uncle jesse and kimmy gibb her. talks with dad bob so get and the olson twins are ongoing. check out our show page at cnn.com/the lead for videos blogs, extras. that's it. i'm jake tapper turning you over right now to wolf blitzer in "the situation room." happening now federal investigation the justice department is now looking into arrest of a bault more man who died in custody of a broken neck. some people are saying the police version of the events does not add up. >> you'll hear from the bult more police spokesman. demonstrators gathering for a second day. adding freddie gray to their list of african americans killed in confrontations with police. and harm's way, a no tul la of u.s. war ships and thousands of u.s. sailors and marines are

off the coast of yemen ready to block possible arms deliveries to the forces but will iran's navy push back? i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room." and the breaking news the justice department here in washington say it's 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. i'll talk loif this hour with the baltimore police spokesman and our correspondents are all stand by with complete coverage.

let's 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 gray's case that still have not been filled in. >> the inconsistencies begin outside the police van. freddie's body is lirp. a witness yells to officers he can't support himself. >> you're 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 couldn't 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. it's 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 that's 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 haven't 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. baltimore's mayor says that wu too much time, a mistake. >> reporter: all day we've 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. they've declined the answer those questions saying it's part of the ongoing investigation. but those questions are part after what's 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 wasn't 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 there's 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 couldn't necessarily do the right job as far as a full investigation? >> i think it's partly because of all of the attention it's getting. they want to make sure they can also answer those questions. it seems the public there is clearly not satisfied with the answers they're 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. >> that's correct. >> thank you very much. let's 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 it's police policy within 48 hours if there's 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 we're learning more about these individuals and of course it's 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. they're 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? >> you've seen pockets of very angry people in the community that's erupted here today. you're actually going to see freddie gray's 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 it's 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. here's how we described what they're going through right now. >> this has been so catastrophic and so sudden. can you imagine how his mother feels, that he's no longer here? can you imagine how that

community feels, that yet again there's somebody victimized who didn't deserve it? it's 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 they'll have more answers and certainly hopefully they'll 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 gray's 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. we've 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 we're 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 we've 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 you're 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. we've 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 we've tried to be open and transparent, releasing information faster than we've 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 it's 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. there's 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 attorney's office. our goal is to make sure it's accurate done with a sense of urgency and we're 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 we're trying to get them. >> why were the six baltimore police officers involved in freddie gray's arrest suspended? >> we have a mechanism and a process that we engage in. if you look back over the last several years, it's consistent with how we operate. whenever there's an in-custody

death or an incident of a severity like this this is the process that we engage in. again, it doesn't mean that anything did anything wrong. but bewant to make sure that from the beginning of the investigation we're 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 can't get into the specifics of the investigation. obviously there's a criminal investigation at play here. there are other people looking into this and we're bring in an independent review board. so we don't want to put information out which might potentially compromise investigations or interviews that still need to take place. and i know that that's 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 don't want to do anything

that might compromise the investigation or change a witness's testimony. so there's some information that we're not able to put out right now. but again we're 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. we'll 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 it's 90 degrees. in the shade. sound hard? yeah. does that mean people in laos shouldn't get their vaccine? we didn't think so.

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our braking news.

the justice department here in washington now investigating the death of incustody man. we're back with captain cowall check. you say you're 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 we've been able to see from interviews from all of the -- everything that we've been able to put together so far and the deputy police commissioner said it yesterday there's 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 we're 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 commissioner's statements. we want to find out exactly what happened here. and as we're conducting this investigation, we're 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. we're 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. >> we're 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 couldn't 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, there's indications at the end of the video that mr. gray is standing and assists himself into the wagon but that doesn't get to the heart of this issue. that doesn't address the frustration of the community. and we know that and hear that. you're right, though. our people are very frustrated and we've 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. we're asking people to remain peaceful when they do. but we expect people to voice their frustrations in that matter. we're 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 that's 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 we're 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. it's why we're 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. we're still continuing our investigation. we're 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 that's of use? >> you know i wish i could get into the specifics of the investigation. there's a lot of questions that need to be answered and there's a lot of frustration as you've mentioned in the community. and these are some of the things that would help that. unfortunately we have to be sure that we do not compromise this investigation. we don't want to do anything that will change witness statements or hinder the ability of our force investigation team which has been joined by our homicide unit, our training cad academy and the crime lab. we need to let them finish the investigation so it's accurate so we can turn it over to the state attorney's office for their review. >> captain cowall check, we'll stay in touch with you. these are live pictures we're showing. people gathering in baltimore.

protesters are very unhappy. coming up just months after an attack of a u.s. aircraft carrier, iran is moving a convoy of ships in to the region. will there be a faceoff? stay with us. you're in "the situation room." ere they are. the microsoft cloud gives our team the power to instantly deliver critical information to people, whenever they need it. here at accuweather we get up to 10 billion data requests every day. the cloud allows us to scale up so we can handle that volume. we can help keep people safe and to us that feels really good. big day? ah, the usual. moved some new cars. hauled a bunch of steel. kept the supermarket shelves stocked.

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live pictures coming out of baltimore. some folks gathering there, protesters protesting the death of freddie gray.

we're monitoring to see what's going on. not a huge crowd yet. but there's other breaking news we're following, this from the middle east. cnn learned that the u.s. is now conducting manned reconnaissance issues in the waters off of yemen. those flights are part of the nine u.s. war ships including an aircraft airier with thousands of american sailors and marines on board tracking an approaching iranian fleet of war ships. our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto is monitoring this for us. >> here the uss theodore roosevelt. it has a lot of air assets on there, including the hornet that can fly reconnaissance flight of this iranian convoy. he's take a look at the map. you've got the u.s. war ships here, joining, keep in mind,

other members of the coi guess so will. you have egyptian war ships, saudi war ships. now i'm told by u.s. defense officials that it would sb an into step extremely unlikely to have a u.s. warship actually board on iranian war shupshipwarship. it's about sending a message of iran saying we're watching you, watching the ships. the aircraft flying off of the u.s. airier watching the iranian convoy. it's also crucial to send a message that even though the u.s. is in the critical sensitive nuclear negotiations with iran it still in effect has their back right now. in addition to that as well it gives the president military and counter terror options inside yemen. remember the u.s. closed its embassy there, taken the u.s. officials off the ground there. taken a lot of intel gathering assets off the ground in yemen

when you have a carrier off the coast of yemen, that gives you a lot of intel gathering capability inside yemen. that's a crucial part of this. they want to keep the key trade routes coming down through the red sea. that's an easy choke point right there. it's important that you have a navy presence to keep those trade routes open. >> critically important. the saudis as you know they're now done with the air campaign the bombing that they've launched in yemen. what's going on? >> it was a pretty abupt end from it. saying they're committed to the campaign last week. six days later they say that the military objective us have been met in yemen. now they're entering a political phase. from the u.s. perspective, they don't see this as a complete cease-fire. they believe the saudis will

