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Deadly Police Shooting Sparks Outrage Protests; GOP Lashes Out Against FBI on Clinton Probe; Obama Makes Campaign Trail Debut with Clinton. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired July 06, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:14] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Outrage in Louisiana over the police shooting of an African-American man. Right now we're waiting to hear from the family of Alton Sterling. A press conference will be held at any minute now. Sterling's family demanding answers as protests erupt overnight and cell phone video goes viral.

I want to warn you, the images you're about to see are disturbing. The 37-year-old man slammed to the ground outside Baton Rouge convenience store as he tussles with police. Alton Sterling is shot several times in the chest and in the back by police officers. A local congressman, Cedrick Richmond, says the video is deeply troubling and has understandably evoked strong emotion and anger in our community. He is calling for a federal investigation.

CNN's Polo Sandoval has more for us this morning. Hi, Polo.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol. Good morning. There is this growing call for an outside agency to get involved in this case. Meanwhile, investigators are taking a closer look at that footage. And as you mentioned, it is disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL (voice-over): Hundreds of protesters taking to the streets in Baton Rouge after this graphic video circulated on social media of a deadly encounter between police and a man at a convenient store. According to police two officers responded to an anonymous call just after midnight on Tuesday. The caller said a man selling CDs outside of the store threatened him with a gun. The officers attempted to subdue 37-year- old Alton Sterling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get on the ground. Get on the ground.

SANDOVAL: The store owner says that one officer used a taser, but Sterling remained on his feet. Sterling is then tackled by an officer over the hood of a car. As officers wrestled to restrain Sterling, someone yells --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's got a gun.

SANDOVAL: Sterling was then shot several times at point blank range. ABDUL MUFLAHI, STORE OWNER: I was actually maybe two, three feet away

when it happened.

SANDOVAL: The owner says while Sterling lay in the parking lot, he saw officers pull a gun from his pocket. Sterling's family now demanding answers.

MEGAN CHAMBERS, ALTON STERLING'S SISTER: I really want to know more about what happened, about the whole situation because my brother didn't deserve it. He didn't deserve it at all.

SANDOVAL: CNN affiliate WAFP reports that the officers in question were wearing body cameras but they apparently fell off at the altercation. Baton Rouge Police have placed the officers on administrative leave.

CPL. L'JEAN MCKNEELY, SPOKESMAN, BATON ROUGE POLICE DEPARTMENT: This is an ongoing investigation. We're going to review the video. We are going to review the audio. We have witnesses, non-biased witnesses here. We are going to bring them down to our station and interview them.

SANDOVAL: The coroner ruling that Sterling died of multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and back.

ABDULLAH MUFLAHI, STORE OWNER: God bless his soul. It could have been handled differently, much differently on both sides. It could have been handled differently.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Who was Alton Sterling? We did get to confirm from one of his family members that he did in fact have at least one previous conviction in his criminal record. But we also hear from the owner of the convenience store where this all played out, Carol, and he tells CNN that he was -- that Sterling was a man who had permission to actually sell CDs there in the parking lot of that store and was never really much trouble but, again, ultimately, investigators will have to take a closer look at the video, at the people who were there and then ultimately at Sterling's criminal past as well.

COSTELLO: All right. Polo Sandoval reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

Joining me now to talk about this is Tom Fuentes, CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director.

Tom, welcome. You have seen the video. One police officer cries out that the suspect had a gun. You can't really see the suspect's right arm at all. In your estimation, what happened here?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, that's just it, Carol. It's hard to tell, you know, exactly what happened. And it's important, as all of that matters to, you know, what the police officers thought they were facing when they were dealing with him. You know, from the video, we don't know exactly how long the

discussion was with the police officers and Sterling, how long, you know, they were asking him questions. What they asked him about. Do they want to -- you know, maybe asked him to put his hands up so they could pat him down and see if he, in fact, had a gun. We don't know any of that part.

