define what happened last night and other news coverage around this story, as opposed to people saying, there was a large crowd gathered to have a conversation with the police, to stand up and say, hey, we have a problem with how you treat us and we want to be heard. So that the looters get to define the story when they make up maybe a handful of the people that were out there, it's exactly what we saw this time last year. So it's a very eerie and unfortunate reminder that we have very far to go, not just in terms of changing how law enforcement interacts with American citizens, but also how we cover these stories.

BALDWIN: Let me ask you about this new police chief. How do you think he's done? How seriously do you think he's taking these lessons that - not - really not only the Ferguson community but also communities nationwide have really, you know, learned or in the process of learning since what happened in 2014? How much faith, Jamilah, do you have in him?

LEMIEUX: You know, I think it's difficult to have faith in local law enforcement. I'm not a member of the St. Louis or Ferguson communities, so I don't want to speak for them. I think it's obvious that there have been some measures and steps taken to at least appear that there's an air of transparency, that people did not get last year when they waited hours to find out details on the shooting of Michael Brown and the name of the person responsible - or the person who shot him and that wasn't done. However, I think that the community is still feeling very frustrated and feeling that things have not changed enough. you know, have there been any more positive interactions -

BALDWIN: How much faith is there? Is there any faith moving forward?

LEMIEUX: I have not observed any faith. You know, I have not observed any faith and I have not observed reason to have faith at this point. And I think this will be a make or break point for this police department, yes, that's once again being thrust into the national spotlight.

This is a small area. You know, this is a small Midwestern suburb that doesn't have a huge population. They don't have the technology or the resources of a place like New York or Chicago. And, again, the entire world is watching Ferguson.

What they do now, this isn't a second chance. You know, this isn't an opportunity to get right what was done wrong last year. But it's an opportunity to say we're trying. And I think that's what the community is maybe willing to see at this point, are you trying? Last night did not feel like trying. BALDWIN: Jamilah Lemieux, thank you so much for being a voice for us

there on the ground in Ferguson. I really appreciate it. Senior digital editor at "Ebony" magazine. Thank you.

Next, Donald Trump, defiant over comments being called sexist and out of line. And moments ago we got word of a leaked memo giving him political advice ahead of that first debate. We'll share that with you. Also, his comments about one of the moderators, Megyn Kelly, just one of the many memorable moments from this campaign trail thus far. We've got a matchup for you. It includes every single one of these candidates. Don't miss this.

[14:09:56] I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And instead of delivering an apology, Donald Trump is demanding one from Fox's Megyn Kelly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She asked me very inappropriate questions. Yes, she should really be apologizing to me, if you want to know the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Well, this is just the latest wrinkle, the latest development in the latest controversy here that Donald Trump has found himself immersed in. But could this be the issue, the scandal to sink his run for the presidency. This whole thing started when Donald Trump claimed that Megyn Kelly gave him unfair questions at the first Republican debate in Cleveland last week. He then came on Don Lemon's show Friday and made a comment that many out there are saying is, you know, one of the most sexist, most offensive comments ever that referred to a woman's period. And Trump has been making up for it ever since, appearing on four talk shows Sunday morning, MSNBC today and an interview on Fox this evening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her - wherever.

[14:15:07] I was going to say nose and/or ears, because that's a very common statement.

I went to the Wharton School of Finance. I was an excellent student. I'm a smart person. I built a tremendous company. Who would make a statement like that? Only a sick person would - would even think about it.

Who would say such a thing? No, if I would have said that, it would have been inappropriate. The interesting thing is, I really said nothing because I stopped, because I wanted to get on to jobs or whatever the next subject was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: With me now, CNN political reporter Sara Murray.

And, Sara, before we get into that, first let me just get to the latest bit of news. Actually, this Instagram video, right, this jab at Jeb Bush. Tell me about that.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes. So it looks like Donald Trump is setting his sights on a different opponent today, turning on to Jeb Bush and slamming him for being a legacy candidate. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE H.W. BUSH, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Read my lips, no new taxes.

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere.

MEGYN KELLY, FOX NEWS: Would you have authorized the invasion?

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would have.

You know, my brother did this wrong or my dad did this wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: But, Brooke, I have to say, that's a pretty effective video going after one of his central problems with Jeb Bush's candidacy, the idea that the only reason he wants to be president is because so many people in his family have been president. I think the question is whether an attack like that can come to the forefront when Donald Trump is saying so many other controversial things that are drawing our attention to him.

