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At This Hour

Officer Kills Armed Teen Near Ferguson; NYC Councilman -- Protests Should Pause; George H.W. Bush Hospitalized; ISIS Shoots Down Jordanian Fighter Plane; Bad Weather Delays Holiday Travel; Sony to Stream "The Interview" on YouTube

Aired December 24, 2014 - 11:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Another police shooting just two miles from Ferguson, Missouri. A teenager dead at a gas station, only this time, police say he was pointing a gun straight at an officer of the law. We are there with the latest.

It is a holiday travel mess around a good portion of the United States. But just how bad is it where you are? Stay with me. You're going to find out.

And George H., George Herbert Walker Bush hospitalized. We have the latest on the 41st president and patriarch of the Bush dynasty.

All of that coming ahead this hour.

Hi, everybody, I'm Ashleigh Banfield. John Berman and Michaela Pereira are off today. It's nice to have you with us on this Christmas Eve day.

@THISHOUR, we are learning more about yet another fatal shooting of a black teenager by a white police officer. This one is slightly different, though, and you might say maybe not so slightly.

It happened just before midnight local time in the St. Louis suburb of Berkeley. That's just two miles from Ferguson, Missouri. But the details, at least what we know of the details at this point, do not appear to mirror the case of Michael Brown, who was unarmed when he was shot and killed by a Ferguson officer back in August.

I want you to take a look at some of the surveillance video that CNN has. It was recorded last night outside of the gas station in Berkeley. You focus on the upper left-hand corner of your screen, just by that camera stamp, 29. You can see right there, an arm raised.

You can see an officer way over to the right inside that red circle. He backs away from the armed suspect. And then you can see the suspect stepping towards him, before pointing his gun.

Here is how the chief of police of St. Louis County described how this went down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF JOHN BELMAR, ST. LOUIS COUNTY: The individual produced a pistol with his arm straight out pointing at the officer from kind of across the hood of the police car.

At that point the officer produced his service weapon and fired what we think at this point is three shots.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Our George Howell is in Berkeley, Missouri, live @THISHOUR. George, what are we learning about the suspect and about this entire incident?

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Ashleigh, let's kind walk around this thing.

Let's start with the family of Antonio Martin. Obviously, this is a tragedy for them. They have lost a son on Christmas Eve. I spent some time with them and, look, they're saying this, "If he was wrong, he was wrong. If he was right, he was right." They just want to get as much information as possible and understand the facts.

Let's talk about the police officer. An officer who we can see in the surveillance video was on a routine business check doing his job that he's paid to do and basically in a position where he's confronted. He's face to face with a person pointing a gun at him.

The officer from what we can tell, that's when the shots fired -- the shots happened. That's where the video freezes, right after that happens. And, obviously, the police department is looking into exactly what played out there.

Now let's talk about Antonio Martin. From what we can understand when we look at that video, we see -- and it's kind of hard to see. It's up in the corner of the screen, but we've blown it up as best we can so we can show you. But you do see two people approach the car

Just a few minutes after that, that's where you can tell a person is pointing something at that police officer.

We heard just a few minutes ago, Ashleigh, from the mayor of Berkeley, and he basically described the same thing. He said 80 to 90 percent of his police officers are paid to do a job. They're paid to put their lives on the line. They're good police officers.

And he says in this case it seems that the officer was doing his job and was put in a position where he was basically confronted with a person pointing a weapon at him.

However, the mayor said his city, his police department, is not doing to jump to conclusions. He wanted to make that very clear.

I want you to take a listen to what he just said a few minutes ago in a new conference. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR THEODORE HOSKINS (D), BERKELEY, MISSOURI: We are a majority of black officers in our city. OK? The mayor is black. The city manager is black. The finance director is black. The police chief is black.

In a city that's 85 percent black, we have a majority police department. That's why I believe that we are different from the city of Ferguson.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: The mayor, there, of Berkeley making the point that this investigation, the whole situation, is different, the situation, he says, that played out here, Ashleigh, very different from what happened in Ferguson.

But, look, this is the epicenter of all the unrest that we've seen. It started here in Ferguson with the death of Michael Brown, so you can imagine people are very -- they want the facts. They want to understand what happened.

BANFIELD: George, I'm looking at about a half dozen people over your left shoulder, but the video from hours ago looked very intense. It seemed like it was only a couple hours after the shooting, and there were protesters on-site. It got ugly between the police and protesters.

