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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Two Ferguson Police Officers Shot; Secret Service Crash Investigated; War on ISIS: Battle for Tikrit

Aired March 12, 2015 - 04:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news this morning. Gunshots in Ferguson, two police officers shot. We have new information on their condition just moments away.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Also this morning, new trouble for the Secret Service. Agents investigated for a drunken late night crash at the White House.

BERMAN: Breaking overnight, new advances against ISIS in Iraq. But could Iran's help in the battle create problems ahead? We have new information on that as well.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It has been a very busy night, folks. Thursday, March 12th. It's 4:00 a.m. in the East.

BERMAN: And we do have breaking news this morning from Ferguson, Missouri. Two police officers have been shot following protests outside the Ferguson police department.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: You can hear it on that video right there.

St. Louis County Police Chief John Belmar says the officers came from neighboring departments. They've been helping out Ferguson officers.

We're going to play some sound right now from Chief Belmar. After you hear him explain what happened, you will hear from a witness who was there when the officers were shot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BELMAR, ST. LOUIS COUNTY POLICE CHIEF: And the night was fairly uneventful up until about midnight. At midnight, the crowd was starting to break up. In fact, several of the officers have left the area. And to the immediate north/northwest of the Ferguson police department, several shots were fired, at least three and two officers were struck. St. Louis County officers struck in the shoulder and Webster Grove police officer was struck in the face. Both officers are here right now. They are being treated. I don't have an official status on what their condition is right now. They are conscious.

WITNESS: Probably 30 feet away from the crowd. All of a sudden, I heard four to five shots rang out. I mean, I know the area and I know the shots came from at least over by the grassy area beyond the subway. So, nowhere near the protesters. I mean, I'm thinking about trying to rebuild what happened.

It took me at least 30 seconds of watching before I realized there is an officer down. When I figured that out, I think everybody figured it out at the same point. We just began to run. That was probably the fastest I ever run in my life before I got to my car. As I was driving away, all of the cops were down on their knees down with guns drawn. I could see several of them standing at what I think was the cop that was shot and they were lifting the cop away and pulling him away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: We do have some information here about the officers. One was 41 years old from St. Louis County. He had been a law enforcement officer for 14 years. There's a 32-year-old officer from Webster Grove. He's a five-year veteran of the force.

The 32-year-old was shot in the face. The 41-year-old was shot in the shoulder. They are both conscious right now but Chief Belmar pointed out, these are injuries to important places on the body right now. They are being monitored closely with their loved ones in the hospital right now.

ROMANS: Of course, they have been brought in because Ferguson police officers since August have been facing these protests and these scuffles. Not so much on a nightly basis, but from time to time, the resignation of the Ferguson police chief is one of the reasons why so many people had come to the streets last night. They were protesting and in some cases celebrating the resignation of the police chief.

BERMAN: Chief Belmar said he was concerned about the officers for months there. He was worried just this type of thing would happen. He said ironically, overnight, these protests were uneventful and routine he said almost until the shots rang out.

You can see the protests there occurring for hours before those shots. There were a couple of arrests, you can see right there.

The shootings and protests as Christine mentioned came hours after the announcement that the police chief in Ferguson, Tom Jackson, resigning a week from today, with a year's pay, by the way. Jackson is the latest in the series of local officials to step down after the Justice Department faulted the tactics of the city and police.

His resignation says, "I will continue to assist the city in any way I can as a private citizen." There was a different reaction in a text to CNN, quote, "It's really a hard pill to swallow, apparently," he said.

As severance, Jackson will get one year's pay and health benefits.

ROMANS: I want to bring in now CNN's Sara Sidner. She has been following the story for us from its very earliest day. She has been working her sources all night long.

Sara, what happened before the moments of that shooting and what happened after?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, a couple of different things.

From the police, we heard two officers have been hit, one in the face, one in the shoulder. Both are expected to survive. We do not know the severity of those particular injuries. But we do know from what we are hearing from the chief of the St. Louis County police that the officers are expected to survive.