BALDWIN: I do think it's interesting and I think our debate at the Reagan Library next month will be fascinating. I think the gloves will - will be off between these candidates.

But let's move on. Let's go back to this issue with Megyn Kelly and what Donald Trump said and what he, you know, says he meant. But despite that, people, the women, are live tweeting their periods and this is something I never thought I'd be talking about on TV, but, listen, this is what's making news. So let me just read for you, Sara, some of these tweets.

This tweet, "just finished ovulating. Should be bleeding soon." And another says, @realdonaldtrump, "on the third day of my period and still a functioning member of society. Who knew?" Obviously all essentially trying to make the point, listen, I may be menstruating, but I obviously still have a brain and can make decisions, et cetera.

So the real question, the nut of this whole thing is, could this be, Sara, the beginning of not just women but really that Republican base beginning to distance itself from Donald Trump?

MURRAY: Well, look, we've predicted the death of Donald Trump's campaign before and the reality is, he's been able to weather attacks than no other candidate in this field could have ever come out from unscathed. He's still at the top of the polls. We're certainly waiting to see more polling come out after the debate to see what's happening.

But I do think there is no way you can deny that there were some people who have been offended by his remarks. And not just the attacks against Megyn Kelly after the fact on our air, but just his tone and his tenner in the debate. A number of people have told me they didn't like the, you know, hearing about the misogynistic comments he's made about women in the past. They didn't like the way he treated Megyn Kelly in the debate. So that's how you already felt in the debate. And then to see him go a step further, I think that definitely could alienate some voters. I think the open question is, how many?

BALDWIN: Women are (ph) a large voting bloc, as you well know.

On MSNBC, we know that Donald Trump was asked about how he will help women in the workplace and help them with equal pay. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: As far as questions like that, Mika, I'm not going to do it on this show and I don't want to discuss it on the show. I want to discuss those questions at a debate and I'll save it for a debate. But all I can say is on women's issues and women's health issues, there will be nobody better than Donald Trump. But I'll be coming out with some policy on that, and I will be making it in the future, I just don't want to discuss it now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And it wasn't just that, Sara. You know, he was asked about, you know, the economy and substance around that and, again, he sort of pushed it off to the next debate and I'm just wondering, why do you think that is?

MURRAY: Well, I think there are a couple of things going on. One, the problem for Donald Trump is you can't complain about getting unfair questions and say you want to talk about policy and then when you get a policy question say you don't want to talk about policy.

BALDWIN: Exactly. Exactly.

MURRAY: That's a little bit difficult to defend. But the flip side of this is, look, his advisers are saying they have policy documents ready, policy statements that they're ready to release them, but I think it's very difficult to predict what Donald Trump wants to do next, even if you're someone working in his campaign. They keep saying, we need to let Trump be Trump. And I think that means he will release specifics on these policies whenever he feels like it, whenever he's ready.

I mean going into that debate, we were expecting to hear some policy specifics on immigration, for instance, and on trade. We clearly didn't get that. So if there's one big takeaway from this campaign, I think it's just impossible to predict.

BALDWIN: And now learning a little bit more with the leaked memo about what he was sort of told to go into were certain issues he could hit ahead of that first debate. We'll get into that next hour.

For now, Sara Murray, thank you very, very much.

[14:20:00] Next here on CNN, as the city of Ferguson, Missouri, marks a year since the death of Michael Brown, you know what now, growing questions in Texas after this unarmed college football player was shot and killed in this confrontation at this car lot with police. But as you're seeing here, there is surveillance video. Does that tell the full story of what happened?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: There are a lot of questions here in this fatal police shooting of an unarmed Texas teen. The FBI is now being asked to investigate following the death of Christian Taylor. This comes after this edited surveillance video shows Taylor wandering around this car dealership lot. He's seen, you know, walking on top of these cars, kicking out a car windshield. And then, you see here, driving a Jeep through the front window of the dealer showroom. That's all on surveillance.

[14:25:02] Police did eventually arrive on the scene. Officials say a confrontation happened between the officers and this young man. And one of the officers, Brad Miller, shot Taylor four times. The victim's father spoke up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADRIAN TAYLOR, FATHER OF TEEN SHOT BY POLICE: Shot an unarmed man and you train to take down - as a police officer, you're trained to take down men with your hands. You have your Tasers. You have your clubs. You know, whatever there is. An unarmed 19-year-old and you shoot to kill?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I want to begin with CNN's Ed Lavandera, who is there in Arlington, and then we'll talk to retired detective for the Nutley, New Jersey, Police Department, Steve Rogers.

