California Police Shoot & Kill Black Man
CUOMO: Anger is building in the San Diego area this time over the deadly police shooting of a black man. This time, a 30-year- old who friends say suffered a mental breakdown. Authorities did release a picture quickly from a cell phone video taken by a witness. Officers say the suspect did what you see on your screen. Took some object out of his pants after being commanded not to do so and see to frame up to fire. And then the police fired first and no gun was found at the scene. The man is dead. Let's take a closer look at the situation, what's the right thing to do, what is the wrong thing to do? Laura Coates, CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, and Joe Giacalone, former NYPD sergeant and a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. On the outside, this seems like a simpler case. Sometimes people will call this suicide by cop. You're commanded not to do something, you pull something out and pretend you're in a firing position. You're going to get shot in that situation most of the time, no, Joe?</s>JOSEPH GIACALONE, LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINER: Yes, you are. This is something where it's a little more cut and dry and I think the police department has learned from some of the mistakes we saw in Charlotte, trying to get some of this information out there quickly. If you make a movement like that as an armed confrontation, strong likelihood is that the person is going to be shot.</s>CUOMO: I mea, is there another way to look at this in terms of what the law has, with your background as a prosecutor. What questions come to mind in terms of vetting this as justified or not?</s>LAURA COATES, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You know, what happens for every prosecutor, either if it's a civilian shooting or police officer- involved shooting. The question is always the same. Is the person reasonable to fear as if they had lethal force about to be used against them? And there are a number of factors go into play. One, of course, is what your guest is talking about, in terms of that sudden gesture, sudden gesture. But this case a tendency when you have police- involved shootings, given the climate right now that we have, to lump all these cases together and not look at them as a case-by-case, fact- by-fact basis. In this case, you have a shooting, if that particular still footage is genuine and it conveys what really happens on the scene, then you do have the spectrum shift back in favor of officers in a justified shooting. But you have to look at more than just that. I have to say as a prosecutor, what else happened? Is that video true in fact? Is it a matter of the perspective, is the vantage clear? Does it capture a moment in time that shows the actual shooting or a delay even after that? Those are factors you're thinking about.</s>CUOMO: Even the idea of what you said earlier, Laura, this furtive movement. From the officer's description, he's not furtive at all. He wasn't trying to be sneaky or hide, he's being very obvious and flagrant and, that's what obviously triggered their response. Now, Joe, a couple other layers to this. One, transparency. Oh, this is good. They put out the witness video. However, they finished a pilot program and they have the money for the body cameras and they didn't do it. There seems to be a foot dragging thing here that you explained in the past, well, there's an old school mentality. Is that all it is or is there something here that is resistant to this type of change that should be unacceptable?</s>GIACALONE: We have to get these body cams out there. But it has to be for every officer. We saw in the officer shooting in Charlotte. The one officer that did the shooting didn't have one on. It's either all or nothing. It's come to the point where we have to start scratching our heads and saying, you have cameras sitting in the drawer or a closet. Put these things out there --</s>CUOMO: Why do guys not want it? Men and women on the job, what would be their resistance?</s>GIACALONE: I think the police departments. I think most police departments want to have them because it would help their cases most of the time.</s>CUOMO: Laura, if they want to have them, and they have the money and they're doing the pilot programs that we keep seeing again and again that they don't have them or don't turn them on or they say they don't function, what does that suggest?</s>COATES: Well, many officers don't want the idea of big brother watching them because as officers will tell you, a lot of their work is not pretty. It's not for the faint at heart and not for the dainty minded, right? So, the idea of what they do on a day-to-day basis is under scrutiny, as it always is, is one reason they don't want to have it. However, it helps an officer, as much as help as it helps a civilian in deciding what happened in a particular case. But it does look more and more suspicious when you have officers who are selectively using them or turning them on or having delayed audio that actually accompanies the video. What it does is put officers who otherwise might be justified or otherwise might not be deserving of skepticism. It puts them in a position to say, listen, I doubt that your motives are pure. And it makes you think that there is an ulterior motive for trying to deceive the public. One other aspect to this case that brings up a common theme, nothing to do with justifiable shooting. The family member is obviously distraught screaming in the background. I asked you to come help. If it is true that the call that came in was, he lost it. I don't know if it is a mental breakdown or whatever it is, there does seem to be a consistency of this same training and response protocols used with mentally ill people as you see wit non-mentally ill people. I remember when we were out in Ferguson, there was this guy walking around who everybody knew was crazy who was in this store and he pulled a knife on cops and they shot and killed him. Do we need to start training differently or more for dealing with people who are, in fact, mentally ill?</s>GIACALONE: They shouldn't have done it all along. Mostly disturbed people which the police use term EDPs for, is something that is a special category that has to be dealt with on a daily basis. There are so many people in our communities that have mental health issues that the police departments pretty much should have been on the ball with this right from the beginning. New York City going back, if you remember, Eleanor Bumpers was the case that started it. So, it's something that has to be commented.</s>CUOMO: Joe, Laura, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Alisyn?</s>COATES: Thank you.</s>CAMEROTA: Chris, as you know, they say there's no crying in baseball, but you could make an exception for one couple that had an entire stadium and a national TV audience feeling their pain. That's next.