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President Obama Leaving Today for Paris Summit; Turkey to Return Pilot's Body to Russia. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired November 29, 2015 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a lot of recluse out in the middle of nowhere out here. If you drive around there is little shacks and trailers and campers. And he could have been in any one. I don't know who he was. He didn't frequent the bar or we probably ...
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CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Next hour, we are going to hear from one woman who says she saw the gunman opening fire saying he had no remorse. Listen to her compelling story of what happened inside the clinic. That's coming up for you at 7:00 a.m. Eastern.
And jury selection begins tomorrow in the trial of William Porter, the first of the six Baltimore police officers to stand trial in connection with the arrest and death of Freddie Gray. An incident that sparked protests and rioting and Porter faces several charges, including involuntary manslaughter, assault and reckless endangerment. We are going to take a closer look at this case next hour as well.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take you to Ohio now. Where new this morning. Prosecutors are releasing evidence in the police shooting of 12-year old Tamir Rice. Now, there is a chance you've seen these images before, but now we are getting a look at them frame- by-frame. A forensic video analyst Grant Fredericks synchronized 326 still frames from the nearby surveillance cameras and gives his take on the controversial case. We have got this report now from CNN affiliate WEWS.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The first photo shows the moment ten seconds before officers arrived on the scene. Fredericks notes that Tamir Rice is standing in the gazebo. A few frames later, the police car comes into view. Fredericks said Rice moves toward the cruiser while it's still moving. Next, he notes that the police car is still moving while Rice's right arm moves toward his waist. In the next shot the passenger door opens as Rice moves forward and lowers his arm to his waist. Officer Timothy Loehmann exits the vehicle as Rice's right shoulder and arm move upward. A single frame later, Fredericks writes that, Rice, quote, "reacts to gunshot." And in the next frame, Loehmann moves away from Rice.
In the final frame, Loehmann goes to the ground. Fredericks never mentions the word, he only describes Rice's arm motions. There's also no mention of the actual shot, only Tamir's reaction to a gunshot less than 20 frames after police arrive in front of the gazebo.
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BLACKWELL: Joining us now to talk about this, CNN law enforcement analyst Art Roderick and CNN legal analyst Danny Cevallos. Gentlemen, good morning to both of you.
ART RODERICK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Good morning.
DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.
BLACKWELL: Danny, I want to start with you. Anything here that you see that jumps out that either incriminates or exonerates the officer here? And not just you, but would be obvious to the grand jury when they see these images?
CEVALLOS: Well, I think taking a step back, a lot of these images, we have already seen, they just come in sharper and focus and we get another angle. But the basic facts remain the same. And I think one of the things that is going to be critical in this case is going to be not so much Tamir Rice's movements, because we already know almost no time elapses between police arrival on the scene and the lethal force being applied, but other police procedures are going to be questioned.
For example, why didn't the officers create a perimeter farther away? Could it be said that by driving so close to Tamir Rice they created the exigency, they created this stressful situation that resulted in an officer having to make a choice because a suspect is only about 12, 13, 14 feet away and apparently reaching for his waistband or doing something else. It may be the case that that becomes a more critical fact at trial. But this case still boils down to whether after getting out of the police car, using lethal force, escalating to that level, was reasonable in light of the facts available to the officer at that time.
BLACKWELL: Art, to you. I mean, these images are framed-by-frame. Of course, we know life doesn't happen frame-by-frame and these incidents happen pretty quickly. Larger concern to you, what we are hearing from Danny, what a reasonable officer would have done or should have done here or what are we seeing in these pictures? Which do you think will be more important to this grand jury?
RODERICK: I mean what you see in these frames, obviously, as you would mention, there is no audio for one thing. There's also a bit of information that was never passed on to the law enforcement officers from dispatch that the original call that came in basically said it's possibly a fake or toy gun. That information was never sent from the dispatcher to the law enforcement officers responding.
I agree with Danny. I don't know why they pulled directly up so close to an individual that possibly had a firearm, but, again, I think that is going to be an administrative issue when you look at the -- when you look at the circumstances. I mean this, we have actually had training scenarios. I've been in law enforcement almost 40 years, and these types of training scenarios have actually come up where you're dealing with a young individual that has a handgun and how do you handle it?
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In the majority of times, the shooting is a good shooting. You cannot tell immediately when you respond to a situation like that whether that gun is real or that gun is a toy gun.
BLACKWELL: Danny, let me come back to you with - we are seeing, obviously, these images being analyzed. Last month, there were the reports from the two analysts to the prosecutor to pass on to the grand jury. What do you make of the decision to release all of this evidence that will also go to this grand jury?
CEVALLOS: We are seeing an interesting trend in law enforcement shooting cases, where, contrary -- as a defense attorney, we often complain that law enforcement, prosecutors are not releasing enough information, but we see sort of the converse in these police shooting cases where the prosecutor essentially releases all kinds of information.
