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Baltimore Man Dies in Police Custody; Boston Marathon to Begin As Bombing Trial Pauses; Is ISIS Regaining Momentum in Iraq? Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired April 20, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:32:32] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Baltimore's mayor and police chief promising to be thorough and transparent in investigating the death of Freddie Gray. Gray was grievously injured during his arrest, yesterday he died. Protests flooded the streets of Baltimore as people wait for answers. Gray's family claims there is a cover-up.

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is live in Baltimore.

What's the situation this morning, Suzanne?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, the attorney for Freddie Gray, they say he was in perfect health before he was taken into police custody, that he was tackled and chase. There is a 30- minute window for when he was in police custody. Then he was in distress and they called an ambulance, called 911.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX (voice-over): That is Freddie Gray --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at that (EXPLETIVE DELETED) leg. That boy leg is broke.

MALVEAUX: -- being detained a week ago by Baltimore police.

The question now, how did the 27-year-old go from this to this? Lapsing into a coma less than an hour later and dying yesterday?

STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE, MAYOR OF BALTIMORE: The questions that many of have you are the same questions that we're asking.

MALVEAUX: The attorney for Gray's family alleges the police are covering up what really happened. Baltimore police say they spot Gray and begin to approach him at 8:39 in the morning on April 12th for reasons not yet disclosed. They say Gray immediately runs away. Just a minute later, police take Gray into custody.

And then 14 minutes later at 8:54 in the morning, this is the 1st video we see of the event. Officers load Gray into the police van. Police say video evidence indicates Gray is conscious and speaking at the time. A half hour later, police request paramedics bring Gray to a hospital.

Gray's family says he lapsed into a coma and underwent extensive surgery. His spinal chord was severely injured and a week later, he died at 7:00 in the morning. So two looming questions, why did police pursue Gray and what happened to him while he was in their custody that resulted in his death?

JERRY RODRIGUEZ, BALTIMORE DEPUTY POLICE COMMISSION: The officers believed that Mr. Gray was either immediately involved or had been recently involved in criminal activity and they decided to make contact with Mr. Gray. Now, that is still a bit vague.

[06:35:09] MALVEAUX: This most recent mystery into a police encounter sparking more outrage, in a nation already embroiled in debate over police tactics and use of force. Though in this most recent encounter, Baltimore's mayor promises answers.

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: I want citizens to know exactly how it happened and, if necessary, we will, I will insure that we will hold the right people accountable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: The deputy police commissioner says they suspected he was involved in a drug deal. Gray's attorney says there is no evidence he committed a crime. There's going to be a news conference by the police department to try to explain, get some answers. They will be pressing him on all of these things, Chris. Obviously the protesters will be out as well -- Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Suzanne, keep us in the loop. This is one of two big cases making headlines this morning involving the police. They have very different outcomes.

So, let's talk about both for you. Cedric Alexander is with us. He's president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. He's also a member of President Obama's the Task Force on 20th Century Policing.

Cedric, it's good to be with you face to face.

CEDRIC ALEXANDER, PRESIDENT, NOBLE: Good morning. Good seeing you again, Chris.

So, let's look at these two cases, they're at the opposite ends of the spectrum. The first one that we saw down in Baltimore, the big issue seems to be what did the officers know about the condition of this man and when, you know, his lawyer is saying, he is dragging his leg because his spine was broken, it was 80 percent through. That's why he was screaming in pain, he was ignored and slipped into a coma and wound up ultimately losing his life.

What do you see?

ALEXANDER: What will be significantly important about this case, Chris, this they will have to go back from the beginning, not just from the time they were called to this particular location, but what may or may not have happened to this victim prior to police being there. This is going to have to be an investigative nature and I think to at this point no not consider it a fact that we have a lot of broken intervals here where we had video.

We did not have video. They're going to have to go back, interview some witnesses, do some forensic work, look at medical records, of course, and I am more than confident that the mayor there along with the commissioner as well too who both have become pretty acquainted with over the last several months through the task force, they are very, very honest and very community oriented people.

CUOMO: So, you'll get answers here?

ALEXANDER: You will get answers, absolutely no question.

