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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Police Shooting During Ferguson Protests; Police Killing of Texas Teen; Congressional Delegation Meets in Israel; Trump Stands Behind Megyn Kelly Insult; Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired August 10, 2015 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:18] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight. Shots fired in Ferguson, Missouri. A year to the day after Michael Brown was shot and killed. What led up to that confrontation and could more violence be in store with demonstrations planned today? We have all the breaking details.

Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. It is Monday, August 10th. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East. John Berman is off today.

Breaking overnight gunfire erupts in Ferguson, Missouri, one year after a police officer shot and killed Michael Brown. CNN reporters on the ground say there were at least three rounds of gunfire. Officials in Ferguson say two people were shot after officers came under heavy gunfire.

CNN's Sara Sidner was interviewing Ferguson's interim police chief, Andre Anderson, when those shots rang out. Listen closely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDRE ANDERSON, FERGUSON INTERIM POLICE CHIEF: We're trying to work with the community. We're explaining to them their rights. And we just want to be as patient as possible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Message to those who are looting --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take cover.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The police department says one officer was hurt by a hurled brick, but none were injured in the exchange of fire.

Let's talk to Sara Sidner right now. She is on the ground for us. She's been there all evening. She heard those gunshots -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, yes, we came out, everything had been very calm throughout the day. This was really a day of peace and remembrance for the family of Michael Brown and those who knew him and who realize that Ferguson started a movement. After a talk by some very well-known civil rights activist, including Cornell West, as I was leaving that talk, I drove down West Florissant, on my way to go to bed, to be honest with you, and I got stuck. And a lot of people got stuck.

There were protesters facing off with police at one end of West Florissant. West Florissant obviously being the street where the unrest broke out last year. The exact same day after Michael Brown was shot and killed in the -- it's actually just before noon on August 9th. And as I was standing there listening to the police chief, shots rang out. And not one or two, but a barrage of shots. I think I counted at least 10, maybe 15, maybe more.

Those weren't the only shots. There was a second set of shots that also rang out just behind us as we turned to duck about five or 10 minutes after the first shot. We are now told by the police, the St. Louis County Police who were also here assisting in Ferguson that at least one person has been shot in an officer-involved shooting. But before that officer involved shooting, there were more shots that rang out. So we do not yet have the details. Those details are coming out as we speak.

ROMANS: All right. That's our Sara Sidner on the phone for us this morning from Ferguson, Missouri.

It's obviously been a very long night. This comes after a day of peaceful protests in which demonstrators remembered Michael Brown. And they prayed for peace. As of yesterday, protest groups were planning another day of civil disobedience but we don't know right now whether there will be any changes to those plans.

I want you to listen to some -- what the police chief said or actually the sheriff, the St. Louis County sheriff said earlier this morning. Just finishing up a press conference just moments ago. Let's listen to a little bit of what he told us about -- told reporters about what happened there last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON BELMAR, ST. LOUIS COUNTY POLICE CHIEF: In the meantime, plainclothes detectives were further down to the south -- the north, I'm sorry, from where we are, where we were at the time in Ferguson and West Florissant. And they were monitoring an individual in the crowd that they believed was armed. They also believe three to four of his acquaintances were armed also. And they had put a 1068 or informational bulletin out over the radio that this individual, they described him, was armed and that we should be aware of it in that area.

The concern of the plainclothes detectives also at the time was that, are we going to get in a situation where perhaps shots could be fired. The skirmish line because the officers are pretty much standing there. And of course they're standing behind a lot of the folks that are out there protesting and voicing their opinions.

[04:05:13] So I don't know exactly what time it was, but we ended up with a situation. And some of this was captured on local media to where several shots rang out. I'm guessing 40 or 50. Probably over 45 seconds. It could have been a little bit longer than that. So that was an exchange of gunfire between two groups. These groups were on the west side of West Florissant near the Sam's Market. At the same time, these plainclothes detectives are located one building to the south before the actual shooting, the officer involved shooting is going to take place.

