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Police Urging Residents to Stay Home within Search Area; Police Officer Apologizes for Actions at Pool Party Melee; Orlando Officers Accused of Excessive Force; New Troops Will Serve in Non-Combat Role. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired June 11, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Manhunt expands for two dangerous killers.

[05:58:56] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Searching every building. Not wanting to leave any stone unturned.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The inmates are very manipulative. They try and win you over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are killers. They are murderers. There's no reason to believe they wouldn't do it again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was already in a very emotional state.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He felt and believed it was his duty to respond.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Another claim of excessive force by police officers.

CHIEF JOHN MINA, ORLANDO POLICE CHIEF: Based on what I know now, I have no reason to take them off the streets.

NATALIE JACKSON, NOEL CARTER'S ATTORNEY: He was Tased while he was doing nothing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. Right now police in upstate New York are following a new lead in the hunt for these two fugitives on the run five days after escaping from a maximum security prison.

For all the talk of other states and countries, right now they're looking at an area just miles from the prison.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And it is a dramatic scene in Cadyville, New York, right now. Authorities are urging locals to stay inside. They're closing roads, cordoning off a large perimeter. Police choppers are circling overhead, and officers are combing this area by foot. This all comes from a tip late Wednesday night.

CNN has our reporters stationed along the search area. Let's begin with Jason Carroll with all the breaking details. What do we know, Jason?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that a section of Route 374, which is one of those roads that leads into and out of Dannemora where the prison is located, a section of that roadway is now closed.

Let me set the scene for where we are right now. This is one of the many road blocks we see in the area here where they are stopping cars coming in and out and asking, actually, some of the cars to open their trunks as they head along this area.

Again, this is Route 3. This is a road that runs parallel to Route 74 through 374. I'm going to turn our cameras around here just to give you a another sense of where we are. We were just up this street here, Alisyn.

To the left is Route 374. That is where they have it blocked off, not allowing any cars into and out of that area. Not even allowing us on one of the feeder streets leading into 374. That's why we're just now parallel with 374 on Route 3.

Again, down here you see one of the checkpoints. This coming last night, this closure of the road coming last night after some sort of suspicious activity was spotted in the area. At that point they immediately shut down this section of Route 374, asking residents last night to keep their lights on, keep their doors locked, to stay inside until they could get this situation all sorted out.

You remember New York's governor saying yesterday it was important to follow up on every lead, no matter where it leads. And that's what they're doing at this point, checking all these cars.

If I had to give it an estimate in terms of how long this section of Route 374 is closed, I'd say it's about four miles. And we are located just about four miles from the Clinton Correctional Facility.

In terms of how long Route 374 will be closed, we're not being given any indication of how long that might be. But for now, it remains closed as they follow up on this new lead -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Jason, we will check in with you throughout the entire show. Thanks for that.

The search in Cadyville coming just hours after officials had shifted gears to Vermont. They discovered the convicts had discussed going there to avoid the large police presence in New York.

CNN's Polo Sandoval is live outside of the prison in Dannemora, New York.

So Polo, you have more also on that prison worker who's being questioned for allegedly helping the convicts. Give us everything.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Alisyn. That could potentially lead to a break in this case. A lot of attention has been focused on Joyce Mitchell, a tailor, a worker at the Clinton Correctional Facility here. Investigators seem to believe that she provided some form of support to one of the inmates, Richard Matt, by at least allowing or at least making some phone calls or at least allowing access to her cell phone there.

Her family is coming forward, though, defending her against these allegations. Mainly we heard from her daughter-in-law just yesterday, Paige Mitchell, saying that 95 percent of what was being said was untrue.

And then goes on to say that, "Really, these allegations are appalling to me. I'm totally disgusting anyone would think that she's had a relationship with these men and that she would knowingly help them." Again, that's a direct quote there from Paige Mitchell, the daughter- in-law of Joyce Mitchell. She's offering an explanation as to why there is this possible link between her family member and -- and this individuals.

