afternoon good friday afternoon for the easter holidays so the congress is not in session they're in recess politicians not there but of course that does not mean to downplay any of the seriousness of a car trying to ram its way through into the u.s. capitol complex january the 6th it's always in people's minds the fact that what is known as the people's house was able to be breached in that insurrection. the time is 1800 hours g.m.t. 2 pm in washington d.c. on the afternoon of friday the 2nd of april i'm kemal sons of maria continuing live coverage on al-jazeera of breaking news from washington d.c. a car has attempted to ram its way through into the u.s. capitol complex you see it on the right of your screen with the the boat or the trunk flipped up the suspect who was driving it has been apprehended 2 officers that have been injured all 3 of them taken to hospital this happened shortly after

1 pm local time when an alarm came in the it was sent out to old stuff on capitol hill an alert which said due to an external security threat at the u.s. capitol campus no entry or exit is permitted at this time stay away from exterior windows and doors and if you go outside see cover that was the call an hour ago you'd say things looked to be fairly under control at the moment but of course it will become about who and why and how this happened alan fischer is our correspondent who is on white house duty today about 3 kilometers down the road from the u.s. capitol alan take us through events as you've heard. we're certainly getting a few more details on our sister station here in washington in the united states n.b.c. is reporting that they have confirmation that the suspect in the car marriage with

a knife and was shot by police officers so what we understand and we're still putting together the details at the moment is that this blue car approach one of the checkpoints on capitol hill and there are a number of those at the moment the car did not stop as is it would be expected to do is approach one of these checkpoints and in fact sped up it hit 2 police officers then run into the body or that you see on the screen one of those pop up barriers smooth to drive over but can easily stop a vehicle as it did in this case the driver then got out of the vehicle was carrying a knife according to law enforcement and our partners at n.b.c. the police perceived an immediate threat particularly as 2 of their colleagues had been injured and shots were fired a helicopter was summoned and all 3 engines have been taken to hospital but the person who was driving the car and we're told it was a man is currently in custody as well as receiving treatment for those

gunshot wounds we are told that the capitol building is still on 'd lockdown all entrances and exits are closed and the national guard whose numbers had been diminishing over the last few weeks as the drawdown of numbers began while they are currently on constitution avenue mining a number of security points there just giving. an extra presence to as the capitol police investigate the incident that happened as you say just in the last hour and has shocked washington d.c. because of course memories still very fresh of what happened on january the 6th almost 3 months to the day but very much aware of that we are told at the present. will be briefed on the incident it was raised right at the end of the daily briefing here at the white house jen psaki said she's new information over which is not surprising given that should be standing there for 15 minutes and this it actually happened was she was there speaking but said that there were

a number of people who of course would inform the president he currently on his way to delaware as we pointed out just in the last come all congress is not in session at the moment it's good friday an important day in the christian calendar and they are on spring break easter recess on capitol so no lawmakers officially on capitol hill though some may be working there but many of them are back in their home states and home districts ok allan give me a wave watching your screen here if you get any more information in the meantime i'm going to talk to glenn col who is a former deputy national intelligence officer for transnational threats at the cia he's on skype from boston for us today and we thank you for your time as always mr karr i know there is a lot of conjecture and a lack of detail at the moment but if we just look at the big picture to start with this is the kind of thing that we've almost been waiting for hoping that wouldn't happen but that something could happen post january 6th in washington.

well that's true in a way it's not a surprise but even had there not been the january 6th episode and even had that not been preceded by 40 years of frankly fomenting of violence and extremism by the president. this sort of. incident is to be expected there is a rule of thumb very informal one among secret service agents work with that let's say there one percent of the population is mentally ill and and that's you know there's much higher but it's one percent and one percent only of that group will be inclined to violence against foreign years so one percent of one percent of the american population is $32000.00 people they said just by that little thumb theoretically there are probably 32000 people who have secret service to keep tabs

on at all times because they are a while you something like we just saw in the context that we are actually living with a heightened animosity towards the government because of. the language used by our leader this is much more likely sure. unfortunately for us let's talk about the levels of security in washington as we were discussing with alan fischer earlier was obviously at its highest post january 6th and on january 20th for the inauguration it's been brought down bit by bit then something happens like this the probable kneejerk reaction will be to increase security again and not as fun though if washington is now in a cycle like that now. yes and this is i want to say that it's it's theater because it's sincerely done but it is also quite reflexive just as you touched upon the response to a threat is to increase your security that sounds quite natural but the correlation

between an event and the continued risk after after the event is not clear at all because one person did something does not necessarily mean that the risk is higher in the day after that was the day before of course authorities have to take some steps you can't be asked of the face of a threat so there will be this union and back and forth even if it's on related to any known threat and the government. devotes and unfortunately unavoidably actually wastes huge amounts of resources because of the threat of crazies or zealots you have to say that the idea of the u.s. capitol going back to being quote unquote the people's house. it's pretty unlikely isn't it you know that the freedom that people would have had usually to go and visit and see it and even you know tourists who come to washington for that sort of thing it's just not going to happen. well certainly the trend in my adult life has

