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Confirmed Tornado North of Dallas; Police Officers Killed in Mississippi; FBI's Challenge Tracking Extremists in America; 9 Georgia Cops Fired After Student Dies in Jail; Prince Hosts Rally 4 Peace Concert in Baltimore. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired May 10, 2015 - 17:00   ET

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


[17:00:02] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: 5:00 this Sunday evening, you're in the CNN Newsroom, I'm Poppy Harlow joining you in New York. And we begin with breaking news.

Reports of a tornado north of Dallas right now, near the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. Here's some live aerial pictures and what you're seeing on the ground from Grayson County, Texas, where one of those tornadoes has hit, has touched down. You can see some flooding in the neighborhood there. This comes just a day after more than 40 tornadoes, 40 tornadoes, were spotted in the southern and central plains, destroying homes, snapping trees and ripping down power lines.

Today, 35 million people are bracing for more severe storms as they struggle to clean up the damage from yesterday.

Let's go straight to our Jennifer Gray. She is on the ground in Cisco, Texas, where that tornado, Jennifer, touched down yesterday during this program, killing one person. How are things looking where you are now?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, these are OK right now. Most of the storms that we're seeing are off to our south and our east. You can see the skies just over my shoulder, a little ominous out there. We are seeing some cumulus clouds building out to the west though, so we'll have to see if some of that can develop. We could get more storms here this afternoon.

I do want to quickly mention, though, we still have some tornado warnings, tornadoes in progress around the Sherman area. This is north of the Dallas metroplex, it is traveling to the northeast at about 40 miles per hour. Spotters have seen the tornado and so we want you to take cover if you are in that area.

We also have a new tornado warning, this is in the Hamilton area, south of Dallas. This is just to the west of Waco. So take cover if you are in these areas. These are very dangerous storms.

And, Poppy, we've seen over the past couple of days this multiday severe weather event and it has left a lot of communities just picking up the pieces. You can see behind me, these trees just snapped in half, of course this is south of Cisco. The tornado that hit yesterday, we just got preliminary reports that it was an EF-3 tornado, about three-quarters of a mile wide with a path of destruction about seven miles in length.

And we're up in a little higher elevation, and you can see just beyond that curve. We are looking at more trees snapped in half, there's a cemetery over there, a lot of the stones have been turned over and we're also been told from people in the community that there are three homes that were a total loss. We can't get to them because there are trees and power lines on the road, and so we can't get to those.

We don't have access, but we have told that those homes are completely destroyed. One person, unfortunately, died in the storms yesterday. Three others injured. One of those in critical condition last we heard. And so these are very dangerous storms. So any time you hear of a tornado warning in your area, take it seriously because these storms can be deadly and we've seen these over the past couple of days.

We have that threat today and we have a risk tomorrow as well. So just be aware, keep focused and in tune with what weather is going on and your meteorologists will help keep you safe.

HARLOW: All right, Jennifer Gray, thanks so much, for us live in Cisco, Texas, where that tornado hit down, again more than 40 spotted yesterday, more today as well. Appreciate it.

Want to take you to Mississippi now where a community there is reeling with shock and sadness after two of their police officers were shot and killed last night on patrol.

These are the two officers, Liquori Tate on the left, Benjamin Deen on the right. This happened during a traffic stop last night in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. They were gunned down brutally, the shooters stealing and then ditching their police car.

Liquori Tate was just 24 years old. He had just graduated from the police academy, was incredibly excited to be serving his community. His partner, Benjamin Deen, was 34 years old, he was married and he was a father of two children. Deen was also named Officer of the Year back in 2012.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Curtis, did you do it?

CURTIS BANKS, SUSPECT: No, sir. No sir, I didn't do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: That is one of the suspects, two suspects there are brothers, Curtis and Marvin Banks. They are in custody. They are charged with capital murder. Two other people were also arrested in connection with this crime. This is the first time in 30 years that any officer has been killed in the line of duty in Hattiesburg.

On the phone with me right now, Officer Liquori Tate's father, Ronald Tate.

Thank you for being with me, sir.

RONALD TATE, OFFICER LIQUOR TATE'S FATHER: Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

HARLOW: I am deeply, deeply sorry for your loss. What can you tell me about your son?

TATE: Well, first thing I'd like to say about my son was I would expect, I would hope that the world would just understand that this was not a police officer first for me. This was my son. This was my baby. You know, Officer Tate and Police Officer Tate, Patrolman Tate, that all came secondary. This is my baby.

[17:05:18] HARLOW: I know.

TATE: This is my baby. And that's all I see, my baby. This is my baby who won't hurt a fly. He was just wonderful. And he was doing what he wanted to do and he was happy. I talked to him every week. He texted me every day, what's up, dad, and let me know he was doing all right. But I just want people to understand that take the blue suit off of my baby, because this was my baby, who I was willing to allow to go into this type of work, dangerous, a guy who understood and loved everybody, peaceful, passive. Understanding. Wouldn't hurt anybody.

HARLOW: What is it about him --

TATE: And --

HARLOW: What is it about him, Ronald, that wanted to serve so much? I mean, he was so young. He had just graduated from the police academy 11 months ago. What is it about him that wanted to give back to his community?