But in the meantime, back out here in Clinton County, New York, I'll tell you, we're seeing a significant increase in police presence. Jason brought you a little bit of the scene. I'm the opposite on Highway 374. Actually, if we were to eventually pass through that road block, you'd end up here, which is fairly interesting here as, again, investigators continue to expand their search area.

Just yesterday, we heard they were going to include the neighboring state of Vermont, officials believing that these two likely assumed that that neighboring state of Vermont were, in their words, not as hot as New York, referring to the amount of police presence.

So again, at this moment, in the Northeast, heavy police presence as investigators continue to follow up on this lead here that, Chris, obviously could potentially lead to an apprehension now, with six days of searching.

CUOMO: Right. OK, also could not. So let's just kind of lay it out here right now up. This is what they do. They have to close down the roads in the surrounding areas, because it's always safety first. So you want to -- you don't want to mistake the process for any kind of urgency, but it is an interesting look at how these searches work.

Different countries, they were set up, Canada, Mexico, Vermont here along the border. And yet as you see, here's the prison. And here's where they are right now. How can you explain that? Why would it be that you have, you know, these -- such a wide range of possibilities?

Well, it's because their plan went bust. And we're going to discuss with a couple experts in a moment just how that changes everything. Common sense tells you if you're expecting one thing, and now you're left with an entirely different set of circumstances, everything's going to change. So they were supposed to be in a car. Yes, they were heard talking

about wanting to go to Vermont. But now, no car. Rural area. Tough to move around. Wet, cold and they are not survivalist. Now you get them taking off to a random area.

[06:05:01] Here's where they're looking. Here's their problem, and it's a good problem, because we want the bad guys to get caught. Is that they have a big water border on one side, the Saranac River. Right? As they want to get to Vermont, they're going to have to deal with Lake Champlain. So they're going to have to deal with crossings. Will they be exposed? And in the middle they have all this rural area. So let's talk about what this is going to be. Let's go to the experts.

We've got Randy Szukala, the former police chief in North Tonawanda, New York. He has friends who actually grew up with Richard Matt, one of the escapees. And Mr. Lenny DePaul, the formal commander of the U.S. Marshal Service regional fugital [SIC] -- fugitive task force for New York and New Jersey.

Lenny, always good to have you.

LENNY DEPAUL, FORMER COMMANDER, U.S. MARSHAL SERVICE REGIONAL FUGITIVE: Good morning.

CUOMO: Mr. Szukala, it's good to have you, as well.

Let's start with the circumstances and go to the man involved. Because we have good insight from both of you this morning. People will see this, they're closing down the road, Lenny. They're doing all these things. Not to get ahead of ourselves, this is the protocol. You must do on actionable information, right?

DEPAUL: Absolutely. I mean, with this sort of tip and a possible sighting and whatnot, shut it down. Get aviation support up there. K-9, you know, bring in the cavalry.

CUOMO: To give people perspective, one minute you're talking about Vermont and you're talking about Canada. And now they're just a few miles away, you guys got it wrong. That, as you've been teaching me, that misunderstands what happens when a plan goes bust. What are the new circumstances for these guys?

DEPAUL: Well, I mean, first of all, let's hope that they're still in the area. You know, they could be anywhere.

CUOMO: Because that's good.

DEPAUL: Well, I hope they are. If, in fact, the intel that's coming in is true, and if there was a cooperator on the inside and was supposed to be picked up when they popped up from that manhole cover, right, they're not outdoors people, from what I understand. Hopefully, they're miserable; they're wet. Do they have money? Did they get a cell phone smuggled in before they left? We have no idea.

CUOMO: And the good news will be, what do they need on the outside? They need a vehicle. Hopefully, you get a report. They'd love to have weapons, I'm sure. Hopefully, you get a report. So the absence of information about them suggests that they haven't been able to find their way.

