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Man Ambushes and Kills Three Police Officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Police Union Calls For Suspending Open Carry Laws; Republican National Convention Begins Today; Trump Links Baton Rouge Killer To Islamic Terrorism. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 18, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's start our coverage with Boris this morning, who is on scene right nearby, just a mile or so down the road from where this happened. Boris, start us off.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Chris. Yes, to give our viewers an idea of where this happened, we're just about a mile down the road from where you are at Baton Rouge Police Headquarters. There's a convenience store behind me. You can't see it now because the sun is pointing in our direction, but that's where police initially got the call and then they chased the suspect down through several businesses, strips of businesses here until finally confronting him, chasing after him even though he was targeting him. They bravely went after him.

From what we hear from investigators this morning, they've been interviewing people that spoke to the gunman in the days before the attack. He was here in Baton Rouge. They tell us it is not clear the extent to which they knew of this plan that he had come up with to attack police, but as they wrapped up interviewing at 1:00 a.m. this morning, no charges have been filed against anyone in the case so far. This is a plan that has really divided and opened up a wounded community that was just beginning to heal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gunfire. Shots fired. Officers down.

SANCHEZ: Three officers ambushed and gunned down in Baton Rouge Sunday morning, with three officers wounded. At 8:45 a.m., officers spotting a man dressed in black wearing a mask, and holding an AR-15 style rifle semi-automatic rifle near a convenience store. A law enforcement source says the killer, 29-year-old Gavin Eugene Long, a former marine, was intentionally trying to lure in police.

Two minutes later, gunshots rang out, the killer out gunning the officers at the scene. In the hail of bullets, three of them lost their life, 41-year-old Matthew Gerald, 32-year-old Montrell Jackson, and 45-year-old Brad Garafola. Police ending the rampage by shooting the gunman.

CHIEF CARL DABADIE JR., BATON ROUGE POLICE: Don't think that this can't happen in your city. We never would have thought that this could happen in Baton Rouge, but it has. SANCHEZ: The attack coming just 10 days after five officers were

killed in the Dallas ambush by another former military veteran, 25- year-old Micah Johnson, gunning down officers protecting a peaceful protest of the police killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.

COL, MIKE EDMONSON, LOUISIANA STATE POLICE SUPERINTENDENT: We're mourning just like Dallas. My two partners, my two brothers right here, I was in the hospital with him. I saw firsthand the grief on their face as they were trying to talk to the families. This has got to stop.

SANCHEZ: Law enforcement sources tell CNN that the Baton Rouge killer rented a car from his hometown in Kansas City, stopping in Dallas where he shot this video on his cell phone before carrying out the attack. The five year veteran was discharged as a sergeant and spent about six months in Iraq. He tweeted about the Dallas killer, calling him, quote, "one of us." And then a YouTube video urging viewers --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got to fight back.

SANCHEZ: Tensions high in Baton Rouge since Alton Sterling's death nearly two weeks ago. Sterling's aunt, pleading for peace.

VEDA WASHINGTON-ABUSALEH, ALTON STERLING'S AUNT: These people call these families, they tell them that their daddies and their mama is not coming home no more. I know how they feel because I got the same phone call. Stop this killing. Stop this killing.

SANCHEZ: One of the slain Baton Rouge officers posting this plea on Facebook after the Dallas ambush, quote, "Please don't let hate infect your heart." Montrell Jackson wrote, "If you see me or need a hug or want to say a prayer, I got you." President Obama yet again forced to address a mass killing.

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We need to temper our words and open our hearts, all of us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Until we come together and this madness continues, we will surely perish a people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: And Chris, it is important to point out, as you did, the human toll of this. This still isn't over. There is one deputy that is still fighting for his life. Nicholas Tullier, he's a 41-years-old who served 18 years with the east Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's office. Right now, we're told he is in critical condition. Officials yesterday pleaded with the community to send their prayers and thoughts to him and his family as well as the families of all the officers involved in this heinous attack, Chris.

CUOMO: Boris Sanchez, well said. We will check back with you reporting throughout the morning. Appreciate it.

One of the officers that Boris mentioned who lost his life is Montrell Jackson, African-American man and police officer. He had written about it on Facebook. I'm going to talk to you more about what he wrote there and how it is resonating through this community and has gone viral across the country in just a second.