TATE: Well, ever since he was small, he loved police cars and the lights and the flashing lights and, you know, and they stopped with the push cars and the cars that would go by themselves and they put motors in them, and so I got in those types car that he could ride and he was fascinated. But now he went to Southwest Mississippi Community College and he got a -- he graduated after two years with a certificate in automotive. So he was manager at O'Reilly's Auto Parts as a young man, 19 or 20, and he went to Auto Zone as manager.

So -- and then he says, dad, you know what, I want to be a police officer. And he had this enthusiasm and this fire in his soul. And I knew he meant that after paying all this money for automotive, I said this guy wants to be a police.

HARLOW: Yes. I know that you also have a daughter, his sister. And you have said that she is absolutely devastated. And that he was really a protector to her, that he looked out for his sister.

TATE: Oh, yes. Yesterday evening, before this all happened, me and her, she and I, was on the phone and this is exactly was her exact words, dad, you know, he's my protector. He is my protection. We talked about him for about an hour because she was on her way to her mom's house for Labor Day. I mean, for moms, Mother's Day, and he wasn't able to go because he had to work. And we just talked about him.

And they -- they 11 months apart, so it was almost growing up as twins. They -- they were always able to play with themselves without other people. They were so close that they -- you know, they just grew up like that and they was always like that, and so this devastated her. And I talked to her today.

And I thought she was a little better because she was there, she got to the hospital and found out and he was still in the room and she touched his face, and she said, you know, dad, I touched his face and it was cold. She said, but I'm like you, I'm still waiting on a phone call saying this is just all a mistake.

HARLOW: Yes.

TATE: That our wonderful family member had been sacrificed like this. But --

HARLOW: So what -- what would you -- what do you want people to remember about your son and to do in his memory, to do in his honor?

TATE: Well, you know, this whole thing about, you know, this notion that all police are out to get people or they are bad, my son doesn't see color. Definitely he had so many friends from the time he was in kindergarten, I was military for over 10 years of his life, he grew up in Germany for five years. And we just didn't have color barriers. We didn't have all this animosity between racism. We didn't have -- my son didn't see that, he didn't have time for that.

He was just mellow and laid back and didn't want to get into that. And so he was a guy who was willing to put the risk out there, put his life out there at risk and he really knew the risks and -- but he thought, I think my son just thought, you know, people are generally good. And that's just the way he was. He thought people are generally good people. So let's treat them all with dignity and --

HARLOW: I think --

TATE: He's just a laid back, quiet guy who -- I just -- I'm trying to come to grips with.

[17:10:09] HARLOW: I think you said it well. Let's treat them all with dignity.

Ronald Tate, I am so extraordinarily sorry for your loss, sir. May you find comfort in the memories that you had with him. Thank you for sharing a little bit about your son with us today.

TATE: Thanks for letting me do that. I appreciate it.

HARLOW: God bless.

We will be right back and when we come back, we're going to talk to the mayor of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, about how this could have happened and what they know thus far in the investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. We are continuing to follow this story of two young police officers gunned down, brutally murdered last night in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Joining me on the phone, the mayor of Hattiesburg, Johnny Dupree.

Thank you for being with me, Mayor. I appreciate it.

MAYOR JOHNNY DUPREE, HATTIESBURG, MISSISSIPPI: You're welcome, Poppy.

HARLOW: We knew earlier today three people had been arrested in connection with this. Now a fourth suspect, we understand, has been arrested? What can you tell us about that person?

DUPREE: Well, that's correct, Poppy. Earlier today, we had Curtis and Marvin Banks who are both charged with two counts of capital murder, and Joanne Calloway with two counts of capital murder. And now, as I said earlier, that the MBI was continuing their investigation, continuing their interrogation of witnesses and processing evidence and so, in that process, Cornelius Clark was charged and is being booked as we speak for obstruction of justice.

HARLOW: What can you tell us about what happened? Because we're watching video right now of one of the suspects saying he did not do it, he did not do it. The justice process will play out. But what can you tell us about what you know, about how these officers were murdered? All we really have been told is it was a traffic stop around 8:30 at night.

[17:15:02] DUPREE: And, Poppy, it was a traffic stop. There was a call -- there was a traffic stop and Officer Deen apparently saw something that triggered his request for backup. So Officer Tate arrived on the scene after his request for backup and based on that, you have the -- ensuing pistol or weapon being drawn by one of the Banks, Mr. Martin Banks, and he actually shot the other -- the two officers.

HARLOW: Do we know if the officers -- if either of the officers fired any shots?

DUPREE: I don't -- I don't know that, Poppy, and that would be something that you would have to ask Mississippi Bureau of Investigation. Those are the kinds of things that they are keeping pretty close under wraps. I will tell that you when this is over, we'll have a -- our own internal, as we have, investigation, where we can actually look at these and see how we can use this as a training tool, a training model so that we don't -- this doesn't happen to us again, and if we can keep it from happening again.

HARLOW: I know that this is the first time in 30 years that an officer in Hattiesburg has been killed in the line of duty. What has this done to your community? DUPREE: Well, you know, Poppy, it has brought our community even

closer than what is being prior to this. We always pride ourself on the city, we have a motto, we are close to everybody, even to each other. Our police department and our first responders and our citizens have a great relationship. We look at our -- I heard someone say the other day, one of the analysts I think you have on television said one of the things that you can tell about a community is the rate of solving crimes they have.