DEPAUL: Certainly, you would think that, yes. And that's how I would think if I was up there in -- you know, working with them. That's good news. No one said anything. No, there's no break-ins. There's no hostage situation, barricades -- suspects or whatnot, so that's good news for law enforcement.

BLITZER: And now the men involved, let's talk about that with Mr. Szukala. Thank you very much. Not only do you understand the policing in the area, but you have a little bit of insight into this particular man. And is it true that it's a good fact for the investigators and searchers that he's not known to be a guy who would be adept to these circumstances?

RANDY SZUKALA, FORMER CHIEF OF POLICE, NORTH TONAWANDA, NEW YORK: Yes, I would say so. The -- he's been in prison his entire life, his entire adult life. So he's not known to be out and able to survive in these conditions.

CUOMO: And in terms of what you know about the character and potential danger that may be motivating the situation, when he is found, what do you know?

SZUKALA: Well, I know we're similar age and living in the nearby town, the friends of his -- well, acquaintances that knew him, described him as -- he was pretty much a terrorist on the bus. You know, he'd be on a school bus. He'd be terrorizing everybody.

After his arrest, they would come to me and tell me the story of how they knew him. And then relate that it really didn't surprise them, because they could see that coming out in him all through his childhood.

CUOMO: What does it mean, Lenny, when you have a guy who's known as just a bad guy, any time that you want to slice it? What does that do to you in terms of preparing you to get this guy in terms of what type of proclivities they may have, other than the obvious, which is you've got to be careful when you do?

DEPAUL: To us as fugitive hunters, they're all bad. We treat them all the same and, accordingly, armed and dangerous, as I said before, did they get any weaponry? What's their mindset if they're cornered? Suicide by cop? I mean, there's a lot going through an investigator's mind at this point.

CUOMO: But you know you're not just dealing with your typical brood, right, because he was able to con this woman somehow. You know, he's known for somebody to be a little bit of a sweet talker, a little bit of an unusual combination there.

DEPAUL: From my understanding, he could sell you your own shoes, but so could we. When it comes down to it, if in fact -- they're brutal animals, both

of them. The homicides that were committed were unbelievable, and yes, they need to -- we'll react accordingly, and it's all up to them. Hopefully, they give up peacefully and without incident.

CUOMO: You keep on teaching us about the concept of time here. So now, you know, you're through five days of these guys being out there, is time starting to work against them in terms of forcing them to have to do something?

DEPAUL: If, in fact -- again, if they're there, we're casting a pretty big net. The U.S. marshal has sent leads out to three to four different states, which I can't share, unfortunately, but you know, questions are being asked as leads come in. It could be simple surveillance or possible Q&A with a relative or known associate of one of them.

So, you know, we're not just staying local. And viewers need to know that. I mean, if they are, you know, in Miami or San Francisco and they happen to see somebody who looks like them, don't think that they're -- you know, they're cornered somewhere in New York. So they have to keep their eyes out and be diligent.

[06:10:05] CUOMO: And Mr. Szukala, just in case they are in this immediate area and they're doing that, what can you tell us in terms of how active people are there, in reporting unusual presence and getting in touch with the police up there? Would they be good at "see something, say something"?

SZUKALA: I think they would, but you know, in the area that I'm from where it actually occurred, it happened so long ago that I don't really know if the public is in tune with what type of person he really is. It's almost 20 years gone by since the crime.

And, you know, the thought up here is, yes, it happened. We know that it happened, but they don't know -- you know, 20 years ago, people change. And residents and -- it's not in the forefront of everybody's mind.

CUOMO: Right. Well, now...

SZUKALA: I would certainly hope they would -- they would see something and call us. It's certainly been on the media to let us know that it's out there.

CUOMO: That's the hope. That's the hope. Mr. Szukala, thank you very much for the insight. Lenny, as always, appreciate it -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris. Now to another big story we've been following. The attorney for the Texas police officer who resigned over that viral video that happened at a pool party is now speaking out. She says former officer Eric Casebolt let his emotions get the best of him when handling a group of teenagers.

