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CNN NEWSROOM

Charlotte North Carolina under State of Emergency. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired September 22, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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


[10:00:00]

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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We do begin with breaking news this morning out of Charlotte, North Carolina. This hour, city officials are expected to speak on overnight violence and the fear of more trouble tonight. That's what went down last night. Charlotte reeling from a second night of protests and violence and now, the city is under a state of emergency. National Guard troops rolling into town this morning after the governor mobilizes the soldiers and highway patrol to assist local law enforcement.

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COSTELLO: These protests triggered by Tuesday's fatal police shooting of an African-American man. It spiraled into chaos last night. Was Keith Lamont Scott holding a gun as police claims or was he merely reading a book as his family insists? The answer may rest in video recording of the altercation. Officials won't say when or if they will release that video to the public. The suspicions are feeding distrust and anger. Vandals shattered storefronts in downtown Charlotte last night, they clashed with police. Four officers winded up hurt. The media was assaulted as well. Watch as a man knocks down CNN's Ed Lavandera while he's live on television. OK, it popped up he's just fine this morning. But one man is fighting for his life. Witnesses say that man was shot by another civilian in the crowd. The city now, considering whether to implement a curfew to prevent new violence tonight. We are covering this developing story from every angle.

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COSTELLO: This as we wait to hear if the city of Charlotte will release any of those video recordings of that deadly shooting. CNN's Brian Todd is on hand for the city's news conference expected to happen in just about 18 minutes or so. Brian, who will be at that news conference?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, we'll hear from the Mayor Jennifer Roberts. We'll also hear from the Police Chief Kerr Putney. This is the city this morning, very much on edge. They are reeling from what happened in the last two nights and looking ahead with some anxiety to what may happen tonight. The mayor and the police chief hopefully will provide some crucial information about what happened last night. We'll talk about that first. Another night of very very bad violence on the streets of Charlotte not far from where we are right now, looting, a lot of push and pull with the police, arrests made. We'll have -- hopefully get some information soon about how many people were arrested last night. We also hope to hear about the condition of those four police officers who were injured and of the man who was shot last night.

Another piece of information that the mayor will put out hopefully soon here is whether she will institute a curfew tonight and that may affect the behavior of the police, of course, and the citizenry as we look ahead to who's going to show up on the streets tonight in Charlotte. You know, now with the injuries that occurred last night and overnight to the police officers, that makes 20 police officers who have been injured over the past two nights in Charlotte. A key question tonight does that change the behavior of the police on the street? Are they going to be more edgy, little less tolerant of people, will they be more quick to make arrests and pull people behind their lines as they were doing sporadically last night? Will they be firing tear gas and you know the stun grenades they were firing last night with more frequency. That is going to be something that we'll watch tonight as we learn more information about just what happened last night, the arrests and some of the injuries. Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, the community is especially eager for this videotape and whether the mayor will view that videotape later this morning, and then make the decision to show at least some of it to the public.

TODD: That's right. And that is something that is going to be a very critical break in this case Carol, because a lot of people here of course want to see that videotape. They are skeptical of the police claim that Keith Lamont Scott had a firearm on him when he emerged from that car and when he was shot. -- They simply don't believe the police account that he had a gun. And the release of that videotape is going to be very crucial. You know, we'll see how the police and the mayor handle that in a few minutes.

COSTELLO: All right. You stand by, Brian Todd. We are waiting the mayor and the police chief to come out in just about a half hour or so, possibly earlier. But when they come out, of course we will take you back to Charlotte and those podiums live.

As Charlotte braces for the possibility of more violence, many in the community are now dealing with the aftermath of last night's riots. Let's bring in CNN's Polo Sandoval - he's outside the Charlotte Police Department. So we have police officers injured. We have a man - who is clinging to life in the hospital, who was shot last night, and we have many businesses that were looted or their windows smashed in.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. At this point we do understand that a majority of those injuries, especially those police officers, they were simply treated at the scene.

