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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Violence Erupts on Streets of Ferguson; Obama Urges Calm in Wake of Ferguson Ruling

Aired November 25, 2014 - 04:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm John Berman.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Deborah Feyerick, in for Christine Romans. It is now 31 minutes past the hour.

And we begin with breaking news: Ferguson, Missouri on fire this morning. This is a live look at an auto parts store completely engulfed in flames right now. Chaos breaking out in the wake of the grand jury decision not to indict Police Officer Darren Wilson on any of the five possible charges he was facing in connection with the shooting death of Michael Brown. Angry protesters set buildings and police cars on fire in downtown Ferguson.

BERMAN: Yes, there was gunfire, there was rock throwing, pure out looting throughout the night. You see here protesters breaking out store front windows and emptying the shelves -- all of the unrest continuing to unfold.

FEYERICK: Let's get right to Ferguson and bring in --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT MCCULLOCH, ST. LOUIS COUNTY PROSECUTOR: After review of the evidence, the grand jury deliberated over two days, making their final decision. They determined that no probable cause exists to file any charge against Officer Wilson and returned a no true bill on each of the five indictments.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: Let's get right to Ferguson and bring in Stephanie Elam.

And, Stephanie, you know, the prosecutor Bob McCulloch spent months looking at this. He had other prosecutors who were presenting the evidence to the grand jury. It's amazing how he said there was just not -- there simply wasn't credible testimony to indict the officer that looked at forensically and other witness testimony. It broke in favor of Officer Wilson. And clearly that anger was felt out there on the streets.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No doubt about it. I think a lot of people who were watching this case were hoping at the very least that Officer Wilson would get involuntary manslaughter. That would be the one count that perhaps he would get. There was a lot of anger out here overnight from people who were saying they could not believe he wasn't indicted on anything, and the sentiment being that the lives here do not matter. That's what they took away from this.

But leading up to the decision becoming public, there were a lot of clues that led people to believe he was not going to be indicted at all. Just the fact the information was all going to be released after we found out what the verdict was. There were clues leading up to that. And so, people started to think that.

But I have to tell you, too, Deb and John, the protesters I have been speaking to before we found out the verdict, they were saying they did not expect him to be indicted. And that no matter what, they were going to be out here and that they were going to protest. Their focus was on peacefully protesting. Obviously, that is not what happened overnight.

BERMAN: And there was so much focus on that, Stephanie, in the days leading up to this. Some of the leaders calling for peaceful protests, the parents of Michael Brown saying they wanted any protests to be peaceful. The governor made the preparations he made.

Yet, when the moment came and in the minutes and hours after, obviously, you know, that literally all went up in smoke.

And this morning, Stephanie, we are looking at live pictures of buildings still burning. It begs the question, and I'm not sure that there isn't an easy answer to this, is what happened? What went wrong in the minutes and hours after we learned what the grand jury decided?

ELAM: I think there may be a couple of things. I think for one thing, the community does not feel like they were being addressed. I do not think the black community feels they were being addressed or their side of this was being heard. Now, granted, there's the testimony and all of the witness statements, all of that that we have not totally heard and digested yet.

But it's that feeling that has been simmering there. It's been simmering -- it was simmering before August. Mike Brown's death on August 9th brought it to the forefront. It has been simmering closer to the surface now for all these months. And it's still very, very raw for all these people that this relationship between law enforcement -- and, you know, we can go further than that.

A lot of people mentioning Trayvon Martin here as well, and that an unarmed young black man, young black man, the teenager, could be shot dead and that it seems to be OK by the eyes of the law. That is what the anger is spewing from out here.

FEYERICK: You know, Stephanie, the interesting thing about this, there were so much effort before this grand jury announcement to make sure the community responded properly, calmly. Use your voices, not your anger, not weapons. And yet, when this came down, all of that leg work and good work amounted to very little because you have these protesters setting these businesses ablaze and the trooper basically said, you know, we talk about not having jobs and then we do this.

So, why did those efforts fail?

ELAM: It's so easy to sit back and to quarterback hours after this has happened. It's not right. What happened here was devastating. It was -- what one person said to me, embarrassing. It was disappointing. And it's easy to say beforehand, please, be calm, be calm, be calm.

When you get that many people together on a street, it's a different situation. And there's that much disappointment. As you can feel there was out here.

The other part about it, too, you have a different ebb and flow of people out here, right? You have people out here genuinely to demonstrate and to protest and there was a group of people who just were out here to agitate. I mean, I was standing here as one young man literally kicked in the front store of a wireless store. I watched him do it. And about 20 or 30 people ran behind him.

And some women came in and said, why do guys doing? This is where we live. Why would you do this here? Get out of here. Like why would you do this to where we are?