CUOMO: Let's look at the time line as we know it right here for the audience at home. Relatively quick early assessment. They say they come up on him. They're on bicycles.

He runs. So you know his spine wasn't broken when they begin.

ALEXANDER: That's right.

CUOMO: They get him very quickly. Then you have your 12 minutes there. Officers arrest Gray and they call for a transport van.

Those 12 minutes are going to be very important. When you see him, it picks it up, the video -- he is already dragging his legs. You want to know why.

ALEXANDER: Absolutely. Those 12 minutes will be critical to this investigation. And that's the piece you have to look at.

But we have to make sure all these piece, Chris, fit right together, because there could have been something that went awry there or it could have been something else. I don't think we will know that until there is some conclusion of this investigation.

Here again, I have more confidence. I have a great deal of confident, quite frankly, in both the mayor and the commissioner there to get to the root of this because they are very, very honest people. And here again what's critically important, they have always been very connected to that community there in Baltimore.

CUOMO: Right, they've also had a lot of issues.

ALEXANDER: Absolutely. But that has been historic in Baltimore, we know for years. But I believe under this mayor's leadership and this commissioner's leadership, they will get to the root of it. But we got to wait to a complete investigation to be conducted.

CUOMO: So, with Freddie Gray, you have the unknown.

Now this other case in Ohio it's the known that's driving it. This is Officer Jesse Kidder. You will hear a lot about this case today where this officer is confronting a guy who is suspected of a double homicide. He gets the call. The guy may be looking for suicide by cop, which as we have become too familiar is a person that has a death wish and intent on making it happen.

So, take a look at the body camera here. This was bought by Jesse Kidder's family. The guy coming at him. He's screaming at him. You hear him -- I don't want to shoot you, I don't want to shoot you.

Ultimately, he winds up falling down from the guy rushing at him. Never fires. He is hailed as a hero.

Here's my question. It's easy to take that look at it. Are you concerned at all that officers are worried about doing actions that may well be justified because of all the pressure on them about force?

[06:40:04] ALEXANDER: Oh, absolutely, considering the whole climate in this country today around policing and here again you got a very good officer that uses a great deal of restraint. He did everything that he could not to use deadly force and it worked well in this particular instance.

CUOMO: What could have happened that makes you concerned?

ALEXANDER: What could have happened going forward, what I certainly hope officers across this country are reminds of, that was under that particular circumstance. You got to judge your own circumstance in that moment in that space and time, because it could turn out the same way or you may have to go fatal. But that becomes, that responsibility and the judgment and the call of that officer at that moment at that time.

Here, you had a gentleman who was allegedly involved in a double homicide that the officer engaged, coming at the officer, coming at him, we seen him.

CUOMO: Coming at him hard.

ALEXANDER: He was closing only very hard, very fast. The officer was able to use restraint and in this particular case it turned out to have a good ending. No one was hurt.

But it does not mean that in each and every case. This is where officers have to use their judgment going forward, because a split second, a half a second could make all the difference in the world for his or her own life.

CUOMO: Cedric Alexander, thank you very much.

ALEXANDER: Good seeing you again, Chris.

CUOMO: Good to have you on the set.

ALEXANDER: Absolutely.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Our thanks, Chris. Thousands of runners, maybe a millions of fans from Hopkinton to Boylston Street for the 119th running of the Boston Marathon. It comes a day before the sentencing phase begins for the man the convicted marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. We'll have a live report from Boston next.

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[06:45:42] CUOMO: An unprecedented rescue effort is under way. Crews scrambling to save migrants trapped in a capsized vote. Officials are calling it genocide, blaming smugglers for maybe even locking them below deck. The ship sent out a distress call off the coast of Libya Saturday after days at sea. A survivor says as many as 950 people were on board, including women and children. And again, many trapped behind locked doors.

BERMAN: New anti-American rhetoric from Iran's supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accusing the United States to make his country look dangerous by creating a myth about its nuclear intentions. He claims the U.S. is the real threat. All this with a nuclear negotiations set to restore Wednesday in Vienna.

