Michael Brown Laid to Rest; New Details on Brown Shooting Investigation
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Happening now:</s>PASTOR CHARLES EWING, UNCLE OF MICHAEL BROWN: Michael Brown's blood is crying from the ground, crying for vengeance, crying for justice.</s>BLITZER: Raw emotion and a new rally in Missouri at the funeral for the teenager gunned down by a police officer. The Brown's family lawyer is standing by to talk about demands for justice and new information about the investigation. Thousands of mourners came together today. Was it a first step toward healing in a community torn by Michael Brown's death and weeks of unrest? Plus, authorities now say they're close to identifying the ISIS terrorist who beheaded an American. We're going to tell you how they're zeroing in on James Foley's executioner. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Michael Brown's family says today is about saying goodbye and staying peaceful, but tomorrow the fight for justice will go on. Several thousand mourners turned out for the 18-year-old's funeral more than two weeks after his killing by a police officer that turned Ferguson, Missouri, into a battlefield. This hour we're covering the service, the investigation, and what comes next. Our correspondents, our analysts, and newsmakers are standing by in Ferguson as well as here in THE SITUATION ROOM. First to CNN's Victor Blackwell. Let's go to Ferguson right now. He has the very latest on this important day -- Victor.</s>VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the funeral was part traditional Baptist ceremony and also a political rally in many ways calling for action from the community. There were speakers who said that they will hear our voices, our shouts will shake the heavens. Now, there was plenty of shouting today, but for a different reason.</s>BLACKWELL (voice-over): Organizers called it a celebration of the life of Michael Brown. Family members and complete strangers jumped to their feet clapping and shouting, but not Lesley McSpadden. At the start of the service she stood, staring at her son's casket and photos, more than two weeks after he was shot on the street in Ferguson, Missouri.</s>EWING: Michael Brown's blood is crying from the ground, crying for vengeance, crying for justice.</s>BLACKWELL: Justice, Brown's great uncle, says for more than just his nephew.</s>EWING: There is a cry being made from the ground, not just for Michael Brown, but for the Trayvon Martins, for those children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, for the Columbine massacre, for the black-on-black crime. There is a cry being made from the ground.</s>RENITA CONWAY, ATTENDED SERVICE: There was definitely a message of keep it peaceful. And it starts at home. Excuse me. It starts at home and goes out to the community and then into the world. We have to start with ourselves and then go out, you know, and spread peace and be respectful definitely, first and foremost, be respectful of others.</s>BLACKWELL: Renita Conway never met Brown. Likely neither had many of the estimated 4,500 attendees, some wearing a memorial T-shirt or sharing a story about someone they have lost.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know the grieving over lost grandchildren that will never be born.</s>BLACKWELL: Celebrities and notables like Spike Lee and Jesse Jackson sat in a seemingly reserved VIP section next to politicians from the state capital and the nation's capital and there was plenty of politics.</s>ERIC DAVIS, COUSIN OF MICHAEL BROWN: What you guys can do to continue this, show up at the voting polls, let your voices be heard and let everyone know that we have had enough of all of this.</s>BLACKWELL: But after weeks of protests with moments of violence, fogs of tear gas, and standoffs with police, a plea.</s>TY PRUITT, COUSIN OF MICHAEL BROWN: Today is for peace, peace and quiet. We will lay our son, brother, cousin, uncle, our family, young man, young black man, young human being. But we don't say goodbye. We say good journey until we meet again.</s>BLACKWELL: Wolf, I sat in the balcony during the service, and listening to the conversations and speaking with people around me, I could really get an understanding why people, so many thousands of people came to today's funeral. The woman who sat to my right, she was an older woman who was a member of the church and she wanted to be there just to support the family during this difficult time. Behind me, two younger women were talking about policies that should change and policing in the United States. Just in front of me there was a woman I recognized from the protests on Friday night. She was dressed. She wore dark glasses, a T-shirt that said revolutions and cargo pants and military-style boots. That night she was telling the protesters to get off the route they were being ordered to follow and to really start a revolution. She sat there quietly during the program. I asked a few people afterward, would the family get their wish, would there be peace tonight? Most said they didn't know, but they were hoping for it.