An individual that they had been tracking crosses the street. He gets all the way to the shoulder. They think at the time that he probably gathers himself and he's going to go back across the street. They turned out in an SUV, it's an unmarked SUV, but it has interior red and blue lights that illuminated when they come out.

The suspect engages them with gunfire almost right at the grill of the car. Strike the hood, I don't know if you've seen pictures of it yet. Three or four times, strike the windshield I think four or five four times. The plainclothes detectives returned fire from the inside of the van but they don't know if they hit him or not. They don't really know. So the suspect ran to the east on the north side of that building. He turned back around as the detectives got out of the car.

Shots were fired again. He ran around behind the building out to the south. That's a fenced area back there so there was really nowhere to go at that point. He engaged the officers at the time. There were four officers who were in that van. All four fired at the suspect. And the suspect fell there. The suspect is at a local hospital, he is in critical unstable condition in surgery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: All right. Michael Brown's death sparked a nationwide movement for police calm. Police reform, rather. And once again this morning there is concern after the killing in Texas of an unarmed black teen by a white police officer nearly one year to the day after Michael Brown's death.

The FBI joining the investigation into the shooting death of a college football player who police say failed to comply with officer's orders after he broke into a car dealership in Arlington, Texas.

CNN's Nick Valencia has the latest.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, newly released security camera footage shows the moments right before 19-year-old Christian Taylor was shot and killed by a police officer in Arlington, Texas. That footage shows Taylor showing up just after 1:00 a.m. on Friday to the car dealership. He tries to break his way into one of the windows of the cars, and when that doesn't work, he gets on top of the hood of the car and smashes his way into the windshield.

He goes and retrieves his own car, forces his way into the lot and eventually crashes his car into the front entrance of that dealership. When police arrived, they say a struggle ensues after Taylor refuses commands to surrender. One of the officers tazes Taylor, the other draws his weapon and fires. An officer who fired the fatal shot, 49-year-old Brad Miller, who is a

rookie police officer who had just finished his cadet training in March and was still under field supervised training. Now that officer has not spoken yet to investigators. And according to the police chief that is routine during officer involved shootings. That's Police Chief Will Johnson saying that there will be a full comprehensive and thorough investigation. And if it's found that the shooting was unjustified, there will be consequences against Brad Miller.

Now adding to this confusion is that there is no body cameras on the officers, there's also no dashcam footage and no additional footage of what happened during the shooting. The police chief there in Arlington he's called in the FBI to participate for the investigation -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Nick Valencia, thank you for that.

To the Iran deal now. Nearly 60 members of the House will be in Israel today discussing the Iran nuclear deal with Israeli and Palestinian officials. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be among the leaders meeting with the delegation.

Their trip comes as Congress faces a mid-September deadline to either approve or reject the nuclear agreement. This as President Obama sits down with CNN exclusively, saying there's more on the line than just nuclear arms control in the Middle East.

CNN reporter Oren Lieberman live in Jerusalem for us this morning.

Hi, Oren.

OREN LIEBERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. For 22 Democrats here in Israel or 22 Democratic congressmen, it is their last day here. They were supposed to have a press conference this morning where we could have asked them about the Iran deal and maybe gotten some insight as to what they've talked about with Prime Minister Netanyahu and if he was able to sway any of those 22 Democrats on the deal, if he was able to convince them to vote against the deal.

But that press conference was canceled. So now we have to wait and see, was Netanyahu who has lobbied against this deal from the very beginning, the framework deal, the final deal, and now pushing in Congress, was he able to sway any of these votes, some of whom are considered swing votes on the Iran deal?

[04:10:12] If he's able to sway any of them, and we won't know unless they put out a definitive statement of we wait until that voting in mid-September, then it has to be this trip of 22 Democrats here has to be considered a victory, I think, for Prime Minister Netanyahu. But because that press conference was cancelled, we haven't gotten any insight into the meeting, into what they're thinking, and if Prime Minister Netanyahu was able to sway any of those votes.

We have 36 Republicans arriving. They should be here any minute. That's a much easier sell for Netanyahu, many of them already lining up against the deal -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Oren Lieberman, for us this morning in Jerusalem, thank you for that.

