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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Police Officers Shot in Ferguson; Secret Service Agents Investigated; Joint Forces Seize Tikrit Hospital

Aired March 12, 2015 - 05:30   ET

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

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news this morning, two police officers shot in Ferguson, Missouri. We have the very latest on these officers' conditions and also who might have pulled the trigger ahead.

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans. It's 31 minutes past the hour. The breaking news this morning from Ferguson, Missouri, two police officers have been shot at the scene of protests outside the Ferguson Police Department.

St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar says the officers have come from neighboring police departments. They had been helping Ferguson's officers.

After you hear from Chief Belmar, I want you to listen to witness, Markus Loehrer. He was among the protesters when the officers were shot. He's going to tell you what he saw, listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JON BELMAR, ST. LOUIS COUNTY POLICE CHIEF: -- and then I was fairly uneventful up until about midnight. At midnight, the crowd was starting to break up. In fact, several of the officers had left the area. To the immediate north/northwest of the Ferguson Police Department, several shots were fired, at least three.

Two officers were struck. A St. Louis County officer was struck in the shoulder. A Webster Groves 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 (via telephone): Probably 30 feet away from the crowd and all of a sudden, I heard at least four to five shots rang out. I know that 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 was an officer down. When I figured that out, I think everybody else 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, the cops were down on their knees with guns drawn. I could see several of them standing over what I think was the cop that was shot. They were lifting him away and pulling him away.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: As Chief Belmar mentioned, the shooting marks a violent end to what had been largely peaceful protest earlier that evening. A few scuffles did break out. Police arrested at least two people. The shootings and protests came hours after embattled police Chief Tom Jackson would resign one week from today.

Jackson is the latest in the series of local officials stepping down after the Justice Department released a blistering report that faulted police tactics and city policies.

Chief Jackson's resignation letter says, quote, "I will continue to assist the city in any way I can as a private citizen." A more candid reaction came in a terse text message to CNN, quote, "It's a really hard pill to swallow." As severance, Jackson will get one year's pay and health benefits.

BERMAN: Again, these two police officers shot. They are conscious. They are recovering right now with 32-year-old officer from Webster Grove shot in the face. He is a five-year veteran of the force. A 41-year-old officer from St. Louis County shot in the shoulder. He is a 14-year veteran in law enforcement.

Joining us here is CNN's Sara Sidner, who has been covering Ferguson since August. Sara, you were on the phone all night with protesters, people who were on the scene there. What are they telling you about what happened?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are hearing from witnesses who have said we also saw the same thing that you heard from that one witness. It happened somewhere up on a hilly street. There were shots from the street. In that video, that is from a live streamer out there.

Behind her is where the shot came from. That's what witnesses are saying. There is a street that is removed from the department. You know, everyone said all of the protesters were in the area chanting and it started to break up. Then they heard this sound.

Sometimes it is fireworks. Sometimes people will throw those out to get people amped up. They determined these were gunshots. There is a sense that the police chief left so this is a celebration. There was some of that. They did come out in some ways to congratulate themselves for the police chief leaving. They wanted him to leave.

On the other hand, you saw that tussle breakout. That creates intense feelings. The adrenaline starts pumping and everyone starts to get overly alert. Worrying that will break into something else.

BERMAN: That was a tussle, by the way, between protesters, amongst protesters. Not with police.

SIDNER: Correct. Then there was some pushing and shoving that I've seen and heard between police and protesters, which isn't all that unusual with that number of people out there. That usually happens into the evening.

I want to talk about what it is like out there on a daily basis. Police Chief Belmar talked about that. When he was talking about his officers helping out with Ferguson over these many weeks, I want to let him tell you how that has been for his officers and the other officers in the area.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

When 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 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: He feels like they were targeted. It may be they were standing separate and not so close because the protests were breaking up. I want to mention something else. He talked about the environment and this can't go on forever and there will be problems.

