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Ferguson Marches Remember Teenager Michael Brown; Fading Hope In Syria Despite Strikes Against ISIS; U.S. Lawmakers' Visit Sponsored By Pro-Israel Lobby; France Steps Up Search For MH370 Plane Debris; Police Hold News Conference On Protest Shooting; Trump Refuses To Apologize For Kelly Comment. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired August 10, 2015 - 03:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: On edge, gunfire erupts in Ferguson, Missouri after a day of mostly peaceful protest on the one year anniversary of teenager, Michael Brown's death.

A surge of violence in Turkey's largest city as a police station and the U.S. Consulate come under attack.

And the Donald defiant, the presidential candidate refusing to apologize after controversial comments aimed at a female journalist.

Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Rosemary Church and this is CNN NEWSROOM.

And we begin this hour with an all too familiar scene out of Ferguson, Missouri reminiscent of images one year ago, during protests on the anniversary of the police shooting death of teenager, Michael Brown gunfire erupted.

Some of the shots were fired while the interim police chief was giving an interview. CNN's Sara Sidner was there. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we just want to be as patient as possible --

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): I was standing with the affiliate taking video of the chief talking the new interim chief talking about how they want this to be peaceful and making sure that the police are doing their job and they want to clear the street.

As he is talking about things being more calm and peaceful shots ring out a few hundred yards from where the chief and many officers and protesters were standing down West Florissant. So what you hear is a burst of gunfire over and over again.

Just after that we took cover. The police were there as well. And behind us there was another blast of gunfire. Two separate incidents that I was here and witnessed happening as people were crouched down behind cars and everyone in the street started running as police were told to get out of the middle of the street. They were in a very bad spot with no cover.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And here is some of the damage on several cars hit by those bullets. The St. Louis Police Department reports there was an officer-involved shooting and no officers were injured.

On Sunday, hundreds of people gathered for a moment of silence and a peaceful march to remember Michael Brown. Polo Sandoval reports on how Ferguson is now coping with that fateful day.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Frustrations haven't faded in Ferguson. Just about everywhere you look in this small Missouri city, there are signs of a community still healing after Michael Brown was shot and killed by then Police Officer Darren Wilson.

While Wilson was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing, his actions ignited a fiery national debate about race relations. On the streets of Ferguson people called for change within police ranks.

Seven months after Brown's death, a report from the Department of Justice found discriminatory practices within Ferguson PD among other problems with city government. A level of peace has been since been restored according to activist Jay Johnson.

JAY JOHNSON, ACTIVIST: I would say it is still pretty tense. There is a lot of work to be done, but the conversations are happening, which is important.

SANDOVAL (on camera): Next to the makeshift memorial a more permanent reminder of last year's shooting. It's right next to the spot where Michael Brown fell. If you take a close look it's a lone bronze dove set in concrete. It's a symbol of the peace that this community has struggled to regain the last year.

ANDRE ANDERSON, FERGUSON POLICE CHIEF: I wish we had peace. We don't need this. No one needs this. It's not just the police officers I'm concerned about. I'm concerned about everyone.

SANDOVAL (voice-over): Ferguson's new interim police chief, Andre Anderson, feels the winds of change are blowing through Ferguson. New policies have been put in place to improve police relations with the community, city officials identified by the DOJ's scathing report were replaced in order to regain the trust of the people.

ANDERSON: I think the police department is doing a good job of getting rid of people that have caused those types of problems.

[03:05:09] SANDOVAL: Protesters continue their call for justice at the very spot where it all started a year ago. They live with their lives in the shadow of a lasting call for change. Reporting in Ferguson, Missouri, I'm Polo Sandoval.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: We'll continue to keep an eye on that story.

This just into CNN news, police have arrested one of two people suspected of shooting at the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul. Turkey's semiofficial news agency says there are no casualties. Police have been searching the neighborhood surrounding the compound. So far we haven't received details on the suspect or what prompted the attack. We'll keep an eye on that story as well.

