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Erin Burnett Outfront
Police: Ambush Killing Five Officers Was Well Planned; More Police Targeted After Deadly Dallas Ambush; Witness Who Filmed Deadly Ambush Speaks Out; Protests Growing After Police Ambush and Deadly Shootings; Police: Suspect "Said He Wanted to Kill White People"; Clinton, Trump Cancel Events After Dallas Police Ambush. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired July 08, 2016 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:09] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We just lost you. We just ran out of time, as well. I want to thank all of our guests. That's it for me.
Erin Burnett OUTFRONT starts right now.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: OUTFRONT next. The breaking news. New attacks against police officers around this country as new details emerge tonight about the deadly ambush in Dallas. Was the shooter planning an event larger attack?
Plus, the attack playing out live on Facebook. My guest, the man who risked his life to film it. Why did he do it?
And he survived three tours of duty overseas only to die in the streets of Dallas protecting Americans. The father of that brave police officer is my guest tonight. Let's go OUTFRONT.
Good evening. I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news. Terror in Dallas. New details coming out about the sniper who shot 12 police officers, killing five of them in a six-hour siege last night. It is the deadliest attack on law enforcement since 9/11. Micah Xavier Johnson, a 25-year-old army vet is now believed to be the lone shooter. CNN learning that he was armed with two weapons, a semiautomatic rifle and a handgun.
Police making a stunning discovery in Johnson's home late today. Bomb-making materials, ballistic vests, rifles, ammo and a journal of combat tactics. And we have new video tonight of a witness who captured footage from the parking garage as the gunman appears to be raining the gun fire down on the streets.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that a cop dead?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dude, that's a cop down! Dude, that's a cop down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. There are four cops down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He shot five seven times.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a dude?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. It's a sniper from up here somewhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a sniper?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You hear the shots?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down! Get down!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: This comes as the nation is on age, more police officers have come under attack in just the past hours. In Tennessee, a gunman targeting a police officer shouting "Black Lives Matter." In Georgia, a suspect luring a policeman into an apartment complex, shooting and wounding him. And in Missouri, a driver pulled over for speeding then shooting the officer in the neck and that officer is in critical condition tonight. The others are all injured.
All of this happening as tensions are running high across the nations. Protesters gathering from New York to Los Angeles. These are live pictures of Atlanta that you're looking at.
Ed Lavandera begins our coverage of this breaking story tonight in Dallas. And Ed, you're learning new details about the shooter and what possibly motivated him?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes. Investigators have been poring through his home in the suburb of Mesquite. They did that in the overnight hours and into this morning and we've learned that investigators there discovered a number of weapons, ammunitions and even a journal laying out combat tactics and detectives are in the process of combing through that journal to learn more about this suspect Micah Johnson. We were told by neighbors that investigators started showing up there at the house in Mesquite just after 1:00 in the morning and pulled out bags and bags of evidence from inside the home.
Micah Johnson served in the U.S. Army, did tour in Afghanistan, Erin, and also came back here, but many of the neighbors we spoke would say, they didn't really see him around all that much. One neighbor described him as reclusive. Investigators are poring over every detail of his life trying to piece together the intense motivations. Dallas police officers have described that part of their conversations that they had during the standoff in the overnight hours where Micah Johnson detailed that he had hatred for white people, specifically white police officers and that's who he wanted to injure and wound. Those are some of the conversations that Dallas police officers have shared from the conversations they had with him throughout the standoff last night -- Erin. BURNETT: All right. Ed, thank you very much. And that standoff as
Ed's talking about it was about six hours. Almost six hours this was happening.
Martin Savidge is OUTFRONT with the details and exactly how the siege unfolded.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(GUNSHOTS)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 9:00 p.m. with gunshots ringing out across downtown Dallas, the first call from a Dallas police dispatcher.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Officer, shots fired. Code three. Stay off the radio. Officer down.
SAVIDGE: Multiple units respond to the chaotic scene. Hundreds of people running for their lives. Minutes earlier, many had been just marching peacefully in protest over the deaths of two black men shot by police in Louisiana and Minnesota. The march winding through several downtown blocks was coming to an end when the shooting broke out. At least one sniper holed up in the parking garage at a Dallas Community College.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that a cop dead?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a cop down!