CNN's Ryan Young joins us live from McKinney, Texas, with more.

Good morning, Ryan.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Of course, that attorney is also saying that Casebolt is facing death threats. And that's why he and his family are in hiding at this hour. Which he did step forward to offer an apology to give sort of a background of what happened with that officer during that day. Apparently, he faced two suicide calls, one where a man committed suicide; another where a girl said she was going to commit suicide.

But this is the video that so many people have seen across the country, and they wanted to know exactly what he was feeling and what he would say with that apology. You never heard from him, but the police chief did say his actions were not that of something his police department would stand for. They had 11 other officers who did the right thing that day. We actually heard from his attorney herself yesterday afternoon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANE BISHKIN, ATTORNEY FOR ERIC CASEBOLT: Eric regrets that his conduct portrayed him and his department in a negative light. He never intended to mistreat everyone but was only reacting to a situation and the challenges that it presented.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: And of course, that 15-year-old's lawyer also talked yesterday about the pain she's experiencing after the fact of having that video not only be played all over but having the knee stuck in her back and being pinned to the ground. She talked about what that 15-year-old is going through at this hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANNAH STROUD, ATTORNEY FOR DAJERRIA BECTON: She's been having a hard time sleeping and a hard time eating. She's felt a little bit like she has to be stuck at home. And her aunt, who's her legal guardian, has been keeping a tight watch on her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: So obviously there's been some conversations throughout this community about what happens next. Casebolt did resign, but obviously, Alisyn, people are still talking about what happened here and whether or not the officer will now face charges.

CAMEROTA: OK, Ryan, thanks so much for that update.

All right. We can take a breath from our breaking news for a moment to say that Michaela Pereira is off this morning, and we're lucky to have Annika Cabrera joining us. Good morning.

ANNIKA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, guys. Great to be with you. There are new accusations again of excessive police force, and this time it's in Orlando, Florida. Two officers caught on camera kicking a man repeatedly while trying to arrest him as he sits on a curb. The alleged victim filing a complaint, claiming he was battered. But Orlando's police chief doesn't see it that way.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA (voice-over): Two Orlando police officers are accused of police brutality after the release of this video. An onlooker captures 30-year-old Noel Carter sitting on the curb, kicked repeatedly and Tased by police arresting him, resulting in several injuries.

JACKSON: He was being kicked. He was being hit and he was Tased while, yes, he was doing nothing.

CABRERA: Carter claims he was having a disagreement with his girlfriend when police approached him and beat him before he ran away.

NOEL CARTER, BEATEN AND TASED BY POLICE: I was shoved. I was sprayed, and I was essentially battered prior to any conveyance of what my disorderly conduct could have been.

CABRERA: But police say that's not the whole story.

MINA: What you see in the seconds of that video is only a small piece of what happened.

CABRERA: Officers David Cruz and Charles may say Carter was using physical force against his girlfriend, grabbing her, refusing to let her leave.

MINA: Based on witnesses and officer reports, it is clear that Carter was intoxicated, resisting officers, uncooperative and attempting to flee multiple times.

CABRERA: The officers say they tried to arrest him, but Carter fought back arguing, struggling, even lunging at them as they tried to subdue him.

This witness video, taken outside the club, shows Carter running from police, resisting their commands. That's when an officer Tases him twice and another hits him with a baton.

A third video captures Carter sitting down as the officers give chase. Then they kick, hit and wrestle him to the ground. Carter denies the police account and is filing battery charges against the officers.

JACKSON: You did not have to look at the totality to see the abuse that is done and the unlawful use of force by these officers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Carter was arrested on several charges, including domestic battery and battery of a law enforcement officer. His attorneys plan to fight those charges. There is an internal investigation underway to determine whether excessive force was used, but right now those officers are still on active duty. And I do want to mention that Noel Carter is going to join us live to

tell his story a little bit later in this hour.