But what about now? Since a lot more of the facts are filtering out, what's the mood there, and are there protesters still coming to that gas station now that they know there was a gun pulled on the officer?

HOWELL: And we do see a couple of people out in front of the store. It's cut off by police officers.

What we saw last night, yes, some 200 to 300 people to who showed up, and they basically wanted information. But it did get out of hand at times. We understand from police that three explosives were thrown. Fireworks, it seems, were thrown in different places. There was video captured of that.

We understand that four people were arrested for assaulting a police officer. One of the officers was injured trying to get out of the way.

All of this played out just after this happened, but now the mayor really described it best. He said, look, last night when he was here, he said, you know, it felt like I was in Ferguson. Now we understand more about what happened, and he says his department is going to look through all of the details very thoroughly to make a conclusion on all of this.

BANFIELD: George Howell, reporting live for us, thank you, in Berkeley, Missouri. We'll continue to update you on the situation there. George is going to be live there.

You heard him talk about the mayor in that live news conference in which he distanced that town from what happened in Ferguson. And a Missouri state senator named Maria Chappelle-Nadal who has been on this program has also been on the front lines of the protests decrying the killing of Michael Brown.

But she's saying something different today. She's calling for restraint for everyone this morning in response to what happened last night, that fatal police shooting in nearby Berkeley.

Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA CHAPPELLE-NADAL, MISSOURI STATE SENATOR (via telephone): Well, first of all, what we need to recognize is that tensions are high, but the facts are very important. Not every case is the same.

As we are looking across the United States, there are young men who are targeted. However, there are people responsible for their own actions.

In this situation you have a young man who had a gun pointed at an officer, and we need to recognize that as a fact. And the officer felt as though he need to protect himself.

So while tensions are high we need to be respectful of what the facts are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: So, within minutes of last night's shooting, you saw the protesters that flocked to the scene, including some who, according to the police, were throwing bricks at the officers. This was the scene, and it's anything but calm.

Apparently they also lobbed what appeared to be things bundled with fireworks within steps of a gas pump.

So there is Berkeley, Missouri.

And, hours earlier, this is New York. Peaceful protesters who spilled into the streets to demand an end to what they call police brutality, in the meantime, despite the mayor's request that demonstrators take a pause and wait for more protests until after the funerals of two officers who were brazenly gun downed, executed effectively, over the weekend

Joining me now is Jumaane Williams. He's a member of the New York City council. Councilor, thanks so much for coming in.

When we wanted to talk to you about what we saw last night on the streets of New York, we didn't expect what we were going to see late at night in Missouri, so I want to -- before I get to the New York story with you, I want to get to the Missouri story with you.

Characterize this as you see it, because we're seeing civic leaders coming out and telling a very different story than the ones we've heard before.

JUMAANE WILLIAMS, NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL: Well, I think we and most who people who are dealing with this conversation responsibly has always said we have to be careful about pretending that every police encounter is the same, and no one has ever said that.

And we have to be careful of not noticing pattern and practice of unarmed black and brown men getting shot and killed. And so we know police officers are out, most of them, to do a good job and do do a good job.

I think what you saw here was -- I know officers don't like the word "routine," so I won't use "routine," but I saw officers going to follow up on a call. It looks like a young man had a firearm and pointed it at them.

I think that's a much different thing than what most of us have been arguing about.

BANFIELD: yeah. I think I heard someone refer to this as -- with the circumstance in Berkeley last night, it's a game change. It's entirely different. It's entirely what we tell police they're supposed to do.

WILLIAMS: I don't know about a game changer because most of us know that these things happen. These are police encounters. These are real police actions that have to happen if your life is in danger.

So I don't know about a game changer. Most of us understand these things happen. What we have been talking about is something entirely different.

What I do want to say is that --

BANFIELD: But the protesters showed up anyway. I hear what you're saying. When I say game change, I mean for that incident. Because protesters showed up, violence ensued --

WILLIAMS: Protesters showed up because of frustrations of other things, pattern and practice, and the frustrations of those things not being dealt with appropriately.

BANFIELD: But are police going to get a fair shake every time they go to bring a gun out if there is a bad guy and there is a weapon? Are they going to face people lobbing stuff at them for effectively doing their jobs?

WILLIAMS: I think --

BANFIELD: Notwithstanding the bad apples.

WILLIAMS: I think if we have the conversation that we have to, that becomes more difficult.

