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Chicago Police Officer Charged With Murder; Russian Warplane Shot Down; Paris Terror Investigation. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired November 24, 2015 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:02]

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: An official in the prime minister's office telling CNN that this is, they believe, some sort of terrorist attack. They are not sure who is responsible at this time, but they are investigating it as a terror attack.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Wow. Sara Sidner in Tunis, Tunisia, Sara, thank you so much.

Also, of course, you have what happened in Sinai today in Egypt. We will have that for you a little later.

Let's continue on, though. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN here live in Paris.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BALDWIN: CNN's special coverage of the terror attack that shook this city absolutely to its core.

Let's get right to some breaking news here, a lot of threads coming in just this hour.

Number one, a new suspect has just been identified and a warrant has been issued for his arrest. This is coming to us from Belgium officials, saying, and we have a photo for you, this man, Mohamed Abrini, was captured on camera at a gas station as he was on his way from Brussels to Paris, along with the man police are trying to track down, Salah Abdeslam. This was just two days before the attacks.

Abdeslam is the other suspect who, as I mentioned, is still on the run. Now, police say this man, this other man, this new suspect, he drove to Paris and he actually dropped off one of the suicide bombers who targeted the soccer stadium here. That's number one.

Number two, also breaking tonight, 9:00 hour here in Paris, the French prosecutor is now confirming that this ringleader here of everything, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, returned to the crime scene after the shootings. The visit happened some time before he was killed last week in a Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.

This was during a massive early morning seven-hour police raid.

Let's begin here with Ivan Watson, our CNN international correspondent who is here with me in Paris.

And to add to all of this, number three, we also now know that this ringleader was planning another attack here in Paris.

Tell me where.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right.

The target, according to the French authorities, would have been an area called La Defense. And that's pretty much the financial district of Paris on the west side of the city. The French prosecutors say that Abdelhamid Abaaoud and perhaps at least one other accomplice were planning to attack that location on the night of the 18th or the 19th.

That's exactly when the French police swept in, in their raid in that apartment in Saint-Denis, a raid that ended in some 5,000 rounds of ammunition being used and what is believed to have been a suicide belt going off, and all three suspects in that apartment, including Abaaoud, the suspected organizer of the November 13 plot, all being killed.

The French authorities still haven't identified the third person who was in that apartment. They are still trying to figure that out. But, yes, they have been able to track, Brooke, based on presumably security camera footage and also tracking the cell phones, that the organizer was apparently visiting the scene of the crime after it happened on the night of Friday, November 13, after more than 120 people were killed.

They have also tracked down a little bit more information that one of the suicide bombers who later attacked the French soccer stadium the Stade de France, that he was on the phone multiple times with the phone that they believe that Abaaoud was carrying with him.

And then, as you mentioned, the Belgian investigators have issued a new international arrest warrant. This is for a man named Mohamed Abrini, who they believe he may have in fact dropped off some of the attackers on the night of the devastating attack on the 13th of November here -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: All right, Ivan Watson, thank you very much in Paris with all of these new breaking threads.

I want to bring in Clarissa Ward, who is just now joining me here.

So much happening. In fact, as I was listening to Ivan, I was just told new from the French prosecutor that not only did Abaaoud return to the Bataclan. He returned to that theater as investigators were there that night.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right.

So police and French officials, all the heavy armed security forces, as they were on the scene in the immediate aftermath of that situation...

BALDWIN: He showed up.

WARD: He showed up. He had the audacity, the brazenness to go back to the scene of all of the attacks that he had coordinated in the hours afterwards.

I think this is really kind of shocking for people. And not only that. Not only was he emboldened enough to return to the scene, but we're now learning he was planning another attack. He went to that apartment in Saint-Denis.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: You knew it was urgent. You know it was so imminent, they had to get in there so quickly, because they were planning what?

WARD: They were planning an attack on a French financial district, La Defense. And they were planning it.

[15:05:01]

You remember, Brooke, that that raid took place in that Saint-Denis apartment where one man ultimately detonated a suicide vest, killing himself, killing Abdeslam, killing also the female 26-year-old cousin of Abaaoud. They were planning. That took place on a Wednesday.

We're now hearing from French officials that they were planning this attack for either the Wednesday or the Thursday. So time was very much of the essence. French officials had no time to lose. They needed to get in and they needed to mitigate that situation, because it turns out, in addition to the carnage that Abaaoud wreaked on Paris that Friday night, he was planning for further attacks on either that Wednesday or that Thursday.