retain the ability too continue strikes inside yemen if need be. at this point they've taken out the big military targets with ballistic missiles that they believe would threaten saudi arabia or their neighbors. it's moving more ratcheting down of military activity as opposed to a complete end to it. >> let's dig deeper now on this tense situation. joining us is congressman adam kissinger. he's a republican from illinois an afgan and iraq war veteran. as you know the u.s. moving what nine war ships including an aircraft carrier. that aircraft carrier alone has 6,000 marines or sailors on board. they're approaching probably 10,000 u.s. troops to that area. they're going into harm's way. this is not just simply a joyride, if you will. >> that's a significant commitment if you think about the uss roosevelt having a mission in fighting isis and

iraq. to put them in this position, they can still floi their missions but it's not as vent as if they could be stationed somewhere else persian gulf or kuwait. the question is if it's discovered that these iranian ships have carrying arms to the houthi rebels what's next? you just watch them? that could be embarrassing for us. >> it would be a huge deal if the u.s. intercepted an iranian warship and boarded the ship searching for cargo of weapons. even if it were certainly in international waters but let's say it were in the territorial waters of yemen. a lot of us remember the uss cole. that was blown up in the gulf of aden and a lot of american sol sailors were killed in that. >> it's a dangerous area. you're not going to united

states board the ships or stop them. but if the government of yemen wants protection of their waters, you may see some interaction. but at the end of the day if the iranian ships have weapons on them for the houthis and we fly over them and watch them dock and resupply you wonder at the end of the day what you're accomplished. you don't want to escalate the situation but you also don't want to back down from a pretty serious problem. >> you have not just potentially a dig clash with iran, you've got the houthi rebels in yemen they don't like the u.s. all of them would like to go after that big u.s. target. >> that's right. i was in yemen probably a year and a half ago now. it was a pretty quick trip in there, met with the president, saw the situation on the ground. at the time we were pretty optimistic that with the government the troops and with their assistance we were able to

push al qaeda back. but now with with the chaos that's enveloped in yemen, ital qaeda is taking advantage of chaos. like isis has done in syria, they're like a bacteria. >> and what was going on in yemen when you were there, there was at least a friendly government in charge of yemen that welcomed the united states. but that friendly government is now gone and it is chaos in that failed state. i want to stand by congressman. we have a lot more to cities does. including what's going on in iraq. i know you fought in iraq and afghanistan. i'm sure it payneins you to see what's going on there now. i fixed it!

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take a look at this. the protesters in baltimore, they've now marched to police headquarters. they're protesting the death of freddie gray, the young african american man who died of a broken neck days after his arrest. miguel marquez is with the crowd. tell us what you're seeing. what it was like. >> reporter: we heave had about seven -- there are between a thousand and 2,000 people here. perhaps over that. the police headquarters that they've marched to they went about six blocks. mr. gray was arrested and put

into a van. the last time you see him alive or at least out of a coma and down the police headquarters. they are angry but peaceful so far. the police station has been barricaded. police helicopter are overhead and forces are down the street and there are dozens and dozens of police officers if not hundreds themselves that we have seen pouring into this area. it is a very very tense place this afternoon with people here upset with the way the city and the police have explained what happened or failed to explain what happened to freddie gray. >> it looks peaceful from the vantage point of the cameras that we have there. although it did look like someone was arrested when we just got back on the air. did you see that individual being arrested miguel?

>> reporter: i could not see what was happening to that individual. people are still pouring into the area. it's going to be a long night it looks like for these protesters and police officer. >> what are they chanting? what's their main complaint? >> reporter: it is many of the similar things we've heard, black lives matter no justice, no peace, and they won't rest until they get the truth out of what is happening here in baltimore and again the citizens that they say the police here in this neighborhood -- this is a tough, tough neighborhood in baltimore and the people who live here say it feels like it is us against them with their own police force. there is very very little trust if any trust between the people here and their own police force. and this -- the freddie gray situation has just become a lightning rod. >> stand by. suzanne malveaux is also there, different location at police headquarters.

suzanne where are you and what do you see? >> so wolf i'm right in front of the police station right here and i did see the arrest that was made. the gentleman who had broken the barrier and therefore arrested and taken inside. before the crowd came they set up these barricades around the police station and positioned about 12 police officers outside. i had a chance to talk to the president of baltimore's naacp chapter, who said she was concerned about some people who might be wanting to get attention, people who might cause some prubl. she said that she is here for the long haul as well as many of the people in the community who are trying to serve and do better and come up with a better relationship with the police department. but she said she was quite worried that there might be a few people who would want to cause some commotion. as it is now, people are simply chanting. it was just that one individual

who decided that he would go across the barricade and be arrested. right now what you have is a lot of people who are shouting. you have families here. some people who are carrying their children. you have a lot of young people young boys eight, nine ten years old who are curious seeing what's going on. you have a mixed crowd in some ways. mostly african american but also others who are here who have gathered in one message, a unified voice. many just standing around waiting to see what's going to happen next. i was able to talk to the attorney of the family william murphy earlier today who did say they expected some family members to come forward and to talk and to speak publicly for the first time about their feelings specifically the stepfather he also said the mother and twin sister would be here. the head of the naacp, ms. hill

said that she believes perhaps is was an uncle and a cousin and a brother that would be here instead. she has been in contact with the family. but right now yo can probably just hear -- >> and we haven't seen -- i take it suzanne, the mayor of baltimore, the police commissioner no one in a position of authority has actually come out to address these people. is that right? >> reporter: no. we have not seen anyone in the mayor's office or the police commissioner or the captain. these are community activists. these are people from the western district of baltimore's police station who have been the ones who have really been under fire and served -- been at the brunt of criticism because this is where freddie gray was brought in that van, where he was transported. this is just two and a half blocks away from where he was initially apprehended.

so the community here, in speaking to a lot of people i've asked them do they think this is a racial thing or do they think it is a case of police brutality. most of them say they believe it's police brutality. that they've had a long standing problem with the police in this community and that sometimes it is members of the african american community as well as in the police department that they've had problems with. so a lot of people are out here expressing a lot of frustration with the relationship with people in this neighborhood in this police department. that's where they're ending up here in the western district. >> people are protesting. obviously they're angry. they've got their signs. but so far it looks pretty peaceful although we did see one arrest. miguel marquez, you're in the crowd over there, a different location. what are you seeing? >> reporter: i brought you in front of the police station here where they are speaking and chanting very loudly. there are a lot of activists up

there who are speaking to the crowd. they're basically making speeches at the moment and trying to get people to listen to their message. there is great upset with the way police have handled affairs here in the neighborhood. i can tell you that the police commissioner did go house to house and door to door -- [ inaudible ] [ inaudible ] -- police are on high alert. you can see them standing up in front of the western district here great concern, and they have plenty of police that we have seen pouring in through the afternoon to dell deal with anything that happens here tonight. clearly they do not think that tonight's protest is going to be perhaps, as peaceful and uneventful as other nights have been. >> let's hope it stays peaceful.

