New Possible Evidence in Michael Brown's Shooting Investigation
PEREIRA: Protests and voices, talking about the shooting death of Michael Brown, they have resumed in Missouri. Demonstrations were held in Ferguson, also in St. Louis with marchers demanding justice. These come as CNN learns the FBI's evaluating that new audio recordings first obtained by CNN allegedly of the moment Michael Brown was shot and killed by police. Now, this was apparently recorded unintentionally. You'll hear the voice of a man talking over what sounds like gunshots. Take a listen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are pretty. [GUNSHOTS]</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're so fine. Just going over some of your videos. How could I forget? [GUNSHOTS]</s>PEREIRA: OK. CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of this tape. Joining me right now is the attorney for the Brown family Daryl Parks. Thank you so much for joining us. You've been making yourself available to us, and we really appreciate that. Right off the bat, Mr. Parks, I think we have to get your gut check on this audio recording. What do you make of it?</s>DARYL PARKS, ATTORNEY FOR MICHAEL BROWN'S FAMILY: Well, first of all, I obviously can't verify that that type was contemporaneously with the shooting that took place. However, if it is authenticated at some point, I think it adds an extra layer on to what we already know. However, we still believe that the four eyewitnesses that have come forward thus far and there may be more are very, very encouraging and seem to be very assured of what they saw on that day. We also though encourage other witnesses who may have any type of evidence, for example, who knew that this audiotape would come up that would be a part -- possibly be a part of this case, so if there's other evidence out there, we want those folks to also come forward with whatever they may have that could lend any more credence to what may have happened on this morning, on this day.</s>PEREIRA: The FBI is investigating the tape. They have it. They are looking to see if it is indeed credible. If it does, from your vantage point as an attorney for the family, how does it fit with the eyewitness accounts that we've been hearing?</s>PARKS: Well, certainly the one issue -- there was a single shot in the car that Dorian talks about. I don't know how that fits into this particular tape, whether it does or not, but also it clearly says that there was a series of shots and Michael obviously felt hit, his body jolted and then he turned around to attempt to give up to the officer and tell the officer not to shoot and yet the officer continued to shoot despite it was obviously Michael had been hit by this first set of bullets. So, it clearly says that there's a real possibility that this officer had a chance not to kill this kid, but chose to kill him anyway.</s>PEREIRA: You feel that the pause was indicative of the state of mind that the officer was in, a choice he was making at that time?</s>PARKS: Well, it certainly - it does. I mean if you listen to the witnesses they all talk about the fact that he gave up, and been shot and went down and said you shot me, yet the officer continued to shoot him anyway despite him being down. I think one of the things that we clearly see from the autopsy is that you see that there's a clear chance that Michael was in a sub position to the officer when the officer shot him from above, and that's very, very, very -- something that we have a serious concern about that he would be shot in the manner that he was, especially in his head, from a back-to-front position.</s>PEREIRA: Your co-counsel, Benjamin Crump, obviously representing the family as well, re-tweeted a viewer's response saying "audio recording of shooting just released. Very interesting, proves a lot." You two have obviously had a chance to discuss things. What do you feel it does prove then?</s>PARKS: Well, certainly I think the pause is the important part here, Michaela that the fact that you have this pause in here clearly gives him a chance to -- to make decisions about what he wants to do. This is - for how things happened here, that pause is very important and gave him ample opportunity to make decisions about whether or not he needed to take this child's life. We believe that he had no reason to take Michael's life in that situation as the witnesses described the situation to us.</s>PEREIRA: The funeral and the home going was on Monday. We saw yesterday there were peaceful demonstrations, people keeping the story very much alive, but we know the national media has largely sort of backed off from the story a little bit. The spotlight isn't shining so intensely on Ferguson. How do you keep the intense pressure on in terms of your pursuit of justice for the family of Michael Brown?</s>PARKS: Well, we're on the ground. As you know, we have local counsel as well as our firm representing the Michael Brown family and we continue to push both the local authorities and the feds on their investigation to move forward. We have every reason to believe, especially given the fact that the Department of Justice, civil rights division is involved in this case, that we will get justice in this case one way or another.</s>PEREIRA: And what are you hearing from all of those investigators?</s>PARKS: Well, they don't tell you. They don't tell you where they are with their investigation, but I can tell you that given their track record, given the fact that the attorney general obviously has said that this is a priority investigation and that they are going to lend the resources that are necessary to get to the bottom of it. So, they make no assurances about the number of witnesses they make talk to, the amount of evidence that they may, but they do tell you that they are going to give it their best effort and this is a priority of theirs to show that we can get to the bottom of whatever happened in this situation.</s>PEREIRA: You spoke moments ago about the potential for other witnesses coming forward. Do you have reason to believe there are other witnesses that perhaps are hesitant to speak up or come forward or are fearing retribution?</s>PARKS: I think so. I mean, this weekend while we were on the ground in St. Louis we had folks who've walked up to us and say, hey, I have information. I haven't talked to the police yet and we encouraged them to go forward. We took their names and told them to go forward. So we continue to -- to really advise people who may have some information to move forward and to talk to the authorities. You know, I have heard through the news sources that the FBI, they have talked to 200 people in this case. It seems like a pretty large number, but there may be - still be others out there who haven't talked to the FBI, but I also think that they also ought to talk with the state authorities as well. Remember, in this case the state authorities have far wider charging capabilities than the feds have in this situation so it's also very important that they do talk to the federal investigators -- excuse me, the state investigators who are there in St. Louis County, Missouri as well.</s>PEREIRA: Yeah, right, just because they have spoken to one doesn't necessarily mean they've spoken to all parties involved and obviously there's some people who are going to have some reluctance thinking like, oh, what I know isn't important. It very well may be. So when in doubt go speak to someone. Daryl Parks, thanks so much for making time for us right early this morning.</s>PARKS: Thank you.</s>PEREIRA: All right. We're going to take a short break. Here, on "NEW DAY" breaking overnight American Theo Curtis finally back home with his family two years after being held hostage in Syria. We're going to hear from his mother coming up. Also, the first American killed fighting for ISIS is only one of many Americans that are fighting with militant groups. What exactly is fueling this extremism, and is it going to get worse? We'll look into it.