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Eyewitness Accounts of Michael Brown Shooting Recapped; Interview with Attorney for Brown Family; Email Sent to Family of Murdered Journalist by ISIS Released; Defense Secretary Issues Warning on ISIS; Interview with Rear Admiral John Kirby

Aired August 22, 2014 - 07:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Eyewitness Dorian Johnson was with Brown on that day.

DORIAN JOHNSON, WITNESS TO MICHAEL BROWN SHOOTING: He turned around with his hands up, beginning to tell the officer that he was unarmed and to tell him to stop shooting, but at that time the officer was firing several more shots into my friend.

HOWELL: But several key points are in dispute. Among the scenarios was Brown shot from behind? Was he the aggressor, or did he die with his hands up? At least two witnesses, Tiffany Mitchell, and Piaget Crenshaw, believe they know.

TIFFANY MITCHELL, WITNESS: As he runs the police get out of his vehicle and he follows behind him shooting.

PIAGET CRENSHAW, WITNESS: He turned around. He still didn't reach for anything. He put his hands into the air, being complaint, and he still got shot down like a dog.

HOWELL: Then there's Officer Darren Wilson's account retold by a friend only identified as Josie, saying it was Michael Brown who was the aggressor.

"JOSIE": So he stands up and yells "freeze." Michael and his friend turn around, and Michael starts taunting him, "Oh, what are you going to do about it, you know? You're not going to shoot me." And then all of a sudden he just started to bum rush him, he just started coming at him full speed.

HOWELL: An unknown man in his words captured by this video also seems to suggest that Brown was coming at the officer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The next thing I know I think he's missing -- started funning, kept coming toward police.

HOWELL: But yet another witness, Michael Brady, tells Chris Cuomo that wasn't the case.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Does the word charged fit what mike Brown was doing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Charged, no, like want to charge towards the officer?

CUOMO: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: So now what's next? We understand that the process to examine evidence has already started, the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney saying that he is targeted mid-October before the grand jury has examined all of the evidence in this case, so the process underway now. People in this community just have to wait for that process to happen. Chris?

CUOMO: You know, George, as we both know, that's how it is with grand juries. They only meet one day a week, which is why there was a lot of pressure on the prosecutor to just charge as a right of his own. He chose not to do that. He chose the grand jury. George, thank you very much. The reporting was great, as always. We'll be back to you.

Let's bring in one of the attorneys for Michael Brown Jr.'s family, Daryl Parks. Mr. Parks, thank you very much joining us this morning. Let's try and check some of the boxes on what people bring out sources of supposed controversy here. For instance, let's start with the autopsy, OK? Every time we hear about the autopsy, we heard about one from the family, we heard about one from the medical examiner. The shots are in the front, not from behind. Maybe a couple could be from behind, but maybe, maybe not. Oh, that disrupts the idea that he was shot at from behind. A point you've made to me that I would like you to make now is, you have to distinguish between being hit from behind and being shot at from behind, and maybe the officer just missed. What is the take on the analysis?

DARYL PARKS, ATTORNEY, MICHAEL BROWN'S FAMILY: Correct. The witnesses corroborate that some shots were fired at Michael as he ran away. The autopsy showed that there's a possibility that one of the shots may have come from behind, the shot to the right arm. Those are the only shots that possibly could have come from behind.

Then we have Michael turning around, surrendering to the officer, and not running away by surrendering to the officer. In the course of that he is shot several times in the front during that time. He at some point starts going down, and the officer continues to shoot him as the officer comes upon him. That's the account that I heard from the witnesses and the autopsy.

CUOMO: And the question then becomes why did the officer need to shoot him in that final moment when he was -- they were face-to-face, facing each other, though still at a distance. Now, Michael Brady gives a strong account of this and keeps telling a consistent story, he stands by it. The problem is with his account, as you know, he did not see the moment that Michael Brown Jr. stopped running away and wound up facing the officer. He did not see whether he had his hands up or whether he was rushing him. He only saw him once he had already been shot. What do you take of that hole in his story?

PARKS: Well, I think although he doesn't see when Michael first turns around, he does see the latter part of the altercation in terms of when Michael has been shot and when the officer delivers the last couple of shots. The important part from the autopsy, Chris, is that the examining doctors believed that the fatal shot that took Michael down is the shot to the apex of the head, because you cannot survive that shot. It automatically takes you down. And so that had to have been one of the last shots fired, thus taking him down. The importance of that though is the angle of that shot that went to the apex of his head. It goes from a back to forward position, and that makes it so critical because his head had to have been in a very, very down position, putting the officer over him for that bullet to go from back to front.

CUOMO: Michael Brady makes his testimony, his witness, makes that point. He says that he watched those shots and when the last shots were fired, while he couldn't tell where Michael Brown was being hit, he did see that he stopped immediately with the last hit, you know, which does go along with what you're suggesting, and the point that you make, I believe, you tell me, is that an officer doesn't have to account just for shooting, he has to account for each shot?

