tv Cuomo Prime Time CNN June 17, 2020 6:00pm-7:01pm PDT
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version on sunday at 10:00 p.m. here on cnn. the news continues now. thank you very much. there is a lot changing here in real time. i am chris cuomo. welcome to "primetime." we've got extraordinary access to the key elements of the rayshard brooks case for you. we have an exclusive interview with a name who today was named as an additional victim by prosecutors, certainly a key witness in the police killing of rayshard brooks. you'll hear his story. this comes as we get new information about a potential revolt by atlanta police officers. we have the mayor of atlanta here with us tonight to respond to what we are being told reportedly is dozens of officers calling in sick. or failing to answer calls because of the remarkable charges filed today against the atlanta cop who killed rayshard brooks. felony murder and ten other counts. the district attorney says the case could be eligible for the
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death penalty though he did not say if he would push for that. just for your information, we can't find another case where a police officer ever had the death penalty on the table because of what was done on duty. one aggravating factor for the prosecutor is a detail we hadn't heard before today. they say officer rolfe not only shot brooks multiple times. he kicked brooks, prosecutors say, as the man lay dying in that crowded parking lot. another new information is that prosecutors don't see rayshard as the only victim. they named others including the man i alluded to, melvin evans. he is going to join us this hour. he could have very well died that night as well, he says. he'll tell you why. now, the other officer in question here is devin brosnan, facing three charges. two of them are for standing on brooks' shoulder after he was
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down from the bullet wounds. the prosecutor says there was no rush by him or rolfe to get medical help. some of rolfe's own words friday night could be used against him. listen. >> at the time that the shot was fired, the utterance made by officer rolfe was, i got him. we also noted that officer rolfe was firing a taser at mr. brooks. the city of atlanta s.o.p.s in fact prohibit officers from firing tasers at someone who is running away. >> can't fire a taser. what does that mean for the ability to discharge a hand gun? now the da also said officer brosnan has turned states witness, but tonight brosnan's lawyers say that's not true and say that what brosnan did that night was exemplary.
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they, too, will join us this hour. but first, let's get to this late breaking news in atlanta. again, multiple sources within the police department tell cnn officers are not responding to calls in three zones this evening in protest against the charges that were brought against officers rolfe and brosnan. we have the atlanta mayor keisha lance bottoms to respond. mayor, thank you for being with us tonight. just for your information, if you hadn't heard yet, on social media the atlanta police department tweeted this. earlier suggestions that multiple officers from each zone had walked off the job were inaccurate. the department is experiencing a higher than usual number of call outs with the incoming shift. we have enough resources to maintain operations and remain able to respond to incidents. mayor, what do you make of this? >> well, you know, chris, across the country morale is down with
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police departments, and i think ours is down tenfold. this has been a very tough few weeks in atlanta. with the tragedy of mr. brooks and then on top of that the excessive force charges that were brought against the officers involved with the college students there is a lot happening in our city and our police officers are receiving the brunt of it, quite frankly. but what i will say is this. my administration has had a great working relationship with our officers. in fact, our officers were given an historic pay raise by our administration. it was so our officers wouldn't have to work three jobs and be fatigued so they could afford to live in the city of atlanta and so that they would not be resentful about policing our streets, so that we could have the best to choose from on our force. and so what i would say is in the same way our administrations
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made that commitment to our officers we expect our officers will keep their commitment to our communities. >> do you think the charges that came down today against officer rolfe warrant this kind of potential revolt by police officers? >> no, i don't. i don't. everything in this country is changed. i think what is surprising to many is the swiftness of the charges in the same way it was surprising with the college students two weeks ago. simply because we don't normally get charges this quickly from our district attorney but that being said everything in this country has changed. in light of what we saw with george floyd and ahmaud arbery and breonna taylor and now rayshard brooks, we should expect that things will be different. in bringing charges and even taking actions to fire police officers in a much more swift fashion, that is likely to be our new normal.
