Transcripts For CNNW The Situation Room 20150421 : vimarsana

Off the coast of yemen ready to block possible arms deliveries to the forces but will irans navy push back . Im wolf blitzer, youre in the situation room. And the breaking news the Justice Department here in washington say its officially looking into the death of freddie gray the baltimore man who died from a broken neck. Federal shorts now say the investigation will determine if there was a civil rights violation that can be prosecuted. Six officers involved in the arrest have now been suspended and police have now identified them as well. There are new questions about the Police Version of how the incident played out and new protests are developing this hour in baltimore as well as here in washington as demonstrators say this is one more example of injustice. Ill talk loif this hour with the Baltimore Police spokesman and our correspondents are all stand by with complete coverage. Lets begin with brian todd. He has the very latest. Brian . Reporter wolf, this protest just Getting Started on the west front of the capitol. This is a group called the justice league. This protest was organized long before the baltimore incident but the protest leaders here say that freddie gray is one of many people many police victims, including eric garner and Michael Brown who they are here on behalf of. This is just going to get started in just a couple of minutes. But also tonight there are many gaps in grays case that still have not been filled in. The inconsistencies begin outside the police van. Freddies body is lirp. A witness yells to officers he cant support himself. Youre dragging him. But the mayor and police site this frame of video claiming gray was using his legs when he got in the van saying when he got in he was able bodied able to talk. None of the officers describe using any force against mr. Gray. Witnesses say they saw something rougher. They flipped him over and put both knees on his back and held him there until the cruiser came to pick him up. Later when gray was taken out of the van, less an an hour after he got in he couldnt breathe or talk. He lapse into a coma and died a week later of a severe spinal cord injury. The critical questions remaining tonight, what caused his injury and what happened inside the police van. Police say gray asked for an inhaler about the same time he got in the van at 8 42 a. M. On april 12th less than four minutes later the van stopped. The van operator says gray was irate. He was placed in leg irons. Its one of at least two stops the van made with gray inside. Another was to pick up another suspect. Police say the two were separated by a metal barrier. We learned for the first time at some point, probably right before he was sent to the hospital there was a second person in the van. Well thats a curious thing. And we heard that he was separated by some kind of screen. But did he hear anything . What did he say . Law enforcement veterans say investigator wills be talking to that second passenger whose testimony will be crucial and to the van operator. So far i havent heard allegation that the brakes were deliberately applied. But yes they would need to look into the question of how the van was being operated and whether brakes were applied and at what point and also how he may have been seat belted or secured in the van if he was. Another key question why it took so long for gray to get medical attention, about 42 minutes elapsed between the time gray was put in the police van and when a medic was called. Baltimores mayor says that wu too much time, a mistake. Reporter all day weve pressed Baltimore Police about those two questions about the conduct of the van operator and also about what that second passenger in the van has had to say. Theyve declined the answer those questions saying its part of the ongoing investigation. But those questions are part after whats leading the protests here tonight in washington and in baltimore. The federal investigation into the death of this man in custody. Our just tis reporter evan perez is here in the situation room with me. What are you learning . What really is disturbing is the latest revelations of how freddie gray died. You know the revelation that he had a spinal cords injury and it wasnt an arrest without violence as the police first indicated. I think this is what basically tipped the balance here caused the fbi and the Justice Department to decide they want to talk a look and talk to some the witnesses within look at the video and try to determine what exactly happened here. Make shoo that whatever is being done locally is backed up. Because they know theres a history of some Police Abuses in baltimore that the fbi and Justice Department have been investigating for the last several years. Would that be a vote of no confidence in baltimore right now that authorities there couldnt necessarily do the right job as far as a full investigation . I think its partly because of all of the attention its getting. They want to make sure they can also answer those questions. It seems the public there is clearly not satisfied with the answers theyre getting. The Justice Department is already in baltimore working with the Police Department at the invitation of the city to take a look at the police and whether there are some recommendations for improvements to be done. Now this is like over 20 investigations of the Justice Department has been doing of this type since 2009. Around the country. Thats correct. Thank you very much. Lets go to baltimore right now, our National Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux is on the scene. What have you learned about the Police Involved in this specific case . Reporter well i talked to the Baltimore Police captain, and he tells me that its Police Policy within 48 hours if theres a death in Police Custody this they release the name of the officers employees who