[19:05:07] SAVIDGE: Dozens of Dallas police officers there to protect the demonstrators now easy targets.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got a guy with a long rifle, but we don't know where the hell he's at.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Parking garage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Slow down! He's the damn building right there. I don't know where he's at. He's in that building.
SAVIDGE: The deadly gun battle rages for several hours and police take cover behind patrol cars and in doorways. Some attending to their wounded comrades.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somebody is really armed to the teeth.
SAVIDGE: 10:30. Police report there appears to be multiple snipers coordinating the ambush and firing from elevated positions. Ismael de Jesus in his hotel room as he records a heavily armed man shooting just outside the parking garage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A man had a rifle and AR-15, clear as day. Pretty big magazine.
SAVIDGE: De Jesus watches in horror as one officer who tries to sneak up on the sniper is shot to death execution style.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He stood over him after he was already down and shot him maybe three or four more times in the back.
SAVIDGE: 11:45, police cordon the shooter in the garage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We tried to negotiate for several hours and the negotiations broke down.
SAVIDGE: There was a long exchange of gun fire. Finally, police make a decision to take out the shooter by sending in the bomb squad's robot and blowing it up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Other options would have exposed officers to grave danger. The suspect is deceased as a result of detonating the bomb.
SAVIDGE: The shooter, 25-year-old Micah Xavier Johnson, an army vet with no known criminal record. He lived with his mother in a middle class Dallas suburb. During the standoff Johnson told police why he did it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was upset about the recent police shootings. The suspect said he was upset at white people. The suspect stated he wanted to kill white people especially white officers.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: The wounded officers, Erin, continue to be treated here at Baylor University Medical Center. There's been no public update on their conditions and the police say that's out of respect to their families. Also, an initial review by the Police Department shows that there were at least 12 officers that did engage the gunmen returning his fire and lastly, there are still a number of streets in the heart of downtown Dallas that remain closed and they are a crime scene and investigators say they will probably remain closed until the middle of next week -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Martin.
And OUTFRONT now, the mayor of Dallas, Mike Rawlings. And Mayor Rawlings, thank you so much for being with us. I just want to say how sorry I feel, everyone watching feels, how heartbroken we are, all of us in this country for what you are going through.
MAYOR MIKE RAWLINGS, DALLAS: We feel that, Erin. All across this nation people are lifting us up. So thank you.
BURNETT: And Mayor, how are your officers doing, the injured officers that right now are trying to get better?
RAWLINGS: We feel good about them. It looks like either they have all been released or just one or two getting the final treatments, but there out of the danger zone. They're going to be okay, and so that's a relief. It doesn't match what the sense of sorrow we've got with losing five officers. BURNETT: No, it doesn't, but it is a blessing that they are all going
to be all right. A significant thing for you to be able to say tonight, Mayor.
Do you feel your city is safe, safe for your police who are out in streets right now and who are trying to keep it safe? Safe for your residents?
RAWLINGS: Well, last night it wasn't, and so you have to start with that. For years, for the last six years we haven't had a police fatality and we were really proud of that. We celebrate that every year, but it only takes one time and a crazed gunman like this that sets up perfectly to create a lot of tragedy. I think the citizens feel safe. We do surveys all the time and they believe we're one of the safest cities in the nation. Crime rates come down and we do it with making sure citizens' civil rights are held up high, as well. So, we believe we're a model of good policing, but even in that situation, bad things can happen.
BURNETT: Mayor, initially officials of course, described the shooting as a coordinated attack, multiple snipers, 12 officers shot, now, though, I know officials have been very specific that Johnson acted alone. Why did your thinking change from putting out the theory of possible multiple snipers to just a lone gunman?
[19:10:11] RAWLINGS: Well, first of all, when we make those comments it's like seeing several pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. That we've got a sense about them, but we don't put it all together. We put the whole puzzle together at this point. What happened was there was up to 20 individuals that were at the protests in camo gear, in body armor and rifles that are legal to carry. And so when the gunman started firing and people started running, we saw those gunmen, excuse me, those people carrying guns run and we thought they were coming from different directions. He was moving around throughout the building, he wasn't just in one place and that led us to the hypothesis.