You look at our rate of solving crimes, it's pretty good and that's because we have community working with us and not against us. We are really high on community policing. And this brought us even closer. We actually having a vigil tomorrow at 1:00 to bring the community together again so we can pray for this family. We can show them that we do love them and how we will miss, just like they will, will miss the father and the son, you know, their spouse. We are community, we are family and we are going to grieve together through this.

HARLOW: And quickly, sir, do we know when these two fallen officers will be honored?

DUPREE: We are -- we would have the vigil tomorrow. They are still in Jackson at the crime scene analysis or having a forensic procedure done on the bodies and that they have not been released yet. They will be released hopefully tomorrow at 4:00 and we will have an escort that will -- that will honor the police officers, taking them to the funeral homes.

HARLOW: Mayor Dupree, so sorry for your loss, for your community right now. Thank you for talking us to, sir. Appreciate it.

DUPREE: Please be in prayer, all those listening for this family, this community and these police officers we have around this nation.

HARLOW: We absolutely will. Thank you, sir.

DUPREE: Thank you.

HARLOW: Well, the death of these two officers in Mississippi comes just days after a New York City police officer was shot and killed and was buried. Officer Brian Moore. He was shot in the line of duty last weekend in Queens. On Friday, a sea of officers from across the country traveled to New York to pay tribute at his memorial service.

During the eulogy, New York City Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton said Moore's death, quote, "came at a time of great challenge in this country, where the police are bearing the brunt of loud criticism." He also went on to say, "What is lost in the rhetoric is the context of what police officers do every day."

Here with me, retired NYPD detective, Harry Houck.

Thanks for being here, Harry.

HARRY HOUCK, FORMER NYPD DETECTIVE: Thanks for having me. HARLOW: You heard it from the father, the father of this 25-year-old

officer gunned down last night in Mississippi, and he said to me, they are not all bad. And he said -- you could tell how upset he was at the -- what he believes is the false rhetoric against police officers right now and he felt like his son was being put in that box.

HOUCK: Right. Yes, you know, when this rhetoric that's out there by some of these people pointing the fingers at police officers all the time and using just a couple of examples and blanketing police officers as a problem in this country is just like devastating to the police department and the police officer's families.

HARLOW: Well, what it's been like for you? I mean, you -- this was why your career.

HOUCK: I know. This is driving me crazy. I mean -- I mean, I'm looking back and I'm saying to myself, we've had an incident in Staten Island and in Ferguson where both officers were completely exonerated in those instances. But they're using those as examples as police misconduct.

[17:20:13] It's not police -- we've had one bad incident, OK, in North Charleston where a police officer actually murdered someone, and we've had an incident in Baltimore that we still don't know what the evidence is in that case.

HARLOW: So I want to bring this up, because you brought up Ferguson, you talked about Officer Darren Wilson, who was exonerated, was not indicted.

HOUCK: Right.

HARLOW: At the same time, you do have the Department of Justice report that found huge problems.

HOUCK: Yes.

HARLOW: Huge problems within the department.

HOUCK: I read -- I read the report. You know, they found problems. And I think, you know, the recommendations in that report I'm for 100 percent. But when I'm sitting here and I'm reading that report, and they're going out on the street and they're talking to people and asking questions of these people about their incidents with the police, but they're taking that as gospel and they are putting that in a report.

I think the report was a little one-sided, myself, you know? And we're probably going to have something like that in Baltimore also.

HARLOW: Plus it's a different Justice Department. This is a different attorney general.

HOUCK: Oh, yes, sure, sure, exactly, which I was very, very impressed with, by the way, when she gave her speech the other day, you know, regarding this incident. HARLOW: And she spent time with the police officers there.

HOUCK: Right. Exactly.

HARLOW: And by the way, this Loretta Lynch is an, you know, attorney general who Republicans, Rudy Giuliani including, have called exceptional.

HOUCK: Right. Yes. Exactly. And so I'm hoping that when this new report comes out, it's going to -- it's going to check out the facts as they are. OK. You know, I want both sides of this story. There are two sides to every story.

HARLOW: What is -- I have to go, but quickly before I do, what is the one thing that can be done, say, here in New York City? I see police officers all the time, on the subway, on my way to work.

HOUCK: Right.

HARLOW: On the way home. What needs to be done to bring community and officers together?

HOUCK: A lot more community policing. The problem is there's no money for it. We need to go back to the beat cop. I say that all the time. We need that so that people can get to know the police officer on the street. That's the problem. All right? And we don't have that kind of money. Here, you got Bill Bratton wants at least another 1,000 police officers. We are behind like 5,000 police officers since 9/11, and the mayor doesn't want to give them the money to even hire another 1,000.

We probably need another 5,000, 6,000 police officers to put beat cops out there again. If they really want to solve this problem, then give the police departments the money they need to be able to go out there and put police officers on the beat again.

HARLOW: Harry Houck, thanks very much, thanks for your service to this city, thanks for being with me to talk about it. Our thoughts are with the people of Hattiesburg right now.

