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New Day

Family of Man Shot by Police At Walmart Files Suit; Theater Chain Pulls "The Interview"; Russia's Economy Racing Toward Brink of Collapse

Aired December 17, 2014 - 07:30   ET

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

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: And Attorney Wright, let's talk to you about what we're hearing from the city of Beaver Creek. They released a statement that I think some will wonder about. Let me read it to you: "We believe that evidence will prove the officers' actions were justified." Wal-Mart, for its part, also says their associates acted properly.

Mr. Wright, can you give us an understanding? Are we missing something when we look at this footage? There is really only about a second, we understand, by the time police showed up and shot him. Police say that he was waving the gun around, that he didn't comply. But how can that happen, in one second?

MICHAEL WRIGHT, CRAWFORD FAMILY ATTORNEY: That's absolutely correct. He was given less than half of a second, it was actually approximately a third of a second before they shot and killed Mr. Crawford. They came in the store and shot and killed him on sight.

There's absolutely no justification for this shooting at all. Mr. Crawford was posing no threat to anyone. He was facing the shelves, talking on his cell phone and was shot and killed on sight. There's absolutely no justification and can you see through the video, Mr. Crawford was not even aware that these officers were in the store.

PEREIRA: And it's interesting too because at one point he sort of is walking around, you see him what distractedly talking on his cell phone. You see him standing to the side. When the police arrive on scene, he drops that gun, the toy, and scrambles away from it obviously concerned. John, when you see those moments, they're critical moments, what goes through your mind?

WRIGHT: Let me just answer what you just asked. When Mr. Crawford dropped the BB gun, he was shot at that point. He was shot. So he didn't drop it and scramble away. He was shot. That's why he dropped the BB gun.

PEREIRA: How many times was he shot?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The shots had already been fired.

WRIGHT: He was shot twice. So he had already been shot twice before he dropped the BB gun. At that point, he was scrambling, he was fighting for his life. He was in the process of dying. He was in shock.

PEREIRA: Mr. Crawford, we also understand, Mr. Crawford, that your son's girlfriend was out in the parking lot, waiting for him in the car. She was then interrogated by police. We have a little bit of the footage, which was released on Sunday. I want to play a little bit for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where did he get this gun?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, I don't know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You understand that we're investigating a, a serious incident. You lie to me and you might be on your way to jail. So he got in the car, he had a white bag, he never made any noise about doing anything to his ex or anything like that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was she in the store?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You sure she wasn't in the store?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I swear to my understanding she was still in Cincinnati.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're telling me you didn't see his girlfriend in the store?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, sir.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: This poor young woman, she's trying to figure out what's happened. Mr. Crawford, you believe that shortly after this interrogation with your son's girlfriend began, officers already knew that the gun was a toy. Where do you think they were trying to go with this line of questioning?

JOHN CRAWFORD JR., FATHER OF JOHN CRAWFORD: Well, clearly, you know clearly they had no motive. You know, she had called me prior to that, and they were trying to intimidate her. They were trying to establish some type of motive. They had already killed him unbeknownst to her, of course.

They were looking for a motive. They realized once they killed him, they killed him unjustly. They had to have something, a motive and they went to her to try it establish that to try to get something from her, so that they could go back and justify the killing.

PEREIRA: And later in that video, we hear police letting her know that your son has died and it's heartbreaking to hear her reaction. Attorney, Michael, will you give us an understanding -- we understand that Ohio is an open carry state.

What does protocol in that state allow for? And what should happen when a situation like this, a man with a gun, is in a store in Ohio. What should be happening?

WRIGHT: Absolutely nothing should be happening. Ohio is an open carry state. If that BB gun had been a real -- firearm, they still did not have enough probable cause to even stop and talk to John. So there's absolutely no reason for them to come in and shoot him on sight.

Again it's an open carry state. If it was a real gun, which it was not, they still did not have the authority to question John, there was no reason for them to handle the situation in the way, in the manner that they did.

PEREIRA: Mr. Crawford, one fin piggybacking -- I know that this is a civil suit. Go ahead, sir.