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>> so the speed of the charges toss doesn't bother you. you see it as a positive change. what about the substance of the charges against rolfe? one of the charges could amount to a potential death penalty case. >> well, we have an independently elected district attorney in our city. what i would say, though, as it relates to the swiftness of these charges, i just want to see the same swiftness as it relates to the other use of force cases that are sitting on the district attorney's desk. we have at least two other cases involving officer involved shootings and we have not gotten outcomes on those cases so i just think we want to see it across the board. and, you know, i'll defer to the district attorney on what the appropriate charges were. there was information that even i learned today in watching his press conference in terms of the other officer and the allegations made against the other officer and even that there was another vehicle hit during all of this.
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so i'm getting a lot of information the same time as the public is getting it and we'll review it and continue to make our decisions accordingly. >> three quick things. one, what you were just saying about wanting action in the other cases. is some politics being played here in terms of this case being dealt with swiftly and with a heavy hand because it is in the news? do you believe the prosecutors or, you know, they're politicians, too. are they playing to the politics here? >> i know our district attorney is involved in a run-off so i won't speak to that. i think there is a bit of a difference in the other cases in that there is not body cam video available and i believe i heard him say today that is the reason he's not taken action on those other cases. but the point is that we still have some other families awaiting some fninality and outcomes on those cases. >> you know a lot more about this than they do but gbi was surprised by the swiftness of charges and there is reporting
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they felt they hadn't been in the loop. >> well, that is between the district attorney and the gbi, chris. i have more to deal with than i can say grace over right now so i'll leave that up to them to figure that part out. >> assuming it's true and the video bears it out, we've seen a freeze frame, but prosecutors put it forth as an allegation today that officer rolfe said i got him. officer rolfe allegedly kicked rayshard brooks and that they didn't render aid right away and officer brosnan that his charges stem largely from him standing on mr. brooks' shoulder after he was shot. your reaction? >> chris, everything about this case is disturbing to me, from watching the more than 30-minute interaction between mr. brooks and the officers to seeing it in this way is, i don't even have the words to describe how disturbing it was because what struck me is that he was not
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humanized in that moment. there were so many other things that could have happened. this could have turned out so differently. and then i watched anderson cooper just before coming on with you and to see mr. brooks tell his story about being incarcerated, my dad went to prison when i was 8. i counted each and every day waiting for him to come home. and to think that he was simply trying to get to his daughter's 8th birthday celebration because he said that, when he spoke of what he had planned and why he just wanted to walk to his sister's house. it is just tragic. and, you know, i go between anger and frustration and just sheer sadness because for everything that we're doing in atlanta to try and get it right, when something like this happens, shows that there is a deeper systemic problem that we have, and even if we get it
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right tomorrow, it still doesn't bring mr. brooks back home to his family. >> true. when you talk about systemic issues, you have one going on right now. i mean, do you have your hands around how many officers are involved in this not calling in or calling out sick, this apparent revolt in response to these charges? the department put out the tweet i read earlier for the audience saying they think they have enough resources. but how many officers are we talking about? do you know? >> well, we don't have a count yet because we were in the midst of a shift change but what i do know is that we do have enough officers to cover us through the night. and our streets won't be any less safe because of the number of officers who called out. but it is just my hope again that our officers will remember the commitment that they made when they held up their hand and they were sworn in as police officers. >> right. but there is strength in numbers as we both know. that is why i'm asking, mayor.
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if we are talking about six, ten people who are particularly passionate about what they think the job is about and how it is being perceived and this prosecution is one thing. if it's dozens, you have a different scale of problem on your hands. >> we do. but the good thing is that we are not the only agency in atlanta. we have other partners across the metropolitan area including assistance from the state and from the county and from other jurisdictions. so we will be fine. the thing that i'm most concerned about is how we repair the morale in our police department and how do we ensure that our communities are safe as they interact with our police officers. >> what do you do, reach out to the union? what do you do? this is an unusual thing to hear about. i know we are living through unusual times. but if you have any scale of officers not wanting to report to duty, that is a novel problem
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to have. have you reached out to the union? what are the different avenues of access to heal? >> i've not spoken directly to the union today but i'm sure that we will be in contact with them. i've been in contact with our interim police chief. and, listen. there is no playbook for what we are dealing with right now across the country. so what i do know is that we have a lot of men and women who work for our police department who care about this city and they work each and every day with integrity and with honest interactions with our communities. and so those are the people who i expect will show up for work. and if we have officers who don't want bad officers weeded out of the force, then that is another conversation we need to have with all of our officers. when we're talking about fixing what is wrong with our police department and what's happening in our communities it is just as much for the protection of our communities as it is for our police officers. >> absolutely.
