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Exclusive Interview with Dallas Chief Officer On The Details Of The Shooting Incident; Dallas Killer Wrote Letters In Blood On Wall; Dallas Killer Suspected Of Planning Larger Attack; Twenty One Officers Hurt In St. Paul Protests, 100 Plus Arrests; Dallas Pastor: We Are All Feeling Pain. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired July 10, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:13] SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN HOST: Hello. Thanks for joining me. I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Fredricka Whitfield is off today.

And just in to CNN, President Obama now who right now is heading back to Washington and is going to travel to Dallas on Tuesday. We have just learned this. He is delivering remarks at an interfaith memorial service for the five officers killed in last week's protest ambush.

We are also learning shocking new revelations from the Dallas police chief about the final moments in that standoff downtown. A gunman writing the message in his own blood on the walls of his hideout. The chief's transparency comes after a third night of protests erupt against police brutality. At least 250 nationwide arrested.

In St. Paul, Minnesota, protesters launched fireworks, rocks, steel bars at police. Twenty one officers were injured, eventually deploying smoke bombs, flash bangs and tear gas.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING)

MALVEAUX: In Chicago and New York, hundreds of protesters blocking traffic. Twenty people taken into custody in Manhattan. There you see it. Tensions are high in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, following the arrest of 125 people there. More of all of that coming up.

But first, we are learning gripping new details now about the moments when gunfire ripped through that protest in downtown Dallas Thursday night. This is an exclusive interview.

CNN's Jake Tapper interviews police chief David Brown and takes us inside the operation to stop the gunman, including his decision to send a bomb robot to finally bring the siege to an end.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Chief, an investigator told our affiliate WFAA that the domestic terrorist who killed these officers was planning a much larger attack than the ambush he carried out on Thursday. What can you tell us about this larger plot? CHIEF DAVID BROWN, DALLAS POLICE: It appears that our search of the

suspect's home in Mesquite leads us to believe, based on evidence of bomb-making materials and a journal that the suspect had been practicing explosive detonations and that the materials were such that it was large enough to have devastating effects throughout our city and our north Texas area. We are convinced that this suspect had other plans and thought that what he was doing was righteous and believed that he was going to make law enforcement and target law enforcement make us pay for what he sees as law enforcement's efforts to punish people of color.

TAPPER: So he had been planning something before the rally and maybe even before the deaths in Louisiana and Minnesota?

BROWN: We believe so. And we believe that the deaths in Minnesota and the deaths in Louisiana just sparked with delusion to fast-track his plans and saw the protest in Dallas as an opportunity to begin this havoc on our officers.

TAPPER: Is there anything more specific in terms of what he was going to target beyond police officers?

BROWN: That's undetermined at this point, but we are continuing to go through his laptop and his cellphones to figure out what other interactions and who else he might have been interacting with as a result of these plans. We still haven't ruled out, Jake, whether or not others were complicit. That's the way we do things. We want to be sure to follow every lead and make sure we don't want to miss any pieces of evidence that might lead to other things that we don't know yet.

TAPPER: What else can you tell us that you might have learned from the killer's journals?

BROWN: Well, I think that this killer obviously had some delusion. There was quite a bit of rambling in the journal that's hard to decipher. I can just add, at the scene where he was killed he also wrote some lettering in blood on the walls which leads us to believe he was wounded on the way up the stairwell on the second floor of the El Centro building and where we detonated the device to end the standoff there was more lettering written in his own blood.

TAPPER: What did he write?

BROWN: We e trying to decipher that. But he wrote the letters "rb."

TAPPER: "rb."

BROWN: Yes. So we are trying to figure out, through looking at things in his home, what those initials mean. But we haven't determined that yet.

[14:05:04] TAPPER: After the shooting you suggested that the gunman had to have had knowledge of the parade route. You said, how would you know to post up there? And you also said that you have yet to determine whether or not there was some sort of complicity with the planning of this. Have you learned anything more about that?