[10:05:16] Those injuries relatively minor. Not compared to that civilian who was shot by a fellow civilian. We are told that he is still in critical condition. That does go to show that way, that the story is in the numbers when you begin to see some of the people who have been hurt, particularly that individual, that civilian. Things did get extremely violent last night and of course, the pictures also tell a -- bulk of the story and out here this morning. Carol, I can tell you there is a sense of normalcy that has been restored. There is that sense of peace but there are also some of the residual effects still at this hour of people who decided to stay home because their employer simply said stay home. That includes Bank of America that employs hundreds of people here in Charlotte. So again, what we do expect in the next 30 minutes or so is to hear from city officials as we hope to hear when and if the city mayor has seen that video that you mentioned a few moments ago that is critical to the investigation and also critical to the growing call for justice and accountability and transparency of this community. And also we expect to hear more about what could be done tonight to try to keep things from spiraling out of control as we saw the last two nights. Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Polo Sandoval reporting live from Charlotte this morning. Thank you so much. I want to bring in someone who witnessed last night's chaos, Rev. Jay Leach. He's the Senior Minister at Unitarian Universalist Church of Charlotte. He was at the protest last night. He was actually standing right next to that person, that man who was shot. He joins me now by phone. Welcome, sir and thank you for being with me this morning.

REV. JAY LEACH, SENIOR MINISTER AT UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH OF CHARLOTTE: Thank you.

COSTELLO: So how did this shooting go down last night?

LEACH: Well, I think it's important to know that this was in the context of what had been to that point of peaceful protest that included a lot of people of many different ages, including families with children who were out, had passed by, engaged with a lot of police without any incident. The police have a very difficult job and as clergy, and there were a lot of clergy on the streets, we have great appreciation for what they're trying to do. They formed a line of riot police in full riot gear and that really changed the tone of what was going on. The protesters began engaging with the police in a much more negative way. The police then broke their ranks and started walking up the street and of course, the crowd followed them as we would have expected. And we were very concerned the clergy were trying to stand between the protesters and the police, and the police for reasons, we still don't understand, opted to go into the entrance to a hotel garage, a very narrow space, a very large crowd with very high emotions on all parts. We never heard any words from the police, stand down, back up, don't follow us, we never heard any of that and we were standing right next to them. I said to my colleague this is not going to be a good scene, we need to get out of here, we are not safe, and we turned to walk away. As we did, I heard the gunshot and looked over to my right and the man fell to the sidewalk. He was immediately surrounded by 20 or so people and then a large crowd came running out of the entrance to the garage, there was smoke bombs, there was tear gas. I want to challenge the claim that this was a civilian shooting in part and we've met with city officials, clergy were meeting -- actually early this morning with city officials, and saying we need to be careful with that narrative. -- COSTELLO: Wait a minute, reverend. Reverend, let me back up because police are saying that a civilian shot this man. The bullet did not come from a police officer's gun. Are you disputing that?

LEACH: -- What we said to the mayor and the city council is whoever is claiming to know who shot this gentleman needs to produce evidence. The scene was completely chaotic. How anyone would know with absolute assurance where the shot came from, I don't know. I was right there and I couldn't tell you. The scene was completely chaotic. What the clergy have said is, if possible, we would love to see a ballistics test so that we could confirm the story that this doesn't come from a police firearm. --

COSTELLO: So, -- you are meeting with the mayor later today about this issue?

LEACH: This was early this morning.

COSTELLO: -- And what did the mayor say?

LEACH: I think they are still in the information gathering stage about the whole scenario. And we recognize they are hearing from many different voices and we just wanted to make sure that those of us who were on the streets, trying to be a peaceful presence were also heard from. And again, I am not suggesting

[10:10:16] at all, at all, I want to underscore. I'm not suggesting at all that this was a police shooting. I do not know and I was right there. What I am saying is the absolute assurance that people are saying this was civilian on civilian, my question is, how do you know that? By what measurement are you making that claim? --

COSTELLO: We may find out -- some information about that at this press conference that's due to happen just 20 minutes from now. -- One more question for you reverend because you know, they're trying to keep the peace later tonight, right? The National Guard has been called out. You say the police in riot gear kind of inflamed passions. Do you think it's a good idea to deploy the National Guard? Should police not be in riot gear? What are you suggesting?