But, Ed, to you first. I know you talked to the owner of this car dealership. What did this person tell you?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the owner of the dealership let us in just a little while ago to kind of see the scene inside the showroom area where the shooting took place. He wanted - he let us in because he says he's been kind of criticized on social media with the release of the surveillance video outside of the - outside of the - in the parking lot area. He says there are 32 surveillance cameras throughout the area but none of them are inside the showroom floor. We were in there. We did not see any surveillance cameras. He wants people to know that he's not hiding anything because this shooting did apparently take place outside of the range of the 32 cameras that are on that property, which captured Christian Taylor acting, as you described in the beginning there, erratically.

And so we were in that showroom area. And what is interesting, from what the owner told me, he said that outside in the parking lot area, there is actually a loud speaker system and that when Christian Taylor was on the property, he was warned through the speaker system, quote, "you're being monitored, please leave." And then as soon as he started jumping on top of the Ford Mustang and breaking out the window there, the person came back on the loud speaker and warned him again saying, quote, "police have been called." And you can - so those warnings were issued, according to the owner of the dealership there, through the loud speaker system and then those two officers arrived there at the scene and everything moved inside the showroom area where there were no cameras.

BALDWIN: OK, Ed, stay with me.

But, Steve, I just have to go straight to you. Obviously one question that no one has the answer to thus far is why this young man was walking all around on these cars and smashing in car windows, a. B, the question being, despite that, why did this police officer, an officer in training who was with a veteran officer, why did he use his gun, where the veteran officer apparently had pulled out the Taser? Can you explain the training situation to me?

STEVE ROGERS, RETIRED DETECTIVE, NUTLEY, NEW JERSEY, POLICE: Yes. Well, obviously, there was a total lack of training. Brooke, where was the officer's life threatened? Where was any member of the public threatened? And the problem we run into in cases like this, what if this individual was on drugs? What if he was intoxicated? What if he was mentally ill?

BALDWIN: Right.

ROGERS: You don't shoot people like that. There were other means and other ways to apprehend him. It's a total lack of training.

BALDWIN: OK, so total lack of training, point made. The question, though, is, if you are out and you're training - he's - I believe he's a 49-year-old - the 49-year-old officer in training. You have this veteran officer with you. If something happens, i.e. they, you know, are called to a scene because someone's acting erratically, is that training officer allowed to immediately function as a full-fledged officer? Was what he did - no, I'm not saying what he did was appropriate, but jumping into officer mode, is that even allowed?

ROGERS: Well, well - yes. I'm sure the officer who did the training was a supervisor, at least I would hope so, with many years of experience. But let me share this with you. Any officer, whether it be a patrolman or a supervisor, when he sees an officer in training draw his gun - and I'm not saying he shouldn't have drawn his gun. At times you don't know what's going to happen. But in a case like this, when you do not see a threat, every officer is incumbent on saying, "holster that weapon."

BALDWIN: Yes.

ROGERS: You know, we don't want to even to be discharged accidently. Now, if someone's life is in danger, that's a whole different scenario.

BALDWIN: Ed, can you tell me a little bit more about these two officers and also how police are responding to this?

LAVANDERA: Well, we do know that right now those officers at some point today will, if they haven't already been interviewed formally, they were given a couple of days to give their formal statements to investigators, to figure out whether or not this shooting was justified. We know that that will have taken place by the end of today.

What is interesting is that the police chief, over the weekend, said that they're really focusing in on the altercation. They say an altercation took place between Christian Taylor and the two officers. They couldn't describe if it was verbal or physical. But they say that that is a critical component of this investigation. Whatever happened in that, quote, "altercation," will be scrutinized intensely.

BALDWIN: All right, so let me follow up on that. You hear about that.

ROGERS: If - if - yes, if he had a weapon, that changes the whole case here. But if the altercation involved verbal or non-weapon, that's problematic. And I give credit to the police chief for coming out in front of this.

BALDWIN: Yes.

ROGERS: Good for him.

BALDWIN: OK. It sounds like we're going to get more on that.

[14:30:01] Ed Lavandera, thank you so much. And, Steve Rogers, as always, a pleasure. Thank you so much, sir.

ROGERS: You're welcome.

BALDWIN: Coming up next here on CNN, French tourist found dead in one of America's most beautiful, yet most dangerous national parks, especially at this time of the summer.