One of the reasons why he is mentioning that is that during the very big protest right after the grand jury failed to indict Officer Darren Wilson, there were opportunists who would suddenly start breaking down. Cracking windows and setting things on fire. Was it everybody?

No. But those groups of people decided there were some opportunists out there, who would jump on the bandwagon so you weren't sure whether it was people who have been protesting all this time or people who decided, this is our chance to steal, loot, burn and trash the place. And there was a combination of few because I did see some of the protesters that were involved in that as well.

ROMANS: A struggle for law enforcement to discern who are the thoughtful, legal protesters, peaceful protesters, and who are the rabble-rousers, and then a problem for the protesters as well because within their midst, they know there are people who are trying to be instigators.

Let's talk about the next steps here. You got two police officers in the hospital. You have a heightened sense of awareness and security among police officers going forward. You still have protesters who want justice. What is this they want?

They have the resignation of almost the entire city elite and the police department. There will be a new way of doing business going forward in Ferguson, Missouri, in terms of policing. What else do they want?

SIDNER: You know, it is a good question because there are a select few, who I don't think the city is going to satisfy ever. I think that bond is broken.

ROMANS: Are those insiders are people from out of town?

SIDNER: I think it is a combination. I think there are a quite a few people who have come out and this has become their mantra. They want to continue doing this and talking about this issue, which is an issue that is nationwide, by the way. I mean, you've seen these protests all over.

ROMANS: Michael Brown is a powerful symbol.

SIDNER: He is. In that particular case, the police officer was not indicted. There were no civil rights violations on his part. They could not prove any of that. So in some instances, you know, a lot of people feel he was the victim as well of all of this.

But from the perspective of those who have been dealing with the department who feel like they have been discriminated against. There are some people say it is broken, never going to get fixed. They are going to be mad for a very long time.

There are others in the community that says we can fix this. We want to fix this. This is where we live. This is where we work. This is where we raise our children and where our children go to school. We have to fix this. There are people working on that including people in the city.

BERMAN: That's a discussion that will go on for some time. The immediate discussion is the conditions of these two officers who are conscious right, surviving the gunshots. Shot overnight in Ferguson, Missouri. The investigation continues into who pulled the trigger.

ROMANS: Thank you, Sara. We're going to follow that breaking news, those two police officers shot, but we want to get to this other story as well, Secret Service agents investigated for a drunken crash into a barrier at the White House. What we are learning this morning about that story ahead.

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ROMANS: Breaking news at this hour, two police officers treated for injuries after being shot during protests in Ferguson, Missouri, just as those protests were winding down. The shootings mark a violent end to a largely peaceful protest that erupted overnight after Ferguson Police Chief Tomas Jackson announced his resignation.

Jackson is the most recent of several Ferguson officials to step down or lose their jobs in the wake of a scathing report by the U.S. Justice Department on police and court practices in Ferguson.

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

We'll get the latest now from our White House correspondent, Michelle Kosinski.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John and Christine, officials we talked to are not confirming any of those details that are in "The Washington Post" story. They broke the story, but then again, they are not disputing any of the details either.

So what does the 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 retirement party for the spokesperson of the Secret Service.

There is an allegation that they were drinking at the party. As they got near the White House, they encountered the 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 have been set up.

To add to the strangeness of this, it is also being alleged that officers at the scene wanted to not only arrest these Secret Service agents, but also test them to see if they were sober or not. But that a supervisor 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 be handled by the inspector general within the Department of Homeland Security. They have been reassigned.

Now officials said not to say this is a temporary reassignment pending the outcome of the investigation, but they are not confirming that it is a permanent reassignment either.

We only now that these are non-supervisory, non-operational roles. This looks like another embarrassment potentially and another scandal for the Secret Service -- John and Christine.

BERMAN: Thanks, Michelle for that. Let's take a look at what's coming up on "NEW DAY." A very busy morning -- Alisyn Camerota joins us now.