We turn now to the fight against ISIS and the United States has sent half a dozen F-16 war planes to Turkey where they will be used in the air campaign against the terror group. The air base is close to the Syrian border, which makes the strikes against ISIS faster by reducing flight times. Turkey agreed to let the U.S. use its facilities and air space last month when the country officially entered the war against ISIS.

Turkey's base could be an advantage when targeting ISIS from the air of course, but the situation on the ground remains grim. The U.S. cannot account for the small group of Syrian rebels it has trained and deployed and ISIS has overrun another Syrian city. CNN Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr has more.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: U.S. military action over the skies of Syria is about to ramp up, but will it be enough?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STARR (voice-over): U.S. air strikes against ISIS in Syria could be launched from this Turkish air base within days according to U.S. officials. This section of the border, U.S. intelligence calculates new ISIS fighters are still entering Syria as fast as the U.S. can kill them. On the ground, U.S. strategy rests on the shoulders of just 54 U.S.-trained moderate Syrian rebels.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are trying to protect this very small force as it's on the early stages of building combat power.

STARR: The official Pentagon word, the group is eager to fight and thwarted a recent al-Qaeda attack. The reality, up to half are missing, they may have deserted, fled after the attack or been captured. One defense official admitting to CNN, quote, "They are no longer a coherent military unit."

SETH JONES, RAND CORPORATION: They are not accompanied by U.S. forces in the field, which means they are going to get limited training, no equipment and the vast majority of U.S. train, advise, assist missions require embedded forces in the field.

STARR: Privately Pentagon officials say something has to change in how the U.S. aids the rebels.

JONES: This breaks basically every train, advice, and assist rule that special operations forces have learned. STARR: And ISIS still grabbing territory. Activists say in this western Syrian town more than 200 people have been abducted up to 500 unaccounted for. CNN cannot independently verify those claims.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Today marks the one-year anniversary of the commencement of air strikes in Iraq against ISIL targets.

STARR: There have been gains but Iraqi forces still trying desperately to retake lost ground. Here in Baji where there is a critical oil refinery, U.S. officials privately acknowledge that ISIS is now massing forces, gearing up for a new counter attack. (END VIDEOTAPE)

STARR: One year after the U.S. bombing campaign against ISIS began, still the same question, what will it take to roll back the momentum that ISIS still has?

CHURCH: Barbara Starr reporting there. For many Syrians hope is fading that these air strikes will make a difference in the overall fight. Frederik Pleitgen traveled to Damascus to see how people are coping with the war in the capital city.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As America ramps up its campaign against ISIS with additional jets taking off from a Turkish airbase, many people that we speak to in the government-controlled part of Damascus believe that these air strikes will make little difference and many feel that America's actions in Syria are aimed against the Assad government.

(voice-over): America always helps the terrorists this man says, they're hiding behind them. America wants to change things but doesn't do it openly.

[03:10:03] Air strikes are not enough, this man adds. Whenever the U.S. hits ISIS, they just go underground.

(on camera): What you would find here in the past is that people were optimistic that the civil war would be over very soon. When you speak to them today many of them couldn't fathom that groups like ISIS could make it here to Damascus.

But many believe that the conflict will go on for a very long time. Everything is possible in the country nowadays, this woman says. You can't say that something will definitely be avoided, but we hope we continue to stop ISIS.

When you go through the streets of Damascus, you can tell that people are trying to keep an air of normalcy, the cafes are full and people are out. But you can feel that people know what is going on the battlefield. They keep track and up to date and they hope that there will be a negotiated solution to this conflict. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Damascus.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: A large group of U.S. lawmakers is in Israel to talk about the Iran nuclear deal, 22 Democratic members of Congress met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, 36 Republicans arrive in Israel later today. The visit comes just days after a prominent Democrat, Charles Schumer, came out against the deal.

Meanwhile U.S. President Barack Obama is trying to rally support for the agreement. Here's what he told CNN's Fareed Zakaria.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Because people haven't been getting all the information. It's a complicated piece of business and we are negotiating with a regime that chants "death to America" and doesn't have a high approval rating here in the United States.