I think if we have the conversation, acknowledge a problem, and actually move toward fixing it, then that becomes better. BANFIELD: Is the conversation you're talking about what we saw on the

streets of New York last night? Albeit peaceful protesters, a couple hundred of them, but at a time when the mayor said it wasn't right.

It didn't feel right. We've got two executed officers who aren't even in the ground yet.

WILLIAMS: So, Melissa Mark-Viverito, the speaker of the city council, also held a press conference and said similar things. I myself as a 38-year-old city council member who represents a diverse district also said we might want to wait for a day or two or three.

That doesn't mean -- and I also said the protesters are going to have to make their own decisions. That doesn't mean people who are angry are not going to stay angry and people are not going to try to push the conversation.

As we are mourning the deaths of those assassinated cops, which we should, we have to remember Emerald Garner brought a flower to the memorial site to say she too knows what it's like not to have a father during the Christmas holidays.

BANFIELD: She's, of course, Eric Garner's daughter.

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: -- who died in a chokehold.

BANFIELD: Tamir Rice, John Crawford, these families also are missing someone during the holiday season.

So we have to understand the humanity on both sides of this issue and make sure the conversation happens civilly, and the people who understand that we want -- we respect our police and honor them, we also want better policing and can have this conversation responsibly should be pushed to the forefront.

The people who want to be hyperbolic about it should be pushed to the edges because they're not going to be able to help us move forward.

BANFIELD: Jumaane Williams, it's great of you to be here. Thank you so much, especially on Christmas Eve. I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday.

WILLIAMS: Same to you.

BANFIELD: A peaceful holiday.

WILLIAMS: Thank you.

BANFIELD: I wish you the best. Thank you.

BANFIELD: Some other news that we're also following @ THIS HOUR, Christmas Eve for the Bush family, a little worrisome today, former president George H.W. taken to a Houston hospital after experiencing shortness of breath. His office says it was just a precautionary measure, and there are no health updates so far as of yet. We are making the calls, and we are waiting for an update

You'll remember the 90-year-old was hospitalized a couple of years ago with bronchitis, and these are images from a few weeks ago when he was being honored by his son George H. It was a wonderful moment. We actually covered that live here.

This morning, Jordan's army is confirming that one of its planes was brought down out of the sty and ISIS captured the pilot. This happened during a coalition-led mission over the ISIS stronghold in Syria's eastern city of Raqqa.

Social media accounts affiliated with the extremist group posted these pictures of militants with their hostage. After confirming the incident, Jordanian military officials released this statement. Quote, "Jordan holds the terror organization and those who support it responsible for the safety of the pilot and the preservation of his life."

Still ahead this hour, Sony thumbs its nose at Kim Jong-un and decides to go ahead and release the movie called "The Interview." It's in theaters. We're going to tell you exclusively where it's going to be and guess what? A little surprise this Christmas holiday, it's coming to the Internets, too.

So what will that mean? Will north Korea do something about this?

Next, though, take a look at the lines. Yuck, ick, ooh! A hundred million Americans traveling this Christmas and it's a sloppy track for a lot of people heading home for the holidays.

We're going to tell you if your loved ones are going to make it, or if you're one of the people watching me in the airport right now, I'm so sorry. We'll update you in a moment.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you see it? It went to the side. See it spinning? Wow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Yeah, wow is right. Those are the tornado sirens you never want to hear. That's because tornadoes ripped through two Missouri counties and actually killed four people and injured dozens of others. There were roofs that were just scattered about the ground, cars were flipped over all throughout this area, a day care was hit and, yes, there were kids there. Thankfully, no one was injured. Louisiana was smacked with the same storm system and that damaged more than a dozen homes there, knocking down dozens of power lines there, as well. What a bad time, as if there is ever a good time. But these storms are part of a system that's heading northward, as well, right now and that makes everything from driving to flying a real mess at a time when so many people need to do just that.

Our Rosa Flores has taken the assignment to LaGuardia Airport. She's standing in what looks like not a very busy place, but I'm wondering always when I go to an airport at this time of year, what those monitors say for the hundred million or so people who are traveling in some way. Bad news?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, let me tell you something, travelers, there was one thing they did not ask for for Christmas, and that is snow in Chicago and rain in the Southeast and in the Northeast. Why is that such a big deal? Well, that's where some of the airline hubs are so if the delays are there, they spread all over the country. Now, you can see over my shoulder these monitors. We see them at every airport and right now at some airports, they're lighting like Christmas trees and I don't mean in a good way. That means that there are delays and cancellations.

