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The Lead with Jake Tapper

FBI Opens Civil Rights Investigation Into Shooting; McDonald's To Serve Breakfast All Day. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired September 02, 2015 - 16:30   ET

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

[16:30:50]

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

Now for a horrific story in our world lead. It's a crisis that has left 2,600 migrants dead this year alone, as they try to flee to Europe, according to a human rights group. This newest photo, which we must warn you is disturbing, shows just one of those losses.

It is of a toddler who drowned and washed ashore in Turkey. We do not yet know the name of the toddler or where he came from, though a local governor's office said the toddler and the 11 other victims in this incident were Syrian refugees who attempted to flee by boat. Heartbreaking, but still thousands are streaming into the continent of Europe, many seeking to escape from the dire circumstances in countries such as Syria or Iraq or Libya.

And Europe is struggling to handle this flood of humanity.

CNN's senior international correspondent, Arwa Damon, joins us now live from a train station in Budapest, where many migrants are now stranded.

Arwa, some say they have gone days without food or a place to sleep?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Without a proper place to sleep for sure.

Jake, just take a look at the scene. You have people sleeping on the streets. This is just a fraction of the numbers that we are seeing here on a regular basis. The lower level of this train station, you can't even walk through it because so many families are there and there and they have been there for days at this stage.

A lot of them are running out of money. You were talking about that unspeakably horrific image earlier. If that image doesn't begin to move leaders to actually do something, it's difficult to fathom what is going to. We do ask parents why it is they do take this journey with their children, because a lot of them have babies, very small kids. They all say they do it because they believe if they stay back in their respective homelands, Iraq, Syria being the main war zones, that most of them are from there, they would have ended up dead anyway, so why not take the risk and try to see if you can get to Europe and at least give a future, your children any sort of future at this stage, and that that doesn't exist for them back home.

They risk the seas. They then trek on food by train, by bus, sleeping out in the open, sleeping in the forest, sleeping on pavements for days, weeks until they finally get here, and here, Jake, they are finding this road blocked off to them. The Hungarian authorities are not permitting them to board the trains.

They keep talking about the Dublin agreement, about E.U. regulations, about how these people have to register here. The problem is no one wants to stay here, and the regulations that are governing the process for applying for asylum, you can't apply them to this volume of humanity that is coming through. They weren't intended to cope with this massive flood, the likes of which Europe hasn't seen since World War II.

It's unconscionable that people that are vulnerable are being left to languish in the streets like this.

TAPPER: Arwa Damon in Budapest, appreciate it.

In our national lead today, the manhunt for three suspected cop killers now expanding. How do you even begin to try to track down people when you don't know who they are or what they look like and where they came from? That story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:38:10]

TAPPER: We are back with some breaking news in the national lead.

A judge ruling that the six officers charged in the Freddie Gray death will not stand trial together. Their charges range from assault to murder to manslaughter. Cell phone video from April 12 shows officers shoving 25-year-old Freddie Gray into a police van. He died a week later because of a spinal cord injury.

Today, defense attorneys for those officers tried to get charges dismissed, and they pushed for a number of other technicalities.

CNN's Jean Casarez following it all from us from the Baltimore courthouse.

Jean, what have you learned?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I just want to tell you court has just broken for the day. As you just reported, this is major news in regard to these trials. We are suddenly seeing an influx of helicopters, and a police helicopter is actually right above me, increased law enforcement presence in this area.

There's really just been really a minor protest today, a peaceful protest, but all of a sudden police helicopters, more police in the area, but the headline this afternoon, these six defendants who this morning were going to be tried together are now going to receive individual trials.

There was lengthy argument this afternoon. It was very heated in that courtroom, because the prosecutor wanted three of the defendants tried together, the rest of them tried separately. Apparently, there is evidence of them in statements or otherwise implicating each other, talking about each other, the others' actions that could bleed over, because remember you're able to confront your witnesses and you are entitled to a fair trial, so now everything, it appears as though, before any more pretrial hearings to exclude it, will be coming in against these officers.

Six individual trials, six individual juries will try these six defendants. So this is a major development. I'm not sure everyone expected that.

[16:40:05]

TAPPER: And, Jean, tell us about the protests. There were some protests earlier today.

CASAREZ: There were. It was a peaceful protest, but about four blocks down from the courthouse near the waterfront area, which is really a far different area from where the protests took place in May, there were protesters linking arms, justice for Freddie Gray, and the police asked them to get out of the roadway. They believe they didn't get out the way they should have.

One of them was actually arrested. He was put in a police van. An officer we understand, according to the police department, was injured with minor injuries, but that's the extent of the protests today, but suddenly an influx of police officers here. We just did see the police helicopter, but everything calm, but major decisions to come out for this trial that is set to begin, Jake, in October.