CAMEROTA: The letter carrier who landed his gyrocopter on the U.S. Capitol lawn starts his house arrest in Florida today. That pilot, Doug Hughes, now speaking out, saying he is frustrated about money in politics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUG HUGHES, LANDED GYROCOPTER NEAR U.S. CAPITOL: The police that took me into custody were very professional, all the way through, even early on when their adrenaline was running and I respect them for that. They treated me professionally all the way through.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Hughes is facing federal charges for violating national defense airspace and operating an unregistered aircraft.

CUOMO: All right. It is a special day. Runners are ling up in the city's historic marathon in Boston. Now, of course, many in the crowd are going to be thinking of the attack two years ago the convicted bomber is awaiting sentencing. He could face the death penalty.

So, let's go to Alexander Field. She's live in Boston. Security is tight. But they are expecting a rainy and chilly yet still huge race.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Chris.

And even as we mortals complain about the weather the super humans are heading to Hopkinton, they are lacing up, they getting ready to run this race. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to come out to cheer them on. A lot of security measures have been implemented before the race starts to try to make this the safest day possible.

Of course, this is the second marathon since the bombing. It comes as the Boston bomber is on trial. That trial will resume tomorrow, with jurors beginning to tackle the question of whether or not to spare Tsarnaev's life.

In the past week, a number of the survivors of the attacks have come forward, led by the Richard family who lost their 8-year-old son. They had asked for a life sentence saying that a death sentence would mean years of appeals, it would be mean reliving a painful day of their lives for time still to come. Today, however, about the marathon, tomorrow, all eyes back on court, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Yes, Boston strong, what a great representation of that today.

Alexandra, thanks so much.

Well, ISIS is looking to gain ground in Iraq. The terrorists making advances on a key city and claiming responsible for a deadly explosion outside the U.S. consulate in Irbil. Is there anything U.S. and Iraqi forces can do now to stop them?

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[06:52:40] BERMAN: New developments this morning in the fight against ISIS. Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition forces wrestling control of Iraq's largest oil refinery back from ISIS just this weekend, but ISIS is still charging right now with another key Iraqi city. It is claiming responsibility for a blast near the U.S. consulate in Irbil in the northern part of that country.

Let's bring in U.S. Delta Force commander and CNN global affairs analyst, Lieutenant Colonel James Reese.

Colonel, great to have you here.

LT. COL. JAMES REESE, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Standing on the map of the six going on in Iraq right now. The first thing I want to talk about is this key oil refinery, this facility in Baiji, which is an area well north of Baghdad. The Iraqi forces had it. ISIS took it. Iraq won it back. Is took it back. Now the Iraqi troops have control of Baiji again.

Why the back and forth and back and forth and back and forth?

REESE: Well, number one, Baiji is one of the largest oil refineries in Iraq. It's very critical and sits on the major highway between Baghdad of what we call Route Tampa, which during the war, highway 1 up through Baghdad, through Tikrit. We just fought the battle there, up to Mosul.

And if they can't get that secure, they're never going to be able to get tear path up to Mosul, which would be critical.

BERMAN: It's economy and geography. They want to hold that land. They want to get to Mosul. That's where they're headed.

They're thinking north. North of Baghdad, there is a whole situation going on. I want to look at Ramadi, it's 70 miles west of Baghdad, it's in the Anbar province, which is an area of extreme turmoil for 11 years now, 12 years in Iraq.

Now, again, ISIS is trying to invade Ramadi holds maybe 20 percent of that city right now.

Why is Ramadi key?

REESE: Well, Ramadi is very key, one, you see on the map, limited to the east, Fallujah, OK, is really the headquarters right now of ISIS or Daesh in al-Anbar. But the whole Anbar province is huge because it is primarily Sunni and the Iraqi government has got to keep Anbar and the Sunnis out there part of the whole you know Iraqi as spec, which is huge.

The other aspect here right now is we also got U.S. forces at the al-Asad Airbase to the west, training. So we got some folks trapped on an island where, you know, there is bad guys sitting between Baghdad and us.