are involved. They released the six names of those involved in the arrest of freddie gray. But he wants to emphasize, this does not mean they have been found of any wrongdoing. That is going to be up to the investigation. They range from 25 to 45 years old, five men, one woman. Three of them have only three years of experience on the force. The most senior one has 18 years. So were learning more about these individuals and of course its going to play out as the interviews do to determine what specifically their roles were in his arrest and potentially in his death, wolf. We have some life pictures i want to show our viewers. Some protesters are gathering in baltimore where you are right now. Theyre obviously upset not a huge crowd yet. But this is potentially just the beginning. People are clearly not happy about what happened to this young man. What is his family saying suzanne . Youve seen pockets of very angry people in the community thats erupted here today. Youre actually going to see freddie grays mother the stepfather and twin sister also 25 years old, had a chance to catch up with the attorney billy murphy of the family saying its been very frustrating. They thought they would have the autopsy report by now. That is not happening, potentially a week or two away. And they also want to retrieve the body quite frankly of freddie gray so they can begin with the burial process. Heres how we described what theyre going through right now. This has been so catastrophic and so sudden. Can you imagine how his mother feels, that hes no longer here . Can you imagine how that community feels, that yet again theres somebody victimized who didnt deserve it . Its been traumatic for them. In addition to being in grief, that are outraged that the police did it to them this time. Reporter and wolf what murphy is doing is he is simply urging the Family Member to stay calm be patient as much as they can, that the investigation that police say is supposed to be done by next friday that theyll have more answers and certainly hopefully theyll have the body in custody as well. Suzanne smallmalveaux thank you. Joining us is the Baltimore Police spokesman. Thanks for joining us. The department of justice here in washington is now gathering information on freddie grays death to see whether any civil Rights Violations took place. Your reaction to that. So wolf, first of all, thank you for the opportunity to be here. We announced yesterday the findings of where we are in our investigation right now and as part of that announcement that we did yesterday, we made it very clear that we welcome outside review. Weve already promised an independent review of our investigation of the events that led up to this. We owe that to the gray family and to the citizens of baltimore. Anyone who comes in to look at what were doing, to evaluate the agency that can bring a level of expertise to us we welcome that with open arms. Since 2012 when the Police Commissioner began the reform of the agency weve opened ours up a number of time to review all the way up to our request to the department of justice for a collaborative reform process. We want to be open. We want to be transparent. We owe that to the city and more importantly we owe it to the gray pam family to be able to determine what happened. So you welcome the Justice Department civil rights investigation into what the police did. Is that what youre saying . We open ourselves up to reviews all of the time. We open ourselves with open arms. We welcome reviews from the outside. People bring Different Levels of expertise expertise. Weve been on a path of reform since 2012 when the commissioner set us on a reverence for life that we were going to be as open anz transparent as we could be. In this investigation weve tried to be open and transparent, releasing information faster than weve ever released information before. We hear the frustration of the community. We hear the angst and the hurt in the gray family. And we have an obligation to make sure that we are as open and transparent with this investigation as we can be. Our community deserves that. So anyone who comes in to evaluate whether its our independent review process or any other organization we welcome that with open arms. What is the Justice Department seeking . What have they asked you for . What kind of information . You know wolf i would have to refer you to the Justice Department on that. What i can tell you right now is our force Investigation Team continues their investigation. Theres a lot of work to be done. We have as many questions as we have answers and we want to find out exactly what happened here. We have to find out what happened here. And this process is playing itself out. We promised to have this investigation done by may 1st so we could turn it over to the state Attorneys Office. Our goal is to make sure its accurate done with a sense of urgency and were able to be held accountable to the public that we serve. But most importantly the gray family who is suffering right now deserves the answers and were trying to get them. Why were the six Baltimore Police officers involved in freddie grays arrest suspended . We have a mechanism and a process that we engage in. If you look back over the last several years, its consistent with how we operate. Whenever theres an incustody death or an incident of a severity like this this is the process that we engage in. Again, it doesnt mean that anything did anything wrong. But bewant to make sure that from the beginning of the investigation were doing everything that we can to hold the agency accountable, to be transparent and to get to the truth of what happened hear. We owe that to the city we owe that to the family. Are these six Police Officers cooperating with your investigation . So i cant get into the specifics of the investigation. Obviously theres a criminal investigation at play here. There are other people