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New Day Sunday

Ferguson Police Officer Shot in the Arm; Obama Addresses Michael Brown Killing; Volcano Erupts; Dozens Feared Dead

Aired September 28, 2014 - 07:00   ET

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

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Lots of news already on this Sunday morning. We're so grateful for your company. Good morning. I'm Christi Paul.

JOE JOHNS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Joe Johns, in for Victor Blackwell. It is 7:00 in the East.

PAUL: We want to start with this breaking news. More violence in Ferguson, Missouri, this morning. A white police officer shot in the arm during what began as a routine patrol stop. Police tells CNN is the suspect is an African-American man. But the officer is recovering.

JOHNS: Then just three hours later, an off duty officer in nearby St. Louis was sprayed with gunfire as he drove his personal vehicle near the airport. That officer was not hit. No description yet of those suspects.

PAUL: Yes, and at this point, neither incident appears to be tied to continuing unrest in Ferguson over the shooting death last month of black teenager Michael Brown by a white officer.

JOHNS: So, George Howell is here. He's been following all of the latest developments.

George, what do you got?

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Joe and Christi, good morning.

So, look, you're talking about an environment where any incident can really set off larger protests. That's really the environment that has been playing out for several weeks now.

In this case, as you mentioned, we're talking about two unrelated incidents. But over the span of three hours, as we watch this play out on television, crowds started to grow. Rumors started to fly about what did or what did not happen. As we understand the facts, we put together a piece here. We can show you what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL (voice-over): Tense moments overnight in Ferguson, Missouri, after two separate shootings that happened within a span of hours.

First, a Ferguson police officer was shot in the arm while on patrol. Authorities say he went in to do a building check and saw someone run away. When the officer got out of his car to chase, police say the suspect turned around and shot the officer.

The incident drew crowds and raised nerves in a city already on edge from weeks of unrest. And the question many people were asking --

REPORTER: Is this in any way related to the protest, the Michael Brown protest?

CHIEF JON BELMAR, ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI POLICE: I don't think it is. It didn't happen within the proximity of the protest area. This is an area that's fairly secluded and I wouldn't have any reason to believe right now that it was linked in any way, shape, manner, or form with the protest.

HOWELL: The shooting happened near the Ferguson community center. The officer survived. The wound said to be nonlife threatening. Exactly three hours later, another shooting took place this time a drive by on Interstate 70 near the St. Louis airport.

Police say someone opened fire on an off duty officer in his personal vehicle. The officer survived with a few minor injuries from broken glass and did not return fire. It's still unclear when was targeted or the victim of a random act of violence.

Earlier in the night, Missouri Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson tried to speak to the crowds hoping to diffuse any possible confrontations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you got to say?

CAPT. RON JOHNSON, MISSOURI HIGHWAY PATROL: What I got say, a police officer was shot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?

JOHNSON: A police officer has been shot tonight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who else got shot?

JOHNSON: That's the only person that got shot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes, right.

JOHNSON: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The police told me someone else got shot.

JOHNSON: I'm going to ask you to leave but I'm only going to ask you one time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are our streets. These are our streets. These ain't your streets. These are our streets.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: You know, you look at that last sound bite in the piece and we were talking in the newsroom, many different ways to interpret that, to see that particular piece of sound. Some people said, you know, you heard the person say "oh, yeah, right" after --

PAUL: After he said nobody else was shot.

(CROSSTALK)

HOWELL: The officer was shot. Some see that as disrespect to police officers.

Others will say, look, this is a community that is frustrated and does not trust the police officers. So, you can understand they would say, you know, the anger and animosity they have for that department.

Fair to say, it just takes a little to start a lot there in Ferguson where a conversation needs to be had and in many cases, it does seem that there is more anger than conversation.

PAUL: Well, and it seems like the people there are just feeling like they're still not being heard. I mean, there's a lot -- I think you feel the undertones of everything and frustration that they're just not being heard. I think you feel it on both ends, from the police standpoint, as well as from the community. It will be interesting to see how they can find that balance and try to figure it out.

BLACKWELL: And the community. Look, they're waiting to find out what happens with officer Darren Wilson. That has been pushed back now to next year. So, where initially people were told it would happen, mid-October, they're going to have to wait longer to find out what happens.