[06:55:00] BERMAN: Colonel, I'm old enough to remember when Ramadi and Fallujah basically longed to the uprising in Iraq. There were more than 100,000 U.S. troops there and the U.S. could not control Ramadi and Fallujah. So, how do the Iraqis have hope of taking control there?

REESE: Well, the Iraqis have to do the same model that they use up in Tikrit. They got to get everyone involved. Right now, we saw with that last month in Tikrit was both Sunni and Shia as Iraqis have a common enemy and we as the U.S. can't go in there I believe, and say, we're not going to help you if you bring these folks in.

We got to help them let them figure out this problem on themselves.

BERMAN: Let's look at one more hot spot in Irbil. There is in the Kurdish region, Irbil, there was a bomb, a car bomb there on the road that houses the U.S. consulate. When I look at this when I see the skirmishes in Baiji, when I see what was going on out in Ramadi, and when I see what's happening in Irbil, what I see is ISIS trying to remain relevant in Iraq, saying, look, you're invading, you're taking over cities, but we're sill here, we can attack at the time and place of our choosing.

REESE: Absolutely. The Peshmerga, which is the Kurdish fighters, they have done a good job. You look at Mosul, from Mosul all the way down through Irbil back into Kirkuk. They call it the green line. They have established that security zone in the green line.

Right now what the Iraqi and Kurds have pretty much done is isolated ISIS in Mosul, just isolated them, because what I believe now is the next main effort moves up to Anbar, once Anbar, Ramadi, Fallujah, all the way out west are taken, then we turn our attention to Irbil.

BERMAN: Can I ask a question, have you this map fought inside Iraq with ISIS and Iraq is the home the birthplace of ISIS, but what about what is going on with ISIS beheading these Christians there in Libya? How is what is happening in Iraq affect what is going on well beyond the borders?

REESE: What Libya becomes is that safe haven for is, other terrorist groups, because there's no governance there.. I see Libya right now is what Afghanistan looked like pre-9/11. It's just lawlessness, whoever the most power player can get in there and brings the money. There is a lot of well-trained military age men in Libya that are broke and looking for someone to come in and pay them. So it's a mess now.

BERMAN: A whole set of problems.

Colonel, great to have you here with us. I appreciate it.

Following a lot of news this morning, let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: The worst migrant disaster ever.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Migrants trapped inside the sinking ship because smugglers locked the doors.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There may have been as many as 950 people on board.

CAMEROTA: At least six U.S. citizens arrested in an ISIS inspired plot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most of the people that we're seeing now are trying to join ISIS.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What I'm going to say is from Buffalo in Upstate New York.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Obama, our country does not come and rescue us.

BERMAN: A 27-year-old Baltimore man died Sunday, one week after being taken into custody by police.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The family attorney says police are engaged in a cover-up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the truth is what we suspect it is, then you are going to lose.

SUSPECT: Shoot me!

OFFICER: Not going to do it.

SUSPECT: Shoot me.

OFFICER: I want to be absolutely sure before I use deadly force.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: And good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. Michaela is off today. John Berman joins us.

We're happy to have you.

We are following two stories in the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean this hour. First hundreds are feared dead in what could be the worst migrant disaster off the Libyan coast. Now, another boat has gone down off the Greek coast, at least three people dead, dozens missing there.

CUOMO: There are ongoing situations there. The numbers are going to be catastrophic, but we also have to look at the motivation. These aren't people fleeing for a better life. They are trying to escape ISIS and a fate like this we have new video showing two groups of Ethiopian Christians, a masked man threatening that Christians must convert to Islam or pay with their lives.

We got all angles of these stories covered only CNN can. So, let's begin with senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman in Italy.

Ben, what's the latest? ?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Chris, we are in the port of Catania where we're expecting sometime this afternoon, an Italian coast guard ship to come with the only 28 survivors rescued so far from this disaster at sea that begun Saturday night. Earlier today, that same ship dropped off 24 bodies in Malta.

But it's unclear at this point what, how the number of victims of this disaster were. Initially, Italian authorities were talking about 650 people on board that ship but last night, the Italian authorities released a statement which included apparently they had questioned if Bangladeshi survivor from this disaster who said as many as 950 people were on board this ship which went down off the Libyan coast.