[08:05:07] But there is an investigation going on here and there is concern about whether or not this murderer had deeper and additional contacts. We know the police interviewed two people yesterday. Where is it leading? We have Pamela Brown, justice correspondent for CNN. She is in Cleveland at the site of the convention, but she is following this and is a source as anybody. What do we know now?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've learned, Chris, from our law enforcement sources that the gunman was in Baton Rouge with other people. He know that he drove from Kansas city, rented a car, apparently at one point stopped in Dallas and drove to Baton Rouge after the shooting of the police officers in Dallas.

And I'm told by my sources that by the time he arrived in Baton Rouge and launched his attack against the police yesterday, he was with other people, associates. What is unclear if these other people were involved in this plot in any way, shape or form. The FBI currently running a number of names through their system, trying to learn about these people, interview them, and see what they knew if anything or whether this gunman acted alone.

The preliminary belief is that he wanted to lure police and get in a shot out with them. The 911 call that we know was called in yesterday is being vetted. The question is whether the gunman called it in, whether he knew walking around with a long rifle wearing all black with a mask would prompt someone to call 911 and for police to arrive. And also we were told very early on yesterday that someone saw him sitting in a car near police headquarters. All of this is under investigation, but the question remains in terms of motive. Chris?

CUOMO: This guy as obvious as his motive was here, he presents a dizzying picture for investigators, Pamela. He was all over the place online, different names, lots of different affiliations, lots of different types of ugliness coming out of him. He wrote books. He expressed an interest in different type of anarchy groups and even in certain aspects of Islam, but he would say he wasn't members of anything. What are they trying to figure out?

BROWN: Yes he posted a rambling YouTube video, Chris, where he claimed he wasn't affiliated with anything but that he was a member of the Nation of Islam. The FBI is aware of this claim and hasn't authenticated it, but even if someone says they are a member of a group it doesn't mean, as one official said, that they've been sworn in and they're a power player in the group.

And as you say, he identified with a number of groups online, a bunch of conspiracy theories, government surveillance, police stalking blogs he would write on. And he also changed his name in accordance with the Black Sovereign Citizens Group. The name change was to Cosmo Setepenra last year. And apparently officials found a card on him yesterday that indicated his membership with this Black Sovereign Citizens Group which rejects any kind of U.S. authority. So it's clear that this gunman associated with these groups, but I'm told, Chris, that the FBI has no indication whatsoever that any black separatist groups or any domestic terrorists groups directed him or anyone else to launch attacks against police, Chris.

CUOMO: His closest association wound up being with murder. Pamela Brown, thank you very much for the reporting. We'll check back with you later as well there in Cleveland.

Montrell Jackson, I talked to you about him before. He's one of the officers who lost his life. He wrote something on Facebook last week after the shootings in Dallas that captured not just the tension and the problems, but also the hope for where we need to go for a solution as beautifully as we have seen, and it's gone viral, and it's going to continue to do so. Let's pop it back up there for a second. You read it on your own time.

Here is an excerpt. In it he was describing how hard it was for him to be a police officer in this environment right now, and also how hard it has been for him as a black man to be out of uniform and feel that some see him as a threat. And yet, and yet, as acutely as he saw the problems in uniform and out as a black man, he saw something better in humanity. He saw a hope. He told people not to let hate infect their hearts. If you need a hug and you're out here protesting, he has got you. He is here for you.

Think about that in contrast to the man who took his life and what he had decided to believe about humanity. That's part of the contrast that story so difficult for so many. Let's bring in some people to offer some perspective on Montrell Jackson and on where we go from here. We have David Klinger, he's former LAPD police. He's a professor who studies policing and wrote a book called "Into the Kill Zone." And we have Kelly LeDuff. He was friends with Montrell Jackson. His father was on the job as a police officer. And he lives in this community. Kelly, I'm sorry for your loss.

KELLY LEDUFF, FRIEND OF BATON ROUGE VICTIMS: Absolutely. Thank you for being here.

CUOMO: It sounds like you had an amazing friend in Montrell Jackson.

[08:10:00] I only know him through his words. I only know him through being here and putting his life on the line, and that he had a son and he had wife and he had a lot of friends like you. Where was he coming from with what he wrote?

LEDUFF: You know, for me, I only know him as a cop. You know, I've never been with him with his family. After him being an officer for ten years, I would see him constantly. You know, for me it's what people do when you don't think people are looking at you. You know, it is easy to do the right thing when people are. And I've watched him at football games and parades, and just being out in the community. And every time he does the right thing.

