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Armed Teen Shot by Cop Overnight in Missouri; Protesters, Police Clash George H.W. Bush Hospitalized As Precaution; ISIS Shoots Down Coalition Plane; Tornadoes Kill 4 Hurt Dozens in Mississippi

Aired December 24, 2014 - 09:00   ET

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


RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Randi Kaye, in today for Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me.

We begin this morning with some breaking news. Overnight, just minutes from Ferguson, Missouri, a Berkeley police officer shot and killed an armed teen, triggering yet another tense night of anti- police anger and accusations. Police say it was self-defense. The teenager pointed a handgun at the officer. The victim has been identified by his mother as 18-year-old Antonio Martin.

This video was posted online. If you take a look here, you can see Martin's mother crying. She is reacting there to her son's death.

Here's what we know so far. The shooting happened at a gas station in Berkeley, and that is just two miles from Ferguson, where an unarmed teen Michael Brown was shot and killed. According to police, the officer approached two men at a gas station during a routine check. That is when one of the subjects pulled out a gun, police say, and aimed it at the officer. In fear for his life, the officer fired multiple shots, ultimately killing that victim. The second man, we're told, got away. Police say the victim's handgun has been recovered at the scene. Shortly after the shooting, the victim's mother spoke to CNN affiliate KMOV.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONI MARTIN, VICTIM'S MOTHER: They won't tell me nothing. His girlfriend told me that the police was messing with him. He was fitting to get up and run -- when he was trying to get up and run, they start shooting him. They won't tell me nothing. They won't even let me see my baby. They just got my baby laying out there. He been out there for about two hours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: The shooting has already sparked some tense protests with police. At one point, demonstrators threw a smoking object toward the officers. Some really tense moments there, as you can see.

So let me bring in CNN's George Howell. He's in St. Louis with the very latest for us. George, I know you just got on the ground there, you just landed there. What can you tell us at this hour? GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, Randi, we

have been in touch with his mother, and certainly on any account a mother losing a son or daughter, losing a son in this case, it's a tragedy here on this Christmas Eve that, you know, you can only imagine what she's going through.

But, again, looking at the fact that the police have put out, we've been given surveillance video that we've seen. The surveillance video, according to police, shows a man basically pointing what looks to be a weapon and then the video freezes. That's the video that the police department has put out.

And Randi, as you mentioned, after this happened, several people, many people surrounded the nearby gas station and that area overnight, some 200 to 300 people gathered. According to police, bricks were thrown as officers. We know that one officer, according to the police department, was injured trying to get away. There were four arrests, people arrested for assaulting police officers. And we understand the officer involved in this shooting, Randi, is a six-year veteran of the force. We're still waiting to hear more from the department about what happened. But, again, when you look at the video and what we're hearing from the department basically overnight that an armed teen pointed a weapon at a police officer. The officer, fearing for his life, fired back, killing the victim.

KAYE: And George, just to add a little bit to that, we understand there weren't any shots fired by the suspect's weapon, even though police did say it was loaded. There's also a second security camera, as we look at this first one here, another one that is closer up that we haven't actually seen yet.

But what about body cams, George? I mean, we've made so much, talked so much about that after the killing of Michael Brown. Do we know if this officer, this six-year veteran, was wearing a body cam?

HOWELL: This is the one thing about the facts that we're hearing, and you know, it was a big deal, certainly a big deal after the Michael Brown shooting. And many of the police officers with departments here throughout the St. Louis area now have body cameras.

In this particular case, Randi, we understand the officer did have a body camera but did not have it on at the time. However, what we're relying on now is the surveillance video, these pictures that show you exactly what happened, up until the point that it's frozen. And from what we're seeing right now, again, we see two men basically near that police car, kind of hard to see, it's up in the corner of the screen but we've certainly blown it up to show you as best we can -- that these two people near the police officer. You can see one of the figures basically pointing what looks to be a gun and the video freezes there.