BROWN: Yes. We had information prior to the rally that the rally would only be a static event at the Belo gardens. And that after the rally ended people would disperse and go home peacefully. We had no indications that anyone was planning any type of violence to our people or damage to our properties. And so, we really did our security planning around the things that we have learned from the pre- planning meetings that the protesters have. Spontaneously, they began to march and there was no route determined before this spontaneously march began. And they just began walking. What we know now is that this suspect was in a vehicle, what is black Tahoe (ph) and was leap- frogging the intersections in that vehicle and stopped well ahead of the march. You could easily see the march coming down the street they were walking, and saw an opportunity with some high-perched positions, a couple of buildings in the pathway of the marchers and decided to take the high ground and start shooting right away. And the vulnerability of our officers were, because it was such a spontaneous decision to march by the protesters, we had to leap-frog intersections to make sure they didn't get run over by vehicles, by traffic. So -- because we were not planning to block any streets because of the pre- planning meeting information that we received, and we had to scramble to block intersections, which did expose our officers to this attack. And this -- this suspect took advantage of that. And once he was in a high-perched position, officers did not know where the shots was coming from. And we are learning some of the positions of our deceased officers, and it was -- they were in a funnel. Ended up being a fatal funnel there. And then the suspect continued to move and shoot from different angles from the high-perched position down at street level and then back up to the high-perched positions at really diagonally, almost triangulating the officers with his rapid fire.

TAPPER: It sounds as though his military training allowed him to be quite deadly in this horrific circumstance.

BROWN: We don't normally see this type of moving and shooting from criminal suspects. We are convinced that the military style was a plan and that he had practiced this. And, again, I agree with you, Jake, the military training he received, you know, influence how he planned to do it. I am sure he had been deployed to Afghanistan, according to his military record, and likely had been trained and taught that type of tactic.

TAPPER: There is a report out this morning that the killer said he would only speak with a black police negotiator. Is that accurate?

BROWN: That is accurate. That's not something that we would have liked our police officials to divulge at this time until we got further into the information on the suspect's laptops to fully understand the reasoning behind that. But since that's add up, I have to be honest with you, that's true. And for a long time during the negotiation, because of the negotiator's expertise, the suspect wouldn't believe he was black. Until they talked some more and -- but during that talk it didn't matter whether he was black because he was shooting at us. So asking for a black negotiator, didn't make sense to us. It didn't matter to us. And it shouldn't make sense to anyone because that didn't lead to any type of peaceful resolution. But that is a request that did happen. But our police sources should not reveal that. I want to make sure I'm clear on that, so the people that leaked that information understand that you are getting in the way of us doing our job by leaking information. So stop it.

TAPPER: Three people were arrested in connection with the shooting. But the police have not immediately named them or said why they were being held. Can you tell us anything more about those three individuals?

BROWN: Yes. During the protest that was planned as a static event, several people, 20 or 30 people, showed up with AR-15 rifles slung across their shoulders. They were wearing gas masks. They were wearing bullet-proof effect and camel fatigues (INAUDIBLE), for whatever reason. That makes sense to us. But that's their right in Texas. And they marched. But when the shooting started, they began to run. And they began to run at street level across where shooting was occurring. So for our officers, they were suspects and I support that belief. Someone is shooting at you from a perched position and people are running with AR-15s and camou gear, gas masks, bullet-proof vests, they are suspects until we eliminate that.

So one of the persons turned themselves in because they ran and got away. We put their picture out. We interviewed them and released them because we didn't have evidence that they were part of the attack. One of the other individuals that was running could not legally carry the gun so we charged that person with prohibitive weapon and they were brought to jail.

One of the suspects, a female, we released as well. She was running with the two who were armed and officers believed with that she might have been associated with that but once we interview her we ruled her out as a suspect as well. But from our vantage point, with people carrying guns at protests, wearing bulletproof vests and gas masks, while people are killing us, they are suspects until ruled out.

[14:11:18] TAPPER: So just to clarify, all three individuals have been released and you don't believe that any of them are complicit or involved in any way in these murders?

BROWN: Two of the three were released. One was not legally able to carry a gun. They were charged with prohibited weapon which is a misdemeanor charge here in Texas when you cannot legally carry a gun. And so, two were released and one was arrested for unrelated gun charges.

TAPPER: Something unprecedented that happened in Dallas, the police department used a bomb robot to kill the gunman. Take us through that process. How did you make that decision?

