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Press Conference from North Carolina about Police Shooting and Aftermath. Aired 10:30-11a ET.

Aired September 22, 2016 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00] MICHAEL NUTTER, FORMER MAYOR OF PHILADELPHIA: Mayor Roberts, you know, ran for office, he's in office, and certainly knows what to do. In Philadelphia, in many instances where we face some challenges, you have to bring people together. People want to know that you're laying out all the facts, certainly as you know them you can release whatever information you can at that time. Every jurisdiction has rules and regulations. But what people want is the truth. They want the honest facts. And then what are you going to do next? How do you bring people back together?

As you said, yes it does take some time. But, you know, as they say, a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. You have to start that process, continue that process, and demonstrate to people that you really do care about what's going on, but that you're also listening, listening to the young people, out in the street. What are your real concerns? How can we be helpful? Obviously we're not going to tolerate damage and violence and injury and those kinds of behaviors, but how can best partner, how can we work together and heal our particular community? And that work, you know, has to start.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN HOST: So would a good first step be total transparency as far as releasing that videotape of that initial incident between police and Mr. Scott? Would that be a good first step?

NUTTER: Well, again, not knowing the rules and where they are in their investigatory process, but clearly, Carol, it will be helpful. Whether they do it today or tomorrow or whenever they're allowed to do it or can do it, releasing a video often helps at least answer some initial questions. But I've also seen situations where the release of video then just raised more questions for which you may not have answers at that moment. But more often times than not, it is helpful to release what you can release to the public so people know that you're being open, you're being honest, you're going to be held to a standard of accountability, and you're going to hold your government to accountable levels as well.

COSTELLO: Right. This is the level of distrust in the community right now. So somebody on the street was shot last night. He goes to the hospital in critical condition. Police say that this man was shot by another civilian. There - I just interviewed a reverend who doesn't really quite believe that. And you can bet that the protestors on the street probably don't quite believe that either. That's the level of mistrust that exists right now in Charlotte. NUTTER: Right. I hear you and as you earlier described it in your previous segment it sounds like there was a fair amount of confusion and chaos out in the street. You often don't know where a gunshot may come from. Hopefully the citizen survives. And a bullet at least recovered, you can start to figure out, you know, is that a, you know, police issued, you know, bullet? Or is it possibly from a civilian gun. But the larger issue, as you point out, the level of distrust. And so as quickly as the folks in Charlotte can give out definitive, factual information - and again, bringing in credible leaders from the community, the young people, the civic community, the religious community to have the same facts at the same time, talking about the same issues. In these kinds of situations, there should generally only be one set of facts. And the facts are the facts and you try to go from there. But that's how you build on that kind of credibility.

COSTELLO: So I know in Philadelphia your police chief, the police chief you hired, invited the federal government to come in and take a look at the Philadelphia Police Department. Is that what - is that what's necessary here?

NUTTER: Police Commissioner Ramsey seemed by most, certainly from my perspective, one of the best, if not the best, police commissioners in the United States of America during his time, asked the Department of Justice to collaboratively reform the command.

COSTELLO: Oh, Mr. Mayor, I have to interrupt you because Mayor Roberts is speaking now. So let's listen. Hopefully we'll find out more about whether she's looked at that videotape of the initial incident where police shot and killed Mr. Scott and what went down last night. The National Guard has also been called out. What level of involvement will they have in tonight? Let's listen.

[10:34:14] AYOR JENNIFER ROBERTS, CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA: Good morning. This has been a difficult couple of days for the City of Charlotte. The events that we saw last night are not the Charlotte that I know and love. They are not reflective of our community, of the deep-seated traditions we have of collaboration and peace. We saw last night, also, a number of peaceful protests. Our protests started peacefully. And I want to emphasize that in Charlotte we have a long tradition of working together to solve our problems, of working collaboratively. And I urge everyone to continue that tradition. I want to recognize in that spirit of collaboration that behind me stand a number of our community leaders, our state leaders, our county leaders, our city leaders. We stand united in working together to move our city forward and I appreciate all of them being here today. Thank you very much.