been as you said decades ago when i was a student overseas i used to go to the american embassy in whatever country i was him but and have lunch and i was just a student in 1000 year old kid and i could walk in no problem at the time i started my career 40 years ago embassies had become workers. one used to be able to visit the white house thousands of people a day did as tourists that ended progressive and started with president clinton and threats at that time book will end of that and that trend has continued and in one related explanation is that technology has evolved this is independent of political considerations as technology has evolved and individuals are more able to to be lethal you can kill more or with less effort than ever before and so have to

respond on a. positive side if i can put it that way just as we look at pictures on screen of of all of this car that's been stopped at the barriers the barriers work student day you know these sorts of flats barriers which can flip up at a moment's notice i mean that's a positive to take from it that the security measures that are in place have worked . well i haven't seen any of the images but your description it's one of the standard measures that we have and you're the one of the general approaches is to imagine that you are creating security like an onion layer after layer and no layer by itself will suffice to stop a determined attack however 2 layers and then 3 and then 4 you start to have exponential increase in security and so dollars are one. motion sensor

devices or another manually triggered barriers or if there are. watching or warthen on and on and security can be pretty impressive if it's unclear ok if you wouldn't mind can you stick around i'm going to talk to alan fischer again but if you can stay on your skype there but if you're free to have a look around have a look at the pictures online as well and get yourself even more familiarized with what we're seeing on our screens that's going col he's a former deputy national intelligence officer at the cia what will come back to him later alan fischer at the white house as i point out a good distance away 3 kilometers away from what's happening but anything more you can add at this point. couple of things we are told that the attorney general medic garland has been briefed on what has happened at capitol hill he is saying the situation that there are a number of road closures around the capitol hill complex we're talking about the fences that were in place. over the last couple of months and how they've started

to fill those fences and we have got confirmation from the department of defense and also here in washington d.c. that the perimeter and there were perimeters there to perimeter was moved last week they're still remained and they're perimeter obviously some distance away from capitol hill itself we're talking about the number of national guard there were 2300 national guard that had been approved to stay in washington d.c. all the way to may 23rd many of them you know taking up positions around the capitol hill complex and there is a report unconfirmed on one american t.v. channel the suspect who was short is in fact dead to see that hasn't been confirmed or we know that all 3 people who were involved in the incident 2 police officers who were injured by this speeding car and then the suspect who got out of the car we're told was brandishing a knife perceived as a threat by capitol police officers they opened fire all 3 of them taken to

hospital we think they went to a hospital center which is one of the most advanced trauma centers in washington d.c. and certainly is no stranger to treating gunshot wounds. we think that's where all 3 victims were taken because it is the closest to capitol hill. all 3 have been treated at the hospital but as i say one news station here in the united states unconfirmed reporting that the person who is driving the car has in fact died despite the treatment that they have been given yeah i'm seeing the same reports here on a few channels just at the moment. remind us again allan i'm sorry we are going to repeat ourselves a fair bit at this point but congress not actually in session at the moment. i know that many of people will be back in their home districts back in their home states because this is good friday it's an important day in the christian calendar and many people will take this as an extended break in fact it's april the 12th before congress is due to come back i certainly have been seeing

a number of tweets from people like brandon boyle who's a congressman from pennsylvania and others saying that they are so grateful for the capitol police who once again have phone themselves in the front line and have been injured in the line of duty and grateful for the service that they provide to washington d.c. but particularly to the people on capitol hill not just the politicians but the numerous staff who who work there is well and there will be stuff in the building even though congressmen and women and senators will be back in their home districts they are people who are employed essentially to run the office here in washington d.c. to make sure that anything that can be done year will be done and there will be people who will be in the building not fully understanding exactly what is going on and following developments on the news the building the complex still on lockdown at the moment as we see there are a number of route closures or own there as well and we are told that people have

been told just to stay in place but just in the last 10 minutes or so we're told that a lot of the force responders who are called to the scene have no left there's just maybe one or 2 there no so that would suggest that the actual threat the actual concern is over what will happen no is the investigation and top of the list for any investigation will be we're told it's a man that was driving the car who is this guy and why did he want to get into the capitol complex to such a degree that he was willing to drive people with his car and then threaten others with a knife obviously will be many other. the questions that will come on from the 1st job will be to identify the pression who was driving the car so as ellen points out the building will not empty but certainly not in session at the moment senate minority leader mitch mcconnell just tweeted praying for the united states capitol