TAPPER: All right, Jean Casarez in Baltimore, thank you so much.

Also in our national lead today, the manhunt for three men wanted for killing a cop not far from Chicago, that manhunt now changing focus. Police are expanding the search area, no longer zeroing in on a two-mile radius in Fox Lake, Illinois.

The men, of course, could be on the run anywhere. Lieutenant Joe Gliniewicz only managed to give a very brief description of the suspects before he was murdered yesterday morning. In recorded audio, you can hear dispatchers calling for backup after that officer didn't respond to a status check.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Could you start the call for Fox Lake for an officer down, 128 Honing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will create the call.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Units responding to honing and Fox Lake. They were responding to report of a suspicious, a male black and a male white. It appears the officer is down, is missing now as well.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

TAPPER: That vague description led to an extensive search, 400- plus officers, choppers in the air, officers in camouflage, even the FBI and U.S. Marshals joining in the hunt.

CNN's Rosa Flores joins me now live from Fox Lake, Illinois.

Rosa, surveillance video I understand could play a major role in this search?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Jake, investigators here very tight-lipped about the evidence they have collected.

So far, what we know is that the best evidence that they have is that vague description of these suspects, and also that surveillance video. So investigators now going through it frame by frame, looking for signs of the suspect, but so far, no trace of those three suspects.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES (voice-over): Tonight, three suspected cop killers remain on the loose.

GEORGE FILENKO, COMMANDER, LAKE COUNTY MAJOR CRIME TASK FORCE: He was an outstanding police officer, an outstanding community member, and a father, we have to remember, of four children.

FLORES: The search for three people suspected of killing a 30- year veteran police officer is widening beyond the original two-mile perimeter with now more than 100 federal, state and local investigators saturating the area surrounding Fox Lake, Illinois.

FILENKO: Currently, we're utilizing the FBI, ATF, and United States Marshals Office, as well as the sheriff's office, alongside our investigators.

FLORES: Police combing through clues, including potential fingerprints or DNA left at the crime scene, and analyzing all surveillance footage in the area.

FILENKO: We're not discounting anything. We're looking at every aspect and angle of this.

FLORES: The shooting happened Tuesday morning after Lieutenant Gliniewicz radioed into dispatch about three suspicious people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you need a second unit?

LT. JOE GLINIEWICZ, FOX LAKE POLICE DEPARTMENT: Negative at this time.

FLORES: Minutes later, one of the suspects flees the scene as Lieutenant Gliniewicz calls for backup. GLINIEWICZ: He took off toward the swamp.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you need a second unit?

FLORES: Lieutenant Joe Gliniewicz didn't answer repeated status check calls from dispatch.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fox Lake Unit 6740, checking your status. Fox Lake unit on Honing, checking status on 6740.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't have him right now. We're looking for him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Try him on his cell phone, please.

FLORES: A second officer arriving on scene found Lieutenant Gliniewicz wounded.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Officer down.

FLORES: As officers raced to the scene, hoping to find those responsible.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All the county units responding to officer down, Fox Lake. Subject to be considered armed and dangerous.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Male white and a male black fled from scene, taking the officer's sidearm and pepper spray. Shots were fired. Unknown direction of travel.

FLORES: The small town of Fox Lake saddened and stunned to learn about the death of the man some called G.I. Joe.

LILY JOHNSON, MOURNING OFFICER GLINIEWICZ: He would always stop and say hi to us. For Halloween, he liked to give us candy and stuff. He was a really good guy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: A vigil is set up for a few hours from now, this entire community expected to attend.

And, Jake, the more time that we spend here, the more that we learn of just how amazing a community member this man was, one of the commanders telling us that he was the type of officer that took his cruiser home, and he would roll into town, as soon as he rolled into town, he was on duty, he was on the clock protecting this community -- Jake.

TAPPER: Sounds like a great guy.

Rosa Flores, thank you so much.

Coming up: caught on camera, a second video emerging of police fatally shooting a man in Texas. Will it show without question that both his hands were up or does it tell a different tale?

Plus so it's 10:32 a.m. and you have a hankering for an Egg McMuffin? It would no longer be too late to get that Egg McMuffin. McDonald's announcing all-day breakfast, but could this be a bad business move? We'll explain why it might be, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. The National Lead, we're getting more information about a man's death caught on camera. He was shot by sheriff deputies in Bexar County, Texas. San Antonio's FBI division just opened a civil rights investigation into what exactly happened.

It all started with a domestic dispute call -- a note of caution, some viewers may find the cell phone video that we are about to show of what happened a bit disturbing.