LEACH: Well, I'm not a policing expert. It's not my area of expertise. We are trying to be out there as a peaceful presence. What I witnessed last night is once the police were in the riot gear, the whole tone of what was happening changed completely. That's what I witnessed. I know other cities have seen this, when the police show up in a highly militarized fashion and when the police send the narrative we're preparing for the very worst, it does stoke tension in a different way, there's no question about that. Does that mean they shouldn't do that? I'm not the one that can answer that question.

COSTELLO: All right. Reverend Jay leach, thanks for sharing your story, some really fascinating information in there. And you stay safe because I know you are going to be out again tonight putting yourself between the protesters and police. And we thank you for that. We are going to talk about the police response after a break. I'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:16]

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COSTELLO: All right. In just about 15 minutes, we expect the Charlotte mayor and the police chief to hold a news conference about what went down in Charlotte. We also expect them to say something about this videotape of the initial incident, that police shooting of an African-American man. Will that video be released? Maybe we will find out in ten, 12 minutes. Of course, when that starts, I'll take you back to the podium live.

All right, let's talk about the police response last night in Charlotte because we learned some interesting information before the break. I'm joined again by CNN law enforcement analyst Cedric Alexander and CNN senior law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director, Tom Fuentes.

So Tom, the -- Reverend Jay Leach, he was right in the middle of the protest last night, he was standing right -- he was standing very near to the man who got shot. He said once the police appeared in riot gear and started like throwing flash grenades into the crowd and using tear gas, the mood of the crowd changed. What do you think about that?

TOM FUENTES, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST AND FORMER FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: I think the problem, Carol, is that if you are the commander in a situation like that, you have your officers on the street. And they start to fear that they are going to be receiving bottles, cans and bricks and rocks thrown at them or worse, and you really have a responsibility to protect your people. They are not, you know, out there for target practice for the public to take shots at and be unprepared. So I think if I was a commander in that situation, and had the facts that they had, I'd be fearful for my officers and I would want them in some type of protective gear, and the excuse that oh, well, it upsets the crowd and makes them violent, you know, I would say that's unfortunate but you need to protect your officers. You don't need to sacrifice them on the street just to satisfy a mob.

COSTELLO: Cedric, do you agree?

CEDRIC ALEXANDER, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, I mean, let me frame it a little bit differently. Several nights ago, couple of nights ago when this all began, I think up to this point, Carol, we have had 16 police officers that have been injured. And they were injured with protective gear on. I think what's important here is that those officers went out there the last couple of nights, they have conducted themselves very professionally. They have been very temperate. They have been very measured. You have not heard complaints in terms of their action nor have you had negative footage as it relates to their actions. So I think that they have conducted themselves in a very professional manner in light of all the violence that they had to confront. And I think it's also important to note in all of this, is that when you have such a crowd who is angry, and angry based on things which none of us can control, and many of us understand where that anger come from, but it cannot be tolerated because you are going to have loss of life and property. So those officers did an outstanding job. They need to be protected. They should have on protective gear. And that gear is not -- is what creating -- that type of behavior that we have seen for the last couple of nights. Those are just folks who are out there trying to create and taking away from what real narrative is and unfortunately, that's what we began to focus on and we lose sight of what the whole first amendment opportunity that we all are privileged to have is about.

COSTELLO: So Tom, the other thing that Reverend Leach told me, he was standing very near to the man who got shot, a man who is in very critical condition in the hospital this morning. The police in Charlotte say that man was shot by another civilian, somebody on the street. The bullet did not come from a police gun. Reverend Leach says he wants to see proof because he said it was so chaotic, he fears that - again he wonders how the police know that.

FUENTES: Well, the police would know individually, obviously, whether they had a gun drawn or whether the guns were still in their holsters and presumably the leader of the police at that scene in the midst of the chaos would have a better understanding of whether his people were under control.