HOUCK: Yes.

HARLOW: And the huge loss that they've suffered with these two officers.

I also want you to take a look at this. These are live pictures of Denton, Texas, currently right now under a tornado watch. Look at that flooding from the severe storms that have been rolling through Texas in recent days. The residents there and 35 million other people right now in this country facing the threat of severe storms today and through the night, many of them still cleaning up after a series of tornadoes just yesterday.

We will bring you the latest on that, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [17:25:45] HARLOW: Welcome back to our live coverage this Sunday evening. I want to switch gears here as we continue to track the severe weather across the country and focus back on ISIS and the U.S. war on terror.

A few things have happened since that attack, that terror attack in Texas last week. The gunmen were killed. The FBI discovered that at least one of them was in direct online contact with a known ISIS recruiter. And the U.S. military did raise at the end of this week a security level at every base post installation in this country.

Let's bring in Phil Mudd. He's a former CIA counterterrorism official.

Thanks for being here, Phil. I appreciate it.

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Thank you.

HARLOW: When you look at what happened, first of all, yesterday, ISIS attacking these prisons in Iraq and releasing some of their own, coupled with an ISIS-inspired attack last week in Texas, the argument that some are making that ISIS is being weakened, do you buy that at all?

MUDD: You've got to look at this over the long term. Yes, in some ways, if you compare this to where we were last summer and last fall when the Iraqi military and the government I think were surprised by the ISIS moves through Iraq, right now, ISIS is lost territory compared to that period of time. The problem is we're trying to look at this through the lens of what happened last week, what happened last month.

When you're dealing with insurgencies like ISIS that have already gained this much territory, remember, they have been around in Syria for years. And they go back, their roots go back into Iraq for years after the invasion more than a decade ago. If you want to measure progress against this organization, unfortunately, especially now that they control territory already, you're going to have to measure it in years.

I think we will eventually prevail. They do not have an ideology that can succeed but it's going to be a tough road along the way.

HARLOW: But, Phil, so law enforcement comes out and they are saying, they're, quote, "shaking the trees more aggressively," right, since the shooting in Texas.

MUDD: Yes.

HARLOW: They're tracking social media as best they can. You heard FBI chief, James Comey.

MUDD: Yes.

HARLOW: Though warning this week. I know there are other Elton Simpsons out there, one of the perpetrators of this attack. MUDD: Yes.

HARLOW: And talking about the social media aspect of it and how powerful it is, saying it is almost as if there is a devil sitting on their shoulder saying kill, kill, kill.

MUDD: Yes.

HARLOW: It just doesn't make a lot of sense to many people why ISIS keeps winning the recruitment war here in the U.S.

MUDD: There's a couple of things going on here. When I first started watching al Qaeda after 9/11 -- I had witnessed them before, but after 9/11, you're talking about a relatively small group, mostly in Afghanistan and Pakistan that want to operate in small, secret cells because as soon as those cells were penetrated, we destroyed them. Think of how quickly this has changed in 15 years.

What ISIS says is we don't want to operate in secret cells, we don't actually have to meet people. We want to talk to thousands of people and if 1 percent of them succeeds in an attack that would be an incredible success. So they are banking on the probability that 99 percent of the people they might communicate with will be disrupted. In my world of counterterrorism, that's incredible.

The message they are giving, though, is the real problem. The message is very simple. If you want to join, you're going to join an organization that offers a simple path to a pure Islam. That's a pretty tough message to beat when you have a 15-year-old who doesn't really have an idea about how to translate that message into everyday life.

[17:30:11] HARLOW: It's a good point. Take a listen to this sound. This comes from Senator Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican.

MUDD: Yes.

HARLOW: Talking this morning on "STATE OF THE UNION" to our Jim Sciutto about the Texas attack and how he says it gives the idea to many people that they are winning. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R), HOMELAND SECURITY CHAIRMAN: The best strategy the U.S. can employ to defeat this is actually defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria so that the reality actually is conveyed that this is not a winning organization, it is a losing organization, because, Jim, as long as they are not losing, as long as the -- you know, these individuals who might be drawn to jihad don't perceive ISIS as a losing organization, they'll be perceived as winning and they'll continue to inspire this type of jihadist activity, and extreme violence, even here in America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: And then also, Tom Ridge came out today saying ISIS today is more of a threat than al Qaeda in 2011. Are they right?

MUDD: I don't agree with that. I think they are a significant threat because, again, we face this group that is sending messages to people in the United States by overt means. That is over the Internet. You can't follow, if you're in a security service, 2,000 or 3,000 or 5,000 people at once. You can't. I don't care if you have a partnership with Twitter and Facebook. There is no way any security service can follow real time that amount of traffic.

But there's a couple of things that have changed here. Number one, across the Middle East, the place where these folks like ISIS recruit, not only recruit followers but get money. Their message is not seen as credible by anybody except the fringe. We're looking at a fringe organization that cannot govern because people say we are not interested in beheadings.

HARLOW: Yes.

MUDD: And the second thing I'd say is, we the U.S. government has gotten a lot better than we were 15 years ago.

