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Chicago Officer Jason Van Dyke Charge with First-Degree Murder; Graphic Video Captures Chicago Officer Shooting Teen; Russia: Special Forces Rescue Pilot from Downed Plane; New Paris Attack Suspect Identified; Russia: Ties with Turkey are in Jeopardy. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired November 25, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Officer in this case.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After being shot, then hit multiple times while on the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The officer in this case took a young man's life and he is going to have to account for his actions.

ELAM: The 37-year-old officer, Jason Van Dyke is charged with first- degree murder and has been taken off to Chicago police payroll. For now, he is being held without bond. Van Dyke's lawyer says his client feared for his life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's truly not a murder case and we feel that we are going to be very successful in defending this case.

ELAM: On the night Laquan was fatally shot, investigators say McDonald was wielding a knife which he allegedly used to slash the tire of a police car. Police say when McDonald, who had PCP in his system ignored orders to drop the knife, Van Dyke fired 16 rounds.

ANITA ALVAREZ, COOK COUNTY STATE'S ATTORNEY: Officer Van Dyke was on the scene for less than 30 seconds before he started shooting. In addition to the fact that all evidence indicates that he began shooting approximately six seconds after getting out of his vehicle.

ELAM: City officials had been prepping for mass demonstrations in the wake of the video's release, calling for peaceful protests.

RAHM EMANUEL, CHICAGO MAYOR: This opportunity for healing begins now.

ELAM: Late Tuesday, dozens locked arms in solidarity, blocking off an intersection and Interstate 94.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let him go.

ELAM: Officers made some arrests but tense moments between the crowd and police never escalated out of control.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ELAM: And that's a key point to keep in mind here, what we saw in Ferguson last year is not what we are seeing in Chicago this year.

Also worth noting there are two major differences here, the fact that Van Dyke has already been arrested, he's being held without bond, and the fact that the city has already settled with the family for $5 million that happening back in April. So, very different circumstances than what we have seen in other cases, Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Cannot be emphasized enough, Stephanie, very much, there are key differences between this and other cases we have seen.

Let's start with the fact that there is videotape. It's too graphic, you don't want to see it, of course you need to see it, because that's the difference between this case and a lot of other cases.

Harry Houck, NYPD former detective, friend of show, we deal with this all the time, being able to see it makes a difference. However, Harry.

HARRY HOUCK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes sir.

CUOMO: We're going to start with who the officer is. Why it took a year, why the video didn't come out right away, why we haven't heard more from the police, unfair to put that on you or Professor Hill. We got to hear it from them. We're working out on that part of the story.

This is a veteran cop, OK? Young man, a lot of time left in him, of course. But 18 citizens complaints against him that's a high number, even in Chicago that is a fairly active reporting place on a community basis.

At this stage, and all of this time, officer since 2001, would he have been trained in how to deal with emotionally disturbed people?

HOUCK: Well, of course. I mean, this guy's got some time on the job here.

CUOMO: Right.

HOUCK: I expect more from an officer with this amount of time on the job than the way he reacted for the shooting.

CUOMO: Because that's what the key is, when I'm talking to guys still on the job about this, they all say you deal with those situations differently, they call on different services, they say different things.

HOUCK: Right.

CUOMO: Here are the facts, OK? Began shooting 30 seconds after arriving, only out of the car for six seconds, he shot for 15 seconds. Victim on the ground after two seconds. This was always very damning, but you would say in others well I need to see it, I need to see it. It was also the only shooting -- the only officer they believed that were emptying -- was emptying his clip into this guy. HOUCK: Right.

CUOMO: So, that takes us to the actual video, all right? Here it is. Now, the one regrettable thing about this is that this car looks like it's going to give you a great view of it, it doesn't.

Here's the kid, he is literally running down the middle of the street, OK? He is pulling up his pants, he is saying lots of things, he takes the knife out, the knife out, where's the knife? The knife is in his right hand.

HOUCK: Right hand.

CUOMO: All right, just so you know, come on baby give me some of this, here we go. All right, anyway, the knife is right here. The knife is right here, around here, you got to see it. His hand holding a knife, so they definitely had that going for them. They had that -- They had a threat, OK?

So the officers get out there's a faint lines of officers, there's two other cars. He just got shot, hold on a second, he just got shot by that officer as he popped out of the car, Harry, all right?

Now, one shot leaves a puff on him. The second shot puts him on the ground. So he is now on the ground, maybe two, three shots in, OK?

HOUCK: Right.

CUOMO: We continue. The puffs of smoke are additional bullets. The movements of his body are additional bullets. There's then a pause and more shooting. We can't see it, how do we know? They do know, they know it from the forensics, there's another puff, there's another puff. He is getting shot on the ground, lying prone.

HOUCK: Right.

CUOMO: OK. Now, one of the unfortunate things is here, obviously what happened, I'm saying aside from the obvious. Where are the officers? We don't have a great view? Where is their body camera? Where are the other angles of cars? Not available at least to the public that goes into the understanding of why we don't have a full picture, but we see enough here, Harry.