BURNETT: And police have now said that the news, the latest news we have, Mayor is bomb-making material, ballistic vest, rifle, ammunition, personal journal of combat tactics, all of that in the suspect's home. Did the protests here for the police shootings had been planned just 24 hours earlier, but he had all of this stuff in his possession, in his home, do you believe he was planning something even larger and that this was, perhaps, just a moment of opportunity?
RAWLINGS: Well, obviously, he wanted to make hell of our city and it was a convenient time to do it. The way he moved his car around demonstrated to us that he was using the protest to as a platform to get the police in the right position. The manner of that protest doesn't say that this was highly planned and he was very astute in how to maneuver his car around to make sure he had the high ground in this situation.
BURNETT: It's interesting you say astute, but not necessarily highly planned. The crucial question, of course, Mayor, did he have any help? RAWLINGS: Well, that's what we're looking at right now. Are there
co-conspirators? Is there someone that aided and abetted this terrible crime and that's what our police investigators are looking at. If there are, we will find them and we will bring them to justice, as well.
BURNETT: Well, Mayor Rawlings, again, I appreciate your time tonight and my sympathies you.
RAWLINGS: Thank you. Let's come together as a country, OK? Let's use this as an opportunity to join arms and unify. Thank you.
BURNETT: Let's hope that many hear and take those words deeply to heart. Thank you, sir.
And OUTFRONT next, the man who risked his life to film the attack as it was happening in Dallas last night. He is my guest after this.
Plus, one Texas official calling the protesters hypocrites. His comments raising serious questions tonight. And one of the police officers killed last night, an Iraq war veteran, multiple tours of duty. His father is my guest coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:16:46] BURNETT: Breaking news. Live pictures right now. People marching in Atlanta. You can see them gathering. The protester, people marching in solidarity as the case may be. They are gathering, more and more of them moment by moment here. And this comes as we are learning more about police officers targeted across this country. A horrific thing that happened today even before the deadly ambush in Dallas. The FBI in New Orleans was warning about threats to police and police say that officers have now been targeted in Tennessee, Georgia and Missouri in the aftermath of police killings of black men.
Evan Perez is OUTFRONT. And Evan, I mean, this is, it's pretty terrifying, I mean, in some cases, you know, stopping someone for a traffic stop and then the police officer getting shot in the neck, that police officer is injured. What are you learning about the threat against police right now?
EVAN PEREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, the threat is very real. Just to give you an example. In Bristol, Tennessee, a man armed with two guns and a large amount of ammunition started firing at motorists and at a hotel and then when police responded he opened fire on those officers injuring one of them. Tennessee investigators say they believe that the man was upset about police-involved shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota earlier this week and also police in Georgia say that an officer there was ambushed this morning, shot and wounded and in Missouri, a police officer is in critical condition after being shot in the neck during a traffic stop. In New Orleans, the FBI yesterday warned Police Departments across Louisiana of social media postings threatening violence against police officers. So really, this is a very, very scary and dangerous time for law enforcements across the country -- Erin. BURNETT: Incredibly terrifying especially as communities are asking
them to come out and protect people at these protests tonight. It is incredible when you think how heroic they are to go out and do their jobs right now. What are police departments doing? What is this country doing Evan to protect the officers?
PEREZ: Well, we've seen numerous Police Departments step up their office and protection efforts. Departments in New York and here in Washington and others around the country are taking different measures including increased security around their police precincts and ordering police officers to ride in twos, Erin. They're taking no chances.
BURNETT: Ride in twos. All right. Well, Evan, thank you very much.
And this deadly police ambush, of course as you know was caught on camera when the gunshots were started in Dallas. Eyewitness Michael Bautista begin filming, streaming his video live on Facebook. And here is part of what he captured.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy (bleep)
(GUNSHOTS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's an officer down right there.
(GUNSHOTS)
Holy (bleep). Holy (bleep).
(GUNSHOTS)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And Michael Bautista joins me now from Dallas. Michael, it's hard for you to watch that again.
MICHAEL BAUTISTA, WITNESS TO POLICE SHOOTOUT: Yes, it was. It's -- just the sound of it is overwhelming still.
[19:20:15] BURNETT: What was going through your mind as you were standing there watching that filming it?
BAUTISTA: God, I hope I don't get hit. Just -- I was thinking about my family the whole time, my son. Just, and I wanted to make sure that everybody saw.