HARLOW: But it is scary when you hear the FBI saying there are open investigations in all 50 states into ISIS sympathizers.

MUDD: It sure is. Yes.

HARLOW: Phil Mudd, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

MUDD: Thank you.

HARLOW: And for all of our viewers, do not miss "BLINDSIDED: HOW ISIS SHOOK THE WORLD." CNN takes you deep inside the Islamic State. Who are they and what do they want? That is "BLINDSIDED," Fareed Zakaria's special report tomorrow night 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific only right here on CNN.

Coming up next on this program, a Georgia student dies while in police custody and four months later, after nine officers are fired because of his death, his family still does not know how or why he died. The details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:35:32] HARLOW: All right. We're continuing to follow the severe weather. You're looking at live pictures out of Denton County, Texas, where you've got helicopters doing medevac rescues after the severe weather and tornadoes that have rolled through the area. Severe flooding, take a look at that. You've got -- what appears to be someone stuck in their house there.

We're going to keep a close eye on this severe weather for you throughout the evening right here on CNN.

Also, I want to get to this, a story we've been following very closely. A Georgia family demanding answers after a 21-year-old Savannah student died while in police custody. His name, Matthew Ajibade. He died while he was in jail, in an isolation cell, back on New Year's Day, January 1st, after police received a call about domestic abuse -- domestic abuse disturbance, which his lawyers do not -- do not disagree with between him and his girlfriend.

They came, they arrested him, and then put him in this isolation cell. Well, the sheriff's office says that he became combative during the booking process, but a family attorney says he had bipolar disorder and he needed medical help. He needed to go to the hospital, not jail.

Rosa Flores has been tracking this story, she's with me now.

What do we know about why he died, how he died and now the nine officers fired because of it?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there's so many questions, Poppy. And so this is such a mystery. But let's start with this. So there are two parallel investigations, one by the Georgia Bureau of Investigations. Another one by the sheriff's internal affairs. Once the sheriff gets the results of these investigations, gets a report, then that's when we see these nine deputies fired which of course kind of raises a bit of eyebrows.

So what did you find in these two reports? Now we don't know exactly how Ajibade died. But here's what we do know. The sheriff made some changes to policy and procedures that gives us a few clues and I want to share those with you. First of all, new booking procedures. Now this is to make sure that medical treatment is given to people who are booked into jail promptly. That gives us a clue.

Then another one, new security procedures, as to when to audit the use of tasers, when you should and shouldn't use tasers. Now we know that Ajibade was tased as well. And then you have cell extraction and removal.

And, Poppy, here's the big thing about this. And I'm going to quote here. The new focus is on discipline and non-lethal force.

HARLOW: Right.

FLORES: And you would think that that would be the ultimate goal.

HARLOW: That always there should be non-lethal force.

FLORES: Right. Non-lethal force. But again those just gives us a few clues as to what could have happened. We don't know.

HARLOW: But we -- there's so much we don't know because they haven't turned over the video. We know there's video of that cell. And they haven't turned over the autopsy report.

FLORES: Yes, Poppy, so --

HARLOW: And we don't know when they will.

FLORES: And here's the other thing that we do know. That there is surveillance video of Ajibade with his girlfriend, having some sort of altercation, then we know from a police report that the girlfriend actually had bruising and that she had, you know, blood on her face and then we also know that from police, that they say that he resisted arrest, they took him to the detention center. And that the situation escalated. We also know that three deputies were injured.

HARLOW: Yes.

FLORES: And that one of those deputies, a female, and I'm going to quote here, "She suffered a concussion and a broken nose."

HARLOW: So there was some altercation.

FLORES: But the family, again, yes. But the family again saying, wait a minute, he had bipolar disorder.

HARLOW: He needed to go to the hospital.

FLORES: He needed to go to the hospital.

HARLOW: Yes.

FLORES: He did not need to go to jail.

HARLOW: Rosa Flores, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Let's continue to talk about this.

Joining me now is his brother, Chris -- Chris is joining us from Los Angeles, and also criminal defense attorney and CNN legal analyst, Mark O'Mara.

Thank you very much for being here. And, Chris, I called you his brother but I believe you're his cousin, isn't that right?

CHRIS OLADAPO, MATTHEW AJIBADE'S COUSIN: Yes.

HARLOW: Thank you for being with me. I know you guys were very, very close. Look, when -- what Rosa told us is clearly there are so many questions. Months, months later, you, your family, his parents have been asking for answers. What have you been told as to how he died?

OLADAPO: Let me start by saying Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there.

HARLOW: Indeed.

OLADAPO: Yes, definitely. I haven't had a chance to say Happy Mother's Day to his mother and my mother yet. So -- and truthfully, I'm just really afraid to spark up the conversation of why he died or how did he died. Because every conversation since Matthew's killings with any member of my family has been, how did he die? And that scares me to even call anyone on mother's day, you know?

[17:40:01] I can't imagine how they're feeling on this special day and it kills me to even talk about it right now, but inside of me, I know how he died. I don't need the killer of my brother to tell me how he died. I know he was mishandled. He was strapped to a chair and tased until he died. And as a human being, I cannot relate. You know, it doesn't matter if this is an animal or just simply going insane, I do not care. You do not treat another human being like this. And that's truly how I feel at the moment.