What we still don't know -- and it's incredible to be in a situation like this, where the investigation is unfolding and every day, it feels like we're learning about new people that were involved, we still don't know who was the third man in that apartment. Who was he? Who was the man detonated that explosive vest who was supposed to take part in that attack on La Defense, on this financial district inside Paris? We still have no idea.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: And now there's a new suspect who was the driver of the car who they saw in surveillance video who they now have a mug shot of from two nights prior, a new face.

WARD: Right, a new face, a new suspect, also on the loose.

And this is really raising the question, Brooke. And we have heard this from officials over the last -- how are these people still free? How are they still on the run? Have they not been identified? How is Salah Abdeslam, who is believed to the eighth attacker, still on the loose?

The answer that authorities are telling CNN and security analysts is that they must have some kind of network, people who are hiding them, people who are facilitating their movement. This is a major international manhunt and they have still eluded capture.

BALDWIN: Stay with me.

Christiane Amanpour, another voice I want to bring in to this discussion.

And I want to go back two beat to the fact that we have now learned that this ringleader Abaaoud had the audacity really to return to the site of the Bataclan when so many people had been murdered the night of while investigators were on the scene. Why?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, it's hard to know why. It really does sound incredible. And it is.

I'm not sure that we have ever heard of terrorist attacks where that kinds of return to the scene of the crime has taken place. And it just shows this was some kind of an operation whereby the people obviously felt secure enough to go back and forth, but in the end, not clever enough to avoid being captured and to avoid being killed. And obviously that would have been fortunate if indeed that plan to blow the Defense up had actually materialized.

That would have been absolutely horrendous because it's like a little downtown. It's like a little sort of mall and these big industrial buildings just beyond the (INAUDIBLE) so it's very, very lucky that it didn't happen there.

BALDWIN: What about also, Christiane, to Clarissa's point that the fact that Abaaoud has not been count? We now have a new face, a new suspect that authorities are looking for. Clearly, they have help.

AMANPOUR: That must be the case.

I spoke to the Belgian ambassador to the United Nations here in New York yesterday. And, look, there is obviously a real problem in terms of a shortage of manpower, a shortage of resources. Sort of all of that needs to be redirected towards this fight.

And over the past several years, it just hasn't been. There have been, whether it's in France or Belgium or wherever, severe cutbacks in the heart of what is the security apparatus and the intelligence apparatus. And not only that, of course, with the whole, as we have been saying over and again, the raison d'etre of Europe, Schengen, in other words, the free borders, the free ability to cross from country to country, that has also in times of great stress and great terrorism and war being declared on Europe, that obviously is something that is not compatible with the current security situation.

So that's why people are trying to figure out, authorities are trying to figure out what to do about that particular issue and how to make sure that those borders are more secure, but also in each city and in each area that has this threat, to ramp up and to put more money into security and intelligence. And to that end, that is what we're told the Belgians are doing, but for the moment, as you say, one of the attackers at least the one who is known, whose face is known, whose name is known is still out there.

BALDWIN: Back here in Paris, and, Clarissa, I'm turning back to you. We were just talking about this last night. When you were on the roof overlooking where the raid had taken place for hours and hours in Saint-Denis, and I'm wondering what do we know of the suspects from that raid?

WARD: We don't know very much.

I mean, this is the extraordinary thing. In the moments after the raid, in fact, for 48 hours after the raid, we were told that the person who had detonated that vest, killing the people in that apartment, was actually this woman, this 26-year-old cousin of Abaaoud, Hasna Aitboulahcen.

(CROSSTALK)

[15:10:06]

WARD: According to many others, she didn't have a religious background. She was known as a party girl. This was kind of a recent conversion to this sort of austere, extremist vision of Islam.

But then we found out that she wasn't even the person who detonated the vest, that in fact it was this other man inside the apartment. We still don't know who he is. And I have to say what really you feel here -- today, we were just doing live shots. Suddenly, the police right here on Place de la Republique, police came in, evacuated the entire area.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Yes.

WARD: They were fearful that there was some kind of a bomb threat in the metro station. And it's so different to "Charlie Hebdo," where you had this horrible, horrible thing happen. There was a sense of grief. There was a sense of a unified response.

(CROSSTALK)

WARD: There was a sense of catharsis and then France started to move on. But what you're seeing now is so different.