JOHNS: Yes. This is a slow process. Thanks so much, George Howell.

PAUL: George, thank you.

Now, listen, before any of this latest violence even erupted, President Obama was speaking last night in Washington about the roots of the unrest that gripped Ferguson since Michael Brown was killed.

Erin McPike is at the White House this morning.

We want to talk about, Erin, what he said and make note that Michael Brown's parents were in the audience last night, yes?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christi, that's right. And because his parents were there, President Obama did not want to speak to the investigation at the Department of Justice is doing. But he obviously did want to address the larger issues there because he was speaking to the annual dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus. And, of course this issue has been top of mind to all of Congress and especially those members that listen to him discuss the larger issues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The anger and emotion that followed his death awakened our nation once again to the reality that people in this room have long understood which is in too many communities around the country, a gulf of mistrust exists between local residents and law enforcement. Too many young men of color feel targeted by law enforcement. Guilty of walking while black, driving while black, judged by stereotypes that fuel fear and resentment and hopelessness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCPIKE: I also point out that President Obama discussed this as well when he was speaking to the United Nations General Assembly earlier this week.

Now, last night he said that even though Attorney General Eric Holder is stepping down, Holder has made many advances and pushed for more civil rights action. And he said that the next attorney general will do just the same -- Christi and Joe.

PAUL: All righty. Erin McPike, we appreciate it this morning. Thank you.

JOHNS: Dozens of people are feared dead or buried alive after a volcano erupts in Japan. CNN's Will Ripley is live at the base of the active volcano -- Will.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And operations are set to resume bright and early tomorrow morning after a very grim day. More than 30 people found with no pulse. The latest on their families' struggle.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: There are fears this morning that dozens of people were killed in a massive volcano eruption in Japan. Dozens more may be trapped or buried underneath the ash.

PAUL: A rescue effort is under way at this hour Mount Ontake. But officials have no idea exactly how many people are missing nor do they know where they might be. What's more, this volcano is still active. And it's unleashing clouds of ash as we sit here and speak with you.

JOHNS: CNN's Will Ripley is live at the base of the volcano -- Will.

RIPLEY: Yes, John and Christi, you talked about the smoke plume. And while can you no longer see it because it is now -- it's now night fall. There is no more light, you can still smell that gas and the ash in the air, ash that has been raining down on this area, and near the mountain after an eruption yesterday on a mountain full of people who were there for recreation only to find themselves caught in the middle of this disaster. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY (voice-over): One by one, they're carried off the mountain. More than 30 people with no pulse in a state of cardiac arrest. All of them near the summit when Mount Ontake erupted.

Home video shows a giant plume of gas and ash surrounding and blinding these hikers in seconds. Security cameras captured Mount Ontake rumbling to life Saturday, its first major eruption in 35 years. More than 200 climbers came to Japan's second highest volcano for the peak of autumn viewing.

"So many people were near the summit", says this hiker. "Everyone started running but some were hurt and couldn't move."

The volcano's rising plume is disrupting air travel. Volcanic ash is raining down on hundreds of rescuers below. They face danger from nearly continuous seismic activity and the looming threat of another big eruption possible in the coming days.

"Please help us", says (INAUDIBLE). His son and his girlfriend reached the summit just minutes before noon Saturday, just when Ontake blew its top. Both are still missing. Now, Tukoro (ph) sits on the floor of this evacuation center waiting.

"All I can do is beg for your help to get us information," he says. "Please?"

As each hour passes, desperation grows. Families are waiting for word on their loved ones who were dangerously close to a sleeping volcano that suddenly woke up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY: It is going to be a very long night for the families of those people.

We were saying all day, 32 people missing and now to hear that more than 30 people were found near the summit showing no signs of life, they're being very cautious not to use the word "fatality" because they say only a medical examiner can pronounce people dead. And most of those people are still up there on the mountain, which is hidden in darkness behind me right now. They were only able to carry down four of them today through a very thick coating of ash. There is so much ash in the air, it's even hard to get helicopters up there.