And I think his Facebook post, I don't think, I know, it shows exactly what Baton Rouge is. You know, he addresses how he feels out of uniform, but he also expresses that, hey, I love my job. If anybody needs a hug, a prayer, come and see me. I think it summed it all up. I think it's divine that he wrote this before his passing for the world to see.

CUOMO: You were on the job, you studied policing, the problems are obvious. And the numbers are troubling. I don't know if we have time to put it up, but the number of police being targeted, shot at and even killed, are way ahead this year of where they were last year. And do you see that as a statistical anomaly or do you see it as a causal relationship between what's going on in the country and the backlash on police?

DAVID KLINGER, FORMER LAPD OFFICER: I'm hoping that it is an anomaly, but I hope that my hope is not misplaced. What I mean by that is we've been here before as a nation, late 1960s into the early 1970s, we saw a spike in the number of police officers murdered. It was in the mid-130s by the middle of 1970s in terms of officers being murdered per year. And we have been able to knock it down to around 50 officers a year. There has been a couple of spikes over the last few years. And 2011 was particularly bad with 72 officers murdered. But if this continues in terms of warfare, and it can't be called anything other than that, when police officers are targeted by people with military type ambushes, I don't know what else we can call it, let's hope these are just two situations and it goes away.

CUOMO: It is frightening because it is back-to-back, Dallas, military trained guy, who then seemed to have obvious delusions. This guy, you know, earlier in the investigation obviously, but, again, military background, but then seemed to have some really perverse delusions about himself and society. Does that give you comfort or does it mean that any crazy mind out there can use this as a cause?

KLINGER: I don't know these two gentlemen, other than how they've been described. I like your descriptions. They are cold-blooded murdered. Unfortunately, we have in our society a lot of people who are unhinged for a variety of reasons. And for some of these people because of the hatred, the vitriol that's been directed towards the police, it's a message that they can latch onto.

And I just hope that I am wrong with my concerns that we're going see more of this.

CUOMO: Talk about Baton Rouge and the community. Alton Sterling, his aunt came out and said the killing has to stop. That case is being investigated. There are questions about the use of force in that case. Where do you think your community is right now?

LEDUFF: There are too many walls. We have not seen this before. I've been here my whole life. We have not had this many walls. Unfortunately we have a political election in November and local politics are affected. And I think we need a time out on some of the politics. We need to build bridges rather than walls. I think when you see the images that I saw at the emergency room. There's blood there. When you see the video that the nation saw with Alton, there was blood there. I think that's the color we should be concerned with. I think the black, the white, the blue, it really doesn't matter. Dead is dead, hurt is hurt. Alton's family is hurt. The officers involved in yesterday's shootings are hurt. I think our city is very bent. I just don't think it's. I think we can come back from this.

CUOMO: It's worth mentioning, the murderer here is not from Baton Rouge.

LEDUFF: The worst thing we've had happen is from someone not in this community.

CUOMO: And, you know, I don't know what your experience was, but David, you probably heard this, the police early on put out a call to the community, let us know what else you see, we don't know how many guys are out there. There were mixed reports. Our sources here at the police say that they were flooded with information and people who wanted to protect them and people who were offering to come and I'll protect you. This is an open carry state. And there are people who wanted to take on the cause for the police. What does that mean to you?

KLINGER: What that means to me is what we've always known about America, and that is the vast majority of people are good people. We have these fringe elements that believe it is appropriate to take the law into their own hands. Those voices need to be drowned out. They need to be shut out. They need to be taken out of polite society, and anybody that has an affiliation with any one of that ilk needs to immediately notify law enforcement and tell those people knock this crap off.

And I am buoyed by what he just had to say about the rallying cry that we are one people, and let's hope we can get back to that point. We have been a fractious country from the beginning. There are all sorts of things that go on, but there's always been a strong undercurrent within the vast majority of people if we look historical that want to do the right thing.

[08:15:11] CUOMO: David, thank you very much. Kelly, I'm sorry for your loss. Thank you for joining us. Appreciate it.

All right, so that's what is going on here in Baton Rouge. Obviously everything that happens here is going to have an impact on the national political scene. Alisyn is in Cleveland where that Republican National Convention is kicking off. Just from a security perspective, you're dealing with it already.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: It already has had an impact. Chris, you're so right. Security is extremely tight here at the GOP convention. We've had to go through many different checkpoints. It takes a long time to get here into the center of the city.