stand by for a moment miguel and suzanne. congressman adam kinzinger is here with us. you're watching the live protests as am i and the other viewers. you're a veteran of the u.s. military. it's difficult to see these kinds of incidents here in the united states. >> yeah it is. i think we have to take it in a large context. there are tens of thousands of people that put on a uniform every day. >> police uniform. >> willing to react to a call of who knows what. they're absolute heroes. we hope it stays peaceful. it's always tough seeing our country at such a tense point. hopefully we'll get answer to what happened and at the end of the day realize there are a lot of amazingly good people that protect us. >> there obviously have been abuses there have been some bad apples as we say almost every week some incident like this seems to surface and it causes a lot of pain. >> it does.

and i think, again, that's where things like body cameras that are coming in have been good. you saw the officer, the marine veteran that really held his fire with the guy that wanted dpet by cop. there are bad happen ls in every community and they ought to be rooted out an treated very harshly and justly. at the end of the day it's tough to see communities be torn apart, a mistrust that exists. whatever we need to do to get to the bottom of that but hopefully we get there. >> hopefully the investigation will figure out what happened. >> we just don't know right now. >> there are several investigations in baltimore, the city investigation, maybe a state investigation, now the federal government is involved the civil rights investigation, the justice department announced a little while ago. let's hope they find out what happened. suzanne malveaux what else

gentleman arrested and taken away. it's actually become quiet now. they were chanting for quite some time "justice for freddie." people's power, assembly various groups have gathered. a lot of neighbors and just wung young people people who have brought their children people who are concerned about what happened to freddie gray. we are still looking for what was told there would be a few family members, at least one from the gray family who would speak on the family's behalf. we haven't seen them yet but we have just seen quite a number of neighbors, who as you saw marched down the street holding signs and expressing a lot of frustration frustration. i've had a chance to talk to a lot of people in the community here and, you know it's like you mentioned before that sometimes there are good cops and there are bad cops and people have had various experiences with the police

department. but particularly those in the western district here where freddie gray just two and a half blocks away was first apprehended. so this has touched this community in a very personal way but most people are very calm and just even a sense of warmth among each other as they are waving to each other and have really kind of settled into a place where they're just watching and listening and waiting for someone from the gray family potentially to say something. >> i think we found someone from the gray family. miguel marquez is joining us right now. i take it you have a cousin of freddie gray? >> reporter: wolf this is miguel. we are here right in front of the western district and these are supporters of mr. gray. how are you? how tough is it to be out here today? >> real tough. >> reporter: what is the message that you want people to hear not only here in baltimore but across the country about what's happened? >> it has to stop. it has to stop.

>> what happened to him is a very serious matter. >> they didn't have to do that to him. they didn't have to do it to him. they didn't have to do it to freddie. >> reporter: sir, go ahead. >> this is a district that we know and it's been documented that has a history of falsifying information for police when they're involved in abuse. i know of two cases sitting down at the federal court where police officers have intentionally given the wrong name of officers that slammed a young man across the street. >> reporter: this is clearly a concern for you because mr. gray the confusion, the timeline about when and what happened to mr. gray along the way, does it not satisfy you? >> sir, when somebody is in police custody for seven days and sitting in the hospital in a coma and then all of a sudden you come up with a story as to what may have happened that's unacceptable. that's unacceptable to the citizens of baltimore city and that should be unacceptable for any elected official in baltimore city. the state's attorney of baltimore city her husband is a

representative for this district. we're calling nick mosby out today. he's the city council for this district. why is he not here. his wife is a state's attorney. why are they not here? somebody needs to support this family. >> reporter: what are relations like between the people in this neighborhood and its own police force? >> this police force in western district has a history of police brutality. the entire district needs to be shut down and every office in that district the next words they should hear is you have a right to remain silent. >> reporter: thank you very much. we just also heard from a cousin of mr. gray's who said that the family is holding together but it is a very difficult time for them and she hopes tonight will be peaceful. i want to turn the camera around if we could, wolf. i want you to see the size of this crowd outside of the police station here. nobody is going anywhere so far and it looks like they are out here for the evening. wolf. >> miguel i want you to stand by. congressman kinsinger is with us

and tom fuentes is with us as well. i know usually police are always worried. a demonstration like this almost all of them very peaceful they're chanting that's their right of course but the cops are always afraid of what they call outside agitators who come in and create some bad things. >> even if not knowing if they're inside or outside, they're worried about the few people that may show up take advantage of the mayhem and throw bottles, bricks molotov cocktails or other debris at the police with the intent to hurt a police officer or to hurt another protester. and i think that's always the concern they have less with where are they coming from do they live in town out of town just who might show up. >> let the people creamscream let them carry signs, as long as they're peaceful that's their right. >> absolutely that's what the constitution is about and we respect that. a lot of times they refer to

themselves as anarchists. they light places on fire incite crowds and i'm sure that's something the police are very susceptible to. >> that's what happened a small number in ferguson as a lot of us remember as well. i want you to stand by guys. we're going to stay on top of this story. all the day's important news. we'll take a quick break and we'll be right back. unbelievable! toenail fungus? seriously? smash it with jublia! jublia is a prescription medicine proven to treat toenail fungus. use jublia as instructed by your doctor. look at the footwork! most common side effects include ingrown toenail, application-site redness itching, swelling, burning or stinging, blisters, and pain. smash it! make the call and ask your doctor if jublia is right for you. visit jubliarx.com for savings coupons.

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happening now, breaking news. demonstrators are on the streets

of baltimore right now as the federal government launches an investigation into the arrest of a suspect who died in custody. tonight we now know the names of the officers at the center of this exploding controversy. show of force, u.s. war shaps are on the move and on the lookout for iranian weapons. we're learning more about the potential danger for thousands of american sailors and marines now heading toward a war zone. and from alabama to isis. a 20-year-old woman reportedly runs away to join the terrorists and posts messages encouraging bloody attacks back home. now u.s. officials are warning she's a valuable asset for isis recruitment in america. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." let's begin this hour with breaking news. tonight protesters in baltimore are venting their anger at police. they're demanding justice after the controversial arrest and death of an african-american

suspect. stand by for a live report. also breaking right now, u.s. warships with thousands of sailors and marines on board are on alert for a potential showdown with iran. nine american navy vessels are now off the coast of yemen prepared to block any iranian weapons shipments to rebel forces. we have our correspondents our analysts our news makers they're all standing by. we're covering the news that's breaking right now. but let's begin in baltimore where a protest, a large one is happening right now. our national correspondent suzanne malveaux is on the scene. let's go to miguel marquez. miguel we see you now. what's the latest? set the scene for us. >> reporter: this is as tense as the situation here has been wolf. the protesters here number in the thousand up to 2,000 people here. a very angry but peaceful crowd. there was one arrest as they put barricades around the western