People are asking themselves, is this the new normal in France? Are there going to be bomb -- major...

BALDWIN: You hear sirens just like this.

(CROSSTALK)

WARD: Exactly. And is it going to be this constant knee-jerk panic reaction any time someone calls in a suspicious package? So we're kind of in uncharted territory here, I think, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Stay with me. I have more for you, Clarissa Ward, and also Christiane Amanpour.

Coming up next here, we have more breaking news coming into us here at CNN. Turkey, we have to talk about Turkey shooting down that Russian jet, Vladimir Putin vowing serious consequences, new video now surfacing showing rebels firing shots as these pilots parachute to the ground.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN's special live coverage here from Paris.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:15:38]

BALDWIN: More breaking news. Russia now says it lost a marine and a pilot following the downing of one of its warplanes by Turkey today, Moscow saying one pilot from the downed jet was killed. A marine who had been dispatched to help was also killed.

This video here apparently shows the Turkmen rebels firing at these pilots who ejected from their warplane along the Syrian-Turkish border. Turkey says it downed the plane after Moscow violated its airspace, despite repeated warnings, apparently 10 times in the span of five minutes.

Addressing the situation from the White House, we heard from President Obama just a little while ago. And he said Turkey has a right to defend its airspace, but he hopes this is will not lead to an escalation between Turkey and Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I do think that this points to an ongoing problem with the Russian operations, in the sense that they are operating very close to a Turkish border and they are going after moderate opposition that are supported by not only Turkey, but a wide range of countries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour back with me once again from New York.

Let's back up and talk about Vladimir Putin, because -- and also with us is CNN international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh in Istanbul.

Actually, Nick, let me just begin with you.

Tell me more about the Russians apparently being killed. Do we know how and when?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's important to point out this isn't from Turkish fire.

Now, the Turkish say they used an F-16 to shoot this SU-24 down when they say it went into their airspace and they repeatedly warned it, as you said. We see video of the two pilots then ejecting from the aircraft, so seemingly alive as far as we can tell at that point.

Then they are subjected to heavy fire from the ground, presumably from Syrian Turkmen rebels who are in that area who may have been on the receiving end of the Russian bombing as well before the plane was hit. Now, they apparently -- one of those two was killed by that fire before he even hit the ground.

Then a rescue mission was launched by the Russians. They have got the capability to do that in the area. Two of their helicopters swooped in, video of that around as well, and one of the helicopters was hit it seems also by fire from those same Syrian Turkmen rebels and that fire caused one marine on the helicopter to die and that one helicopter to have to make an emergency landing.

A chain of events begun by the F-16 shooting the Russian plane out of the sky caused the Syrian rebels to be able to kill these Russian soldiers, the first openly acknowledged casualties that Russia has had in its intervention Syria here. And I have to say this is a very complicated piece of airspace.

Efforts made by the Russians and Turkish to try and prevent these kinds of instances, but the Turkish very defiant today, saying, look, we will do whatever we can to defend our airspace. Russia has done this before. We have warned them before. They clearly wanted to ignore us. We had to take this measure. It's what anybody else would have done.

And NATO more or less with de-escalatory rhetoric here, though, backing Turkey up.

BALDWIN: Christiane, Putin says this is a stab in the back. What's his move here?

AMANPOUR: Well, let's wait and see.

Most people do not believe that President Putin would respond militarily. If he does, that's a massive escalation, obviously. Let's face it. This is not just about Turkey and Russia. This is NATO and Russia. It's the first time that this kind of downing of a Russian or Soviet plane by NATO has happened since the 1950s.

So it is a big deal. And obviously that's why they had that emergency meeting in Brussels of NATO officials to try to, as the saying goes, de-escalate all of this. But obviously President Putin is really angry and has said that Turkey-Russia relations will suffer. He has canceled the visit of the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, which was meant to happen I believe tomorrow. That's been canceled.

And of course they are sticking to their story that the plane was inside Syrian territory. We do know that Russia does have a habit of buzzing airspace, of incurring into airspace. The Turks say it has happened several times before. They have warned of it before.

[15:20:07] But we have known even at the height of the Ukraine, Russia, Europe

crisis, Russian planes, fighter jets were incurring into airspace around the Baltics, even around Britain. It was quite hairy for awhile. But what President Obama said was that this actually shows that actually Russia is creeping too close to the Turkish border and the operations in that area, he says, are not against ISIS, but against opposition forces arranged against Syria's Assad.