The part about the body cam falling off, yes, that sounds strange. We don't know what type of body cams they are. Do they have audio? Audio should still be running even if the cameras are -- you know, fall off the chest of the officers. So we don't know that also.

And then, you know, we don't know -- we'll have to wait for the forensics to see the claim that he was shot in the back could be an exit wound from the shots in the front. And we don't know exactly why those shots were fired when -- when one of the officers said or someone says he's got a gun.

[09:05:01] Was he pulling the gun out? You know, were they trying to restrain his hands and he was too big and strong and they couldn't? And therefore he was able to maybe pull a gun out of his pocket? Those are all questions we don't know and are going to have to be found out during the investigation.

COSTELLO: Is the -- excuse me for just a moment, Tom. Is this video live that we are seeing? OK. Thought that was live. So those are protesters, Tom, I just wanted to alert our viewers to what that was. That man is a protester. And he's saying he wants things to be peaceful. We do expect the family to be speaking out at any moment. The Sterling family.

OK. So, Tom, back to you. If Mr. Sterling did have a gun, and he was down on the ground and he moved to grab that gun, how fast would a police officer have to react?

FUENTES: Well, the officer would have to react instantly. But you would think that reaction would to be to get that gun, get it out of his hand or move his arm away so they can't point that gun. You know, if you're -- if you're shooting someone, they still are not -- oftentimes are not going to be neutralized that instant. So they would still be in a position to bring that gun forward, point it at the officers, shoot it, and then maybe, you know, the wounds that were received were mortal but they don't kick in right away. The person is still able to do an attack.

So I think that's a huge question here. If it was seen that he was pulling a gun out, and the officers knew he was pulling a gun, go for the gun. Get that gun out of his hand, shooting him in the chest three or four times, you know, may not be, depending on the angle that they had and you don't see because of the car blocking it, you know, what kind of an angle it is.

But another part of this investigation to me is going to have to be, what kind of selection process does Baton Rouge have and what kind of training. You know, were these officers so poorly trained because even in the beginning of this when you see the officer make a basically National Football League style tackle of Sterling near those cars where they roll over by the cars, you would never want to do that. You would never want -- because you might get hurt. You might smash your head against the side of the car or he might.

And it's not a good position to initiate in this particular takedown. This is initiated by the police officer. So the fact that he did it at that moment, we don't know what sparked it. You know what -- did Sterling say something to him? It didn't appear that there was anything that required the tackle to be made right at that instant in a bad location.

COSTELLO: All right. Tom Fuentes, I have to leave it there. We're monitoring this news conference that the family is expected to hold at any moment now. And thank you as always for your insight, Tom.

In just 60 minutes, we expect Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan to talk about the FBI director's recommendation not to press charges against Hillary Clinton over her use of private e-mail servers. Paul Ryan is not happy. His Republican colleagues are furious. Texas congressman, Roger Williams, tweeted the FBI's decision is a failure of our justice system. And Congressman Lamar Smith said, "If Clinton were a Republican, she would be indicted." Senator David Vitter says the FBI's decision gives Clinton a pass, based on politics, pure and simple.

The House speaker, Paul Ryan, now giving the OK for the House Oversight Committee to grill the FBI director.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: We are going to have hearings. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the Government Oversight Committee, is going to be calling up James Comey to answer questions. He didn't answer any questions with the press. And our Judiciary Committee has sent a number of questions. There are a lot of unanswered questions here, Megyn, that need to be get answers. He shredded the case that she had been making all year long.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. I'm just monitoring because we just -- we're getting in new tweets from the political candidates, you know, every minute of every day so I'm just monitoring that for you.

Of course, all of this is fueling Donald Trump's attacks against Clinton. Let's bring in CNN's Chris Frates for more on that.

