Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Violent Protest in Ferguson: 2 Officers Shot; Secret Service Crash Investigated; Mayweather & Pacquiao Hype Upcoming Fight

Aired March 12, 2015 - 05:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning: protests turn violent in Ferguson, Missouri. Two police officers shot. What we are learning about their condition and the search for the shooter.

Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman. It's Thursday, March 12th, 5:00 a.m. in the East.

A lot going on this morning. We have breaking news from Ferguson, Missouri. Two police officers shot following protests outside the Ferguson Police Department.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(GUNSHOTS)

(EXPLETIVE DELETED)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Now, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar says the officers came from neighboring police departments, one from St. Louis County, one from Webster Grove. They had been helping out Ferguson's police department during protests that have been taken place there.

We're going to play sound from the St. Louis County Police Chief Belmar. You will hear from a witness, Markus Loehrer who was among the protesters when the officers were shot. He will say what he saw.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON 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 those 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.

MARKUS LOEHRER, 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 -- I'm 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 over at what I think was the cop that was shot and they were lifting him away and pulling him away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Again, the two officers shot were from neighboring precincts or neighboring jurisdictions. Thirty-two-year-old officer from Webster Grove, he was shot in the face, a five-year veteran on the force. A 41-year-old from St. Louis County shot in the shoulder, a 14-year veteran of law enforcement. Both these officers shot overnight are conscious right now.

Now, this followed a night of largely peaceful protests. You are looking at a scuffle between protesters. There were some arrests there.

At least two arrests from the scuffles, many you just saw right there. The shootings and protests came hours after the announcement that the embattled Police Chief Tom Jackson is resigning one week from today. Johnson is the latest in the series of local officials to step down after the Justice Department released a blistering report that faulted police tactics as policies.

Chief Jackson's resignation letter says, "I will continue to assist the city in any way I can as a private citizen." He had a little bit of a different reaction, in a text to CNN, he said, quote, "It's a really hard pill to swallow." Now, Chief Jackson will get a year's pay in health benefits.

ROMANS: All right. Joining us now is CNN's Sara Sidner. She has been following the Ferguson story from the very earliest days. She has been working her phone all night talking to protesters and people on the ground.

What are you hearing here?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, a lot of what you are hearing from the different people you talked to on air. We've heard from some of the protesters there who were running for cover who heard the shots. A lot of them thinking that perhaps it was fireworks, but we've heard shots before during some of these protests. Not always within the protest, sometimes outside on the fringes.

We have also heard the same story that this did not happen within the ranks of protesters. You are looking at a live streamers of video just there of someone on the scene. A lot of live streamers out there capturing all of this.

We do know that police has taken at least one of the live streamer's videos because that person may have been rolling during the time all of this happened. So, there's going to be some evidence, I think, that you'll see come out as well.

ROMANS: We think the shooting -- whoever the shooter or shooters were, you have a line of police officers, you have a group of protesters. The shots came off that site. Explain to us the geography.

SIDNER: So, the picture that you're seeing right now is the police department and that's in south Florissant. So, a road that goes straight through town.

If you were to look to your left, you would see a road that sort of goes up and goes slightly up a hill. That continues on. That's a neighborhood. To the left of that is a big parking lot that is usually filled with protesters initially and then they go closer to police. To the right of that are places to eat like subway and other place where a lot of people go and eat after the protests.

So, there's this one road that sort of goes up and into a slight hill, and that is where people are saying they heard the shots and saw the flash from the muzzle which then indicated to them, oh, my goodness, this isn't fireworks. This is gunshots. Get out of the way.

BERMAN: Sara, two cops were shot. In so many people making the distinction it wasn't from the protesters. We spoke to one on the phone a few minutes ago. Why is this so important to them to say it wasn't from the protests exactly itself when we see the results here? These two officers, one shot in the face, one shot in the shoulder.

SIDNER: Because for a very long time, the protesters were felt they were portrayed as violent protesters. Not as peaceful protesters. And that's been a fight that has been constant.

They feel the mainstream media hasn't treated them properly. That they've been called one thing and that indeed most of the protests, it has been peaceful. I can tell you from being there this did not happen every night. However, there has been a lot of name calling and inciting language used towards police.

ROMANS: And gun fire in the crowd.

SIDNER: And there has been some gunfire through the crowds, although that is very rare. But in more than 100 days of protests, you know, we saw a few times -- a handful of times when things got pretty rough between the two, pushing and shoving and name-calling and screaming. And so, the protesters don't want to be labeled as violent protesters,

which is why you are getting the reaction from them saying, it didn't come from us, it didn't come from us.

We don't know who it came from.

ROMANS: The pushing and shoving last night actually happened between groups of protests who seem to be having their own sort of internal protester political arguments over insiders versus outsiders, and how speaks for Ferguson and who's leading. And you can see those pictures there.