ROMANS: Hi, Alisyn. ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Good morning, guys. Great to see you. So we will have some developments on those two police officers shot overnight in Ferguson, the violence coming hours after the city's police chief steps down over the DOJ scathing report. We will speak with the witness who was at the scene when the shots rang out. >

Plus, as you have been talking about, another black eye for the Secret Service, agents investigated after crashing their car into a White House barrier. We will speak with a former Secret Service agent and insiders who say this should not surprise us. We will find out why. See you at the top of the hour.

ROMANS: All right, Alisyn, thank you for that. We'll see you soon.

Iraqi forces making new advances against ISIS trying to take back a key city, but it could lead to trouble down the line if this is not executed perfectly. We are live breaking it all down next.

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BERMAN: New 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. That is according to one militia commander. Why a militia commander?

Well, the joint forces consisting about 30,000 men in mix of Iraqi troops, some Sunni fighters, but largely Shi'a militia and advisers from Iran, which is providing weapons and ammunition.

The involvement of Iran is viewed as -- we will ask about the involvement is viewed. Joint Chief Chairman Martin Dempsey told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday that the U.S. is concerned about what Iran would want down the road in exchange for its help against ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. MARTIN DEMPSEY, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: Iran will be influential in Iraq, has been influential in Iraq, and I am concerned about the way they wheeled that influence. There are ways they could wield it to promote a better Iraq, economically, for example. There are ways they can wield that influence to create a state where the Sunnis and the Kurds are no longer welcome.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: I want to bring in CNN Ian Lee with the latest. You know, Ian, Tikrit may fall or maybe retaken by the Iraqi forces. It is what happens next that is so perilous.

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is exactly right, John. This whole conflict really started when ISIS exploited the sectarian rift between Shi'ite and Sunni, and they were able to take large swaths of the country relatively quickly. So it's going to -- we are going to watch closely how the Shi'ite militias, the Shi'ite dominating government and the Iraqi Army treat the Sunnis when they recapture these cities. They don't have a good track record in other parts of the country they have taken before.

There have been accusations of human rights abuses. Tikrit is the hometown of Saddam Hussein predominately Sunni. We will watch closely how they treat the local civilians. We have heard reports of abuses already. That is troubling if they want to be inclusive with the Sunnis once they takeover.

ISIS is not against the ropes. In Tikrit, they are losing ground, 25 percent of the city under their control. To show you how difficult of a force they are, there's 30,000 troops fighting, according to one Shi'ite commander.

There are 150 ISIS fighters there. For every 200 Iraqi soldiers or fighters, there is one ISIS fighter. In the city of Ramadi, the heartland of the Anbar Province, ISIS launched a major attack.

This is one of the fiercest attacks from many fronts over 150 mortars and rockets fired in the attack, 17 vehicles laden with explosives used. They are in desperate need of air strikes to push back the ISIS offensive.

We also know in Syria and the neighboring Syria, ISIS also launched another offensive on a border crossing with Turkey. This is a group that is not down and out yet even though they are losing ground in Tikrit -- John.

BERMAN: Ian Lee covering that for us. Thanks so much.

ROMANS: All right, in money news, stocks sliding and erasing the gains of the year. What you can expect in the opening bell. An EARLY START on your money is next.

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ROMANS: All right, let's get a Thursday edition of your money, stock futures up a bit. Yesterday the Dow fell 27 points on top of that Tuesday drop of 333 points. Stocks are now down for the year. The big story here is the dollar getting stronger against the euro, a strong dollar, because the European Central Bank has new stimulus measures.

And the U.S. economy happens to be the strongest of all the major currencies, our products sold overseas are more expensive, it slashes the value of overseas earnings for U.S. companies.

So the strong dollar may be good for consumers in many ways, but it's not good for growth, not good for companies, and that's one thing that Wall Street is really grappling with.

BERMAN: All right, 58 minutes after the hour right nowbreaking news overnight, two police officers shot in Ferguson, Missouri. The very latest on their condition and the investigation on "NEW DAY," now.