But the people who know most about the central challenge that we're trying to deal with, which is making sure that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon, they are overwhelmingly in favor of it experts in nuclear proliferation and nuclear scientists, former ambassadors, Democrat and Republican.

And as a consequence one of my main tasks over the last several weeks and this will continue into September, is to make sure that people know and understand that this is a diplomatic breakthrough that ensures that we are cutting off all the pathways by which Iran might get a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: CNN's Oren Lieberman is in Jerusalem and he joins us now live with the latest on the visits. Oren, how likely is it that these Democrats have been influenced in any way by the Israeli prime minister to vote against the run deal? Is there any way of knowing that?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is supposed to be a press conference from those 22 Democrats this morning which might have given us insight into what they're thinking, how their meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meant yesterday and if he was able to sway any of these 22 Democrats.

Some of whom are considered swing votes on the Iran deal when it comes to a vote in mid-September, but that press conference was called off. We haven't got that insight. We know that they met with Prime Minister Netanyahu who has been fighting against the deal since the very beginning.

He pushed against the framework deal, the final deal, and now he is aiming at Congress. He knows he has broad support from the Republicans and is expected to meet with that delegation this week when they are here.

But he is pushing on the Democrats. He has won at least the support of Senator Charles Schumer. One of the big Democratic names in Congress, who says he will vote against the deal. Now the question, how many of these 22 Democrats will he sway?

That will be his goal to see if he can convince any of them to vote against the deal. It comes down to the math. President Obama needs the numbers if he has to override -- if he has to use a presidential veto to override Congress voting against the deal.

He is fighting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is trying to rally support against the deal. Although we haven't got insight yet the final tell all will be what they vote in mid-September. That's when we will know if the visit affected any of the 22 Democrats here right now.

CHURCH: We know you will be watching that carefully. Oren Lieberman joining us there live from Jerusalem, many thanks to you.

The final hearing in Iran's secretive trial against journalist, Jason Rezaian, is set to take place today. "The Washington Post" reporter has been in custody for more than a year accused of espionage saw but authorities in Iran have not provided any proof of any charges. "The Washington Post" has denied the accusations.

Malaysian authorities say they found potential debris from MH370 on Reunion Island.

[03:15:05] We'll have more on the intensifying search for that missing airliner. That's still to come. Do stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. In New Mexico, a hiking trip came to a tragic end after a family got caught in blistering heat. Authorities say a mother, a father, and a child, who are French citizens were hiking in the White Sands National Monument.

Temperatures there can top 37 degrees Celsius or 100 degrees Fahrenheit. That is very hot. The mother felt ill, turned back and died on the way to the family car. The father and son walked on unaware that she had collapsed.

When authorities found her body they searched her phone and realized she was not alone. They later found her husband who also died and their son who miraculously survived that intense heat.

Turning now to Reunion Island, where France is stepping up the search for debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Malaysian officials say they found a number of items that appear to be from the missing jet.

[03:20:09] Officials from the Maldives is working with Malaysia to identify potential debris. I want to head over to CNN's Anna Coren is covering the latest from Hong Kong.

Hi, there, Anna. Talk about the debris. We have a window and another item, but they haven't been sent on to France for investigators to look at. Why is that? ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rosemary, we just don't know. Obviously last week, Malaysian authorities said they found this extra debris on Reunion Island. They obviously have teams on the ground there, as you say, part of a window, as well as a cushion -- seat cushion that they think may be linked to the missing plane.

Now, French authorities seemed to contradict this saying that they were unaware of this new debris and it certainly had not been sent to France for further analysis. But the Malaysians insist that this debris needs to be looked at.

And as result, obviously, authorities there taking the search much more seriously. They are expanding it. We know that the French military have sent out planes to scour the ocean. There are obviously land searches on the island and naval boats as well that are looking offshore.