district here. i want to show you what the police look like out here in front at the moment. it is only a few dozen police right in front of the building but all afternoon we did see dozens and dozens of police officers pouring into this area. we also saw police on horses a short ways away and police helicopters overhead as well. they have also installed cameras on top of this police station. if you can go up higher on the crowd here you can see how big it is and how it stretches back into the neighborhood. this protest started about four or five blocks away the place where mr. gray was arrested about ten days ago now. that was the last time he was seen alive basically. he went into a coma shortly thereafter and then just this past sunday succumbed to his injury. police saying that he suffered a brutal spinal injury that his lawyer saying it neverly severed

his spine. wolf. >> looks like a serious situation. stand by for a moment. i want to go to suzanne malveaux she's also in the crowd, probably not too far from you. where are you, suzanne, what are you seeing? >> reporter: i'm on the opposite side from where miguel is and it's notably much more quiet here although it is quite loud around the police station. what's interesting, what's curious, wolf, is a lot of people have brought their young children. their kids in strollers wearing ravens t-shirts and sweatshirts. they're mothers, they're fathers, there are kids on bicycles many people who are here and brought here so they can make a statement. their frustration with the police department. but this is clearly the movement of a community. we are not talking about people who are outside and we are not talking about just angry adults or people who have had altercation with the police. but mothers with their children who are here to make a statement about how their community in general is being treated. that's what we are seeing from

where i am. and people who are watching they're quiet, they're curious, but you talk to people here and they tell me that they have to be here because it's time and it's been too long and a lot of people have had complaints about how their community has been treated. there are some people who believe that for the most part you know most of the police officers are good men and women, but there's a good number of people who have expressed a lot of frustration about being beaten about being falsely arrested and just in general feeling abused by some of the officers. and so that's why they have their young babies in their arms in support of some of the older men who you see in front of the crowd who are doing a lot of the shouting. >> clearly there's a lot of anger there in baltimore right now over the death of freddie gray. i want to bring in our justice reporter evan perez.

evan as you know the federal government has launched a civil rights investigation into what happened. what are you hearing? >> reporter: this situation on the streets there is one reason why the justice department is getting involved. one of the things that they are hoping to do is reassure the public. there's a big problem in baltimore, wolf. the "baltimore sun" reported there were over a hundred settlements with regard to police misconduct in certain arrests. a lot of that information is never published, made public. a lot of times you don't know what the police did wrong. so that is an issue that now the police is working with the justice department to try to fix. in the meantime these people want to know the answer as to what exactly happened to freddie gray. that's why the justice department is in there. >> the justice department i just want to be precise, they're doing a civil rights investigation. that usually takes a year or two. that's a long investigation. >> reporter: it takes a long time. one of the things they're trying

to do is reassure the people that there's going to be a state investigation but we're going to be taking a look at whether or not freddie gray's civil rights were violated because now that we're talking about his spinal cord being severed in this arrest it makes this a lot more complicated. it's clear something went wrong in that police van. >> clearly something went wrong and there's a history of police problems in baltimore that the justice department has been investigating for several years now, right? >> reporter: that's right, exactly. this is something the identify of community policing is working with the city at the city's invitation so they invited the justice department in to take a look at this. >> benjamin crump is here with us as well. he was the attorney for michael brown's family, for the trayvon martin family. what's your analysis of what is going on in baltimore right now? we see another young african-american man taken into police custody, got a broken neck goes into a coma and dies a few days later in the

hospital. that's caused this outrage that we're seeing on the streets of baltimore right now. >> wolf we saw similar things happen in ferguson. we saw similar things happening in tulsa oklahoma. it's happening all over america. we have to address these issues with transparency. it's been over a week now and still the family and the community have no answers. we understand that there is video that could tell us what happened but yet none of the city leaders or the police leaders are allowing that video to come out. >> why is that? they released some video. yesterday at that news conference, the police admiration, deputy police commissioner and mayor were there. we didn't learn much from the closed circuit tv cameras in the area. >> they haven't released statements or anything a preliminary report. can you imagine if this was your family member who obviously from the video you don't see them committing a crime, but yet the police in their custody, he ends

up dead and there is nothing -- >> what they say is there is an investigation and they don't want to jeopardize the investigation. they will release the information when they can but they want to be precise. >> wolf blitzer, with all those people out there, there is a great lack of trust and transparency. they have seen this over and over again. you say wait for the investigation to finish and then it's swept under the rug and nobody is held accountable. these people are fed up with this happening to their children. >> have you been asked to get involved in this -- has the family in this particular case freddie gray's family contacted you? >> they haven't. but a good friend of mine billy murphy is representing the family. i talked to billy. billy is a great lawyer. we've just got to make sure we stay on this issue because if not they will sweep it under the rug. we've got a demand to be transparent. >> don't you have confidence in the mayor of baltimore, the police commissioner in baltimore? don't you have confidence in them that they will do the right

thing? >> i want to believe they'll do the right thing. people ask me don't you want to believe they're a good police officer? i want to believe they're a good police officer. but when things like this happen where are the good police officers. why aren't they telling us if there's misconduct, they come forward. if there's a video that shows it why do they hide it. we want people to be transparent. if this was another community, wolf, nobody woman askinguld be asking for this to come out, it would already be out. >> how do you know there's other video. >> that's the thing in baltimore, everybody has been talking about there's video. so there's an issue whether or not there's video. they can tell us whether there's video or not. they are choosing not to tell us that. the only people that i've talked to say they can release a video and we'll see clearly what happened. so if there's video that exists doesn't the family have a right to see what happened. >> if there's video that shows what happened before you saw him, that limp body as he was dragged into that police van, if

there's video of what happened in the, let's say, 5 or 10 on 15 minutes before that of course everybody wants to see that. >> that would be transparency and that would be trust, wolf. it's happening in tulsa, oklahoma i mean we need transparency. >> pie theby the way, the freddie gray family is now there at the police headquarters in baltimore protesting what's going on. they would like answers on this young man who was taken into custody and for some reason wound up with a broken neck broken spine. went into the hospital got into a coma and died a few days later. it's a tragic story. >> it makes no sense, wolf. it keeps happening over and over again. we've got to address these issues. if not, i'm going to be on your show every week with another death of a person of color who's unarmed. and that's just not right. it's just not acceptable. >> but in baltimore, you bring up the issue of race.