Not only to a grand jury and asks them to sift through a mountain of evidence, but also to the public, and it's a very interesting new era in law enforcement, where, historically, law enforcement has been very cagey with information it releases.
But now in contrast, we see in police shoot, them not only releasing images, but adding their own sort of sharpening technology and even drawing little, you can see on the side, those little diagrams and write-ups and analysis. In the vast majority of criminal cases, you simply do not see the release of this kind of information, not even to the other litigant, let alone to the public.
BLACKWELL: Let me come to you finally on that, Art. We are seeing so much of this. Because we are seeing what the prosecutor is going to present then to the grand jury, including those two reports that said these were objectively reasonable, that the shooting was, the family now wants their expert to speak to the grand jury. I don't know if there is a process to support that, but what do you think about all of this being released?
RODERICK: I mean, this is transparency and the nature of the technology that we have available in these types of shootings now, but it's also to assure the community that everything is being done and this is what we got and this is what we got evidentiary wise. I mean, you heard the - I know there are some major issues with the Chicago shooting, but you heard the state's attorney come out and give a very long press conference as to their -- you know, their take on the shooting that occurred up in Chicago. So I think this is the nature of what we are going to see here from every one of these shootings that occur here in the near future. I just think it's the way we are going now, because of the technology that is available, I mean, I think the next step is going to be, you know, you'll be hearing audio being released, along with this type of video.
BLACKWELL: Art Roderick and Danny Cevallos, thank you both.
PAUL: Just hours from now, President Obama will leave for Paris for potentially a historic event. This, of course, happening two weeks after a deadly terrorist attack there. Look at some of the security that is there. We are going to go live to Paris next.
Plus, Russia wants to put the economic squeeze on Turkey, and that country looks to finally hand over the body of a Russian pilot shot down a week ago. That's ahead.
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PAUL: President Obama is preparing to head to Paris later this morning, set to meet with world leaders for a United Nations climate conference. There are, obviously, some serious security concerns following the tragic attacks on November 13, just a couple of weeks ago. As a result, the French government is really tightening security across that city, dedicating 2,800 officers around that venue. Here is White House press secretary Josh Earnest.
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JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Any time you are going to have that many world leaders in one place, security is, obviously, going to be an issue. And I don't know how much of the meeting it will take up, but I anticipate the ongoing security situation in the French capital will be the subject of some discussion.
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PAUL: It does make you wonder how much of a distraction it might be from their goal at hand. Talking about emissions. Now, officials have banned protests. They encourage people to take public transportation. So I want to talk more about President Obama's trip as he gets ready to leave here in a couple of hours. CNN's Phil Black is live in Paris. Phil, I'm wondering, obviously, all of these leaders have some sort of security detail that they are taking initially. Has that changed for President Obama? Has he modified his security detail?
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think as you heard there, Christi, security for these sorts of events are always enormous. What we have seen across Paris, across the country as well, it's just a general significant uptick in security. You mentioned the 3,000 or so police and other security officers that are going to be guarding the site of the conference. That is almost doubled since the Paris attacks. And across the country, we have got 120,000 police and soldiers mobilized to secure the nation. So it's extraordinary really to see security at this sort of level, and on the part of Paris and on the part of world leaders too, it's act of defiance to still be going ahead with this conference. It's a collective message, really, one that says we can talk about terrorism and deal with terrorism, but, at the same time, get together and deal about big important issues. And for President Obama and for 146 other heads of state and many
other negotiators and officials that are coming here, their view is there is no issue really bigger than climate change, because what they are talking about here, they believe, is the very future of the planet itself. Christi.
PAUL: There are new details that one of the suspects connected to the massacre in Paris, Saleh Abdeslam, who is still at large, visited a cafe in Brussels the day after that attack. I'm wondering. Do you get the sense, Phil, is there is any concern that he is still there in the periphery of Paris somehow?
BLACK: Undoubtedly. You have concern over the fact that this man, probably Europe's no doubt really Europe's most wanted is still out there. Was apparently seen back in Brussels just a day after the Paris attacks, out and about in public and this comes from a witness in Belgium. You have these ends to the Paris attacks that are still yet to be tied up, this man and perhaps others as well. On top of that, there is the general concern about who else could be out there? Individuals, groups, plotting, planning to carry out new acts of violence as well.
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So that is why although it is a defiant gesture to proceed with these talks, no risks are really being taken, and we have seen this huge security presence, this huge lockdown around the site itself where all of the leaders themselves are going to be, and why today, for example, a big protest that was supposed to be about 200,000 people marching through Paris to demonstrate their will and their desire for a strong climate agreement out of these talks was not allowed to take place, because of the general state of emergency that still exists here, the ban on big public gatherings. They are not taking any chances, but crucially these talks, they say, are still going ahead, and they believe, we have heard this from the French president, among others, the best possible result is a strong climate deal at the end of it all, Christi.
PAUL: All right, Phil Black, so appreciate it, thank you.