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understood. i've been in atlanta often. i've seen them do the job. i've done it as a journalist. i understand how important they are to the community. you said that you'll be okay because you got surrounding forces to draw on. are any surrounding jurisdictions sending man power to help cover the gap right now? >> well, right now we are covered with our force, because we have some officers who are staying on a bit longer to cover a longer shift to make up the difference but we've already notified many of our other partners just in case we need to call others in. but we're fine. i think our true test will be likely tomorrow but i don't have any concerns about where we are this evening. >> nobody's given you any indication that this is just the beginning, mayor, you'll see more tomorrow? we're not going away? >> you know what, chris? i take it one day at a time and in the morning we'll start over and we'll see what we have before us. but again, this is an independently elected district
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attorney. i didn't talk with the district attorney before he went forward with these charges. these are charges that he decided to bring against our officers and, you know, we will see how justice will be served. for mr. brooks. and we'll see what the outcome is with these officers. but meanwhile, we have communities that we still need to protect and it is my hope in the same way that i kept my word to our officers when it came to the historic pay raise they'll keep their word to the people of atlanta. >> mayor keisha lance bottoms, these are difficult times that demand leadership. thank you for being with us tonight to provide exactly that. >> thank you. >> be well. all right. i told you that officer brosnan's team is pushing back. one, they say he is not cooperating with prosecutors as a witness for them. they say he is working with them and volunteering his interviews, etcetera. but not a state's witness.
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so what does that mean? and, more importantly, why the brosnan defense team says what he did that night was exemplary and exactly the right way to do the job. their case, next. at t-mobile, we know that connection is more important than ever. for customers 55 and up, we want you to get the value and service you need to stay connected. that's why we have a plan built just for you. saving 50% vs. other carriers with 2 unlimited lines for only $55. and we're here to help when you're ready to switch. visit a store or go to t-mobile.com/55.
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let's take a deeper look into the case now. okay? you have rolfe, the man who shot and killed rayshard brooks. the other officer is devin brosnan. he did not shoot at rayshard brooks let alone shoot him and hit him. but he is also looking at criminal charges here, three of them, possibly a sentence of up to 20 years. why? in part because of what you see in the video according to prosecutors. officer brosnan standing on rayshard brooks as he lay dying. now, there are questions about whether brosnan is going to testify against officer rolfe. here's what the da said today. >> officer brosnan is now becoming a cooperating witness for the state. we are asking the court to grant a bond of $50,000 and to allow
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officer brosnan to sign that bond as i indicated that he would become one of the first police officers to actually indicate that he is willing to testify against someone in his own department. >> is that true? not the part about him being one of the first. i'm sure it is. it is very rare. but is it actually happening? the officers' attorneys say no. let's talk with them. don samuel and amanda clark, thank you for taking the opportunity on "primetime." >> thank you. >> thank you. >> amanda, i will start with you. what is the state of play between your client and the prosecutor's office? >> well, to be clear, there is no agreement that our client is going to testify at any hearing. he has been cooperative. he went in yesterday and made a statement to the assistant district attorney and their investigator. he provided them with his cell
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phone. we are going to provide medical records and photographs of his injury. if there is any other law enforcement agency like the gbi, which i would anticipate wants to talk to him, we will be cooperative. >> might there be a deal to work as a state's witness? >> in my view, he doesn't need a deal. he shouldn't have been charged with a crime in the first place. it is so early to be talking about any kind of court proceedings. what i will say about devin is he is not a state's witness. he is a witness. he will tell the truth about what he saw, what happened to him, and what happened. he will do so if he gets a subpoena, an investigating agency request to cooperate, he is just going to go out and tell the truth and tell what he saw. >> don, by the way, you guys can answer any question you want as we go along. i have a lot of them tonight. i think this is going to be very helpful for the audience. the statement from the team is, his actions were exemplary that
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night. let's just set that in contrast to the prosecutor's most damning allegation which is he stood on rayshard brooks' shoulder after he was on the ground and shot. how is that exemplary? >> well, you have to take a few steps back. remember, the encounter with mr. brooks became chaotic when mr. brooks tried to resist arrest. >> yes. >> and you've seen i'm sure the videos of them fighting. devin ends up taking out his taser and yelling at him, stop fighting. stop fighting. mr. brooks grabs the taser from him and shoots devin. devin gets shot with the taser. he then falls over and lands on his head on the pavement and he gets a concussion. we have the medical records, which the d.a. just had no interest in seeing. we've got the medical records o to show that he has a concussion. he's got bruises on his legs. >> right. >> on his knees are injured, on his arms. >> we'll put up pictures of the bruises just so you know. i apologize.
