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Surge of Violence, Homicides in Baltimore; Iraqi Soldier's Cell Phone Video Shows Battle with ISIS; Photojournalist Talks of Ramadi Capture; Soldier Watches Child He Helped in Iraq Graduate. Aired 2:30- 3p ET

Aired May 25, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:32:04] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: In the city of Baltimore, there's been a surge of violence. A record number of homicides have been reported over this holiday weekend. City leaders are calling it disheartening. All of this comes just weeks after parts of the city were torched in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray and the police indictments that followed.

Let me bring in CNN's national correspondent, Suzanne Malveaux -- Suzanne?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, it's just awful for the people in Baltimore. Baltimore city police are now operating on high alert because of this deadly, murderous three-day holiday weekend for the city. Sergeant Jerry Jackson, of the Baltimore P.D., tells CNN that since Friday, 28 people have been shot, seven of those have died. Also, another alarming statistic, authorities are now saying at least 33 people have been killed in Baltimore this month. And according to "Baltimore Sun's" update, as of today, it might be as high as 35. This is the first time this city has had 30 homicides in a month in almost eight years.

So the mayor, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, as well as the deputy police commissioner, Kevin Davis, have come out, addressed the residents to be calm. People want to know what is going on.

They talked to local affiliate, WJT.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE, (D), MAYOR OF BALTIMORE: It is disheartening that we're seeing such an increase in violence, especially when you think about the progress that we've made. We've come too far to have this type of setback.

KEVIN DAVIS, DEPUTY POLICE COMMISSIONER, BALTIMORE POLICE DEPARTMENT: Law enforcement, public safety, and the community will persevere over this small number of bad guys carrying guns, pulling triggers, killing people in our community.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MALVEAUX: So, Brooke, if you look at the list of shootings, where and who is being targeted, it is alarming. The shootings are taking place throughout the city. So we're talking about the Western region, the northern region. And Baltimore police commissioner, Anthony Batts, says some of the shootings taking place in the eastern district is related to traditional gang violence.

BALDWIN: I know that when you're looking at all these numbers, we're also learning that the arrest rates are going down while the number of shootings are going up. Could this at all be connected with the Freddie Gray death, in police custody, the officers who were charged? Any sort of hesitancy or the chilling factor from police?

MALVEAUX: Sure, Brooke. That's something that a lot of people suspect. But actually, my colleague, Miguel Marquez, he talked to a police officer who said, it is true that some police officers feel they no longer have the support of the police commissioner or the city's leadership. So they're doing what he calls "passive policing," the very least required --

BALDWIN: Passive policing?

[14:34:34] MALVEAUX: -- to protect the community. That's right, only responding to 911 calls, not engaging the community any further.

And here's what he told Miguel. I want you to watch this.

Oh, I'm told we don't have the sound.

But essentially, what he tells Miguel is that they feel they don't have the backing of their leadership, so they're not going to put their officers at risk. They're not going to put themselves at risk. They're going to have each other's back. And they're afraid that if they go out and do something, they might get in trouble, if they are considered doing something too aggressive. So they are responding to the 911 calls, but they're not going out and doing the traditional community policing they've been doing in the past. This is very disconcerting to folks in the community. So what are they doing? There was a group of residents over the weekend that marched, calling for peace. They went to city hall.

Also, Brooke, we expect tomorrow morning, a pastor who was close to Freddie Gray's family, Jamal Bryant, that he's going to be out there as well because he says that the police department is no longer engaged with the community. And that they've got a problem because they don't have the necessary funding for the Baltimore public schools. And summer is coming. The kids are going to be out. He says if we don't address this now, it's going to get a lot worse.

BALDWIN: I know we talked a lot to Reverend Jamal Bryant. But I'm so glad Miguel talked to an active police officer. We need to continue doing so in Baltimore.

Suzanne Malveaux, thank you very much.

Coming up next here on CNN, video captures some of the final moments before the Iraqi city of Ramadi falls into ISIS hands. I'll talk with someone who was nearly killed while documenting the war there some years ago. His account of how Ramadi turned from relative calm to the city under siege, as he calls it.

Also, fighter jets scrambled amid a series of threats made to flights midair. We have an update on that.