It shows Gilbert Flores with one, maybe both of his hands up in the air. Deputies fired, he felt to the ground.

[16:50:07] Exactly why they shot him is unclear. A utility pole blocks our view of Flores' hand. A source close to the investigation tells CNN he was holding a knife in the hand that was not visible. The sheriff's office confirms there is another video from another angle.

And CNN's Sara Sidner is live in San Antonio where a news conference just wrapped up. Sara, what is on that second video?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are told that the sheriff and we asked her, did you seed video yourself? She said, yes. We asked, did you see his hands? Were both of his hands up?

She said, both his hands were up, but then she said she believes there was a knife in that hand that you can't see on the video that has been released to the public. Here is a bit more of what she had to say when she was asked about exactly what she saw on that video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you confirm that the other hand behind the pole was indeed up and raised?

SUSAN PAMERLEAU, BEXAR COUNTY SHERIFF: Yes.

SIDNER: When you say that the video causes you concern, are you concerned that the deputies didn't act properly?

PAMERLEAU: So in the video that was posted online, we saw Mr. Flores' hands up, and then he was shot. The important thing is being able to know what happened in that sequence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Now we asked the sheriff where is that knife? Did they recover a knife? She was unable to answer that question saying that she did not have that information -- Jake.

TAPPER: Sara, this would seem to be a perfect example of why so many are proposing dash cameras and body cameras, why it could be useful in a case such as this one?

SIDNER: Absolutely. We talked to the district attorney about that, and said he is a huge advocate. They are going forward to get cameras for the folks that are on the force here.

We know the county has looked at that and they have approved going forward with that, but yes, the body cams and the dash cams could have been extremely helpful in this.

But we now know there are two videos, one shows very clearly what happened. It's from a different angle than the one that has been released to the public -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Sara Sidner in San Antonio, thank you so much.

Coming up next, the good old afternoon Egg McMuffin? A major decision by the McDonald's corporation, but is this really a recipe for success?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:56:45]

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. Our Money Lead now, we've all been there, you wake up in the morning, had a little too much to drink the night before and you're craving that delicious Egg McMuffin, but only to get this reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll take hotcakes and sausage.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sorry, sir, we stopped serving breakfast.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're 4 seconds late.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, you're 30 minutes and 4 seconds late. We stopped serving breakfast at 10:30.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Apparently McDonald's just made Adam Sandler a bit more irrelevant. The fastfood chain announcing today that they will start serving breakfast all day long. But a word of caution, you can't get your 24/7 fix until October 6th.

Let's get right to CNN Money's Cristina Alesci. Cristina, what's behind this decision? I assume it was not Adam Sandler.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: No, it was not Adam Sandler. That movie came out in 2009 so diehard fans have been wanting this for at least 15 years, Jake. The reason they're doing it today is because McDonald's needs to change the conversation around the company.

Oftentimes when we talk about McDonald's we're talking about poorly paid workers or unhappy franchisees, and most recently, of course, slumping sales. The company reported a 15 percent decline in profits last year, compared to 2013.

The last five quarters we've seen declining sales so there is a read issue about changing the conversation, and here's the thing. This is a big move by McDonald's. Not many people realize what it takes to pull this off in 14,000-plus restaurants across the country.

Every one of them has to get an extra griddle for the eggs to cook on, because they can't cook at the same temperature as the meat and the chicken that's being cooked.

Also in the McMuffin markets you need is a separate toaster. So it's a significant investment. There are risks involved. Once you add complexity into the kitchen, what happens is you risk increasing wait times, which McDonald's has had a problem with.

This does not come without risk for the company. It seems to be a fairly drastic move -- Jake.

TAPPER: You talk about this changing the conversation, how could it change the company's bottom line? Is it anticipated to have a good impact on the company's revenue?

ALESCI: That is an interesting question. As I mentioned, that 15 percent decline in profits, it's unclear how this will impact that. You have to remember, 24 percent of the revenue that McDonald's gets is from breakfast and about 43 percent is from dinner sales.

What you don't want is those breakfast sales eating into the percentage of revenue that comes from dinner, because the dinner items could actually be more profitable for each franchisee, and in turn the company.

So there are nuances here that play into it. We're just going to have to see how it works out. Clearly it's really hard to criticize McDonald's on a day when they're making at least their biggest fans happy.

TAPPER: Cristina Alesci, thank you so much.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook and on Twitter @jaketapper. You can tweet the show @theleadcnn or check out our Facebook page.

That's it for THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. I am now officially turning you over to Brianna Keilar, who is filling in for Wolf Blitzer. She's right next door in a place I like to call "THE SITUATION ROOM." Thanks for watching.