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Texas Shooting Rampage; Ray Rice Reinstated

Aired November 28, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hour two. You're watching CNN.

Now we begin with just this deadly scene in Austin, Texas, under investigation. This gunman went on the shooting rampage targeting multiple government buildings in the Texas state capital here. CNN has learned that the suspect, who is still unidentified, opened fire on multiple targets, first a federal courthouse, local bank, the Mexican consulate and the Austin police headquarters, all four.

The gunman is now dead. But it is unclear if he shot himself or was killed by police. They are still investigating that. Here's what we do know. He fired off more than 100 rounds and may have been trying to use his car as a weapon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ART ACEVEDO, AUSTIN, TEXAS, POLICE CHIEF: We didn't find any explosive devices on the suspect or -- on him or in the suspect vehicle. Again, the officers first suspicions that we have these cylinders in the vehicle, well, that is exactly what it looks he was trying to do is use it as a weapon to try to burn down the Mexican Consulate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let me go to Victor Blackwell, who is live for me in Atlanta.

And, Victor, I know that I talked to the police chief in Austin just last hour. And he was saying that they did find I think it was propane tanks in both -- I think in the gunman's car. They searched the gunman's person. But what about the home. Are they searching the home?

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They have not cleared the home. But what we do know is that they are approaching this as a potential threat. He mentioned that -- scenes we have seen before, namely the Colorado shooting, that sometimes there are booby traps in these homes, that it's so planned out, that he said that they are approaching this as a potential threat.

But, Brooke, you got to think about this scene, 2:20 in the morning local time. It's a holiday. The bars have just closed and the police chief says that there were crowds who heard the shooting there and they feared, the call was to police, that this was some semiautomatic weapon because there were so many shots, more than 100 rounds.

And, as you mentioned, there's the bank, there's the Mexican Consulate, there's the federal building, also the police headquarters there, all damaged. And they are pretty close to one another. It all happened within a 10-minute span, but they don't know in which order this all happened.

They are trying to figure that out. But this ended when there was a sergeant who was securing horses. And this is a really amazing part of the story, at least for me, that he's holding the reins of two horses with one hand and then reached out with the other hand to fire a single shot at this suspect. He went down and, as you said, the medical examiner will have to determine if it was a self-inflicted gun wound or the officer's shot that killed him.

BALDWIN: As far as the gunman himself, I know that the police chief told me he does have a criminal history. I asked if he was -- they were aware of this individual. He said, no, he wasn't necessarily on the police radar. What more do we know about him?

BLACKWELL: We know that he was 50-year-old white male who lived in Austin, an Austin resident, as you said, with a criminal history. No details about that criminal history.

But an interesting element -- it was speculation when the chief said it, but he said that if you look at the targets here, you got the Mexican Consulate, you have got government buildings as well, that he pointed to some of the heated rhetoric about immigration and the political conversation that's happening in the country right now.

Sometimes, that can be too heated, in his opinion, and that he believes that that could have been the inspiration for what we're seeing. They are now searching as much as they can to find out what the true inspiration for this shooting rampage was.

BALDWIN: All right, Victor, thank you.

BLACKWELL: Sure.

BALDWIN: Victor Blackwell in Atlanta.

Protesters are trying to burn Black Friday into what they're calling Brown Friday to highlight the issues raised by the police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Demonstrations were planned all across the country today to urge people to stage an economic boycott against major retailers.

Just about an hour ago, a couple of protesters went inside the Macy's at Herald Square in New York City. Here's a photo from that filling the space. Police also entered the store, which was packed with your Black Friday shoppers.

So let's talk about this with Rosa Flores. She is live in New York for me walking along with some of these protesters.

Rosa, tell me what they are telling you. ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So let me paint the picture for

you really quickly.

There's hundreds of people marching the streets of New York right now. We started off at Macy's. Like you mentioned, a few of the protesters marched in there. And then we talked towards Times Square, and now we're walking back towards Macy's with the protesters.

I'm here with the organizer. His name is Dante Barry. And he can tell us a little more about the purpose.

I know that a lot of people are wondering why, why Black Friday? Explain it to us.