Stay here. You're watching CNN on this Memorial Day.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:40:50] BALDWIN: Now you have these conflicting claims, they're now surfacing over what happened when this key city of Ramadi fell to ISIS. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the Iraqi forces showed no will. That was in an exclusive with our Barbara Starr. But an Iraqi soldier who battled ISIS in Ramadi disagrees and he says his cell video proves it.

Here's CNN's senior international correspondent, Arwa Damon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(GUNFIRE)

SHOUTING)

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The chaotic final moments captured on a cell phone.

(SHOUTING)

(GUNFIRE)

(SHOUTING)

(GUNFIRE)

DAMON: "Come on, fight," a voice shouts.

(GUNFIRE)

DAMON: This, one of the last fire fights with ISIS before Ramadi fell.

A body is seen in the dirt behind one of the berms used for cover. Asad Benyahti (ph), who gave us the video, was one of the soldiers there, wounded in that final battle.

"There were three IEDs that took out two Humvees and killed five. Then they came at us with two bulldozers, raked with explosives," he remembers.

His contingent, he says, numbered around 140, spread out in smaller units along the vast terrain west of Ramadi.

(GUNFIRE)

(SHOUTING)

DAMON: He was in this armored personal carrier, reloading ammunition. One soldier calls for a heavier weapon.

(SHOUTING)

DAMON: A warning that ISIS is approaching from another direction as well.

"Then they came at us with big gun trucks, surrounding us from four directions. There should have been a force to our rear, but they weren't there," he says.

His commander radios for air support. Moments later, cries of "no ammunition, no ammunition."

(GUNFIRE)

DAMON: And the unit receives orders to withdraw.

(GUNFIRE)

DAMON: He is bitter and angry.

(GUNFIRE)

(SHOUTING)

DAMON: Though wounded, he wanted to keep fighting.

Just two weeks before the fall of Ramadi, he says, his unit captured an ISIS position, killing six, he claims. Two corpses seen torched in this video. Another seven, he says, were detained. Four of them foreigners.

Under interrogation, a captured ISIS fighter described their surveillance and bold tactics.

ASAD BENYAHTI (ph), IRAQI SOLDIER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

DAMON: He recalls the fighter saying, "You flash a light at the tower. We know there are only 28 soldiers and in five-hour rotations and that there was a lack of ammunition. If the soldiers don't fire at us, we crawl and plant the bomb."

He bristles at the accusation that the Iraqi soldiers don't have the will to fight. He wants to quit the army and join the militias.

(GUNFIRE)

DAMON: "The failure is with the military higher ups," he says, "who gave the orders to retreat and allowed supply lines to fail and front lines to collapse."

(GUNFIRE)

(SHOUTING)

DAMON: Arwa Damon, CNN, Baghdad.

(GUNFIRE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: The fall of Ramadi, much more than a tactical loss for American troops, who fought there, and for journalists, who covered the war. Hearing the news that Ramadi is now in ISIS hands is very personal.

So, Gabe Ramirez, I want to bring you in.

He's currently a producer here at CNN, but back in the years when he was going to Ramadi to cover the war, '04-'07, you were working as a photojournalist.

So, Gabe, you wrote this really poignant piece on CNN.com. We wanted to have you share this story with everyone else. Can you just begin with me, take me back to -- it was, what, Christmas of '04. You were almost back within the wire. You were traveling with our Pentagon correspondent at the time. What happened?

GABE RAMIREZ, CNN PRODUCER & PHOTOJOURNALIST: We were on a patrol with a gulf company, 25 Marines. We had been sent out there by the esteemed Kevin Flower, who was a Baghdad bureau chief at the time. He wanted us to do stories about holidays and the troops. You know, try to bring up morale type stories. Any assignment there, as we all knew, was going to be a difficult one. We were out on a patrol with the Marines. On our way back, we were hit by an IED just outside the gates of Hurricane Point. It was a combat outpost. I believe it was an old palace complex on the West side of town. You know, I have to say that while writing this, it just reminded me of all the times the guys in this convoy and many other patrols for all those years went out daily and survived IEDs and, in many cases, did not survive them. I talked to many Marines during my time in Anbar Province as an imbedded journalist. I would hear stories about guys who had been through 20, 25, 30 IED attacks and survived.

