threatening wounds, and attempted bombing in new jersey. nobody hurt there. thank you for watching cnn. stay with cnn for the latest. fredricka whitfield will pick up our live coverage right now. hello, everyone. thank you so much for joining us. we're following two major stories breaking today. the powerful manhattan blast that injured 29 people last night, an attack that mayor bill de blasio says was intentional and multiple people stabbed at a mall in saint cloud, minnesota. isis now claiming it was a soldier of islamic state who carried out the attack before he was killed. we have team coverage on both of these stories. jessica schneider is in new york and nick valencia is following the developments in minnesota where a news conference is expected to begin at any moment now. but jessica, let me begin with

you. what is the latest on this investigation unfolding? >> reporter: the police commissioner, the mayor and other public officials just held a press conference, it just wrapped up. and what commissioner o'neal said is that they have gotten a lot of video from this area. he referenced two specific crime scenes, the first one right here at west 23rd street where that explosion went off at 8:30 last night. commissioner o'neal saying it does look indicative of an explosive device, an ied. other getting individual xro from the other crime scene at west 27th street where investigators found the unexploded pressure cooker. what we're learning from our showers is a lot of that video is survey lachbs individuillanc grainy, so not necessarily getting anything from that, but one thing that they have seen is an individual who is in the vicinity of the explosion last night, police and investigators now trying to discern whether or not that individual somehow is

connected to this explosion. now also speaking at the press conference was the assistant director of the fbi field office here in new york and bill sweeney said that the evidence collection here at this scene would take at lease another four to five hours. they still have to go into the residences and buildings that were substantially damaged by this big explosion that injured 29 people. those 29 people now have been treated and released from the hospital. also at the press conference, bill de blasio doubled down on his comments that have come under fire. he talked last night about the fact that this was an intentional act, but bagged away from saying that it was terrorism. in fact he said last night at this point it was not connected to terrorism. here's what he had to say today defending those comments. >> we'll be very careful and patient to get to the full truth here. we are not going to jump to conclusions. we're not going to offer you easy answers. we'll make sure we have all the

facts. we know there was a bombing. it's a serious incident but we have a lot more work do to say what kind of motivation was behind this, was it a political motivation, a person about al motivation, what was it some we don't know that yet. that work must go on. >> reporter: and the mayor and the police commissioner saying that this investigation will be thorough, they will take their time. now, the components of the ied that exploded right here on west 23rd as well as the pressure cooker now being analyzed by the bomb squad both here in new york and also the fbi lab down in quantico, virginia. now, it was interesting one interesting note that came out from this press conference, after that explosion right here on west 23rd street, it turns out that retired nypd officers who are now new york state troopers, they went on a foot

patrol looking for a secondary device and that is exactly why and how they found that unexploded pressure cooker up on west 27th street just four blocks from where that explosion happened. >> so i'm wondering, was there a marker, something about the exploded device off remnants of it that led investigators to believe that there might be a secondary one and then lo and behold to locate one? >> reporter: well, you know, commissioner o'neal indicated that this is a protocol. when a device like this goes off, when there is an explosion in the area, it is protocol for these officers to do a check, to look for any secondary devices. that is exactly how they came upon this unexploded pressure cooker and that's what led to that massive response here after that explosion. so indicating perhaps that it is protocol to look for these secondary devices which they did find. >> now, what about the

perimeter, what is being blocked off? people live and work there and this is an area that is usually very popular and often there are people walking all times of the day. what about now? >> reporter: yeah, a very busy area. of course all of manhattan busy, but this is a very frequented area, very populated area. so what is happening right now is you can see behind me, west 23rd street is blocked off between 5th avenue and 6th avenue. police say that also the cross streets between 14th street and 27th street, those cross streets are also blocked off. this is a huge investigation scene, a huge crime scene. commissioner o'neal pointing to two distinct crime scenes, so still a lot of traffic being blocked off. but i will tell you this, governor cuomo is here just a few hours ago, also mayor de blasio, surveying the subway system because of course the lines run right through here. they say that they're optimistic