police officers who were attacked at the capitol we're still learning what's taken place but we're grateful to all the 1st responders who are on the scene and there is a lot as i go through twitter at the moment from senators and representatives there's a lot of thoughts and prayers at the moment which is the kind of thing which tends not to go down well with a lot of people in these situations allan are you waving at me are you waving away something at the. waving just to let you know that law enforcement have confirmed just in the last couple of minutes the person who is short on capitol hill has died so that confirmation coming from law enforcement just in the last couple of minutes the person was seen to be wielding a knife at capitol hill after driving his car at 2 police officers the car stopped by one of those automatic barriers the airbag deployed as he got out of the car he was wielding a knife the police officers there perceived that to be a threat there is a suggestion he was told to give up the weapon refused to do so and was shot by

capitol police who are all very slowly on a heightened state of alert and have been since january of this 6 but confirmation coming just in the last couple of minutes from law enforcement the person who was airlifted to hospital by helicopter after being short has no died in hospital and 2 other 2 others those of the police officers who were injured by the driver of the car they are still receiving treatment in hospital ok thanks allan glenn kahl in boston if you can still hear me former deputy national intelligence officer at the cia this confirmation that the suspect is dead i mean that means now we lose all the police intelligence services lose a great deal of information and now becomes about the trail that he may have left. well as an intelligence officer always wants to speak to someone rather than certainly that's true the f.b.i. in particular however is incredibly impressive in this task which is

really their core. core responsibility investigation and law enforcement and since i'm presuming the already the authorities know or soon will know who this person is and we'll know a great deal about him very quickly. i know nothing more than any of us of course but the fact that someone drives in the middle of the day is a lone person wielding a knife against a known heavily protected unarmed capital indicates to me that this would this sounds like a domestic as an american as opposed to foreign individual 'd who is acting out of his senses zeal for some grievance that he i think if he had and that's in line with large numbers of. unstable and

yet in their view idealistic people. such as the person who shot up a pizza shop where i used to go because nut cases online. said that hillary clinton was clinton was running a child sex basement and yet they went and shot it up this to me has the air of that kind of act and i guess you know and allan thought to it earlier the sort of the chatter that goes on particularly online these sites it has it is it has become exponentially larger over the years as more platforms come out there must be incredibly difficult for intelligence offices to i mean keep an eye on it all and actually decide what might be a credible threat for naught. that is the reason we call the 64000 dollar question is how do you identify their real threat from from chatter and something in a way i'm glad you mentioned the term chatter because for 20 years during the war

on terror we've now heard about officials sometimes citing an increase in chatter or individual speaking only of this and i've usually consider that to be a relatively meaningless term because a terrorist is pretty unlikely unless he's really stupid to be chattering away about what he's doing now if you have intelligence penetrations of communications. that's a different sort of thing what we are clearly over into is there has been this increase in in the zealotry and extremism fomented by the internet and online sites and bloggers like the q anon. phenomenon and and unfortunately very importantly the moment it by one of the 2 leading political parties or at least peter of it

until recently and people respond to what they hear people don't really think they respond and if the leader says something is a demon then they will believe that there are demons and thus we've had an increase in this kind of chatter and fear. for now thank you come back to you again later on as we look at the live pictures from washington at 20 past 2 on friday afternoon local time a blue car crunched into the barriers near the u.s. capitol those flip up barriers which you can drive straight over if you're allowed to but if you're not they pop up and they can stop you and that is what has happened here a driver who has tried to ram his car through into the u.s. capitol complex that's how it's ended up i'll read you a summation of the situation from a reporter with the web site politico who reports on the senate and has described

it is this after ramming the car into a barricade to drive it exited the vehicle brandishing a sharp object. calling that a knife we assume prompting capitol police officers to shoot the driver this is according to a person briefed on the incident officers neutralized the driver has been neutralized to the point we he has died we've had confirmation in the past 5 or 10 minutes that the suspect has died and that to us c.p.u.'s capitol police officers. who tried to stop him were also injured and were taken to hospital it was a believe a helicopter that landed near the capitol and i think we might even have some picture of it is it comes so this is the eastern side i'm told of the capitol and the helicopter. landing on the ground there to quickly

get those 2 police officers and the suspect away to hospital the news we have is that the suspect has died so that will mean as we were saying to clean collar a lot of the intelligence gathering and the whys behind this event could be lost and will be up to intelligence officials to try to. try spac the paper trail and see what more information they can get let's go back to a live picture just to show you the car there and if we've got the wider shot as well which just gives you a little bit more context see those black gates to the bottom of the screen those are the types of fences which have been erected around the capitol following the january 6th insurrection they had razor wire over the top of them for a long time to stop the idea of people being able to climb or scaling will get through into the capitol grounds and into the capitol building as they so easily did on gender of the 6 now a lot of those black fences are still up closer around the capitol there are fewer