Hi, Chris.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol. Well, I'll tell you, Hillary Clinton might be off the hook legally but politically Donald Trump has been hitting her where she is most vulnerable with voters and that's on her trustworthiness. In a classic Donald Trump tweet storm, we heard from him this morning. He hammered Clinton and said a couple of things. The first one I want to put up on the screen. He said this, quote,

"Crooked Hillary has once again been proven to be a person who is dishonest, incompetent, and of very bad judgment."

And then Trump used the FBI director's own words to paint Clinton as unfit for the presidency, tweeting, crooked Hillary Clinton and her team were, quote, "extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information." Then he went on to say she is not fit for the presidency.

Now at a campaign event last night, Trump repeatedly used the FBI's decision to argue that Clinton is part of that same dishonest political establishment that he intends to upend if he is elected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Today is the best evidence ever that we've seen that our system is absolutely, totally rigged. It's rigged.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:10:11] FRATES: Now Trump also accused Clinton of bribing Attorney General Loretta Lynch after a "New York Times" story cited unnamed Democrats saying that Clinton may decide to keep Lynch in that post if she wins. But Clinton said nothing about that publicly and Trump offered no evidence to really back up this claim.

And I'll tell you, Carol, you know, Clinton's camp was glad yesterday to get some legal resolution on this case. It's been hanging over their heads for about a year now. But they knew this wasn't the end of it for them politically and, man, they really were right about that, Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes. And it continues to be damaging.

Chris Frates, thanks so much. This is the tweet that I was looking at, you know, a couple of minutes ago. This appeared on Hillary Clinton's verified Twitter account just about 15 minutes ago. It is a tweet from President Barack Obama. And you can see what he said. "Let me tell you, my faith in Hillary Clinton has always been rewarded," but, boy, a lot of voters, Suzanne Malveaux, have a lot of questions about Hillary Clinton's use of her private e-mail server and whether her judgment really is that good.

Hi, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol. And what was so bizarre and surreal about it is that it really didn't come up yesterday. It was something that the White House refused to even talk about when they were aboard Air Force One and their trip together.

And, Carol, it's really interesting to see this relationship between the two of them evolve and develop having covered back them in 2008. Their bitter rivalry. They've arguably gone from enemies to frenemies to dependant friends, if you will. Hillary Clinton desperately needing a boost in her popularity and that she hopes to get from the president in his relatively high poll numbers and then of course President Obama really hoping that his legacy and his policy survive this election season.

And so that is why the two of them very much dependant and intertwined during this process. And what we saw yesterday was really the unfolding, the beginning of that dependency, if you will. The two of them in Charlotte, North Carolina. And we saw the Obama of 2008, the oratory, the passion, the personality. And really the president acting as a character witness, if you will, for Hillary Clinton. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Are you fired up?

CROWD: Yes.

OBAMA: Ready to go? Fired up? I am -- I'm fired up. Hillary got me fired up. And there has never been any man or woman more qualified for this office than Hillary Clinton, ever.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I've also known him as the friend that I was honored to stand with in the good times and the hard times, someone who has never forgotten where he came from.

And Donald, if you are out there tweeting, it's Hawaii.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: And Carol, of course, the pictures in that moment that you saw really kind of extraordinary when you think of the development, the evolution of their relationship here, the two of them getting off of Air Force One, shoulder-to-shoulder and moving forward together. The White House choosing not to even acknowledge really what had taken place with the FBI investigation and Comey's announcement that no, there would not be criminal charges on indictment but clearly very damming assessment of the secretary of state's mishandling of her e- mails at the time.

You can bet, Carol, there are going to be some serious and tough questions to the White House today about the misstatements that were made from Hillary Clinton previously, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Susan Malveaux, reporting live.

I want to take you back to Baton Rouge. This is the attorney for the Sterling family. The man shot by police. Let's listen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank God for Microsoft because if not for them maybe we wouldn't be here today right now as we are congregating. One of the first things the Baton Rouge Police Department did is go and confiscate the video system from SSS Food Mart. Mr. Abdullah said that they had him in his car, did not present him with a search warrant but went in and took his system. So he is confident that his video -- his surveillance video shows the entire incident. Well, that is now in the possession of the Baton Rouge Police Department.