that the line running through this area will be up and running in time for commuters tomorrow. of course as they say in all instances, they want people in new york city to continue living their lives and not be threatened or deterred in what they're doing by this incident. >> and of course the poring over of the surveillance tape will be key and of course we heard that some cameras are still rolling so even that kind of information will folded into this investigation. did you get anymore detail about that? >> reporter: they're really looking for witnesses. they're looking for more people to talk to. in fact overnight, they made an appeal on twitter asking people to come forward if they have information, if they have video. video perhaps being key. i talked about the fact that there is surveillance video, a lot of businesses, restaurants, a lot of people in this area. so they have some of that surveillance video. but what we're hearing from sources is some of it is a bit grainy, a bit difficult to discern. so they want people who may have anymore video to come forward and hand it over to them and

also they want to talk to witnesses. so we're at the very early stages of this investigation, it happening just a little more i guess than 12 or 16 hours ago. so there is a lot of work to be done and they will have these streets closed off for another four or five hours. >> jessica schneider, thank you so much, from the chelsea area. just moments ago, we can do hear that andrew cuomo did have his statements earlier today. he's on the phone with me right now. governor -- actually, you're live. now i see you. good to see you. so earlier you said that there is no reason to believe that there is a further threat to new york city, but you want to err on the side of caution by launching 1,000 state police. what are the methods of their policing that you're hoping will maintain safety here in new york?

>> thanks for having me on. the basic point is this was a frightening experience for many new yorkers. we went through 9/11 obviously. 1993 we had a bombing at the world trade center. on you watch the tv news almost on weekly basis and you see terrorist activities. so we want to say to new yorker hes there is no way to panic, for reason to have your life disrupted. that's exactly what they are trying to do. we will go about our business and you should feel good that you have the best police agencies on the globe here in new york. and just out of an abundance of caution, to err on the side of caution, we now have state police and national guard at the airports, bus terminals, et cetera, as part of our normal

protocol and we will increase it by about 1,000 people just to make sure that there is no continuation. . and frankly, so new yorkers feel that their government is to go everything that they can. and we go about our business on monday morning. we have a nice sunday today and then tomorrow morning we go back to work. >> and governor, earlier today you said this is obviously an act of terrorism, but then you hear different language coming from the city of new york, the mayor saying while this act was intentional, the city is not quite ready to call this an act of terrorism. what is behind this kind of conflicting language and someone leaving an explosive device many people in the city have arguing doesn't that terrorize a city? isn't that terrorism? >> frankly, it's semantics. the mayor and i viewed the site together.

we have the same information, the same observation. and the same conclusions. there were two devices that were planted, one exploded, one didn't. they did tremendous damage. it was an intentional bombing. it was not accidental. it was criminal. it was violent. there was no apparently link at this time to any international terrorist organization. no national terrorist organization has taken credit for it and there was no apparent political purpose. there was also no target besides the general populous. you don't get to set off a bomb in new york or any city in this condition without -- to try to

frighten people, cause terror, period. and that -- you call that terrorism until it's linked to an organization or not, that's just a m just semantics. all the facts are the same. our message is simple. we will find who did this and we will bring them to justice. as i mentioned before, the fbi, new york police department, the state police, department of homeland security are all working hand in glove. you put them together, you're dealing with the best police forces on the globe i believe. we will find who did this and bring them to justice and in the meantime we're not going to let them win. we will live our lives, we'll take extra security measures to instill confidence, but they're not going to win. that's the point. p. >> is it your filing teeling th surveillance tape and cameras

will be critical in terming who did this, who left these devices and whose sfifinger prints mighe on them? >> i used to be in the federal government. we've gone through a number of these investigations. i prefer to wait to get the facts. the fooi is transporting everything to quantico. p they have one bomb that did not explode that has a cellphone, et cetera. they have remnants of the other bomb that did explode. they will done an analysis. you might get evidence from there, you might get evidence ot a tip. p someone might come forward and take credit for it. so it doesn't really help to speculate. if there is someone so the tape, that would be great. you can identify a person from a videotape, that would be great. but we're not sure where the information will come from. p but we will get the