So, you did see the community trying to come in and police it. At the same time, how does looting forward the cause? I think people who were really focused on protesting and demonstrating and looking for change are feeling a setback today because of what happened over the last few hours.

BERMAN: Stephanie, do you get the sense this will continue into the morning and perhaps again tonight, or do you think that the protesters, particularly the ones who are intent on violence, have done what they wanted to do and said what they wanted to say and perhaps law and order might prevail?

ELAM: Right now, it's calm. It's quiet. It is also really cold here. So, that doesn't exactly entice people to come out into the streets.

But police have cleared through the streets and streets look like they are open again where I'm standing. They cleared out the streets where I was standing before where the beauty shop, beauty supply store was burned out, and a couple of other buildings were burning there as well, after some violence there and some -- breaking in a couple of store fronts there.

Right now, it's quiet. But what will happen tonight is a new question. If August is any teacher, we know in August, they still were back out here a couple of nights after that for a couple of weeks, it was dicey. We will be waiting and see and we'll be watching. For right now, it is calm here.

FEYERICK: You know, it is interesting because the police chief of St. Louis basically said that the violence and what happened last night was worse than anything he had seen happen in August. But a question in terms of where was the fire department? Because we do see a lot of these buildings burning.

Do they just not have enough people to respond? Did they also feel that they were in jeopardy? Why were these businesses left to burn out of control?

ELAM: Right. The beauty shop in particular, we were close to seeing smoke come out of the top of it and we were watching it. Eventually the fire trucks did show up. They started working on it. They were cutting through a wall. They were really working on it.

And we heard them start yelling at each other and all the fire trucks left. That was right after there was a little barrage of gunfire. It sounded like hand gun going off, but it wasn't far from where we were standing. We were standing across the street from the building that was burning. And I'd say that's probably about 300, 400 yards away, we started hearing this gunfire.

FEYERICK: Interesting.

ELAM: When we heard the gunfire, that's when we saw the fire trucks flee. And that's when this building, no help or support, the building just burned down. We watched it burned down while we were standing out there on West Florissant. And then two other buildings were burning further down, they couldn't get to it because that is where police were interfacing with the rest of the agitators that were still out there.

So, it was just an unfortunate situation because these buildings -- it wouldn't make it better if they're big box stores, but these are family-owned, they're privately-owned businesses, right? The backbone of the United States, these privately owned businesses were the ones that were being burned downed. And it's really hard to see how that makes anything better or how that helps anyone.

BERMAN: Those people have to clean them up or head back this morning, the buildings simply are not there.

Stephanie Elam, thank you so much for being on the ground for us this morning. We appreciate your work.

FEYERICK: And shortly after the grand jury ruling was made public, St. Louis County prosecutors released photograph evidence from the case. They show Officer Wilson's cruiser surrounded by police tape with spent bullet casings littered around. Wilson fired a total of 12 shots at Brown. That's 12 out of 13 that were in his clip.

Also released by the D.A., new pictures of Officer Wilson's injuries which he claims came from several punches thrown by Michael Brown. He said during the struggle, he was the one who's in the defensive position and you can see the light bruising to the cheeks on each side of his face.

BERMAN: So many legal still remain. We're learning for the first time this morning exactly what Officer Darren Wilson told the grand jury in his extremely unusual testimony by the way in front of a grand jury. He spoke about confrontation with Michael Brown that led to the fatal shooting. Transcripts revealed that Wilson says he feared for his life as the situation escalated.

The officer testified that he fired at Brown, the teenager kept coming at him. Officer Wilson said, quote, "At this point, I start backpedaling and again I tell him, 'Get on the ground, get on the ground.' He doesn't. I shoot another round. Again, I don't recall how many hit him every time. I know at least once because he flinched again. At this point, it looked like he was almost bulking up to run through the shots like it was making him mad that I am shooting at him."

Wilson also told the grand jury that he never fired his gun on duty before shooting Michael Brown.

FEYERICK: And our breaking Ferguson coverage continues. There will be a lot more and lots more live pictures from the scene.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON BELMAR, ST. LOUIS COUNTY POLICE CHIEF: I'm disappointed in this evening. I really don't have any hesitation in telling you that I didn't see a lot of peaceful protests out there tonight. And I'm disappointed about that. I'm not saying there were not folks out there for the right reason. I'm not saying that wasn't the case. But I am saying that, unfortunately, this spun out of control.

And frankly, what I am seeing tonight and I have been here all evening right in the middle of it, along with Captain Johnson, what I have seen tonight is probably much worse than the worst night we ever had in August.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: And that was St. Louis County police chief, Jon Belmar, after chaos erupted. He said 150 shots were fired, many of them at police officers. It all started after a grand jury decided not to indict Officer Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown. Protesters setting buildings and police cars on fire, any burning to the ground.