New hope this morning that jailed "Washington Post" reporter, Jason Rezaian, will soon be released by Iran. He has been held for more than a year on espionage charges. Iran's revolutionary court holding a fourth and final closed door hearing today at his secret trial. It's a hearing "Washington Post" editors called the critical moments in this case. President Obama has publicly called on the Iranians to free him.

Time for an EARLY START on your money this Monday morning. Asian shares mostly higher despite weak data on Chinese exports and producer prices. European shares look a little less optimistic as negotiations wrap up over the new Greek bailout deal.

U.S. stock futures are up right now. But it turns out stocks do go down sometimes, folks. The Dow closed 45 points lower on Friday. That ended a seven-day losing streak. The longest in four years. The Dow is now down 2.5 percent for the year.

Also oil prices are still falling this morning. Crude oil trading under $44 a barrel right now. It's very close to a low for the year. It's because of weakening demand in China while there is a continued supply boom.

All right. Donald Trump standing his ground. He says comments about a debate moderator are being taken out of context. But now the GOP field is firing back. We have the latest on the race for the White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:15:03] ROMANS: Donald Trump is not backing off this morning from his controversial insults and criticisms aimed at FOX News debate moderator Megyn Kelly. Listen to what he said Friday night on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions. And, you know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her -- wherever but she was -- in my opinion, she was off- base.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: So many of Trump's opponents claim that the billionaire was suggesting that Megyn Kelly had been menstruating that's why she was asking him tough questions. Trump now says only a sick person would think that's what he meant. But as criticisms mount some political strategists say that might -- this might be what turns the tide against Trump.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty has more from Washington. SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, Donald Trump

again not backing down, sticking to his guns, refusing to apologize, saying there's really nothing he believes he needs to apologize for. He says his comments were misinterpreted.

Here's how he explains what he was trying to say on "STATE OF THE UNION" with Jake Tapper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: No, I said, blood was pouring from wherever. Because I wanted to finish the sentence because I went on to -- I wanted to get off with the whole thing and get back on to the subject of jobs or whatever we were talking to about right after that. So I didn't even say anything because I didn't even finish the thought. I was going to say nose and-or ears because that's a very common statement. Blood pouring out of somebody's nose. It's a statement showing anger. She had great anger when she was questioning me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And this gives an opening for many of the Republican candidates, most notably Carly Fiorina as the only woman in the Republican field to come out and speak up against this. And she talked about times in her past in the corporate world that she's had to put up with the same sort of insinuations herself. And she called Trump's comments completely inappropriate and offensive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think presidential campaigns test character under pressure and over time. And so it's a moderator's job to ask tough questions. All of those moderators asked tough questions of everyone. And so there's no excuse for personally attacking one of the moderators for asking a set of questions he didn't like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: Trump meanwhile fired back on Sunday afternoon at Fiorina taunting her a bit with this tweet writing, quote, "I just realized that if you listen to Carly Fiorina for more than 10 minutes straight, you develop a massive headache. She has zero chance."

And this comes as there's been some broader turmoil in the Trump campaign, another shakeup, the second one in two weeks, cutting ties with one of his top advisers, Roger Stone. Now Stone says he quit. The Trump campaign, though, they say they fired him. Now regardless, Stone saying that he is leaving in part because of Trump's behavior like this -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Sunlen, thank you for that from Washington this morning.

New developments in the Hillary Clinton e-mail controversy this morning. The State Department spokesman confirming to CNN on Sunday the former secretary of state has now sworn to a federal judge that she turned over all of her work related e-mails. The judge had ordered Clinton and two of her aides to certify under penalty of perjury that they have turned over all government records in their possession.

Happening today Clinton kicks off a two-day campaign swing through New Hampshire. She'll lay out a plan to expand access to higher education and ease the burden of student debt.

Democratic rival Bernie Sanders continues his West Coast swing today with a visit to Oakland at a brunch event with the group National Nurses United. This follows the best of times, worst of times weekend for Sanders. The biggest rally of his campaign drawing, wow, some 12,000 people in Seattle, Saturday, for Bernie Sanders followed by a planned speech -- it followed a planned speech earlier in the day where Black Lives Matter protesters confronted the senator and shutdown that event.