So, those rescuers will be back out in the morning, putting their own lives on the line because the volcano continues to erupt. We've seen smaller eruptions and they're warnings right now that there could be an even bigger eruption within the next six days, another one just like the one that caught so many people on that mountain by surprise.

PAUL: Will Ripley, I mean that just tears you up seeing that poor man. And we're holding out hope for those families. Thank you, Will, so much. And take good care. Be safe. JOHNS: U.S. airstrike takes out an ISIS compound in Syria. The

U.S.-led air war is edging closer to Syria's border with Turkey, and what all this means for Turkey's role in the coalition to degree and destroy ISIS. We'll explore that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Seventeen minutes past the hour.

And there is a new front opening up in the U.S.-led air war on ISIS.

JOHNS: And it's within the view of Syria's border with Turkey. For the first time, coalition airstrikes pounded ISIS sites around the northern Syrian town of Kobani this weekend. Kurdish fighters are there trying to push the militants back. This video just released by the U.S. military shows a missile slamming into an ISIS compound near Kobani yesterday.

PAUL: Christopher Harmer is a senior naval analyst with the Institute for the Study of War and joining us now.

Christopher, thank so much for being with us. We know that those air strikes that took place right near the Turkish border may be doing some good certainly, but I'm wondering if that is in my way going to prompt Turkey to get involved in the coalition forces there.

CHRISTOPHER HARMER, INSTITUE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR: Thank you for having me.

In term of Turkish participation in the air strikes, Turkey is a member of NATO. Their air force is a little bit older, but they're certainly capable of conducting air strikes. The question has to be: why are they not participating?

Over the last 3 1/2 years since the Syrian civil war started in the spring of 2011, Turkey has been actively collaborating with, or acquiescing with them for radical elements of the Syrian civil war. Now, the problem with that is, on the firsthand, the Turks are certainly strategic competitors with Bashar Assad. So, they like the idea that these militants are conducting attacks against the Syrian regime. And they're also acquiescing to the threat of violence within Turkey.

So, as long as Turkey is either actively participating in assisting these jihadists, it's just going to take a significant shift in their policy to start actively targeting the jihadists. I don't think it's going to happen. I hope they do. But, so, right now, they're just standing on the sideline watching.

And as long as that border between Turkey and Syria is a safe haven for ISIS and other groups, there's no way to effectively target them.

JOHNS: (AUDIO GAP)

Why is Turkey acquiescing? And other question is, are these airstrikes really doing anything to slow ISIS down?

There are reports that ISIS is adapting, they're hiding equipment. They're undercover. And so, is this actually causing that to happen? Does it really mean anything?

HARMER: Well, it's two very good questions. Let me answer the second once first because that's the easier one to analyze.

I believe that what is happening is the air strikes against ISIS are forcing ISIS to change their tactics. Strategically, it really hasn't altered the arc of the conflict. I think ISIS had expanded to its natural limits of the expansion zone in Iraq anyways. In Syria, it is cleaning up some remaining pockets of Kurdish resistance.

So, I think what's happened is ISIS has responded to these air strikes by going to ground, intermixing with the civilian population. It's very easy for an air strike to target a building or a tank or truck. But once the ISIS fighters really start mixing in with the civilian population, it's going to be difficult if not impossible for us to strike them.

In terms of Turkey is acquiescing here, it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I think they're really acting contrary to their long term best interests. Short term, I think they're looking for them to resign or fail. That's not going to happen. So, originally, they were working with the jihadists to try to force the collapse of the Assad regime, and now, it just looks to me they're scared of any these type of activities taking off in Turkey.

So, they've been allowing freedom of movement to both ISIS and al Qaeda fighters within Turkey and keeping that border between Turkey and Syria relatively unpatrolled.

PAUL: You know, Christopher, earlier in the program, Rick Francona said the airstrikes' goal is to stop is and at that point then to stop the advance and let the people on the ground take it from there. But the question is, how capable are the people on the ground? I mean these coalition forces have to go in and prepare them, make sure that they are well equipped. That's going to take some time.

HARMER: Yes. It's going to take some time. By that, we mean a lot of time.