Now apart from Reunion Island, which drift models show that if there is debris coming from that area where the underwater search is happening off the coast of Australia 4,000 kilometers from that search, Madagascar and the Maldives and Mauritius Islands are also looking for debris that may have washed up on shore.

This dates back to the wing flap part, the flaperon, the Malaysian government confirmed it is part of MH370. All teams on the ground in that region determined to find further debris.

CHURCH: And Anna, we see these divisions. We're not seeing Malaysia and France on the same page here. The flaperon confirmed by Malaysia but France hasn't confirmed that. And of course we're seeing them apparently pulling in opposite directions. What is happening there?

COREN: Yes, it seems that the Malaysians are very gung ho in wanting to close this mystery or solve it, if you like. They are convinced that that wing part is part of MH370, the plane that disappeared 17 months ago.

The maintenance seal and a serial number they have detected on the plane. But we have to remember that there are other analysts at that lab in Toulouse that are still looking at that wing part saying there is a high probability that it is part of MH370, but they have yet to confirm it.

They are being a lot more cautious than what the Malaysians are. And as we have been discussing this has created more tension and anger and more hurt and distress for the families involved. They just want confirmation and clarity across all divisions.

Not just from the Malaysians, but they also want to hear it from the French, the Australians and the Americans too.

CHURCH: It has been a nightmare for those families. More than 500 days of waiting for some sort of confirmation. We'll continue to follow this story. Many thanks to our Anna Coren reporting there live from Hong Kong. China and Taiwan are coping with the aftermath of Typhoon Soudelor. China's state TV reports 14 storm-related deaths. Four people are missing. The typhoon weakened Saturday as it moved inland, but it still caused severe flooding.

Before Soudelor hit China it made landfall in Taiwan as one of the strongest storms to hit anywhere in the world so far this year. And this amateur video shows an apparent twister caused by Soudelor. The storm killed at least seven people in Taiwan.

The flooding threat from what is left of the storm is still extremely high. We have our Pedram Javaheri here to talk to us about that. I mean, the danger isn't over for a lot of people.

[03:25:02] PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's the rainfall that kills people. The rainfall, the continuing rainfall we are expecting. Some of the areas have seen rainfall that you would see in Seattle, London, Paris, sometimes in two years in total they have seen from Saturday to Sunday.

As the soil is saturated the concern is Tuesday to Wednesday some of the land masses, a lot of hillside communities could be susceptible to landslides and flooding. We'll show you the totals. Look at the perspective.

Rosemary, sharing with you the images coming out of the area of a tornado touching down over portions of Taipei, this is in Southern Taiwan. I'm not sure if we have the footage for you, but showing you exactly what is happening when it comes with the rotation.

Multiple storms, we have a severe pattern taking place that sparks a few tornados. Not unusual to see it but a scary sight as a vehicle was driving in front of the dash cam camera. Over 1300 millimeters of rainfall, 38 inches is normal in Seattle, one of the cities with a dubious distinction for the rainfall.

You compare it to Saturday and Sunday in this region. And the storm makes landfall at 4:00 in the morning local time. And now it's spreading over Eastern China. And the concern is this rainfall especially over the next two days heavy at times could cause lot of problems.

The temperatures staying around 30 Celsius which is around 86 degrees Fahrenheit. This is unusual the number of storms to date. Typhoons, ten, and six is normal to date and supertyphoons have been above the normal.

And a hurricane near the Hawaiian islands. It's 9:30 in the even on Sunday, but Hurricane Hilda is approaching the islands. It is going to weaken, but if you are watching from the big island of Hawaii look at the wind and the waves get up to 15 to 20 feet on Friday into Saturday.

You know the surfers are going to be loving life. And the storms if you have been to the Hawaiian islands, the water is too cool unlike in the Caribbean but it will kick up good waves out there. CHURCH: Good for them. Many thanks to you, Pedram. Talk to you soon.

