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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Chicago on Edge: Video Released of Black Teen's Shooting; New Gut-Wrenching Account of Events in Bataclan Theater. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired November 26, 2015 - 12:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:31:02] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: We have new video from a police shooting that puts the city of Chicago on edge. It shows those moments before and after 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was shot to death.

And I do want to warn you, you're going to see some disturbing images. They are not for families. These pictures were first obtained by the Chicago tribune.

The first clip comes from Officer Jason Van Dyke's own dash cam. The video is blurry and there is no audio but you can see Laquan running in front of a Burger King. And again, this is the officer's perspective. And the next video you're about to see is from another police dash cam and it is much more difficult to watch this.

You can see on the right-hand side of your screen that that's Laquan lying on the street. He is now at this point dead after being shot 16 times in a matter of just 15 seconds. And by this time, several police officers have gathered. All of this happening October 20th of last year.

Officer Van Dyke, the police officer who fired every single one of those shots, kept his job until just earlier this week. In fact, he kept it until the very day that he was charged with first-degree murder.

Last night, protesters gathered in Chicago and while most were peaceful, there were some instances like this where Christmas trees were vandalized, lights were pulled off the city Christmas tree. And there were four arrests throughout the night. Again, only four arrests throughout the night.

Laquan's death and the video is stirring up a lot of emotions, including the Chicago police superintendent who pointed out that this is a twofold strategy -- or tragedy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARRY MCCARTHY, CHICAGO POLICE SUPERINTENDENT: It's tragic anytime. And unfortunately, you know, videos like this are going to stay in the forefront for a very long time. So my reaction is as a human being, not even as a police officer or as a boss. As a police officer, I see it as a tragic failure on a number of different levels.

As I said, this young man was failed on a number of different levels in his lifetime. And, you know, there's no reason that it had to end up the way that it did. And what is it that we could do as a society and as a police department to prevent it from happening in the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Our Ryan Young is live right now in Chicago. He joins me to talk about this. You know, it's really profound to hear, Ryan, the superintendent speaking this way, particularly when he said these words. "This young man was failed on a number of different levels." Walk me through that, Ryan. Tell me a little bit about Laquan's life.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know what. I actually had that conversation with the superintendent when he granted us that interview. One of the things that struck me so far during all the protest is I've seen people on the streets crying for Laquan at this point. But it seems like quite honestly this young man should have had someone as an advocate for quite some time.

When you listen to the history of his life, you understand how just -- how sad and tragic it was, even before the shooting happened.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG: When Laquan Mcdonald was shot and killed more than a year ago, his death went by with little notice. But the release of a dash cam video showing how the 17-year-old was gunned down by a police officer has propelled his case into the national spotlight.

SHYRELL JOHNSON, VICTIMS UNCLE: My nephew shot in the back and all them other places, 16 times.

YOUNG: "16 shots," the phrase protesters have been chanting as they call for justice for the slain teen.

McDonald lived a hard life growing up on the south side of Chicago. And December of 2000 at the age of three, he was taken from his mother after charges of neglect and placed in foster care. Between 2000 and 2002, McDonald's moved three times before being sent back to live with his mother. But his time in foster care wasn't over.

[12:35:12] In June of 2003 at the age of six, he's taken from his mother again after state investigators find his mother's boyfriend abused him by leaving cuts, welts and bruises on his body. McDonald's life appears to stabilize when he's placed with a great-grandmother as she becomes his legal guardian. But at the age of 15, his great- grandmother dies, leaving his life in limbo again.

Just several months later, McDonald is arrested for marijuana possession and spends four months in juvenile detention before moving in with his uncle in May of 2014. Five months later, with PCP in his system, and a knife in his hand, McDonald was gunned down by Officer Jason Van Dyke on the night of October 20th of 2014. Earlier this year, McDonald's mother received a $5 million settlement from the city of Chicago. And the release of this video showing McDonald's death has led to first-degree murder charges for Officer Jason Van Dyke.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG: And Ashleigh, as a point of clarification, we have learned now that that settlement is actually going to Laquan's sister and not his mother. Because the attorney actually telling us that. But obviously, people have been very upset about what happened with Laquan and his entire life. And as you hear from that story, it's just sad beginnings all the way to the tragic ending.

Of course, we would love to sit down with someone from his family who knew him very personally to talk about what he liked and maybe some of the things he was looking forward to in his life. That's something that just hasn't been able to happen as of yet.