information. >> purely a coincidence or do you believe that there could potentially still be a link between seaside park, new jersey, the devices found there and what happened in chelsea? >> i spoke to governor christie this morning and it could be a coincidence. we top have any reason to believe that it's not a company inside depends coincidence. the devices in new jersey were pipe bombs essentially.any coincidence. the devices in new jersey were pipe bombs essentially. but governor christie and i agreed that we will pool our resources to see if there are any similarities. and again, the fbi has both -- remains of both bombs going down to quanity can he to do an analysis and to see if they can find any commonalty. but it could be just a

coincidence. in new jersey you had an apparent connection where there was supposed to be a military run i believe and there might have been a connection there. on the new york side, it's hard to find any connection. those locations, any statement that people were trying to make besides just the explosion itself. >> and is this a unified effort between new jersey and new york and even new york city especially when we've had an issue of a semantic as you put it, a difference of classifying what has unfolded here? >> no, there is no difference in terms of classifying. semantics and just what label do you want to use. we all agree on the same facts and circumstances and the same course of conduct. governor christie, mayor de

blasio and myself are all working together. the coordinate of mechanism includes the federal government and something called the joint task force on terrorism. and we're working together because to you have these two incidents between new jersey and new york and you're right, we're not sure if it's a coincidence or if they're coordinated. but we normally coordinate, in this case we're taking special efforts to coordinate given the apparent coincidences. >> do you feel or are you ruling out whether this could be a trial run? >> trial run meaning what? >> meaning whoever is responsible for this, that this is a test to see the response to leave behind an unexploded device.

>> well, looking i belie, i bel only way to be governor of new york is you have to assume every gay that this state is a potential target for terrorists. period. 9/11 taught us that and before that the 1993 world trade center bomb. my father was governor at the time, had his office in the world trade center. so in some ways 9/11 was the second attack on the world trade center. so the only operating paradigm is every day you are a potential terrorist attack -- for potential terrorist attack. you know, every day could being be the day. and that's how we operate anyway. you're on guard every day all the time.

so trial balloon or not, we assume that there are terrorist organizations, we assume that there are lone wolfs, we assume there are bad actors who would love to do damage in new york for many reasons. and we operate that way anyway every day. so i don't know that it really makes a difference at the end of the day. we assume there are people who are trying to hurt new yorkers to serve their purposes and we are ready all the time. >> all right. governor andrew cuomo, thank you so much to joining us. appreciate it. coming up, isis claiming a soldier of the islamic state carried out stabbings at a minnesota mall. we're waet to iting to hear fro officials in minnesota. press conference soon to get under way. ♪

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welcome back. we're staying on top of two major stories unfolding this hour. police combing through surveillance video and gathering clues as to who might be behind that powerful explosion in new york city last night. officials are stressing no credible threat to new york, but have stepped up police and national guard patrols around the city. and we're also awaiting a news conference out of st. cloud, pla minnesota where multiple people were stabbed, isis claiming it was a soldier of the islam state who carried out that attack before he was killed by an off

duty officer. nick havevalencia joining us wi more. >> reporter: the online immediate are a wing of isis claiming responsibility for the individual who stabbed at least eight people at a mall on saturday night. the online wing saying that he was a soldier of isis. so far the individual who carried out the attack in st. cloud has not officially been identified by police before we're expecting to hear more details that the press conference that we're standing by for, but what we do know so far is that he has had at least three encounters with police in the past for minor traffic violations. here is what we know happened. last night at about 8:00 p.m. this individual entered the crossroads mall in st. cloud. he was dressed in a private