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i have a tendency to interrupt just to create more information for the audience. i'm showing pictures of a bruise just so you know. we have some. we're showing them now. >> okay. >> you can tell us if they're not what you've seen before. but, don, these are the photos we've gotten that are supposedly of his injuries. do they size up with what you're talking about? >> yeah, well, these are photos taken four or five days after the incident. gbi took photos and the d.a.'s office never looked at those either. the important thing is the concussion that he suffers. >> right. >> that the grady hospital documented. but then he runs, you know, he follows officer rolfe and mr. brooks who were running away and he is suffering from a concussion. he says he is dizzy. his head is hurting. metaphorically seeing stars. then he hears the gunshots and he doesn't even know who is shooting. you can see in the video he ducks behind a car because he doesn't know who is shooting. then he gets out from behind the
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car and goes up to where mr. brooks has fallen down and he still doesn't know that he's been shot. he puts his -- he testified to this. he talked about this with the d.a. he put his -- he put his foot on the arm to make sure he didn't have access to a weapon. he still had, you know, within reach the taser that he had taken from devin. and for six or seven seconds he puts his foot on the arm until he can make sure that he doesn't grab a weapon. then he takes his foot off. and the d.a. says that is an aggravated assault. which is ludicrous. it wasn't an assault at all. >> right. >> it is a man suffering a concussion and has been injured. he is trying to make sure that the -- that it is safe in this location where they are now. >> just to ping-pong it, don -- i gave you the benefit of the argument but to ping-pong it, amanda, it is an aggravated assault unless you can remove the intent by saying he had a
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concussion and he didn't know what the hell he was doing. that may well be your defense to it. but running up to a guy laying on the ground and standing on his shoulder and not giving medical aid is going to be charged as an aggravated assault absent a better explanation. >> no, i disagree. >> why? >> an assault puts somebody in fear of immediately receiving a violent bodily injury. that wasn't devin's intent. there was no malice or ill intent in what he did. he was going there and following his training to say, let me figure out what is going on. i just heard shots fired. now mr. brooks is on the ground. let me just put my foot down on his arm to make sure that he doesn't have access to a weapon as don just said and as soon as that was clear, he took it off. >> but there was a lot of time there, amanda, more than just that period of assessment that there was no help given. they were standing on him or talking about him, and then they started to render aid. that is interpreted by the
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prosecutor as either just not doing your duty or having animus toward mr. brooks, meaning they didn't like him. >> go ahead, don. >> the timeline is not the way the d.a. described it today. within a matter of seconds you hear the sirens coming. they rolled him over to try to figure out where the entrance wound is when they realize that he -- when devin realizes he has been shot. in less than a minute rolfe is running back to his car to get the first aid kit. this notion that -- >> the prosecutor says rolfe kicked him, don. >> the two minutes is just wrong. >> the prosecutor says rolfe kicked him. >> that is not visible on the video and devin certainly never saw that. within less than a minute he is running back to get his first aid kit. other police officers are there on the scene. other police officers are there. they're not rendering aid. the only person who ends up rendering aid is the man with a
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concussion, our client. other police officers are standing there. there is an ambulance coming. there's fire trucks heard. other police cars are coming. they indict our guy who has a concussion who is the only one who ends up doing c.p.r. it makes no sense what the d.a. is charging. >> i take that argument. amanda, let's look at this idea that the performance that night was exemplary in the context of several different aspects of this starting from light to heavy. light is, you see the guy. he's drunk. he says he wants to walk home. you could have let him walk home. you don't have to but in terms of exemplary or not. two, you can't get him on the ground and with all due respect watching the video as somebody who is not a cop, never been a cop, been with lots of cops, spent many years of my life training in ground fighting and self-defense. two men should be able to take one man down. the training looked absent at best. i don't know how that is exemplary. then brooks takes your taser even though he is drunk and you have another cop there with you. how is that exemplary?