HARLOW: Completely understandable because you have not been able to get any of the video at all of what happened in that holding cell, despite multiple requests for it. And you also haven't been given the autopsy. Have you been told at all when you might get answers?

OLADAPO: Not at all. We haven't received any information. Actually this week was probably the only week we received anything. The first press release by the sheriff's department, five months of silence. We've been putting pressure on them, nothing. I mean, the day he actually died, when I got Savannah, I wasn't told anything. The sheriff's department didn't come and tell us, hey, I'm sorry for what happened. Nothing.

HARLOW: Right.

OLADAPO: And without this pressure on them, they would have absolutely done nothing. They would just sit there until people probably forgot about him.

HARLOW: So here's what has happened. Nine officers have been fired, Chris, as you know, and as Rosa just told us, new policies have been put in place including a focus on non-lethal force. Are you encouraged to see that result?

OLADAPO: Yes. Yes. That's -- that's the beginning actually of just what we would like to see, just the beginning. Because for nine people -- and I'm sure it's more than nine people, but for nine people to be involved in the death of one kid, one 21-year-old kid, makes absolutely no sense. I mean, if one person out of the nine people cannot say, hey, what's going on, this kid is actually, you know, erratic at the moment. Let's use our common sense to treat him and to treat him properly.

But no, everyone reacted based on their improper training and lack of sensitivity to human life. What is the value of a human life if you cannot simply just understand what someone is going through by simply looking at them in the eyes? You know?

HARLOW: Mark, I want to bring you in here. Mark is a CNN contributor and legal analyst. Mark O'Mara, he's also the attorney who's representing the family.

MARK O'MARA, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hey, Poppy.

HARLOW: What do you make of the fact -- good to see you, Mark, of the fact that the officers have been fired and I'm also very interested in what sort of legal information, anything you've been actually able to obtain from the department?

O'MARA: Well, the second question first. We've gotten nothing whatsoever. We've gotten nothing but stonewalled. I first started making requests the first week I was involved, which was the day after Matthew was killed. And we got nothing. We literally haven't even gotten the cause of death. GVI said they were in the middle of an investigation and they would have an autopsy done in a month. That was four months ago.

It is discretionary with the prosecutor to disclose information and I understand the need to keep a criminal investigation done in a rational way, but where is the humanism? Where is the integrity in not telling this family what happened to their son and why? It makes absolutely no sense that they sit on facts for over four months and now four months into it finally because we started making a lot of noise last week the sheriff says, now I'm going to fire nine people, meaning those nine people were working for the past four months after they elected the death of Matthew. That makes no sense and we want explanations.

HARLOW: Before I go, very quickly to you, Chris. What do you want the world to know about your cousin?

OLADAPO: Matthew was just an amazing brother. I mean, I can't call him anything else because it's really difficult to have a cousin that looks just like you in the first place and, you know, I feel like America's taken that from me and that I'm truly disappointed. You know, he died naive and unaware of the American condition, that, you know, just being a black guy, you just have to be more aware of what's going on.

You know, as Nigerians, we are not that integrated with the black community and that's my fault, that's our fault and we're all to blame in that instance, but, you know, Matthew was just the kindest soul you're ever going to meet and, you know, the earth has lost an angel. I'm sorry to say, you know, it's just -- there's no other way to put it. This kid's life is never going to come back and --

HARLOW: OK.

OLADAPO: You know, we're just hurting so bad.

HARLOW: Chris -- Chris Oladapo, thank you very much for joining us. Mark O'Mara, thank you. We're going to stay on this story, appreciate it.

OLADAPO: Thank you.

O'MARA: Thank you.

HARLOW: I want to take you now down to Denton County, Texas. These are live pictures. You are watching this as it is unfolding. Medevac rescues in a terribly flooded part of Texas after days and days of severe weather there.

Tom Sater is with me in the severe weather center monitoring all of this.

Pretty remarkable images we're looking at. TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, absolutely. This really just

started to develop this flash flooding and emergency rescues in the last 40 minutes. We were watching, Poppy, a storm about two hours ago that was moving through the Denton area. Now this is just to the north of Dallas-Fort Worth.

The storm, a massive storm in size, a super cell storm, was only moving 25 miles per hour. Now about an hour and a half from that point, it picked up to 55 miles an hour. But you can see these slow- moving storms, just the incredible amount of rain that has fallen.

Yesterday, it was mainly -- and the day before and the day before that, I mean, going back to Wednesday, it was the Oklahoma City area southward, where we had reports as much as 15, 16 inches of rainfall.

This is a crazy, crazy day in the U.S. You've got a tropical storm that made landfall on the border of North and South Carolina. You've got blizzard conditions in parts of the Dakotas, as many as 10 states have seen snow. And now you've got these isolated tornadoes, with hail that's tennis ball-sized hail and even greater.

But it goes back to Wednesday, Poppy. What an outbreak. We had 48 tornadoes on Wednesday, mainly in Oklahoma, Texas, then you throw another nine in on Thursday, six more on Friday, then 45 yesterday. Early this morning there were five tornadoes in the state of South Dakota as blizzard conditions were prevailing in western part of the state.