[14:45:44] BALDWIN: Goodness.

RAMIREZ: So I felt really -- I felt incredibly lucky to have made it through that one and made it through, you know --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: You say you feel lucky, but you also wrote had that vehicle been a couple feet to the right, what?

RAMIREZ: Yeah, that would have been it for us. We were really lucky. The exPLOsion, the force of the exPLOsion went off just to the right side of the vehicle. Had it been right underneath us -- and we were in the back of what they call a high-back Humvee. It was a truck Humvee. We were in the bed of a truck. We weren't enclosed in it, which is why we felt a lot of the force of it. But it probably would have, you know, flipped us over. It could have torn the vehicle in half. It was a powerful, powerful exPLOsion. The Marines I talked to later who were in the vehicle behind us, you know, they said that we just -- that we were extremely lucky to have made it. It was a really close call, yeah.

BALDWIN: Thank goodness, you know, you were all OK and able to tell the story. You talk about your ears ringing, literal ears ringing. I don't know when your ears stopped ringing, but then you sort of juxtapose that with this proverbial ringing as far as the fighting goes. It's become louder and louder, especially now that you're watching the news on our network and this place that you covered where now the city is in is' hands.

RAMIREZ: Yeah, no, it's -- as a result of that IED, I didn't say anything about it at the time to Chris because I didn't want to worry him and didn't want to worry anybody, but my ears were -- I'd been concussed. I feel the effects of that to this day. So when I heard about Ramadi falling back into the hands of a group like ISIS, the forbearer of al Qaeda in Iraq had been driven out after a lot of toil and a lot of hard work by many people, so it was really unbelievable to me. Maybe not unbelievable, but very, you know, disappointing. Because I know the people of Ramadi had been through a lot. Not just to talk about the unbelievable sacrifices of American troops there, guys who had, you know, been around and had the privilege of being welcomed into their fold for a time. But the people of Ramadi, just the people, the people living day to day, they had to go through all of that for so many years during the U.S. occupation. They finally turn a corner, and then years later to see it all fall apart, it's just -- it is heartbreaking.

BALDWIN: I talked to a mother last week who lost her son in Ramadi. Just to see what's happened now, it is incredibly difficult and personal for a lot of people, including you.

Thank you so much for sharing your story. I'll make sure I tweet the link out so people can read what you wrote on CNN.com.

RAMIREZ: Really quickly, on a Memorial Day, my experience is one thing as a journalist, but the guys out there who didn't come home, this is a very important day to me because there were guys that -- all of us at CNN who did time in Baghdad, we spent time with a lot of these guys and a lot of them didn't come home. So all due respect to those families --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Absolutely.

RAMIREZ: -- that didn't come home.

BALDWIN: On a day like today, we must be mindful.

Gabe, thank you. Coming up next, reunited with the soldier who rescued her. My next

guest was only 36 days old when this American soldier helped her escape Saddam Hussein's kill list. Now, 20 years later, they were just reunited after graduation. She joins me with her mom, after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:53:47] On this Memorial Day, I want to tell you a special story about a retired American soldier witnessing the graduation of a now- teenager he helped rescue from Iraq back in 1996. Lava Barwari says she really wanted Lieutenant Colonel Greg Pepin to be there to see her walk across the stage. With help from her mother, she got on line, she tracked him down, she e-mailed him. This was a reunion some 18 years in the making.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. COL. GREG PEPIN, RETIRED U.S. SOLDIER: I'm happy you tracked me down.

LAVA BARWARI, HELPED BY AMERICAN SOLDIER: So am I.

PEPIN: I wouldn't miss this for the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The last time they saw each other, I'm thinking Lava didn't quite remember it because she was 36 days old. Her mother, though, Awaz, definitely remembers this. The back story is she was actually on Saddam Hussein's kill list because she was targeted for being Kurdish. The United States agreed to help her get out. But when Awaz arrived at the border, an Iraqi official would not allow her to leave with her daughter. That's when Lieutenant Colonel Pepin stepped in, and through a simple name change at the border, helped secure Lava's escape.