Of course, this is after the police killings in Baton Rouge and Dallas. Police are still concerned about security, they have asked the governor of Ohio, Kasich, to temporarily suspend Ohio's open carry gun laws.

But how did the governor respond? CNN's Ryan Young is live here in downtown Cleveland along the protest route. Tell us the history of this -- Ryan. RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, first things first. The governor says he can't suspend that law and a lot of people are wondering if he could. But that's against the constitution.

If you look back in this direction, you can this officers already ready for this parade route. They have it blocked off. There is a list of rules here, but one of the things it doesn't talk about is the open carry law.

Look in the distance. You can see the snowplow they're using to block the route to make sure no large vehicles pass through. Take a listen to the chief and all the things they've done to get ready for this day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF CALVIN WILLIAMS, CLEVELAND POLICE: Of course, there is some anxiety to make sure that the thing we put in place were actually going to work the way we planned them. We always know in an operation this big that there are going to be some adjustments.

And our plan is made so that we can adjust on the fly. We've made some tweaks here and there and I'm sure throughout the week we'll make adjustments also.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: That's all about making adjustments. Look at number 11 here, no mace, pepper spray or other chemical irritant. Number eight, there is no drones or fireworks. That's all listed here.

One of the things that's not listed, obviously, Alisyn, is the idea that someone could do the open carry and carry a weapon, and that's something that, of course, officers are talking about. They're standing by just in case. There will be another protest today. We'll be watching that closely --Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Ryan, thank you for all of that reporting.

So the stage is set for Donald Trump to take center stage here in Cleveland. The Trump family will also be front and center beginning tonight with Donald Trump's wife, Melania. She will have a speech in primetime.

CNN's Phil Mattingly joins us live inside the Quicken Loans Arena. So what do we expect tonight, Phil?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That speech from Melania Trump is one that everybody is going to keep a close eye on. She is not somebody we've seen a lot on the campaign trail. Certainly not somebody we've heard from either, but as you note, this is a key component of what we're going to see over the next four days.

Family members of Donald Trump trying to emphasize a fuller picture of Trump, the candidate, not necessarily just the bombastic Trump you see on the campaign trail.

There is another key aspect and it is going to be highlighted today when it comes to this convention. That's security, national security and also security around the world.

You look at what has been happening domestically, the attacks have been going on internationally. A lot of turmoil in the world right now, Donald Trump and his speakers, hoping to deal with that, engage in that, directly today.

The actual theme of today, make America safe again. You look up and down the list of speakers from former New York City mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, from rising star senator, Joni Ernst of Iowa, a military officer herself.

Lt. General Michael Flynn, a former top intelligence official in the Obama administration, who is actually on the short list for the vice- presidential nod that eventually went to Mike Pence.

All of these people will be talking about that crucial issue. It's an issue that Trump campaign wants to make front and center. Today will be their opportunity to do just that -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right, thanks so much for the preview, Phil. Meanwhile, tonight's convention theme, as Phil mentioned, is making America safe again. So what would Donald Trump do exactly to stop the violence? His national policy advisor, Sam Clovis is here, and he joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:22:47]

CAMEROTA: Donald Trump this morning was on another morning show, and he seemed to link the Baton Rouge police killer to radical Islamic terror. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via telephone): You look at so many different fronts. It's, you know, radical Islam and by the way, he seems to be a member of that group also. Seems to be something going on there, but it's very sad what's happening.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nation of Islam --

TRUMP: He is bad, bad people. Bad people. No question about it. Really bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: All right, joining us now is Trump national campaign co- chair and policy advisor, Sam Clovis. Sam, great to have you here.

SAM CLOVIS, TRUMP NATIONAL CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIRMAN AND POLICY ADVISER: Good to be back with you, Alisyn. CAMEROTA: Nice to see you.

CLOVIS: I haven't been on set since New Hampshire. So this is good.

CAMEROTA: Welcome back.

CLOVIS: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: So Donald Trump seemed to confuse there radical Islam and the nation of Islam.

CLOVIS: Right, right.

CAMEROTA: Shouldn't he know the difference between those two?

CLOVIS: Well, right now, I think there is -- it's possible for people to conflate. I mean, we still don't know a lot about what's going on with this last particular individual.

CAMEROTA: But those are two separate motivations and separate everything.

CLOVIS: Exactly, but I do think there are times when people -- when they're up early in the morning making comments, on television, sometimes they conflate things.

