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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Moscow Assassination Of Boris Nemtsov Deepens; Homeless Man Shot Five Times While On Ground; Cleveland Blames 12-Year-Old In His Own Death; Ice And Snow Storms Stretch Nationwide

Aired March 02, 2015 - 16:30   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN GUEST HOST: ISIS spreads its propaganda message of death and destruction across social media, putting out up to 90,000 tweets a day, according to U.S. intel officials. In an effort to blunt that narrative, Twitter is shutting down ISIS accounts, prompting supporters of the terrorist group to post new death threats against the company's co-founder, Jack Dorsey, and other Twitter employees.

CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson joining us live in London with the latest on this.

So, what kind of threats are we talking about here, Nic?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what ISIS or this affiliate of ISIS is saying is that Twitter has started a war with them and this means that for ISIS, all the -- as they say, the necks of the Twitter employees are now the targets of ISIS.

This is a very blunt and stark warning for Twitter. Twitter executives say that they are -- their security team is investigating this with relevant law enforcement officials.

This isn't the first time they have been threatened by affiliates of ISIS, but the concern here would be perhaps it's not ISIS themselves or this particular affiliate that would carry out any act, but it's a lone wolf that would be inspired by this rhetoric. And we have seen that recently in Copenhagen and in Paris. And that's where the concern begins to become real -- Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN GUEST HOST: Yes, and very alarming to hear that, Nic.

And tell us a little bit more about what we're learning. We have new information about Mohammed Emwazi. He's the British man who is seen in ISIS videos beheading or certainly taking that role before the beheadings, speaking before the beheading in the video.

Many know him as Jihadi John. We have learned some things about his e-mail correspondence that he had with an Islamist advocacy group in England. What can we tell from these documents?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, this organization CAGE essentially said through this transcript of e-mails that began between Mohammed Emwazi, Jihadi John, the summer of 2010 and ran for about a year or so, that Jihadi John and this group CAGE -- basically painting the picture that he was under pressure, under threat, being at times beaten by the British intelligence services, who were trying to imply that he was a jihadist, who were trying to make him an informant.

Also, he had an e-mail exchange with a British journalist around about the same time. That was published over the weekend. And in that, he indicated that he was in such a bad mental state, he was thinking of committing suicide.

But, you know, we are also learning that that's only part of the narrative here. Before this alleged harassment began, this is a man, we are learning from court documents and from other sources here, who had connections to the 21st of July, 2005, failed bomb plotters in London. He had connections to people who were going to join al Qaeda in Somalia.

So there are all these very deep connections, also at school is somebody, we are told, who was very anti-Semitic. And that was at school way before these allegations of harassment began.

KEILAR: Yes, a long trail there between him and British authorities.

Nic Robertson live for us in London, thank you so much.

In other world news, he knew the risks of speaking out against Russian President Vladimir Putin, but he told CNN that he didn't worry about being killed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS NEMTSOV, FORMER DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER OF RUSSIA: I'm a well- known guy. And this is safety, because, if something happens with me, it will be a scandal, not only in Moscow City, but throughout the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, as this Moscow murder mystery deepens, we have brand-new surveillance video of his killing. And now the model girlfriend of this Russian opposition leader fears she's next.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Welcome back to THE LEAD.

In world news: Tens of thousands of people are marching to mourn and protest the murder of one of President Vladimir Putin's biggest rivals.

Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov was gunned down Friday night on the streets of Moscow, right in the shadow of the Kremlin, just as a snowplow slowed down for long enough to obscure the view of a security camera that would have recorded the shots being fired. Nemtsov's Ukrainian model girlfriend was with him at the time, and she

is still being held by Russian police, her mother now telling CNN that she's afraid she might be blamed for his death. The rallies going on in Moscow were actually scheduled before Nemtsov's death. He was supposed to lead them, and, in a way, he still is.

Our Matthew Chance is on the streets there -- Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This scene has become almost the site of pilgrimage, with so many people in this city making the journey to pay their respects to Boris Nemtsov in this, the exact place where he was shot dead almost literally in the shadow of the walls of the Kremlin.

Thousands of bouquets of flowers have been laid out here as a mark of respect and as a mark of shock, all this taking place a day after the biggest opposition rally that the Russian capital has seen in years.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE (voice-over): Thousands marched in grief and outrage over the murder of one of Vladimir Putin's fiercest critics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is something -- something absolutely unbearable.

CHANCE: Boris Nemtsov, a former Russian deputy prime minister under Boris Yeltsin, was shot four times in the back while walking with his 23-year-old Ukrainian model girlfriend, the killing caught on surveillance camera.

You can see the couple here walking along the bridge right in front of the Kremlin just before midnight. A snowplow passes in front of them. That's when, out of view, investigators believe a man shoots Nemtsov, then runs into a getaway car.

