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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Multiple Deadly Police Encounters Amid Derek Chauvin Trial; Police: Multiple Gunshot Victims Including a Police Officer in Shooting at High School in Knoxville, Tennessee; George Floyd's Brother Testifies in Chauvin Trial. Aired 4-4:30p ET

Aired April 12, 2021 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:09]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER starts right now.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

We begin today with the national lead. This afternoon, Philonise Floyd gave emotional testimony about his big brother George Floyd in the prosecution of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin.

This all comes as the nation is grappling with multiple new deadly interactions with police just in the last day or so. The first about ten miles or so from where this trial is being held in a suburb of Minneapolis, Brooklyn Center, where another black man was killed by police.

This afternoon, police in that town released the body cam video showing 20-year-old Dante Wright during a traffic stop yesterday seeming to resist arrest and trying to escape in his car during which he was shot and ultimately killed. The chief of police said today that he believes the police officer accidentally discharged her gun meaning instead to fire her Taser.

Last night, hundreds of people protested Wright's death in Minneapolis, some threw projectiles at police and one who was injured. The Minnesota National Guard has been deployed.

Additionally, this afternoon, President Biden is calling for calm saying there's no justification for violence. And also, in Georgia overnight, three police officers were shot when a driver and a passenger began shooting them during a car chase. The officers survived thankfully, but one of the suspects in the car is dead.

Our correspondents are covering all these stories.

Let start with CNN's Adrienne Broaddus in Minnesota where 20-year-old Donte Wright was shot and killed. And today, the chief in police in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, released this body cam footage and said he believes this was an accidental discharge, that the officer meant to fire her Taser.

Before we play this video, we have to warn you it's disturbing to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(INAUDIBLE)

POLICE OFFICER: I'll tase you. I'll tase you. Taser, Taser, Taser.

Oh, shit. I just shot him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Adrienne, we hear the officer say Taser, Taser, Taser and the she fires her gun, not the Taser and then curses and says, I shot him.

What did the police chief have to say about the video and why did he release it?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'll start with the why. The chief said he release it had because he wanted to be transparent. This is unprecedented, especially here in the state of Minnesota for a department to release body cam video so quickly, but he felt he owed it to the public. He felt he owed it to the community, especially members of the community that you see outside of the police department right now.

These are some of the same people who showed up here last night protesting the officer's actions and in full transparency, he is calling this an accident. He said she thought she was reaching for her Taser because in that video you heard her say Taser, Taser, Taser which is what officers are supposed to do before they deploy their tears, but clearly she mistaked her Taser for her gun shooting Donte at least one time.

Meanwhile, when that video was played in the news conference today, there were audible gasps. A man to my right who was a friend of another Minnesota resident who died at the hands of police began crying. He wept, and there were a lot of questions from reporters like myself as well as members from the community who were inside because the chief told us the initial stop was because Donte Wright was driving a vehicle with expired tags -- Jake.

TAPPER: Expired tags and now he's dead.

Thank you, Adrienne.

Now to Georgia where three police officers were shot during a car chase.

CNN's Ryan Young is in Villa Rica, Georgia.

Ryan, how did this happen? How are the officers doing?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jake, that's the big question this evening. You can still see an active crime scene behind me and to talk about this, this is a stop on the highway. The car was traveling more than 100 miles per hour according to Georgia state patrol troopers who tried to stop that car. They tried to do a pit maneuver and that's when the trooper takes the front of his car and knocks it into the back of the car to send it out of control.

After that happened and the driver was able to gain control of the car, apparently, the passenger leaned out of the window and started shooting a rifle at the officers as they were behind him. Now, you look at the scene here, what we're told is the suspects bailed out somewhere near here.

[16:05:04]

Shots were fired and one suspect was killed. Another was captured after sort of a negotiation.

What we are told is three officers went to the hospital, one has been released and two remain in the hospital. Now, Jake, just in the last ten minutes or so, we have had names released.

We're told the decease has been as Pierre Alexander Shelton, 28 of Birmingham, Alabama. Also, the person who was arrested was Aaron Shelton, 22 years old Birmingham, Alabama. He's been charged with five counts of aggravated assault. This remains an active crime scene.

Obviously when you have a police-involved shooting, the GBI, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has been combing through the fields for a few hours trying to figure out all the information and evidence that they can gather. If you think about this, this was supposed to be a traffic stop turning into a person with a rifle leaning out the window and firing at officer. Hopefully we'll get the condition of the officers in the near future -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Ryan. Thank you so much.