Now there are no criminal charges pending against anyone as far as we know. Certainly, because of the tragic and unfortunate situation with Mr. Sterling, no criminal charges could be filed against him.

[09:15:05] So why are they holding on to this video? We haven't heard them saying anything about bringing in investigation against the officers.

So what we're asking for, and we have other leaders who have asked for the same thing, is for this investigation to be taken out of the hands of the Baton Rouge Police Department and handed over to the Louisiana State Police. The mayor has said that he will not be involved in a cover-up and the best way to ensure that there is no cover-up is to hand it over to some neutral third party.

Also, I want to thank Congressman Richmond because I understand last night he has asked for the Justice Department and the FBI to be involved. And it's the same thing that I'm requesting for the family as well. So what I'll tell you is this. I don't think that the department knew that there was another video out there. And we certainly believe that there may be other videos that show this situation as well.

So what I want to say is certainly, please send your prayers and condolences out to your family because we certainly want to say -- this is Mrs. McMillan right here, the mother of Mr. Sterling's son. We -- I'm sorry? This is his son right here. I'm sorry, I didn't see him on the other side of me. This is Cameron Sterling, Alton's son.

So we want to make sure that you certainly send your prayers out to him because we need it. And we're praying that the truth ultimately comes out from this. We think with an independent investigation we can get down to that. And that's what the family wants. So I'll hand it over, back to Mr. McClanahan and if you have any questions afterward, I'll be more than happy to answer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're actually here today to speak to the culture of the Baton Rouge Police Department. You know, this incident is only one incident in many. What we are going to do today is root out the 1 percent of bad police officers that go around becoming the judge, the jury, and the executioner of innocent people, period, but more specifically innocent black lives.

What I'm calling for today is that the chief law enforcement officer, which is the mayor, to fire the chief of police immediately. I demand for the chief to be fired immediately. I demand that he resign if he has the guts.

Secondly, I am calling for the chief executive officer of this city to resign, to step down. He must step down because this is a new day. We will not have in our city, the capital city, anybody who allows this type of action to take place. It will not take place no longer in the city.

I'm calling for the CEO and the chief law enforcement officer, all of them to resign. I'm calling for a full investigation of this police department and this Web site go on and call black folks anything they want to call them. It's uncalled for. If you set behind the screen of a computer, you will act upon it when you get out in front of the community.

We ain't going to run around scared. I will no longer tell my son, when you see a police officer and say, yes, sir, and bow down to them. Hell no. We call that they resign immediately. And I'll tell you one more. It didn't -- everything that is going to start today is not going to stop today. I promise you, we will continue to act until we get the 1 percent gone, the bad gone and the chief law enforcement officer gone, period. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mrs. McMillan wants to make a statement.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First of all, I want to give thanks to all the residents of Baton Rouge and those who have came and expressed their condolences throughout the different meetings over the past 48 hours.

I also want to clear some things up prior to the beginning. The interrogate of what I really need to say, Alton Sterling, regardless of if you knew him or not.

[09:20:08] He is not what the mass media is making him out to be. This is a ploy to try and obscure the image of a man who's simply trying to earn a living to take care of his children. With that being said, the individuals involved in his murder took away a man with children who depended upon their daddy on a daily basis. My son is not the youngest. He is the oldest of his siblings. He is 15 years old. He had to watch this and this was put all over the outlets. And everything that was possible to be shown.

As some may know Alton sold CDs and was doing just that, not bothering anyone, and had the consent of the store owners as well. And in the event they recorded the two officers. Now if we could reflect on the measure of a man, it should not be judged on his past the most scientific mark that a man left his life and what he left the lives of his children.

As this video has been shared across the world, you will see with your own eyes how he was handled unjustly and killed without regard for the lives that he helped raise. As a mother, I have now been forced to raise a son who is going to remember what happened to his father that I can't take away from him. He is at an age of understanding. I hurt more for him and his loss.

