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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Baltimore In Flames After Freddie Gray Funeral; Nepal Quake Death Toll Keeps Rising; Rescue At The Top Of The World. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired April 28, 2015 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: -- be described as a war zone after more than 12 hours of rioting. New fires this morning, more stores looted and overnight, police officers under attack from rioters. The governor is declaring a state of emergency. The firefighters union president spoke to CNN's Don Lemon. He was outraged.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay the hell home. We have sworn to protect you people. Now get the hell of our way and let us do our job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: A tense night, a tense night in Baltimore. Baltimore schools are closed today in the interest of student safety. There is a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew that begins tonight.
Now CNN's Chris Cuomo is on the streets of Baltimore for us this morning with the very latest. Good morning, Chris.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Christine, how are you? It was a very long and scary night here. That fire chief was expressing the frustration that we heard from many first responders, who were exposed to violence all night long while trying to save property and lives.
I mean, that is the simple truth what that fire chief was saying to Miguel Marquez. The couple of big questions here are why on the day that Freddie Gray was put to rest did parts of this community decide to be at their worst on the day that promised for peace and mourning.
Why was there no plan in place from local leaders to deal with this contingency when you know it would be emotionally charged? Yes, that is part hindsight being 20/20.
But we've been in other situations like this, Christine, and there have been more assets and more in position than what we saw all day and night there. And just questions of strategy throughout the day about how to deal with it.
We saw some things late last night and into the early morning hours that are unusual. Last night, Jay McMichael, our photographer and I saw a car what we thought was a suicide run right a line of police officers only to stop within feet of them and make a U-turn. I'll tell you it was an amazing show of restraint by those police. We both thought that they were going to open fire with everything they had as the car was basically speeding projectile toward them.
This morning, fires are still burning. But important to say, Christine, Baltimore is not on fire. There are sections of the city where the communities have turned on themselves essentially burning down their own stores and catching fire to their own homes and lighting up their own cars.
That is the situation this morning. The question is what happens today and can authorities control the new curfew from 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.?
ROMANS: And can parents get a hold of their kids? I know a piece of video that a lot of people are talking about this morning, Chris, of a woman dressed in yellow chasing after a hooded young man saying I know it's you. I know it's you.
I know there are church officials and city officials and families saying these kids need to be off the streets. These kids are saying no. The system is broken. The system is broken. We want to show it. We are showing that video of the woman furious of this young man.
CUOMO: Right. We think that maybe that was her kid. People are saying you are part of the problem. To be fair, there are a lot of angry people here. I don't know that is what yesterday was about. There seem to be opportunists. They were looting stores and they will lose jobs.
Who knows if the CVS will open again tonight? A lot of the responsibility has to be put on the community but also on leadership. Don Lemon spoke with the governor and mayor last night. They wound up walking away from the interview because they were upset with his line of questioning.
Where there is no question that Don can be intense when he is on accountability trail, but for them to walk away in a situation where they clearly dropped the ball was a little unusual to see. I think you have a clip of what happened with him when he was talking to the mayor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE (D), BALTIMORE: We used best practices the way the officers are trained to focus on those doing the damage and also working to not escalate. We have seen all over the country and throughout our history what happens when you use too much force to respond to it.
It escalates and it can be a lot worse. I didn't not want that for my city, we are working hard to contain this and to do it in a way that doesn't turn Baltimore into a military state.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CUOMO: Look, you will hear this in every city where this happens. It is a balancing act, how much force versus how much restraint. They got it wrong yesterday, Christine, because they had hours here of unchecked looting and rioting in the communities where they needed it least.
It took them too long to get any semblance of control. Talking to first responders all night, most of them shared that opinion. That they were not on standby or they were on standby, but did not know where to go. Hopefully, they do better tonight because the community needs the stability.
ROMANS: It needs stability and you were on the streets of Ferguson night after night after night. How do they, Chris, what do they do differently to make sure that an earlier or a bigger police presence doesn't just in flame the tensions there. You know, what are they going to do differently tonight so it doesn't happen again?
[05:35:06] CUOMO: You know, I don't think it is that much of a mystery. I think you do need to show the resolve of a wall of resistance by officers. It is how they interface with what they encounter.
In Ferguson, you know, that in close proximity of people pushing into the line and trying to harass and intimidate. How do you deal in those moments?
We saw incredible restraint last night by the officers here and I really mean that, I mean, that car, the image of that car speeding down the street will stay with us for a while because of what didn't happen, those officers not opening fire and not ramming into that car.
So I think, of course, it is a balance. Policing is tricky. This is a tricky situation, Christine, there is no question, but that is why it begs leadership.
ROMANS: It begs leadership and you mentioned the CVS, who knows if the CVS will open tonight. You know, the CVS, it managed to get its employees and its customers out of that store before anything happened.
You know, CVS is a big national chain with deep pockets, Chris. No question people are not getting paid or out of work or you know, who are not going to have their hours, but I worry about the small businesses. I worry about the hair salon. I worry about the grocery store.
