>> mike, look, if this is an act of domestic terrorism and it's hard to wrap your head around something like that because no one wants to believe that something like this can happen in their city but unfortunately we see it play out all too often across america these days. are they going to the person's home? was the person on scene? we do understand that shots were fired. with the nopd if somebody was driving down bourbon street inintentionay would they be allowed to use lethal force to stop somebody like this on bourbon street? >> in answer to that question, yes, that individual would. so anyone who is trying to take the life of someone else or engage in taking the life of someone else, you do have the right to use lethal force in order to prevent that person from furtherance of taking someone else's life. in this situation if you would have multiple police officers at different angles shooting at a moving vehicle, it can be where other people end up getting

shot, it can be where civilians end up getting shot, but you have to stop that vehicle from continuing to engage in that threat and taking more lives. >> all right. mike cahn, great insight in light of what's a tragic event here. stand by, we will have much more with you coming up. if you are joining us live at 6:30 a.m. on the new year here in new orleans, we are following tragic news, a mass casualty event in the heart of the most famous neighborhood in the state of louisiana, the french quarter. according to police after 3:00 a.m. a truck plowed down bourbon street killing more than 10 people, maybe as many as 12 and injuring at least 27 others. it is an active scene right now. we do not know if it was a drunk driver or possibly some act of domestic terrorism that was intentionally done. we have crews all over downtown and the french quarter, we will bring you the very latest information. also, the nopd superintendent ann kick tra trick and latoya

cantrell are in the french quarter at the 8th precinct on royal street. the only level 1 trauma center in the state of louisiana in southeast louisiana right now. that is where all of these people have been taken. aubrey, a tragic scene but what is the very latest information that you have from umc? >> reporter: travers, new orleans ems have been working very hard all morning long, giving us new details and new information on this tragic and devastating story we've been staying on top of all morning. behind me here at umc the sun is starting to come up, you can see the cars going up and down the entrance ramp. here is what i can tell you, according to new orleans ems.

>> they say those hospitals are university medical center. oxnard main and baptist. umc with the most. 14 patients. they did say no ems personnel were injured. they are telling me the scene is actively being worked and nopd is asking the public to stay clear of the area. new orleans ems is asking residents and visitors of new orleans to activate 911 service, responsibly for emergencies only. ems has additional staff on duty right now to continue to respond so, again, this is what it's like here at umc. we did see nopd on the entrance ramp we also saw jefferson

parish sheriff's office units on the entrance ramp at this time. again, 10 people dead, about 30 injured. stay with me on this developing story. back to you. >> what is taking place and there will be no questions because we are continuing to investigate. we will have an updated briefing at 11:00, we will be at police headquarters, if that changes we will let you know and for 3:00 p.m. with that we will get our group behind us to assemble. as i said, we will have three to four of our leaders speaking, we won't be able to take questions because we are still actively investigating this situation. [ inaudible ]. >> you have been watching our nbc news special report. coverage from our local nbc station in new orleans. wdsu. as we have been reporting on this horrific scene that has unfolded in new orleans on bourbon street this morning. at least 10 people killed, 30 at least people have been sent to

the hospital after a car or truck plowed into a crowd of people on bourbon street. you are looking at that local affililiate corage. we are moments away from a news conference that is set to begin. you just heard a b of a tee up here. we expect to hear from the head of the new orleans police department, she will deliver an update and chief among the questions was this accidental, was this intentional? you have been listening to the reporting suggesting that this was a very scary moment for so many people, obviously this deadly tragedy, you can see police now waiting to step forward to the microphone as we expect an update potentially from the da as well, potentially from the mayor cantrell. coming to us from our local affiliate wdsu in new orleans. we will take you to that news conference. we expect more throughout the morning but this critical information, let's listen in. >> thank you. good morning. first of all, we do know that

the city of new orleans was impacted by a terrorist attack. it's all still under investigation. you will hear more after meme. however, i have been in direct contact with the white house, with governor landry and, of course, a unified command who is present here. what i'm asking at this time are prayers for those who have lost their lives in the city of new orleans due to this tragedy. in addition to that, i'm asking the public to stay clear of eight blocks around bourbon street. stay clear from bourbon street eight blocks around. very active. and, again, a unified command is in place right now. i'm gng to ask chief kirkpatrick to give you an

