Dallas Gunman Followed Black Hate Groups Online
HARLOW: Welcome back. Throughout the day we've been reporting on the Dallas shooter Micah Johnson's path. And in doing so, earlier today, CNN aired a report about internet sites which Johnson the man who killed five Dallas police officers is believed to have visited. In that report we showed sites that are devoted to the experiences of blacks in America. We also reference sites that espouse hate and violence. In doing so, we inadvertently showed the names of some groups such as shifting your paradigm for optimal health and longevity which do not call for hate or violence and are not affiliated with any such groups and we apologize for that error. Let's talk more about this and make this reporting absolutely clear. I want to bring in CNN's Drew Griffin and Ed Lavandera. They're both outside of police headquarters. Also with us, CNN law enforcement analyst Art Roderick. And Drew, what can you tell us about these hate groups that Johnson was following. Now that we've made that correction. You've been doing a lot of reporting on this. What can you tell us about the groups that you discover that he was following online?</s>DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Well, he was following many, many different groups online, many of them innocuous, many of them acrocentric news sites, sites that dealt with black views on what it's like to be black in America. But there are a few sites that are considered hate groups by some which have even pronounced as the African-American defense league calling for attacks on police. This happened on Thursday after the killing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It even prompted the FBI to issue a nationwide alert to law enforcement. We know he visited and liked those Facebook sites. What we don't know, Poppy, is if he had any interactions with those groups or the frequency of which he was on those websites.</s>HARLOW: And I know, Drew, that you've learned that he had been practicing at some gun ranges. Is that right?</s>GRIFFIN: No. We only have assumed that from the law enforcement experts that we talk to about his marksman skills. Obviously had very basic, basic training in the army, nothing like the type of shooting that would have been required for what happened here tragically in Dallas. So the investigation is focusing on, where did he train? Where did he get the bullets? Where did he practice the maneuvers quite frankly that he used in this fatal attack on this fatal attack on the Dallas Police Department.</s>HARLOW: And Ed, to you, you're learning more details about the demands that he made during those negotiations which we certainly learned a lot more about this morning from Jake Tapper's interview with the Dallas police chief. But what else have you learned about those hours and those really desperate negotiations?</s>ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the interview with CNN that the police chief of Dallas had was wide ranging, covered a lot of different ground. Really shed a lot of new light on the standoff moments leading up to the moment where Micah Johnson was shot and killed. A couple of things that stood out from that interview with the police chief. One of the things he had talked about was that Johnson had written in his own blood, the initials "RB" and perhaps some other wording there on the ground. Investigators are still trying to figure out what those initials might stand for, what the message might have been in all of that. But in those moments, in those moments before Micah Johnson was killed by that robot carrying a bomb, Micah Johnson and apparently as he was firing at officers, was acting very calm, according to the police chief, yet delusional. And the police chief talked about that with us this morning.</s>BROWN: For a long time during the negotiation, because of the negotiator's expertise, the suspect wouldn't believe he was black until they talked some more and -- but during that talk, it didn't matter whether he was black because he was shooting at us. So asking for a black negotiator didn't make sense to us. It didn't matter to us. And it shouldn't make sense to anyone because that didn't lead to any type of peaceful resolution.</s>GRIFFIN: And that's what the Chief is referring to there is that in the midst of all of that negotiation that lasted several hours, Micah Johnson was telling police that he would only speak with a black negotiator. All of this while the police chief says he was continuing to fire at the officers.</s>HARLOW: And Art Roderick, let me bring you in here because one of the things that we heard in this interview was a vehement defense by the police chief of using this robot bomb, if you will, to ultimately kill the gunman. And he said, I stand behind it. I did it. And I would do it again. From your law enforcement experience, what do you make of that decision?</s>ART RODERICK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, I think you've got an extraordinary incident here.</s>HARLOW: Right.</s>RODERICK: And a lot of times it takes extraordinary means to end this type of incident. The chief came out right away because I think he knew he was going to come under some criticism, the Chief Brown came out right away, right after the incident ended and basically described exactly how they ended the incident knowing that it would probably be some criticism. And I think the chief has handled it as the great leader that he is of a very professional and profound way. And I've got to tell you that these two interviews, both from Chief Brown and Deputy Chief Aziz are -- show that the extraordinary leadership and the heroism of this Police Department during this incident. But, you know, you can criticize the Chief, but I think he nailed it right there. That the arm chair quarterbacking is not what we need at this particular point in time.</s>HARLOW: And Art, just your reaction to the fact that we learned from the Police Chief this morning that every single officer reported for duty, reported to work on Friday morning, the day after this heinous attack. Not one person said, I'm going to sit this one out?</s>RODERICK: Well, that's what law enforcement looks like. I think the Chief reiterated several times that 98, 99 percent of what happens, that law enforcement does around the country is good. So, you're talking about a very small minority of individuals. And I'll tell you, you know, this cut me to my core when I saw this happen to these heroic men and women here at Dallas PD. But I also had to tell you that when I saw the video from Minneapolis and the video from Baton Rouge, that also cut me to my core. And I can tell you to a person that law enforcement around the country watching those videos that occurred in Baton Rouge and St. Paul asked the question of themselves, what would I do in that situation? Would I have reacted like that? And that's what law enforcement does on a daily basis.</s>HARLOW: Thank you so much, Art Roderick, appreciate it, Ed and Drew, thank you as well. Coming up next. Dallas takes the first small step for its healing after an unspeakable tragedy.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I look in your eyes and I see suffering, it's not black suffering and white suffering. It's just suffering.