BROWN: I was in radio contact with the SWAT team negotiating once we had him pinned down in the second floor of the El Centro college building. And they began conveying to me that this person was in a gunfire with them, gunfight with them. And he was in a position such that they could not see him. He was secreted behind a brick corner. And the only way to either get a sniper shot to end his trying to kill us would be to expose officers to grave danger. The other option was to continue to negotiate. We had negotiated with

him for about two hours. And he just basically lied to us, playing games, laughing at us, singing, asking how many did he get and that he wanted to kill some more and that there progress on the negotiation. And I began to feel that it was only at a split second he would charge us and take out many more before we would kill him.

So I asked -- right -- I was planning a press conference. Before I walked out the door I said I want to plan when I come back from the press conference to end this. And I said use your creativeness to come up with a plan to do it. When I got back from the press conference they presented to me what was probably a 15-minute plan they put together to improvise our robot with a device to detonate behind the corner within a few feet of where he was that would take him out. And I approved it. And I'll do it again if presented with the same circumstances.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: You just heard the Dallas police chief David Brown said that killer was laughing and singing during that chilling standoff with negotiators.

We are going to take a quick break and then we will come back. The chief dealt deeper into that haunting phone call with the gunman.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:17:20] MALVEAUX: Welcome back. During a tense standoff and the aftermath of the Dallas shooting, the killer spoke with police, taunting them even singing at times. The police chief David Brown says despite being wounded, the gunman was determined to continue on his deadly rampage.

Here again is CNN's Jake Tapper.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: Tell us more about this phone call. What was he singing? What was he saying? Did he seem at all in control of himself?

BROWN: He seemed it, very much in control and very determined about hurting more officers. I don't recall what he was singing or much about what he was saying. We are trying to get some of our audio transcribed from some of that conversation. But as soon as we do I'm going to release that because we just believe in transparency as much as possible of all police incidents. But I just don't have that here today. But I can just tell you he was clear of mind, determined to hurt more officers. And without our actions he would have hurt more officers. So we had no choice in my mind but to use all tools necessary. And it was about a pound of c-4 to end the standoff.

TAPPER: I want to ask briefly about the decision to send in the bomb robot, which you said you would make the same decision again. As we know, it has prompted a lot of discussion among law enforcement officials about whether or not there should be some sort of discussion nationwide about the use of this type of robot.

Just to ask a question about this. Could something else have been used other than a bomb that would have killed the shooter? Obviously, in a situation like that, law enforcement has every right and ability to take out the shooter any way he can. But could, for instance, some sort of riot gas been used instead of something that killed the gunman?

BROWN: I just don't give much quarter to the critics who ask these types of questions from the come efforts and safety away from the incidents. You have to be on the ground and try and determine -- I've got former SWAT experience here in Dallas, and you have to trust your people to make the calls necessary to save their lives. It's their lives that are at stake. Not these critics' lives who are in the comforts of their homes or offices. So, you know, that's not worth my time to debate at this point. We believe that we saved lives and again, I appreciate critics, but they're not on the ground and their lives are not being put at risk by debating what tactics to take. I'll leave that to them for a later discussion.

[14:20:16] TAPPER: Let's talk about your story, your own personal story, because it's rather extraordinary. You have lost your partner, former partner of yours, to gun violence, your brother to gun violence. And just weeks after you became the leader of the Dallas police department in 2010 your son, pardon me, your son fatally shot a police officer and another man before being killed in a confrontation with police. How do you think these experiences have shaped to the way you have faced the horrific events this week?

BROWN: First of all, I came into law enforcement in 1983 as a result of the crack cocaine epidemic in my own neighborhood. I grew up in the poor areas of Dallas. I am an inner city kid. And I really appreciate my experiences growing up here. And this city has embraced me as its police chief. And I have always felt a sense of urgency about delivering police service.

But I never wanted this job to be about me, then or now. I am a servant. And at my core I enjoy serving people. And I am a person of faith. I am a Christian. And I believe that service is part of my direction, and loving people despite themselves is something I aspire to be. I am flawed, though, like many of us. But I can tell you right now, you know, I'm not going to have a long conversation about me on this broadcast or any others. This is going to be about the men and women & blue who sacrifice their lives every day and these families planning four funerals. So I want to spend a lot of time talking about what I have learned about these officers.

