Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Alton Sterling Family Holds Emotional News Conference After Shooting; Cell Phone Video of Shooting Sparks Outrage; Comey to Testify on The Hill. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired July 06, 2016 - 09:30   ET

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


[09:30:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 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. Now it's time for us to begin to figure out, how do we move forward and how quickly are we going to get our resolve together to do so?

QUESTION: Denise Marcelle, do you believe Chief Holden and Chief Dabadie should step down?

STATE REP. DENISE MARCELLE (D), LOUISIANA: Well, what I believe is, they should come forth and give us some answers to the questions that we've been asking since yesterday. In fact, I e-mailed the chief on yesterday asking that the Louisiana State Police are an external investigation be done so that it would not have the appearance of any conflict of interest. However, I was told that that wasn't going to happen.

What I believe is, this community deserves an answer. I don't believe that they should have waited this long to give us the answers that we're asking for. And it's -- and let me just say, the sooner that you come out with something, then you can set the rest of the people in the community. If you don't do that, then people continue to have questions and as -- as many videos that come out, the worse it's going to get.

So, yes, I'm calling upon them to come out and give us some direct answers or charge the officer, give us some information. We need to get a rest in the community and I'm calling on them to unify this community. And it is upon the mayor and president of this parish to do so and also the chief of police.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me -- go ahead, sir.

QUESTION: Do you all believe there's any truth to what the police are saying? Do you think they're making (INAUDIBLE)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What have they said?

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) .

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE). UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We haven't -- we haven't heard a clear explanation of why these officer fired their weapons on this gentleman. And so that's why we're here because it shouldn't take so long to get an answer from our police department.

Yes, sir.

QUESTION: A question for Mr. Gordon (ph).

I just talked to the family about (INAUDIBLE) he had a weapon on him (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, the -- and let me tell you this to you. I don't know the answer to that question but it is irrelevant. If you look at the video, it certainly speaks for itself. Mr. Sterling was not reaching for a weapon. He looks like a man who's trying to get his head up, who's actually fighting for his life. A life that ended immediately thereafter, almost as if he knew what was about to happen. So the video certainly speaks for itself.

Mr. McClanahan wants to speak to that as well.

MICHAEL MCLANAHAN, PRESIDENT, NAACP BATON ROUGE BRANCH: Now -- now as police officers, we are -- they are trained. They are trained for any and every scenario. You know, they're trained. You cannot tell me that those officers had not been trained how to go upon a scene with a gentleman that may or may not have a weapon. They're trained.

But be that as it may, even if they weren't trained, two guys had him down by his arms. I can take candy from a baby. These guys did not want to take a gun from him until he was dead because that was on their mind. I promise you, evidence will show, when they arrived on the scene, they had shooting somebody on their mind, because the gun came up to fast. My training would kick in and say, well, let me talk to you first. Let me use deception so I can knock you down and put handcuffs on you. Whatever it may be. They did none of that. The only thing they had on their mind was to kill this guy. Not only did they kill him, they walked over him, shouted some obscene stuff and said, don't call the -- or whatever it was. They would not do animals like that.

So I tell you what, if these guys have that type of mentality, they do not need to be sitting home on administrative pay leave. They need to be sitting in (INAUDIBLE) prison on paid leave getting their -- getting their minds right for their day of reckoning.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) how concerned are you about this failure (INAUDIBLE) police body cameras (INAUDIBLE)? I mean did it seem that they fell off rather easily? Do you think --I mean (INAUDIBLE)?

MARCELLE: Well -- well, I --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). We don't know if they fell off or they was taken off.

MARCELLE: Right. Because that's (INAUDIBLE) -- UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's important is that we have a video that's showing you what happened and we see an individual that's being assassinated in front of us. And one thing about these cameras, because we all said about the cameras, Erik Garner had the clearest cameras ever and they still did not indict or hold those police officers responsible. We want these individuals held responsible because this has become a common trend across America, but it's one that we will not stand for here in Baton Rouge.