the mayor is african-american, the police chief is african-american. i don't know the numbers but i suspect a huge percentage of the police force in baltimore is african-american. this is not some, like frgsonerguson, where you've got 60 or 70 police officers and two or three african-americans. in a community that's 60% african-american. >> wolf i think if any parent out there, this happens to their child, it doesn't matter if the person who did it was african-american or caucasian. you just want the truth to come out whatever happened. and you're right, our community, there's a lot of responsibility in making sure that we help prevent these things. and so we've got to -- everybody has to take a role in this. everybody has to be responsible in this. nobody gets a pass because of their ethnicity. we want our children to come home safely and soundly just like everybody else in the other communities want their children to come home safely and soundly. >> is there a role evan you cover the justice department for us you cover the fbi, are they

going to get immediately involved or is this one of those long civil rights investigations that will go on and on and on or will they immediately send people fbi agents for example, others representatives from the civil rights division of the justice department to bought tore baltimore to calm things down? >> i think they'll be there very quickly. they have been monitoring the situation. they have been gathering some of the evidence already to try to see if there's anything. and that's one reason why you see them already deciding that they have enough cause to open an investigation because they believe that there's questions that need to be answered. >> i want to listen very briefly to what one of these protesters is now saying. >> i want them to know they're not in it by themselves that the city of baltimore stands with them. make some noise for freddie gray. come on, turn it up.

>> all right. so there you see what's going on over there. very peaceful so far. they're angry, understandably so. at least some of those family members, they have lost a loved one, benjamin crump. let's hope it stays peaceful though. my fear and you've been involved in these incidents over the years, once it starts getting dark you don't know what's going to happen. especially if there are some agitators or anarchists that come in and want to cause trouble. >> everybody is praying for peace. everybody is also praying for justice. and we want people to know the family really wants everybody to be responsible. they don't want the irresponsible to try to condone police officers that are irresponsible if that's what happened. so we pray for peace but we want justice. >> let's hope it stays peaceful. miguel marquez, you're there right in the middle of the protests going on. just reassure us it is peaceful, right?

>> reporter: it is peaceful. there is a pastor who is associated with the gray family. he has brought mr. gray's father and mother. you can just see his mother with her hands on her cap holding her head. she has not stopped crying since she got here. i think she's moved by what she's seeing here now. they have asked several times for a moment of silence. floyd, if you could swing around and see the number of hands in the air. it is an impressive impressive sight to see the number of people here coming together. the pastor here is asking that they want these police officers tried for first-degree murder is what he's just said. i have talked to several people in the neighborhood here. they have talked about how difficult relations are between the police and the people that they are meant to be serving. one of the chants was "who do you protect, who do you serve"

chanting it back at the police. there's a very heavy police presence here. i will turn it over to the pastor if you want to listen to a bit more of this. >> hold on a moment. miguel hold on a moment because mark is joining us the president of the national urban league. mark i don't know how much of an opportunity you've had to study what's going on in baltimore, but give us your reaction. >> state of emergency when it comes to the use of force in an inappropriate way against unarmed black men in america. this is a crisis wolf. we certainly hope and i would express that i know mayor rawlings blake. she was one of the contributors to the state of black america. i have confidence in her leadership. but the task here is for all of the facts to come out, complete

transparency for parallel investigations by the state's attorney by the department of justice to move forward very very quickly. i think the response of people is just a shocking sense of being fed up. we're fed up with just an incident after incident. and what's happened in america is america now sees that these type of incidents have happened for a long time. but telephone cameras, transparency video cams people's response indicates that it's time to turn the corner. >> well i just want to be precise, mark. you have confidence in the mayor of baltimore, the police chief in baltimore that they will conduct a thorough transparent investigation? >> i have confidence in the mayor. i don't know the police commissioner. but i have confidence that the mayor will not allow any fact to be swept under the rug. i think she has no incentive, no motivation to do anything other than to get to the bottom of

this. but of course it's not simply her task alone. the united states attorney there in maryland the state's attorney in maryland they have an important job to do in terms of conducting their own investigations towards justice for the death of this unarmed man. so -- but mayor rawlings blake i believe will do the right thing. >> stand by mark morial because our anchor don lemon, is joining us as well. you see what's going on don. what's your impression your reaction to what's going on on the streets of baltimore right now? >> it takes me back wolf to this summer and i'm sure benjamin crump will agree with this in ferguson. this is what happened after the death of michael brown. i think that mark morial has very eloquently put it into words. what i would say now the words are transparency. that's what people want.

i think a sleeping giant has been awakened here. and i think that there's more training. if you look at the six officers who were involved in this most of them are in their 20s. they're young officers. they can't have been on the force that long. so i think transparency more training and also a sleeping giant has been awakened. and this is not about what freddie gray did before or what he was stopped for, because when you come in contact with police it doesn't matter if you're guilty of doing something or innocent that's what police are there for. that is their job. people however, should not die in custody -- in the custody of police if they are unarmed or if they have been taken down and all of a sudden they end up in the hospital with severe injuries. that should not happen. and so i think that's what the people want. i also want to address something that benjamin crump said. i do agree with him that this should not be swept under the rug and everyone must do everything they can. i think the mayor will i think the police chief will as well

to make sure that there is transparency here and that the information comes to light. but i would say there should not be a rush to get information. i think they should do it diligently. they should dot every "i," they should cross every "t" to make sure everything is in place in case there is a special prosecution or whatever has to be done in the days to come and weeks and months to come to make sure that nothing goes wrong when in fact there is -- the investigation has been fully vetted and has fully come forth to make sure this holds up in a court of law and to make sure that this family and freddie gray get justice in this case and find out exactly what happened. >> don, i want you to stand by mark morial stand by as well. i want to quickly go to suzanne malveaux. she's right in the middle of that crowd there in baltimore. what are you seeing now, suzanne? >> reporter: well there's an incredible amount of emotion being expressed. i've been watching two young women with tears just streaming down their cheeks.

they have been raising their hands along with the rest of the crowd saying that this is hands up in surrender, but hands up in strength and defense and support for freddie 48 and his family. there are many people who are saying the name jesus and have said that they want to try to turn the community around to establish a better relationship with the people in their community. this is a mixed district. this is not just a white, black, this is something that people have told me. it's a problem with abuse of power and they want to have a better relationship. but we are seeing so many people here who have brought their young children who have brought their families, who are talking to one another, who are praying together and asking for this to be a moment but not just a

moment a movement. and we heard from the pastor who has been addressing them saying that they will take this to city hall next -- on thursday later in the week to make their views known. >> suzanne, i want you to stand by as well. i want to get reaction to what's going on. benjamin crump is with us mark morial president of the national urban league. mark een you want-- i know you want to react to what we're seeing and hearing. >> wolf as we discussed this there's also got to be some focus on the long-standing challenges of the baltimore police department. 102 police misconduct lawsuits $6 million paid out in judgments in 2011. that indicates that this may be the tip of the iceberg. and when you see people reacting and protesting this way, it's not usually only about an isolated incident it's about long-standing issues between the community and the police department. so as we analyze this we have