update. you're then going to hear from our agent in charge relative to the fbi. so at this time, chief kirkpatrick. >> thank you. all right. good morning, everyone. so i'm going to give you as much of the information i possibly can. we are going to give you an update a couple of times today, so we will give you just the basics this morning. all right? we had this event started at about 3:15. it did involve a man driving a pickup truck down bourbon street at a very fast pace and it was very intentional behavior. this man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could. it was not a dui situation. this is a more complex and more serious based on the information we have right now. with respect to numbers, we have right now and as you already know this could change

throughout the day. we do know that there are 26 injured people who are at umc hospital. we know we have four at toro, four at oshner baptist, one at tulane. even as i was walking out the door i believe i have an unconfirmed additional people who have been taken to other area hospitals possibly on the east side, but we will give you as many correct numbers as we can as the day progresses. it is a very tragic situation for me to tell you that we now have 10 people that this man killed on bourbon street. that is why we do not want anyone on bourbon street today wherever you see yellow tape, please do not violate this tape.

this is in order to protect and stabilize the scene. we have information to a certain degree of the demographics of those who are in the hospital right now. we do not know at this point how many could be tourists versus locals, but from the information i have right now it seems the majority are locals versus tourists. what i also can tell you is that this man, this perpetrator, he fired on our officers from his vehicle when he crashed his vehicle. two of our officers have been shot. they are stable and we will give you an update on them. i have yet been able to go to the hospital. i will be leaving here for us to

go visit our officers. we have called in every officer that we have. we have so much appreciated our partnerships who have also offered us staff. last night we had over 300 officers out here and because of the intentional mindset of this perpetrator who went around our barricades in order to conduct this, he was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he d. because of the nature and the indices that we have on the scene, and we have enough information that the fbi will be taking over this investigation. and with that i am going to be asking -- this is the assistant agent in charge. this is agent duncan.

special agent duncan, and she has taken over this case on behalf of us and the fbi. as always, we will be in partnership with all of our partners, but agent duncan, if you want to have a few words. >> thank you, ma'am. good morning. my name is alicia duncan i'm the assistant special agent in charge for fbi new orleans. as the chief said we will be taking over the investigative lead for this event. this is not a terrorist event. what it is right now is there are improvised explosive devices that were found and we are working on confirming if it's a viable device or not. as chief kirkpatck said, we're asking everyone to stay away from bourbon street, specifically from canal street to st. ann. that is my ask. once again, stay away from bourbon street, canal street all the way to st. ann until we can figure out w what is going on. our goal is to provide you additional information at the

11:00 a.m. press conference. thank you so much and we will be in touch. >> i will say that we want our community and our visitors to continue enjoying -- there's so much to enjoy about new orleans and we are going to make sure that our routes and the superdome are safe today for the game and yet we had this tragic event and we're sorry, again, to everyone in our community, but we do want you to go about the day, as we say, just stay away from bourbon. >> could you elaborate on the device? >> we actually are not going to be taking questions this morning until we have more information. that's why we will give you an 11:00 briefing. so until then, please hold your questions. we will give you everything that we possibly can. okay? so 11:00 we will see you at the headquarters and we will go again from there.

okay? no questions. no questions right now. >> the device is confirmed? >> thank you all. >> all right. so a lot of details coming up, they are not taking any questions. to recap the mayor came out of the gate calling this a terrorist attack on bourbon street. just after 3:15 a.m. a man intentionally drove a truck, it's our undetanding, down bourbon street, he went around the barricades to do that -- >> you have been listening to our local nbc news station wdsu for that news conference of course from the superintendent of new orleans police describing in her words a man hellbent on creating carnage, intentionally she says driving into a crowd of people during new year's eve celebrations on bourbon street. this individual then fired on police officers, two officers have been shot. we know that as of right now at least ten people have been killed in this deadly incident that the mayor described as a terrorist attack. there are also according to the

