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Authorities Release New Video of Scott's Death; Syria Agreement Between U.S. and Russia Falls Apart; U.S. Presidential Candidates Prep for Debate. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired September 25, 2016 - 03:00   ET

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


[03:00:00]

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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Dramatic dashcam video from a deadly shooting is now public as investigators try to figure out what happened leading up to the shooting death of Keith Scott.

In Washington state, the manhunt is over for a suspect accused of killing five people in a shopping mall.

Plus the U.N. agrees to meet on Sunday to discuss Aleppo in Syria and try to stop the bombing. We'll be live in Damascus.

Hello, everyone. This is CNN NEWSROOM. We're live in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.

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ALLEN: Charlotte police are showing the public new video of Tuesday's deadly shooting of Keith Scott. The footage is triggering new protests throughout the city but they have been peaceful, unlike earlier this week.

Authorities say Scott, an African American, was carrying a gun and refused to drop it. None of the footage released, though, clearly shows what, if anything, he was carrying.

But the dashcam video does show officers on the right shouting at Scott to drop a gun. When Scott exits the car to the left, he can be seen taking a few steps backwards. His hands are down before he's shot four times. We warn our viewers, this video is disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drop the gun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drop the gun.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drop the gun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drop the gun.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He doesn't have a gun.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drop the gun. Drop the gun.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drop the gun.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Back up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Charlotte police released one more video from one of the officers' body cameras. CNN's Ed Lavandera has that for us.

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ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After days of protests here in North Carolina, the police department has released the dashcam and body-cam footage of the confrontation that led to the shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott on Tuesday.

The video is not all of the video but according to police chief, this is the pertinent video that shows that confrontation between the officers that were there at the scene and Keith Lamont Scott.

They also released three images of a handgun and ankle holster and a marijuana blunt they say Keith Lamont Scott was smoking at the time of the incident.

This is video that many people here have been clamoring to see for days and days. But as the police chief has been saying, they don't believe that it offers definitive proof about whether or not Keith Lamont Scott was actually holding a gun.

In the video, you see Keith Lamont Scott exit the car. He's standing in between the cars there in the park lot. The family for Keith Lamont Scott say they do not believe he was acting aggressively or moving towards the officers in anyway. So that's why they say that they have many more questions as to answers as to what exactly happened.

There is also the body cam footage that shows an officer approaching the back of Keith Lamont Scott's car. And one question we should clarify in all of this the first 20 seconds or so of that video does not have audio.

According to a city official here in Charlotte, they tell us that that is the way these cameras operate. That the body cameras immediately began recording video once the officer engages the camera but then it takes about 20 seconds or so for the audio to kick in.

But the explanation we're getting right now as to why there is no audio on that body cam footage, but once again, many people beginning to process, analyze these videos and trying to make sense of it all. And the family says that more investigation is needed.

This mayor for the city of Charlotte says that the interview and the witness interviews have been completed. And now this investigation continues with the State Bureau of Investigation here in North Carolina -- Ed Lavandera, CNN, Charlotte, North Carolina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: We're now joined by Cedric Alexander, one of our law enforcement analysts and a law enforcement officer himself. And we're here to talk more about this story and the developments.

Cedric, thanks again for being with us.

CEDRIC ALEXANDER, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Thank you for having me.

ALLEN: We've had this video from Mr. Scott's widow.

[03:05:00]

ALLEN: It was a snippet. We now have a snippet from the police.

What does it tell you?

What does it still not tell you in this case?

ALEXANDER: Well, it certainly does tell us that a shooting took place, pretty much the same thing as the first video did that came from the wife's. It is a view from a different angle. It gives us a little bit more information as it relates to what occurs.

But there are still so many pieces to this puzzle and still so many angles and still so much evidence still yet to be collected. There's forensics evidence that has to be part of this calculus. There's going to be witness statements and, of course, officer statements.

You're looking for the consistency in statements that match up with the evidence that's going to be taken from the scene. All of this will create a quilt, a map, if you will, of what occurred out there that day because that's the only way you can clearly re-enact all of this.

And the video is great. But we got to remember, these are just small snippets of a video that somehow we're going to -- they're going to have to try to put together as best they can.

ALLEN: From this snippet from the police, it's been reported he was walking away; he had his hands down; yes, there was a gun, but it's an open carry state.

What questions, as a police officer, if you were on that investigation team, would you want answered with what we're seeing?

ALEXANDER: Well, one thing we have to accept, whether we like it or not, whether it's an open carry state or not, we know this is that nine times that we're able to count on the video we've all seen so far is that officers told him to drop a gun.

And they did it with the intensity and the inflection as if they saw a gun. They was locked in on a gun. "Drop the gun, drop the gun, drop the gun."

And at some point he did not, for whatever reason. Do we know that he -- rather, you know, did officers know he may have had some mental health condition?

Certainly they would not have known that. But it is so much yet to be answered. But you can -- but the challenge becomes, we know that there was a gun because there's forensic evidence that suggests, through science, his fingerprints, his DNA was on a gun that was loaded at the scene.