</s>BLITZER: Let's all hope for that. Victor Blackwell, thanks for that report. Let's bring in our anchor Don Lemon. He's in Ferguson for us. He's been there now almost from the very beginning. Give me your impressions of how this day unfolded, Don.</s>DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Well, you know, Someone, earlier, one of the officials Here said, you know, it's over. I knew what he meant. He meant it's over in the sense that finally there is something -- there is at least some closure -- and I hate that word -- but some closure for Michael Brown's family, but it's really far from over when it comes to the community. It's far from over when it comes to the reality setting in for the Brown family, because this is the day really when you have the funeral, everyone has come together, all the dignitaries and all the officials and all the celebrities. This is really when, quite honestly, the media is going to start pulling out. You're going to see less and less coverage and the Brown family will be left with the fact that their loved one is no longer here and all the attention is turned away. They're going to have to figure out what to do next for people in the town, the officials calling for some sort of change and asking them to be a part of that. I think it went well as far as being organized, as far as being peaceful, as far as being respectful. And I thought it was also very respectful of the minister and I thought it was very smart of the minister to say, some of you who came here to speak, you're not going to be heard from today and if you want to be heard from, we welcome to come next Sunday and we will have Sunday's service, sort of weeding out the people who were coming here to make this just to get some sort of attention from the media and to get in front of the cameras. I thought it was handled very well today. I thought the mother was very strong having seen her yesterday, Wolf, and really right after she had come from the funeral home to see her son for the first time. I thought she was very strong today. But we will see what happens in the coming hours and coming days. It's going to be really tough for the family.</s>BLITZER: Let's talk about tonight. What can we expect tonight? Because a lot of people are worried.</s>LEMON: Well, speaking to officials, they say they don't know what to expect tonight. They think that it is helpful that Michael Brown's father called for calm and peace and for a day of silence, and so if there are any protests, they're hoping the protests will be silent protests and that those protests will be peaceful ones. In your initial question to me, Wolf, I neglected to show this to you. This is -- this is a program from today's ceremony, and I thought it was very poignant and very nice that the mother wrote a letter to her son. And there's a picture of Michael Brown and his mother, Lesley, at the skating rink and they're laughing and having a good time. And then the father -- let's not forget about the father who was involved in his son's life. We want to make that clear. He wrote a letter to his son as well. You see there's a picture of them in here. It's a very respectful day here. Let's hope that the people tonight who may come out to demonstrate really observe that as well and observe, heed the father's wish that it be peaceful and quiet.</s>BLITZER: Let's hope the folks do that exactly as the father and the family is asking. Don, we're going to get back to you. Thanks very much. We're joined now by Daryl Parks. He's a lawyer representing the Brown family. Mr. Parks, thanks very much. First of all, how is the family doing?</s>DARYL PARKS, ATTORNEY FOR FAMILY OF MICHAEL BROWN: You know, I think the dad said it best yesterday, Wolf, when he said that we're hurting. They're in deep pain. The walk they had to make today from the front of the church to the back of the church behind that coffin is the toughest walk any parent could ever have to make. They had to make that walk today and they're still standing tall, but they're hurting. And so they're surrounded by all of their family. They're surrounded by the community. And we hope that folks will stay calm and will just have some silence in honor of Mike Brown's legacy. So that's our prayer and our hope today on behalf of this family.</s>BLITZER: Is that your sense that there will be an evening tonight, a night of peace?</s>PARKS: We have no reason to believe that people would not honor the wishes of this family. You heard the father ask the public to please, please, please, let's honor his legacy. I would hope everyone that heard his voice and those who hear my voice right now would honor that request that he made.