SIDNER: Yes, and that's between a couple of groups. We heard that the groups that are fighting, this is in-fighting over who really represents Ferguson.

ROMANS: Strategy and what they want and what's the end game.

SIDNER: How they're going to go about.

ROMANS: And what will justice be.

SIDNER: How we're going to go about this.

But that always creates more tension, right? Police see things unraveling. Everybody gets tense. But the shots came away from the crowd.

Now, we don't know who that was, whether that is someone with a beef against police, whether they were targeting the police officers themselves, or shooting into the number of people that were out there. Whether they were -- have been part of the protests or not part of the protests. We don't know the answer to that.

BERMAN: Of course, we heard from Chief Belmar of St. Louis County. He believes they were shot just because they were police officers. Sara, he talked about this environment where you said the tension level is quite high. There are people with weapons and there have been shots.

SIDNER: Yes, we heard from the St. Louis County police chief, the reason why he is talking is one of his officers were shot and two, because that department has been helping deal with the crowds.

I want to let you listen to what he said about why or how these incidents -- they have been worried about this happening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BELMAR: And I think we have been very fortunate as we have moved forward not to have similar instances like this happen to us. So, I have said all along that we cannot sustain this forever without problems. That's not an indictment on everybody that's out there certainly expressing their First Amendment rights.

But we 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: And it seems he is making that assumption because he said they are still investigating, because the police officers were slightly separated and the crowds were breaking up. People were starting to go home. And so, to have two police officers shot and no one else hit, you know, gives the indication that perhaps they were being targeted. Who did that? Everyone's, of course, on high alert looking for the suspect or suspects in this particular shooting.

ROMANS: The reason why there were so many people on the streets is because the police chief of Ferguson, Ferguson police chief resigned after a lot of back and forth about whether he would, and under what conditions, he's got a year severance, he's going to resign effectively in one week.

What should have been, maybe, one of the end game that these protesters wanted, they got. But it doesn't seem as though -- in fact, from the protester that we talked to is not enough. They still don't feel they have justice.

SIDNER: And that is going to continue. One of the things they had wanted was they mentioned in the very beginning, they wanted Officer Darren Wilson, they want to see him in handcuffs and arrested and tried in court.

ROMANS: They're not going to get that.

SIDNER: They're not going to get that because the law is very clear. The grand jury said we do not think it was an unjustifiable shooting. And the Department of Justice said, we do not have enough to charge him with any sort of civil rights violation. So, it's not going to happen.

The next thing they ask for was, we want to see the police chief step down. And there was a lot of chanting of that in the beginning and throughout. They have gotten that. Yes, it happened many months after they had wanted it, but it has happened.

But they've also now asked that everybody leave. Some people say dissolve the department, right? These are the protesters. Dissolve the department, dissolve the people that are sort of at the top, the mayor and everyone.

The city manager, the top ranking person in the city, he has the power to hire and fire. He is a full-time employee, the city mayor is not. He is gone. You've got two other police officers, captain and sergeant. They had to resign because of the racist e-mails. You have the court clerk is gone.

So, there is a lot of people mentioned in the DOJ report that are gone. For the people protesting for the months, it is a little too late and you'll hear that over and over and over. They want to see more.

BERMAN: And now, of course, you have new questions about the safety of whomever is there to police in the next days and weeks.

Sara Sidner, thank you so much for being with us, giving us perspective on the two officers shot overnight in Ferguson.

ROMANS: Again, we're going to continue to follow that breaking news in Ferguson, Missouri. Those two police officers, they are conscious, they are in the hospital, both of them shot.

But, first, the Secret Service investigated after the drunken crash at the White House, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Breaking news this hour: two police officers are being treated for injuries after being shot after protests in Ferguson, Missouri. The shootings marked a violent end to largely peaceful protests overnight after Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson announced his resignation. Jackson is the most recent of several Ferguson officials to step down in a wake of a scathing report by the U.S. Justice Department on police and court practices in that city.

BERMAN: Meanwhile, a new black eye for the U.S. Secret Service. Two senior agents crashed a car into a White House barricade. The agents reportedly had been drinking. They have been reassigned while the Department of Homeland Security investigates this matter.

Our White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski has the latest -- Michelle.

(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. Michelle Kosinski, thank you for that, Michelle.