CRAWFORD: Let me make a quick footnote. Actually what's ironic about this case, also, is that the prosecuting attorney did in fact say that my son did nothing wrong and that he did not commit a crime. That came from the prosecutor himself.

PEREIRA: Mr. John Crawford, we hope that you will speak with us again and Michael Wright, thank you so much for joining us, we want to make sure we continue to follow this case.

We know both of you are seeking justice for this young man and are now launching this civil suit. We want to talk to you going forward about how this turns out, OK, our best to you.

CRAWFORD: Absolutely. Thank you.

CUOMO: All right, we're also chasing question this morning that persist about the Taliban's strength and influence in Pakistan after Tuesday's horrible massacre in a school. Will this siege be the tipping point for the Pakistani government to try new tactics, to have new resolve?

We'll be joined by the country's former president, General Pervez Musharraf in a NEW DAY exclusive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Welcome back. Let's give you a look at your headlines, one of the largest movie theater chains in the country, Carmike Theaters, is pulling the movie "The Interview." after hackers who breached Sony pictures threatened to attack theaters showing the film.

They are apparently warning moviegoers to remember 9/11. A big premiere scheduled for tomorrow in New York has also been canceled. Homeland security and the FBI are now investigating that threat.

President Obama's executive action on immigration is being questioned. A federal judge in Pennsylvania has called parts of his move unconstitutional.

The opinion comes in response to a criminal case against an illegal immigrant who was deported and caught back in the United States again this year. President Obama's policy changes would give a reprieve to up to five million illegal immigrants.

Several people injured after an American airlines jet hit severe turbulence in South Korea, they're going to arrive at their destination in Texas, the plane was forced to divert and make an emergency landing in Tokyo.

Fourteen people needed medical attention. American Airlines says four passengers and a crew member were taken to the hospital. None of the injuries were life-threatening.

It's kind of a scary scene playing out in a Florida courtroom. An attorney fainted while questioning a witness. Julianne Morris, representing a South Carolina mother accused of driving her three children into the ocean back in march, that attorney collapsed while questioning a psychiatrist. Emergency workers rushed to help her out. She is said to be doing much better and in fact is expected back in court today.

Those are your headlines at this hour. Let's send it back over to you, Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Mich, thank you very much. The situation in Pakistan, I'm sure you're aware of it matters on a simple human level, so many lives taken, so many of them children. We also have to see it as the evolving face of radical Islam, what the goals are, what the means are.

And that means, it's going to be a big suggestion of where the United States' efforts are going to be in the war on terror going forward. Let's bring in Bobby Ghosh here, we know he's a CNN global affairs analyst and the managing editor of "Quartz" this situation matters for any box you want to check.

Let's take a look, we're on the map here, this region is going to be new landscape for people. It's old landscape in the beginning of the war on terror. Now there, where are we? Why is the Peshawar relevant here? Now we're looking specifically at the school itself. Why is does the region matter?

BOBBY GHOSH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Peshawar is the largest city in that part of the world, 3.5 million people. This is where modern Islamism militancy was born. In early 1980s, this is where the C.I.A. and the Pakistani military recruited young men.

Afghan and Pakistani young men, you know, need them to fight against the offense jets in Afghanistan. That genie, once it was released from the bottle has never gone back is and Peshawar more than any other city or of groups like this.

CUOMO: Is it true that the U.S. was not only training them. Not just about blame, but about understanding, one of the reasons they took the name Taliban, Talib is student. Not only were they learning about what their own resolve should be, but learning from the United States about their own goals.

GHOSH: They were being taught how to go out and fight. These were not trained military people. They were given the equipment and the ability to fight, but their command and control structures were not in the hands of the GIA or the Pakistani military. They developed that on their own.

CUOMO: And also, as you said, very important to mention that this region, there's so much extremism in there. Different groups, many of them competing and that is evolving as a big part of the challenge in Pakistan and throughout the region, yes?

GHOSH: Dozens and dozens of groups. And many of them have, you would seem, if you looked at what they say, you would think that they all believe in the same thing. That they all are cut from the same cloth -- but there are tribal issues here that sort of sometimes have them fighting against each other.