President Putin ordered an investigation and quickly condemned the killing. In 2014, Nemtsov, a prominent Russian opposition leader, compiled a detailed report on alleged corruption at the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

NEMTSOV: This is the most corrupted Olympics Games in the history of mankind. My estimation is that they steal about 25, 30 billion U.S. dollars.

CHANCE: More recently, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Nemtsov was about to reveal information that would prove Russia's involvement in the conflict in Ukraine, saying that -- quote -- "Someone was very afraid of that."

Some mourners believe that someone was Putin or his supporters.

(on camera): Do you believe that Mr. Putin, President Putin, is responsible for this killing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do believe in this. CHANCE (voice-over): But the Kremlin says this tragic killing was

simply designed to damage Russia and to create a political storm.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE: Of course, the popularity ratings of Vladimir Putin are still sky-high, something in the region of 86 percent, according to the latest opinion polls.

The big question, though, is whether this killing will change that political dynamic, or will it simply send a message to the opposition that, if, like Boris Nemtsov, you are opposed to the Kremlin, this is how you could end up?

KEILAR: Matthew Chance in Moscow with that report, thank you.

And coming up next: the Los Angeles police chief speaking out just minutes ago on the killing of a homeless man by three L.A. police officers -- why he says his cops shot the man next.

Plus, a secret revealed. The artist who created this Bill Clinton portrait says that he found a way to hide Monica Lewinsky's dress in the painting. Do you see it? No? We will show you where it is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Welcome back to THE LEAD. The National Lead. Just moments ago, the head of the LAPD spoke to the media about a deadly shooting in Los Angeles that has already sparked protests against police brutality. As is often the case with these types of shootings, officers and witnesses are telling two different versions of what went down in the final moments before the shots were fired.

But what makes this case different is that it was captured not just on cell phone video as you see here, but on a police body camera, likely showing the officer's point of view.

CNN correspondent, Stephanie Elam, is live in Los Angeles outside of LAPD headquarters there. Stephanie, have you learned what led to this shooting?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, from what we understand, Brianna, is that there was a call, a 911 call for a robbery. That is what brought the LAPD officers to this area of Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles.

That's when they confronted the man who was the suspect at this time and that's where this video picks up. Now what I'm going to tell you before we show this to you, it is going to be upsetting for some people to see. We want to show you what happened here. Take a look.

(VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: You hear the reaction there from the people standing by. This was at about noon on Sunday so broad daylight when this happened. They said the altercation dramatically took a turn because the officers said that the man reached for one of the officers' guns.

We know that four officers were involved. Three of them discharged their weapons. They also showed pictures to show that their weapon had a malfunction because it was pulled so hard. This is coming from the LAPD.

But overall, when you look at this tragedy, and the issue on Skid Row, there's a big discussion about mental illness and some people said that this man had been living in this part on the street in a tent for several weeks.

And that he did have some mental health issues and Chief Charlie Beck saying that this highlights the issue here in Los Angeles and this is a problem that needs to be addressed and fixed somehow, and it has not been at this point, with the mental illness problem here -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Stephanie Elam for us in L.A. Thanks so much, Steph. Now the LAPD shooting could be the first case to put to the test the value of police body cameras, which were widely called for after the high profile shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

Joining me now to talk about this is the attorney for the Brown family, Benjamin Crump. You have seen this video, Ben, and there is some obvious differences here between the Michael Brown case and this case in Los Angeles, but as you're looking at that, do you see excessive force?

BENJAMIN CRUMP, CO-COUNSEL FOR TAMIR RICE FAMILY: What I do see is the police failure in training to deescalate a situation versus escalating a situation, as was talked about in Michael Brown in Ferguson, but more relevant to today, about 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland. Again, you see police officers escalating life or death situations, and the training has to be addressed.

KEILAR: And I know you represent Tamir Rice's mother and I definitely want to talk to you about that in a moment. But first, as we do talk about this shooting in L.A., when you see something like this, and there is some new information coming out about the Tamir Rice case, do you expect that we are going to see more protests as we saw after Ferguson?

CRUMP: I think people are going to exercise their first amendment constitutional rights to be heard when they see things like this in their community happen because it's a nationwide epidemic.

When you look at all the places it's occurring, not only in Los Angeles, not only in Staten Island, Ferguson, Cleveland, but also in Pascal, Washington, with Antonio Zambrano Montez where he is running away with his hands up.

You can't say what you said in Ferguson with his case, that we don't know if he had his hands up or not. You see it, yet nothing has happened to those police officers.

KEILAR: There is video evidence. So I want to talk to you about the Tamir Rice case. The police shot this 12-year-old boy, he was killed last November. He was playing with a toy gun.

As you see in really disturbing video, a police officer actually opened fire on him within two seconds of responding to a 911 call about someone wielding a gun in a park. His family filed suit against the city.