No apologies from Donald Trump. The U.S. Republican presidential candidate says he is standing by his comments about a television host. That story, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:31:20]

CHURCH: A warm welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

I want to check the headlines for you this hour. New reports of more gunfire in Ferguson, Missouri and CNN's Sara Sidner says police are using tear gas. Earlier tonight shots were fired during protests on the one-year anniversary of the shooting death of teenager, Michael Brown. Let's go to the news conference now.

CHIEF JON BELMAR, ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI POLICE: First and foremost, obviously, this individual is not identified yet. We don't know exactly who he is. We're working on that. I would imagine it's a male who is about 20 years old. That's a range. So we're going to get that out. So we don't know who the family is or anything like this.

These are tragedies. Make no mistake. A tragedy for the man who was shot and for his family and for the officers involved in this. So this evening we had reports of looting on West Florissant. We had a situation where a couple businesses had been broken into.

In fact, one business they went into and took the cash register out and dumped it in the street. We had really no presence down there at the time other than roving patrols. We had two state cars, two county cars and two Ferguson cars running the corridor.

They ran in from time to time to congestion with pedestrians through there but trying to keep up the patrol to provide security for the businesses. When the damage to the properties and burglaries occurred we deployed a pod system which in this case would have been five cars together.

It was raining. We were hoping to keep the officers inside the cars, staggered probably every 35 yards but just right there for a couple blocks where everything seems to be happening. And we're going to do that on both sides.

We accomplished that on the east side of it and were able to lock that down tight. But on the west side a lot of people were lingering there at that point. Several of you were there I'm sure. We decided to bring more cars in to do the same system on the west. We brought cars in from the north to the south.

But when they got in front of Sam's Market they were hit with bricks and bottles and a few things like that. They turned around and staged to the north. It didn't look like it was going to be doable.

Chief Anderson wanted to bring in cars from the south with red lights and sirens on in an effort to see if this could move the crowd. But when that happened, the crowd took off toward the police cars and it didn't have the intended effect.

We ended up being kind of in a stalemate at Ferguson and West Florissant. I say this because the people that were there in front of the police cars, several were unhappy and different things like that. But we didn't really have -- until we had a few glass bottles.

When that happened and shattered near the officers then we switched them out to get their helmets on and different things like that. In the meantime, plain-clothed detectives were further down to the north from where we were at the time at Ferguson and West Florissant.

[03:35:02] And they are monitoring an individual in the crowd that they believed was armed. They believed three to four of his acquaintances were armed also. They put a 1068 or informational bulletin out over the radio that this individual was armed and we should be aware of it in that area.

The concern of the plain-clothed detective at the time was that are we going to get in a situation where perhaps shots could be fired at the skirmish line because the officers are pretty much just standing there. They are standing behind a lot of the folks that are out there protesting and voicing their opinions.

So I don't know exactly what time it was but some was captured on local media. Several shots rang out. I'm guessing 40, 50, probably over 45 seconds. It could have been a little bit longer than that. So that was an exchange of gunfire between two groups.

These groups were on the west side of West Florissant near the Sam's Market. At the same time, these plain-clothes detectives are located one building to the south of where the actual shooting is going to take place.

An individual they have been tracking crosses the street. He gets all the way to the shoulder. They think at the time that he probably gathers himself and he's going to go back across the street.

They turn out in an SUV, an unmarked SUV, but it has interior red and blue lights that are illuminated when they come out. The suspect engages them in gunfire strikes the hood. I don't know if you have seen pictures yet.

Three or four times strike the windshield four or five times. The plain-clothed detectives return fire from inside the van but they don't know if they hit him or not. They don't really know. The suspect ran to the east on the north side of that building.

He turned back around as the detectives got out of the car. The shots were fired again. He ran around behind the building out of the south, that's a fenced area back there. There was really nowhere to go at that point. He engaged the officer at the time. There were four offices in that van. All four fired at the suspect and the suspect fell there. The suspect is in a local hospital. He is in critical, unstable condition, in surgery. The officers were wearing -- while they are plain-clothed officers they were wearing vests that said police on them at the time.