Unbelievable. Mother's Day and what we're seeing across the U.S. This, however, after a couple of fatalities this week, is good to see rescues. Now we've had numerous water rescues in parts of Oklahoma into Texas. Again, massive rain amounts with this tornado activity, but it's going to continue for a while. The threat's going to easily go into the evening period until we lose the heating of the day.

HARLOW: And Tom, as we monitor these pictures, we're trying to get someone on the line, obviously, from Denton County Emergency Management down there, dealing with this situation. What do you make of what we're seeing just in terms of the amount of flooding?

SATER: Well, I believe they are pretty close to a creek, which obviously topped its banks. But it's those slow-moving storms. I mean, it's not just that a tornado dropped out of this and was visually seen by local law enforcement. What they appear to have a problem with on radar, Poppy, is that it was hard on the ground to visually spot the tornado because it's called rain wrapped. There's so much heavy rain that circulates the vortex that you visually cannot get an image of it.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: So, Tom --

SATER: Yes, go ahead.

HARLOW: Sorry to interrupt you, but I'm just wondering for people in and around this area that are watching these live images with us what do they have in store coming forward because as Jennifer Gray, our meteorologist on the ground there was just reporting, the skies still look ominous?

SATER: Exactly. In fact, if we can show the radar, let me show you exactly what's in store because we've got a tornado watch that's in effect until 9:00, but there's another line of storms and we're going to show it to you here. In fact south of Dallas, they're starting to fire up, those thunderstorms are super cell, at least one large one.

But when you get to north of the Dallas area there is still a well- defined line, Poppy, well off to the west, that is developing as we speak, not just strong winds, but again, band and band after heavy rainfall. Take a look at that. You can see the force of this. So with another storm system, it's -- in fact, another line, I should say, of storms yet to move to this region, we could see an additional 1.5 inches, maybe 2.

I mean, the amount of rain in some of these storms dropping two and three inches an hour is staggering to say the least and you're doing this day after day. Since Wednesday, the threat has been mainly in the same location with one line and one barrage of storms after another and every element has been severe.

HARLOW: Tom, stay with me as we monitor this. Just remarkable images. Look that car disappearing under the water practically as flooding is ravaging Denton County, Texas.

Jennifer Gray joins us from Cisco, Texas, where one of those tornadoes hit down yesterday evening, taking one life, critically injuring another person. Forty tornadoes in all yesterday.

Jennifer, what do you make of what we're seeing happened here in terms of the flooding that has followed?

GRAY: Yes, the flooding all in northeast Texas, north of Dallas, we've seen pictures of those water rescues, the Texas National Guard has been called out. We've seen pictures of people standing on top of the rooftops, waiting to be rescued, and so that flooding can happen very, very quickly.

Of course, we see these slow-moving systems, just as Tom was talking about. And so we've had a lot of rain in this area over the past couple of days and so the flash flooding, yes, can definitely catch people off guard because when those creeks and the rivers overfill, their banks, it can come up very, very quickly, and that's what we're seeing right now just north of the Dallas metroplex.

[17:50:16] Here in Cisco. We're west of Dallas about two hours, and this is where that tornado struck yesterday. And you can see the trees just snapped in half. We have a couple of homes that were a total loss. Unfortunately one person died in the storms yesterday. Three others critically injured. We're up a little bit higher and our vantage point, and you can just look out and see all the trees snapped. We don't have access to where the homes are destroyed because trees

are down, power lines are down, and we can't get through, but this just paints a little bit of a picture of what is just beyond that curve. And we have seen most of the storms today stay to our south and to our east, which is a very good sign.

We had the potential for a few storms to develop out west and head this way but we haven't seen that so far. Most of the stronger storms have been east of us, but the flooding in northeast Texas is definitely something to watch.

HARLOW: Yes.

GRAY: If you are in that area, just try to find a safe place and the best advice we can give you is do not drive in it. Six inches of water can completely carry your car off the road, and you do not want to be caught in a situation like that.

HARLOW: And we've been seeing these images -- just so our viewers know, these are images taken just moments ago, not live pictures but this is what they're dealing with right now, just moments ago there in Denton County, Texas.

Jennifer, say with me.

Tom Sater, to you, could you give a sense to our viewers of where Denton County, Texas, is?

SATER: Yes.

HARLOW: Compares to sort of the Dallas-Fort Worth area?

SATER: Yes. Absolutely. This -- excuse me. This is a town near Crum. And if you look at a map and you know where Dallas is up in the northeastern part of Texas, Dallas-Fort Worth. Forth Worth is just west of Dallas. You know, they're just like the sisters, right next to each other. Well, just north of Fort Worth then, say, the northern suburbs, is where we're getting these pictures from, so the town of Crum.

It's just a northern part of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. It's very large metroplex, as we call it, but this is just north of that area, and of course, as you see, it gets to be agriculturally, you know, quite green. It's vast, we do know obviously just like every other area there are rivers and streams, of course, throughout this region that the last several days with this rain have been topping their banks.

There's no doubt about that. But this has been going on for about 45 minutes now and there is another band of rain as mentioned which could easily just make this a worse situation.

HARLOW: Yes. They need some relief down there. The last thing they need is more rain.