to put it in the context of the broader problems that people are justifiably responding to there in baltimore. and the task for the leadership then is not only to confront this incident but to confront the need for systematic reform in that department and in the relationship between the department and the citizens that it polices. >> benjamin crump, what's your reaction. don lemon made a strong point that they don't want to release any information that could compromise or undermine an eventual charge against a police officer or police officers they want to make sure that they have an investigation they do it right and don't do anything that could be counterproductive as much as the family and the public clearly would like more information, they have a legal responsibility and you're a lawyer to protect that information so it doesn't compromise eventually charges if they are formally launched. >> well both evan and i kind of shook our heads to ourself when we heard don say that. and don was on the front line of

ferguson. you and everybody. and also in staten island. and we were patient and we tried to let them do everything by the book and then you saw with eric gardner after that long wait when people wasn't even talking about eric gardner we saw the video, we was outrage, we gave it time and gave it patience and what happened? it was swept under the rug. now we're doing the same in cleveland, ohio with tamir rice 12 years old. everybody was outraged when we showed the video. they were being untruthful when they said to drop his weapon and hut his hands up. so when we say justice delayed, normally it means justice denied. >> i want to go quickly to miguel marquez, who's right there in baltimore in the midst of this information. you're getting more information, miguel. what are you learning. >> reporter: yeah look, this is what they asked for. the gentleman with the justice for freddie cap and baltimore

cap is mr. gray's father. the woman with the hoodie on and now has her hand up is her mother. she has not been able to take her sunglasses off and keep it together the entire time. they are marching back to the place where their son was last seen alive and not in a coma just a few blocks from here. the pastor who is representing them here is also calling for a protest at baltimore city hall at 3:00 p.m. on thursday. they want to keep the pressure up as much as possible on the city. they are asking that all -- they are demanding, i should say, that all six of the police officers be charged with first-degree murder. they do not understand how it is that a young man could be arrested in his decent shape and succumb to an injury like a spinal injury as he did just some hours later and eventually

dying seven days later. wolf. >> what are the parents and the relatives there, we're watching these live pictures miguel and you see the mother who's covering her face. obviously she's been in tears for all of this time. what are they saying? >> reporter: i spoke to a cousin just a short time ago. they are -- i think they are overwhelmed, one. they are concerned with the level of protests. they don't want any more violence in this situation. but they are hoping that the city and the world is listening to their concerns. the cousin saying that she is hoping that this remains peaceful tonight, but there's already been one arrest. this is a lot of emotion here flowing through the streets in west baltimore, wolf. >> let me go back to don lemon to get his reaction to what we're seeing. this is a painful scene, don. i'll just explain to viewers who

may be tuning in these are relatives of freddie gray the young man who was -- he was arrested then he was dragged into a van. we later learned his spine was broken and he died after he suffered in a coma for a few days. that's the mother wearing the hoodie her face covered. she's been in tears. don, give us your reaction. >> you took the words right out of my mouth when you said painful, wolf. this is painful. just remember 25 years old. 25 years old. that's really essentially a child. so when this mother says she's lost her baby she has really lost -- she has lost a child. i can't imagine any family going through this. i can't imagine regardless of the circumstances of my loved one's death being able to get on the front lines of this and get out in front and being able to do that. perhaps someone who deals with it more than i do in cases like this benjamin crump, can talk about this better. but i am always surprised and shocked to sit down with mothers

and fathers and sisters and brothers after their loved ones have been killed and had them do an interview and be composed. when i sat down with the three mothers in ferguson michael brown's mother and other mothers, i could not believe they had the courage and the strength -- trayvon martin's mother the courage and the strength to do it. i can't even imagine what this family is going through right now. i would think that they're being held up by the support that they're getting from the community and from around the world and that there is some confidence that they have some confidence that they will get to the bottom of what happened to their loved one. >> yeah, let's hope. mark morial you're the president of the national urban league a major civil rights leader in this country but also a former mayor of new orleans. you see a sea like this unfolding in baltimore and the pain of this mother and other relatives of this young man. what goes through your mind? >> well the pain of the mother the pain of the loved ones is probably indescribable.

to lose their son under these circumstances, there's probably a combination of just anger, anger against the police anger against whether or not justice will indeed be done and now i think you also have understandable response by the community in terms of protests. and i think people's actions to protests are going to continue until such time as a decision has been made relative to charges. so i think that the authorities should conduct a careful investigation, but it should be expedited. the mayor's challenge and the leadership's challenge is to ensure that they're holding the investigatory apparatus accountable and that they're speaking to the community and reaffirming their commitment to

transparency and openness and justice. but i also think here in baltimore, the other issue which is going to be ongoing is to fix the long-standing problems of the baltimore police department which seems as though these problems have been there for quite a long time. so in terms of sweeping things under the rug, i don't think this is only about this incident. this is about a national state of emergency. this is about a significant challenge with many big city departments. remember we've got almost 20 departments in the country under federal justice department consent decrees or being investigated for pattern and practice violations. that's a significant number. and this state of emergency is continuing in this country, and we're going to need i think, new standards, new actions, to address it on a long-standing basis.

>> hold on for a moment mark morial. i want to remind our viewers what we're seeing that march going on. those are protesters but those are family members, including the mother of freddie gray the 25-year-old young man who died in police custody after his neck his spine was broken went into a coma and died in the hospital. the mother had her face covered with a hoodie but now she's being covered by some friends or relatives as they're walking through the streets. joey jackson, our hln legal analyst, criminal defense attorney weigh in on your thoughts joey. >> well we know wolf there will be a justice department investigation under way and that's going to be an issue. i should point out that simply because the federal government steps in it does not at all prevent or preclude the state from moving forward. early in the program there was a discussion about, hey, should these officers be charged with first-degree murder. that's still undecided. why? because the investigation is ongoing. however, should the state decide to move forward should there me

criminality found after the investigation on one or all of the officers that can happen. we also know wolf that the federal government in stepping in in a civil rights investigation would look for a number of things. so it's important to talk about what those things would be. in a civil rights investigation, the first thing is is was freddie gray deprived of a right secured by the constitution. well the right to move along freely without the use of unlawful deadly force is indeed a right. the second element is was it an intentional deprivation. was an act done maliciously, evil in wickedness or spite and that's often where these investigations get really held up because you have to establish that that happened. the third element, which is were they police officers acting in accordance with ordinances and regulations, that's another issue. why? because the reality is is that when you're acting as a police officer, you of course are acting under the color of state law and the fourth element, is