I do want you to hear -- there was a news conference, and I think this will be appropriate to talk more about the body camera issue. Listen to what police officers explain about why this officer, whether he had the body gear with him -- body camera. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF JON BELMAR, ST. LOUIS COUNTY POLICE: The officer also had a body cam, but he didn't get that assigned to him at roll call today, or last night, and it was handed off to him during his shift. And because of that, from talking to him briefly, he said that right when it was handed to him, he was doing something at the time, he clipped it somewhere in the car, he didn't put it on. And the next thing you know, you're here. I think it talks a little bit about sometimes the imperfection of some of the technology that we have, and the fact that we're not used to it all the time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: So that's what we're hearing about the body camera. And again, many officers do have it. In this case, it was not in use. What we have, though, is a lot of surveillance video. This happened, you know, under some bright lights at a gas station. You see it very clearly. And that's certainly the video that police will use as they investigate what happened.

KAYE: All right, George Howell from Missouri for us this morning. George, thank you very much. We'll check in with you a little bit later on as well as you get more information.

Meanwhile, New York City remembering the two police officers shot to death point blank over the weekend. Buildings and landmarks in the city dimmed lights for five minutes last night. Here's what it looked like in Times Square. The lights also went out on the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, in honor of officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu.

Earlier in the day, Mayor Bill de Blasio held a moment of silence at City Hall, but there is no silence on the streets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: Indict! Convict! Send those killer cops to jail! The whole damn system is guilty as hell!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: De Blasio has asked people protesting racism and police violence to pause until the officers are buried, but protesters seem determined to carry on.

CNN's Miguel Marquez was with protesters and police overnight and he spoke to Wolf Blitzer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Protesters have now taken to the street and that is the issue, and it has caused a lot more tension between protesters and police. If you turn around here, you can see it's gotten very big.

CROWD: Shut down racism! Shut down racism! MARQUEZ: The police are right behind them and they have tried to protect the protesters as they have taunted them through much of the evening. I have to say the police have showed amazing restraint this evening as they've watched these protesters go by. Wolf?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": What are the protesters saying, Miguel, about defying the mayor's call to at least pause in the protests until the Officers Ramos and Liu are buried?

MARQUEZ: The reason that they want to be out here this vociferously and in traffic, again, is that they don't want to be cowed. They draw a very sharp line, despite how badly they may feel for those two police officers and their family -- and a lot of them have come up to me and said, look, we're not anti-police, but they believe these are two separate issues. This is a First Amendment issue to them; this is an issue of police brutality against black men. Those are things that they want to stop. They see a certain institutional racism that they want to stop. They believe that these are two separate issues and they are not drawing the conclusion. And they want the commissioner, the police commissioner here in New York, Bill Bratton, to step down and they're calling on the mayor to show some backbone basically and make his police do what he wants.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Once again, that was Miguel Marquez reporting.

The daughter of Eric Garner, whose controversial chokehold death sparked nationwide protests, was among those who attended Monday's street memorial. Last night, Emerald Garner told CNN's Wolf Blitzer she wants the blood shed to stop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMERALD GARNER, DAUGHTER OF ERIC GARNER: I want to get the message out there that there's not all bad cops, like all cops are not bad. I have, you know, FDNY and NYPD in my family. But that doesn't make me look at them that they're bad because they're cops. They are still my family. So once you take off that uniform, you're a regular person. So just because you have a uniform doesn't define you as a bad cop. So I just want to let them know not all cops are bad. So we just got to salute the good ones and weed out the bad ones.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Let's talk more now with CNN political commentator Errol Lewis; he's also a political anchor with New York 1 News. Good morning, Errol.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning, Randi.

KAYE: This morning -- we are learning this morning about another shooting in Missouri, which we were just talking about, this time involving an 18-year-old man who was armed. Police say the officer was in fear for his life. What is your reaction to this? LOUIS: My sense of it is that the body cam technology, which frankly

I wrote about on CNN.com, I think is not as reliable as people think. I think we shouldn't kid ourselves that the underlying problems, the inevitable hostilities that are going to arise between communities and police, are not something you can just wish away or videotape away.