of them but as you see there the razor winds come down there and whilst they might stop people walking through or climbing over they have not been able to stop a car from going through those gates and then hitting the barrier the stop barry you can see there the white flip up area close to the capitol alan. at the white house anything more for me. the attorney general. of course. the overall control of the f.b.i. the f.b.i. have activated the field offices here in washington d.c. and there are no f.b.i. agents on the scene and they will be investigating the situation might be made more complicated trying to find a motive for this because of course we have been reporting the law enforcement are saying that the person who was involved 'd in driving his car towards the checkpoint and then jumping out of the car before being shot by capitol hill

officers has died in hospital from his injuries so just to recap what we know this vehicle was heading towards a checkpoint it was told to stop by the police officers it continued to drive striking 2 police officers as it passed before being stopped by one of those barriers that pop up the person that was in that car got out of the vehicle was seen to be carrying what is being referred to as a knife but certainly a sharp object he would then as he approached put capitol police officers were short the helicopter was summoned to the capitol hill campus. 2 police officers who'd been injured and the suspect who was in police custody at that point to hospital and we have since learned the suspect died of his injuries over the last couple of weeks the fences that have been on capitol hill since january the 6th and they attacked by the mob on capitol hill those defenses of slowly come in the outer perimeter was moved last week the inner perimeter is still very much in place that

is still some distance away from the capitol hill buildings all this happened on the senate side of the complex we are told that the 2300 national guard still deployed to washington d.c. a number of them have no be moved in positions around capitol hill capitol hill remains on lockdown and there are a number of road closures around the area as the police try to investigate exactly what happened we don't even know where the driver was from because as. you see and you can see from the pictures of the vehicle the boot as we call it in the u.k. the trunk as a here in the u.s. is up and normally would be able to see the license here because at least get an idea of whether they were from d.c. or from maryland or from virginia which are the states shown about here west virginia or whether they came from much farther afield we can't even judge that at the moment and certainly there's no indication but we do know that as a say the f.b.i. is on the scene the u.s. capitol police are on the scene a number of politicians have tweeted their concern for the u.s.

capitol police because as one said this is a police service that has been stretched really as far as it could be stretched since the incident on january the 6th and many people are very concerned about what has happened here and there has been a campaign particularly among republicans to get those barriers down and that was certainly the point of some of the security hearings that were heritage on capitol hill over the last month or so and there are those who are saying it is still too soon because there is a threat it might just be one car but that is still a threat and the they cannot afford to take a risk. thanks alan fischer at the white house just hearing as well 20 minutes time 245 local time 2 45 pm local time will be a media briefing from the u.s. capitol police i suspect there will be some camera footage from vat so allan as we were saying is that the white house which is about 3 kilometers away from the thing

i'm told we've got mike hanna on the phone at least who's a bit closer mike what can you tell us they had to tell us 1st of all exactly where u.s. . mahlum at the bottom of the capitol on constitution avenue the actual incident where the breach took place is about 100 yards further up the road but this is as far as one can get even with press a credential the whole area has been completely cordoned off in front of me there is a long line of national guard offices they were on the scene within 30 minutes this is very different from what happened on january the 6th obviously where it was hours before the national guard were deployed so they are still some 2 and national guard stationed in d.c. special permission was given to keep them on here and now they have been deployed all around the capital the particular roadblock that i'm at at the moment on constitution avenue. very busy obviously but to be armed to see the flashing

lights now the exact circumstances of what happened here. what we do know a car saloon car attempted to breach roadblock leading into the capitol of constitution avenue to capitol police. peacocking comes up because of what's reported me. to the subject and. have all been taken to hospital the person driving the car is said to be in that critical condition so crowds continuing to gather here. just below 'd the capitol as i said huge numbers of national guard ringing the whole area at the moment along obviously with d.c. police and capitol police as well lots of lights flashing on the top but he'll likely is the place where it did reach took place so that is what we have got at

the moment. we'll bring you up to date as we get more information coming in just a little bit of perspective if you wouldn't mind mike as we look at the the shot on the screen which is showing up in describing to us as well the the black fences that black steel fences which have been in and around the capitol sort of how close slash far away are you from one of those and how close less far away are they from the the area itself. well the area that was one of those partitions or the line of fencing that dr attempted to breach to drive through now what has happened is the. security around the capital has. huge. within the last few days that. has been taken down in many areas. remaining there. was.