Here in LaGuardia right now, about ten canceled flights, not so bad. But let's take a look around the country and take a look at this misery map. I feel bad even saying the word misery on Christmas Eve. But take a look at those rings because those rings, and I don't mean Tiffany on Christmas, I mean misery rings are where these airports are the worst around the country. So you can see New York City, D.C., Atlanta, Chicago.

Of course, you heard me mention Chicago, possible snow. That's why that ring of misery has been getting wider and wider. All that means, folks, is that those people at that airport watching us at that airport are probably a little more miserable than other airports around the country because there are so many delays and cancellations there. But let me tell you something, as the day has progressed, Ashleigh, I've seen those rings of misery move further and further west, for obvious reasons. Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: Yeah, but then that's good news if you're a skier because that means there will be snow in the Rockies if your flight can land and if you can get your rental car through those snowy passes. Quick question for you, though, as I look -- ask your cameraman if he can widen out the shot just so I can see if there's a crowd. It just doesn't look very busy, and LaGuardia to me, on the day before Christmas, should be a very busy place on Christmas Eve. Is it not?

FLORES: You know, here's the trick about LaGuardia, so -- Ashleigh is asking me to widen out my shot, so I'll asking my photojournalist Jamie to widen out my shot here. Usually, you know, it's a little busier than this. You can see the gate behind me, people trickling in. But here's the trick at LaGuardia, Ashleigh, and you've probably experienced this a lot, a lot of the delays are on the tarmac. I know that I've left from LaGuardia many, many times and sometimes it takes me 30, 45 minutes on the tarmac before my airplane is actually able to leave. So I don't have that point of sight right now, so I'm not sure what that looks like, but that's where I would think that most of the people are stuck, possibly, on planes.

BANFIELD: You know what else I just saw over your shoulder, Rosa? Is something I see all the time at LaGuardia, it was a TSA agent smiling. Say Merry Christmas to them, because I know they're having a really tough time over these couple of days. Rosa Flores live for us at LaGuardia, thank you. Looking very festive, as well. I love the poinsettias at the airport.

FLORES: You're welcome.

BANFIELD: So ahead this hour, Sony announcing that the film "The Interview" is going to be seen. And get this? Not just in a couple theaters, in 200 to 300 theaters and counting all around these great United States and you just might be able to watch it online in the comfort of your living room, in your slippers. We're going to tell you what the plan is and, of course, we're going to also turn our eyes towards Kim Jong-un to find out how he and his alleged army of hackers just might respond to this release. That story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Ready on the set? This is take two from Sony. "The Interview," the movie, is going to be released after all and actually in theaters and actually on its premiere date, Christmas Day. And now sources are telling CNN that you just might also be able to rent it on your computer on YouTube. The movie company making an about-face on the controversial comedy, despite the threats of violence from cyber terrorists. Those big movie chains, though, they are not in as of yet. Instead, about 200 to 300 independent theaters have agreed to show the film, again, tomorrow, Christmas Day. Merry Christmas.

Our Senior Media Correspondent Brian Stelter joins me live. So you've been breaking bits and pieces of this news all morning long and this YouTube part is really new.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: It is. It's the largest video-sharing website in the world. Everybody knows YouTube, everybody can get to YouTube, it's owned by Google and Google is effectively supporting Sony here, even though they've battled in the past. They're supporting this film by tentatively agreeing to stream it and let you rent it. It won't be free. You'll have to rent it maybe for ten or 15 bucks beginning on Christmas Day.

BANFIELD: Can you rent movies now on YouTube?

STELTER: You can and most people don't know it. It's kind of an obscure feature of the site. I've never rented a movie there myself, but they've been trying it out and this is now a high-profile chance for them to do it.

BANFIELD: So I think at last count it was somewhere around 263 of these independent theaters.

STELTER: I've actually now heard 300. Sony is still trying to figure out the final number.

BANFIELD: So they just keep coming in? They're all asking?

STELTER: They do. I think it will probably top out around 320 or something like that. It won't be widespread. There will be lots of parts of the country where you can't see it. So that's what YouTube is for.

BANFIELD: So if I live in Nebraska or Seattle?

STELTER: It looks like 45 states. One of the few that we don't have a record for yet is Hawaii, so maybe President Obama on vacation won't be able to go to the movies and see it, but that's the point of YouTube and these other deals. Sony's own website is going to figure out a way to charge you to rent a movie, as well. And I think by the end of the day we'll hear about other partners, other big companies, that are basically coming to Sony's support here.