Secretary of State John Kerry is slamming Senate Republicans for writing that controversial letter to Iran. The letter warned Iranian officials any nuclear deal now could be reversed under the next administration. Listen to Secretary Kerry testifying before a Senate committee followed by Rand Paul, one of the 47 Republican senators who signed that letter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: My reaction to the letter was utter disbelief. During my 29 years here in the Senate, I never heard of nor even heard of it being proposed anything comparable to this. If I had, I can guarantee you, no matter what the issue and who was president, I would have certainly rejected it.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: The letter was to you. The letter was to Iran, it should have been CC'ed to the White House, because the White House needs to understand that any agreement that removes or changes legislation will have to be passed by us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Senator Paul insists that GOP's letter to Iran was meant to strengthen the president's hand.

BERMAN: An explanation from Hillary Clinton about her use of private e-mail while she was secretary of state not enough for some members of Congress. House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz says he is prepared to subpoena Mrs. Clinton to answer questions about her private e-mail account. "The Associated Press" is suing the State Department to force the release of these emails. A review of email record keeping practices found that out of 1 billion e-mails sent by the State Department personnel in 2011, only a tiny fraction were saved.

ROMANS: Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush taking another step to a possible run for the president in 2016. Bush severing the last of his formal ties to businesses in which he has an ownership stake. A spokesperson calls the move a natural step for someone who's becoming more politically active. Bush plans to visit this weekend New Hampshire, home of the first presidential primary. He's logging some miles lately.

BERMAN: Yes, he's running.

Twenty minutes after the hour.

All right. He is a five-tool player, actor, comedian, writer, producer and ball player. What will Ferrell has planned for today at spring training. Coy Wire, who's like a 12 to a player, has the details in "The Bleacher Report", next.

ROMANS: Air travel safer than ever. Despite the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH-370 and these other tragedies, a report by the International Air Transport Association, found while more people died in air accidents in 2014, 641, the number of jetliner accidents actually went down to its lowest rate in history, with one accident reported in every 4.4 million flights. The big improvement over 2013 were the average was one accident every 2.4 million flights.

The report says more than 3 billion people flew safely on 38 million flights around the world in the past year.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Whoo, what a fight. Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, both fighters squaring off on May 2nd, but not before a lot of self promotion.

ROMANS: Coy Wire has more on this morning's "Bleacher Report".

Hi, Coy.

COY WIRE, BLEACHER REPORT: Hi, Christine and John. Good morning to you.

The notion of the mega fight has been talked about for years, some people wonder if the action in the ring will live up to the hype. Well, we'll find out in 51 days. But yesterday's media event in L.A. added more fuel to the fire.

They rolled out the red carpet at Nokia downtown theater, and both fighters were paraded in front of fans and over 700 credentialed media members. It looked like awards show, so much pomp and circumstance. And you see here, they stood toe-to-toe and they let everybody know it's about to go down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FLOYD MAYWEATHER, FIGHT SCHEDULED FOR MAY 2ND: This is the fight the world can't miss. I'm in the gym working right now dedicating myself to the sport, pushing myself to the limit, because I never wanted to win a fight so bad in my life.

MANNY PACQUIAO, FIGHT SCHEDULED FOR MAY 2ND: To the fans of boxing, I think I believe that it is what you are waiting for since five years ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: I know I'm waiting for it.

Just as the party was winding down, who crashed it? Justin Bieber say, what? Bieber and Mayweather, they're boys. You know, Biebs has become Money's hype man. Now, remember, he escorted Floyd into the ring in his last big fight.

Now unto raising. Kurt Busch will start up his engine again. NASCAR lifted his suspension for an alleged domestic violence incident. Busch had been suspended since February 20th. The Delaware attorney general's office announced last week that charges would not be filed against Busch after an assault complaint by his ex-girlfriend Patricia Driscoll. That paved the way for Busch to be reinstated by NASCAR. Even though Busch has missed the last three races, NASCAR is getting a waiver to remain eligible for the chase for the Sprint Cup.

And, finally, I don't know what to do with my hands. How about put a baseball bat in them? Comedian Will Ferrell will be at five spring training games in Arizona, as part of a promotion to raise money for cancer research. Ferrell will play every baseball position on 10 different teams. The equipment Ferrell wears will be auctioned off with the proceeds going to cancer-related charities.

You can follow along in his journey on Twitter. I know I'll be doing it. Just use the #ferrelltakesthefield.

Now, word is that Ferrell is going to be zooming around in a helicopter and drop in on each game so he doesn't miss any of them. And HBO is going to air a special about Ferrell's day later this spring.

John and Christine, there's your "Bleacher Report".

ROMANS: I'll watch it.

BERMAN: It is a good cause. I was going to make fun of the fact that Ferrell doesn't give enough publicity, which he does. But it's all for a good cause, so it's great to see him.

Thanks, Coy.

WIRE: You're welcome.

ROMANS: He's funny. I like him. I like him a lot.

Twenty-seven minutes past the hour. Breaking news overnight: two police officers shot in Ferguson, Missouri. We've got brand new information for you, an update on the investigation, right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)