As a parent one of the greatest fears is to see your child hurt and knowing there is nothing you can do about it. What I saw last night from the real citizens of Baton Rouge will forever warm my heart. We offer a complete humility of individuals who will carry his burden and stand together to ensure that this event will not go unjustice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It will not go unnoticed especially for the future. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No justice, no peace.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I for one will not rest or not allow him to be swept in the dirt. I say again I for one will not rest and will not allow him to be swept in the dirt until adequate punishment is served to all parties involved. Again, I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers. They will not go unnoticed.

[09:25:11] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Under any normal circumstances, the criminal justice says if a person commits a crime, he should be arrested. He should be charged and the system will take place.

I'm calling on anybody in this city with any backbone to go and arrest those two officers. If the system would work for anybody, it should work for them, too. Let them have a judge send their bond if there were to -- murder, there shouldn't be a bond period. Let those two officers be arrested and charged with capital murder. Let them hire lawyers. Let them try to weasel themselves out.

But thank God for YouTube. Thank God for iPhones because without the iPhones, they might have gotten away. I want them to know. Them and them friends, because they run in packs like dogs, that their day of reckoning is upon them. They must make peace with their maker. Because it's the last time that they should see and walk free to harm another.

We will not stop until justice is served. Not only for this young man that died, for all others that have died at the hand of unlawful police officers. We want you to know this is not the beginning nor is this the end. We shall go until we achieve victory. We shall get victory for all those involved. We shall get victory.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I stand with SCOC, I stand with the NAACP, the nation of Islam. We stand with our people. We are victim that has been murdered. What we are calling for is justice. We call for an economic boycott starting this Friday of the Louisiana Mall. That's what we are calling for. And we are not going to stop as Brother Mike McClanahan, president of the NAACP, until we get justice, and that's all I have to say at this time. But let's recall our money starting this Friday. Don't spend anything at the mall of Louisiana. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Say your name, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Abdul Rasheed Mohammed, local representative of the Nation of Islam.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this time, we -- my name is Gary Chambers, publisher of the Rules Collection here in Baton Rouge. At this time we will begin to take a few questions. We will not supply the family at this time because of the emotional toll that it has taken on the family. But we do want to be understood here. There is a unified front. We have elected officials here. We have people from the faith-based community. We have nonprofit leaders here. We have people in Baton Rouge that are demanding for justice. This is not a place for division. This is not a place where we are

not trying to pit all of our community against police officers. We understand that all police officers are not bad. But this must be answered for. It should not take national attention for us to get an answer about a man being murdered by police officers and then for officers to pull a gun out of his pocket, for officers to shoot him at point blank range and then we not have anything from our chief of police, from our mayor is a disservice for the people of East Baton Rouge Parrish and we will not stand for it.

So with that being said, if there are a few questions, we will take it and we will start with national media first. Any questions?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What else have you been told? (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As far as what we have been told by the police department is that the body cameras fell off of them. They have not released any footage to us as of yet. There is supposedly dash cam video as well. But we have not seen dash cam video or police body cam video. The video from the surveillance video of the store clerk was taken by the police officers. That video footage has not been released. They took the store owners video camera and recorder from the store.

We do not understand why they took the video recorder. That is a question for us. The store clerk should still be able to watch what is happening at his store. And so -- and so State Representative Denise Marcell has led with body cameras and she is going to have conversations leading forward as results with finding out how do we get answers for what is going on with the body cam footage. Mark?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is your source of action?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are going to set a meeting, a community meeting for this afternoon so that we can be on the same page. We want all of our faith-based leaders, all of our people that care, black, white, whatever your belief or ethnicity is. We believe that this is a Baton Rouge issue. And we need to come together as a city and say that this is not going to stand in our community. They say that Baton Rouge is a tale of two cities. We have seen that that is true.