we're we're surprised. you know, i think the public deserves better than that. they really do like our job is to serve and protect and to, you know, part of being in law enforcement is using your imagination. every time i did a security perimeter or did something, i would have to use my imagination. i wouldn't think, how would i secure this as law enforcement? i would think, how would i if i were the bad guy, if i were the bad actor, how would i get in? and then i would reverse engineer it. okay, if i can get in through here, i've got a hole. how do i plug that hole? so i think basicallyly, again, just bashole, based on what we're seeing, just what we see through the shots, parade barricades. it's cardboard.t you can knock over and bike rack. you're seeing it now, there's a bike rack next to that officer. if that's all they put in place, well then, yes, a vehicle is going to be able to get through that. >> i want to point out here the city in 2017, according to nola.com had installed mechanical barriers, steel barriers in the french quarter, after an attack in france, a

major ramming attack in france the year before. we also understand there is this project that i referenced earlier to replace the older steel bollards in the area ahead of those events coming up, evy, all of which is to say there are a number of questions remaining about the security in place, a number of questions about the events coming up. obviously tonight you have the sugar bowl that is set to kick off later in the evening from the superdome that's not too far away from where this happened, a mile away from bourbon street, evy. you talked before about how those kind of sites are easier to secure, but obviously there will be an intense focus on the security posture heading into tonight's big college football game with thousands of people in from out of town for that event. >> look, it's all hands on deck t. everything i'm hearing is everyone is coming in from everywhere to help out, law enforcement entities will be working today, going to the sugar bowl. when you look at the sugar bowl, two things you're trying to secure -- the inner perimeter and outer perimeter. inner perimeter is the stadium

itself. that's not a hard thing to secure. don't get me wrong, there's parts and components to it, but i literally have a structure. it keeps people out. i designate where people are coming in, where i decide people come in, i set up my magnetometers, make sure my other doors and entryways are locked, nobody can get in. they are posted with police, and i mag and check people ands people are coming in i am making sure that they are clean. also, prior to letting people in, they've checked the stadium itself. they've gone through it with dogs, looking for explosive devices, making sure the stadium itself is clean, that nobody came in the day before, the night before, the week before and left something, a device, a weapon. you're going to check the event itself, the site structure itself, make sure it's clean. i have a clean site, good. i have my police presence structured outside. then i'm going to open the doors and make sure the people who come in are clean.

that's phase one. the oth phase, which is a little bit more loose and probably a little more difficult, to deal with here, the parking lot area. let's not forget the outer perimeter. there are people there, too, parking their vehicles. there are families. people sit sometimes and hang they will barbecue or they will do things. so you also have a massive amount of people outside of the stadium. that's a little bit more trickier to secure because it's a bit more open, but, again, fencing, structure,aking sure there's police presence, that there are vehicles, cars roaming up and down and patrolling. that's the other part of the ven uribe going to have to secure. you have the site itself and the outer perimeter of the site we don't want to forget that one and you want to think about, again, maybe the way my mind thinks just from security, not just weapons, not just cars, but you want to think chemical, biological.

is somebody going to bring something in? radiation. these are things you want to think about. often when i would secure sites, big stadiums, i would have elements outside of that stadium detecting for radiation, detecting for chemical/biological. you really have to think above and beyond the traditional way of securing things is gone. it's done. we are done. we are in a new place and a new face and we all have to catch up and make sure we are thinking ahead. the bad guy, the bad actors, they think ahead. they sit down and they put players in place. they do their homework. they do their research. they are doing what they can. an you know, we really need to be ahead of the curve as much as possible. do we have good aerial footage? do they have drones up? we're look at what's going around in the area. proactive, proactive. that's really the key. catching this stuff before it happens. once we're reactive, it's really, really hard. we see it here. just something simple, using a

vehicle as a weapon, how do you stop that vehicle? do you know how hard that is to stop even with police on the ground? even if you engage and start shooting at that vehicle, how difficult it is to actually get the person to stop. and then let's say you strike the driver, they crash and who knows who else they're going to hurt, so you want to think beyond and above. i had hoped that with what happened at the german market, the christmas market, that we would have been a little bit more on guard and on point and, you know, i think that now that th happened with new orleans, everybody, everybody in our cities in the united states, all these police chiefs and commissioners should be paying attention and thinking, i need to change the way i do things, i need to think beyond the traditional way of doing law enforcement and i cannot wait for something to happen in my city and be surprised by it before i make those changes. >> evy poumpouras, former secret service special agent, we're glad to have your perspective and analysis. thank you very much. i want to go back to our nbc news law enforcement and

intelligence correspondent tom winter. tom, it sounds like some of your sources are suggesting that perhaps they may be getting closer to an identification of the driver here? >> reporter: i think so, hallie, and i think, you know, not surprisingly probably the way it should work, that the investigation is ahead of what we know and what we're reporting and i think that's very much the case here and so i think there's a definite consensus as to who they were engaged with last night and they'll conduct their work from there. specifically i want to point out that we've now verified an image from the scene showing a late model white pickup truck with texas license plates. so they're obviously keyed in on the license plate. i referenced this with you earlier this morning and all the things we've discussed are coming into view, who this person is, the license plate, the vehicle. all that information very helpful at this point. the fbi now saying on the record