BURNETT: And when you first heard the gun shots, Michael, what went through your head? You are someone who is familiar. I mean, it's not as if you have never heard gunshots before.
BAUTISTA: Yes, as I stated on multiple other stations, I was in the military for a little while. I never experienced something like that, though. It definitely felt militarized. I was very, very shocked especially after everything that happened at the rally, and it was so peaceful.
BURNETT: And I want to play another part of the video, Michael, for our viewers so they can just see something else that you saw about an officer. Here's the video.
(SIRENS)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BAUTISTA: There is an officer down. They're moving in on somebody.
(SIRENS)
I think they might have got somebody. I think another officer's down around the corner over here. They've got S.W.A.T. over here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Now, were you, at that time, you know, now they're saying there was just one shooter. From your perspective, Michael, with what you saw and what you heard, does that make sense to you?
BAUTISTA: That does make sense to me. Although I wasn't sure if they had actually got that person at that point because it was actually drawn out a lot longer than that. It took them maybe about 30 minutes after that point to come and get me and still they were saying that there was somebody in the alley, and it was just very disturbing.
BURNETT: And at one point, Michael, you stopped filming and then you went back. You actually went back, you started live streaming what you were seeing again on Facebook --
BAUTISTA: Yes.
BURNETT: -- and here's what you said when you started up the camera again.
BAUTISTA: More people started shooting. I don't know if it was the cops or if it was somebody else, but it looks like they're moving in on somebody else again.
BURNETT: And of course, Michael, this was a day -- barely a day right, after Philando Castile's girlfriend had streamed live video on Facebook of the aftermath of that shooting of her boyfriend in Minnesota. What were you thinking? What were your reasoning for choosing to do this live? You weren't just filming and then sending it out. You live streamed what you were seeing in Dallas.
BAUTISTA: I honestly wanted to protect myself and let my family know that I was OK first and foremost just because of the nature of the rally were so peaceful. But then, you know, once some shootings started happening. You know, you never know. I had a cell phone in my hand and my camera and I didn't want to be mistaken for somebody else, and I just wanted it to be clear that I was there just to document.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Michael, thank you very much for sharing what you saw with us.
And we're following the breaking news just into CNN. President Obama cutting short his European trip. He is leaving Spain a day early, he will be traveling to Dallas early next week personally responding to last night's deadly ambush.
We'll going to take a break on the other side next. Inside the mind of the Dallas gunman. Did anti-police sentiment around the country truly inspire him?
And Officer Patrick Zamarripa, he served two tours of duty in Iraq and lost his life on the streets of Dallas last night. His father is OUTFRONT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:28:19] BURNETT: Breaking news at this hour. Protests growing across the country. Live pictures of New York City right now. The protests coming less than 24 hours after five police officers were shot and killed, seven others wounded in an ambush in Dallas. This is actually Washington, that you're looking at, as you can see. Dallas announcing that Micah Johnson was the lone gunman behind the carnage. That is the latest that we know at this hour. And officials also confirming bomb-making materials were found at the home of the army veteran and a lot of bomb making materials.
Ed Lavandera is OUTFRONT in Dallas. And Ed, as we hear about more police officers targeted, is Dallas a city on edge?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think, obviously Dallas police officers on the streets back again today feeling that tension, but in many places, like if you see here just outside of the Dallas Police Department Headquarters just south of downtown and just about a mile or so from where the attack took place last night, there have been a number of officers coming out and mingling with people who have been leaving flowers and well wishes here for the officers of the department.
But there's no question that they do feel the intensity of this moment. And you know what's rather ironic, Erin is just a couple of weeks ago, Donald Trump held a rally just across the street here from the Police Department and the Dallas Police Department showed up in force. You could tell that day as you had different anti-Trump protesters and pro-Trump supporters who were mixing in the streets there that day. They really shutdown and quelled everything that was becoming rather tense at times very quickly. So this was a Police Department that is well versed, well trained and well prepared for these types of situations and kind of intensity in these moments that they do understand quite well.
[19:30:05] BURNETT: All right. Ed, thank you very much.
And OUTFRONT now, our law enforcement analyst and retired NYPD detective Harry Houck, and criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor Paul Martin.
Sorry to have you back under these horrible circumstances, horrible developments.
Harry, police say the shooter said he wanted to kill white people and especially that he wanted to kill white police officers. What does this tell you about race relations in this country right now?