We also know from some of the witnesses that I've spoken to this morning, the shots appear to have come from -- there's a little hill that sort of goes up across street from the Ferguson Police Department. There are people, more than one, that have said they saw the flash of a muzzle of a gun go off there. They thought it was fireworks at first when they heard, then they actually saw the flash go off and realized it was gunfire. And that was pointed toward the police department.

So, they figured we have to get out of the way. Some of the protesters were frightened. You will see them on video and on some of the live stream running out of the way, trying to move out of the way.

And so far, those are sort of the details we are getting. And they've been pretty consistent.

ROMANS: This location close to the police department.

SIDNER: Yes.

ROMANS: Close to the police department, and this is where protesters have gathered last night because they were protesting or celebrating in some cases the resignation of this police chief?

SIDNER: Correct. I talked to them this morning and they were out there most of the night. By the time midnight sort of rolled around, they said things were starting to come undone.

Now, I want -- this video that's going on right now, I want to talk about this as well.

ROMANS: Please?

SIDNER: Because here's what I'm told about this particular incident.

You will notice there were no police in there pushing and shoving and fighting one another. But this is a group of people, of protesters. And what I'm told is, this is a beef between a couple of groups of protesters over some things that have said on Twitter. And this kind of broke out during all of this, but before the shootings.

So, tensions were obviously high. Whenever something like that happens, everybody's adrenaline goes up. And you can see people sort of dragging --

ROMANS: You don't see police getting involved.

SIDNER: There are no police involved in that. You do later on see the police and some of the protesters pushing and shoving, which is not unusual when you have a large number of protesters. Usually as the night goes on, things get more tense.

We have seen this many, many times. What is different about this is that not only were you hearing the sound of gunfire, but someone actually got hit. In this case, two officers.

Now, the question is, who is responsible?

BERMAN: Chief Belmar says they were investigating right now. He says they were shot just because they were police officers. He noted they were standing in a group of cops. He said the shots were parallel to the ground. It wasn't a ricochet or shot that appeared to be by mistake. He believes they were targeted.

He also says -- and, Sara, you've been there -- he was concerned about this for a long, long time because of the amount of guns that have been present in the scene.

SIDNER: You know, we have him talking about how volatile this has been and they expected that something might happen.

I want to let you listen to Chief Belmar, the chief of St. Louis County police on that very subject.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BELMAR: I think we have been fortunate as we move forward not to have similar incidents like this not happen to us. So, but I have said all along that we cannot sustain this forever without problems. That's not an indictment on everybody that's out there expressing their First Amendment rights. But when have seen in law enforcement that this is a very, very, very dangerous environment for the officers to work in regarding the amount of gunfire that we have experienced up there.

Now, this evening, the only shots we were aware of were the shots taken from across the street. In other words, these police officers were standing there and they were shot, just because they were police officers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: So, clearly, his belief being that he feels like the officers were targeted. They are still in the investigation phase. We want to be clear that we don't know if this has anything to do with the protests. This could be a long standing beef. We don't know who it was.

The protesters themselves in many cases were frightened themselves because they heard the gunshots. They want to get out of the way.

BERMAN: Dropped to the ground.

SIDNER: Yes, dropped to the ground.

So, now, it is a matter of letting the police to do their investigation to see what happens next. But this issue and the worry that things would start to turn on police in a way, we have seen a lot of inciting on the part of a few of some of the protesters. We also have seen protesters out there simply expressing themselves in a peaceful manner.

So, it's a shame to see this turning into violence. We still don't know who did this and who is responsible.

ROMANS: We should point out these police officers were not Ferguson police officers. They were officers assisting the Ferguson police because in the months of the shooting death of Michael Brown, there have been the Ferguson Police Department has been reviled by some in the community. It has been not indicted in the legal way, but indicted by the people who live there for not being a police department that can protect the interests of the public. That's the perception of people who live in Ferguson.

So, these are from outside police departments who are coming in to assist the Ferguson police.

SIDNER: And they have been doing that for some time. Although, in the last few weeks, it has been so quiet there, that it has been 15 to 20 protesters, not every night, every now and then. It has been Ferguson that has taken on the role of dealing with that.