CUOMO: Yes, I lost the last part there. I think you were talking about the CVS and the responsibility. When this happens to your store, which is supposedly kind of brand new. What a nice addition to the job base. You know, I don't think you can put it the company about how quickly they rebuild.
I mean, they have their own assessments of risks that they have to do and there is no excuse for destroying your own community. The frustration is palpable. I'm not saying it's without basis. We still don't know what happened to Freddie Gray, but what we saw last night. It's just hard to understand how it motivates the right kind of change in this community. We'll see what it yields today.
ROMANS: My point too about the small businesses, CVS is a big national chain. You are talking about small mom and pop hair salons or grocery stores. I really worry about those folks who are living paycheck to paycheck and they own a business too. Chris, thanks so much. We will talk to you again very, very soon.
Officials say that the Monday's riots actually began with a message that spread on social media about a purge. That is a reference to a 2013 thriller in which crime is temporarily legalized.
Now Baltimore police responded by sending hundreds of officers to a local mall and a transit hub heavily used by high school students. Police Commissioner Anthony Batts says the students then started throwing bricks and stones at his officers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTHONY BATTS, BALTIMORE POLICE COMMISSIONER: We had information yesterday that at Mondawmin Mall, we will have a large purge of high school students from across the city move to Mondawmin Mall. We had close to about 250 to 300 police officers staged in or around Mondawmin Mall at the time the youth got out of school.
Stones been thrown at them. Officers proceeded northbound to push the youth in the north way direction. The officers got caught on an incline to which a number of officers got injured, one officer knocked out and hit in the head and taken to the hospital.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Freddie Gray's family called for calm on the day of his funeral. Quick to speak out against the violence, family members say Freddie Gray would never have wanted this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD SHIPLEY, FREDDIE GRAY'S STEPFATHER: Earlier today, we had a beautiful service and to see that it turned into all this violence and destruction, I am appalled. Family, I love you. We are supposed to be in this for justice, but is it just us?
FREDERICKA GRAY, FREDDIE GRAY'S SISTER: I think violence is wrong. Freddie Gray was not a person of violence. He is not the type of person to break into the stores. I don't like it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: All right, CVS managed to get its employees and its customers out of the Baltimore store just in time. When protests started to turn violent on Monday, CVS closed the nearby store at 3:00 p.m., shortly after that, the store torn apart by looters. Luckily no employees or customers inside when the looters broke in, but things got worse. Look at this, just a few hours later, the CVS set on fire.
Protesters cut a fire hose the firefighters were using to try to put out that fire. The frustration we were showing you with the fire official's voice. That is one of the reasons why.
Just 40 miles away in Washington, Attorney General Loretta Lynch is facing the crisis in Baltimore just hours after her swearing in Monday.
After an evening meeting with President Obama, Lynch issued a statement saying, quote, "I condemn the senseless acts of violence by some individuals in Baltimore that it resulted in harm to law enforcement officers, destruction of property and a shattering of the peace in the city of Baltimore.
I will bring the full resources of the department to bear in protecting those under threat, investigating wrong doing and securing an end to the violence."
All right, turning now to the earthquake in Nepal, the death toll from the huge 7.8 quake now stands at more than 4,400 people, most of them in Nepal. Officials say at least 8,000 people were hurt.
[05:40:07] Rescue and aid workers are struggling with the scale of the disaster confronting to supply shortages, power blackouts, widespread devastation and that's just in the capital of Kathmandu.
In the country side, the death and damage has yet to be fully tallied. CNN's Arwa Damon has more from Nepal's Kaura District.
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, let's show you where we are right now. We are huddled under a makeshift shelter along with poor families. I don't know if you can hear the thunder. There is a storm. Rains have been going on for the last hour or so.
The families are huddled here because their homes have been destroyed in the earthquake. You can see the terrain around here, pretty harsh and unforgiving. People here relatively speaking could be considered lucky because at least there are roads leading to this particular area.
But that is not to say that this entire experience has not been absolutely terrifying or that they don't want or need more government support. We have been speaking to people throughout this area over the last few hours.
They have been telling us of how terrifying this ordeal has been. Many of them were wounded. Many homes were destroyed. Here we have 19-year-old Osminda who we have been talking to.
Describe to us the moment when the earthquake struck. How scared were you? What happened? When the earthquake happened, how frightening was that for you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was not fun. Our house has been gone now. We don't know what to eat. No government has given us support. We are all inside here in the tent. We cannot sit inside our house. We're scared. We are not safe.
DAMON: Like a lot of other people we have been talking to as you hear her speaking there, people are afraid of the aftershocks. There was a moment of perhaps hope when a fair amount of time, there were not a lot of aftershocks.
But then there was another pretty strong one that took place overnight that in Kathmandu. This re-instilled the fear in so many people that perhaps there could be more aftershocks and more damage and more death yet to come.
ROMANS: All right, Arwa Damon for us. She is in Nepal where there is that big developing story. We are also following big breaking news in Baltimore all morning long.