[10:20:16] Whether or not, you know, the officers drew weapons, because they feared for their lives and possibly shot a weapon in the chaos. So you know, the reverend could be right that in that chaos a police officer fired a weapon but the police officers at that time could not account for anyone that they knew of that fired a weapon and that's where that narrative would come as far as the police are concerned.

COSTELLO: I guess it just illustrates the distrust there is in the community toward the police, Cedric.

ALEXANDER: Yes, it is distrust, and oftentimes there's a lot of misinformation that is reported and it gets out into the community and it becomes something that has not been validated. I think we have to be very careful in terms of the statement that we just heard made by Reverend Leach, and because that needs to be cemented in some fact. But this whole idea of doing a ballistic test on over 300 police officers that are out there that night, assuming that one of them fired a round, I'm just not going to go along with that. Charlotte Police Department is a professional department and it's a department that has challenges. It's like many of us do across this country. But that's a stretch. If they need to investigate in that city, he did do the right thing by reporting it to the leadership, and the leadership would follow up on it, but I think we have to tread very cautiously here when we start hearing those kinds of statements that don't have any validity to it at this point.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Cedric Alexander, Tom Fuentes, thanks to both of you. Still to come in the "Newsroom," we are waiting comments this hour from Charlotte's mayor. But up next I'm joined by Michael Nutter, he is a former Mayor of Philadelphia, who has faced violence in his city head-on a few years back.

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COSTELLO: All right. At any moment now we are expecting the mayor and the police chief in Charlotte to hold a news conference to bring us up to date about the latest developments. And we also have breaking news concerning the Carolina Panthers, the NFL team there. The stadium is located very near where these protests went down last night and the night before. Now the Carolina Panthers are wondering if they should move the game that is scheduled for Sunday away from the Charlotte area. Carolina set to play the Minnesota Vikings. This is a statement from the Carolina Panthers' President, Danny Morrison, he says, "We are in contact with government officials, the Charlotte- Mecklenburg Police Department and the NFL. We are continuing to monitor events as we prepare for Sunday's home game."

So no decision yet but they are, of course, trying to decide whether they should hold the game in downtown Charlotte. All right, with me now is former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. He's dealt with these kinds of problems before in the City of Philadelphia. So I'm eager to get your perspective. First of all, let's start with this breaking news that the Carolina Panthers are actually thinking about moving the game.

MICHAEL NUTTER, (D) FORMER PHILADELPHIA MAYOR AND CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, you know, I'm certainly in no position to advise the NFL but obviously, these are the kinds of conversations that you have to have, primarily for public safety purposes, at the end of the day the NFL will figure out how to have a game. But what we are really talking about here is community unrest, legitimate concerns that people in the Charlotte community have with regard to their interaction, their relationship with their police department. And these issues play out all across the United States of America. The larger issues here of course are you know, do people have faith and trust in their police department, wherever they may live. And how do the police view people in the community. First and foremost, the overwhelming majority of our citizens I think in any city, you know, want to have good, honest, professional police officers as civilians. We depend on the police to do their job and certainly to protect us wherever we may live. And at the same time, certainly, the officers, overwhelming majority want to do a good job. They want to protect and serve. They want to know at the end of the day that they made their community safe, they saved someone's life, they provided some service but it is clear across America that there are challenges in relationships between the community and the police and that's where bringing together in any city the police community, the religious community, the business community, the political community, the civic community, the philanthropy community as well, --

COSTELLO: Right.

NUTTER: To really talk about, what's going on in our town? How do we build on any foundation of trust -- so that if something does happen, we can actually communicate with each other and not have further either, injury, loss of life, damage to property - you know the kind of things going on

COSTELLO: Well if it takes a long time to - rebuild trust, right? --

NUTTER: It does. - Yes it does but you have to start.

COSTELLO: So the Mayor of Charlotte is set to speak at any moment now. - So in your mind, what should the mayor say?

NUTTER: Well, again, I don't usually give mayor's advice on television. Mayor Roberts, you know, ran for office, she's in office and certainly knows what to do. In Philadelphia, in many instances where we faced some challenges, you have to bring people together.