security uniform and he was mentioning ala. he also according to police asked at least one person about if they were muslim before he carried out the stabbing. it was earlier this afternoon that i spoke to ashley bayne, she was at the mall and described what happened. >> all of a sudden chaos just broke out. there was a bunch of people running into the jcpenney mall entrance and they were screaming that someone was going around the mall stabbing people, and ta that there was blood everywhere. it was just a really scary experience. i dropped everything in my hands and booked it back to my co-worker to notify her what was going. i ran out a different exit out of our jcpenney which led straight to the parking lot and i just kind of jumped in my car and sped off as fast as i could. >> that was ashley bayne, a witness to last night's attacks

there in the mall. the stabbings took place at multiple locations, common areas, stores in that location. the mall remains closed today p. it is according to police an active crime screen. at least eight perhaps nine people were injured, they're all expected to survive. they have suffered nonlife threatening injuries. one person does remain hospital. and it is worth noting so far there is no indication that this individual had any accomplices, also no indication that there is an apparently connection to the explosions that happened yesterday in new york as well as seaside, new jersey. we're standing by for the press conference. hopeful hopefully we'll get more details in a bit. >> and we heard the police chief saying that they're looking into a security agency to see if indeed he was working with any kind of security agency. and we'll hear all of that hopefully more details in that press conference upcoming. thanks so much, nick. and of course we'll talk about all of this and the robust police presence now in new york. mayor bill de blasio saying a show of force will be there,

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welcome back. two breaking news stories this hour. a bombing here in new york city and several people stabbed at a mall in minnesota p. we're waiting for a live presser to take place on the stabbing sdwint and of course we'll bring that to you. there are the live pictures at st. cloud. when it happens, we'll take you there. so let's talk about all of this with our panel of experts. matthew horace former atf effective, art roderick and retired u.s. marshal, tom fuentes and former fbi assistant director, and juliet cayenne. good to see all of you. let's talk about the minnesota case first. we're still awaiting the press conference out of saint cloud,

the shopping mall terrorized by the suspect who was wearing a private security firm uniform say police. and stabbed upwards of nine people before an off duty police officer shot and killed him. so i one exerciwonder, matthew, they go about determining wherein deed he is a soldier of isis as isis has claimed this suspect to be? how do they go about determining whether he was on a mission ordered by isis? >> as you know, early on in investigations, information is coming in fast and furiously. and as things evolve, things change havevery quickly. fbi will be checking social media, speaking to his family, trying to determine if he's a sympathizer, supporter or maybe

not involved at all. so early indication sometimes change. they will determine it over the course of the next several days. >> and from what we understand in our reporting, he went to various sections of the shopping mall and stabbed people before this off duty officer then shot and killed him. what more will investigators be trying to comb through, what kind of information would they be able to ascertain from that shopping mall, the scene of the crime? >> a lot less than i think what will be at his home. so -- because they're trying to get the isis connection. ice has claimed credit that they inspired him, so it will be social media, who he has talked to, either open source or back source information. the attack itself is not sophisticat sophisticated. a knife in a shopping mall, you're going to be able to get targets. and i think that it's just a reminder to all of us, whether

these issues -- whether these attacks are related or not over the course of 24 hour, they have a commonalty which is our homeland security appa rat tuesday is local police departments. and emergency managers and public health officials. there is no counterterrorism or homeland security group out there waiting for something bad to happen. its it's first responders in pl that we've never heard of. >> and tom, what do you want to hear out of the press conference? >> i think i'd like to hear that they have specific information about whether or not he was tied to other individuals, either by communication or social media as juliet mentioned. and just see. is he a loan wone wolf and try figure out if there is anyway to determine yet how long the radicalization period was if in fact he's radicalized. and at this point they may not fully know all this information

yet. but those are among the questions especially is he truly a lone wolf. and if he is, then there may not be a continuing threat. if he isn't, then important to know if there are others out there who he may is been in communication with or separately may have been planning events like this. >> and while no one is linking all of these incidents that have taken place in this weekend, we're talking about minnesota, new jersey with the devices found there and then in the chelsea section of lower manhattan, how do you see this as purely coincidental or do you believe in some way there a common thread or connection with these incidents? >> well, first of all, if you take a step back and look at this, number one, law enforcement investigators come not believe in coincidences. so that number one to me. what struck me, two mass