In Virginia, two police officers accused in a lawsuit of using excessive force during a December traffic stop. The officers pulled over an active duty army officer, Second Lieutenant Caron Nazario who is Black and Latino. Body cam video shows officers pointed guns at Nazario, pepper-sprayed him and pushed him to the ground after pulling him over for what they thought was a missing license plate.

The lawsuit says that the officer, the Army officer was driving a new car with temporary plates actually taped to the inside of the back window so he wasn't missing his plates, according to the lawsuit. Now, the Army -- the Army Officer Nazario slowed down. He put his blinkers on but he did not pull over for another minute and 40 seconds. He said he was trying to find a well-lit area.

Here's part of this interaction and, again, we have to warn you. This video is disturbing, and it may be difficult to watch.

(BEGN VIDEO CLIP)

2ND LT. CARON NAZARIO, U.S. ARMY: I'm serving this country and this is how I'm treated?

POLICE OFFICER: Guess what, I'm a veteran, too. I'm going to obey. Get out of the car!

NAZARIO: What's going on?

POLICE OFFICER: Get out of the car now?

NAZARIO: What's going on?

POLICE OFFICER: What's going on (INAUDIBLE).

NAZARIO: I'm sorry, what?

POLICE OFFICER: Get out of the car now.

NAZARIO: What's going on?

POLICE OFFICER: Get out of the car now. Get out of car!

POLICE OFFICER: Sir, just get out of the car. Work with us and we'll talk to you. Get out of the car.

POLICE OFFICER: You received an order, obey it.

NAZARIO: I'm -- I'm honestly afraid to get out.

POLICE OFFICER: Yeah, you should be. Get out, get out.

NAZARIO: What's going? What did I do?

POLICE OFFICER: Get out now.

NAZARIO: I have not committed any crimes.

POLICE OFFICER: You've been started for a traffic violation. You're not cooperating at this point right now. You're under arrest.

NAZARIO: For traffic --

POLICE OFFICER: You're being detained.

NAZARIO: For a traffic violation I do not have to get out of the vehicle you? Haven't even told me why I'm being stopped.

Get your hands --

POLICE OFFICER: Get out of the car now. Get out of the car.

NAZARIO: Get your hands off me. Get your hands off me, please. Get your hands off me. I didn't do anything. Don't do that.

POLICE OFFICER: Get out of the car.

NAZARIO: Don't do that.

POLICE OFFICER: Sir, get out of the car now.

NAZARIO: I'm trying to talk to you. POLICE OFFICER: Get out.

(CROSSTALK)

NAZARIO: I'm trying to talk to you. Relax. Can you please relax? Can you please relax?

POLICE OFFICER: Get out of car right now. Now!

NAZARIO: This is not how treat a vet -- I'm actively serving this country and this is how you're going to treat me.

I didn't do anything.

Whoa, hold on. Hold on. Watch it.

POLICE OFFICER: Get out of car. Get out of the car now!

NAZARIO: That's (EXPLETIVE DELETED) up.

POLICE OFFICER: Get out of the car now!

POLICE OFFICER: Sir, just get out of the car.

NAZARIO: I'm trying to breathe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Police reports say the lieutenant was pepper sprayed because he failed to comply with the officer's orders and struck one of the officers when he tried to unlock the door. That's their version.

Nazario's lawsuit says those statements are false. The video footage obviously contradicts the police officers. Meanwhile, CNN has learned that one of the officers Joe Gutierrez was fired after an internal investigation. CNN has been unable to reach the officers or their representatives.

Let's discuss all of this, and frankly it's tough to watch a lot of this.

Van, let's start with your reaction to this video out of Virginia.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I mean, overall, it's too much violence, too much violence against innocent people. You know, when you think about veterans and you think about our military, we're supposed to respect them. We're supposed to honor them, but we've had a tradition going back to World War II where black men came home wearing their uniforms and medals and were lynched at railroad stations because they were being too uppity.

It just -- all of this stuff just brings up so much pain, so much historical trauma. People will say, well, why didn't he just get out of the car?

I'm going to tell you right now. If you get pulled over by a police officer screaming at you and pointing guns at you and all the stuff going on, you want to get some assurance especially when you literally haven't done anything wrong. And so, I just think you're seeing this tale of two Americas. I'm sure a lot of people look at that and they say, look, if he had just gotten out, he wouldn't have gotten into any trouble.

But you have a lot of people like me, I understand 100 percent why he was afraid, even as an active serving military person in uniform was literally afraid to get out of that car without more assurance and what happened to him, you know, is despicable.