There was another plain-clothed unit in the area. It has one gunshot to the front of it. But I can't say if that's from this suspect or the other gunfire or whatever else would have happened there. We don't know of any other people have been shot.

It's hard to tell. We heard rumors of this but sometimes this information is not good. It's less than reliable. I was there when this happened up toward Ferguson Avenue. So I can tell you -- and maybe you were there too, I don't know.

But I can tell you that there were -- it was a remarkable amount of gunfire. The other thing that was interesting was that while this shooting took place, where the detectives were involved in. There was still the shooting across the street to the west.

So this wasn't the culmination of all the shooting. This was pretty much in the middle of everything while it was happening. So the detectives -- four detectives range from six years' experience to 12 years' experience.

They're going to be placed on administrative leave until we can have them evaluated and make sure they are fit for duty. I think one of the things here that I underscored at the beginning that while this is a tragedy for the family of this man and certainly for the officers involved.

And it is truly a tragedy. There is a small group of people out there that are intent on making sure that we don't have peace that prevails. I don't know how else to say that. But that's just -- that's just the bottom line on this. And that's unfortunate.

Even with the folks that were in the streets last night, listen, you know, a lot of emotions. I get it. But this is something different. And we can't sustain this as a community as we move forward.

We have other individuals out there who are armed right now that are part of this group. We need the public's help. We can't do it by ourselves. We have to have the community out here helping us and working with us to identify this and make this stop.

[03:40:06] If you know who these people are and if you can help the police, if you have video of this and you can give it to the police department to assist us, we would love to have that. We cannot continue.

We can't talk about the good things that we have been talking about over the last year since last year's events, if we're prevented from moving forward with this type of violence. It's untenable at this point. So I'll go ahead and answer a few questions if you have them or as many as you have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were body cameras in play?

BELMAR: These were plain-clothed officer. We have 75 and give them to the special operations people. We give them to some of the street officers in two precincts and until we can attain more, I mean, that is what we have. I have 865 officers. So they didn't have them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just to be clear about what happened. There was a shooting between two groups of people on the west side in the McDonald's area around there. And what happened was on the other side unrelated to --

BELMAR: He was one of the shooters involved in that situation. He left that situation, looked like he was trying to extricate himself from that situation. I think he thought maybe I can go back across the street. But about that time here comes the officers and he encounters them right there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it's your thought that he shot at them --

BELMAR: He had a stolen 9 millimeter Sig Sauer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the individual who was involved in the shooting between the two groups he wasn't being pursued by anyone in the two groups when he said --

BELMAR: I think he was being pursued. I think he was afraid he was going to be shot and that's why he crossed the road. I can only speculate on that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did your officers track down the other shooters?

BELMAR: No, they didn't. Immediately at the point in time when the officers that were involved in the shooting certainly didn't because they were involved with him. And then we had gone to that side -- the east side of West Florissant to render assistance to that scene and got across the street to the west.

And we did see several people running toward Canfield Apartments, I did. I saw that along with my other officers when we got there that you could see running off in the distance. The scene wasn't secure for quite a while.

It took a while to understand exactly whether it had stopped at this point. Once you get off West Florissant it is very dark.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was the race of the officers?

BELMAR: I'm not going to comment at all on the officer. They are six to 12-year veterans. They are accomplished enough to be in specialized units. And you know, this is something that we're going to look at as far as policy and given to the prosecuting attorney's office at some point regarding to the justification of this shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any idea what the fighting was going on between the shooters?

BELMAR: No, you know, the night before last in front of the police station we had heard that a group had become agitated with each other because one individual was in the crowd and he was the -- the folks that were there didn't appreciate the fact that he, they, whatever, were armed.

That may have been part of it, but this is one of the situations that I talked about earlier. We can't afford to have this kind of violence if we are going to move forward in the right direction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you explain the details that the officers were in?