CAMEROTA: Yes, we understand morning confusions, certainly, but Donald Trump is one of the people who has said you have to call it what it is. You got to call something exactly what it is in order to fight it.

CLOVIS: Well, do we know? Do we know for sure?

CAMEROTA: We know from his web postings that's how he self-identified as a member of the Nation of Islam among other things.

CLOVIS: Does he have sympathies with the radical Islam? Do we know?

CAMEROTA: Not that we know.

CLOVIS: Not yet. So I think until we have all the evidence that we shouldn't be so critical of comments. We'll just wait and see how it works out.

CAMEROTA: But Donald Trump is saying tonight, I mean, he is saying that he is the law enforcement candidate. We need better law enforcement. What specifically would he do?

CLOVIS: I think there is a lot of the activity that we are really looking at because a lot of the things we haven't typically done in the Republican Party is worried about going out and building communities.

That has had never seemed to have been in our strengths. This is one of the areas that we've been working on in the campaign. How do we go out and create stronger communities, build stronger communities, build those institutions and communities. That's every community.

[08:25:14]That's the kind of communities we're talking about is going into areas we can provide better educational opportunities.

CAMEROTA: How so? How would you get better education into impoverished communities?

CLOVIS: Well, we'd like to go out there and help people with school choice options, encourage the states to do that. We know that's a state issue. I think it's very important for us to go and encourage the states to provide as many choice options for parents as possible.

We know from evidence all over the country that school choice, particularly with impoverished under represented areas, they seem to do so much better when they have those options available to them. And I think this is one of those area we're looking at.

The other is to go in and create enterprise zones where people can create the businesses, provide more security so that the neighborhoods are safer, help them build the community institutions, going in and help create the opportunity for extracurricular activities for their children. All of these issues, it is very human. I apologize.

CAMEROTA: I know. I'm sorry. It really is in here.

CLOVIS: Those are the kinds of things we're looking at.

CAMEROTA: What about the tension between police and the communities --

CLOVIS: This is really I think is really dramatic, and it is the question of the day in the country because we have been so much strong supporters of law enforcement. We understand that.

But we have to go in and figure out what is at the root cause of this kind of tension. This is -- I've talked about this before. This is a community to community thing. This is not a national issue. It may be worth a national dialogue.

CAMEROTA: So then what kind of president, if it is a community -- community thing?

CLOVIS: This is where you have to go in and sit down with governors, sit down with mayors, community leaders. This is where you provide bully pulpit. You provide the impetus to bring people together to start to have discussions about these very issues because this has to come back to the community.

It almost has to come back to the neighborhood to where you really sit down and talk about who is the beat cop, who is the person in the cruiser. How are they doing this, what kind of policing?

CAMEROTA: So he would have those dialogues.

CLOVIS: Absolutely. CAMEROTA: Will he tonight -- we know he is introducing his wife, Melania, will he be talking about Baton Rouge and about policing tonight when he does that?

CLOVIS: I don't know. I haven't seen the speech. Have on a train all night. I just got here. I'm absolutely at a loss. I haven't had a chance to clear my phone this morning, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: We got you right on set, man.

CLOVIS: You got me right off the train.

CAMEROTA: Here are the themes. I happen to have it. This is all week. Monday, make America safe again. That's tonight. Tuesday, make America work again. Wednesday, make America first again. Thursday, make American one again. You guys are running with a slogan.

Melania, those are the themes all week, but back to the lineup, we have Melania. We have Senator Joni Ernst who we just spoke to. We have Michael Flynn, congressman from Montana, so what is the -- what's the headline for you? We should be looking for tonight?

CLOVIS: Well, I think the big thing is going to be -- still going to be a constant under theme about unity and the Republican Party, bring people together. The other thing is that let people know that the Republican Party is just, it is, this is not your dad's Republican Party.

We have really seen an evolution. This is one of the reasons I've been involved in this from the beginning is because I saw something on the horizon I thought was important, and to bring more and more people into the fold and I think we've done that probably better than any candidate has perhaps going back to Ronald Reagan.

CAMEROTA: Sam, thanks so much. We are going to get you a cup of coffee now.

CLOVIS: That's all right. Thanks, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: NEW DAY will be live starting at 5:00 a.m. Eastern tomorrow and all week for the Republican National Convention here in Cleveland. Set your alarms an hour ahead for that.

Also, the governor of Louisiana once again dealing with his state being in mourning, a deranged gunman killing three police officers, injuring three others. We'll hear from Governor John Bel Edwards, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)