a method to kill a fence. driver to drive his car through. where the fencing around the capital i was here last week and it was very difficult to get through the outer pens but now that's gone now has the in attendance which alignments. property of the capital that. runs all along. independence on the other side. and all surrounded by and in a sense. side. being taken. serious thanks mike hanna on the line there near the scene of this incident that we've been looking at in washington d.c. you'll split screen at the moment showing on the right the blue car which got through those fences and then was eventually stopped by the plane to flip up. barry

as the driver got out apparently brandishing a knife was shot by police was taken to hospital don't know if you actually got that far but he has there is confirmation that he has died and that 22 capitol police officers have been injured as well there's no update on their condition so there is obviously now are obviously now more questions about security about intelligence about threats. clock is with us from pittsburgh right now he's a senior research fellow at the soufan center which is a a group dedicated to increasing awareness of global security issues in the united states well the biggest security issue and it has been since january the 6th column has been the security all of as i called it before and what it's supposed to be known as the people's house and it is hard to see it ever sort of going back to that sort of status when things like this happen yeah you're absolutely right i mean since january 6th this the capitol has become

a target it's become very symbolic between the u.s. government and the people you know stand for everything that's right about the government and those that seek to wage an insurrection it's been used in terrorist propaganda online that we've seen put behind crosshairs so a lot of chatter a lot of threats and now we see unfortunately another incident but it's an absolute sea of chatter and threats isn't it was so into one of our other guests earlier john if you heard but you know the amount of stuff particularly since january 6th and particularly as there's such a proliferation of platforms for all of this chatter to go 3. yeah i mean look we have to acknowledge how difficult it is for law enforcement in the intelligence community to deal with you know the proverbial needle in a haystack to use a cliche but it but it's absolutely true in this case you know a lot more signal to noise to sift through to figure out who's just kind of you

know running their mouth and who's actually planning something more nefarious. obviously everything changed january 6th didn't it in that ring of security went up around washington d.c. and remained for the inauguration and as i've been saying before it's it's been pulled back it will be increased again i'm sure again now and you know is washington and the u.s. have sort of stuck in this reaction recycle now i say reactionary it is important obviously that there is security. i mean it just can't go back to quote unquote normal no that's highly unlikely nor should it at this stage you know if this turns out to be an act that's label terrorism and motivated by political violence as it seeming more and more like it will be we have to remember the psychological component to terrorism it's to strike fear bigger than the act itself and that's why highly symbolic targets like the capitol will remain

a source of constant scrutiny. am i going to fight to say it was almost inevitable that something like this would happen. no i don't think so i mean you know it's 1st of all it's washington d.c. the nation's capital 2nd given the events of january 6th this is now brought new light of the capitol and everything it stands for and so no i think it unfortunately i think it was inevitable and you know we have to be vigilant that's obvious at this point i don't want to get too political because i think it's a slippery slope they have bought the divisive nature of us politics plays a role here doesn't it everything again since january 6th and how politicians want to react to that i mean i'm just looking on twitter and someone's reminded me of the fact that they were a number of representatives a congress people who didn't want to give bravery medals to the capitol police off to generate the 6 that everything gets. i'm stating the obvious but everything gets politicized in washington. i've never seen it like this in my entire life

everything is viewed through a partisan lens highly polarized point in our nation's history and it's unfortunate because it's the people that suffer and it's the brave men and women protecting our capital that suffer and so you're absolutely right it also contributes to the polarizing and quite frankly vitriolic rhetoric that we see not only online but you know that's dividing our nation that's dividing families neighbors friends colleagues it's a very toxic environment that we're living in right now that's called unplug from the soufan center taking us through some of the underlying issues which might be behind the types of scenes that we are seeing on the screen today thank you call and as you join us 835 g m c 2 35 pm in washington 10 minutes now until we are expecting a media briefing from u.s. capitol police on what has happened today we've got our experts in place clean collar who will be talking to again about the intelligence side of things but before that media briefing let's go to alan fischer who's been getting all the

latest updates as they've come through and take us 3 things. the thing you've got to remember of course is that for the 2nd time in 3 months capitol hill has become a crime scene this time we're talking about the shooting of a suspect around his car towards a barricade in his injured 2 police officers one of those officers we are told is in a serious condition there are reports that we may get confirmation from capitol hill police that when this suspect a marriage he was carrying what has been described as between a kitchen knife and a machete he actually slashed one of the police officers and moved towards other police officers who were closing in on the car at that point the perceived threat and opened fire all 3 of those who were injured were transported to a local hospital by helicopter the suspect has since died and what expecting that to be confirmed as well this will be the 1st briefing that the capitol police have held since january the 6th what we will be looking to see is if they actually take

questions they were very keen in taking questions this time around and as mike hanna rightly pointed out a number of national guard have no been deployed all over the capitol hill complex the security but is there much less than they were just even a week ago or the outer perimeter was moved it became just and there parameter but there are still $2300.00 national guard who are on deployment to capitol hill and they're a term of gertie's stays at least until may 23rd and after what we've seen just in the last hour or so the last 90 minutes there may will be a call to extend that stay even longer certainly capitol hill police have had the rough end of what has happened over the last 3 months i know they are obviously hoping for good news from the officer is in a serious condition and the other one who has also been taken to hospital with injuries after being struck by this speeding car if we look allan for quote unquote