Lava and her mother, Awaz, join me now.

Ladies, welcome.

Lava, congratulations on graduating.

LAVA BARWARI: Thank you so much.

AWAZ BARWARI, MOTHER OF LAVA: Thank you for having us.

[14:55:00] BALDWIN: Lava, let me begin with you.

Obviously, you put some effort into finding Greg. Can you just -- the moment a couple days ago when you finally got to hug him, to say thank you, what was that like for you?

LAVA BARWARI: It was a lot of mixed emotions going on. It was a lot of excitement and nervousness mainly. But it was a really good feeling. BALDWIN: What did you tell him?

LAVA BARWARI: I thanked him a lot for being able to make it out and for coming and remembering me.

BALDWIN: Because he did, all these years later, he remembered you.

Awaz, as a mother, can you just take me back 18 years ago and what that felt like as you were trying to leave and someone suddenly tells you, well, you can't take your daughter.

AWAZ BARWARI: Yeah, I was working with American organizations. Because of that, I end up in a kill list. America decided to evacuate us through the Operation Pacific Heaven. At that time, I was pregnant with my daughter. When I got to the daughter, I already had her. They told me, you can leave, but your daughter cannot leave, because she's not on the list. I said, I'm not leaving without her. So he said, you can toss her to somebody to deliver to your family if you don't have any -- you know, but you cannot take her to the United States. So we end up getting out of the bus and going back home. So he came in to check what's going on. We told him, they're not going to allow our daughter to pass. So he said, what's her name? I gave him her name. He said, no, her name is not Lava anymore. Her name today is Greg. Today, she's going to go to the United States. If I have to, I'll give her my passport and she's going to use it to travel.

BALDWIN: So he was essentially saying use my name, I'm willing to give you a passport just so you can leave with your daughter.

AWAZ BARWARI: Yeah, he put his hand on my shoulder and told me not to worry. Today she's going to be Greg, and if I have to, she's going to go to the United States and I'm going to be here in her place.

BALDWIN: Oh, my goodness. 18 years ago, I'm sure that feels like yesterday.

The lieutenant colonel talked to us. He couldn't join us today so we had to talk to him separately.

And here he is responding to the e-mail, Lava, that you sent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEPIN: I couldn't believe it. I had no idea where they were or how they were faring or anything else. Hadn't heard or seen them or communicated since that day we got them across the border. To get the e-mail and when Lava said this is from baby Greg and explained how she had my name for all these years and her mother told her the story for all these years, then she wanted to find me. I was, one, amazing she could find my name because I wasn't wearing a uniform, and then, two, it was just so rewarding that they're doing so well. It just -- not only did it make my day, but it made my year and my career in the military.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: Made his year, made his career in the military.

Ladies, I mean, to hear that and to see his face.

It almost seemed like he was surprised, you know, Lava, that you took the time, that you knew the story, and wanted to find him.

LAVA BARWARI: Yeah, I mean, I always heard the story as a child, so I knew I wanted to try and find him or at least thank him for everything he did for my family. But him being there was a lot better than I could have ever imagined.

BALDWIN: I can't imagine. He also talked about the challenges you all faced escaping Iraq and starting a new life here in the U.S. Here he is again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEPIN: For them to come to America, if you think about it, when they left Iraq in the circumstances they did, with poor English skills, going to a country they don't know, not even knowing where in the country they're going to end up, no job. Their sole worldly belongings in one suitcase and with a little baby. That takes courage to do that. Absolutely a brave couple. Then to come to America and embrace America, the community of Buford embracing them, and to see them doing so well. Awaz has a master's degree in I.T. Lava graduating from high school and going on to further education. It's just a fantastic feeling they're doing so well and that America has given them the opportunity to do this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I'm watching you, Awaz, watch him. This is 18 years later. Still very emotional for you.

AWAZ BARWARI: It is. I mean, he saved us that day. I have a big, you know, depth of gratitude to him and to U.S. I don't think it's ever going to go away. Because every day is like, you know, reminds me of what he did. Every day I see my daughter is growing up here and embracing life here and achieving her goals. It's a reward. And a gratitude after that to him and for he done to all of us.

BALDWIN: It is so wonderful.