TAPPER: Neill, you're a former police officer. What's your take on the Virginia incident? We should note that the three officers shot in Georgia underlines what -- what police might face at any given moment during their job. How do you -- how do you balance that, the risk of violence at a road stop in Georgia and then what we see here in this video from Virginia?

MAJOR NEILL FRANKLIN (RET.), FORMER OFFICER, MARYLAND STATE & BALTIMORE POLICE DEPARTMENTS: Yeah. I mean, the job has inherent risk, but when you talk about the two initial differences between these two traffic stops. One in Georgia, we had a vehicle in excess of 100 miles per hour, extremely dangerous, and then failing to stop, obviously trying to flee the police officers.

Now the one in Virginia, so many things went wrong from the very beginning, especially when we advise many motorists, especially if they are a little apprehensive of stopping on a dark road in the middle of the night to put on their flashers, to stay within the speed limit and to drive to a well-lit area before pulling over, and this is what we tell them to do.

Why didn't these police officers respond to that?

So from the beginning it went wrong. Now you're talking about a simple traffic violation of a tag violation. A felony stop? I was talking with some of my fellow officers, both current and retired earlier today, and we're like, okay, what these officers did and how they responded with a felony stop, we're talking about character, we're talking about culture and we're talking about courage.

When I say courage, the lack of courage. And we talked about many times that we had similar traffic stops and you just walk up to the car and you ask for a license and registration. Don't get me wrong, you're cautious, and with two officers on the scene one could have gone up to the driver's side and one could have gone to the passenger side like we normally do, and this could have been a very easy simple traffic stop.

The one who was trying to de-escalate was Lieutenant Nazario, and that shouldn't be the case.

TAPPER: Yeah. Van, one of the things that's so unsettling about all of this is -- and they thought that he didn't have a license plate. He did. He had temporary tags taped to his window. He just bought the car. There was the traffic stop for -- in Minnesota last night. George

Floyd, he passed a $20 -- a counterfeit $20 bill. Eric Garner, he was selling loose cigarettes. I mean, these are petty ante offenses.

JONES: Petty.

TAPPER: And they end with violence even the guy trying to escape, and you shouldn't resist arrest. You shouldn't try to flee the scene of the crime, but does that real give officers a license to kill because somebody is trying to escape? I mean, there needs to be some sense of balance here.

JONES: Well, listen, part of it is that why are we using people with guns and badges and Tasers and batons and pepper spray and all this stuff on stuff that doesn't matter?

You know, you now have some cities that finally said, listen, don't pull people over for nonsense. I mean, listen, if somebody is driving, you know, with expired tags, which is one of these incidents. Phone it in, send them a ticket in the mail.

Why are we having highly armed people interacting with people over petty nonsense, and as I've said a thousand times, other communities, you know, you've got young people in the suburbs, Ivy League campuses, country clubs, yacht clubs, acting like complete hooligans doing whatever they want to. The cops are never called or when they are called they talk to them completely differently.

And we're not stupid. We've seen this. We see, you know, people using drugs in country clubs, yacht clubs. People have these frat boys doing crazy stuff, and the cops go up to them and talk to them like they are human beings and sometimes walk them home and talk to their parents.

We see this. We're not stupid. We know what's going on. And yet when it's one of us, it's always force and always escalation and always violence.

TAPPER: Van and Neill, thank you so much for your insights today. Appreciate it.

One of George Floyd's brothers takes the stand to tell the jury who his late brother was.

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But the prosecution is raising eyebrows with their next witness.

And then the state where COVID hospitalizations are four times higher today than they were two weeks ago.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: We have some breaking news on our national lead.

Multiple people are reported having been shot at a Knoxville, Tennessee High School, including at least one police officer. The Knoxville police say multiple agencies are responding to the scene where it is still active. We're obviously going to keep following this. We'll bring you updates as soon as we learn more.

Also in the national lead today, emotional testimony today from George Floyd's younger brother Philonise Floyd as prosecutors wrap up their murder case against Derek Chauvin. So far, more than 35 witnesses have been killed. The defense is expected to begin calling their witnesses as soon as this week.

CNN's Sara Sidner reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHILONISE FLOYD, GEORGE FLOYD'S BROTHER: He was a big momma's boy.

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SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): George Floyd's brother Philonise Floyd took the stand to tell the jurors who his brother was before his death sparked worldwide protests.

FLOYD: He just was like a person that everybody loved around the community. He just knew how to make people feel better.

SIDNER: Floyd's family's testimony is one of the last the jurors will hear in the prosecution's case.