PARKS: Well, certainly. I think it's rather clear that certainly there's a situation that happened within the car, and then clearly at a certain point Mr. Michael Brown leaves the vehicle and starts running away. And I think that's a distinctful point here because the officer then has to get out of car. It means he has to open the door, get out of the car, put his foot on the ground, pull a gun up. He can't open a door with the gun out, so he gets out of the car, and then shoots in the direction as the kid is running away. I believe at that point alone that is a violation of his civil rights because that use of force for a person who is going away from you was not necessary.

CUOMO: Right. You made that -- when we first heard the reports about the -- what happened to his eye socket that have since been greatly rebuked as far as I can tell from our reporting, it does not seem like that happened. Maybe he got x-rays done, but there doesn't seem to be any reporting right now to support any extreme injury. You said it doesn't matter to you whether or not the officer was hit in the face, whether he has a broken orbital bone, doesn't matter to you in your analysis of whether or not this was a justified shooting because, why?

PARKS: It didn't take that level of force to apprehend this suspect. There was nothing that had happened there that the officer would have believed that he was in any type of fear that required him to use his firearm immediately for a person who is going away from him.

I want to also make a comment on what you said about the officer's injury. I knew all along, you know, part of our practice we do some matters that involve a lot of medical injuries, and when I saw the video of the officer standing outside and I watched his demeanor and I watched how he, you know, interacted with the other officer, it didn't appear to me that he was a person suffering in any type of way, shape, form, or fashion. You don't see him putting his hand up to his face as if he is in some pain. For the injury that they described, obviously there would have been tremendous pain that would have made anyone need to, you know, put the and there, to bandage it, you know. There would have been blood or, you know, he probably -- obviously something happened, but it wasn't to the level that many tried to describe it earlier this week.

CUOMO: Especially when you add in the point that Michael Brown then took off from the car, so even if he was a threat at that point, the threat, you're arguing, would have ended.

Let me ask you to speak to one other point before I go. Listening to the parents, they both say, hey, justice for us is this being done right. Let's everybody take their time. I know everybody is calling for more now, more now, an arrest now. Not us. Take the time. We want it done right.

Do you think the message that needs to come out from you and others who support the family is let's trust the process now? Let's trust the U.S. attorney general to oversee and make sure it's done right, so that you don't undermine confidence in what comes next?

PARKS: Well, you've got to be careful there. Remember, we have a system of government that gives both systems the right to investigate this case, and the federal aspect of it is rather limited in terms of enforcement of possible criminal laws. The state's component is the part that has the far wider latitude in terms of its charging capability. That's what makes the state's part of the case so, so important.

Let me give you an example, Chris. In a normal situation, a family who has suffered a death and a person has died, they normally receive some type of victim's advocate contact from the state attorney's office. That hasn't happened in this case. They are not treating this family as if they have been victimized. They are treating the officer as he's victim, and we have a big problem with that. This family has suffered the biggest loss any parents could ever have. They are the victims and deserve all the rights that a victim should have in this situation.

CUOMO: There is absolutely no question that Michael Brown's parents have suffered a loss, and they did nothing to deserve that, there is no question about that. Counsel, thank you very much for joining us. As always, we'll be speaking to you going forward, about that either.

PARKS: Thank you.

CUOMO: Thanks for joining us on NEW DAY. Kate, over to you.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Chris, thanks so much.

This morning we're also taking a look back at this story and giving a closer look at a disturbing e-mail from ISIS militants written just days before James Foley's murder. His family released the e-mail from his captors which also confirms that the terror group demanded a ransom of more than $130 million for his release. Atika Shubert is taking a much closer look at this. She's live from London with much more. It is an unbelievable e-mail, Atika.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is, and it's really horrifying to read it to be honest when we know what happened very shortly afterwards. I'm going to read you a quick excerpt of that email. It said "Today our swords with unsheathed towards you, government and citizens alike, and we will not stop until we quench our thirst for your blood. You do not spare our weak, elderly women, our children, so we will not spare yours. You and your citizens will pay the price of your bombing, the first of which being the blood of the American citizen James Foley. He will be executed as a direct result of transgressions towards us."

This is very similar language to what we actually heard on the video. And, of course, we know now that the man in that video, who appears to have carried out the killing is speaking in a British accent, and this is why investigators here are trying very hard to track down who this man, is match the audio and video recording there with their database here and see if they can find out among hundreds of jihadis they have been tracking if this man is one of them, if he can be identified.