So we are definitely here to ask them to be transparent, make sure that they show us everything. And if the cameras did fall off, then where is that footage that led up until they fell off? So we should see the cameras dangling. We want to see all of that. We want it step by step to make sure that they're not lying, because they have been known to lie. So that's where we are.

[09:34:58] MARCELLE: Well, to answer your question, I was told that by the chief of police that both body cams fell off in a tussle. However, I did not see that on the video. So if that happened, and he's saying that is a defect in the body cameras, what I'm saying is, we don't need to use those body cameras anymore. So let's outfit our police officers in body cams that don't fall off, because they're using them throughout the nation and they're not falling off other officers' uniforms. So what I would call upon him to do is immediately stop using those body cameras, number one.

QUESTION: When was the last time you spoke with them?

MARCELLE: Yesterday. It was yesterday afternoon after I sent him an e- mail, he called me back requesting that the state police come in. So he did call me back and that's when he said that the body cams had fallen off. And the footage -- they have some footage, but the footage wasn't very clear. And so the footage that we have that's good is from the store.

And so, again, I think a lot of the unrest is in the fact that we do have a video at the store. And why haven't they released that video? I don't understand that. And why haven't they given us some indications of where this investigation is going or will be leading to? That's -- those are some of the questions that I'm asking.

Also, one of the other things that came up on the body camera commission, where I chair, is that whether or not an officer should be able to view that body cam prior to making a statement. I was told yesterday that he had not given a statement yet. They were giving him time to get with his lawyer. That also concerns me. That also concerns me.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).

MARCELLE: He said that the state police probably would not want to take over the investigation because they had gathered a lot of the information at the scene and talked to a lot of the witnesses. And what I said to the chief is, going forward, we should never have another situation like this. We should have a memorandum of understanding with the Louisiana State Police where the Baton Rouge City Police back up from this type of incident and allow them to come in initially and make those investigations transparent. And that's -- that's -- that's what I'm calling for, transparency.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me take a few moments to allow Miss Sandra Sterling, the aunt who raised Alton Sterling, to speak to you guys for a few moments.

SANDRA STERLING, ALTON STERLING'S AUNT: Hello. My name is Sandra Sterling. I'm the aunt of Alton, who raised him. I'm just not pleased at what I saw. I was out there the day of and I was actually out my body for a couple of days. I actually went and saw this video at 4:00 this morning and I was very disturbed and I was hurt at what I saw.

It's a horrible thing. It's a horrible thing to happen to him. And he didn't deserve that. He didn't deserve that. And I commend the person that finally brought that video up, because had she not brought it up, we would have been blinded. We never would have known what really happened.

By those cameras being lost, it was that video that made us realize what really happened that particular night. And I applaud that person that brought that video out because it shed light on everything that we didn't know. We was blinded. And --

QUESTION: Do any of you know who captured that video?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we don't know. It was somebody posted it to FaceBook. But we're thankful that they did.

Yes, sir.

QUESTION: Just giving the time of this (INAUDIBLE) statement of police, do you believe they're saying now (INAUDIBLE) do you trust (INAUDIBLE)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. We do not trust the police department at this stage at all. They have not given us reason to trust them.

When -- when -- trust is a relationship-based thing. It is a communication between us and a communication between them. We have not had that communication from them to us, therefore there has been no trust established as it relates to this situation.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) I have a question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will address each issue as it comes up. Right now we want to stick to the issue --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me -- let me -- let me say something.

Let me -- let me just -- let me just say this to you briefly. And I don't want to -- I don't want to dismiss your question, but let me say this to you. Everybody here has fought on criminal justice reform and we've all said it's not just about citizen reform, it's about community policing. So if nothing else, this is going to be one of conversation that we're going to have as how the police interacts with every community in Baton Rouge, but certainly the communities in north Baton Rouge. So -- so the -- but that's where we're going.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold tight. All right, listen, we're not going to take any more questions, but we will say that there's a vigil tonight at 6:00 at SSS Food Mart at the corner of Fairfield and Foster.

[09:40:09] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we're going to break away from this very emotional news conference held by the family of Alton Sterling, a man who was shot and killed by the police -- by police in front of a convenience store under somewhat suspect circumstances.