agent in charge there, the fbi agent that we heard from appears to be an improvised explosive device that they are looking into in the same area in the french quarter. to be clear, police are saying this was absolutely intentional, that this man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could, in her words that he went around barricades in order to be able to create this carnage essentially. we know that about 30 people have been sent to the hospital now to be treated for their injuries and we expect another update a little bit later on this morning. the police chief says that the majority of the individuals who are hurt appear to be locals, keeping in mind, remember, that the sugar bowl, huge football game, is tonight at the superdome in new orleans. you heard a reference to that there at the end. you have a lot of people who are in this city from out of town, fans, obviously, college football fans that have come in to be able to -- they had hoped -- celebrate last night and tonight. this is obviously turned into a very different situation. a very different scene there as you see the aftermath of what

happened this morning on the right side of your screen, on the left side continuing our local coverage now from wdsu. we will take you back now to that local coverage to listen in for a little bit longer. >> those are the very latest details, if you are just joining us, just after 6:43 a.m. a mass casualty event on bourbon street. a man intentionally drove a vehicle around barricades, down a packed bourbon street killing 10 people and injuring 30 more people who are at area hospitals. we have the very latest information. we have crews all over the metro area right now to bring you the very latest. let's get live -- i believe we're going to fletcher first who is in the french quarter. fletcher, you just heard those details. the fbi said they did find ieds. not something you hear about in a major city especially new orleans in the french quarter. >> reporter: no, and we showed you some images, we were on bourbon street on the corner of bourbon and orleans and we were

moved to dauphene about a block away because we were by a state police trooper who noticed what he felt like was a suspicious package so they moved the perimeter back at least a block because they are being vigilant and hypersensitive because of what was just detailed by the police superintendent and law enforcement officials and they certainly want to prevent any type of second attack as well. right now most of the streets here in the french quarter are still blocked. there is a lot of people just waking up and finding out what's happening, coming to work this morning and not being ablee to get into the french quarter. i'm also going to step out of the way right now because this is one of those really eerie, sad situations. you are looking at maybe the most iconic structure in the city of new orleans, the st. louis cathedral, and stefan cage zooms out, you see police cruisers. this is sposed to be a festive time, ringing in the new year, a fresh start, everybody enjoying the sugar bowl between georgia and notre dame tonight.

super bowl lix. instead we're talking about tragedy and chaos. so, again, our beautiful city dealing with chaos once again as law enforcement has the majority of the french quarter around bourbon street from canal all the way to st. ann blocked off right now and now the perimeter extends not just from bourbon, but also to dauphene as they investigate a suspicious package. that's the very latest from here, travers. again, just a sad -- i keep looking at it, the beautiful st. louis cathedral, law enforcement, police cruisers everywhere because of what transpired about three hours ago. >> the eyes of the world are on new orleans right now not just for the sugar bowl that kicks off in 14 hours. doug, tens of thousands of visitors, the teams are in the city the chief said they are going to protect the slug gar

bowl tonight. the super bowl, this is the last thing that anybody wants to see happen. but if you are just waking up with us, a lot of families are waking up across the country and here in new orleans and are hearing the news and trying to reach out to their loved ones. if i got the numbers right from ann kirkpatrick, about 35 people remain at area hospitals all across new orleans, 10 people tragically have been killed. the mayor calling this a terrorist attack. someone went around barricades and intentionally drove down bourbon street with the intent to harm or kill people. he then opened fire on nopd officers, two officers returned fire, two officers were shot there, they are in stable condition at this point. brittany is joining our coverage right now. you were also in the french quarter. what are you seeing where you are? >> reporter: yeah, travers, well, terrible situation to be waking up to and a terrible way to be ringing in the new year after a mass casualty event like

this. right now we're standing right near canal and bourbon street. i'm going to show you what it looks like behind me. dozens of police officers here right now, detectives investigating. we just learned from superintendent ann kirkpatrick that the fbi is now taking over this investigation because of the severity of this case. we also learned that there were potential explosive devices that were found and they are working right now to see if those are active. now, superintendent and city leaders also said that this was not a drunk driving event as you just mentioned, this was intentionally performed with that man driving into that crowd. so, again, lots of people right now waking up, learning what's happening with the situation. city leaders are asking people to avoid this area if you can because obvioly there are lots of streets blocked off here. canal is blocked off for about an eight-block radius. we're seeing a lot of people starting to check out of their hotels and leave out this morning. just such a serious event that