BELMAR: They are plain-clothed unit. They have the ability from time to time to move with a little more, you know, they are more fluid and agile that the marked cars. It's a tool we use. I'll get back to you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you offer more detail about the two shootings on Canfield?

BELMAR: Five minutes before I walked in here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tony Rice posted on Twitter a video that was detained, got arrested. Is that the video of the suspect that we're talking about?

BELMAR: That's it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you talk about the use of rubber bullets or tear gas later at either of the two?

BELMAR: We don't have rubber bullets or shoot rubber bullets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Or bean bags?

[03:45:00] BELMAR: We have bean bags but not rubber bullets. I know that smoke has been used. Smoke is what I have been told.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With the plain clothes officers there to monitor protesters or looking for shooters?

BELMAR: They are a backup for the police department to look for things that are unusual. It's not real difficult to monitor the protesters. You know, they're out there and we can see them. They're not trying to hide anything. That's the beauty of it.

That's why we exercise our first-amendment rights. The other part is it is troubling when we find the guns and the gunfire that is associated from time to time with this. I think that is kind of unique when it comes to demonstration and protest.

And it certainly makes it very difficult to manage. It really does. You know, we're working closely with Chief Anderson from the Ferguson Police Department. He has been on the ground for just a couple weeks. I'm working with the senior staff of the Highway Patrol and my senior staff. We just want to have this conversation and move forward without the violence that unfortunately from time to time has been attributed to this again by a very small group of people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Were there any other injuries tonight?

BELMAR: I had an officer that was treated. I don't know if he went to the hospital or not. He took a brick to the face.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Any arrests?

BELMAR: I'm sure there have been some arrests, but I don't know the answer to that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you do going forward planning for later today or tonight or tomorrow night? Is this going to change your strategy in how to contain this or deal with it?

BELMAR: We're going to exercise patient and professionalism and bearing. I'm proud of the officers and the way they acted tonight from time to time in the face of quite a bit of rebuke but it's they did good.

They have seen it more than any other law enforcement in the nation at this point. They understand that. They understand what their job is. It's our job to get together tonight, this morning, rather and as a staff and talk about what it is going to look like.

But it's my intention to preserve life, property and everybody's first amendment and all our rights. We're going to continue that the best we possibly can. And my prayer is that we can move forward without the violence that is unfortunately been associated with this because -- the stakes are very high here.

I've talked a lot about the fact. You cannot do this forever without a tragedy and, yet, we have another one. And I think in my mind it was avoidable. This didn't have to happen. There are too many people that worked too hard.

I'm not talking about the police department but people in the community, they work too hard for this to happen and be undermined. I meet with these groups weekly. I shook their hands this morning and the day before. This is an impediment to positive change.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know why the gentleman shot (inaudible).

BELMAR: Yes, because at the time we were not secure at all back there. We didn't understand if there were going to be more shooters. We didn't understand what the north side of the building was going to look like at the time. So it was very dynamic.

No officers at the time could ensure the safety of the public of anybody. And if you want to shoot your video when we ask you to get back, please just comply and get back. But at that time we don't have time to argue with people or debate it. You need to get back. That's the easiest way to explain it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many shots the suspect fired at the officers?

BELMAR: I don't have any idea. There are shell casings on both sides of West Florissant. It's a number of shell casings at this point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't have a sense of how many guns were used?

BELMAR: I would think that probably -- and again, please understand I don't have the benefit of some information I'm going to have later, but there were probably six shooters on the other side of the street.

From what I was told, we looked at some video which showed gunfire coming from a couple different flash points, muzzle flashes is what I mean by that. I don't know. I would be speculating if I tried to answer that.

There were several people shooting. There were several rounds shot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The shooters all in that strip mall on that side of the street?

BELMAR: They all, yes, everybody seemed really to be together right there and that was kind of an area that I looked at and thought and I wasn't alone. But that could be a problem.

[03:50:09] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were outside not inside?

BELMAR: They were outside not inside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it fair to say that this shooting, the shooters were not part of the protests, they were not protesters.