This sounds like one of the cases -- many, many cases all across this country -- again, we shouldn't kid ourselves. The police end up shooting somebody somewhere in this country almost every single day. It sounds like one of those kind of interactions, but, you know, tensions are running high for a lot of other sorts of reasons, and this might just be an aggravating factor, but you're not going to wish it away. You're not going to protest it away. These are things that communities have to really deal with at their roots.

KAYE: Obviously, Errol, there's still a lot of anger about Michael Brown, who wasn't armed. But in this case, in that surveillance video, you see the suspect raise a gun at the officer. I mean, do you think that that still warrants protests? you can see what went on at the gas station afterward.

LOUIS: Well, see, here again, protests happen for a lot of different reasons, but it's the polar opposite, just on the face of it, the facts that we've seen so far, of not only Michael Brown but of the Eric Garner case. Eric Garner was unarmed. Michael Brown was not armed. In this case, it looks like somebody was armed.

And as far as body cameras and videotape, the entire incident in the Eric Garner case in New York City where the chokehold was applied was videotaped; I mean, videotaped better than you could get with a police body cam, as a matter of fact, and it didn't lead to an indictment and it has led to protests in the street, as we have seen.

So again, underlying questions here are not going to necessarily change based on the particulars of a situation.

KAYE: And obviously we don't have the whole picture yet. We're still waiting on this second surveillance video, which should give us a closer look at what happened there at the gas station. But do you think that, at least so far, the officer in this Berkeley shooting, I mean, could he face charges? Or do you think so far this is a clear case of self-defense?

LOUIS: Yes, I mean that -- look, if there's any place where an officer can and should get the benefit of the doubt, it's when there's an actual gun involved and we have it on videotape. I'm not sure any grand jury or any reasonable person, frankly, would say that this was something other than the kind of interactions that routinely happen between law enforcement and those among the many, many, many people who, legally or not, have a weapon with them. These are the kind of things that happen.

I mean, now -- Berkeley is one of these suburbs, as we've seen, of St. Louis, where there's a lot of underlying tension in part because the governments are using excessive amounts of ticketing of local people in order to just raise the money to run the town. There could be those sort of deep underlying issues, especially in some of these white flight suburbs where people really just kind of left St. Louis. There might be sort of a lot more going on here. That would be my guess, because normally people wouldn't go out and protest somebody's right to point a gun at a police officer.

KAYE: Let's talk about New York, because certainly in New York City we're seeing determined protesters defying the mayor's requests now to put the protests on hold until these two officers who were killed over the weekend are buried. What is the problem here? I mean, does the mayor need to build a broader, stronger support system or what is it?

LOUIS: My sense is, No. 1, the police -- No. 1, the mayor needs to make a clear distinction between the protesters who he likes and that I think most people would understand and support, meaning people who were just a little bit troubled by what happened in the Eric Garner case, a little concerned, and they're marching under very broad sort of banners like #blacklivesmatter. That's one set of protesters. There's another set of protesters for whom, as they say, let's use their own words, the whole damn system is guilty as hell. They have a much deeper, broader agenda. And as representative of the system, the mayor cannot, in any way, really associate himself with those folks.

So he's got to sort of figure out the politics of dealing with the protesters. Certainly, the mayor needs to figure out how to deal with the politics of the police department. The New York City police department, you know, I call it a nation-state. It's 35,000 people. Almost everybody knows a cop or is related to a cop or lives near a cop. They're a very potent political force. They themselves have just the ability to move elections just by casting votes. So the mayor's got to figure out how he's going to deal with this large, powerful institution that he has, frankly, antagonized in a lot of ways over the last year.

KAYE: All right, Errol Louis, nice to see you. Thank you.

LOUIS: Thank you, Randi.

KAYE: Former President George H.W. Bush is recovering in the hospital this morning, after experiencing a shortness of breath. Bush, who is now 90 years old, was taken to Houston Methodist Hospital Tuesday evening as a precaution and is being held for observation. You may remember he spent nearly two months in that very same hospital last year for bronchitis-related cough.