I ask again for calm, peaceful demonstrations from our citizens. It is important that we have a full and transparent investigation of the original incident and we are working very hard in a collaborative way to ensure the integrity of that investigation. We have also partnered with the State of North Carolina for additional resources to care for our city and to secure the safety of our citizens. The safety and security of our community, as well as our law enforcement officers, remains our top priority. Today, our city is open for business as usual. And we let people know, come to our town. We are here working. Our buses are running. We are here to serve and the city is open.

We are working with our partners and putting measures in place today to also provide for the protection of our city this evening. Once again, I thank all the community partners who have been working so hard with us to ensure this collaboration going forward. We saw some tremendous work in that area last night. I want to especially thank our religious leaders, our faith leaders, our community leaders who were out last night working so hard to keep the protest peaceful. I'm now going to turn it over to the Chief of Police, Chief Putney to provide more details. Chief.

KERR PUTNEY, CHIEF OF POLICE, CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA: As luck would have it, we're having technical issues when it's my turn to talk so please be patient. Are we ready? Can you hear me? Everybody doing okay? Good. Order. First of all, I'm not here to defend a position. I'm here to give you some information. We have had a lot of things that transpired last night that we're still trying to piece together, and that'll make more sense once I get into the chronology of what exactly took place. Yesterday, at about 6 p.m., a group of peaceful protestors from Marshall Park moved toward the police headquarters building and began to exercise their first amendment. This was a very peaceful demonstration. Later on additional - hey there it is - additional protestors started to join the ranks of the initial peaceful protestors and they began to block some of the roadways as they headed toward the transit center and the Epicentre. At about 8 p.m., a group started to jump on vehicles in about the 700 block of East 7th Street, and they began to damage property at the Epicentre. We deployed our Civil Emergency Unit at that point to deescalate the situation, and again, bring - restore order. At about 8:30, we had officers who responded to North College Street and East Trade Street for an assault with a deadly weapon. One person was located with an apparent gunshot wound, and he was located there in the Omni Hotel. Right now, that shooting victim is in critical condition. Due to concerns around security, the victim was evacuated by our Bearcat, our SWAT armored personnel carrier. We couldn't get medic in at the time because of the size of the crowd. The victim was then transferred to medic and was transported to CMC Main, as I said, with life-threatening injuries.

[10:39:49] At that point, because of the size of the crowd we deployed gas and that would have been at about 8:43 p.m. The reason I say I'm not defending a position is, the shooting that took place, there's a lot of information about who did that shooting. We're reviewing video and we're assessing our people who were there as well, because an allegation was made that one of our officers might have been involved. As I've said before, guys, we're here to seek the truth. So we're investigating that to find the truth, the absolute truth, as best the evidence can show us. As soon as we were - once we were handling that situation, a group at around 9 p.m. began to move toward Trade Street and College Street. We responded and dispersed those protestors there. Then the Transit Center closed at 9:07 p.m. operations were moved to a nearby location, so operations continued, just not out of the Transit Center. Then a group moved toward the Interstate, 277, shut down the loop. We were able to get some resources out there to start mitigating that situation. Additional - at about 11:55, the light rail traffic was halted because of the crowd that was again amassing around the light rail. We gave additional orders to disperse and protestors continued to damage property and throw objects and assault our officers. At about 12:30 this morning, leadership, the mayor of the City of Charlotte and leaders of the county, board of commissioners in particular, and our governor, allowed for us to declare a state of emergency.

The reason I sought that status is quite clear. I wanted to protect the property and I wanted to protect our people. Our officers were our priority, as well as the property here in our center city in particular. The role - because I am incident commander of this operation, based on this designation - the role of the SHP, State Highway Patrol, is to help us with traffic and to help us protect the infrastructure. The role of the National Guard is to primarily help us around infrastructure. We had a lot of looting at a lot of businesses - quite a few businesses that were damaged, and our intent is to protect those assets so that we don't suffer further damage. At about 3 a.m., the protests subsided. The damage to property subsided. And people began to disperse significantly. Overall, we had two officers who had eye injuries that were relatively minor and three were treated for heat-related issues. We had a total of nine civilians according to medic that were injured in this incident as well. We made a total of 44 arrests. Charges range from failure to disperse to assault to breaking and entering, basically breaking into businesses and stealing. As I said, we're going to continue to review the video footage because I do not believe we have all the criminal suspects to charge with various crimes at this point and will not rest until we bring all people to justice. That's what happened in the past. That's how we got to right now.