And I want to also say that those officers have no history of disciplinary problems, and there's at least one witness statement that does back up the officers' claims that Carter fought back.

CAMEROTA: I mean, look, the problem is that we always see these snip- its, the clips seem so compelling. It seems like we know exactly what happened, because we see it with our own eyes, but they're only seven seconds, or they're only 30 seconds of a larger, you know, moment.

But, at that moment that we see, when he's sitting there, he was subdued. He was on the ground, and he wasn't fighting back.

CUOMO: I think you could just as easily argue it the other way. It doesn't matter what else happened, because that gives you is a moral rational for what the officers did.

You know, if you look at it in the isolated moment, what are they supposed to do when they're taking somebody into custody who's resisting? Let's amp the fact of resistance. They are not supposed to kick the guy like a pinata. All right. That's not what they're trying to do.

They Tase them. There's two of them, and there are a lot of other training methods that they use. So they're going to have to justify kicking the guy that way repeatedly and the other stuff they did. The fact that he was beating up his girlfriend may make him a bad person; does not mean that you're allowed to kick him like a pinata.

CAMEROTA: Understood. I mean, it seems when you see that moment, they're just angry. That's what it feels like. You know, obviously the whole story.

CABRERA: And what started all of this. Again, it's a he said, she said.

CUOMO: They're not equal combatants, though. It's like what started it matters when it's you and me. Not when you're a cop and I'm the person being...

CABRERA: We don't have the whole story.

CUOMO: And we'll talk about it more. This is -- because this is the dialogue we're having.

All right. So trying to encounter the advance of ISIS, that is a big topic in the news. What do you do? Well, here's a new move. President Obama, he's authorizing the deployment of up to 450 additional U.S. military personnel. What are they going to do? They're going to train, advise and assist Iraqi forces that are based in the Anbar province. That's where ISIS now controls the provincial capital, which is Ramadi. They're also going to try to recruit Sunni tribes, which is a problem there right now, to fight ISIS. CAMEROTA: A Massachusetts man who joined up with Kurdish fighters

battling ISIS and Syria has been killed. This is according to the State Department and the Kurdish forces. Thirty-six-year-old Thomas Broomfield was killed outside of the northern city of Kobani. It's not clear when he died, but American officials say they are in touch with his family.

CABRERA: New details this morning in the D.C. mansion murders. A bloody baseball bat was recovered in a bedroom where three of the victims were found. This is according to a new search warrant, an affidavit just unsealed in the case. Three family members and their housekeeper were found dead last month. Daron Wint is charged with murder. Police believe he had help.

CUOMO: So we are following breaking news this morning. There's action in the search for these escaped murderers. Authorities believe that there's a good tip, actionable, to shut down the road. They've got the choppers out, and we'll be following them.

CAMEROTA: Also, President Obama sending hundreds more troops to Iraq. Some in Congress call this mission creep. We'll discuss.

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[06:22:40] REP. CHARLIE RANGEL (D), NEW YORK: This is exactly how Vietnam started. And if you don't think you're putting them in harm's way, then you're not living in the real world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Well, that was Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel, one of the critics of President Obama's decision to send 450 additional U.S. troops to Iraq to fight ISIS. The White House says the troops will train and advise Iraqi forces.

Joining us now is Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. He served in Iraq for more than three years.

General, great to see you this morning.

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning, Alisyn,

CAMEROTA: Do you think that the Vietnam analogies are fair in this scenario?

HERTLING: No, I don't see it the same way Congressman Rangel does at all, Alisyn. I think what we're talking about is certainly not a new strategy. It is in line with, though, what the president has -- and the chairman and the secretary of defense has said all along. And it's, in fact, a reinforcement and an expansion of the training mission, which I see truthfully as a good thing, because it shows the Iraqi government is becoming more inclusive of the Sunni tribes.