They're brave. They're courageous. They did things that day that are just hard to describe. We are learning that officers, to expose themselves to draw fire, so they could determine what floor this suspect was on. Exposed themselves. And you saw footage of officers running toward gunfire. The extraordinary acts of bravery. Countless officers returning fire, knowing that they're vulnerable to try to get to wounded and injured citizens and officers, to get them rushed to the hospital to try to save their lives. And just the brave men and women who have worked every day. The day after this incident occurred I look at the daily rolls to see who comes to work. Everyone came to work the next day. Who does that, Jake? In the face of their lives being at stake the previous day, you would think that you would have some call in and say, maybe that's not for me. Everyone came to work the next day. And I am just proud to be associated with these people. I stay humble.

And so I'm not going to talk much about me. I think you said much about my story, and I think it speaks for itself. And I hope that I have done a good enough job to represent these brave men and women. That's been the challenge for me. Am I representing them appropriately? So I am really, really, really not wanting to -- any of this to be about me, Jake. I hope you can appreciate that.

TAPPER: I can, sir. What can you tell us about the officers who were wounded?

BROWN: My of the officers have been released already. One of the DART officers was still in treatment at the hospital on yesterday. But I believe he is going to be released today if he didn't get released late last night. They are recovering, not only those officers but looking in the faces of all of my officers, when I see them coming in and out of headquarters and out on the street, they're in shock, Jake. You know, one thing -- other thing that I have learned about this is that the conversation about policing in this country, this is not sustainable to keep these officers encouraged. These officers risk their lives for $40,000 a year, $40,000 a year. And this is not sustainable, not to support these people.

We are not perfect. There's cops that don't need to be cops. And I have been the first to say, we need to separate employment with those types of cops, one or two percent. But the 98 percent, 99 percent of cops come to work and do this job for $40,000 and risk their lives, not knowing whether they are going to come home, get this criticism. That's just not right and it's not sustainable.

And I am just making a plea to this country to stand up as a silent majority and show your support for these people to keep them encouraged to protect you. And I am saying this from the heart. I hope I'm not lecturing too much. But this is really important, from my perspective, that we show these folks that we applaud let them know without a question that we support you in your efforts to protect us.

[14:25:10] TAPPER: Who specifically do you think needs to show more support to our men and women in blue? Is this something that you're directing to public officials, to any specific protesters, to the media? Who do you wish were more supportive?

BROWN: You took the words right out of my mouth. Media, public officials, and our communities. How media tells the story. How you sensationalize the video, how you edit the video. Show the whole story. And when you don't know the whole story, say there is more to be determined instead of jumping quickly to conclusions without a full investigation.

We need more people in the community to come forward. There is a silent majority out there that doesn't realize that a minority voice is loud, critical of law enforcement, and our public officials, local and national, need to step up. And I am encouraged by what I have heard, but we all need to make sure that there is no question in the mind of our officers that they are supported when they do the right things. And of the few that don't, we, as leaders in the profession need to separate employment with them so that the 98 percent doesn't get painted with the broad brush of those one or two percent that shouldn't be police officers.

So you can have both of these discussions and be clear of the people who dedicate themselves professionally to deliver police service that you support them without painting everyone with a broad brush or the majority of the media coverage be the negativity that happens in our profession.

TAPPER: What do you say to the people who were protesting in Louisiana last night or the people who were protesting in Minnesota last night? Majority African-American protesters who feel as though their lives don't matter as much to the police. What do you say to them?

BROWN: We are sworn to protect you and your right to protest. And we will give our lives for it. And it's sort of like being in a relationship where you love that person but that person can't express or show you love back. I don't know if you've been in a relationship like that before, Jake, but that's a tough relationship to be in, where we show our love -- because there is no greater love than to give your life for someone, and that's what we are continuing to be willing to do. And we just need to hear from the protesters back to us. We appreciate the work you do for us in our right to protest. That should be fairly easy.

TAPPER: One last question for you, sir. What else do you want the American people to know?

BROWN: That the law enforcement community is hurting. We are all grieving. Not just here in Dallas, all over the country. And words matter and we need to hear that you appreciate what we do for this country. Thank you, Jake.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Extraordinary man. And you just heard revelations from Chief Brown about the killer that he wrote with his own blood on the walls, laughing at police negotiators.