BELMAR: They were criminals. Protesters are affect change. That's not what is happening here with folks that are doing that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this -- and on the smoke thing can you tell us why smoke was deployed tonight?

BELMAR: I could get in a long dissertation, I won't. Sometimes you can't tell the difference between smoke and tear gas. We tried to use it also as a warning, you know --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But did a lot of people gather?

BELMAR: Yes, I guess, it has been pretty dynamic down there right now. I haven't been down there since about midnight. I kind of know what's going on. I know it's a problem and I know my deputy chief called me and said they had their hands full.

And I don't know much beyond that. Again, I would ask for patience because we really -- this community, where this is happening, are folks that invested a lot of money in their businesses.

Everything they have, their livelihood is wrapped up in those. It's unfortunate this happened there. Ladies and gentlemen, I appreciate your time and patience. Thank you so much.

CHURCH: It is 2:51 in the morning Central Time, 3:51 here on the east coast. St. Louis county police chief there, John Belmar, speaking at that news conference on the gunfire that was heard in Ferguson overnight.

He told us the suspect who shot at plain clothes officers was shot by police and is critical unstable condition in hospital undergoing surgery at this hour. He talked about shots being fired between two particular groups.

Didn't clarify on that, but he did say that it's a small group of people who are intent on ensuring that peace does not prevail. He called on the community there to help identify who those individuals might be.

So that they can do something about that to try and bring peace and calm to the region. The police chief also said he doesn't know of any other people who were shot in the course of the night, of course, these were peaceful protests that turned tragically in this way.

How many arrests? He wasn't able to clarify that but hopefully we'll be able to get more details on that. We'll continue to follow that story, of course.

But just very quickly, Donald Trump has no apologies to offer over a potentially sexist comment he made about U.S. journalist, Megyn Kelly. Kelly was a moderator at last week's Republican debate. Trump complained on CNN about the way Kelly questioned him especially over his treatment of women. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via telephone): She gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions and you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her -- wherever. But she was, in my opinion, she was off base.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Critics thought he was suggesting that Kelly was tough on him because she was menstruating. Trump insists his critics are misinterpreting him. Kelly says she was just doing her job.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEGYN KELLY, FOX NEWS: I'm a big girl. I can take it. As I say, I think -- I understand why people get upset. The stakes are very high here. We're talking about the oval office and they really like the candidate they like. And they don't want to see the candidate take any hits.

That is the way you feel and get to feel if you are just a voter as opposed to the journalist. We're not allowed to feel like that and take those considerations into mind when we craft these debate questions. We have to hit them as hard as we can at this stage so the voters can figure out who's our guy? Like the Republicans are trying to figure out who is our guy or gal?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Trump is standing by his words in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday he said his statements about Kelly were misunderstood and her questions were unfair.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: She was very angry because I bested her with a question that was a very unfair question. So she was very angry and when I was speaking about it on a CNN show, by the way, which was interesting, but I was speaking about her.

[03:55:06] I said, blood was pouring from her eyes or out of her eyes which is a very common statement and I said the same thing about Chris Wallace.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: You did.

TRUMP: But I said the exact same thing --

TAPPER: But then you said blood coming out of her wherever.

TRUMP: I said blood was pouring from -- wherever I wanted to get off the whole thing and back on the subject of jobs. I didn't say anything because I didn't finish the thought. I was going to say nose and/or ears because that is a common statement. It's a statement showing anger.

She had great anger when she was questioning me especially since I mentioned something. That was the Rosie O'Donnell statement which everybody said was by far the loudest applause of the entire day of all of the speakers. I think you would agree. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Fox News declined to comment to CNN this weekend. But the cable network's owner tweeted his praise of the debate moderators and criticizing Trump. He tweeted fine journalism, no more, no less, friend Donald has to learn this is public life.

And many thanks for watching CNN, I'm Rosemary Church. "EARLY START" is coming up for viewers in the U.S. and for viewers elsewhere, stay tuned for more CNN NEWSROOM.

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