And if that's the gun, then we can reasonably assume that he had possession of that gun and officers were constantly telling him to drop that gun.

ALLEN: So one final question. People want the answers because this has been seen as a chronic problem. The Black Lives Matter came out because of seeing too many of these types of shootings happen with questions left and justice not being served in many people's eyes.

So you can understand where people really want to see the full picture.

ALEXANDER: Absolutely. And if you take this shooting that just occurred, no matter what happened out there, right, wrong or indifferent, the American people, black and white, are seeing police at this very moment as not being part of their communities.

So therefore, they're going to look at the police out of these lenses that are very clouded toward our police officers in this country. And there are many good police officers out there.

But the problem here, quite frankly, is this: no matter what these officers would have done, could have done, should have done, however it happened, we have people -- and rightly and understandably so -- people are angry and no matter what officers do at this point, they're going to have a hard time trying to explain it to many parts of our communities.

ALLEN: Cedric Alexander, thank you again.

ALEXANDER: Thank you for having me.

ALLEN: We heard from Scott's family just after the videos were released. Here's what his brother-in-law had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KEITH SCOTT'S BROTHER-IN-LAW: We are certainly delighted as a family that the videos were released. Our goal has, from the beginning, been to get the absolute unfiltered truth.

And the only way to get that is for the police to release the videos that were released today. Unfortunately, we are left with far more questions than we have answers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: The Charlotte-Mecklenburg police chief says the videos are part of the evidence and that all the evidence will show the shooting was justified.

The United Nations Security Council will meet later Sunday to discuss the deteriorating situation in Syria, particularly the assault on Eastern Aleppo. A volunteer emergency medical service says about 200 airstrikes have hit the rebel-held area since Friday. The death toll is unknown.

Several countries, including the United States, say it's up to Russia to restore a cease-fire there. Foreign ministers call the Syrian regime's relentless offensive on Eastern Aleppo unacceptable. Senior international correspondent Frederik --

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ALLEN: -- Pleitgen is following developments from the capital there in Damascus and he joins me now.

We see these pictures of the rubble. We know that 200 airstrikes since Friday, Fred.

What do you know?

What are you hearing about the situation in that part of Aleppo?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Natalie. Well, what we're hearing is that offensive and the airstrikes seem to be continuing today again as well with jets there in the sky over the eastern rebel-held district of Aleppo.

One of the things that the Syrian military has said after acknowledging that this offensive is actually taking place is that they called it a comprehensive offensive that also involves ground forces as well.

And certainly what we saw yesterday was that the Syrian government forces apparently were trying to enter the eastern districts of Aleppo, those rebel-held areas, both from the south and from the north.

And it was one area specifically that they managed to take yesterday called the Handarat Camp, which is a very important area in the north of Aleppo. Now it seems as though in the late hours of last night, the pro-government forces had to clear that area again, retreat from much of that area, as the rebels then started pushing a counteroffensive.

Now as you mentioned, of course, we always have to state this again, what's happening in the meantime is that many people are being affected by that air campaign that's going on at the same time.

There's a lot of fighting. There are a lot of airstrikes. You mentioned more than 200 airstrikes, the opposition says, that have already been recorded there in Aleppo.

And what the rescue crews are saying is that there's so much activity going on, there's so many airstrikes taking place, that they're actually having trouble getting to the scene of where people are still trapped under the rubble in some of these places and that there are people trapped under the rubble that simply cannot be saved because there just simply aren't enough people to save them and because also the situation is so dangerous.

What we're hearing is that hundreds of people have been killed so far already in these airstrikes, since that air campaign really started picking up at the end of last week.

Of course, the government and the Russians are saying that they blame the opposition for that truce, for that cease-fire falling apart and that they believe opposition forces were regrouping before this offensive took place.

So a very dire situation in any case up there in Aleppo as that offensive seems to show no signs of slowing down -- Natalie.

ALLEN: Right. And we know the U.N. Security Council will meet on the situation in Syria on Sunday.

The question is, what more can be done from the diplomatic side after that fragile, fragile truce was brokered and didn't last very long whatsoever?

PLEITGEN: Yes, yes. Absolutely. One of the things we've also been seeing, which is very alarming also, if you look at the international efforts to try to find some sort of diplomatic solution, some sort of truce in all this, is that it seems as though the fact that this latest cease-fire has fallen apart also seems to have really put a rift between the two powers that are, first and foremost, trying to get some sort of cease-fire going, which is, of course, the U.S. and Russia.

The Russians, for their part, are saying that they believe that the U.S. isn't doing enough to rein in the rebel forces and also not doing enough to separate Islamist rebels from the moderate rebels that the U.S. says it's supporting; whereas the U.S. says they're not sure that the Russians are really serious about trying to pursue some sort of political solution.

We heard there before from those powers meeting in the United States saying, look, the Russians have to show that they're serious about trying to find some sort of diplomatic solution. Today again, that meeting in the U.N. Security Council, many hoping

that they might find some sort of solution. But very few people, Natalie, here on the ground really holding out hope that that could actually happen.