BOLDUAN: You also wonder if that's possible, if they are able to do that, if they can also lead them to maybe where the other captives are being held. The process is obviously a very sensitive one. Atika, thank you so much for that. We're staying on this story. We're also taking a look at a lot of other headlines, right, Michaela?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Watching the situation in Ukraine and Russia along the border there, a little bit of an update, some breaking news this morning from Ukraine. A Russian convoy carrying humanitarian aid has crossed the border into eastern Ukraine. The trucks are making their way to a rebel-held city of Luhansk. An Ukrainian official says 90 more are now headed towards the border. However, the Red Cross is no longer accompanying the trucks as planned because of continued fighting in the area between Ukrainian forces and rebels. More than 30 trucks have been cleared by Russian and Ukrainian customs based on the assumption that the Red Cross was traveling with them.

In the Middle East, Israeli forces fired off another round of deadly air strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza, and this morning Hamas media reported the group executed 18 people suspected of being informants for Israel. Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insisting there is no alternative to Egypt's plan for a long-term truce. He is in Cairo for a new round of peace talks this weekend.

A government watchdog says the secret deal that freed army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban prisoners back in May was illegal. An investigation by the Government Accountability Office found the Pentagon broke the law, failing to give Congress the required 30 days notice, and spending more on the transfer than authorized.

Texas Governor Rick Perry will be arraigned today on felony charges that he abused his power, but instead of being in court Perry will be almost 2,000 miles away in New Hampshire testing the waters for a possible 2016 presidential run. He has a series of campaign-style visits scheduled in key nominating states. Perry was booked, even had his mug shot taken earlier this week. He says, however, he'll fight the charges with, quote, "every fiber of his being," a bit of a grin there for the cameras just for added effect.

BOLDUAN: That's quite a mug shot.

Coming up next on NEW DAY, we're going to back out to Chris who is in Ferguson for us, but, first, we'll also be talking about the U.S. issuing a new warning about ISIS. The Pentagon says the terror group is beyond anything this country has seen. What makes these terrorists so powerful? We're going to talk to the Pentagon spokesman about that and also what the U.S. is going to do about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY. A new warning from Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel about how serious the threat is from the -- from the terror group ISIS. He says the group is as sophisticated and well-funded as any the United States has seen. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHUCK HAGEL, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: This is beyond anything that we've seen, so we must prepare for everything. And the only way you do that is you take a cold, steely, hard look at it and -- and get ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: His comments come just days after ISIS savagely executed American James Foley and threatened the life of another American, Steven Sotloff.

Let's bring in and discuss all of this with Pentagon press secretary, Rear Admiral John Kirby. It's great to see you -- it's great to see you, Admiral. I want to get straight to it, because I'll tell you, a lot of -- a lot of people were surprised how strongly and forcefully the secretary and the joint chiefs chairman came out and spoke yesterday in that press briefing.

REAR ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: Right.

BOLDUAN: When you hear from the Secretary of Defense you need to take a cold, steely, hard look at it and get ready -- get ready for what?

KIRBY: Get ready for all the options that are available to the United States government, to international partners to deal with a growing threat like ISIL. These are not just people that are threatening the security of Baghdad or even just Iraq, but the region, and they have aspirations of attacking western targets as well. So they have global aspirations. And I think he was speaking to everybody, not just Americans, but people around the world, that this is a threat we need to take seriously.

BOLDUAN: You want to take it seriously -- and you say it is serious, and they even use the word imminent when they are talking about this as well. You heard from the Joint Chiefs Chairman, and this has stuck with a lot of folks and it requires us discussing it. He acknowledged that ISIS, while maybe can be contained for some period of time, ISIS cannot be defeated without addressing its elements in Syria. Is it seen as inevitable by the Pentagon that the U.S. will have to strike in Syria?

KIRBY: Well, Kate, we don't telegraph punches here in the Pentagon so I won't speculate about any future operations one way or the other.

But what I would point you to is the other thing that the Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dempsey said, is that the only way that these guys get defeated, really, is when their ideology gets rejected. And that can be done best through good governance, both in Syria and in Iraq, and that's why we've been pushing so hard on Iraq to form a unity government that's inclusive and responsive to all Iraqi citizens. And obviously we don't see that from the Assad regime in Syria.

But the real answer here, the long-term strategy, is to defeat their ideology by good governance and responsive politics.

BOLDUAN: But in facing a very near term and immediate threat from ISIS that we see -- I totally respect not telegraphing troop movements, if you will -- but when the secretary says they're looking at all options when pressed about strikes, what are the other options if a strike isn't one of them?

KIRBY: Well, look, I mean, again, he said all options are being considered, and I won't delve into the details of each one of those kinds of options. We're a planning organization here at Pentagon; we have to be ready for all that kind of stuff.

But what they also said it's going to take more than military action to deal with the threat that ISIL poses to the region and frankly to western targets. It's going to take diplomatic energy, political energy, economic, informational. It's not just going to be about the military.

And the president has been very clear about the mission that we're conducting inside Iraq right now. There's not going to be a military solution to the trouble and the threat that ISIL poses inside Iraq.