looking into this and were bring in an independent review board. So we dont want to put information out which might potentially compromise investigations or interviews that still need to take place. And i know that thats frustrating. We hear that in the people that we talked to today. The commissioner held to his promise today and went out to the community and spoke with residents in the community. We feel that frustration and understand the concern that people have. We dont want to do anything that might compromise the investigation or change a witnesss testimony. So theres some information that were not able to put out right now. But again were going to continue to put out as much information as we can to be open transparent and hold this department accountable to the community that we serve. We have more questions for you. I want you to stand by. Well take a quick break. Much more right after this. People ship all kinds of things. But what if that thing is a few hundred thousand doses of flu vaccine. That need to be kept at 41 degrees. While being shipped to a country where its 90 degrees. In the shade. Sound hard . Yeah. Does that mean people in laos shouldnt get their vaccine . We didnt think so. From figuring it out to getting it done, were here to help. Photos are great. For capturing your world. And now they can transform it with the new angies list app you can you can get projects done in a snap. Take a photo of your project or just tell us what you need done. And angies list will find a toprated provider to do the job. Start your project for free today. If you take multiple medications, a dry mouth can be a common side effect. Thats why theres biotene. It comes in oral rinse spray or gel so theres moisturizing relief for everyone. Biotene, for people who suffer from a dry mouth. We all enter this world with a shout and we see no reason to stop. So cvs health is creating industryleading programs and tools that help people stay on medicines as their doctors prescribed. It could help save tens of thousands of lives every year. And that w ould be something worth shouting about. Cvs health, because health is everything. Our braking news. The Justice Department here in washington now investigating the death of incustody man. Were back with captain cowall check. You say youre conducting an investigation. Yet you also say, i believe you said this yesterday or one of your Police Spokesmen said it yesterday, there was no force used in the arrest. What are you investigating now . Were you wrong was someone wrong when they said she was taken into custody without force or incident . So what we know from the evidence that weve been able to see from interviews from all of the everything that weve been able to put together so far and the deputy Police Commissioner said it yesterday theres no indication that we have at this time that there was any use of force. That leaves us with more questions than answers. Which is why were conducting the investigation. We need to go step by step piece by piece to find out exactly what happened. Yes ear concerned you heard it yesterday in the Police Commissioners statements. We want to find out exactly what happened here. And as were conducting this investigation, were looking at our policies and procedures to see what we might have made mistakes or to see where we could do bet per. Police commissioner already directed that some of our policies and procedures be changed. Were in the process of bringing those policies into alignment with National Best practices and evaluating our procedures with regards to medical care to make sure everything is at the best standard that we can provide for the people of baltimore. Were seeing protesters gathering in baltimore right knew now. If there was no force used during the arrest or the initial incident when they dragged him into the van, his body looked completely limp. He couldnt move his feet. He was sort of hanging there. The video is pretty dramatic. What happened . You know the video is dramatic. And as one of your reporters mentioned earlier, theres indications at the end of the video that mr. Gray is standing and assists himself into the wagon but that doesnt get to the heart of this issue. That doesnt address the frustration of the community. And we know that and hear that. Youre right, though. Our people are very frustrated and weve been listening to those concerns. We share in those concerns and we want to make sure that this investigation to find out exactly what happened addresses those concerns. The Police Commissioner talked yesterday about the fact that people have a right to express their frustrations. Were asking people to remain peaceful when they do. But we expect people to voice their frustrations in that matter. Were going to allow them to do and continue in our investigation to give them the answers that way want. Why did it take 30 minutes to call for an ambulance . Yeah thats part of what this investigation hopefully is going to find out. The commissioner said it yesterday. It took us too long to key into that. That is of a concern. But again that goes to why were looking at our policies and procedures procedures why the Police Commissioner took the Decisive Action to rereview all of our policies regard to pris near contact to make sure that our policies are as up to date as can be. Its why were from the process of mandating training for every officer who is responsible for a transport wagon to make sure they have the best training so we can do everything we with can to care for the people in our kis dip custody. Were still continuing our investigation. Were going to continue to do that as the process moves forward. I understand there was another civilian another passenger inside that van. Is that person cooperating with your investigation . Has he or she said anything thats of use . You know i wish i could get into the specifics of the investigati