I want to bring in Tom Fuentes, our senior -- I want to bring in Tom Fuentes, our senior law enforcement analyst.

There you are. Welcome back, Tom.

This family is very emotional about this. They don't trust police. The NAACP, the president of the Baton Rouge division, came out and said that he wants the police chief to resign. How do -- how do police handle this when emotions are so high?

TOM FUENTES, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, first of all, Carol, you know, my heart goes out to the family. You know, it's not their fault. They're victims in this. They have to live with this the rest of their life. Whether their family member did well or did wrong or whatever happened, he has died and, you know, that's a tragedy for him no matter what.

As far as the police go, you know, this -- I'm a little confused at the way the police department is handling this. First of all, to not make any public statement. No, they can't say what the results of their investigation is because it's too soon for that, but they can say what they're doing, what the process is, describe it, and try to allay the community's worry that it's going to be swept under the rug or not properly investigated. That's number one.

And number two, you know, most police departments now in this country, the protocol for an officer-involved shooting is that another agency does the investigation. So the fact that they're saying that Louisiana State Police are not investigating, I don't understand that. If the FBI ultimately is called in to do a civil rights investigation, that's not something the police department can refuse if that's what the decision is. But I don't understand at this point why they're not wanting an independent investigation to explain what happened, at least as much as they know, or what they're doing about the different facts that they don't know.

COSTELLO: Right. And, Tom, for those viewers just joining us, I want to show this disturbing video one more time because I think it's important people know what exactly we're talking about. So let me set the scene before you roll that video. So Mr. Sterling, Alton Sterling, was selling CDs in front of a

convenience store. Police approached him for some reason you do not know and they ordered him to the ground. And you see a police officer here tackling Mr. Sterling. They get him to the ground. One of the police officers shouts -- we think it's a police officer who shouted -- "he's got a gun." And then you see the police officer in your direct vision take out his own service revolver or a .9 millimeter gun, that's what police officers use, and you -- and if we roll the video further, you would see him shoot Mr. Sterling in the chest.

And also we don't know, there were bullet wounds to the back. But like you said, Tom, they could be exit wounds. We just don't know.

Now, the family was asked if Mr. Sterling had a gun. His lawyer came out and said, and I quote, "I don't know the answer to that, but it's irrelevant. The video speaks for itself." Is it irrelevant?

FUENTES: No, that would not be irrelevant. Whether he's supposed to have a gun or allowed to have a gun may not mean a thing if he actually, in fact, has a gun. And because a part of that video is behind the parked car, we don't see his hands. We don't see, you know, whether he was reaching under his sweatshirt and possibly pulling out a gun or not. We just don't see that. So we can't say definitively he did or didn't pull out a gun or wasn't trying to pull out a gun. We don't know.

COSTELLO: Um --

FUENTES: If I could add another thing just on -- on police technique, when they talk about training. You know, having, as a police officer, been confronted with many subjects who just aren't going to cooperate and be arrested, at the point, these police officers should have been calling for a backup and had multiple officers given the size of Alton Sterling. They should not have been trying to do a football-type tackle all by themselves and get into a wrestling match with them, that they might not even be able to win. And that's the other part of this, that -- that they put themselves in a position that even if they were beginning to lose the battle with him, there shouldn't have been a battle with just two police officers.

COSTELLO: So what should happen now? You said the police chief, at the very least, should come out and make a statement on camera. There's also the question of these body cameras falling off the police officers. Those body cameras were supposed to prevent actions like this and they fell off during the scuffle.

FUENTES: Well, that's what we're told, they fell off during the scuffle. But, if that's true, then they should have clear video of what happened to him, what was said with the two officers and Sterling. They should have that before the tackle, before the wrestling match. So the videos should be crystal clear. The audio should be clear as to what happened if that -- if that's the case that those cameras came off. You know, and they have hard drives in them. So merely falling off and falling to the street should not damage the video itself that's contained in the memory. [09:45:07] And the next question, the cameras should still be

operating, even if they're pointing at the sky or at the ground. You would think that they're still recording the audio for the entire duration of this incident. But I think the first step of this is that the chief of police needs to get in front of a microphone, get in front of the people of that town and say, we know this incident happened. This is what we're doing. We know that it should be investigated by an outside agency. We've asked the Louisiana State Police to take over this part of the investigation. We'll provide them with all of the videos and security camera coverage. The store itself would have coverage of the parking lot probably. That all video be provided to the investigators, all statements, all interviews be conducted by the state police and take the local police department out of this.