And then when they are faced with a common enemy like the Pakistani military or the U.S. military, they're able to work together as well. So it's an incredibly complex and confusing situation.

CUOMO: And a perverse competitiveness, right? There's reason to believe that ISIS getting all the recent attention spurs the TTP, the Taliban in Pakistan or Afghanistan, to want more attention. And that may be something that's spurring.

But however the big deal is, let's put up the graphic that we're standing on of the different groups in this region. Because it goes to what the Pakistani military and government are up against. And the suggestion is they can't handle it. What have we seen and why do you think it's been so difficult for Pakistan?

GHOSH: Well, for the Pakistan military, there are several issues, all of the complex, complexities that we just discussed. But let's not forget, these are their people. It's not like they're going into a foreign country and they can just sort of go in and have at it. These are Pakistani nationals.

CUOMO: Even though they are all in Pakistan, the sovereign nation, the identity as a citizen isn't like in the U.S. You are clan first and when that's in clash, you wind up having a different set of behaviors.

GHOSH: You do indeed and you've been there, you've seen that that people even those who are in the Pakistani military sometimes will respect their clan loyalties ahead of their national loyalties.

CUOMO: Let's show the different sections, the Khyber region, the Khyber Pass, one area with certain sympathies, you have fata and Waziristan. It takes you into the tribal areas.

GHOSH: Well, the North Waziristan is the heart of the Pakistani Taliban. That's more or less where they're headquartered. And fata, the federally administered tribal agency, Waziristan is part of that. There are several other smaller districts that collectively make up Fata.

Khyber to the north and east of it, what all of these places are in common is that they're very heavily ethnically pashtuns. The ethnic pashtuns make up a large number in the terrorist groups, like the Pakistani Taliban and also the Afghan Taliban.

So these borders that you see with Pakistan, those borders exist only in maps. These groups of people for centuries and certainly since the formation of Pakistan have been able to travel from one country to the other, which means that these groups have alliances across the borders.

CUOMO: And there are regions that are very difficult to negotiate from a topography standpoint. Make it hard for the U.S. military. That's why the Pakistani military says you need us, we know the terrain, but they haven't been able to access it as well.

And one of the great ironies of this situation, the pashtun, while they are very often a breeding ground for the wrong kind of people, is that tradition of pashtun wali, they take in people and protect them and often that dynamic winds up playing out.

One time they're fighting against the military, protecting certain parts of the military. A bizarre situation, one that Pakistan has not been able to control in the past.

Bobby Ghosh, thank you very much for the perspective, we're going to have to be talking about this, Alisyn, the challenge there is very real.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Russia's economy is in a tailspin today. Hit hard by U.S.-led sanctions, but that's not the only reason that their economy is plummeting. What does all of this mean? What does it mean for Putin? We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Is the Russian economy heading for a crash? Officials just hiked interest rates for the sixth time this year, but the gamble has failed and the rubble tanked. One of the reasons behind the downfall is western sanctions.

And now President Obama set to sign a new round of sanctions against Russia. Here to breakdown what all this means for us is Rana Foroohar. She is CNN's global economic analyst here to break it down for us. Good morning.

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: How did Russia get to this point of near collapse today?

FOROOHAR: Russia is like a petro state. It gets 75 percent of its exports from oil. So when oil prices began falling, its economy started going to collapse. That was compounded by the U.S. sanctions which were already putting pressure on the economy making it impossible to renegotiate the debt. So now it's really under pressure from both areas, financially and from its exports.

CUOMO: What's going to be the impact on Vladimir Putin? You know, Russia is all about reading the tea leaves. They seem to be sending out some messages that this isn't what we signed up for?

FOROOHAR: Absolutely. What's interesting is when you look at oil economies when they come under pressure, it either topples the autocrat at the top of the places or in the short term it can crack. Vladimir Putin is terribly mismanaged the economy. Many of the problems within the country are his fault. He could use this as an opportunity to stir up more conflict elsewhere as a distraction from the domestic problems.