positives one congress not in session and to the security system the barricades clearly worked. it did clearly one of the concerns that we heard time and time again. when we've had security hearings on capitol hill and i've been there for many of them people were concerned that this 6th of january would expose some of the vulnerabilities of the capitol hill complex essentially where you can get in where is there any security by door and that was being addressed by the sergeant at arms of both the house and the senate the people who are who are charged with looking after security of people on the complex from the capitol hill police from the national guard and also from d.c. police and many of those vulnerabilities were identified and they have been acted on and they're trying to make sure that any others that have come to light and remember there was a report commissioned by nancy pelosi to look at security on capitol hill which made several recommendations they are hoping that they have addressed some of those

issues it appears that what has happened here as you say kemal is that this system what the body is that are there to stop cars driving into those areas the operated very quickly 2 officers have been injured that will be a concern can they protect the police officers even on the perimeter but clearly when there was a threat the capitol police decided to engage their weapon very quickly and fired a number of shots to take the driver of the car taken to hospital and since died of their injuries so there will be another security review but as we've been saying just over the last vote or so we're seeing from a number of politicians on both sides of the house expressing their gratitude to us capitol police for doing their job from stopping this person getting any farther the f.b.i. company on scene field officers there will be carrying out an investigation and

there's a say we can identify where the car is from because the boot the trunk is up normally would get to see the license plate and that would give us an idea. what state it's from and so there may be a problem immediately identifying any motive behind this attack because of course the person who drove the car is dead but identifying the person will be the priority over law enforcement the f.b.i. and you can guarantee that they probably already have some idea of who this person is and there are probably f.b.i. agents on their way to their home even as we speak thanks for now alan fischer at the white house about 3 kilometers away from the pictures you're seeing right now police officers and national guard troops once again out in force around the u.s. capitol in the 3 months now since the insurrection on capitol hill security has been high and this is why the wide shot giving you an idea of the proximity to the capitol building just above the word police now on your screen is where that blue

sedan wall's is ramming through the gates and then hitting the there we go sort of just glinting a little bit in the sunlight you can see there getting through the black gates at the bottom of the screen there and then hitting the pop up barriers which would have been deployed very quickly to stop them those sorts of barriers that you see the national guard troops standing behind there the driver apparently then getting out of the car. holding a knife. described as anything between a kitchen knife and a machete managed to apparently slash one of the offices and the offices and the suspect all taken to hospital the suspect has died on the right hand side of your screen an impromptu news conference which we're expecting in about 5 minutes and we'll bring you that as soon as it happens in the meantime i'll bring in claim col again he's very kindly stayed with us former deputy. i'm sorry i've just lost your title vaguely and former deputy national intelligence officer for transnational

threats at the cia someone who we talk to a lot on al-jazeera when these sorts of threats happen without knowing all the asli a lot of information at the moment i'd just like to get your thoughts on the idea of threats they would have always been threats to security and security would have always been stronger around the u.s. capitol but post january 6th i mean the the shia level of threats which must come through in the and the chatter which needs to be sifted through must be enormous well i say to change the broad story. which might be relevant to this or are not we don't know yet of course the broad story is there for 30 years is literally the case back where early in mind. terrorist related issues the f.b.i. and the cia every year must assess threats to the united states and the f.b.i.

who has interrupt you sorry i just want to hear the stepping up to the microphone now in washington at this impromptu news conference let's have a listen good afternoon everyone my name is acting chief yogananda of hit men for the united states capitol police. is that it is what a heavy heart that i come here this afternoon to shed some light on the incident that occurred at the united states capitol. at approximately 102 hours this afternoon a suspect entered what we refer to as the north barricade of the capitol. the suspect rammed his car into 2 of our officers and then hit the north barricade barrier assets time the suspect exit the vehicle with a knife in hand our officers then engage that suspect he did not

respond to verbal commands the suspect did start lunging toward us capitol police officers at which time u.s. capitol police officers fired upon the suspect at this time the suspect has been pronounced deceased to say u.s. capitol police officers were transported to 2 different hospitals and it is what a very very heavy heart that i and that one of the servers has succumbed to his injuries we are not able to release any information names a date of birth or anything of that nature at this time because we still have to notify the next of kin. i just ask that the public continue to keep

us capitol police and their families and in your prayers this has been an extremely difficult time for us capitol police after they have vents of january 6 and now they vents that have occurred here today so i ask that you keep our u.s. capitol police family and your thoughts and prayers at this time i'm going to turn it over to the metropolitan police chief mr robert conti for the metropolitan police department's portion of this investigation thank you. you have known a robber conti acting chief of the metropolitan police department. members responded to the u.s. capitol today just after 1 o'clock pm. to investigate an officer involved shooting at this time of the metropolitan police department's homicide division as well as