Well, coming up, out experts are going to weigh in on the gunman's mental state as well as his plans for a larger attack.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:31:03] MALVEAUX: Before the break, we heard Dallas Police Chief David Brown reveal new details about the Dallas gunman. Now according to the chief, Micah Johnson was actually plotting a larger attack on police. Johnson had demanded and received a black police negotiator and he wrote in his own blood before he was killed, including the cryptic letters "RB." So I want to bring in our panel, CNN law enforcement analysts, former assistant FBI director, Tom Fuentes, former U.S. Marshall's assistant director, Art Roderick and Dekalb County public safety director, Cedric Alexander. Gentlemen, thank you -- of course, also author of the book, "The New Guardians."

Gentlemen, thank you for joining us here. Tom, I do want to start off with you because we have a lot to unpack from that interview. Really some incredible details coming from the police chief. He says it because he wants to be transparent.

Let's start with the blood, writing in blood. When you hear something like that, what do you suspect is behind that? Is there a message that he was trying to send in the final moments of his life and was he trying to send it to someone specifically, do you think?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, that's a good question, Suzanne. He said they are still trying to decipher what he wrote and what he meant. As soon as they can figure that out, they will put that out.

So I think that just shows the signs of that this person was motivated, you know, writing in his own blood on a wall of a parking garage. You know, that tells you something about this individual, how committed he was to this attack in killing police officers.

MALVEAUX: Does it worry you that he was trying to communicate at that moment? I mean, what does that tell you in terms of potentially trying to reach out to someone? Does it indicate that to you?

FUENTES: No, not necessarily. We don't know, but I think the conversation with the negotiators over a two-hour period does tell us motivation and what his aims were. That he was going to plant explosives. He was going to kill more cops. He was joking, singing, and firing his gun yet again.

So I think that, you know, in the mind of the negotiators, there was no question in their mind, he was not going to surrender. He had two hours to do just that and chose not to. And so I think that chief just showed an incredible amount of not just ingenuity, but the forthright decision to do what he did.

He has to question, how do you expect cops in Dallas to work for $40,000 a year? I'll give them one answer. It's an opportunity to work for a leader like him.

[14:35:10]I think he's just unbelievably a great leader.

MALVEAUX: Yes, he really seems like an extraordinary man, especially his own life circumstances and his personal story, which he refused to talk about. He said it's not about himself.

Art, I want to bring you into the conversation here. Those bomb- making materials that were found in his home, perhaps suggesting that he was planning something bigger here. How do you explain what happened Thursday night? Was this kind of an unexpected opportunity and could police or law enforcement have picked up on perhaps some activity by following him or knowing in some way he was ready for something bigger?

FUENTES: What basis would they have to follow him? He had not committed a criminal act. He was in legal possession of every weapon it seems that he had. We don't know what the explosives were that he had. But when you see that type of thing.

He was supposedly in the military. He was a carpenter and a brick layer. He wouldn't have gotten advanced training in explosives and weapons fire. You're talking about training that is at an Army Ranger level or Delta Force level, not just a carpenter.

So I think that it's pretty clear to the chief, he is expressing that. Other people had to be involved in supporting him either financially or in training even though it doesn't seem that were other people actually shooting guns that night.

MALVEAUX: I don't mean necessarily following him. Maybe I should clarify that, but if there were markers or signals or something in his life that might have indicated where he was headed, where he was going with perhaps this anger as well as the kind of weaponry and materials that were discovered in his home.

FUENTES: Well, we don't know. We don't know how he obtained those weapons. If all were obtained legally, I'm sure ATF is still trying to determine every aspect of how he acquired what he did in terms of weaponry and the explosive materials. So that's yet to be determined, but he would have done nothing.

At this point, he was honorably discharged from the military even though he got caught up in a sexual harassment investigation. He never committed a crime, at least as we can determine as of now, basis would there be to have a flag for anybody to look at to determine that he needs to be followed or watched.

At this point, there may be something that comes up, but as of now, we don't know of it.

MALVEAUX: Cedric, there were a lot of people that we know that were there. And 15 to 20 people they said were wearing camouflage, they had rifles slung over and even some gas masks. We know it's legal in the state of Texas to openly carry so how did that complicate the situation in terms of determining who was actually doing the shooting and how they handled those folks who were just there at the protest?

CEDRIC ALEXANDER, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, I'm quite sure those that came dressed with camouflage and outfits and carrying their rifles, they had no idea that this would happen, but it did happen and what could have easily happened, it could have been a lot worse and then we'd be here blaming police officers for having shot one of those individuals.