[06:05:04] HOUCK: Sure. And we've got ballistics to prove that these bullets came from that officer's gun.

CUOMO: What do you see?

HOUCK: Well, we got a man who's down, who was -- who should not have been shot when he was down on the ground, because now the threat has been totally eliminated. You know, I tell you at first, Chris when I came out I thought that maybe before this video came out that I thought maybe the first initial shots by this police officer were going to be legitimate shots and it would have been a legitimate shooting. But looking at this here, when this officer comes out of the car, now I can see the whole area, see the picture, you see this fence here, all right? There's no civilians walking down that street. It's cordoned off. There's nobody there. There's officers behind. Officers just way over there so, he was heading towards that fence. To me, no reason for that officer to shoot.

Now, the fact this also, you know, will bring up this 21-foot rule all the time, all right, but you have to also inject some kind of common sense into that also, when this man wasn't that much of a threat. That officer got out of that car so fast, fired shots so fast. I'm saying when did he have time to assess the situation?

CUOMO: With other officers who did not do the same?

HOUCK: Exactly.

CUOMO: And the kid, is in terms of what, threatening, he's got his hand in his pocket, he is skipping along, he's obviously not of his right mind.

HOUCK: Oh, yeah we see that in the CCTV

CUOMO: And there's was never any turn -- there's never even a turn of what happens with this. When you -- When history sets, you know it's important to note that a good lawyer is going to say well let's take each of these moments in time, let's take each others moments in time when they're defending this officer. He is coming down, he's got it out. He is skipping, you know, he is not acting rationally, right?

Now he's got his knife out, he's brandishing the knife. He's hand -- He's left hand is in his pocket. See if he -- does he ever turn? Is there ever a step forward no?

HOUCK: No, you don't see that. No.

CUOMO: The steps that he takes is when he's shot.

HOUCK: Right

CUOMO: That's what spins him around.

HOUCK: Through his head.

CUOMO: All right? Now we have Marc Lamont Hill with us also, Marc I'm doing a lot of talking through this video because we want people to understand the analytical environment as you go through a tape like this.

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Absolutely.

CUOMO: Now that we've seen it, what's the opinion?

HILL: My opinion is, you know, before the video came out, we were debating this and my concern were the things that you mentioned. Particularly the discrepancy in stories, particularly the fact no other officer fired, those things made me question what was possible.

After seeing the video, it's disturbing, it's disgusting, I nearly cried this morning watching it again, because it's obvious that one officer made a different set of choices than everyone else. There were other options on the table, there were other methods that could have been used to resolve this and instead, he got out and started shooting.

And again, it speaks to a broader issue that we have here around how we respond to these circumstances. Police officers have a dangerous job, we understand that, but that's what you sign up for. And every time someone walks down the street with a knife, you don't shoot them if you have alternative measures, and simply put, he did.

CUOMO: Now, what we still need to know, one very big helpful thing in this, the lawyer for the officer is going to come on the show today, we have him in an exclusive and that's important because you need to hear what the best reckoning of this situation is in terms of what are we not seeing here? We're not seeing the officer, we're not seeing what was going on in his head, the attorney has the best sense of that. So we'll hear why he made the movements that he did in this and wound up taking this kid's life and dumping 16 bullets into him in 15 seconds.

HOUCK: Right.

CUOMO: But also important, Harry, where were the other cops? As far as we know, they didn't throw this other cop under the bus. They didn't say, look he did he crazy -- he was crazier than the perp (phonetic).

HOUCK: Oh, we don't know that.

CUOMO: Well, it's been a year, there are no charges. If the officers have come out and said we don't think this was an authorized shooting, we don't know what Van Dyke was doing. This was nuts, it wouldn't have taken year to process this investigation.

HOUCK: Well, now first of all, let's not put the investigation on the police officers taking a year. I'm sure I've investigated a lot of shootings, police officer shootings, a lot of incidents like this we got this cleaned up in two weeks. I'm telling you right now two weeks.

CUOMO: That's been a year?

HOUCK: That's probably not the police department's fault.

CUOMO: Whose fault?

HOUCK: Whatever politician made a decision to hold on to this, I'm telling you I'd investigate.

CUOMO: Politician?

HOUCK: Somebody had to make the decision, why did this attorney just come out recently and just charge this guy? We knew all the evidence against him when we first saw that video.

So, I give him two, three weeks, the police department to finish their investigation. Then they have an independent organization coming in to do an investigation. The evidence was there. So how come the district attorney's office didn't make the decision to charge him then?

CUOMO: Marc Lamont Hill, weighing in on that idea of justice delayed.

HILL: We can't always find someone to blame, other than the police department. Two days ago, Harry and I are debating and he says the police did nothing wrong. We see the video, he says, OK, well they did something wrong because...

HOUCK: Yes, because both in -- you and I were speculating. You don't know nothing either. You didn't know anymore than I did until you saw the video, you're just speculating.

HILL: But they knew.

HOUCK: Yes, they definitely knew.

HILL: Let me finish that thought, Harry, because I'm glad you said that. I remember what I said was they were the contradictions that made me question the story. I said I don't know what's on the tape. You said the officer did nothing wrong without seeing the tape.