HARRY HOUCK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, they're definitely not good. He said that he was inspired, you know, from listening to some of the rhetoric coming from Black Lives Matter and he also did mention the last two shootings that occurred. I don't -- I don't see how a man who served in the military allegedly honorably as far as we know can all of a sudden turn like this and come out and create the havoc and the devastation that he did last night in Dallas.
That really -- that really affects my mind thinking about that, how that man changed. This, the rhetoric, I think that is out there today and it's been out there for the last two years, at least, sort of did something to this young man's mind and turned him against white people and the police. Now I think we have to remember that words do matter and do affect some people.
The issue here is that -- and I think and this is just coming from my own thoughts here because I can't read this man's mind, but he did mention the two attacks and the rhetoric that was coming out of there and the fact that they were called racial issues when there was no evidence at all that they were racial issues, and I think this affected the man to a certain point that he came out and did what he was doing.
BURNETT: Now, Paul, one thing we do know is that he did reference Black Lives Matter and that is something that is causing in and of itself now a bigger backlash against Black Lives Matter. Rush Limbaugh today said something that I wanted to play for you.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: They're a terrorist group. They're quickly becoming a terrorist group committing hate crimes.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BURNETT: A terrorist group, Paul?
PAUL MARTIN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I don't agree with that. I think they're a group of individuals that are tired of the treatment of their brothers and sisters. They're tired of seeing people gunned down in the street. They're tired of being treated as they don't exist. They're tired of years and years of not having justice.
I think these are the individuals that are coming forth, and I don't think the acts of some psychotic, crazed gunman should be imposed on this movement or any other civil rights movement, nor just like the acts of a few bad police officers should not be brushed on all police officers throughout the country.
BURNETT: And yet, in Tennessee, in Georgia, and Missouri in the past 24 hours you've had police officers ambushed and attacked. They are all, thank God, right now recovering, but all of them, people tried to kill. There were more attacks against police.
MARTIN: That concerns me. That concerns me because it's taking -- it's moving the conversation from a conversation where we can be open and address the issues that we have in America to a conversation where the individuals are doing more harm than any good that could ever be done.
Police officers, and I said this last night, it's not a police issue. This is an issue of America. This is an issue we're dealing with the racial divide in America and until we confront it in the right way, we won't be able to address the situation.
BURNETT: Harry?
HOUCK: Don't we both have to look at this -- don't we both have to look at the situation, all right, and let calmer heads prevail? I can't see somebody who is level-headed actually sitting down with Black Lives Matter because they're not a level-headed group. Now, I did see --
MARTIN: According to you --
HOUCK: -- the head of the NAA -- well, let me speak, sir. I did see the head of the NAACP, I think it was from St. Paul speak today, that's a man I can talk to.
That man is a level-headed man, all right? He wasn't sitting there spitting out the racial tone of what had happened here. He was looking for an investigation. Now, I think what we have to do, if we're looking to really heal here, all right, after this terrible tragedy, then I think both sides, police and -- level-headed police officers and level-headed black leaders need to sit down and talk.
[19:35:05] And once we talk, try and make some changes so that we can both learn to understand each other, except the problem is every time something like this happens, we talk about it, and it never happens.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: Which is a fair point because, Paul, there's also rhetoric that has been going on for quite some time that's frankly unacceptable.
Look, we live in a country of free speech, but this is hateful stuff. This happened in the summer of 2014, after the police killed Eric Garner, people may remember that case. Here's what people were chanting during a protest.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PROTESTERS: What do we want? Dead cops!
When do we want it? Now!
What do we want? Dead cops!
When do we want it? Now!
What do we want? Dead cops!
When do we want it? Now!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And yet the people who are chanting that, right? They have cops protecting them on the streets.
MARTIN: Well, wait a second, it's the duty and obligation of all police officers to do their job and one of their jobs is it is to protect protesters no matter what those protesters may be.
Now, in response to Harry's question earlier, I'm kind of grateful that they won't be sitting down with you, Harry, to discuss situations, people from Black Lives Matter or any other type of group because we need to sit down and speak to individuals who acknowledge that there is a problem, to acknowledge that there is a sickness.
You cannot -- you cannot cure a sickness unless you acknowledge that based upon -- excuse me.