JERRY BLACKWELL, PROSECUTING ATTORNEY: The state will call Dr. Jonathan Rich.

SIDNER: The prosecution started the day calling another medical expert, Dr. Jonathan Rich, an expert in cardiology, determined Floyd died because of the officer's actions.

BLACKWELL: Do you have an opinion if George Floyd would have lived if not for Derek Chauvin's subdual and restraint of him for 9 minutes and 29 seconds on the ground?

DR. JONATHAN RICH, CARDIOLOGIST: Yes, I believe he would have lived.

SIDNER: Again, Chauvin's attorney tried to get the doctor to admit there were other possibilities for Floyd's death such as drugs or heart disease and one more thing, Floyd's own actions.

ERIC NELSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY FOR DEREK CHAUVIN: If Mr. Floyd had simply gotten in the back seat of the squad car, do you think that he would have survived?

RICH: Had he not been restrained in the way in which he was, I think he would have survived that day.

SIDNER: The prosecution is expected to rest soon and then it will be the defense's turn to try to unravel the prosecution's case with their own witnesses.

(END VIDEOTAPE) SIDNER: Now, we should tell there you has been an anointment by Chief Arredondo here in Minneapolis that it is going to go, the city, into phase three of operation safety net which basically means the city is going to lock down, and that's because of the other shooting that you heard from our reporter Adrianne Broaddus there of Donte Wright. But that is going to happen starting tonight.

They were going to put it the into phase three with the most visible law enforcement in the streets as the jury was supposed to be deliberating in the particular Derek Chauvin case. But now they have fast forwarded and start that had now because of what happened in an adjoining city.

I should also mention that we also heard from another use of force expert who testified yet again for the prosecution that indeed it was not necessary to use the kind of force that was used on George Floyd by Derek Chauvin and the other officers.

TAPPER: Sara Sidner in Minneapolis for us, thank you so much.

And CNN legal analyst Jennifer Rodgers joins us now.

Jennifer, today we heard from George Floyd's younger brother. His testimony came before the use of force expert Seth Stoughton. Some people, legal observers, seemed to suggest that that seemed kind of backwards because the prosecution should have wanted to end on this emotional personal note of the younger brother missing his older brother.

Is that a risk, a significant risk do you think?

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I don't think so, Jake, because it was such powerful emotional it. It's the sort of thing that juries will perk up and listen to no matter where it comes and I do think the expert testimony which came last which effectively said that all of the threats of the defense counsel has been so intent on trying to say were present from George Floyd, from the crowd did not make Chauvin's actions reasonable.

So, that was kind of missing piece that they hadn't really gotten out yet, and I think maybe the jurors were waiting for that and now they have it. Maybe that's why the jury decided to end with that testimony today to wrap that testimony up for the jurors.

TAPPER: So, there's been more than 35 witnesses for the prosecution. Give us some context. Is that a lot? Is that a lot of testimony for the jury to have to digest?

RODGERS: It's not really here. I mean, this is a murder trial so you expect a lot of witnesses. We're only starting week three. This hasn't been particularly lengthy.

And I don't think it's particularly overcomplicated for jurors because it's not a factually complicated case. We're all talking about 30 minutes of time involving one man and a handful of police officers really, so it's not a complicated case. They will, have, of course, the opportunity to ask for evidence and testimony to be read back for them if they need it when they are deliberating.

But I don't think 35 witnesses are a lot for this kind of case, and I think they have gotten the gist so far.

TAPPER: So, the defense is going to begin to present their case likely this week. All the defense has to do is provide reasonable doubt and convict -- I'm sorry -- convince one juror. We expect that they are going to go after Floyd's character, his drug use. What do you make of their strategy so far?

RODGERS: Well, you know, so far it's been what it always is. The defense lawyer has tried to pick away at the prosecution's witnesses by kind of tossing out a bunch of different theories and, you know, not understanding, of course, what's going to resonate with any given juror.

Now it's going to be their turn. It's their opportunity to put on their affirmative case and so I expect to see maybe some character witnesses for Chauvin. I expect to see some contradictory expert testimony, and the question will be whether he testifies. That's the key thing here.

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TAPPER: Jennifer Rodgers, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Coming up, the good news and the bad news about the pandemic as the U.S. races to out-vaccinate the virus.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Our health lead now. By the end of this league half of all U.S. adults are expected to have had at least one vaccine dose. That's good news.

Here's the bad news: COVID cases are spiking across the country. They're up 10 percent from last week. And Michigan remains a real hot spot with the U.K. variant of the virus rapidly spreading there.

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