HOUCK: We based on what we saw...

HILL: But we didn't see anything.

[06:10:00] HOUCK: That's what I meant. Based on what we saw (inaudible). Listen, the both of us would go on at it because of what we see in the news.

HILL: Harry, Harry, can I just finish my thought.

HOUCK: We didn't get the video.

HILL: All right, I'll let you finish it up.

HOUCK: My point.

HILL: Well, I had made a point. My point is, now that we have the video, now that we have the information, we're saying why the police officers didn't delay the investigation, we have no evidence to suggest the police didn't delay the investigation but the police report.

HOUCK: You have any that they did?

HILL: No, that's my point.

HOUCK: OK, thank you very much.

HILL: Harry but, I never said with the I never said anything to the contrary. My point is we don't know, so let's stop

CUOMO: Right.

HILL: Let's stop defending police until we have evidence

HOUCK: I know from doing -- conducting investigations like this before, it shouldn't take more than two weeks. And I'm sure the police department was done in two weeks.

HILL: But you are not sure of that, Harry.

CUOMO: But you guys...

HILL: Chris, were not making the same point.

CUOMO: You're making same point that this should happened a lot sooner?

HILL: No that's not my point, Chris. My point is we keep result we keep landing on this default reactionary defensive police without any evidence. And what I'm saying is we -- police do not deserve the benefit.

CUOMO: Then you're saying.

HILL: No, he is not saying that saying that. He is saying that the police could -- that is not the police's fault because if they -- the procedure's two weeks. I'm saying that we do not assume that the police follow procedure. The police do not deserve the benefit of the doubt. They just shot someone 16 times.

HOUCK: Yes, they do.

HILL: No, they don't Harry, they just shot somebody 16 times.

CUOMO: Marc, I'm sorry.

HILL: They offered $5 million without -- the woman filing a suit. There is evidence here of foul play. We cannot continue to defend the police without any evidence. They do not deserve the benefit -- what part of a dead person on the ground 16 times shot suggested the police deserves the benefit of the doubt.

HOUCK: Until the evidence comes out, you can't say the officer is guilty.

HILL: The evidence is somebody dead on the ground.

HOUCK: The evidence is out now.

CUOMO: All right.

HILL: Yes, and that's why we need to stop this in police without evidence. They don't deserve it, it's simply he's on the ground dead, this should suggest that there's some foul play. CUOMO: Nobody's disagreeing with that Marc, obviously this was something it should have been done, expeditiously it wasn't. We'll try and figure out why one step in doing that is talking to the defendant now the police officer's lawyer. And we have him on the show.

Marc Lamont Hill, thank you very much. Harry Houck, can't discuss this without passion because that's what it brings out in us, that's why the tape is so important, that's why the discussion is as well.

Coming up in the next hour, we will speak with Daniel Herbert, he is the Attorney for Officer Jason Van Dyke who is now charged with first- degree murder. We will ask him the questions. Mic?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Breaking News in the escalating situation overseas. After Turkey shot down a Russian military plane we are just learning Russian Special Forces have rescued the surviving pilot. Let's get straight to Becky Anderson, she's live in Istanbul with all the breaking details, Becky?

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: That's right, Michaela the Russian Defense Ministry just confirming that the second pilot of the SU-24 jet shot down by the Turkish military in his air base in Syria. His colleague, you will recall, was killed in the air by fire from the ground as he tried to parachute to safety on Tuesday and that is according to the Russians.

Now, exclusive video obtained by CNN shows the wreckage there is absolutely no dispute that the incident occurred. It is the circumstances though that are still very much in dispute. Ankara insists that the Russian jet by alleged Turkish airspace despite repeated warnings that was learned from the prime minister here in Turkey. One left, one...

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, we're having audio issues. We apologize, as you can hear from Becky's shot there, we'll get back to her as soon as we resolve those.

And we will go to France now where investigators say the suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks was planning even more death and destruction. Prosecutors say Abdelhamid Abaaoud and another man may have been hours away from carrying out a bombing in Paris' financial district.

CNN's Senior International Correspondent, Clarissa Ward is live in Paris with all of the latest. What have we learned, Clarissa?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right, Alisyn. We learned some pretty shocking new details about just what the ringleader of these attack, Abdulhamid Abaaoud did right after they were perpetrated.

He actually went back to the scene of his crimes according to signals picked up from his cell phone, he visited three of the scenes where those attacks took place, right after those attacks. So, likely as French police would have been on the scene trying to intervene, trying to protect and save those people in that hostage situation in the Bataclan Theater, Abdelhamid Abaaoud was, in fact, right nearby.

Now we also know from the cell phone signals that he was communicating "constantly" throughout the night with a Bilal Hadfi, he is 20-year- old suicide bomber who blew himself up outside the stadium and perhaps the most chilling detail that we learned, Alisyn, from the French prosecutor yesterday is that they were planning another attack. Abdelhamid Abaaoud and another man, whose identity we don't know, who actually was inside that Saint-Denis apartment with Abaaoud during the raid and detonated the vest that likely killed them both.