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: Excuse me, sir. I've let you speak. You're going to let me speak. Excuse me. So the issue --
HOUCK: I have talked about this before.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: Paul, finish your point and then Harry respond.
MARTIN: The issue is this, when individuals believe that there is no injustice in the criminal justice system, that there's not disparaging treatment of African-Americans and when they believe that everything that is blue is correct then we're not going to get anywhere because there is not going to be a helpful dialogue. You have to recognize that there is a problem within the system and there is a problem in the perception of the system, and until we address it and address it in a real way.
BURNETT: Paul, are you in any way saying -- and I know you're going say you're not, but I want you to get a chance that you're not. You're not saying that these sorts are going to keep happening, that it's okay that they're happening, that we should accept that they're happening because this dialogue isn't happening, right? There's no situation under which it's acceptable for someone to go out and shoot police officers, right?
MARTIN: There is no situation where it says it's acceptable for a police officer to be shot whatsoever. And by that same token, there's no reason for unarmed black men to be dying in the streets.
So, we both have to recognize that there is a problem and there is a situation and violence in any shape and form is unacceptable, whether it's police officers who are doing their job or it's on unarmed black men trying to make their way home.
BURNETT: Harry?
HOUCK: I will tell you what, Paul, I will not accept when we have these two last incidents that occurred where groups are coming out and politicians are coming out, and saying that these were racial issues when there is no evidence of racial issues.
Every time a white police officer gets involved with a black perpetrator and somebody is shot or killed, these groups and some of these politicians come out and say that it's a racial issue, all right? And it is not a racial issue.
MARTIN: Harry --
HOUCK: When you look at the evidence, all right? You sat -- I let you speak, sir. You sat and you looked at the evidence, you're just assuming that these are racial issues, just assuming that. We are a nation of laws. We do not convict people for assumptions and --
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: And we also don't execute them at car stops.
HOUCK: Sir, there is no evidence yet of -- that car stop is still under investigation, and I had said when I spoke about this investigation, that I could not make a determination of what happened.
Now, when I did speak about it, I spoke to it regarding me as a police officer and what might have happened at that time. I was speculating, OK? Now, there was a lot of rhetoric out there saying that the video shows everything. The video does not show everything.
MARTIN: I'm not saying that the video shows everything.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: Why use the word "execution", Paul? Paul, why use the word "execution"?
HOUCK: Yes.
MARTIN: Why used a word "execution"? An individual who says he's asked to go into their wallet, I'm going to get my wallet, and gets four in the chest, it sounds to me as an execution.
HOUCK: That's --
MARTIN: I don't understand how you -- I don't know any other explanation for it.
HOUCK: Don't you think we deserve to hear the officer's story?
(CROSSTALK) BURNETT: All right. We'll leave it there for tonight and have you both back. Thank you.
MARTIN: Thank you, Erin.
BURNETT: Thank you both.
And next, the 12 officers shot in Dallas.
[19:40:01] Five of them brutally killed. The father of one of them, one of those brave officers who leaves behind children, a young wife.
And why one of Donald Trump's campaign chairs is charging that Hillary Clinton is to blame for the shootings in Dallas.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Breaking news: a series of tragic shootings taking center stage in the race for the White House. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both canceling events today after five police officers were shot and killed in Dallas. They both wasted no time in responding to the massacre.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: This is an absolutely horrific event. Those police officers were protecting a peaceful protest, a protest of authority. That is a hallmark of America, and when the shooting started and everyone else was fleeing, the police were moving toward danger.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: A brutal attack on our police force is an attack on our country and an attack on our families. We must stand in solidarity with law enforcement which we must remember is the force between civilization and total chaos.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
[19:45:00] BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, Hillary Clinton supporter Bakari Sellers, and Donald Trump, Pastor Mark Burns.
And, Pastor Burns, let me start with you. Donald Trump put out a statement just hours after police officers were shot and killed in Dallas. He was quick to do that and he released that video. In that video, he did mention the police-involved shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota and he did not do so until after the police shootings in Dallas.
Should he have spoken out sooner?
PASTOR MARK BURNS, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: Well, you know, first of all, we do want to first give our prayers to all families and everyone that is involved, those who were in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, those in Minnesota, and in Dallas, we want to offer our prayers for the families. I do think Mr. Trump -- again, personally, I can't speak for Mr.