casualty events, third one could have been if the race had gone off on time. and by the grace of god, we have an off duty police officer that was able to stop the first mass casualty event. you have this bomb going off in new york city, luckily nobody was killed. so we doned a lot of bullets here. and in that to me when he take a step back bei step back you have the incident in minnesota, similar to some of the attacks that have occurred in israel in terms of stabbings. you have him asking individuals are you muslim. you have the attacks going on, possible attack in new jersey. and what happened in new york. maybe not grektdirectly, but wh

they occur within 24 hours, was there a call out by isis? is it lone wolf? you put all it together, there is just no -- to me, no coincidence that these three efsh events occurred in a 24 hour time period. >> all right, we have new information that now an investigation is under way to perhaps help substantiate whether there is indeed a connection between what happened in new jersey, the devices found during that 5 k marine corps run and what happened in lower manhattan in chelsea. >> that's right. they have found some similarities in the cellphones that were used to perhaps detonate the devices. so that's what investigators are be looking at, for some clues. there is nothing to say that the incidents in new york and new jersey are directly linked, but definitely they are looking at some of the similarities. other than that, there are no similarities. >> so even though initially

these were determined that there were pipe bomb, at least one pipe bomb in new jersey in the seaside pack area, versus pressure cookers, or at least one intact pressure cooker in chels chelsea? >> right. they believe there was at least one pressure cooker which they found on 27th street. the devices that they found in new jersey are pipe bombs. so, yes, that's a difference. that is a significant difference. but what was used to detonate the pipe bomb they believe was a cellphone with like a sort of -- which was being used as a timer to sort of detonate it. so perhaps maybe like the alarm was used on the phone set to a certain time, and then it would have caused the explosion. and juliet, what is your response to that kind of -- it looks like juliet can't hear me.

>> it's been my experience that it's the result of the imagination of the person making the bomb about that so in some cases more rudimentary, in some cases more complex. it all depends on the bombmaker. >> the commonalty of a cellphone being used in this day and anyone particularly takes pertains to a bomb, whether a pipe bomb or a pressure cooker, fairly common? >> investigators will be looking to see how many commonalties they have between the two different devices. did they use the cellphones the same way, were they used as a time, a distraction. they will look at everything. examining them, putting them into intel databases and determine the commonalties. >> tom, what strikes you about that information coming from

shimone's reporting? >> if you have phones involved for detonating the first device and maybe attempting to detonate the second one which didn't go off, can they get into the phones? will they run into a big battle to try to get information from the phones to determine what calls were made? the other thing that they can be doing is that the device, if it was detonated by a phone, the 23rd street device that exploded, the examination of telephone company records from the local cell towers to see if they can determine the precise time and possibly match that to a device, you know, match to cellphone information that may indicate a subscriber. but that will be a difficult task. it will require assistance from the phone call and we'll see how much cooperation they can get along those lines. >> and art, how does this potentially change the direction of an investigation of this caliporiiber

caliber? >> i think that was the assumption that you have to go from. you have a checklist of reasons why this might have occurred international terrorism is up top, domestic terrorism is next and you sort of eliminate these types of theories. i think tom is correct on these cellphone issues. they're probably using what any ca they call burner phones to get the cell tower information will be key. especially for the guys still intact. where was it purchased, who windchill purchased it, getting the video from that store. so a ton of leads to follow up, not on tly the video at the actl scene and the information that they can get off the phones. >> and juliet, is this perhaps a potential turning point in the investigation and perhaps an indicator of a greater cooperation between new jersey authorities, new york authorities if indeed a

commonalty is that cellphones may have been used as tirms even though the guys themselves are different but perhaps that could indicate corroboration here? >> yes. tom has led these efforts. even though they're separated by geography, so you'll have one for new york and new jersey, they're very much aligned. so in terms of the sharing of evidence and xhun karks icommun not so worried about that. but the phone connection would be what i would expect from a bomb or device that would be detonated from afar. i think the big question is what is inside the device, is it the same. and we have not heard yet the second device which did not detonate which was inside of it. >> and explain what you mean, what is inside. >> what is the explosive material. and so that's what you can match. not just to each other between new jersey and new york.