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and then you get knocked senseless in the course of your job against a drunk man. how is any of that exemplary in terms of how he should have been able to do the job? >> sure. well, so i go back and start with the initial response. when devin goes over there he is not going over there thinking who am i going to arrest? he goes over there thinking, let me figure out what's going on. >> right. >> his initial thought is this man maybe had a long day at work. maybe he's got a medical condition. you see on the video he says to him, what's going on? >> very nice. >> that, to me, is exemplary in showing care and respect and concern about the citizen that he is dealing with. you know, with regards to the argument, well why didn't you call him an uber. >> or drive him home. >> number one, mr. brooks provided an ohio driver's license and he was driving a rental car. we also see in the video he is disoriented about where he is. he says he is in forest park,
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georgia when in fact he is in the city of atlanta. he thinks his hotel is just down the street over a bridge. there is no bridge nearby. so letting him walk home in devin's opinion was not an option particularly for mr. brooks' safety. >> okay. how about the inability to make the arrest? >> yeah, so what i will say when i saw that struggle is, well let me back up and tell you one thing too i think is important to highlight which is that devin did not know officer rolfe was going to arrest mr. brooks at that point in time. you can see on the video there is no verbal announcement that arrest is about to be made. there was no nonverbal communication. you know, it is not like -- >> does brosnan think rolfe did the job the right way that night? >> brosnan is not, has not offered any opinion about what officer rolfe did and, you know, quite frankly don and i are not concerned about defending officer rolfe's actions. he has his own legal team. we'll leave that to them.
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we're concerned about devin. so can i just -- >> yeah, fine. i'm just asking you in the context you said he is going to tell the truth, answer the questions. that is part of the truth. his perception of what rolfe did and why brooks wound up dead is part of the truth. >> well, what devin would say is, i, devin, would have liked a heads up we were about to take this guy into custody. >> is he okay with brooks being shot from behind? >> of course not. as i said, we've put out a written statement earlier, you know, and what we said is that -- and what devin has communicated to us, is that he has grief about the situation. you know, he offers his condolences to mr. brooks' family. this was a tragic situation. you know, and from devin's point of view, when he went there, you know, to initially engage with
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mr. brooks, he had no clue it was going to end up the way it did. he also had no clue that mr. brooks was going to struggle the way he did. devin had no clue he was going to end up smacking his head on the pavement. i don't think anybody, and all of us have watched the video, right, nobody watched the first 40 minutes of the video and thinks that a struggle is about to happen because as we've all seen mr. brooks was, you know, friendly. he was being respectful to the officers. the first 40 minutes were a good interaction. >> his decision to struggle changed everything for the worse. there is no question. the only question is whether or not a warrant is a death sentence, which is him deciding to struggle and get into a fight with two cops winds up you getting shot from behind which i don't know how you justify. >> of course it doesn't warrant a death sentence and you know that, chris. he doesn't warrant a death sentence but we're talking about devin. devin gets injured. as i've said, repeatedly.