CAMEROTA: Let's look at who the sanctions targeted, companies and banks in Russia, members of Putin's inner circle, pro-Russian separatist leaders and public figures some so it seemed to have worked. The targeted sanctions worked. But have they had an effect on regular Russian people?

FOROOHAR: Absolutely. People in Russia are suffering terribly. Inflation is going to skyrocket. They tried to prop up interest rates of 17 percent as a way to stop the currently outflows. But frankly nobody wants top their money in Russia right now. I think they're going to have to result to capital controls. The economy is in a free fall right now no question about it.

CUOMO: In terms of whether it goats better or worse, what do you make of the oil situation. Obviously there's still big downward pressure. It's not going to be market regulated. What happens?

FOROOHAR: I think oil prices are going to stay low in part because china is slowing. China is a big consumer of Russian oil. They've been signing more deals lately, but on unfavorable terms to Russia. They've got them in a strong hold right now.

And at the same time the rest of the demand factors in the U.S. are not robust enough to counter act that. I think what this means is that for an economy that's 75 percent oil, they're going to be in trouble for a long time to come.

CAMEROTA: It feels like Putin is cornered.

FOROOHAR: That's what makes his so dangerous. This tends to happen to the Petro autocrats. When the prices fall, they can't make their budgets or do the handouts that have put them in power. That's when they get dangerous. Politically this is a very sensitive time.

CUOMO: These are tricky analyses to do until we see how it plays it out. But if he's blamed for an aggressiveness that put them in the situation, I don't whether he can be helped by being more aggressive and more dangerous. This may cook him.

FOROOHAR: It's true. But the question is who is waiting to take his place? Is there somebody in Russia that could stand up right now -- CUOMO: Is the guy wasn't supposed to be taking his place?

FOROOHAR: Like a mini me.

CAMEROTA: How would the Russian people oust him if they wanted to?

FOROOHAR: That's the question. Generally what happens in a situation like this, you get an oil price crop and a period of chaos. Hopefully there's a leader and a process ready to put a leader in place. But I don't trust that there is any of that in Russia.

CAMEROTA: Isn't it fascinating just in the span of one year in Sochi at the Olympics when he was flaunting the grandeur that he could. In the space of one year we've seen this drop?

FOROOHAR: One thing I would add, there's a lot of nationalism in Russia and emerging markets. People are not as dissatisfied with Putin as you think. A lot of people see him as a strong leader, someone who stands up to the west.

CUOMO: It comes back to the same conclusion. He's helpful to the Russian people because he's boosting their identity. But pride will take second to pocket book in most economies because of need. Snoop Dogg said when you have your mind on your money and your money on your mind, Putin is going to be in trouble.

FOROOHAR: I'm going to have to study his work.

CAMEROTA: Philosopher and economist, Snoop Dogg.

CUOMO: Another huge developing situation out in the world is Pakistan, the entire country and really everyone who has witnessed this massacre in mourning, picking up the pieces of this horrible attack on this school. Funerals are beginning for 145 people, many of them children. We're going to have the former president.

CAMEROTA: Yes, we are. He's going to join us live in an exclusive interview. There are a lot of questions for him, including whether the government is doing everything they can to tackle the terrorists. We'll tackle all of that. Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Premier canceled. New terror fears overwhelm the entertainment industry. Movie theaters are considering pulling the film.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's a good time to stand your ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's stolen information. I think it's -- everybody talking about it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The 132 children slaughtered at their school by terrorists. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is every reason to believe that the United States is vulnerable.

MALALA YOUSEFZAI: We should stand up together and fight.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The possibility of a second Bush Clinton showdown.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Marco Rubio was on track to run for president in 2016 even if Jeb Bush jumps into the race.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm thinking about running for president.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome back to NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, December 17th. We have breaking news here for you. We're talking about Sony Pictures. They're telling theater owners they can cancel showing the now controversial film "The Interview" if they want to. One of the largest chains in the country has decided to do that.

CAMEROTA: Plus the big premier tomorrow night in New York City has also been canceled. These moves have in reaction to a terror threat. They're threatening to attack theaters that choose to show this comedy, which depicts the assassination of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Un.