BLACKWELL: Almost a week after a Russian pilot was killed when his plane was shot down by Turkey's air force, his body will finally be back home to his home country of Russia. Tensions growing between Turkey and Russia. We've got some new developments in this story.
Plus in our next hour, at 7:00 Eastern, you'll hear from a woman who hid for five hours inside the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic, and she is going to describe what it was like to be just steps away from the shooter.
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BLACKWELL: New for you this morning. Details of that Russian fighter jet that was shot down by Turkish military. The Turkish government says that it will hand over the pilot's body back to Russia, despite being at odds with the country since the incident on Tuesday. We are getting this announcement hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed economic sanctions against Turkey. Let's go now live to CNN correspondent Ian Lee, who is in Istanbul. First, let's discuss the handover of this pilot's body. How did this come about and when will it happen?
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IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it happened early in the morning, at least from Syria, the Turkmen rebels in Syria handed over to Turkish officials, and it was met at the border around 1:00 a.m. in the morning local time, and that body was met also by men from the Orthodox faith, and they took the body, prepared the body. That body now is going to be handed over to the Russians. But this is an important development. Russia has been demanding this for quite some time. This is something that Turkey hopes will help smooth the tensions, but it seems a bit unlikely at this time.
BLACKWELL: Tensions actually might be ratcheted up now that Russia has imposed these economic sanctions. Give us some information about how extensive these sanctions are.
LEE: Well, they are quite broad. First thing we noticed is they are canceling visa free travel for businessmen from both countries, making it difficult to go to the other. The other area they are also targeting is tourism. Russia is stopping these package tours from coming here to Turkey, and tourism brings in about $4 billion a year. Another area we are seeing hit is also imports and hiring in Russia of Turkish goods and Turkish people, starting at the beginning of the year. No new Turks can be hired in Russia, and these are all things that are hinging really on an apology, it seems like. Putin wants an apology from Erdogan. Erdogan wants an apology from Putin, and neither side it looks like it's going to give in any time soon, Victor.
BLACKWELL: All right, Ian Lee for us there in Istanbul, thank you so much.
PAUL: So we want to get a comprehensive understanding of the pilot body transfer and what it means for both of these two countries. Let's bring in CNN military analyst, Mark Hertling. General, thank you so much, we appreciate it. Give us an image, would you please, of this handover. Who is there? Is it military personnel? Is it government officials, do they literally meet at the border?
LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Here is what will happen, Christi, and this will probably be the toughest question you'll ever ask me. What are the protocols? There really aren't any. We are no longer talking about politics or a shootdown now. We are talking about a human being. Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Peshkov (ph). The body will arrive in Ankara from Hattei (ph), where it was prepared, as your reporter just mentioned. It will likely be accompanied by the Russian attache to the embassy, usually an individual in the rank of colonel. When they get to Ankara, the Russian ambassador and members of the embassy staff will likely meet him. Here is the question. Will Turkey provide an honor guard? That's a
critical question. I think they probably would not, but that would be a classy act and it would show the fact that they are actually honoring a soldier versus politics. It will then go from Ankara to Russia. When it gets to Russia, it will likely be met by the family of the pilot, his co-pilot, lieutenant colonel -- I'm sorry, Captain Konstantin Merkin (ph) may be there as well. But you can bet there is going to be a lot of Russian media wherever it lands in Russia, and that probably will be Moscow, and Mr. Putin will probably greet the dignified transfer of remains as well.
There's a lot of complicating facts on this problem. You know, the situation surrounding the death was associated with the war crime. The commander of the Turkman brigade now is alleged to be the son of a Turkish mayor and a Turkish ultranational. They have Twitter shots they took of the body with the bullet holes as well as, you know, some of the effects that was on the pilot at the time. So this is going to cause some ramping up of tensions between Russia and Turkey as the body is transferred. But again, I go back to the fact that we are now talking about a human being, not the politics.
PAUL: Very good point. Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, always appreciate your insight, and thank you, sir, for being here.
HERTLING: Thank you.
BLACKWELL: Coming at the top of the hour, new details about the man accused of killing three people at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic, what he told investigators reportedly moments after surrendering.
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PAUL: One week from today, CNN is recognizing this year's top ten CNN heroes.
BLACKWELL: Anderson Cooper shows us how we can help these heroes continue their inspiring work.
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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Anderson Cooper. Hopefully, by now you've had a chance to check out the ten remarkable people we are honoring at this year's CNN's heroes, an all-star tribute. Each of them proof that one person really can make a difference.
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You'll also receive an e-mail confirming your donation, which is tax deductible in the United States. CNN is proud to celebrate all of these everyday people changing the world, and through December 31st, offering you this simple way to make a contribution to their cause. Again, from your laptop, your tablet, or your phone, just go to cnnheroes.com. Your donation in any amount will help them help others. Thank you.
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BLACKWELL: CNN heroes, an all-star tribute, airs next Sunday night, December 6TH right here on CNN.
PAUL: We're so glad to have you with us this morning.
BLACKWELL: Always good to be with you.