Now I want to give you a glimpse of what we're looking to do moving forward. We have a full complement of our Civil Emergency Unit ready to continue working to prevent violent crime, assaultive behavior, and property crime as well. We have our officers who are assigned to foot patrol, bike patrol, the Eenduro dirt bikes, as well as patrolling in our mobile CEU vans. You will see a heavy uniform presence, obviously. Our aviation unit will continue to be our eyes in the sky and give us an aerial view that we couldn't have otherwise. We continue to use our real-time crime center to give us a technological advantage with roughly a thousand cameras that help protect our city. As I've said before, the National Guard and SHP will help us with infrastructure. They'll help provide protection for our buildings so that we can avoid further damage. This allows us and my CMPD resources to focus on the people who are committing crimes, who are damaging property, and assaulting our people, as I said.

[10:44:55] Despite this commitment, this great commitment by state and local resources, we still need to lean on our greatest partner, our strongest asset, and that is our community. We ask that you continue to let us know when you see things that are happening that are inappropriate and when you see crimes occurring. We appreciate the fact that people are posting things that they see, because I can tell you we use those opportunities to fully investigate all crimes and all allegations that are made relative to what goes on in a chaotic scene. I'd be remiss if I didn't thank again the community for your support, because I can tell you the vast majority is showing us the supportive situation that I think is unique to Charlotte. I also have to thank the heroes, the officers, and now the National Guard and the State Highway Patrol who are going to be a part of how we protect our fine city moving forward. Thank you.

WILLIE RATCHFORD, CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG COMMUNITY RELATIONS COMMITTEE : Good morning again. Let me start by saying, well fancy meeting all of you here today. My name is Willie Ratchford and I work as the executive director with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee. In my 41 years of working for the City of Charlotte, I have never witnessed the things that we have seen in the past 48 hours. This is not Charlotte. This is not how we have operated as a city in the past. Charlotte is a community where we work toward tolerance and we work toward understanding. Charlotte is a community where we strive to leave no one behind and to make assurances that everyone, regardless of their station in life, has an opportunity to succeed. Charlotte is a community that together seeks the truth. I am urging each of you, members of our community, to come together in peace. We are a peaceful people. This is our community and I expect everyone to come together to do what is right, to do what is just, and what is based on factual information and not speculation. Let's work together to seek the truth, find the solutions, and continue to build an inclusive community where respect and peace prevail. And at this time, I think we will take some questions.

ROBERTS: Actually, if you'll bear with me, before we take questions, I've been asked to repeat some of my opening comments before we had the microphones working. I will do that really quickly. I just want to reiterate this has been a difficult period for our city. The events of last night are not the Charlotte that we know and love. We also, by the way, saw a number of peaceful protests in our city last night and I want to emphasize that in Charlotte we have a long tradition of working together to solve our problems. And I urge everyone to continue that tradition. I reach out especially to thank the faith leaders and other leaders who were actually on the streets last night working very hard to provide a buffer to deescalate violence, to put their selves out there on behalf of our community with just an incredible love for our city. And we appreciate their efforts.

I ask again for calm, peaceful demonstrations. It is important we have a full and transparent investigation of the original incident, and we are working hard collaboratively to ensure the integrity of that investigation. We've also partnered with our state for additional resources. The safety and security of our community as well as our law enforcement officers remains our top priority. I want to reiterate the city is open for business today, our transit system is running, our businesses are open, our center city is here to welcome you. We are working with our partners and putting measures in place to provide protection for the city this evening as well. And I again appreciate everyone getting the word out and talking to folks about working collaboratively, reminding folks that the family, the Scott family's wishes have also gone out in a statement for peaceful protest, for peace and calm and to let the investigation follow its course. Now, chief has said(ph) we will open up for a few questions.

UNKOWN FEMALE: Hang on, we're going to take them one at a time.

ROBERTS: Sandy's going to be (--). Yes.

UNKNOWN MALE: There has been a lot of concern about protestors blocking main highways. (INAUDIBLE) now where people standing by were attacked(ph). What is the advice for people that are being stopped and surrounded? They (INAUDIBLE)protestors, they are getting their car destroyed, what is the procedure to deal with something like that?