All right. Friends and fans mourning the loss of an icon this morning. Frank Gifford passing away this weekend. More on Gifford's life and legacy when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:22:41] ROMANS: Twenty-two minutes past the hour this Monday morning. Nice to see you all.

Record-breaking heat in the forecast. Let's get to meteorologist Pedram Javaheri for the latest.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Christine. Good morning. Fantastic working with you again. Look at the heat. Pretty close to record temperatures for some of these areas. In fact, 32 million people indicated here kind of in the hot pink color, that's an area where the heat warning in effect. It stretches out of Greenville toward New Orleans, Baton Rouge. Heat index here could be easily above 105 to around 110. In fact if you take a look at the actual temperatures, one or two in the shade in Jackson by this afternoon. Should be just one shy of the record temp. And New Orleans also sits just about two shy of the record temperatures.

But of course tremendous humidity really going to exacerbate the problem. But the heat really looks like originally built a little back to the west over the next couple of days so a cooling trend tries to come back in the forecast. Jackson, you cool off back to around 96. New Orleans in the lower 90s. That is right around normal for this time of year. So again, improving conditions in the forecast.

And notice the next line of active weather, southern portions of Kentucky to western Tennessee, that includes Nashville on into Memphis. Especially some afternoon thunderstorms possible. The severe variety on the scale of one to five, going to be a one as far as the dangers of the severe weather but large hail and large damaging wind is the main threat with this afternoon's storms -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Pedram, thank you for that. This morning heartbreak and anger in Santa Maria, California. A 64-

year-old woman assaulted and murdered in her sleep. And police say an undocumented immigrant is the prime suspect. According to detectives this woman, 64-year-old Marilyn Pharis, was beaten with a hammer, sexually assaulted and murdered by two men who broke into her home in the middle of the night. Detectives say their main suspect is 29- year-old Arellano Martinez. He is in the country illegally. He has been arrested and released from jail six times in the last 15 months.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two weeks before this murder, Santa Maria police officers arrested him for possession of meth. And you know what we had to do? We had to cite him out. That's the problem with the system. This is a national issue. I think it starts in Washington, D.C. with this administration that we see and their policies, and I am not remiss to say that from Washington, D.C. to Sacramento, there's a blood trail into the bedroom of Marilyn Pharis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Both men accused of murdering Pharis are being held on bond facing several charges including murder.

[04:25:01] Legendary football star and broadcaster Frank Gifford is being remembered for his grace and quiet dignity this morning. The Hall of Famer died of natural causes at his Connecticut home Sunday. The husband of talk show host Kathy Lee Gifford was the NFL's Most Valuable Player in 1956 after a brilliant career on the gridiron. He successfully moved into the broadcast booth as an announcer and analyst on "Monday Night Football." Frank Gifford was 84.

"Fantastic Four" bombing at the box office. The Marvel superhero film pulling in a feeble $26 million at the box office this weekend. That's nearly 40 percent below projections for the film which had a $120 million budget. The reboot of the beloved comic franchise has been widely panned by critics.

When you are shooting "Ghostbusters 3" who you going to call? Bill Murray. It's official, the actor will appear in the third installment of the "Ghostbusters" franchise. Murray who played Dr. Peter Venkman in the 1980s classic has repeatedly insisted returning to the series -- resisted. But it appears that director finally convinced him. The all-female led film starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones is slated for release next summer.

We're glad he relented.

All right, 26 minutes past the hour. Shots fired in Ferguson. Violence erupts one year after Michael Brown was gunned down. Police giving a briefing overnight. Hear what officials have to say. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News. ROMANS: Breaking overnight, shots fired in Ferguson, Missouri. The

violence breaking out as crowds mark a year since Michael Brown was shot and killed. More demonstrations planned today. Is this just the tip of the iceberg? We have all the breaking details.

[04:30:12] Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. It is 30 minutes past the hour.