COSTELLO: All right, Tom Fuentes, I have to leave it there, but emotions are very high in Baton Rouge this morning. Some are calling for an economic boycott. The NAACP is calling for the police chief to resign. And you saw the emotional plea from the -- the mother of Alton Sterling's son saying that she will not let his death go by without justice being served. And you also saw his 15-year-old son break down and he was just outright sobbing.

We'll have much more on this in the hours to come in the NEWSROOM and on CNN. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:50:44] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COSTELLO: All right, breaking news to pass along. Hillary Clinton, as you know, was not indicted, but according to the FBI, she was careless with the nation's most sensitive information. It certainly calls into question her judgment. Republicans have been angry, though, that Hillary Clinton will not be charged or indicted for her alleged crimes. So they've been urging James Comey to testify in front of the House Oversight Committee. And that wish has come true. We just got word that James Comey, the FBI director, will be testifying in front of the House Oversight Committee. That will happen lickety-split. That will happen tomorrow.

Manu Raju is on Capitol Hill with more on this.

Manu, what more can you tell us.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, that's right, Carol, this is really part of an effort by Republicans to keep this issue alive. They believe just as Comey said, that it's unlikely that a prosecutor could bring charges against Hillary Clinton, that that is not the end of this story. And one piece of this is to have oversight hearings.

Now, tomorrow, as you just said, Jason Chaffetz announcing that the House Oversight Committee will begin hearings, asking Director Comey specifically about his decision not to bring -- not to suggest that there should be any charges brought against Hillary Clinton, but that's -- that's just one piece.

I just spoke to Mike Pompeo, who's a member of the House Intelligence Committee, who said that they actually met, as members of the House Intelligence Committee, earlier this morning, to discuss a possible legislative response to put pressure on Hillary Clinton and put pressure on the FBI. Now, he was kind of cagey about his details about what could Congress do legislatively, but he said that there should be -- that Hillary Clinton should be denied access to classified intelligence, classified information for the rest of this campaign season. And that's something that Paul Ryan, the House speaker, mentioned also last night.

So, again, this is one piece of an effort by Republicans to really put pressure, raise concerns about Hillary Clinton's handling of this issue. And just because there may not be any criminal charges, it doesn't mean her political problems are over, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Manu Raju, thank you so much. I'll leave you to gather more information for us.

It is a morning of breaking news. We also are getting word that President Obama, in just about -- oh, like 10:25 Eastern Time, he'll make some sort of statement on Afghanistan. As you know, there's been a wave of terror attacks inspired or committed directly by ISIS across the Middle East. There was some question of a -- the level of troops within Afghanistan. We believe the president may be talking about that, but I don't specifically know that. But we do know he'll be making some sort of statement on Afghanistan in just about, oh, 40 minutes or so.

All right, let's talk about the development on Capitol Hill right now with James Comey testifying before the House Oversight Committee. With me now, John Jay LaValle, a Trump delegate from New York's first congressional district, Hilary Rosen, a Clinton supporter, and Jonathan Allen, a political columnist for "Roll Call" and co-author -- co-author of -- what's your biography called? I don't have that information, Jonathan.

JONATHAN ALLEN, POLITICAL COLUMNIST, "ROLL CALL": It's called "HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton."

COSTELLO: All right. I didn't want to leave that out. Thank you so much.

ALLEN: Thank you.

COSTELLO: And, Jonathan, I will start with you. What do you make of this -- this testimony from James Comey? Are Republicans on the right track or are they attacking the wrong person?