CAMEROTA: After the president sends these 450, the number of troops in Iraq will be up to 3,500. And let me just show you and our viewers how we got to this number. So the president on June 16 authorized -- this is 2014 -- 275 troops. A few weeks later, 300 troops. Another week later, 200 troops. In September, 350 troops. A few weeks later, 475 troops. In November, 1,500 troops. And now June 10, 2015, 450 troops. People say this is mission creep. Doesn't this look like mission creep?

HERTLING: It does to the untrained eye, Alisyn, but what would you -- what I would suggest you do is let's look at what those troops were doing and let's see how the Iraqi government was requesting those troops. They were for a different mission set.

Some were initial guidance in terms of helping with intelligence. Some were contributing to humanitarian relief operations when we had this situation in Sinjar Mountains. Then, when the Iraqi government says we need desperate help in terms of training our forces and conducting more operations, we put more on the basis for support.

Now, that line of -- that trend line that you're talking about, not only consisted of when -- what was asked for, but it was also how they arrived.

You've talking about a mobilization effect back in the United States of how do you get troops ready to go and train them up before they depart? So it isn't just a creeping up. It is truly in line with what the strategy is, which is to train and equip Iraqi forces.

CAMEROTA: And of course, part of the strategy is to defeat and degrade ISIS. So how does sending these additional 450 troops defeat ISIS?

[06:25:16] HERTLING: Well, let's talk about where they are going. They are going to Taqqata Air Base, which is a location right between Ramadi and Fallujah. What are they doing? They are training, something that Mr. Al-Abadi, the new prime minister, six months ago said he wanted to do. He wanted to get Sunni tribes involved in a -- let's call it a national guard for Anbar. And he's been blocked by his own government in doing that.

Well, I think the conversation between him and Mr. Obama over the last week or so during the G-7 conference is that, "Hey, we really need help in overcoming the blockage of the Shia majority in the Iraqi government."

So I think this is a good thing. It's pressure on the Iraqi government. Hey, you really have to knock down these sectarian walls, be more inclusive in your establishing of an Iraqi security forces. Let's get the Sunnis trained. Let's get more equipment to them through the Iraqi government, not directly not only to the Sunnis, but also the Kurdish Peshmerga in the north.

So again, this air base where they are going to be training with 450 guys is right smack in the middle of Anbar province between those two key cities that they have to defend.

CAMEROTA: General, the problem is, is that we've heard from the Pentagon is that in the issue is not too few trainers, too few U.S. soldiers. The problem is too few Iraqi recruits willing to be trained. So how does this address that?

HERTLING: Yes, I'm not sure it's a willingness, Alisyn, but what you're talking about -- and I've experienced this when I was there -- you have the tribal leaders saying, "Hey, we have a thousand men to give you. We want them to be trained to fight ISIS." But when you're talking about just three bases in Iraq where they're training them, the ability of getting those fighters between one place and another, where ISIS is somewhat surrounding the areas, they're going through dangers, going through roads that are lined with IEDs, they're being sniped at. There are explosive devices and they're killing the men as they're going to the training centers.

So when you get a base right in the middle of the Sunni heartland -- and by the way, there are seven major tribes in Anbar province. Some of them have supported ISIS, because they hated the Maliki government. Some of them have been fighting ISIS. So you want that training location right smack in the middle of them so you can build that national guard.

It would be like -- the equivalent would be like saying, we want to build up the Pennsylvania National Guard, but we're going to have the training center in Texas, and there's going to be danger all along the way. You've got to get the training site where the Sunni tribesmen are, and that's what we're attempting to do with these 450 guys.

CAMEROTA: OK. General Hertling, always good to get your information. Thanks so much.

HERTLING: Thank you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Let's go over to Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Alisyn.

We have some action in the search for two escaped inmates in upstate New York. Right now, helicopters are circling over a neighborhood near the prison where they broke out. We have the latest for you coming up.

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