They have used this crisis not just to call for de-escalation, but to insist again that Russia does what it promised it would do, and that is attack ISIS and not bolster Bashar Assad. So that's the subtext to all of this as well.

BALDWIN: Right. I heard President Obama saying there was the potential for cooperation, but because Russia is propping up Assad, that's off the table right now.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: What about as you -- go ahead.

AMANPOUR: Well, they do want to cooperate, but President Obama said that Russia is the outlier here. It's Russia, Assad, Iran vs. the United States and more than a dozen members of the coalition, and, of course, France as well standing with the U.S. clearly after this Paris attack, President Hollande and President Obama both together in Washington.

And Hollande asking for more coordinated attack against ISIS. And he will be going to Russia, I believe it's Thursday, to talk to President Putin. And all this will obviously come up. But there is no one coalition at the moment. It's Russia in the sky and then it's the U.S., France and all the others who are joining the U.S. coalition.

So that definitely, according to experts, needs to be streamlined. And, of course, also Russia is basically trying to say that it's freeing up Assad forces to fight ISIS. But President Obama and President Hollande pushed back against that narrative because that doesn't seem to be what's happening, and President al-Assad is responsible for the majority of the killings in Syria now and during the last 4.5 years of this war.

BALDWIN: Big week for Hollande, White House, Germany, Russia, and Ban Ki-Moon. Christiane Amanpour, you will be on it. I appreciate that.

Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much as well.

Next, breaking news out of Chicago, a city that's truly been on edge. Today, a police officer was charged with first-degree murder in the death of a teenager who was shot 16 times last October, this as the city could be hours away from releasing this police dash-cam video of what happened. Incredibly graphic video could be released for the very first time in public. We will take you live to Chicago next on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [15:27:08]

BALDWIN: An Illinois judge just denied bond to a Chicago police officer charged with first-degree murder. This is a case, according to some in the city, that really threatens to tear Chicago apart.

Officer Jason Van Dyke turned himself in this morning. Let me take you back to last October. This is when this happened. Van Dyke shot and killed this 17-year-old by the name of Laquan McDonald, firing 16 times.

The teenager, according to police, was wielding a knife, a four-inch knife, acting erratically, and even slashed a police patrol car tire. Minutes ago, the prosecutor there in Cook County detailed the final moments of McDonald's life and how little time there was, she says, from when the officer showed up on the scene to when this young man died.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANITA ALVAREZ, COOK COUNTY STATE'S ATTORNEY: Officer Van Dyke was on the scene for less than 30 seconds before he started shooting, in addition to the fact that all evidence indicates that he began shooting approximately six seconds after getting out of his vehicle.

An analysis of the video establishes that 14 to 15 seconds passed from the time the defendant fired his first shot to clear visual evidence of a final shot. For approximately 13 of those seconds, Laquan was lying on the ground. On the right, of the eight are more officers on the scene, it was only the defendant who fired his weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now Chicago city leaders are bracing for protests. Why? Because a judge has ordered that the city release by tomorrow police dash-cam video of the killing itself. It's being called graphic.

Obviously, given the nature of what is contained in the video, it's incredibly difficult to watch.

I have Ryan Young standing by in Chicago outside of that courthouse.

And, Ryan, besides the officer being denied bond, tell me what else happened in that hearing.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, honestly, I can you tell the whole narrative has changed. This is the first time the public has gotten a chance to hear some of this evidence that the state's attorney talked about.

The idea that the officer fired shots, and only two of the shots hits Laquan McDonald as he was standing. The bulk of the shots hit him as he was on the ground. Other officers report that they didn't feel that Laquan McDonald was actually a threat.

And the backup officer actually kicked the knife out of his hand. So, this is a larger conversation happening in this community. Everybody desperately wants to see this video. After the description, though, it's going to be hard for a lot of people to watch, especially after so many people in this community had had to fight to get this video.

The narrative always has been that the officer was defending his life when he opened fire. Elgie Sims is a representative here in this community.

Look, you have lived here your entire life. You also do have news about this video that this whole community is bracing for.

ELGIE SIMS (D), ILLINOIS STATE REPRESENTATIVE: Absolutely.

We're looking forward to seeing the video tomorrow. By 3:00, the video is supposed to be released. This is very difficult. These are very difficult times. And we want the community to come out. We expect the community to be outraged and demand answers.