Because when you get a situation such as that and heard on a number of occasions when those shots were fired, it sounded like they were coming from a variety of different places, you have officers trying to protect themselves, protect the public.

You see someone running with an M-4 rifle, you see someone in camouflage material, that becomes your subject and that becomes your suspect, period. So we are fortunate that nothing else happened because those officers were put in a very precarious situation, quite frankly.

I want to go back for a moment to your original question you were talking about the subject who was killed in this case.

MALVEAUX: Yes.

ALEXANDER: And partly -- I'll put on my psychologist hat here for a second. I would have imagined that he's had severe mental health issues and the reason I say that, no one their right mind conducts that kind of operation against innocent people, against police officers unless something is really emotionally and psychologically wrong with them.

In addition to the fact the blood that he used to do the markings that usually can be suspected as being somewhat psychotic. I'm not trying to do a gross analysis. I think it's going to be up to the investigators to go back through his history and do a psychological autopsy, if you will, to determine more about who he is, why he acted out the way that he did.

But this is an individual who never should have been in possession of a weapon and who was very sick. It's unfortunate but certainly it's -- it happened and regardless of whether he was sane or insane, the loss of those officers' lives, the damage is done to the community and across the country and it's unspeakable.

[14:40:07]MALVEAUX: It really is. Art, I want you to get into this conversation, if you will, and tell us, what is your concern about the potential for copycat cat acts because we're talking about the mental health of this individual and also the fact that there was a motive here, a retaliation.

Do you think that this kind of sets the stage potentially for other people who may feel that this is a catalyst for going out and gunning down police officers?

ART RODERICK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Suzanne, you're absolutely right. I mean, this has been an issue since this particular incident started, but we always think about this after any incident. We can draw some parallels here to San Bernardino and to Orlando, the whole issue of engaging with negotiators is a stall tactic. We know that.

That's exactly what occurred here in Dallas. But I think from a bigger perspective, what we see is an individual that was self- radicalized, looking at these afro-centric websites and what we found is that cults, whether it's a religious cults, al Qaeda, ISIS, white supremacist groups, all basically recruit the same way.

They have all this propaganda on the internet and are able to pull in disenfranchised individuals and this is exactly what occurred here. No difference than what we saw with the ISIS shooter down in Orlando and also in San Bernardino. He became self-radicalized against law enforcement.

Looking at these afro-centric websites, and you could almost map these out for all three of these particular incidents and probably could go back further.

MALVEAUX: All right, Art Roderick, we're going to have leave it there. Art, Tom, Cedric, appreciate your insights.

Still to come, Minnesota at the center of demonstrations last night. Our CNN's Rosa Flores is live now in St. Paul.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Suzanne, for the most part, demonstrations here in Minnesota have been very calm and peaceful, like the demonstration that you see behind me. But that changed overnight with protesters throwing rocks, Molotov cocktails at police officers. So how are those police officers doing this morning? I'll let you know after a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:45:27]

MALVEAUX: Demonstrators in several major cities planning to hit the streets again to protest police shootings of African-American men. More than 250 people nationwide were arrested in overnight protests, almost half of them in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The protests there entering now their third day escalated during a march down the I-94 Freeway. Now, some demonstrators launching fireworks, rocks and steel bars at the police. Officers then responding with tear gas. Twenty one police officers were injured.

The protesters are demanding change after Philando Castile was killed by a police officer during a routine traffic stop outside of St. Paul. Our CNN's Rosa Flores is live in St. Paul. Rosa, what are we expecting today? What are people telling you?

FLORES: Well, let me set the scene for you. Behind me you'll see the governor's mansion and a group of people demonstrating. This is what the scene has looked like all day long and since Philando Castile was shot and killed by a police officer.

Now, that changed overnight, of course. We know that police officers were out securing the scene where demonstrators were exercising their first amendments. They were protesting because of the shooting death of Philando Castile.

Now what we learned from police officers was that they were attacked with rocks, Molotov cocktails and rebar, and so police officers, of course, were injured because of this.