CNN national correspondent Suzanne Malveaux is in Washington this morning with more. Good morning, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Randi. Well, the spokesperson says that he believes it's all going to be fine. I just recently saw George H.W. Bush at an event covered about six weeks ago with his son George W. at the presidential library in College Station, Texas, where the younger Bush was dedicating a book, saying it was a love story to his father.

But H.W. Bush now is 90 years old; he's a bit frail but he appeared in great spirits. He didn't speak at the event, but he smiled quite a bit. He is in a wheelchair because the family says he's no longer able to walk unassisted.

So what happened yesterday? The former president and his wife, Barbara, they were attending an event at the Hobby Center for Performing Arts, reading "The Night Before Christmas" to some children when the president experienced shortness of breath. He was taken by ambulance to the Houston Methodist Hospital simply as a precautionary measure to get checked out. His spokesman Jim McGrath released a statement telling us he was admitted to the hospital for observation but that all looked fine.

Now, you know, Randi, this is the same hospital where he spent nearly two months being treated for bronchitis, that was back in November 2012. He was released in January. He began experiencing some of those health problems back in '91, when he was the president. He was hospitalized for irregular heartbeat. At that point, doctors diagnosed him as having graves disease, which is a thyroid condition.

He has been incredibly active over the years. Before he became president, he was a Navy pilot who flew 58 combat missions in World War II. He was shot down once and rescued on his plane. And on his down time, I mean, he used to love to fish, to golf, and of course, you know, celebrate his birthdays by going sky diving most recently celebrating his 90th birthday in June, making a tandem parachute jump near his home in Maine.

A White House spokesperson today saying that President Obama has been made aware of Bush's hospitalization and he and the first lady send their good wishes to him and the entire Bush family during the holiday season.

So, you see there that video, Randi, pretty impressive. People are pretty optimistic about his prognosis.

KAYE: He has such a zest for life. I mean, you could see it there, 90 years old still jumping out of a plane. I won't even do it at my age.

MALVEAUX: I won't either actually.

KAYE: My hat's off to him, incredible. We wish him well.

Suzanne Malveaux in Washington for us, this morning, thank you very much.

MALVEAUX: All right. Happy holidays.

KAYE: You, too.

Still to come, U.S. strikes against ISIS take a terrifying turn. Militants bring down and capture a pilot from a U.S.-led coalition. What this means for the fight in Syria moving forward, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: ISIS militants have captured a Jordanian pilot. Jordan's army confirms the plane was brought down during a coalition air raid over the ISIS-controlled province, Raqqa. That is in eastern Syria.

New photos show the damaged plane. Raqqa is one of the main targets for the U.S.-led coalition in Syria and Iraq. The capture is a major setback for the anti-ISIS alliance. CNN's Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon with the very latest for us this morning.

Barbara, ISIS has also released photos of the pilot.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Very difficult, Randi. They have now released photos of obviously a terrified Jordanian pilot in captured by ISIS in Raqqa. Raqqa, of course, in Syria, is a major stronghold for the ISIS organization. The Jordanian army, the Jordanian government, even the pilot's family confirming the identity of this man.

Now the question is, how was this F-16 brought down? Is it possible that it was shot down, as ISIS claims? No confirmation on that, but if that were to be the case, then it poses a real issue for the coalition. How could one of the aircraft become vulnerable to basically what was most likely a shoulder-fired missile, that being the major weapon that ISIS would have in its inventory if it did shoot down the F-16?

Look, we really don't know. There could have been a mechanical issue. There could have been a weather issue, any number of things, so all of this under rapid investigation by the coalition. They want to know what happened, and certainly behind the scenes, I think it's safe to say that, as you would expect, governments are looking at whether there is any way to get this man back to Jordan, back to his family.

The Jordanian government already saying very adamantly it holds ISIS responsible for the safety of this Jordanian pilot -- Randi.

KAYE: Yes, certainly terrible news.

All right. Barbara Starr from the Pentagon for us this morning -- Barbara, thank you.

Still to come, severe storms tear across the Deep South. Where could holiday travelers be slow down today? Jennifer Gray is tracking that for us.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right, we do have severe weather across the South, another day. We had deadly storms yesterday. We'll tell you all about it when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Wow, that's a whole lot of people traveling right there, 98 million, woo!