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he gets a concussion. >> i get it. >> all he can testify about is what he observed. you can see it on the video as well as he can. asking him to render an opinion what do you think should have happened is no more meaningful than asking anybody else what happened. >> that is not true. >> he is injured. he is on the ground. >> let's be honest. this is playing out in two courts right now and they are conflated. they combine in terms of relevance. obviously for this prosecutor's office. if he has observations of what rolfe did and whether he thought it was right or not under the circumstances, and whether it was something that he would have done, it is not only relevant in the context of the understanding of the prosecution, but it is very relevant to the overall dialogue that is going on in his community right now. and if his goal is to tell the truth and to be candid, that's got to be part of his actions. if that is his intention, fair
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or not. >> absolutely. i agree with you. he is absolutely going to describe everything that he observed. he is going to describe everything that he saw. and he did it yesterday when we sat down in the da's office with the da and investigator. every second by second by second he described what he observed. >> did he think the shots were warranted? >> huh? >> did he think the shots were warranted? >> now you're really asking -- >> he was further away. he was behind him. he didn't even know who had shot the gun at the time. i don't think he thought in any way, shape, or form that anybody should have been shot or that mr. brooks deserved to be shot. there is no question about it. he didn't want mr. brooks to be shot. there is no question about that at all. and we told the da that he would be cooperative and answer every question. but someone has to ask mr. rolfe. his legal team is going to have to explain what was going through his mind. >> no question. they are invited every night
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just as you were. i have to tell you, don and amanda, it is helpful to the audience because people feel like we're living in two different worlds these days. it is very important for people like you and obviously your client. i know he has a case coming up. he gets the opportunity as well if he wants it. thank you for answering the questions about what matters in this situation in court but also in this country. thank you very much to you both. >> thank you for having us. >> yes, sir. >> appreciate you taking the opportunity. we have more on this ahead. let's get an observation about what it looked like in real time. okay. fine. let's take the attorneys at their word for the sake of argument. brosnan had a concussion. he didn't know what was going on. okay. a witness nearly got shot himself that night. he's here. you've never heard his story. but you will. also, urgent developments tonight on coronavirus. i've got it for you next. ♪ ♪
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all right. i'll get you to this witness in the rayshard brooks case but i can't let these lies about coronavirus go unchecked. it is too important. 21 states have cases surging. you know that. but the president won't acknowledge the reality. a president has power. trump was interviewed by a local tv group a short time ago and asked about his upcoming campaign rally in tulsa. oklahoma has a problem with case growth. he said, quote, if you look, the numbers are very miniscule compared to what it was. it's dying out. that's not true. okay? a source close to the white house coronavirus task force says trump is in denial. okay? there is only one reality, and it is not his. we will give you the facts. you make the choices you want to with your life.
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but he is not telling you the truth. all right. now, on the issue of truth, we have more on what it looked like that night as rayshard brooks was talking to then fought with then pursued and shot by the police. eight different cameras. but our guest was there. he saw it himself. in fact, he was in a vehicle that got hit. his eyewitness view inches from catching a bullet, next. the tempur-pedic breeze makes sleep... feel cool. because the tempur-breeze transfers heat... away from your body. so you feel cool... night after night. during the tempur-pedic summer of sleep, experience the mattress ranked number one in customer satisfaction by jd power. in customer satisfaction and get way more.ith wso you can bring yours vision to life and save in more ways than one.