There is nobody in the area who is ready to take on ice is head- to-head. The point I made a couple times is that ISIS has gone head- to-head with five separate military organizations and defeated each of them at the attack level. They defeated the Syrian army. They defeated Jabhat al-Nusra. They defeated Hezbollah. They defeated Iraqi security forces and army and the Kurdish Peshmerga.

So, there is nobody in the area right now who's capable of going head-to-head with these guys and defeating them. Airstrikes will place a damper on the ability of ISIS to expand because they're going to be limited in their ability to use trucks and mechanized vehicles, tanks, artillery, anything like that, that's an obvious target for our airstrikes, is going to be limited in its utility to ISIS now that we're actively persecuting that. But in terms of their ability to mix with the civilian population, we're not affecting that at all.

And there's nobody in the local area right now that's going to be able to take these guys on. The training Syrian rebels is only about 5,000 right now. That's nowhere near enough to take on ISIS which has up to 35,000 fighters.

JOHNS: Certainly well-equipped and they got a lot of personnel, too. Thanks so much, Christopher Harmer.

PAUL: Thank you, sir.

So, from the Gulf Coast to Rockies, we want be to be prepared -- thunderstorms, flash floods all in the forecast. We'll tell you more in a moment. Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Oh, look at this!

JOHNS: Wow.

PAUL: This is not something that you see in the Phoenix area.

JOHNS: Good grief, the whole tarp is coming down.

This is a storm that sent people enjoying the Tempe Summer Music Festival running for cover. Officials were forced to most festival inside to tonight. This time it will be at a nearby indoor theater.

PAUL: Good for them.

JOHNS: That's a good call by the organizer, because Arizona can expect more storms and flash floods.

PAUL: Jennifer Gray, how bad is it going to get?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The good news is Phoenix is sort of seeing the end of it. We're seeing showers right now and storms in the wee hours of the morning, early, early. And then these are all moving to the east. And so, the sun actually will come back out a little later this afternoon. The focus on the rain today will be north, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, where we could see quite a bit of rain.

Here are the rainfall totals from yesterday -- north of Phoenix, one to three inches. And videos coming out of Phoenix are incredible. We actually had damage to the airport there. One of the terminals was damaged. We had about 30 flights that were rerouted and even broken windows. So, very, very strong winds and rain there. We also had reported six to eight inches of rain to the north of Kingman, four to six just outside the city.

So, we have this cold front combed with a lot of moisture. It's going to create a flood threat in the west again today. Also, very heavy rain for the Gulf Coast. Florida has gotten pounded with rain over the past week or so, more expected for today. So, rainfall totals two to four inches outside of Boise. We

could see two to four inches also in portions of Western Wyoming and then for the Gulf Coast, portions of Florida seeing incredible amounts of rain, four to six inches north of Tampa.

One more thing I want to show you, look at these temperature drops, 78 in Marquette today, 48 tomorrow. Temperatures are going to drop quite a bit. Also 83 in Minneapolis to 62 tomorrow. So very, very chilly.

Also guys, again, the airport delays incredible -- 800 flight cancellations again today, possible more tomorrow as well as Tuesday.

PAUL: Wait, the high is 48?

JOHNS: Summer is gone.

GRAY: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

PAUL: Thirty degrees in 24 hours?

GRAY: Seventy-eight to 48.

JOHNS: Not ready for this.

PAUL: Ouch.

GRAY: Ouch is right.

PAUL: Jennifer, thank you so much.

GRAY: All right.

PAUL: Do not shoot the messenger, people. She's just making sure you have a heads up.

All right. Let's get a check of our top stories.

Police in Oklahoma have now interviewed the man suspected of beheading a co-worker Thursday after being fired from a food processing plant. Investigators are not saying what Alton Nolen told them. A check of Nolen's Facebook page showed nothing about a planned attack but it did include postings about Islam and quotes from the Koran.

JOHNS: A short time ago, former Pope Benedict arrived at the Vatican. It's his third public appearance since he resigned in 2013. These images are from an outdoor mass. You can see Pope Benedict walking down the steps of St. Peter's Basilica. Vatican spokesman says the mass is going to focus on the importance of grandparents and elderly in society.

PAUL: We're so glad you started your morning us with.

JOHNS: And we'll see you again at 8:00.

Sanjay Gupta starts right now.