But first, the Boston bombers, how the attorneys for the Boston marathon bomber, trying to keep him off death row.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:46:39]
ROMANS: We are following the breaking news out of Baltimore this morning. Baltimore erupted into violence shortly after the funeral of Freddie Gray, rioters setting fires, looting stores, and throwing rocks at police and firefighters. Fifteen officers injured in the mayhem. More than two dozen people arrested.
Angry Governor Larry Hogan declaring a state emergency ordering the National Guard to the city.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOVERNOR LARRY HOGAN (R), MARYLAND: This is lawless gangs of thugs roaming the streets causing damage to property and injuring innocent people. We are not going to tolerate that. All of it was disturbing. It is hard to say any one thing.
But when you see the law enforcement officers hurt and injured, when police cars were on fire, when buildings were being set ablaze, it was very disturbing and you know, we called everybody together in advance of this city requesting. We were fully ready to engage immediately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The public schools in Baltimore are closed today. The mayor of the city is announcing a citywide curfew from 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m., that curfew begins tonight.
All right, in Boston, the defense calling eight witnesses on the first day of their case in the penalty phase of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's trial. Tsarnaev's attorney is trying to spare his client the death penalty.
The attorney told jurors the convicted marathon bomber was a product of a dysfunctional family and he easily fell under the spell of his older brother, Tamerlan.
Lawyer, David Brooke adding that sending Tsarnaev to a super max prison would be a fate worse than death, a fate that would deprive him of a martyr's death.
We are continuing to follow that breaking news this morning out of Baltimore, riots, the latest on all of that overnight, plus the Supreme Court taking up same-sex marriage. All of that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:52:13]
WHITFIELD: A landmark day for same-sex marriage. The Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether the constitution requires states to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. Arguments are scheduled to begin this morning at 10 a.m. The court will decide whether same-sex marriage will be legal nationwide by the end of June.
Three hundred Hillary Clinton Benghazi e-mails could be released to the public by the State Department as early as this week. Now CNN has learned one of the e-mails was sent to the former secretary of state by a staffer in Senator John McCain's office. That praises her leadership and calling her remarks to the State Department employees strong and moving.
A stunning rescue effort on Mt. Everest, choppers struggling to evacuate scores of climbers. New updates overnight next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:56:31]
ROMANS: Happening now, a daring rescue operation at the top of the world. It appears to be a success. Helicopter pilots are risking their lives at the peak of Mt. Everest to rescue all of the stranded climbers from the highest point on the planet. CNN's Erin McLaughlin live for us this morning -- Erin.
ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Christine. Amidst utter devastation, a glimmer of good news, the last of those stranded climbers in the upper reaches of Mt. Everest have been safely evacuated by a chopper back to base camp.
That is according to a group of climbers I've been speaking to this morning. They are being brought to a base camp suffering from utter devastation after that incredible avalanche swept through the camp.
I was speaking to a 17-year-old from Boulder, Colorado, by the name of Matthew Moniz, who described to me how he hid behind a rock as that avalanche swept through, really devastating the camp. He said that the entire camp came together and the after of that avalanche yesterday to try to help and rescue the injured and sadly recover the dead. At least 17 killed in that avalanche, including four Americans.
Moniz told me how he spent the day bringing the injured to a makeshift clinic, a makeshift clinic because the real clinic had been completely wiped out.
Now Moniz said the priority for many climbers there is to get out of the area. They are hoping the international airport opens to international traffic shortly so that he can go home.
ROMANS: All right, Erin McLaughlin, thank you for that so much.
Breaking news out of Baltimore to keep you up to speed on riots breaking out in the streets, "NEW DAY" picks up the story from us right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CUOMO: Situation here right now, the fire --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chaos, just 40 miles away from the White House.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unbelievable scenes of lawlessness.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys, we got to move back.
ROMANS: The message that spread on social media about a purge.
CUOMO: There's a liquor store just lit on fire across the road from us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Baltimore Police Department doesn't have the resources.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All this violence and destruction I am really appalled.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have control, we are responding to fire. We are responding to police.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think anybody in Baltimore believes that anything is in control.
CUOMO: There's a baby coming out from the building next door. They're evacuating people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where's the mayor!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We swore to protect you people. Now get the hell out of our way and let us do our job.
(END VIDEOTAPE) [05:59:07] CUOMO: Thankfully it is a "NEW DAY" and we are live in Baltimore after a very long and scary night. Alisyn and Mich are in New York for you. I'm in Baltimore. There's a state of emergency in effect here right now coming well after Baltimore fell victim to marauding rioters and looters.
Over two dozen arrests, 15 police officers injured, cars and businesses, as you can see on your screen, just torched all day, all night. The worst day of violence reserved for the day that Freddie Gray was being buried after apparently having been injured while in police custody over a week ago.
That is the situation here. Now, 5,000 reinforcements from neighboring states have been brought in to help control the situation, which has been the ugliest rioting in Baltimore since the '60s.
Schools in Baltimore today shut down. The mayor now imposing a curfew 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m., the big question is can authorities enforce it? And it's a legit question after what we saw last night, sirens all day, through the darkness, signaling the --