[10:50:03] PUTNEY: That is exactly why we made the declaration that we did. Our issue has been that we couldn't be as responsive as we needed to be, as quickly as we needed to be, because our resources were being pulled in so many directions. So what we ask you to do is as soon as you stop, the ideal thing to do is make sure you stay in your vehicle, lock your doors, and help is coming. Our issue has been, it's taking a while to get to you because the limited resources that we had were tied up. And now because of the partnership that we have with our state agencies, SHP and National Guard, that is not as significant an issue. And that bore itself out last night and we were able to open the loop up pretty quickly, the 277 loop.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: Hang on, hang on. It's okay. We're going to Nick next. I'll come to you. I'll come to you, sir. Hang on. Sir, sir, there's a lot of questions.

UNKNOWN MALE: (INAUDIBLE). That's right.

PUTNEY: I'll be right with you.

UNKNOWN MALE: Chief Putney just underscored the importance of having those additional resources from the state (INAUDIBLE). All sources have confirmed to me now that those additional resources were offered to you as early as 7 a.m. yesterday morning, and you did not accept them. It put Chief Putney (INAUDIBLE) last night. Why didn't you ask for additional resources that could have helped keep the city safe sooner?

PUTNEY: I'm sorry.

ROBERTS: The question was to me, correct? We were in conversation - I was in conversation with the governor early in the morning. During the day, the central city - center city was peaceful and during the day we had indications of peaceful protests. We saw some peaceful protests. We are a team here in Charlotte. We are a team, I rely on my experts to give me the appropriate advice at the appropriate time for the appropriate resources that will be needed. I was in constant contact with the Chief, both Chief of Police, Fire Chief, medic, all the folks who are first responders. We were in constant contact. We made the decision collaboratively when those resources were needed at the appropriate time.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: Sir, we'll come to you next.

PUTNEY: Yes, sir.

UNKNOWN MALE: Chief, when will the city release video of the shooting from the other night? And if you can tell me why there's been this delay. And one last question, is (--) PUTNEY: Can I take them one at a time so I remember? When are we going to release it? Ultimately, as I said before, our practice has been not to release but to allow for the party who feels they've been mistreated in any way to see that. A request has come our way to do just that and we're going to honor that request, but there are other things that are going on too about - just to be quite frank with you - whether there's going to be an outside investigation. And at that point, it would halt what we're doing moving forward as far as releasing anything. So right now what we're going to do is honor a request that has been made with the family, because it's still in my purview to do so. But beyond that it would be much more collaborative in what I can release.

UNKNOWN MALE: The request came from the family not to release the video?

PUTNEY: No, sir. I'm saying they made a request to see it and we're looking to accommodate that request.

UNKNOWN MALE: OK. My question is, if it shows what the police say the version of the shooting was, wouldn't that have possibly quelled some of the violence that has taken place over the last - and some of the confusion that's taken place over the last two to three days?

PUTNEY: I would like to think that, but I can tell you this. As I said yesterday, there's your truth, my truth, and the truth. Some people have already made up their minds what happened. We've given multiple facts and there will be an update later this afternoon about more additional information we're getting, but that still doesn't change the mindset and the perspective of some who want to break the law and tear down our city. So it - if there is compelling information that I think helps, we'll show it. But again, I'm going to be - I'm going to be very intentional about protecting the integrity of the investigation. And in so doing, I'm not going to release the video right now.

UNKNOWN MALE: But other cities where there is a shooting, the release video (INAUDIBLE).

PUTNEY: Sure.

UNKNOWN MALE: Even when it shows that police officers were in the wrong.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: Sir, we're going to move on.

PUTNEY: Sure.

UNKNOWN MALE: So I guess the question once again comes to (--)

UNKNOWN FEMALE: Sir, he's answered your question.

PUTNEY: Well, what I can tell you is we release it when we believe it is a compelling reason, but I'm not going to jeopardize the investigation. And right now, even though we're investigating, we probably won't be long term because a request has also been made that an objective party, the FBI, move forward in the investigation. So I'm not going to release anything that would be on somebody else to release, sir.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: Next question right here.

UNKNOWN MALE: Chief, yesterday, the force anticipated for protests last night(ph).

PUTNEY: Yes, sir.