BANFIELD: So here's my guess, Air Force One, long flight to Hawaii, and maybe he got a screener or something. Sasha and Malia, mom and dad got to watch the movie on the way --

STELTER: By the way, I mean, now we're going to see if it's a good movie. It's gotten pretty bad reviews.

BANFIELD: But you know something, the fascination now, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if the movie is good or bad.

STELTER: You're right. It might be better if it's bad. Makes it more fun.

BANFIELD: Well comedy is, you know, some of the best comedies are awful. Listen, what about the notion that, you know, YouTube, yes, paid -- what about free? Is it going to be free anywhere? Is it going to be one of those pirated things? Is it going to make its way? Is it going to be viral?

STELTER: That's originally why people like me started to wonder if North Korea was behind this a month ago, because when that cyber attack happened in late November, five of Sony's upcoming films were leaked onto pirated websites but "The Interview" didn't. And it suggested that whoever the hackers were, they didn't want us to see "The Interview." They didn't want us to see this movie that North Korea so fiercely objects to. I'm sure it will leak at some point, I'm sure it will be pirated, but not initially.

BANFIELD: That's the other thing, because it looked as though when a lot of this began, the issues with North Korea and the complaints, they said nothing about "The Interview" and there was money. You know, when the hacks first came out and it was the salacious emails in Sony, etc., it was all about give me money and I won't release your dirty secrets, not you've made an offensive movie that besmirches our leader and we don't like it. That was never mentioned?

STELTER: That wasn't mentioned by the hackers, you're right. North Korea, months earlier, had condemned the movie and called it an act of war and warned there would be consequence, but you're right, the hackers initially didn't target the movie by name or call it out by name. It was only later, this month in December, when the hackers started to do that so I think we're right to be somewhat skeptical of these claims about North Korea, even though the U.S. government has been pretty clear that they believe that North Korea is behind it. There's reason to be skeptical and I think when it comes to hacking, it's very hard to trace the sources of these things sometimes.

BANFIELD: So there's two theaters in New York?

STELTER: Two in New York, both of them in the Village, that are going to start to show it tomorrow.

BANFIELD: So I talked to John Miller earlier, who happened to be in the building today -- He's with the NYPD -- and I said if there's a movie theater in New York City that's going to run this movie, are you going to have NYPD officers there? And he said, without question. And I'm only guessing that every other community around this country knows the significance of the movie, and that they're going to do something in order to A., make sure people are safe and B., make sure people feel safe.

STELTER: Feel safe. It's about feeling safe. And I think Google will have digital versions of those protections. They're going to have to be guarding themselves against potential hacks, as a result. Because they will be streaming it.

BANFIELD: And what about all those theaters? I mean, you're an independent guy and now you're at risk of a major hack, now the FBI is actually contacting them from what our Pamela Brown has found out from her sources.

STELTER: Right. I would think that the bigger threat, though, is for the YouTubes and other partners digitally because it will be a lot easier -- not a lot easier - be a lot wider spread to go after them than to go after individual movie theaters online.

BANFIELD: Still think it's a 14-year-old guy in a Guy Fawkes mask?

STELTER: I won't go there. I won't go there. But you know, someday, Ashleigh, there's going to be a movie made about this. I have no doubt about that.

BANFIELD: Yeah, they're already shopping that script around right now. Brian Stelter, happy holidays, Merry Christmas.

STELTER: You, too. Thanks.

BANFIELD: Thanks so much. Great work, by the way. On a Holiday getting all those leads.

After the last present is opened and Christmas dinner is done, you may just head out to see the movie "The Interview," but even though you may have decided to ignore the threats from the hackers, as we mentioned, the FBI is on this trail. They're reaching out to theaters who are planning to show the movie. And the question is, though, when it comes to North Korea -- if it's actually North Korea -- are we focusing on the right threat here? That country reportedly has enough weapons-grade plutonium to build nine nuclear weapons right now. That's just the beginning, because that could increase by another 70 nuclear weapons in just the next five years.

I want to bring in CNN National Security Analyst and former CIA operative Bob Baer. So that's the question. Here we are all concerned about potentially sending a police officer to a movie theater and watching out for hacking, and Kim Jong-un is really busy, and according to some of the best sources, the most difficult guy to spy on. Especially when it comes to nukes.