happened right now and so we're supposed to get another update at 11:00 this morning, that's going to be the next briefing where we learn a little bit more, but right now they are potentially looking at this as a terror event that happened right here in the french quarter. terrible way to start off 2025. superintendent ann kirkpatrick also said that the majority of people right now it seems like they are local for the ones who were hurt in this incident. as we mentioned, travers, over 30 people in the hospital right now and we do know at least 10 people have died due to this event. so extremely serious, which is why detectives are here and city leaders are asking that people avoid this area so that you can stay away while they conduct their investigation. again, as we mentioned, explosive devices found in the car of that man who performed this attack. so just a lot going on right now, a lot to iron out and a lot of unanswered questions that we have. you saw that they didn't even let the media ask questions as

of right now because everything is still fluid. again, we're supposed to get another update at 11:00 this morning. stick with wdsu on air and online as we bring you the latest. >> you have been watching our nbc news special report with the help from our local nbc station wdsu down there in new orleans. this continuing coverage of what has happened on bourbon street in the french quarter throughout the morning. a truck ramming into a crowd, killing at least 10 people. the driver according to police then opening fire, shooting two police officers, it's not clear what their conditions are. there is also separately now -- or not separately, an improvised explosive device that is also being investigated. for more on that let me bring in our nbc news correspondent tom winter joining us on the phone. tom, is the assumption that this ied they are looking into connected to the car ramming? >> reporter: that's what they're trying to determine, hallie. just an update, the two police officers you referenced that were shot following this

incident when the vehicle came to a stop apparently those two officers are in, quote, stable condition. i don't know how serious their injuries were. back to the explosive, as far as the potential explosive, they are obviously going to look at things in the car. we've seen this on a number of these types of incidents where somebody will try to have something that's either improvised in the car or something they could throw, how effective that might be, whether it is an actual device or whether it is something just to try to slow down police as they investigate because they have to ok into those types of things, all of that is unclear. that's all going to be part of the investigation. the fact that the fbi is taking this over indicates that there is a national security component to it, that there is a federal nexus, police and officials in new orleans made it quite clear this is not an accident, this was not a driver who was impaired from alcohol or drugs. this is a terrorist attack they

are cling it and so the investigation at least has uncovered some sense of a motive at this point in order for them to say that. so did this individual make some statements? are they in custody? what is their current status? all questions we don't have. but clearly there is something that was either found in the car, on the suspect's person, or something that this individual said that leads them to believe that this is, in fact, a terrorist attack. as you heard from our coverage at wdsu and from the reporter at the scene, fletcher maccel, he was stating that they are continuing to look for other suspicious packages. they can slow this down now. the incident is clearly over, but there will obviously of course be questions raised as to how any vehicle to get down bourbon street given the fact, hallie, that just two days ago we highlighted information from law enforcement, from the memo that was put around as far as new year's eve celebrations

highlighting this from the department of homeland security and from law enforcement officials and agencies here in new york. just about the heightened possibility of this. there's been a number of these type of incidents over the past three to five years, there was a recent incident at a christmas market in germany as you may remember in the last couple of weeks, an individual conducting a ramming attack there. so this is not a new kind of m.o., this is something that has been in terrorist propaganda for pretty much a decade now, consistently, as far as you don't necessarily need a gun, you don't necessarily need to build a bomb, you just get a truck and you can do a lot of damage as unfortunately we are waking up to in new orleans today. so obviously a serious situation. you highlighted the fact that there is a major event that is slated to take place there in the form of a college football game that is of national importance. so that's something that is the