but also purchases. the benefit of the new york device not going off besides of course the saving of lives is that there will be a lot of evidence on an undetonated device, ied, call it what you want, that they can be tracked for purchase of the phone, purchase of the materials. and that's without saying it we know -- without them confirming it, we know that is what the fbi is doing. if they can get ownership of who might have placed the new york device, then you can see if it's linked to the new jersey device. >> all right. thanks to you all. we'll continue our conversation. and we're also awaiting the press conference out of saint cloud, minnesota after a man is shot the dead after stabbing at least eight people at a shopping mall.

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welcome back. breaking news we're following. investigators are now saying that there are similarities between new jersey and new york devices. cnn justice correspondent evan perez is covering this. let's also bring back our panel. we have a number of people here. t evan, to you first if you can give us an idea of what your new reporting is. >> reporter: well, one of the things that obviously is raising some concerns among the investigators is the fact that they found cellphones that were used as triggers devices for both the two bombs in new york as well as the three devices attached together in seaside park, new jersey. as i think some of the panelists have been mentioning there, is no conclusions that you can make, tons of bomb recipes online that you can find this as the triggering device. what i want to make clear, we're not saying that there is any

firm conclusions here or that this was-o -- >> evan, i'm sorry to interrupt you. the press conference is under way. police officer shooting dead someone who stabbed eight people. let's listen in. >> -- actually reminds me of -- or it's something that i hear very often in 11 years that i've been mayor, i think i get asked this question often, what keeps you up at night. well, what happened last night is what keeps me up at night. it was certainly a tragic situation that happened at crosswoods mall. but i want to, first of all, thank the law enforcement response. not only our st. cloud p.td. bu departments throughout the area, sheriff's office, firefighters, emergency management folks,

ambulance, all of the response teams of the first responders were exemplary in how quickly they were there. and i'd also like to thank the management at crossroads staff, the folks in target and the macy's, number of folks that were also extremely helpful in their response last night. our thoughts and our prayers continue to be with the victims, the individuals that were attacked last night. i want to just give you an update from the previous press conference that we held last night, since that night, there have been changes. we had an additional individual who self-admitted at long prairie hospital, so there were

nine victims. nine victims. and as of 7:00 this morning, there were three that were still in the hospital. no one with life -- any type of life threatening injuries. but there are the other individuals have been released. those victims give you an, without the name, but rain will give you his, male, 22-year-old from big lake. male, 24-year-old from will mer. male, 53-year-old frommal be bahny. male, 45-year-old from st. cloud. male, 20-year-old from st. cloud. female, 15-year-old from big lake. female, 50-year-old from kimball. male, 29-year-old from st. cloud and a male, 31-year-old from -- >> our thoughts and prayers are

with these victim, but also all of the other individuals in the mall on a saturday nigts. as you can imagine on a weekend, all the people in the mall. can't hebut think of the famili that witnessed the horrific action. i want to recognize the individual off duty police officer who eliminated the threat. and took down the suspect. that officer is from the avon police department. jason faulkner. jason faulkner is a part time police officer for avon. he is the former chief of police of albany. he was in the mall. and as somebody who has had an opportunity to witness the surveillance tape in macy's, and witnessed what he did, he clearly prevented additional

injuries. and potentially loss of life. his heroic actions are exemplary of having witnessed what he did as the suspect was lunging at him with a knife. not only did he fire, the suspect went bowdown. he came back up. three different occasions. he again protected others from being injure and potentially loss of life. clearly, a hero. officer faulkner was there at the right time. right place. the mall,the shopping center, it will be, it will remain closed today. crosscods is expected to open for business as usual tomorrow. it will be closed today.