And when they get larger, the St. Louis County tends to come in to assist. And when there is a shooting or something that happens is violent, then you're going to see other departments come in to help.

BERMAN: Sara, you spent so much time there. Where are we now?

Chief Tom Jackson has resigned now there, which is something that people have been calling for that for months and months there. That has finally happened. There is a new chief that's coming in on an interim basis right now.

Is that enough for these protesters?

SIDNER: You know, Lieutenant Colonel Eickhoff. He is the assistant chief. He is now going to be the interim chief. We heard from the city saying he has the respect of the other officers. He has been there for a very short time.

By the way, he got there just before Michael Brown was shot and killed. So, he has been there through all of the chaos and turmoil and doesn't really know Ferguson before that, except he is a St. Louis County police officer. So, he knows the area well.

ROMANS: Right.

SIDNER: Will this be enough? I don't know.

But I want to make something clear: there are those who have been very adamant that the police chief resigned, that the police department dissolved, that someone else take over the department and the house is cleaned. And there are other residents there, both black and white, who have said, no, we don't actually want that. We want to see our police department stay in place.

And I don't think we can say a blanket statement. The most vocal people who you see protesting, yes, that's what they've been asking for that. Those who are quiet, those who you don't see every day, are also saying we don't want to see our police department dissolve.

So, you don't have one mind in Ferguson and that should be made clear as well.

ROMANS: But it is a dangerous situation.

SIDNER: Sure it is.

ROMANS: It is a dangerous situation that has not deescalated since the shooting of Michael Brown. In fact, each development brings more -- a brittle situation on the ground every night.

SIDNER: That's fair to say.

ROMANS: How do you turn that around? I guess that's what officials must be really grappling with.

SIDNER: I think that is the question. It's the $1 million question. How do you change the perception and reality on the ground so that the community can come together and say, all right, let's fix this?

And there is movement toward that. I have been in some of the meetings. It doesn't get enough press to be honest. Some of that is our fault.

I have been in the meetings where the community and mayor, for example, are talking together. I'm talking about a very diverse crowd of people. Parents both black and white, talking about what do we do to get our children better education? How are we going to build this community up so we don't have these problems?

It's happening. The question is, will it be enough to quell what is going on there now?

BERMAN: Let's hope they can move forward there at some level. Let's hope these officers recover in the next few hours.

ROMANS: Thank you, Sara. BERMAN: We're going to continue to follow this and keep you updated

on the condition of the officers and what we learned about the investigation as it develops.

But, first, the Secret Service investigated after a drunken crash, really, at the White House. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. Our breaking news just a few hours ago, police officers -- two police officers were shot in Ferguson, Missouri. They are being treated for their injuries right now.

The shootings took place just after protests overnight in Ferguson. A violent end to what had been a largely peaceful protest overnight, after the Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson announced his resignation. Jackson is the most recent of several police officers to step down on the wake of the scathing report by the U.S. Justice Department on police and court practices in that city.

ROMANS: All right. Another big embarrassment for the U.S. Secret Service. Two senior agents crashing a car, senior agents crashing a government car into a White House barricade. The agents had reportedly been drinking. They have been reassigned while the Department of Homeland Security investigates.

White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski has latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John and Christine.

Yes. Well, Secret Service officials aren't confirming any of those details that are in "The Washington Post" story, they broke the story. But then, again, they're not disputing any of the details either.

So, what this article alleges is that these two top Secret Service agents, I mean, one is the number two person in the president's protective detail and the other one is a supervisor. They were allegedly coming home from a party, a retirement party for the spokesperson of Secret Service. There was an allegation that they were drinking at the party, and as they got near the White House, they encountered this barricade that had been set up because there was an investigation going on over a suspicious package.

Well, according to the article, they showed their badges and were trying to get through this barricade, but inexplicably drove right through the tape and then crashed their government vehicle into some temporary barriers that had been set up.