somebody dead. so the issue in the civil rights investigation will be what ended up happening. why was the neck severed. was it an 80% severance of the neck. what caused that? and did the officer or officers who caused it if they did, were they acting with evilness or spite and that's what a federal investigation will have to uncover. so we have to wait and see what the evidence ultimately says happened and when it happened and why it happened and was it justified. >> and was it deliberate was it some sort of freak accident. all those questions are going to have to be investigated as well. everyone stand by. miguel marquez, you're there, you're marching with these people. i understand they're going towards the actual location where freddie gray was arrested. >> reporter: we are. >> in the incident, is that right? >> reporter: we are. but mr. gray's mother, plrsmrs. deardon, has just had a little episode. i think she's rather overwhelmed. she has a hoodie that she's wearing and another one covering

her face. i think she's extraordinarily overwhelmed by all of this. she had a little moment where she had to stop. she hasn't stopped crying the entire time. she showed up in front of the police department along with her husband. they were embracing heavily. her face buried in her hands the entire time. it has been incredibly emotional for them. everybody in this town in the media has wanted to talk to them and across the country. they have been reluctant to do that. they want to bury their son before that happens. they had hoped to have their son's body back today, released by police. the autopsy, the official autopsy has been done but as far as we know the police have not released that body even though it was expected. and the lawyer for the family says they will be conducting their own private autopsy in the days ahead before any burial. so this is going to go on for some time with the investigation also taking some time to go full -- to go all the way. they seem to be having some

other issues here at the moment wolf. i think they're -- they are very concerned about the amount of press, the amount of tension that all of this has brought and i think they're a little -- were simply not ready for this much attention, wolf. >> they're certainly overwhelmed right now. benjamin crump is with us still. he was the attorney for the michael brown family trayvon martin family. you wanted to make a point. >> yeah wolf i agreed with mark morial. it is becoming a state of emergency when we continue to see america sanction the killing killings of these unarmed people of color. and every time nothing happens, when it is just inexplicable the manner in which they died it makes people have greater mistrust in the community. at a certain point, that erupts and we've got to do something about it. leaders have to be responsible. i believe the mayor in baltimore is going to try to get to the bottom of this but it needs to happen sooner than later, because this community is on the

verge of erupting. >> but the investigation, benjamin is only just beginning, right? they don't have all the answers. >> you know there are so many questions. why can't you give the family the preliminary report so they can have some answers as to what happened. how long do they have to have pain and suffering on top of pain and suffering of losing a child before you say this is what happened to your child, what we know now. >> all right. i want everyone to stand by. they are marching towards the area where the incident occurred. we'll stay on top of this. stay with us, we'll take a quick break and we'll be right back.

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oik oik. we're following multiple breaking stories, including protests in baltimore. they have just reached the site where freddie gray was arrested the other day. he later died of a broken neck only days after his arrest by local police. we'll continue to follow this story and update you on new information coming in. but there's another major breaking story we're following right now. we have new details tonight on the u.s. military operation that's under way right now aimed at blocking iran from delivering weapons to rebel forces in yemen. the american warships are on the move. they are deploying their resources, including manned reconnaissance teams. they are scrambling to try to learn what iran is up to right now. let's get the latest. our chief national security

correspondent, jim sciutto, is joining us. what are you learning jim? >> reporter: we're learning that u.s. aircraft flying off the uss teddy roosevelt are now flying reconnaissance missions of this iranian convoy which includes fa-18 hornets off of the roosevelt. nobody is talking about boarding iranian ships or blockading them we are sending a message that we are watching this convoy. it's also sending a message to u.s. alliesyies in the region that the u.s. is backing them up even in the midst of sensitive negotiations with iran. it also gives the u.s. president, president obama, military options inside yemen. counterterror options, intelligence gathering options as the situation there deteriorates further. warships from the uss theodore roosevelt carrier group sailed towards yemen, putting themselves into the path of a convoy of nine iranian ships

making their way slowly through the gulf of aden. the exact nature of their cargo, unknown. the american ships join saudi arabia egypt and other partner nations prepared to intercept the iranian vessels should they enter yemeni territorial waters and attempt to deliver arms to houthi rebels. still u.s. officials tell cnn the ships are primarily in place to give the president military options inside yemen and crucially to protect trade. >> the movement of this particular aircraft carrier would augment the american military presence in the gulf of aden and would send a clear signal about our continued insistence about the free flow of commerce and the freedom of movement in the region. >> reporter: iran has often flexed its maritime muscle with high profile, sometimes provocative exercises at sea. a confrontation with iran, such as forcibly boarding an iranian

ship would be extraordinary. pentagon officials acknowledge that moving additional u.s. warships to the region provides additional options, to assist the saudi-led coalition if necessary. >> they want to have a presence not only to send a message but also to keep an eye on what these vessels do and if the vessels are allowed to dock what is unloaded and where those supplies go. >> reporter: it is the rapid deterioration on the ground in yemen that the u.s. is most concerned with. recent air strikes in the houthi-controlled yemeni capital have killed 25 and wounded more than 400. all this as the u.s. tries to finalize a nuclear deal with the iranians and urge the release of u.s. citizens held in iran among them washington post journalist jason rezaian who is facing four charges, including spying and aiding a hostile government. we learned a short time ago that saudi arabia today is ending its air campaign inside yemen,

rather abrupt. it was just last week the saudi ambassador to the u.s. talking about how there would be for half measures there but they say they have met their military objectives in yemen. that is going after big weapons systems there, ballistic missiles et cetera that they believe would threaten saudi arabia as well as their neighbors. i am told wolf by a senior military official however, from the u.s. perspective they don't see this as a cease-fire there, just the end of major military operations even as it enters the political phase. they don't believe it's the end of saudi military involvement in yemen. >> jim sciutto, thanks very much. joining us senator lindsey graham republican of south carolina a key member of the senate armed services committee and also a potential 2016 presidential candidate. senator, thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you. >> what do you make of the saudi decision to limit their involvement, right now go to another phase. do you understand what their game plan is? >> no. strange at best. i thought they were going to do this until the houthis were repelled. what does it matter to us.

the average american is probably wondering what does this matter to us. al qaeda in the arabian peninsula is a terrorist organization that planned the attack in paris. they're probably the most lethal group in terms of wanting to attack us. they reside in yemen. they're running wild and free and it really does matter that yemen is out of control from our point of view. so i don't understand what's going on in the saudis. >> the u.s. is now deploying, sending into the region what nine battleships led by an aircraft carrier battle group. there are going to be 6,000 to 10,000 u.s. sailors and marines there. it wasn't that long ago and i want to show our viewers on iranian state television not that long ago they showed these pictures. we'll show our viewers, of a u.s. aircraft carrier being blown up supposedly by iranian forces. i don't know what their intention was, but it's clearly sort of ominous. look at this video. watch this right now. there's the aircraft carrier. this is what they showed on