BANFIELD: Those voices haven't cried out for justice either. I mean, it's just maddening to think of how this child was so failed and continues to be by that family it would seem. Ryan Young, thank you for your reporting and happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, Ryan.

You know, when you watch that video and you see Laquan McDonald shot several times while he's already down on the ground. You may wonder, is it even possible to defend the person doing the shooting? It is. You may be surprised, but my expert panel is going to weigh in and walk you through the defense of the officer facing first-degree murder for this killing.

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[12:41:41] BANFIELD: A judge will decide next week whether the Chicago police officer who shot and killed a 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, gets to be released on bail. That shooting has caused outrage nationwide. Several people were arrested just last night in New York, in fact.

Take a look at these pictures. This is the Black Lives matter movement. Protesters marching through Macy's Department Store, chanting. I'm joined now by CNN Legal Analyst and Defense Attorney Danny Cevallos, HLN Legal Analyst and Defense Attorney Joey Jackson, and Jonathan Gilliam who's a CNN Law Enforcement Analyst, he's a former police officer himself, also former FBI special agent.

Welcome to all three of you. We were perhaps a little surprised to be graced with new videos, gentlemen, today. We've all been fixated on this extraordinarily difficult video that shows Laquan McDonald being shot dead in very graphic order.

The new video is perhaps not as graphic but they might be telling. If we could just roll some of that video of the dash cam of the officer who is accused of murder. I want you -- Jonathan, I want you to walk me through why this is significant. JONATHAN GILLIAM, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: While he was a very

significant because before we had six seconds of response from Officer Van Dyke. Now we see that he was actually following this individual for over 30 seconds, including and on top of the six seconds where he gets out of his vehicle.

So, he sees the threat. Well, let's back up. He's had the 911 call that this person has been threatening people, stabbing tires and breaking into cars. The neighborhood is the one that called that in because they were in fear. He now gets on scene, sees this individual. The individual knows a cop's behind him and he's running with the knife. And then the other part that's very significant about this is the fact that, when they actually got out of their car, right before that, this individual slowed his gait down and then pulled the knife out in a provocative manner. I think this shows a better picture of the emotional response that the officer had.

BANFIELD: So, interesting you call it an emotional response.

Joey Jackson, you have had to mount several cases in defense of people who you probably felt at first glance were indefensible. But, if you're this officer's lawyer, are you not trying to look at everything Jonathan just said, in terms of what informed his opinion, his fear, his actions? Because isn't it all about what was in his state of mind, his mind at the moment he shot?

JOEY JACKSON, HNL LEGAL ANALYST: It is, and it isn't, and let's talk about that. Now certainly, you want to go to the issues of state of mind, and Jonathan is right on point in terms of talking about that. What led to this? What was the adrenaline the officer was feeling? What knowledge did the officer have in terms of the person he was chasing and what threat they represented? All of that goes into the analysis of whether he was on a heightened state of alertness and how he might respond.

Now, when the law looks at this it doesn't look at it only from his particular perspective, it looks at what the officer did from a perspective of a reasonable officer in his position. And to be fair, the Supreme Court has said, listen, officers have to make split second judgments. And we don't evaluate what they do in hindsight, we evaluate what they do based upon what we see done and is it reasonable.

[12:45:01] Now, that's the issue where I depart from my colleague Jonathan, in terms of whether the officer acted appropriately or criminally. And I think that no matter the lead-in, no matter what you learned about him, you know, stabbing out car tires or trying to steal cars or whatever he was doing.

The analysis is, what did he do? The officer's response at the time, was it appropriate, was there an imminent threat, did the force he use, did it exceed, was it disproportionate to that, and did he act reasonably. I say no.

BANFIELD: And Danny, what I'd like you to do as an Attorney, is explain to me -- I'm a lay-person, right? So I might be in that jury box. And what's reasonable to an officer, with all of his training and all of his background is going to be very different from what's reasonable to me out on the street. Would I have feared for my life? Would an officer fear for his life because he knows more about violence or would an officer fear less for his life because he's armed and he's trained? How do you impart that on those 12 average people?

JACKSON: It's a great question.

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It's a great question. You said that yeah, the magic word that you said is training. And what we're going to see here is that officers are trained basically that at any time, anyone could be a threat. Nor even studies out that demonstrate that the suspect is laying on the ground, have a potential to conceal weapons.