our internal affairs of vision will now and take all of the investigation respect to the shooting death that occurred as well as the officers death there's not a lot of information that we can release to the public at this time but we certainly will be working very closely with our partners at the park police at the u.s. capitol police at this time i just want to extend my deepest condolences on behalf of the entire metropolitan police department to all of the officers at the united states capitol police for their service and fortunately for the of the loss of life that has of courage that have occurred here today at the united states capitol police. i'll have that with her as well as that work in that area at this time it does not appear to be an ongoing threat obviously we're in the very early stages of our investigation we need to obviously understand the motivation behind this socialist act so the

metropolitan police department will certainly be doing that and he said that's never going to be related to know that he was not accountable if you're in beauty or in any indication that he was somebody that had been around the capitol before i mean that is anything like that that does not appear that he is known to the capitol police or much ball to police department at the start of the 0911 service that it is these that there isn't really that is it does not appear to be terrorism raw related but obviously we'll continue to investigate to see if there's some type of nexus along those lines just as there are i think change you know what's the mission look like the next couple of days ali for that so the united states capitol police say anything you want to them because. i would say that at this time the investigation is still in its preliminary stages so we don't have that information and that capitol police as far as its security posture remains in a steady state at this time we are very thankful for our national guard partnership

we do have national guard on the campus but the security posture at this time remains the same he said let me ask you for nothing i mean about your director of the motivators and the reason to read that there was any specific targeted member i was just a sitting member of congress that's what we're trying to go after communication because. we do not have the suspect on file with u.s. capitol police so there's no indication at this time that there's any nexus to any member of congress he's because we know you know yes ma'am on gone on any of that in the on we cannot confirm that but the investigation is ongoing. they suspect did exit the vehicle with a knife in hand and at that time he started to launch toward a run aggressively toward u.s. capitol police officer. known that part of the investigation is still ongoing the scene is still being processed by metropolitan police department so we will have

additional information at a later time but i'm very disappointed to hear it's not going to be that never come in contact and you mentioned the mine but it is not right coming in contact and wrestle with the problems. they investigation is ongoing from what we can see from video at this time i do not see the suspect wrestling with a u.s. capitol police officer a when he exited the vehicle the knife was clearly and his hand and he did start to run toward the officers right behind him night i'm sorry i'm not going to sell at this time this is all the the questions that i am going to take i turn it back over to the metropolitan police department's chief again i ask you to please keep the united states capitol police family and your thoughts and prayers at this time it has been an extremely difficult and challenging year for us but. we will get

through this and we do appreciate the community support the secular is really going to have is going to be on the side i was not to mention and they folks are saying we understand that you guys have a lot of questions obviously there is this is a complex investigation and we are going to be putting out more information as we can on social media and if we decide to do any more briefings later on wolf course let you guys in a red light on the secular leader to get out of haiti and see what was your point what question i have looking at the grand fabric of all of this the u.s. e.p.a. has changed their intelligence leaders here and they they've been doing what they can to try to beef up security here and you know they're under attack what's the answer. you know i think you know just part of our responsibilities and duties as law enforcement officers we're here to protect and serve the community fairly this was someone who was actively trying to are just good at what who ever are or whatever we just don't know right now so we have

a responsibility to investigate that to get to the bottom of this whether the attack was law enforcement or whoever we have a responsibility to get to the bottom of it will do that i think you guys are. washington d.c. the u.s. capitol on high alert again confirmation from. united states capitol police that in this attack where this car has been rammed into the security gates near the u.s. capitol that one of the police officers who was attacked there and who was hit in the attack has died taken to 2 different hospitals along with the suspect who has also died but confirmation just then that one of the police officers is dead no name no details anymore because next of kin need to be informed 1st of the asli u.s. capitol police they're saying though please keep us in thoughts and prayers at

extremely difficult time because when you think about it it is less than 3 months since the insurrection on the capitol when the police were so sorely tested on that day they have had to respond in numbers for a long time now and now another attack which has claimed one life. one or 2 pm is when all of this started it is now 2 51 pm at the north barricade of the capitol and alan fischer if you're with me and you have been with me throughout all of this why don't we go through the tick tock as they say the moment by moment of what we've learned about what happened today. that was the moment the took a breath away we had tears in the last 15 minutes that one of the officers who'd been injured was seriously injured and clearly they succumbed to the injuries as it was just after one of the 2 that this car approached the checkpoint on the senate side of the building on the capitol hill complex officers tried to get it to stop

drove through the initial barricade impacting 2 officers who were there on jus t. run into the barrier which is one of those barriers that can easily be moved into place and would only be let down if someone was getting into that area because they've been authorized to do so as they crashed into the car what we know nor is that the past in the man a marriage with a knife it's been described by people who were on capitol hill as somewhere between a knife and a machete a kitchen knife and a machete. slashed towards one of the police officers and run towards the other perceiving a threat the capitol police then opened fire with a gun shooting the suspect helicopter was called to the capitol hill complex 3 took the injured to 2 different hospitals the suspect was in police custody and died from gunshot wounds and no we have find that a 2nd person the u.s.