Severe storms striking the Deep South just before Christmas. Hopefully, you aren't going to get caught in any of that. A tornado ripped through eastern Louisiana, damaging more than a dozen homes, knocking down trees, and power lines there. The same storm system being blamed now for four deaths and dozens of injuries in southern Mississippi. The governor called a state of emergency for that area.

CNN's Jennifer Gray is at the weather center tracking it all for us.

So, how is it looking, Jennifer?

GRAY: We are still seeing severe weather across the South this morning. We are looking at a tornado watch until 2:00 Eastern Time. These storms mainly in north Florida, Georgia, on into the Carolinas, and also in North Carolina, continuing to push up the East Coast. We are going to see showers and storms continue throughout the day today, should get better as we go into tomorrow, but look at all of this rain, including Atlanta, Macon, you are all under a flood watch at the moment. Flash flood warnings in effect as well. Also through Columbia.

These showers moving up into the Northeast, also including D.C., Philly and New York. It was a rough day, though, for the South yesterday, with 11 tornadoes reported across three different states.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's it. That's the tornado.

GRAY (voice-over): Massive and deadly tornadoes ripping through the southeast as bad weather complicates holiday travel for millions. The National Weather Service flashing tornado warnings --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Repeating, a tornado warning has been issued until 8:45 p.m. Eastern time --

GRAY: -- across TV screens in five states.

Parts of Mississippi now in a state of emergency after a tornado touched down 90 miles south of Jackson, killing at least four people.

Downed trees and power lines blocking traffic.

On a main thoroughfare, roofs of businesses and the wall of this warehouse blown right off. One resident pulling a dog to safety from a destroyed home.

Meanwhile, heartbroken store owners embrace outside their demolished flower shop.

The storm system knocking out power to over 6,000 residents in Mississippi alone.

Inside this heavily damaged daycare center, a holiday miracle: 35 children and seven staffers raced for safety after the powerful tornado ripped the roof clear off, all making it out with no injuries.

In Louisiana, a tornado touched down twice, 70 miles north of New Orleans, uprooting trees, reportedly damaging some 20 homes and leaving nearly 2,000 residents without power. Another suspected tornado snapping trees in half in South Georgia, as the massive storm system also brings up to eight inches of torrential rain throughout the southeast.

The downpour moving up the I-95 corridor as millions hit the road for Christmas with the potential for flooding from Georgia to New Hampshire.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRAY: And yes, bring some patience if you're at the airports today. We are expecting long delays, already seeing that. Chicago, you are in the rain right now, could be changing over to snow as we go through the afternoon. You do have a winter weather advisory in effect, and, of course, we could see snow, one to four inches, also very gusty winds, 60 to 65-mile-per-hour wind gusts in Cleveland, Buffalo.

And so, we are going to see delays there as well. Trouble spots mainly being the East Coast, where we are going to see torrential rains throughout the day, possible severe weather in the south, and then snow later today in the Midwest.

Randi, it's going to be a rough day.

KAYE: It is going to be a rough day. It's a tough call. You want the white Christmas and want your family safe and be able to get to you. We'll keep an eye on it along with you. Jennifer, thank you very much.

(MUSIC)

KAYE: Good morning. I'm Randi Kaye, in for Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me.

Chaos near Ferguson, Missouri, again. This time over the shooting death of 18-year-old Antonio Martin. Watch here carefully. According to police this surveillance video shows martin, you see it there in the corner of your screen pointing a gun at an officer during a routine search at a gas station. Officials say the officer fired multiple shots at the victim out of self-defense.

All this happening in the wake of escalating tensions between police and protesters across the country.

Let's talk more with CNN political commentator and host of "Huff Post Live", Marc Lamont Hill. We're also joined by Boyce Watkins. He is the founder of yourblackworld.com.

Good morning to both of you.

Marc, let me start with you here. Based on what we know so far, did the officer react the way that he was supposed to, given the circumstances?