[10:54:30] UNKNOWN MALE: (INAUDIBLE) disappointed at how you handled the hold up last night at the protest. So my question is, why did allow (INAUDIBLE) to the point that it did last night (ph)?

PUTNEY: Well, I don't believe I allowed anything. I believe what happened is people were violating the law, they were in huge numbers, and that's something that we can't anticipate, but we had re-evaluated and restructured our staffing model. We increased significantly the people that we were going to deploy, and we felt pretty comfortable we could handle what we're going to encounter. When that became an issue for us and they exceeded our capacity, we did what we had to do to make sure we got the resources. So we asked for this declaration. That was the sequence. Thank you, sir.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: Thank you very much.

UNKNOWN MALE: Can you clarify that the city is then not going to release it (INAUDIBLE) the public to help you get a description (ph)?

PUTNEY: There's - sure. There's a difference between disclosure, allowing someone to see it and that would be the party who feels they've been aggrieved. That's what I'm going to do. But release would be to the masses, and that's what I'm not going to do.

UNKNOWN MALE: Can we get a description? Can we at least get that?

UNKNOWN FEMALE: Hang on, hang on, hang on.

PUTNEY: Sure. What I can tell you that I saw - and I was very clear when I talked about this before - is the video does not give me absolute definitive visual evidence that - that would confirm that a person is pointing a gun. I did not see that in the videos that I've reviewed. So, what I can tell you though is when taken in the totality of all of the other evidence, it supports what we've heard and the version of the truth that we gave about the circumstances that happened that led to the death of Mr. Scott.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: Adam(ph).

UNKNOWN MALE: Is there going to be a curfew tonight, Chief Putney?

PUTNEY: Again, this designation allows for that. I don't intend to use it, unless it becomes an issue and we need to clear the streets sooner and, well, it depends on what we encounter. I can't tell you a definitive time. It's just going to depend on what we see and use that to better manage and allow for public safety. UNKNOWN FEMALE: Question here.

UNKNOWN MALE: Yes, you seem to give mixed messages here. On the one hand, you're saying we should have full transparency. On the other hand, you're saying you're not going to release the video. How can you square those two things? There - obviously I view(ph) full transparency is release the video so we can all see it.

PUTNEY: Sure. I appreciate your passion, but I never said full transparency. I said transparency. And transparency's in the eye of the beholder. I can tell you the party - the party right now who really is my priority in honoring their request is the people who, really, are the victims of the shooting. So what I'm going to do is honor that request and I'm going to tell you, if you think I say we should display a victim's worst day for public consumption, that is not the transparency I'm speaking of, sir.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: Hang on. Question right here. Question right here.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: I'm confused about this curfew situation.

PUTNEY: Sure.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) company in the city has come to (INAUDIBLE) not to come uptown today.

PUTNEY: OK. I can't speak to why they would do that. That was not a recommendation that came from me. I think it should be business as usual.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) said something about that that could be(ph) (INAUDIBLE).

PUTNEY: Without a doubt.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) people not to come here today and then for there not to be a curfew - a definitive (INAUDIBLE) other than spreading word of mouth, just stay down, the curfew 8 o'clock you have to be off the streets at 8. Let's just make a blanket (INAUDIBLE) to their home (INAUDIBLE).

PUTNEY: Sure. We've done that in the past too when we saw the need. So right now, we don't see the need to shut the city down at a specific hour.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: Two nights of violence (ph).

PUTNEY: Yes Ma'am. My answer didn't change. We don't see a need to definitively shut the city down at a specific hour, because we can't anticipate. What we do know is we have the resources now to protect infrastructure and to be a lot more proactive and now arresting people who commit criminal offenses.

UNKOWN FEMALE: OK. Question here.

UNKNOWN MALE: A question for the mayor. Mayor, you said this doesn't represent Charlotte and that the city was open for business(ph). It sounds like you're(ph) completely missing the point that people would rather be buying with security(ph) uptown. And here you are welcoming business in the city, when you should be standing in front of the courthouse(ph) talking more about security than business.

ROBERTS: We're talking about both. And I think, as our chief has stated, that is a fluid situation and absolutely there are certain times of the day, absolutely it is safe, people are walking on the street, people are conducting business as normal, as usual. We are monitoring the situation.