Again, as Jen said, do not drive. We've seen a number of cars being swallowed up by the flooding here in Denton, Texas, as these emergency rescues continue there.

We're going to continue to monitor this, take a quick break, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:55:02] HARLOW: All right. We're continuing to monitor severe weather across northern Texas especially right now. You're looking at images taken just moments ago of medevac helicopter rescues there in Denton County, Texas, where there is severe flooding as they continue, continue to reel from the severe weather that has been really the past few days hitting them extremely hard. They're not out of the woods yet.

We're going to keep a very close eye on this, bring you more at the top of the hour. But we're also going to talk about something else that is happening tonight in Baltimore. Baltimore, Prince is getting involved in the situation in Baltimore, throwing a special benefit concert tonight. He's doing it after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody and the goal is to raise money for different community programs and children in Baltimore.

The singer released a song titled "Baltimore." Listen.

(MUSIC)

Prince has asked the people that attend tonight at 8:00 p.m. -- that's when the concert is -- to wear gray clothing in honor of Freddie Gray. Portion of the proceeds will go to benefit local Baltimore-based youth charities. The concert will stream online tonight through the streaming service title.

Let's talk about it with Anthony DeCurtis, contributing editor for "Rolling Stone," one of the few journalists who has interviewed Prince multiple times.

Thank you for being here.

ANTHONY DECURTIS, COMMUNICATING EDITOR, ROLLING STONE: Hello.

HARLOW: Appreciate it.

DECURTIS: Thank you. Thank you.

HARLOW: Let's talk about what -- you know, it's interesting because I think of Prince and I think of someone who doesn't exactly get in the headlines or do a lot of interviews or put himself out there a lot. He's a very private guy.

DECURTIS: Yes. Exactly, and that's why I was kind of surprised to hear about this concert. I mean, it suggested I think the depth of his feelings about this, and the degree I think of national feeling about it. I mean, this isn't somebody who's jumping on every cause or, you know, looking for ways to comment on, you know, political or social events. I mean, in fact he's been very reluctant to do that. But I think in this case, you know, he's obviously stepping up. HARLOW: Well, look, remember, at the Grammys, I think it was --

DECURTIS: Yes.

HARLOW: This year's Grammys.

DECURTIS: Exactly.

HARLOW: He came and he talked about black lives matter.

DECURTIS: Yes. He made a quick reference to it, and that was notable also. I mean, that was not something he would typically do but it is, you know, a little talk -- he referred to that term and it just indicated the degree to which these events were on his mind.

HARLOW: What -- so let's talk about the bigger picture here, when you look at these benefit concerts. Right? We saw them here in New York after Hurricane Sandy and we've seen them, you know, for tragedies around the world. How effective are they?

DECURTIS: I think it varies but I think it's always a good thing when certainly artists of Prince's stature, you know, address an issue like this. It makes people think about it. Even if they don't agree with them. I mean, the song which is actually fairly upbeat and more kind of a plea for peace, but also takes a strong anti-gun stand.

HARLOW: Yes. Did that stand out to you?

DECURTIS: Yes.

HARLOW: That he has sort of now made his -- I mean, in the lyrics to this song.

DECURTIS: Right.

HARLOW: It's a very anti-gun position he's taking.

DECURTIS: Yes. I mean, I wasn't shocked that he would feel that way. I was shocked that he would talk about it and I think it's obviously -- you know, it's a highly charged issue, but I think, you know, whenever an artist steps out in that way, it makes people -- I think in particular it makes young fans think that they -- you know, should engage the world around them and try to find out more about what these issues mean and in the case of -- you know, obviously what's going on in Baltimore, it has, you know, a big impact on them.

HARLOW: What we're told also is that several other well-known artists will be there tonight, they're not releasing the names. I think it's interesting that it's streaming on Title, this is the new streaming service that Jay-Z owns and has launched. Do we expect him to be there?

DECURTIS: You know, it wouldn't shock me if he turned up. You know, on the other hand, you know, he hasn't announced it, and, you know, it's a little hard to say. I don't want to encourage people to believe he's going to be there if we don't know for sure. HARLOW: You know, it's interesting when you think about the focus on

youth, I spent a lot of time in the last week talking to the kids from Baltimore.

DECURTIS: Sure.

HARLOW: This is clearly aimed at the youth.

DECURTIS: Yes, I think, you know, it's something that is designed to make this a connect with the events of people's lives, I think, and that's important, and I think that's something that, you know, Prince in many ways has been reluctant to do. He's not somebody -- partly I think because he's a Jehovah's Witness and, you know, has certain separation I guess between the events of the world and what he sees as the events of his spiritual life.

HARLOW: Yes.

DECURTIS: But I think, you know, this is a way on his part to connect those and connect them to his fans.

HARLOW: Anthony DeCurtis from "Rolling Stone," thank you very much.

DECURTIS: My pleasure. Thanks so much.

HARLOW: Appreciate it. Good to have you on the program, sir.

DECURTIS: Yes.

HARLOW: Have a great week.

DECURTIS: You bet.

[18:00:03] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

HARLOW: 6:00 Eastern and I'm Poppy Harlow, you're in the CNN NEWSROOM.