DANTE BARRY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MILLION HOODIES MOVEMENT FOR JUSTICE: Right.

So, we're -- I'm the executive director of Million Hoodies Movement for Justice. And we recognize that racial injustice cannot be fought only on its own, but we need to also recognize that there's economic injustice that's in play.

The conditions in which Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown and Renisha McBride were murdered also affect how corporations are bought into the prison industrial complex and support policing and surveillance and ultimately harm communities of color every single day.

FLORES: Now, I know that conversation is happening all over the country. A lot of people being a part of this movement. But we have also seen a lot of disruption.

BARRY: Right.

FLORES: We have seen burnt cars. We have seen people bolting into stores. Does that deviate from the overall message?

BARRY: So there is a difference between civil disobedience and overall unrest.

But what is the appropriate level of response for someone who hasn't -- for a community who hasn't received justice for someone who is shot and murdered in front of them for four hours? They have frustration and have rage? So, how do you -- how is there an appropriate level of response for that?

I think, when we look at it, there's righteous frustration and we have been -- folks have been trained in civil disobedience and nonviolence and de-escalation techniques. But, ultimately, I think when you look at some of the things that are happening in Ferguson, the tone has been set from the police since day one of throwing rubber bullets, tear gas. They have always been the aggressor in every way.

FLORES: I know this is not the first protest here in New York City. We were just talking moments ago about thousands of people coming out and supporting your effort.

We're talking about probably like 14,000. The response from the police here in New York City to this movement?

BARRY: Yes.

It's been very mild, surprisingly. And it's something that, I think we hope to see more confrontation going forward, but it's been very much more lockdown and very calm, in a sense of what we're hoping to expect.

FLORES: Is that what you're hoping for? You're hoping for calm?

BARRY: Confrontation.

FLORES: You are hoping for confrontation.

(CROSSTALK)

FLORES: What are you hoping for confrontation?

BARRY: Because, ultimately, confrontation is a way that we actually ultimately change the culture, right? This is about how we are altering the power dynamics of our communities with the police.

And right now there's a severe power dynamic of the police with the community, and we need to flip that.

FLORES: All right, Brooke, so there you have it. The organizer of one of these protests asking for more confrontation as a way of change -- Brooke, back to you.

BALDWIN: All right. Well, that's one way to look at it, I suppose.

Rosa Flores, thank you.

We do have some breaking news here. Stores in the Saint Louis Galleria Mall have been told to temporarily close their doors as Ferguson protesters stormed the mall. CNN is learning some stores have totally closed. Some others are choosing to remain open, but CNN is heading to the scene and when we hear more we will bring that to you.

On top of that, we're hearing the protesters have created a major delay in Oakland. There are currently no trains, zero trains going into or out of San Francisco as I speak. We will take you there, tell you what's up ahead.

And, next, I will speak live with the former fiancee of Sean Bell, who eight years ago this week was shot to death by police officers the night before his wedding. Those officers fired 50 times, were indicted, later acquitted. You will hear the story and the emotions, especially in the wake of what's happened in Ferguson, Missouri.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: There's no doubt the worst Thanksgiving ever for the family of Michael Brown happened just yesterday. A group called Ferguson Action tweeted out a photo of his father's Thanksgiving table. And you see it right there, an empty seat reserved for the unarmed teenager killed by a police officer back in August.

A shirt draped over the chair reads "Gone too soon."

Sadly, my next guest is among the few to know how exactly how painful it is to sit at a table just like this. Her fiance Sean Bell was celebrating at his bachelor party when he was shot and killed by police back in 2006. Bell and his friends leaving a nightclub had an altercation with some officers who were undercover at the time. And so they shot at Bell and his friends some 50 times.

But unlike Michael Brown's case, at least three of the officers were indicted for the death of Bell, who at the time was 23. But in 2008, a jury acquit all of them. In 2010, New York City settled the lawsuit giving, Sean Bell's estate and Joseph Guzman, Bell's friend, several million dollars each.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH GUZMAN, SHOT BY NEW YORK POLICE: I don't think a black or Hispanic (INAUDIBLE) means much in New York City. And it's a matter of time before this happens again, and the police will be the one doing the shooting, and they will get away with it again.