capitol police officer has died because of the injuries sustained in the line of duty there is a line of politicians from both sides of congress who are on twitter in the last expressing their concern and their why they we know that security had started to be eased on capitol hill but as we've seen there is clearly still a threat there early stages of the investigation the attorney general merrick garland who oversees the f.b.i. has been informed that is monitoring the situation f.b.i. field agents from washington d.c. are on scene the metropolitan police here in capitol in washington d.c. the nation's capital will have primacy in the in. best a geisha and clearly the farce job will be to identify the person who drove the car i said just in the last 20 minutes or so come out there will be f.b.i. officers on new way to that house if they know who it is uncertainly just looking at the car if they have a license plate that will give them an idea of who that person is where they're

from what is much more difficult is trying to establish why they did what they did and why they did it today good friday a big day in the christian calendar here in the united states and a day or in capitol hill busy largely in recess many people. taking the easter holiday but there are still people on the campus and the campus still for the moment remains low don't thanks to alan fischer who's been with us the last well over an hour well over an hour as we've taken in all this breaking news out of washington d.c. still very fortunate to have 2 guests with us con unclog and glen col gentlemen i'm going to sort of flip flop between you so just have a listen out as we go through some of the underlying issues glenn i'll start with you and actually it's a question which i just heard a reporter asked right at the end of that impromptu news conference and said you know the capitol police the security forces there they are still under attack 3 months later what is the answer now that's pretty rhetorical but have you got any

thoughts on what the answer is. i do actually yes all of us will focus understandably on the immediate event and in specific measures in real time almost that one can take and those are important but i actually think that they are secondary i am most interested in the drivers of the underlying causes the dynamics that lead to this sort of thing words matter when leaders say things that incite division and hate the number of. incidents of violence and people who perpetrate them will increase this is simply a fact your 30 years as i start to say this for the press conference the f.b.i. and the cia have assessed that the greatest threat to american lives blood and treasure are right wing militias and militants not jihad ists but the government hasn't prioritized that because it was viewed as political powers is not

it's a factual statement for the past 5 years and more some leaders have been saying. inciting virtually inciting violence as we saw in january 6th that increases the incidence of violence and people who are zealots and want to commit it so what does one do use do things like saying violence is bad the government is trying to help you. we can work together to resolve our problems rather than so and so is at fault we are on the right side of the wrong side if one does that in pyrrhic lee the number of people who are mobilized to violence will decline yeah that's a it's not a sexy step but it is fundamental common clock and pittsburgh join to join in the. yeah i think so absolutely right whether you want to call it a public relations campaign which some people would you know take as

a pejorative or really just a strategic communications campaign of communicating what the government is here to do. yeah it's essential but unfortunately a lot of the rhetoric in you know u.s. domestic politics right now is about you know highly partisan nature it's about blaming the other and even for lawmakers you know they claim to you know be working against the government even as they're a part of it in some ways we saw it with the president you know in the lead up to the capital insurrection so we've got a lot of soul searching to do as a nation i also agree that just based on the data the greatest threat right now is for all violent far right extremists not from cells that you know this. calling cluck from the surf on santa joining us from pittsburgh and also thanks to glenn call former cia officer joining us from boston gentlemen i thank you for your time i know it's been difficult of course with the limited amount of information we have

but we really have appreciated your expertise we are coming up to the top of the hour on al-jazeera will be 900 hours g.m.t. shortly coming up 3 pm in washington d.c. on the left of your screen the u.s. capitol building that was attacked on january the 6th nearly 3 months ago and has been surrounded by security ever since on the right a blue sedan which is managed to get through some of that security the high black steel fences which have encircled the capitol has rammed through there has hit the white barrios. with the big red word stop on there they would have been deployed at a moment's notice the driver has gotten out of the car holding a knife anything between a kitchen knife or a machete we can't confirm yet he has lunged at 2 capitol police officers on guard there at the capitol they have fired at him those 2 officers taken to hospital along with the suspect we heard probably 4045 minutes ago that the suspect

has died and in a news conference moments ago we heard that one of those capitol police officers has succumbed to the injuries and died as well no confirmation on who that is obviously as the next of kin are yet to be informed continuing coverage here on al-jazeera of the situation in washington d.c. without same in london maryam namazie in just a moment. it watching al-jazeera is just gone $900.00 g.m.t. and we are continuing our coverage of developments in of the u.s. capital and of course we've been covering this for the past hour or so where we have just received confirmation in the past 15 minutes in the past quarter of an hour that a capitol police officer was killed a man rammed a car into 2 offices and they you can see the image.