I'm not saying that based on this video. I think this video is very problematic for this defendant. But you better believe. Putting on my defense hat that the defense here is going to number one, look at all the videos, as we've already seen, and say based on that, there is an incredible realistic threat.

Again, as Joey said, the Supreme Court will give sort of the benefit of the doubt to officers and not look at their actions in hindsight, but based on what was available to them in terms of information at the moment. That plus, the fact that officers are trained that almost anything can become a threat instantly very quickly, a person prone on the ground could be concealing a firearm that they could bring out and shoot.

There are studies that show that. Can they demonstrate that to a jury? I think that's still a very steep hill to climb. Because you have to justify not bullet number one, but bullet 1 through 16, including that final bullet, and was that justified based on these circumstances? A very difficult case to make.

BANFIELD: This conversation is not over. There are so many more questions I have for you, and maybe we can reengage tomorrow just on training and I'd like you to walk me through training.

GILLIAM: Sure.

BANFIELD: So I know what that officer is thinking in terms of training. Because I haven't had any of that training, and I know I would shoot only if someone were running at me. But I'm a lay-person.

JACKSON: But the policy is Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Yeah.

JACKSON: The protocols, all those are going to factor in.

BANFIELD: Sorry, I'm fully out of time now. But I'm going to invite you back to go through this. We're going to get some video analysis if it is well as it sounds. Is that thoughtful to everybody? Danny, Joey, Jonathan, happy Thanksgiving.

JACKSON: Happy Thanksgiving to you Ashleigh...

BANFIELD: Thank you for joining us today.

JACKSON: Thank you.

BANFIELD: And the best to your families as well.

GILLIAM: Thank you.

BANFIELD: Coming up next, what it was like inside that Paris concert hall when those murderous killers unleashed that attack. Now, the members of the band that was playing on stage are speaking fully about that night, what they saw, what they heard, and how they themselves escaped over bodies.

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[12:52:38] BANFIELD: We now have a brand new and gut-wrenching account of what happened inside the Bataclan Theater in Paris. Right after three murderous suicide bombing gunmen stormed in and started firing, ultimately killing 89 people in that hall.

The people who were performing that night was the American Rock Band "Eagles of Death Metal." And in a new interview with Vice Music, they are describing their vantage point from up on the stage. The bloody scene as they made a run for it. Dodging bullets, in its desperate attempt to escape the carnage.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see the shooting. I see it. I see, you know, the pops go off that the lights flashing. Sort of dive over and then just have to make that decision of whether do I really want to run across the stage or do I want to just go in this room and hope for the best.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People started dropping to the ground, injuries, death, you know, and then also running. There's nowhere to go so they basically ran into me, towards me and jumped down below my console. And I was still standing up. And I can see the gunman. And he looked right at me. And he shot at me and he missed. And he hit my console. And buttons went flying everywhere like the console got caught a shot and that's when I went, instantly down to the ground. And we all just huddled.

And I think he thought I probably got hit because I went down so quickly and everybody else around was injured. There was blood all over. He stayed there and continued to shoot and shoot and slaughter and just -- just scream at the top of his lungs Allah Akbar. He reloaded again and that's when we all ran. I picked a girl up and basically had to push her forward to get her to go because she was in such shock. They were shooting at us. And it broke them the front doors were glass. And there was a glass door. So I went to push it forward.

I mean, I'd say a foot away from me hitting the door, it shattered. I mean its bullet hit. And we just got through it and we ran out. We had to jog other bodies that were dead out front.

JESSE HUGHES, EAGLES OF DEATH METAL VOCALIST: I felt so guilty in a way just like I left Matt on the stage and maybe Davey too and I didn't want anything bad to have happened to them. I really needed them to have gotten off stage because I didn't see what happened when we got off.

[12:55:07] I cannot wait to play. I want to come back. I want to be the first band to play in the Bataclan when it opens back up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why?

HUGHES: I want it because I was there when it went silent for a minute. Our friends went there to see rock 'n' roll and died. I'm going to go back there and live.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: The band's merchandise manager was one of the victims killed in that attack. And they say he died while trying to help a friend. That he was never screaming for help because he didn't want anyone else to get hurt. But let's hope they are that first bands that plays when the Bataclan opens again.

To our family here at CNN, and to your family, happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Thank you for watching. My colleague Wolf Blitzer starts right after this quick break.

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[13:00:11] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, there. I'm Brianna Keilar in for Wolf Blitzer. It' 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 7:00 p.m. in Paris.