JOHN JAY LAVALLE, TRUMP DELEGATE, NY 1ST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT: Well, I think it's necessary. I think the world or certainly America watched the press conference yesterday and it seemed to be leading up to the words that there would be charges and then there was a 180 and all of a sudden there's not going to be charges. Clearly a case was laid out that, you know, charges should have been made. That being said, there's no question that it was an indictment of

Hillary Clinton's character, of Hillary Clinton's judgment, and her failure to recognize the national security concerns of the American people.

This is far from over. There's been reports that this investigation is closed. We still don't know if -- who hacked into these e-mails. Not just Hillary Clinton's e-mails, but the individuals she was conversing with, and when are they going to --

COSTELLO: The FBI has no evidence -- and I just want to be careful with this. The FBI said it had no evidence that Hillary Clinton's e- mail was hacked. They -- it said it might be, but it did not provide any evidence that Hillary Clinton's e-mail server had been hacked.

[09:55:12] LAVALLE: Likely to be, and that's concerning --

COSTELLO: That is concerning, but there's no evidence it actually has been hacked.

Jonathan, I'll pose this question to you. James Comey is going to testify before this House Oversight Committee. You probably watched his news conference, just as I did yesterday. It was -- I mean it was -- it was bad for Hillary Clinton. It was devastating for Hillary Clinton. Why isn't this enough for Republicans?

ALLEN: It was less devastating for Hillary Clinton than the FBI recommending criminal charges against her. But I agree with you, it was a really devastating moment for her in terms of the trust question, in terms of the honesty question, in terms of whether or not she may have violated statute. You know, Jim Comey didn't even say that she didn't break the law. He simply said that he would -- that no reasonable prosecutor would prosecute given what the FBI had found.

I think House Republicans want to hear more of that. If they could hear 11 hours of that, like the 11 hours of Benghazi testimony Hillary Clinton gave in October, but have it be bad for her as opposed to the 11 hours of Benghazi testimony, they would get that from Jim Comey. They'd like to hear him talk as much as possible.

COSTELLO: So, Hilary, how does Hillary Clinton possibly combat that? She already has a trust issue with voters.

HILARY ROSEN, CLINTON SUPPORTER: Well, two things. First of all, I think if the Republicans want to put Jim Comey on trial, they are going to end up overplaying this and blowing it. This is a guy who was a U.S. attorney appointed by a Republican president, deputy attorney general in a Republican administration. He is by, you know, all accounts for a long time above politics. So if they want to start attacking Comey on The Hill for making a decision not to charge Hillary Clinton, I think that that's a huge mistake.

Two important things came out yesterday. The first was that they did say that she was careless in her application and use of e-mail. But she has already acknowledged that and apologized to the American people for that. The other thing that they said, very importantly, and he will

elaborate on this if pressed, is that she was honest and open and transparent in the evaluation of this problem. There was no intent to hide or mislead the investigation. So the way Hillary Clinton gets beyond this, I think, is just to go and do what she is doing, starting today, again, is talk to the American people about what they care about, their issues, not her issues. People care --

COSTELLO: Don't -- don't you think, though -- don't you think, though, Hilary, that Hillary Clinton should maybe hold a town hall and answer questions that voters have about her judgment? Isn't that important?

ROSEN: Well, I -- you know, throughout this primary she actually has answered to voters over and over and over again. Now, she hasn't answered --

COSTELLO: Yes, but -- but -- but this is after this huge news conference from James Comey.

ROSEN: Wait, wait, Carol, let me finish. She -- she hasn't -- she hasn't answered as much to the media, but she is consistently in town halls and in meetings with voters and answering questions that voters care about.

And the key thing for us all to know is that, look, elections are about choices. Today she's in Atlantic City promoting how Donald Trump's bad judgment and unethical behavior resulted in bankruptcies and construction workers out of work and small businesses not being paid and there are numerous instances where that will happen.

COSTELLO: I -- I understand --

ROSEN: Now, you could call that a diversion --

COSTELLO: Yes.

ROSEN: But really what it is, is, let's talk about choices. People are going to have to decide which one of these people speaks to their needs going forward as president --

COSTELLO: All right, I have -- I have to end it there. John Jay LaValle, Hilary Rosen, Jonathan Allen, thanks to all of you.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:07] COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Right now we're following two big, breaking stories.