I talked to a commander that tells me that those police officers are OK. However, they are concerned about how these demonstrations turned from protests to riots. Here's what the police chief has to say. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF TODD AXTELL, ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA POLICE: Last night was the first time in my 28 years as a police officer that I have observed the level of violence that was directed towards our public servants, who are there to protect all of us in this community. It's really a disgrace. Protesters last night turned into criminals. I'm absolutely disgusted by the acts of some. Not all but some.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: As we take another live look here outside the governor's mansion in Minnesota, it's a very calm protest. But like the police chief mentioned there, there were 21 police officers who were injured overnight.

Now, we do know from a commander that I spoke to earlier this morning that all of those police officers are expected to be OK. Just to give you a sense of some of the injuries that they sustained, the commander tells me that one of the police officers, a bottle was tossed towards his face and his chin was cut open.

Another one, a rock was thrown towards his head and so he used his hands to try to protect his head and his hand is either broken or, at the most definitely, cut. Like you mentioned, there were 102 protesters who were arrested overnight and right now you can see all of the demonstrations are just very peaceful -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Rosa, we certainly hope that they recover from their injuries. Can you put this into context for us? It's hard for us to see. Was this mostly a peaceful demonstration and a small group of people that started the rock throwing or was this overall a very large group that turned violent? Can you help us understand how that even happened?

FLORES: Well, there were multiple protests yesterday, Suzanne, that started at multiple locations. There was a protest here at the governor's mansion, one in Minneapolis, one closer to the scene where Philando Castile lost his life. And so all of those three protests were happening when the situation escalated overnight. It was a smaller group of people, but as you mentioned and as we've been mentioning here on CNN, it did turn very violent and 21 police officers were hurt -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right, Rosa, thank you so much. We appreciate it. We certainly hope that there is peace somewhere to be had in that community as this all unfolds and people try to grapple with their emotions, their feelings, and their frustrations on both sides.

Still ahead, Pastor T.D. Jakes, he is hosting a town hall. This is in Dallas today. We are going to hear how he brought together and is trying to bring together all the sides to help start the healing process.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) [14:50:08]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I look in your eyes and I see suffering, it's not black suffering and white suffering. It's just suffering.

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MALVEAUX: Today in Dallas, there was an emotional town hall hosted by Mega Church Pastor T.D. Jakes. He brought together politicians, the police and families of African-American men killed by police.

Diamond Reynolds, the fiancee of Philando Castile who shot and killed by a Minnesota policeman spoke to the town hall by phone. She talked about the one thing she would do differently the day of the shooting.

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DIAMOND REYNOLDS, FIANCEE OF PHILANDO CASTILE (via telephone): I'm not even taking that route. We were just en route to have a regular family night, to go home and eat dinner and be a family like we always wanted. If I could change anything from that night it was never to take that route. Because if we wouldn't never been in the wrong place, in the wrong time, none of this would have happened.

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MALVEAUX: CNN's Kyung Lah was at that town hall in Dallas. So first of all, Kyung, just tell us what the response, the reaction was inside of that room when you heard her emotion and laying out the story of that day?

[14:55:13]KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was just heartbreaking to listen to, Suzanne. You just got a little sense of it there. If you looked away from the stage and at the face of the parishioners, it was a packed place. The stadium was filled with 3,000 people.

I call it a stadium because a stadium sitting the congregation had almost every single seat full and a lot of those faces, people were holding hands, they were hugging, they were crying.

This is an issue that certainly is very personal, not just to the city of Dallas, but to the congregation, a predominantly black congregation that is seeking solutions but also comfort.

And they were moved not just by the fiancee of that one officer- involved shooting, but also the aunt of Alton Sterling as she spoke explaining what happened to her nephew.

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SANDRA STERLING, ALTON STERLING'S AUNT: They were too slow. This should have been done the first day. I saw the tape the first time. It should have been done the first day. And Alton is my nephew. I call him my son because I raised him. When I saw the first tape, it hurt me and pained me and I saw that my child, my nephew did not suffer. But when I saw the second tape, he suffered. He suffered and it should have been done the first thing.

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LAH: This is also a day to remember the fallen officers, the five fallen officers and, Suzanne, there was a moment where the congregation wanted to thank the Dallas Police Department and they gave them a standing ovation -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Thank you, Kyung. I know that we're going to talk more about some of the police officers and law enforcement officials that were there as well later in the show. Thank you so much, Kyung. We'll be right back.

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