To add to the strangeness of this, it is also being alleged that the officers at the scene wanted to not only arrest the Secret Service agents, but also test them to see if they were sober or not. But then, a superior on duty ordered that these two agents be allowed to go on. What the Secret Service is doing about this now is that the new

director has ordered that the investigation being handled by the inspector general within the Department of Homeland Security, and they both actually have been reassigned.

Now, officials said, not to say this is a temporary reassignment pending the outcome of the investigation, but they're not confirming it is a permanent reassignment. We only know that these are non- supervisory, non-operational roles.

What this looks like yet another embarrassment, potentially another scandal for the Secret Service -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Thanks for that, Michelle Kosinski.

Now, we're continuing to follow the breaking news this morning, breaking news in Ferguson, Missouri. Two police officers shot overnight. They are expected to survive, but still an investigation into who did the shooting. There have not been arrests here.

And, first, new progress in the war on ISIS. The Iraqi army making big gains. Could it lead to new trouble down the road? We are live after the break.

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ROMANS: More progress this morning in the battle to dislodged ISIS from the Iraqi city of Tikrit. Joint Iraqi forces now control 75 percent of the city, this is according to one militia commander.

The joint forces consist of about 30,000 men, a mix of Iraqi troops, Sunni fighters and Shiite militia with advisers from Iran, which is also providing weapons and ammunition.

Now, the involvement of Iran is viewed as a net plus by the Pentagon. But Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday that the U.S. is concerned about what Iran will do down the road in exchange for its help against ISIS now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GENERAL MARTIN DEMPSEY, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: Iran is going to be influence in Iraq, has been influential in Iraq. And I am concerned about the way they wield that influence. There's ways they can wield it to promote a better Iraq economically, for example. And there's ways they can wield that to create a state where the Sunni and the Kurds are no longer welcome.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Let's bring in CNN's Ian Lee, live with the latest for us this morning.

Good morning, Ian. And, obviously, Iran has a great interest in its neighbor Iraq and

Iranian help with those Shiite militias and Iraqi army at this moment helping it retake Tikrit. How the Shiite/Sunni divide, I guess, goes from here is incredibly important for keeping that city and keeping the peace.

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, that is going to be the big question, is once they take the city, they have roughly 75 percent of it under control, what they do, and how they maintain control of that city, and really how they treat the local inhabitants who are predominantly Sunni? There has been sectarian tension before. We know these Shiite militias, they have Iranian advisers have a poor track records when taking other cities, there has been human rights violations.

But to highlight the difficult enemy that they are facing with ISIS, as you said, there is roughly 30,000 Iraqi forces, fighters taking the city. Well, one Shiite commander said there are 150 ISIS fighters remaining in that city. So, for every 200 Iraqi forces, there's one ISIS fighter. And they still haven't taken the city. They are not expected to take it -- they are expected to take it rather, in the next following days.

But this support that Iran is giving the Shiite militias has been invaluable for a lot of these offenses. They have proven to be, the Shiite militias, the most effective fighters. These Iranian advisers have been able to give them weapons training, ammunition as well as -- we're hearing -- help with artillery and rocket fire as well. And the U.S. has acknowledged they have been instrumental in taking this and helping defeat ISIS.

But the question is how much influence will they have afterwards? It looks like and as we have seen, a bit of influence.

ROMANS: Let me ask you quickly, Ian, about the Iraqi military. We know the armaments that ISIS is fighting with had been taken from an Iraqi military that in some cases just turned around, left their tanks, left Humvees and walked away.

Is the Iraqi military doing a better job here?

LEE: We are seeing them fight in a more cohesive unit and cohesive force in the face of ISIS. They had U.S. training. They had better equipment. They have been resupplied.

But still, they still are not taking the brunt of the fighting. That is left to the Shiite militias. We have not seen them spearhead anything. So, the real test is when they take the leading role, will they be able to hold their own or will they melt away as we have seen in the past?

ROMANS: Or will they melt away?

All right. Thanks so much, Ian Lee, for us this morning in Cairo. Thanks, Ian. BERMAN: All right. We have breaking news overnight. Two police officers shot in Ferguson, Missouri. We will bring you the latest information on their conditions and the investigation into who was behind this. There were protests overnight. We'll be right back.

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