saudi -- on iranian television. there you see a missile going in and knocking out that -- you see something like that and you see an aircraft carrier moving off the coast of yemen right now to interdict or stop iranian arms potentially from going in. what do you say, is that just bluster on their part? >> all i say is that i support president obama beefing up our presence. if we need to strike inside of yemen to deal with al qaeda in the arabian peninsula to make sure they're not planning an attack against the united states he certainly has my permission. letting the iranians know that you're not going to resupply the houthis is a move in the right direction. so at the end of the day, i do believe this is a smart move by the president to have a more beefed up naval presence. >> what's the iranian end game here? what do they want? >> i don't know what the iranian end game is other than just listen to what they tell you. i think they're trying to spread their influence throughout the region. they toppled four arab capitals. it's clear to me that they want to spread their view of religion throughout the region and wreak

havoc. yemen, syria. i mean you'll never fix the mideast until you fix syria. syria is the cancer in the region. we have no strategy to take assad down and no arab army is going on the ground in syria to deal with isil unless you take assad down because he's a puppet of iran. i don't understand our strategy at all. there is no game plan to deal with syria. you don't fix syria, you never fix iraq. >> i call it compartmentalization. syria's potential for conflict between the u.s. and iran off the coast of yemen right now with these battleships or whatever. on the other hand there's negotiations about to resume in vienna austria, over this nuclear deal. on the one hand there's diplomacy, on the other hand there's some tension. >> number one, what would they do with the money you gave them from the sanctions relief. why would anyone in their right mind give the iranians more cash given their behavior. i think the strategy dealing

with isil and yemen and all this other stuff is just to get the hell out of town. do the least amount as possible and pass this on to the next president. the reason we're not going after assad, the cancer in the mideast, because we don't want to upset the iranians regarding the negotiations. this is so convoluted i can't begin to explain it to people in south carolina. >> do you think there will be a nuclear deal with iran? >> secretary kerry is trying very hard to find a diplomatic solution. why in the world would world, israel and act more rational. >> what would they do with the money? they're not going to build schools and hospitals. >> i want to give you a quick

reaction. we don't know how that happened but he went into a coma and he eventually died. these are protests going on. his family there. his mother is covering her face crying the whole time. you guys in south carolina have the problems in north charleston as well so you're familiar with this. it seems like there's almost a crisis every week going on. >> it sure does. i can understand why people would be protesting. i hope the local community will do what we did in charleston. act swiftly, make sure justice is done and take decisive action in the face of clear facts. how this man died in police custody needs to be answered not just for the people in baltimore, but the whole nation. if the local authorities don't act fraumtpromptly then appeal to our higher authority. i understand why the protesters are upset. they should be. >> and the department of justice is now investigating what's going on. >> the man with murder and let the legal process go forward. i don't think you can say to the

people in north charleston ignore this. they acted swiftly. he has been charged and that's about all you can do. >> you spent more than 30 years in the u.s. air force reserves a lawyer there, familiar with all of these issues. thank you for coming in. lindsey graham joining us. we're going to go back to the protests in baltimore, the latest when we come back. if you take multiple medications, a dry mouth can be a common side effect. that's why there's biotene. it comes in oral rinse spray or gel

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we're following breaking new news. the protests in floor over the death of freddi gray whose spinal cord was nearly severed.

police is now being investigated by the justice department in washington. let's get more joining us. our cnn law enforcement analyst, don lemon, jeffrey toobin and joey skrakson. also joining us the president and ceo of the national urban lead. jeffrey, quickly to you first. the legal aspects, what's wrong with the police in baltimore conducting an investigation before releasing all the details? we heard benjamin crump say earlier the family has a right to know what they know right now. >> i don't think anything is wrong with it but remember there are now three investigations either under way or planned. the police investigation, which will make its report in about ten days. then the mayor has said there's going to be an independent investigation run out of baltimore, and now today, we learn that the united states justice department is investigating. so it does seem like this will

be a thoroughly investigated matter. and frankly, it's appropriate, i do think, to withhold judgment for a while until these authorities can figure out what happened. >> you have a problem with that mark? >> you know i think that confidence in the investigation would be enhanced if information that was available now would be released now. such as any surveillance tapes, any other independent information that they may have. we're talking about not only the appropriate course for a criminal investigation, but we're also trying to insure that a community is held together. that in fact the protests that will continue do not turn into something that none of us want to see. and i think we're talking about the community maybe not having confidence right now that these

investigations are going to yuld justice. there's a balancing act. so sometimes while in normal course you may say let's wait until all the information is available, i think that there's another issue at hand and that is to insure that the family and the public have confidence in that. i think the u.s. attorney i think the state's attorney i think the mayor and others have to figure out maybe they've got to have direct conversations with the family and the family's representatives to certainly assure them that this is going to be conducted in a full and thorough way, and that nothing is going to be swept under the rug. after all, wolf we had 12 incidents in 18 months high profile incidents around the country. in many of these cases, the investigations have left a lot to be desired. >> in fairness to the six police officers who have now been suspended at least for the time being, they rights have to be protected as well. >> hot we want is the truth to

come out. it's not only fairness to the officers. it's fairness to the families to the community, to everybody. what happens in a case like this is if a witness or two come out or if a narrative goes out and other witnesses saw something different, they go into hiding. we had this in ferguson. the fbi has to go to 300 residents to find witnesses. please come out and tell us what you saw, and they don't want to and they don't even to this day want to be identified because it contradicts the public narrative. >> don, you're going to have more on this later tonight, but give us your thought. >> i want transparency and i don't want to disagree with anyone on the panel, but we saw what happened in ferguson when information comes out piecemeal. they should be transparent, but i don't know if everyone needs to know all the information right away because you can see what harm it does because you get people's hopes up. they find out a little bit and then this happens and something else happens. wait until you get the bulk of the information. i think this case will be

handled appropriate. >> joey jackson, you agree? >>ia need to bridge the cap between the community and certainly the police department. i think a good start with that would be keeping the family inform ded at all twists and turns. meeting with the family meeting with the representative of the family so you can have the trust and so it can filter back to the community so the community knows nothing is being hidden. they're working in an expeditious way to get to the truth, which is what everybody wants, but the more information that is shared the merrier. >> give us a final thought, mark. >> i think, wolf in many cases it's certainly standard and appropriate for prosecutors and investigators to meet with the family of the victim. so i want to say that that is what would be appropriate here. there's got to be a line of communications established because we have a tough situation there in baltimore, and we look forward to continuing to talk about it. >> it's hope those demonstrations as it gets dark in baltimore stay silent. guys thanks very much.

an important note, don will beack with much more. 10:00 p.m. cnn tonight. you can also follow us on twitter. tweet me @wolfblitzer. "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. "outfront" tonight, breaking news. protests erupting right now over the mysterious death of a black man who died days after his arrest. his spine broken. was it police brutality? this is not the first time the baltimore police department has been under fire. more than 100 alleged cases of police brutality in three years, an "outfront" investigation tonight, and more breaking news with america's showdown with iran. american war ships on the move tonight. will it clear the nuclear deal? let's go "outfront." good evening. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, the breaking news. by the