</s>BLITZER: What do you think? It's getting a lot of play on social media, "The New York Times"' description of Michael Brown, the 18- year-old teenager who was shot and killed by a police officer as -- quote -- "no angel." What did you think of that description of him as no angel? They were specifically referring to the videotape of the robbery that occurred at that convenience store only moments before he was shot and killed?</s>PARKS: Well, he was like any other teenager. He lived a life and we all know that teenagers live lives. They enjoy things, they do things. Sometimes, they get into things. However, though, I think we have to be very careful in our country not to blame victims. It shouldn't be a situation where if you happen to be a victim who may have had an incident or a situation that your killers can use that to get away or to bring less honor to you in your death. We have to stop that. Whatever he did then had nothing do with what happened in the situation where he lost his life, where the officer had the choice and chose to take his life, you know, at his own discretion. He shouldn't have done that. So I think we have to be careful about how we allow them to paint a picture of a victim whose life certainly was not -- was not -- should not have been lost because of what happened at that store that day, but this officer made a decision who had no respect for the value of Michael Brown's life that he could have made a different decision and not taken his life. But because he saw him for whatever he saw him as, he chose to make the decision that he made and to shoot him in the head twice.</s>BLITZER: We know that there's a federal investigation, the Justice Department, the FBI. They're investigating the civil rights aspects of this. There's a Saint Louis County separate investigation. The grand jury, as you know, meeting right now. But what about from your perspective a civil lawsuit? Is that something that you as the lawyer for the family are considering?</s>PARKS: Certainly, we're going to consider that down the line. However, as you know, with two criminal investigations going on, they have precedence over the witnesses right now. Thus, things that we could do in a civil regards would be less likely right now given those two actions taking place, as you know.</s>BLITZER: As far as you know, Mr. Parks, are there other eyewitnesses that we haven't heard from yet?</s>PARKS: Yes, there are. In fact, as we were leaving today from the church, we had a witness walk up to us and said, hey, no one's talked to me yet. So there are still witnesses out there who have not been contacted. We urge them to either contact the FBI or to contact the Saint Louis County police who's investigating the situation. But -- and also contact us, you know, as the lawyers on the civil side, if there are witnesses out there. Many people saw this. That's why we're so -- we really believe strongly that this officer's going to be convicted of this situation, because there are many, many witnesses who saw what happened. And at a minimum, he should have been arrested a long time ago, but given the great weight of the witnesses that we have thus far, this prosecutor has a great responsibility to go to this grand jury and to come back with an indictment. We will accept nothing less than that.</s>BLITZER: What about other videos that haven't been shown yet? Are there, as far as you know, other videos of the incident?</s>PARKS: I'm not aware of any other videos that may be out there, but if there are people out there who may have videos, we certainly urge them to come forward to the authorities, because we want both prosecuting authorities in this case to have as much evidence as they can. We believe that there's already enough evidence from the great number of witnesses present for this officer to be arrested.</s>BLITZER: We know the Justice Department, the FBI investigation, that could go on for months and months and months, maybe a year or two. The grand jury, though, is meeting right now. When do you anticipate we will get a decision from the grand jury?</s>PARKS: I really can't say, though, Wolf. But I must say in a case like this one, where there's such great public concern for what's going on and justice taking place in this case, we believe this is of public importance that both officials move with due diligence to come some conclusion with their investigations. We're of the opinion that given the resources that both agencies have, both the federal and the state, that they should come to a conclusion sooner than later on these investigations.</s>BLITZER: Daryl Parks represents the Brown family. Mr. Parks, thanks very much for joining us.</s>PARKS: Thank you for having me.</s>BLITZER: Still ahead, we're learning new details about the investigation into Michael Brown's death and the contradictory stories told by police and witnesses. And later, the ISIS executioner with the British accent who beheaded American James Foley. We're show you how authorities are now closing in on a suspected terrorist.