ALLEN: Fred Pleitgen, for us there, live in Damascus, Fred, thank you.

Earlier I spoke with Joshua Landis, the director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. I asked him about what steps the United States could take now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSHUA LANDIS, UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA: The West could go to war against Assad and Russia and Iran. And that's what the rebels would like. After war, if they won't go to war, they would like sanctions placed on Russia and more sanctions on Syria. They would also like much better weaponry. And that's what the rebels are asking for.

Now they want ground-to-air missiles so they can shoot down the Russian airplanes. These are the sorts of things they want. They want military action from the West, destroy or at least to ground the air force that is pounding them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: The United Nations secretary-general says Syria's military escalation may amount to war crimes.

Hillary Clinton's invited one of Donald Trump's biggest critics to attend 2016's first U.S. presidential debate. We'll tell you who Donald Trump says he will bring in retaliation -- coming up here.

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ALLEN: Plus the royals have arrived in British Columbia and Charlotte tagged along.

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ALLEN: The first U.S. presidential debate is Monday at a university in New York. The two candidates are preparing in different ways for the showdown. Donald Trump is campaigning. Hillary Clinton is cloistered with her aides.

Clinton scored the endorsement of "The New York Times," which hasn't actually endorsed a Republican in 60 years. Her invitation to a persistent Trump critic, billionaire reality TV star Mark Cuban, is creating a new controversy.

Cuban tweeted, "Just got a front row seat to watch Hillary Clinton overwhelm Donald Trump at the humbling at Hofstra on Monday." Hofstra University is the site.

It is on. Trump responded to Cuban's attendance by threatening to bring a guest of his own. The Republican candidate said he would bring Gennifer Flowers. He tweeted, "If dopey Mark Cuban of failed benefactor fame wants to sit in the front row, perhaps I will put Gennifer Flowers right alongside of him."

Flowers is a former Arkansas state employee, who Bill Clinton admitted he had an affair with in Arkansas.

He's correctly predicted the outcome of every election since 1984 and now Alan Lichtman says Trump will be the country's next president. But the historian says his prediction comes with a caveat.

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ALAN LICHTMAN, U.S. PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: For the first time ever in over 30 years, I've put a big asterisk on my prediction. That is, as you heard, my prediction is based on historical patterns.

But as you just described, we have in Donald Trump a candidate who has broken all historical patterns, who has said 20 things, including embracing a murderous Russian dictator, inviting Russia to come in and meddle with our elections, thinly disguised inciting violence against his opponent.

These things would have driven an ordinary candidate out of the race. So Donald Trump may be such an unprecedented kind of candidate, so far off the mark, that he could break the pattern of history and lose, even though my so far infallible system predicts that a generic Republican would certainly win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Presidential historian Alan Lichtman.

In Washington Saturday, U.S. President Obama spoke at the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The new museum is part of the Smithsonian and Mr. Obama was joined at the event by his predecessors, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Veteran civil rights activist and U.S. --

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ALLEN: House member John Lewis also was there. Mr. Obama mentioned Lewis in his speech and said he hopes the museum will help Americans come together.

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So hopefully this museum can help us talk to each other and, more importantly, listen to each other and, most importantly, see each other, black and white and Latino and Native American and Asian American.

See how our stories are bound together and bound together with women in America and workers in America and entrepreneurs in America and LGBT Americans.

And for young people who didn't live through the struggles represented here, I hope you draw strength from the changes that have taken place. Come here and see the power of your own agency. See how young John Lewis was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Again, the opening of the new African American History and Culture Museum is part of the Smithsonian.

Dozens of passengers have been injured after a train crashed in Algeria. State media says two trains collided Saturday. It occurred at a station when one train caught up with another; 78 people were injured but just two seriously.

London police say they've made an arrest in the high-profile hack of Pippa Middleton. The British Press Association says a hack into Middleton's iCloud account includes more than 3,000 private pictures, including photos of her sister, Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, and the royals' children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

Authorities arrested a 35-year-old man on suspicion of an offense against the Computer Misuse Act, as it's called. Newspapers report a hacker by the name of Crafty Cockney offered to sell the photos for $65 thousand.

Meantime, the royals have arrived in Canada with the children in tow. William and Kate there, stepping off the plane in Victoria, Canada. And they brought along Charlotte and George. It's the couple's second visit to Canada and the first overseas trip for little Charlotte.

Well, a typhoon is making its way to Taiwan. This is not the first. This is not the second in weeks. It's the third.

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DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We're going to take you right to Central Costa Rica because some astounding footage coming out of this region of a volcano that has recently erupted, quite a sight there. This is the -- I hope I pronounce this correctly --Turrialba volcano.

And while that eruption took place on Thursday of this week, it sent an ash cloud 2,000 meters into the sky, even canceling quite a few flights in the San Jose region and also dusting the region with a fresh layer of ash.

ALLEN: That was incredible video, though.

VAN DAM: That time lapse of the smoke actually billowing into the sky.

(CROSSTALK) ALLEN: All right. Thank you, Derek.

Thank you for watching. We'll have our top stories in just a moment.