next challenge for new orleans, but certainly a lot going on. this is a -- you know, this is going to become a major investigation here this morning. >> let me take a couple of pieces to which you have just laid out here, tom. let me start with the barricades that were put up apparently in place according to the superintendent of the new orleans police department here, she says that this driver went around those barricades to be able to get into what is a heavily congested area, really the heart of the party, if you will, on new year's eve in new orleans over the course of the last 12 hours or so. talk about the security here because you have been reporting over the last several days on a boosted security posture in places like times square, in cities coast to coast here in the united states and around the world because of the fear of an incident exactly like this. >> reporter: yeah, i mean, that's something that all departments really need to think about and all agencies need to think about. here in new york last night if you were going to try to do that, for instance, you would have been met with police vehicles but you would have been

met with sanitation trucks on top of actual physical barricades. you are not getting through. they dump sand in them, these massive trucks that are designed to stop or at least slow down something like this so you don't have that happen. but, look, we don't have all the particulars. was there -- it happened at 4:15 eastern time. was there -- was there an area where this individual had some knowledge of? were they trying to conduct a delivery and so as a result they were able to get around what police had been put in place or at least stated that that's what they were trying to do? all sorts of information we don't know, but clearly the end result was a truck was able to get on bourbon street according to officials there at a high rate of speed and we are looking at a tragic situation. so the idea that somebody could do this, not new, been a focus of policee departmts for a long time. the idea that this type of thing

could happen is not surprising and so i'm sure that there will be a lot of questions answered, but the first one is why did they suspect that this incident is terrorism? who is this individual? is there a further ongoing threat in new orleans and what else do we know about them and their background or their past? that's all information that we're trying to, you know -- that's all information that we're trying to gather at this point, but for a mayor to come out and call it terrorism off the bat and for the fbi to have the investigation, you know, sure seems like we are going down a certain path with this investigation. >> then you look ahead to what's happening in new orleans tonight, the sugar bowl, that critical college football game. you have fans from georgia, from notre dame in down. it's about roughly maybe a mile away from the french quarter here, tom. there is a massive police presence on bourbon street, there will be a massive investigatory presence there, but there will also be security in place at the superdome for the sugar bowl as well. it is a huge undertaking now for

this department. >> reporter: yeah, it's going to be a huge undertaking for them. i'm guessing that the entire posture is going to change now. they will really lock down these areas and my guess is that they will probably see if they can get with their department of transportation or their public works and be able to put up those physical -- we call them in new england -- or in the northeast jersey barriers, other parts of the country call them k barriers, but they are concrete barriers that divide highways. that's really probably their best bet and to line up sanitation trucks and just keep the vehicle paths to and from the superdome free of anybody trying to get through. it creates hazards, though. it's not just that simple. i mean, we've dealt with this in new york when there was a terrorist attack that took place on the bike path. for years there were barricades but it wasn't the type that you could be prevented frorom drivi a truck around because it's a

bike path. people have medical emergencies or maybe an accident on that. the belief was we want to be able to get ems and ambulances down that bike path which makes a lot of sense. that's since changed here in new york but that's the other challenge of this. the more you look an area in the harder it is to get to when you need to get to it. all of that's going to need to be weighed and need to be weighed in the next 12 hours effectively, hallie. >> tom, you talked about the fbi coming in now. we saw that assistant special agent in charge deliver they are update. we expect more in the hours to come. the national security concerns here, too. >> right. once they determine that there's perhaps something they know about the motive or background of this individual, were there any postings or any sort of things that's on them. once there is a nexus to federal

law that's a situation where the fbi would take over, work this conjunction with, because at that point it's something that would be charged federally potentially or others could be charged federally. we don't know the status of this alleged suspect. that's something we need to get more clarity on. but that's an indication that there is a national security component to it or that there's something outside of the ordinary, which just in listening to the new orleans superintendent of police it's clear as we said at the beginning, this was no accident. >> tom winter, our nbc news law enforcement and national security correspondent. tom, thank you very much. i'm going i'm going to ask you to stand by as it is now 8:00 on the the air with breaking news for this nbc news special report. we have learned that just after 3:00 this morning, police in new orleans say a man driving a pickup truck plowed into a crowd of people on bourbon street in the french quarter w who had ben celebrating new year's, killing at least ten people. more than 30 people are in the hospital as