Trump, but I can simply suggest that it was important for us not to jump to conclusions. I think it was a horrible incident that took place in Minnesota and also in Baton Rouge, but we don't know -- at the time, didn't know all of the facts so we should immediately just begin to shoot down the police officers without having all of the facts, and that's really what has taken place in America.
And the response from the president I think were extremely divisive for him to speak to the divisive rhetoric that keeps us fighting each other and not focus on other things that unite us. So, I think Donald Trump, like many of us wanted to have all of the facts before we issued any type of a statement.
But it is a 911 cry that our country is divided and we have to have a leader that's going to bring us together.
BURNETT: Bakari, what do you say to his point? He's saying that President Obama was being divisive. I mean, I have to be honest with you, Pastor Burns, most people on both sides of the aisle that I've spoken to felt that he really stepped up and said something important, to deny that those shootings of those individuals by police were not an issue would be denying reality.
Bakari?
BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, I think that's absurd, but I think you've heard that talking point from many people, including Joe Walsh and Steve King and it did nothing, but fan the flames and add more divisive rhetoric. In fact, I believe to quote the president he said that when we say "black lives matter", that does not mean that blue lives do not matter. It's actually kind of eerie when you think about it today.
BURNETT: Right.
SELLERS: But the fact is, if Donald Trump wants to be a leader for this country and the blacks, as he refers to it so eloquently, love him, I would hope that he would be able to speak out at times when we need them most, Baton Rouge, that was a gut punch, Alton Sterling, in Minnesota.
BURNS: I think he did. I think he did.
SELLERS: In Minnesota, that was another gut punch. You had a 4-year- old girl in the backseat with her mother crying out, saying, I'm here with you mom. That is the type of specific pain that if you want to be a leader of this country, you not only have to speak out against, but you have to at least display some sympathy, because I'm sure that he can't display the empathy.
BURNETT: Pastor Burns?
BURNS: And I can agree with you, Bakari. But the issue is not really with Donald Trump, and the issue is not whether or not he should have spoken, you know, before the cops were killed or after the cops were killed.
BURNETT: It sounds like what you're saying, Pastor Burns, but you are --
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: Hold on, hold on, just to make sure I'm understanding what you're saying, you are saying you would have liked if he did come out earlier and say something?
BURNS: Well, no, that's not what I'm saying. I think it was important for Mr. Trump to have all of the facts. I think like any leader, his job and his heart is to bring our country together, and not to create this divisive rhetoric to come out, immediately gives -- speak out against it, the police who were in these two --
(CROSSTALK)
SELLERS: No, I know where --
BURNS: And I called the execution of black men, and I called it the execution of black men I think would be erroneous if you didn't have all the information. I think --
SELLERS: Nobody --
BURNS: -- what he wants to do was to simply, listen, I'm going to make sure, Bakari, I'm going to make sure that the statement I do release is going to be on that's speak into the soul of all Americans and that is including the black families that are going to --
(CROSSTALK)
SELLERS: Pastor Burns, Pastor Burns, briefly, Pastor Burns --
BURNS: We shouldn't be talking about that black young --
SELLERS: Pastor Burns --
BURNETT: Final word from you, Bakari.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: Quickly, Bakari.
SELLERS: Thank you.
Pastor Burns, nobody is against police. In fact, there are two aggrieved parties right now that are going through trauma in this country. They're being victimized. Law enforcement and African- Americans and I'm simply saying that if we're going have this discussion I hope that Donald Trump and everybody else can understand the pain that I'm going through, just as I do every day to try to understand the pain law enforcement is going through.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you both very much. BURNS: The pain that we're all going through, Bakari.
SELLERS: Thank you so much.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you both.
Next, he lost his life last night on the streets of Dallas. His father is going to be my guest to talk about his tours of duty and talk about his heroism to this country.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:53:41] BURNETT: Breaking news tonight: we're learning more about the victims of last night's deadly ambush. Twelve Dallas police officers shot, five of them lost their lives, nine others injured. Among the killed, 32-year-old Patrick Zamarripa. The father of two survived two tours in Iraq, another in Kuwait, and lost his life in downtown Dallas last night.
OUTFRONT tonight, Patrick's father, Rick.