This weekend, the city issued its response and its response was to blame the 12-year-old for his own death. The response says Tamir's fatal injuries were quote, "Directly and proximately caused by the failure of plaintiff's decedent to exercise due care to avoid injury." You represent Tamir's mom. What was her reaction to this?

CRUMP: His mother and father, family, were totally devastated. They were outdone at the response and the insensitivity of the police. Because when you look at the video, less than 1.7 seconds I would offer to you and the fact that it's a playground.

When you look at that, you see a merry-go-round, a swing set, a sliding board. It's a rec center. His 14-year-old sister runs out after he's shot screaming you killed my baby brother. Look at how they treated her.

They manhandled her, slammed her in the snow twice, put her in handcuffs, drug her to the back of the police car, put her in the back of the police car while she watched with her little brother four or five feet away kicking, dying right there on that video.

So you have to ask yourself at what point do we expect more from our police officers, at what point do we say you have to treat our community like you treat everybody else's community. Don't police us and protect and serve everybody else. We want our children to be able to be safe as well.

KEILAR: To that point, you have the mayor of Cleveland who is responding to the backlash that came as a result of the city's response to this. He apologizes directly to Tamir's family. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANK JACKSON, MAYOR OF CLEVELAND: This is not the character or personality of the city of Cleveland. This is not to be that insensitive to family or even to victims. It's not our character or personality. I have an 18-year-old grandson and a 9-year-old and a 3- year-old, and it is difficult for me to imagine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: He is choked up there, and he is also saying the city is going to change the wording of the response. What's your reaction to that?

CRUMP: Well, I don't want him just to apologize for the poor word use and the grammatical phrases. I want him to apologize for the death of this 12-year-old child, one of his citizens, at the hand of what we believe are police officers who were improperly trained. In fact, the shooter had just been forced to resign three months ago so there's a question whether he should have even been a police officer. But it goes to the very heart of the matter, what kind of police are we putting on the streets and are they properly trained, and if we don't address these issues, the epidemic is going to get worse and worse.

KEILAR: Very important questions. Ben Crump, thanks so much for being with us to talk about this.

When we come back, it could be enough to make this winter the snowiest on record in Boston. The latest on the winter storm headed for the city next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Brianna Keilar in for Jake Tapper. Much of the country will get yet another blast of winter this week, including Boston, which could also get some new bragging rights.

The city only needs about three more inches to have its snowiest season ever and the struggle just to find shoveled space in Boston now more difficult. No more blocking parking spots with lawn chairs and traffic cones.

Today, trash collectors started clearing these space savers so the big plows can move in. Other regions getting dangerous ice and snow, even blizzard conditions, that's created some slick roads, slow air travel.

Let's check in now with meteorologist, Jennifer Gray. She's in the Severe Weather Center for us. I guess, if Boston suffers through all of this terrible winter they might as well get a record for it, right?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know what? It's nothing you want to brag about. They have been through a lot so we might as well break the record. You're exactly right. We only need a little more than 3 inches right now, 104.1. They need to get to 107.6.

They have two shots this week. We could get a little bit of snow on Wednesday, could also get a little bit on Thursday. So that's what we will be looking at as we go through the next couple of days, getting that record for Boston.

You are so close. We are looking at this storm system in the southwest getting its act together. Of course, we did see some lightning strikes and also some hail in Southern California today, which is a rare sight.

We also have winter storm watches and warnings in place all around the four corners, including places just to the west of Denver, lot of areas in the Rockies to the east of Salt Lake as well.

This will combine with a system from the south, with a system from the north, and is basically going to bring rain, a wintry mix and even that snow anywhere from places like Cleveland through Chicago and all the way up to New England. Starting out in the west, by tomorrow morning, we will have a messy commute for Chicago. This is 10:00. As it moves to the east it will impact places like Boston, New York, will switch over to a little bit of rain.

In Boston, you could get another round of snow by the time we get to Thursday. So Brianna, we will all be watching the northeast closely. However, this could bring a wintry mix to the south as well which is extremely dangerous as we know.

KEILAR: Yes, and no fun. I think I will be seeing you in your CNN snow beanie very soon. Jennifer Gray, thank you.

Our Buried Lead, a lingering shadow from Bill Clinton's presidency illustrated in a portrait. Check out this painting of Bill Clinton. The artist just revealed to the "philadelphia Daily News" that he included a shadow of Monica Lewinsky's dress. Can you see it over there to the left?

It's that dark area above the mantle. This is the shadow of a blue dress. It wasn't there when Clinton stood for the painting in 2005. He said -- the artist said he couldn't get it out of his mind and wanted to include it after the fact.

That's it for THE LEAD. I'm Brianna Keilar in for Jake Tapper. Here's Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.