Right now an auto parts store still on fire in nearby Dellwood. Looting stores like Verizon Wireless and throwing rocks and bottles were also carried out by protesters.

We are learning more about Officer Wilson's testimony to the grand jury. He claims Michael Brown charged him and kept coming at him running through the shots, he says, as the officer fired several times. He also testified that before the shooting, the unarmed teenager punched him in the face repeatedly. He feared another blow could be fatal.

Stay with CNN for continuing coverage of the unrest in Ferguson.

BERMAN: The grand jury decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson touched off a protest outside the White House. About 300 demonstrators closed down U Street as they marched toward Pennsylvania Avenue. Inside, the president was addressing the nation from the briefing room calling for calm in Ferguson and around the country.

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These are real issues and we have to lift them up and not deny them or not try to tamp them down. We have to understand them and figure out how to make progress, and that can be done.

That won't be done by throwing bottles. That won't be done by smashing car windows. That won't be done by using this is an excuse to vandalize property and certainly won't be done by hurting anybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The president went on to say the shooting of Michael Brown is not just a Ferguson issue, but an American issue. There are still problems in communities of color that do need to be addressed.

FEYERICK: More breaking news coverage of the unrest in Ferguson straight ahead.

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BERMAN: I want to show you live pictures from Ferguson, Missouri, this morning. Actually, this is Dellwood, the town next door. You see firefighters still battling the blazes there.

Law enforcement said there were 12 buildings set on fire. We have seen estimates well north of that, maybe 20, 25 buildings damaged by fire. And you see again the efforts to tamp down these fires still going.

Demonstrators set these buildings on fire, also police cars, following the grand jury decision to clear Police Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown.

CNN cameras captured protesters breaking store front windows. You see it right there, and again, going in and clearing out the shelves, looting, as police in riot gear lobbed smoke bombs and tear gas at them and other instances to keep them from advancing on the precinct house.

Prosecutors released evidence from the grand jury proceedings, including Officer Wilson's testimony, very unusual that an officer would testify in this situation. He says he hoped just to arrest Brown, but he claims the teenager punched him twice and charged him. Insisting that Brown kept on, this is a quote from Darren Wilson, "running through the shots" as he kept on firing. FEYERICK: And the streets of Ferguson turned dangerous very quickly

once the grand jury decision was announced. CNN correspondents were on the ground. They got caught up in the demonstrations and chaos.

Take a look for our tense moments for our Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The police officers are taking her.

Tear gas.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Tear gas.

CUOMO: There's tear gas dropped right near us. It's going to get very bad here if we don't have masks. They are throwing it back. There are a lot of bean bags being shown and tear gas.

We'll go to Susan Hendricks right now so we can clear the scene.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: And Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon found themselves engulfed in that tear gas when police began lobbing the canisters in their direction where a lot of protesters were gathered. At first, officers said they did not use tear gas, claiming that they were smoke bombs, but they quickly backed off these claims.

BERMAN: All right. Stay with CNN. We're going to continue our breaking coverage of the chaos in and around Ferguson. We're also going to look at other protests that have been bubbling up around the country. Stay with us.

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FEYERICK: Breaking overnight: looting and chaos on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri. Demonstrators torching buildings and police cars following a grand jury's decision not to indict Police Officer Darren Wilson on any of the five possible charges he was facing in the shooting death of Michael Brown.

CNN cameras captured protesters breaking a store front, using what appear to be bats and clearing out shelves. Police in riot gear lobbed smoke bombs and tear gas to disperse them, keep from advancing to the precinct station house.

Prosecutors also releasing evidence from the grand jury proceedings. They include Officer Wilson's testimony. He says he wanted to just arrest Michael Brown, told him even to back away and get on the ground. He said the teenager kept coming at him and punching him repeatedly in the face, charging him at him when he finally got out of the car and insisting that Brown kept, quote, "running through the shots as the officer kept on firing."

BERMAN: Protesters angry over the grand jury decision in Ferguson. They were in New York Times Square last night. You heard calling for justice for Michael Brown.

Demonstrators even sprayed fake blood on New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton. We are told one person was arrested in these demonstrations.

FEYERICK: And in Oakland, California, police have now cleared protesters from a highway and reopened a lane of traffic. Earlier demonstrators stopped traffic for 30 minutes by blocking the westbound lanes of interstate 580. Officers stopped vehicles moving on both directions on the free way for the protesters' safety. Patrol cars and motorcycles lined up on the highway to basically contain the protesters.

BERMAN: In Chicago, hundreds marched from Chicago police headquarters towards the loop as soon as word of the Ferguson grand jury decision got out. Police briefly closed some streets as they followed the moving demonstration. But on 11:00, they blocked from moving further. Protest leaders then encouraged demonstrators to reconvene this morning.

FEYERICK: And EARLY START continues right now.