And, Rick, it's impossible to say what people are thinking when they see you. I am so sorry. What do you want people to know about your son Patrick?
RICK ZAMARRIPA, FATHER OF OFFICER PATRICK ZAMARRIPA KILLED IN DALLAS: Well, first of all, my son Patrick was very, very helpful young man. He was very giving. He would give you his last dollar if he had it in his pocket and you needed it. He would bend over backward to help anybody out. He's very patient.
He would try to help anybody out the best he could. If you needed help, Patrick would, he would offer you to help, even if he couldn't do nothing, he would offer it to you.
My son -- he was -- since day one, since he was born. He was my little hero and he is a big hero -- he's a big hero now.
[19:55:05] Yes. He's -- he's going to be missed.
BURNETT: You're incredible to share about your son. You know, you talk about him helping people and he served in Iraq. He served in Kuwait. He cared deeply about his country.
ZAMARRIPA: Oh, yes, he did. Oh, yes. His sister, she was in the Navy, too, and she talked him into joining the Navy and he loved it. He just loved being in the Navy. That's what he wanted to become a police officer in the service and he wanted to continue to pursue the carrier --
BURNETT: You have a picture of him there?
ZAMARRIPA: Yes. This is Patrick right here. It's one, he's Navy right here. I have several other pictures.
BURNETT: Can you hold it up so we can see it? There we go. We can see him there.
That's his picture from the Navy?
ZAMARRIPA: Right. That's when he first got out of boot camp. He went to boot camp in Great Lakes, Chicago, and then he went to Norfolk, Virginia, for a little while and then he got orders to go to Kuwait.
BURNETT: Rick, I know that you and Patrick were very close. You would text all of the time and you are such a proud father of him.
ZAMARRIPA: Yes. I would call him.
BURNETT: How did you learn when things had happened?
ZAMARRIPA: Well, I was sitting here in my recliner watching TV and then a light flashed and there was some shooting and some police officers were shot. Right away, because I texted Patrick, and say, hey, you all right, and right away he'll tell me, I'm okay, or he'll call me, say, dad, I'm okay, I'll talk to you later.
That's the exact words, I'll talk to you later, I'm okay. Okay. I know he's busy so I wouldn't bother him. And later on they gave me a rundown about what happened.
And so I called Christy (ph), his wife. I said, Christy, what's going on with Patrick? Have you heard anything? She said, no, what did you hear? I said, there were some shooting in Dallas, police officers got shot downtown.
And at that time, I knew something had happened and then -- and so, she said I don't know, but I'll check and find o and I'll call you right back. I waited and waited for her to call, and she was taking a long time calling me back. So, I called her back again and I said what did you find out? I finished talking to his mom and she had said that some police officers came over the house and talked to them about it and didn't tell her anything.
And so, his best friend Noe called her and told her she had to get to the Parkland Hospital pretty quick. I asked her, what did he say? How is he? She said he won't tell me. Just get to the Parkland Hospital. And when I walked in they guided me to the family room and right there I was greeted by one of his partners that graduated from at the police academy.
And I said, how's Patrick doing and he just looked at me and his face started turning red, and I knew right there, and I said no. Don't tell me this. Don't tell me this.
And right there, that's when I -- I couldn't believe this. I couldn't cry. I just couldn't believe it.
BURNETT: What's -- what's the most important thing you want the country to know about your son who served this country so proudly, his children to know, his little 2 1/2-year-old daughter to know as she grows about her father? ZAMARRIPA: He was a very patient, very passive man, and he was -- you could never -- if something was wrong, he would never tell you. He would hold it, and I knew Patrick. I said, Patrick, what's wrong? No, dad. Is everything all right? No, everything's all right. Later on, he would tell me.
But Patrick was -- from the time he was born, he was my hero and he's a hero right now because he served -- what happened in Minnesota didn't have -- what happened in Minnesota didn't have nothing to do with him. He was here protecting those people in the rally. He's protecting those people in the rally from them getting hurt, and he gave up the ultimate sacrifice, his life, for them.
BURNETT: Rick, thank you so much for talking about your son and his heroism, and he is a hero to all who see this, to our whole country, thank you, sir, so much.
ZAMARRIPA: You're welcome. Thank you very much.
BURNETT: And thanks so much to all of you for joining us. Our coverage of this breaking news story continues with "AC360" right now.