BOLDUAN: But this also seems like quite -- I don't even want to call it an admission, but an acknowledgment of the reality on the ground, when for a long time all we've heard -- and we've heard from the administration, they've stressed over and over again that this will be, especially in Iraq, a limited nature of this engagement, the limited nature of U.S. involvement over there, no troops on the ground.

But then you seem to have something that has changed for the Secretary of Defense to come out, and the Joint Chiefs Chairman to come out and acknowledge that you can't really take on ISIS unless you're going to be looking into Syria. What changed?

KIRBY: Nothing changed, Kate. We've always known that their sanctuary in Syria was a problem, their resourcing from Syria was a problem. We've always known this. We've been watching ISIL now for many, many months, and the fact that they sort of were able to sprout out of Syria was not a surprise to us. But Syria is a very complicated problem. And, again, the real root of the issue in Syria is the Assad regime. That's the problem. And both the Joint Chiefs Chairman and secretary said that very clearly yesterday as well.

BOLDUAN: Is there be a acknowledgment that we would be looking at a different situation today if the choice had been made to go in and harm -- and arm some of the vetted rebel groups? Would ISIS be as strong? Would their growth have been so fast if rebel groups would have been armed?

KIRBY: I'll tell you, it's not a good exercise to get into armchair quarterbacking and looking -- and doing hypotheticals about the past. All we can do here is consider the present environment that we're dealing with and the future threat that ISIL poses. And, again, we've got a very clear set of missions that we're accomplishing in Iraq, very discrete targets that we can go after and authorizations to do that, and that's what we're focused on right now

BOLDUAN: Admiral, I want to get your take on -- we're looking at the threat, obviously, the most immediate threat in that region. But of course Americans are wondering how immediate is threat to the homeland, to the U.S.

The governor of Texas, Rick Perry, he spoke about the threat to the United States by ISIS in talking about the border. Let me play you a little bit of what he said, and I want to get your take.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RICK PERRY (R), TEXAS: I think there's the obvious grave concern that because of the condition of the border from the standpoint of it not being secure and us not knowing who is penetrating across, that individuals from ISIS or other terrorist states could be -- and I think it's a very real possibility that they may have already used that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Is that a serious concern of the Pentagon?

KIRBY: Well, again, we have concerns about ISIL growth and their strength and their global aspirations.

BOLDUAN: Which is coming through the border with Mexico?

KIRBY: I've seen no indication that they are coming across the border with Mexico. We have no information that leads us to believe that.

That said, we do know they have aspirations to hit western targets and it's something, as Secretary Hagel said yesterday, that we've got to take seriously and we have to try to be ready for it.

BOLDUAN: Do we have any real accounting? What's the best estimate of how many people with American passports are sympathizing with ISIS and are real threats to the United States and are over there right now? KIRBY: I don't have that number. I don't know that we have a hard

and fast number. But you bring a really interesting point to light, Kate, and that is the growth of foreign fighters inside the ISIL. I know the British are now trying to investigate to see who this murderer was who killed Jim Foley because of his British accent. When we were in Australia just a week and a half ago, the Australians publicly and privately with Secretary Hagel raised this issue of concern over Australian citizens becoming radicalized and joining ISIL. It's a problem in many countries, and we face that problem here in America. It's just hard to get our hands around it.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Rear Admiral John Kirby, it's always great to have you. Thank you for your time again.

KIRBY: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up next on NEW DAY, where is Darren Wilson? He has not been seen in public since Michael Brown's death. His supporters have also been taking to the streets. We're going to be live in Ferguson with the very latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Welcome back to NEW DAY. Here's a look at your headlines.

Calm seems to be settling in in Ferguson, Missouri; much smaller protests overnight almost two weeks after police shot teenager Michael Brown. Seven people have been arrested overnight. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon now ordering the National Guard to withdraw from Ferguson as Michael Brown's parents prepare to lay him to rest on Monday.

Breaking this morning, Hamas media reports the terror group executed 18 Palestinians suspected of being Israeli informants. This comes a day after an Israeli air strike killed three Hamas leaders. And overnight Israeli forces launched another round of deadly air strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza.

The remains of 20 Malaysian victims from downed flight MH-17 finally arriving home this morning. Malaysian officials received the flag- draped coffins at a ceremony of Kuala Lumpur's airport. Today has been declared a national day of mourning in Malaysia. There were 43 Malaysian passengers aboard Flight 17 when it was shot down over eastern Ukraine in July.

The Obama administration is putting new limits on renewing prescriptions for the commonly used painkillers in an effort to curb widespread abuse. The DEA will reclassify hydrocodone combination drugs, things like Vicodin, putting them into a category reserved for medical substances with the highest potential for harm. People will be able to get a maximum 90-day supply before they need to get a new prescription. These new rules will take effect in 45 days.