NICOLE PAULTRE, FIANCE KILLED BY POLICE: No amount of money can provide closure for losing Sean. There's no amount of money that can equal the pain that my family and my -- his family, Mr. and Mrs. Bell, have felt. So there's no amount of money. No, I don't think there will ever be closure. We will just learn how to live with it, and try to move forward and get justice in other ways.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You saw her there in 2010. Here she is now sitting next to me. Sean Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre, joins me.

Welcome.

PAULTRE: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Thanks for taking the time.

PAULTRE: Absolutely.

BALDWIN: Eight years ago this week, this happens. Also in the wake of Ferguson, in the wake of, I don't know if you're following the story out of Cleveland with this 12-year-old who was shot and killed -- given all of that, can you just describe some of the emotions you went through this week?

PAULTRE: Having to come up on the anniversary, although it was eight years ago -- and today I can say I'm so much stronger than I was eight years ago and I have been able to move forward.

However, when you turn on the news and see over and over looking in the mirror is what it feels like and knowing exactly how these families feel. It's a matter of time before the Justice Department has to come in and start making these connections on the federal level and do something and get reform for these families and for these victims.

BALDWIN: We will talk about some of the solutions, some of the fixes, some of which you tried, you tried a couple of years ago. But just looking back to eight years ago and today as far as the justice system is concerned, has anything changed?

PAULTRE: I think we all can see that not much has changed at all.

And just to be clear, eight years ago, when it did happen, there was no altercation with police officers. There was an altercation with a -- verbal altercation with another man, Sean and his group and another man who was standing outside the club. And then the party separated. There was no violent altercation.

The violence came when the police officer -- when the undercover detective came and fired his weapon at Sean and his friends who were trying to just get out of the scene not knowing that he was police officer. They broke several policies then.

Now we're looking in 2014 and we see Mike Brown, we see Eric Garner in Staten Island and the young man in Cleveland, 12 years old. People are tired of this, as well as I am. Just turning on the news and trying to watch news with my daughter and explaining to her that, no, not all police officers are bad, and, yes, a police officer did kill your father, but not everyone is bad.

And we have to live with this. It's very difficult.

BALDWIN: You tried to have the Bell Bill happen, which would have, correct me, but would have required, if you have an officer-involved shooting, instead of involving a district attorney, who has relationships with that local police department, have somebody independent, have somebody totally unbiased. And they're supposed to be unbiased, but have somebody called in to prosecute the case.

PAULTRE: It's a conflict of interests, in my opinion, for prosecutors to now have to try police officers who bring them their cases on a daily basis, now have to turn around and prosecute these officers. It's a complete conflict of interests.

BALDWIN: You didn't get anywhere with that?

PAULTRE: We didn't. And, you know, I want to say the prosecutors did their best, to you know, bring this case to try to bring justice for us, but we had a bench trial, which means there was no jury, only a judge, and it's too -- it's almost impossible to prove malice when it comes to police officers, because they are given the right to use their weapon when they feel a threat.

But over and over and over, we're seeing innocent people losing their lives. It's completely not fair. We're not asking for the death penalty, we're asking for accountability, not a civil suit, but accountability and for no one to be held above the law. BALDWIN: I'm wondering, and there's no comparing what happened with

Sean and what happened with Michael Brown, but I'm wondering. So, you had the grand jury situation, right, and the no indictment in Ferguson. So that family did not have to or did not get to sit through a trial and ultimately perhaps hear a not guilty.

You went through, as you point out, a bench trial and in the end these officers were acquitted. Which do you think is more painful?

PAULTRE: That family deserved at least a trial for the public to able to see it, that family to be able to see what happened that day.

But for there to be absolutely no indictment, this family, there will be little closure. Even as years go on, they won't receive that closure, but just to have those certain steps that are taken so that they are allowed to maybe finances to some things that they will never be able to live with.

I mean, a mom and dad had to bury their teenage son. None of us know exactly what happened. Even the prosecutor in Missouri, he said there was conflicting accounts from the witnesses. They didn't give -- they didn't allow the community, they didn't allow these families to sit down and be able to go through a trial and receive answers and ask questions.