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one of the surprises today, the brooks case, was the district attorney in fulton county making the case that rayshard was not the only victim in this case. one of the bullets fired by officer rolfe hit an suv in the wendy's drive through. sitting on the other side of the hole that you see in the door was melvin evans. he is here now along with his lawyer for an exclusive interview. thank you for taking the opportunity. thank god you are okay. how are you doing, melvin, with all this? >> i'm doing fine. >> good. good to hear. so just tell the audience, what
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did you see that night? >> we pulled up into wendy's. we just literally got to -- we were just looking for something to eat. pulled up into wendy's. we heard arguing. an altercation. about a couple of seconds later, we see the victim running toward us and the officer was chasing him. he had a taser in his right hand. the victim had a taser in his hand. the officer shot three times and dropped and we was ducking because we didn't want to get hit. >> did you see rayshard brooks try to fire the taser at the
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officer who was chasing him? >> he pointed the taser in the air and i don't think he shot it -- i think he was doing -- he shot it to get the officer off of him. he didn't point it toward him, though. he just was running away from the officer. >> he never stopped and turned toward him, didn't turn his whole body around and face the officer at any time? >> no, sir. he was still -- he was running. he just pointed up -- i guess he was just trying to get the officer off of him. >> once he got shot and he hit the ground do you remember what you saw then? >> we was ducking. i just seen him hit the ground and we was just ducking in the
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truck. my partner behind me was like -- oh -- he said, pull out. back up. pull out. i said, no. i'm not going to pull out while this man got this gun in his hand because if i move, he's right ten feet from the truck. i might run over them or something being nervous or trying to get from the scene or shoot at the truck. i don't know. so i just stood there for a minute until he put his gun up. >> you were worried that if you tried to drive away the officer may shoot at you? >> yes, yeah. >> why? >> i mean, because i was nervous. i mean, i probably would have ran into him because they was right there by the truck. they was right there. >> but, chris, you think about everything melvin has seen and
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he's seen over the last two weeks and over the years of his life, he had a right to be ferful. as a black man, our perspective is different when we encounter a police officer. you got to think melvin and his friends just saw in their view a horrific murder of another black man right in front of them. so he had every right and understanding to be fearful. it's two different perspectives. melvin wanted to stay because he was scared and his friend michael in the back seat wanted to get out of there because he was scared. the common denominator is they were scared for their lives. it shouldn't have been that way. >> they didn't even know the suv had been hit. i totally get it. that is why i am asking because it is so sad. melvin, that's why i'm asking. it's sad what happened to brooks. it is sad that you have the ideas that you do in your head and in your heart about this. it just, you know, you're young.
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i'm old. it is so sad that we are where we are today. and i appreciate you talking to me about this. do you remember at all if you can the moments after you and your partner having the talk about what to do, brooks is on the ground. do you remember seeing what the officers were doing at all? jtsds >> all i know is when we left i think he put cuffs on. that is when i got away from the scene. >> do you remember them trying to help him? >> no. >> do you remember anybody kicking him or standing on him? >> i didn't -- that probably happened after we left. >> chris, they were so fearful once the shooting happened for their own lives and they have a right to be fearful.
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they kind of went underneath the car and wanted to get out of the situation themselves. they'd been bold enough and courageous enough to come forward after the fact to make sure the brooks family gets justice and they despite everything they're dealing with themselves. all of my clients are here to give the brooks family justice. they offer condolences to the family and they want to give evidence and information to the district attorney to ensure with e get justice in the case. they're being honest and truthful. >> i hear it. i appreciate it. i'm a lawyer, i respect the right to counsel and having it. it's sad how many people come with counsel these days just to tell the truth about what happened. everybody is so on guard. i know this has to be hard to watched it in realtime. and i'm sorry that you have these memories haunting you in
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your head and heart. thank you for sharing what you saw so people can understand the truth of the situation from someone who was there. >> you're welcome. >> thank you, chris. >> god bless and good luck to you and your partner going forward. >> appreciate that. >> we have more news tonight in the coronavirus. i'll give it to you. as business moves forward, we're all changing the way things get done. like how we redefine collaboration... how we come up with new ways to serve our customers... and deliver our products. but no matter how things change, one thing never will - you can rely on the people and the network of at&t... to help keep your business connected. but a resilient business you cacan be ready for it.re. a digital foundation from vmware
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look atstaring at you.p wall. embarrassing you in front of your in-laws. spreading rumors about you at work. that wall is your everest - but not any more. today let's paint. that wall never knew what hit it. today let's paint. behr. exclusively at the home depot. have to get back to the truth. what the president is saying is making us sick, literally. this pandemic is dying out he says. he made the comment when squd about his upcoming rally in tulsa oklahoma. worried about what could happen after the president draws a big crowd. >> we should have done any and everything we could to move this to some other time. because as you all heard the numbers are spiking. this could be a super-spreader.
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given two weeks after this event, i can promise you we are going to see issues in this community. >> trump supporters you think the rally is worth it? president says the campaign will do temperature checks. so what. and give out masks which are optional. why? and don't you have people sign releases if you want them to come, you take the responsibility. we're coming right back. ♪ ♪ ♪
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