i want to thank the responders and i want the thank in a situation like this, you really understand what your community is made of. the strong support that i have heard and receive and phone calls and e-mails. texts. and through social media. not only from our community, but from all over the world. we're a strong community. a united community. this individual's evil act, unjustifiable in any means. will not shake the revolve of this community. we have had tremendous outpour, not only from throughout the world, but within our community.

that support is very strong and is evident in this community. i'm going to come up now to the podium. chief of police for the city of st. cloud. blair anderson. can't say enough for the first responders in our community and just beyond the city of st. cloud. clearly, are a great example of their profession and extremely worthy of our admiration. chief anderson. >> thank you, sir. good afternoon. i want to reiterate the mayor's sentiment. our thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims and their families. and we certainly want to acknowledge all of our partner, our neighboring partner, our federal and state parts. at a time like this, you need your colleagues and your partners and they were there for

us and they still are. i can tell you before i go back through the kronology, that from the first 911 call till the subject was eliminated, was approximately five minutes. and that's what we expect when something like this starts. we train to respond to these kinds of incidents swiftly and that's what happened yesterday. but for that swift response, particularly the actions of officer faulkner, i agree with the mayor, this could have been much, much worse. and no one being injured obviously is acceptable. but this could have been a lot worse, but for the swift response, not only from the men and women of st. cloud, police department, but all of our neighbors as well. i'll go over the kro noll ji

with you again in case some weren't available last evening. at approximately 8:00 or 8:15 last night, one individual entered the southeast side of the crossroads mall on division street and attacked nine people. we know there were nine victims. one self-transported to a hospital outside of our jurisdiction. stabbed nine people. was confronted. by officer faulkner and i had the opportunity to view the video with the mayor and i couldn't agree more. with his take on it. this is what we're trained to do. unfortunately, none of us ever want to have to do that, but that's what we're here for. our job is the public safety of all and officer faulkner's

actions were swift and direct and in my opinion, appropriate. i don't think i have anything other to add than in between last night and this morning, we've executed at least two search warrants. at an address here in st. cloud. we did discover the suspect's vehicle in the mall parol. that vehicle wassed and impounded. in other words, there's no imminent threat. either from that vehicle or right now, there's nothing that we have gleaned that would subject to us that this is anything other than what it appears now. keep in mind and let me emphasize at this time, there's nothing to suggest anything differently than what you've been told, all right? there are a lot of moving parts and this is a fluid situation

and i can say sure you, we will be transparent with you on any developments. so long as they don't compromise our vesting gags. i'm going turn it over to a special agent charge. rick thornton. . >> good afternoon. as chief anderson said, i'm rick thornton, special agent in charge for the fbi in minnesota. want to echo what the chief said in terms of this is a very fluid situation and will continue to evolve. the fbi and joint terrorism task force has been working side by side with the st. cloud police department and other partners since last night, throughout the night and today. we are currently investigating this as a potential act of terrorism. and i do say potential. there is, there's a lot we don't

know. we do not at this point in time know whether the suspect, it was in contact with, connections with, inspird by foreign terrorist organization. that's what the investigation is attempting to ascertain at this point in time. that will involve all the things you would expect. we'll look at his social media, device, talk to associates. we will try to sort of peel back the onion and figure out what motivate d this individual to commit the horrific act he did last night. i also want to echoing the mayor and chief's sentiment of you know, thoughts and prayers out to the nine individuals that were victimized and the other people that had to experience the trauma, even if if they weren't physically injured. that's our role at this point in time along with the st. cloud pd, so figure out what happened and to resultly hopefully

establish what the motivation was. thank you very much. >> we'll take a few questions and i will defer some to the lead investigator on this case. lieutenant eller. so, feel free if you have -- defer to -- >> all right, sorry. we lost that signal out of st. cloud, minnesota, but you heard there, this press conference unfolding, describing that there are now nine victims stabbing victims when this man who they are not yet ready to reveal the identity of, walked into a shopping mall in st. cloud and starting stabbing people. nine victims in all. two women, ages 15 and 50. seven men ranging in ages of 20 and 53. there was no elaboration from authorities there as