And it's a terrible thing. It's a terrible thing. I just continue to pray for his family and just the nation because it has happened over and over after time after time again. And it's a matter of time before someone does something and not just, not just rallies and protests. We need accountability.

BALDWIN: Nicole Paultre, thank you so much. Eight years later, it's important to talk about it and have a national conversation. Thank you.

PAULTRE: Thank you for having me.

BALDWIN: Coming up, we are getting some breaking news here. Ray Rice, Ray Rice, the suspended NFL player who was seen punching his then fiancee inside of an elevator, has apparently won his appeal to be reinstated.

Rachel Nichols joins me with the news after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Got some breaking news, breaking news as it pertains to Ray Rice. Remember this story. It all started with this video. Suspended running back Ray Rice seen was hitting and then dragging his then fiancee in that elevator in Atlantic City.

His case put the spotlight on NFL's domestic violence policies, which led to sweeping changes to have a policy. The news here today, he just won his appeal and is now eligible to play immediately.

CNN's Rachel Nichols joins me now. Rachel, put this in more context for everyone and what more are you

hearing as far as this is concerning?

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

The big headline is that Ray Rice is now eligible to play with any NFL team that signs him. If a team wanted to sign him and put him right on the field, they certainly could. However, we're not expecting that to happen certainly any time soon.

And the thing to keep in mind too is, this appeals process wasn't a referendum on the severity of Ray Rice's actions. It was a referendum in the way NFL handled this case and Roger Goodell's action, frankly. Roger Goodell, you may remember, suspended Ray Rice for only two games after this incident first came to his desk. Then only after this video surfaced and we all saw it on TMZ's Web site, later that day, he suspended Ray Rice indefinitely, knocked him off the field for the rest of the season.

Now, Ray Rice's side and the union that represents him's side said, hey, you had no new information there. Yes, you saw a video, but like a lot of us at the time, what did you expect happened in that elevator? You knew what happened in that elevator. And even further, Ray Rice has said that he openly acknowledged during his initial hearing with Roger Goodell that he hit his wife.

So the appeal was basically to say, you can't just suspend me indefinitely because public opinion flows the other way and you're trying to cover your own bad decision. And apparently this appeals judge that was handed the appeal, she agrees, because she decided to overturn that indefinite suspension.

BALDWIN: She. let me ask you this. Through all of this, has he still been paid?

NICHOLS: He has not been paid. He was released by the Ravens. Anything that he goes from here forward would be a fresh start for him. He would sign a new contract.

And, look, there's a lot of questions about that, Brooke. There's, course, the visuals on this. Right? If you're a team that needs a running back, are you going to sign Ray Rice knowing the backlash against him, knowing how a lot of people in the public feel against him? So, there's the optics on it.

And then there's the football side because as much as the optics are an issue, we all know in the NFL winning is the most important thing. If a team thought that they could win with Ray Rice, they probably would take a chance on signing him. But there's questions about his performance as a running back.

He actually had his worst season as a running back last season, before all of this happened, and he's 27 years old. Running backs have a short shelf life in the NFL. The number 30, the age 30, that's where the decline really hits. So as he goes into being 28 years old, people are going to say, is it worth it for everything that I would have to take for signing him? Is he really going to be that good on the football field?

If he does end up signing with another team down the road, you would think it would be a team with a strong head coach, strong quarterback, strong locker room, where they -- quote -- "handle it." Richie Incognito, you remember him, Brooke, from the bullying scandal. He was getting a look from the Denver Broncos, because, hey, Peyton Manning is in that locker room. They didn't end up signing him.

So, you would have to wonder, is a team really going to sign Ray Rice?

BALDWIN: We will wait to see if and when that happens.

Rachel Nichols, thank you so much with the breaking news that Ray Rice now officially eligible to play ball immediately.

Rachel, thank you for calling in.

Coming up next, Bill Cosby's alma mater has cut ties with him now, as the number of women accusing Bill Cosby of sexual assault rises. Hear what the university has asked Bill Cosby to do.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)