in a statement from our colleague, provided by our colleague ken dilanian, they are investigating this as an act of terrorism. they note that it was a vehicle ramming the number of individuals who have been killed. obviously we know from new orleans officials that number stands at ten. it's possible those numbers could change. we also know that this person who conducted this attack conducted it and was deceased after firing at two new orleans police officers or perhaps more police officers, but at least two were struck and are currently at the hospital in stable condition. and so this investigation is very much ongoing. there's active work that's being done, and we'll have to see where it goes, but with respect to the actual motive, remember, as you know, hallie, terrorism covers a number of different things. it can be inspired or directed by a foreign terrorist organization, isis, al quada o

could be a group of individuals, a political cause. we've seen it all in the last year or two. we've seen to evy's point these type of attacks, the vehicle ramming attacks executed throughout the world. everything they've been discussing are coming into focus. obviously they're moving forward with this investigation and i'm hopeful that in the next update we'll have some more information and can get closer to the motive. there's one possible ied, an improvised explosive device. in english, hallie, something somebody created at home that could have been an explosive or it could have been an incendiary device designed to create some sort of large fire. if it could have gone off

whether it was designed as a hoax device to slow down law enforcement, something that the person just didn't have enough capability or know-how to go off or it didn't go off because they were involved in eventually hitting what appears to be kind of one of those mobile lifting platforms, those are all questions that are obviously going to be known by people investigating. we just don't know yet. at least one block so i think that goes back to the security question. those questions will be answere in time, but it does appear this was not something that happened just at the entrance of a security checkpoint. i think that's important. another thing that they're looking at is whether this individual is armed with a semiautomatic handgun, more of a pistol to be not as technical or whether they actually had a long gun on their person. that's information we're looking

into as well, and hopefully we'll have some more clarity on that shortly. >> tom, you talk about the security posture here. it is reverberating not just in new orleans ahead of the kickoff for the sugar bowl later tonight but around the country. you look at, for example, the rose parade set to start in about 45 minutes from now out in pasadena, california, ahead of the rose bowl later on tonight. we have a statement from the organizers saying they stand in solidarity with the state of louisiana during this difficult time. going on to talk about some of the security in place for the parade. it is a top-level federal event, they say. they have a hard shutdown of vehicles along the entire parade route in addition to what they describe as a very robust vehicle barrier at intersections, more than 1,000 law enforcement working the parade and the game. any other day, tom, this would be fairly typical to have a security plan in place for an event like the rose bowl or the rose parade, but newly relevant after what we saw this morning in new orleans. >> reporter: yeah, i remember we published a story, i believe it

was monday evening on nbcnews.com, talking and it was in a note that we sent around that came from the department of homeland security compiled assessment for new ye's eve. it was specific to new york and involved all the law enforcement agencies here, but they noted vehicle ramming attacks and the idea this is something that's been out there, that's been talked about. there was the christmas market attack in germany. i referenced this earlier this morning when you and i were speaking. we've seen these types of incidents before. it's repeatedly referenced in terrorism propaganda including some more recent terrorism propaganda, but beyond that, even if you're not somebody who is a believer in isis as an example, it's well known for people that want to conduct attacks no matter what your ideology is that that's something that you can do. so i'm not surprised that they're talking about that in california, and i think it's something that will be looked at closely here. >> tom, thank you. i want to dip back in to our local nbc station, wdsu, doing a

live interview now with the district attorney for the area, jason williams. let's listen in. >> that tells the story that provides information. if there are other items found in other place that is are connected to this individual, that tells a story. so i want to comment on the specifics of that investigation and what we know and what we're still trying to find out. it's still too fluid. >> what about the other explosive devices they're trying to track around the quarter? nopd, certain agencies did a sweep before this, they had a plan in place, but really we were talking whenever aubry was giving his live report a moment ago, it's hard to prevent something like this. you can't constantly sweep the french quarter, or can you, or are there things can you do to constantly change that and increase the security there? >> there is a human instinct to try to figure out how this could have been prevented, and, unfortunately, there are certain things that are beyond our human

control. when an individual chooses to drive a vehicle into a crowd of people, the officers can respond. they can respond quickly. that's exactly what they did and they should be commended for their quick, fast work, because it saved more lives. that's, i think, we have to look at it from that standpoint. we can't get inside of someone's head. we can't reverse engineer this. this is not minority report, no matter how many experts you have. you can have a plan and have officers in place, first responders in place, and they were there. and they did respond and they did save some lives. and when we all owe them greatly. >> all right. district attorney jason williams, we appreciate you stopping by live. it's a hard day for everybody because we keep going back to this. i mean, it is rare, if ever, that we have dealt with a, quote, unquote, terror attack in the city of new orleans. >> especially with such a high-profile tourist weekend. i think that's the hardest thing

for us to really contend with right now. we have so -- this is a big game tonight. there are so many fans, like, from georgigia,rom notre dame, who are in town. >> the biggest game of the year for me. i was looking forward to today. it is the first day of our new year. there are no words. >> all right. >> again, we do appreciate your time soch in and, again, if you could keeps posted on any new developments. and our hearts and prayers do go to those victims. >> jason williams there, the orleans parish district attorney speaking with wdsu. you heard him say, there are no words. i want to go to morgan radford, who, along with our team, has been following some of the images that are coming in now of the scene of the aftermath and what has played out. these are clues that investigators are and will be looking at, morgan, and given us the sense of how horrific this, in the words of the police chief, carnage has been.

>> reporter: hallie, they are clues, data, indications of what we have so far. i want to walk you through what we have, how we found it and what is pending. what we have, let's start with these videos sequentially. number one, i want to show you this video with what appears to be gunshots. you see people rushing to aid a victim there on the ground. we have that body blurred. and then as soon as you hear these loud shots, what appear to be gunshots, ring out, you see bystanders run. secondly, i want to take you to a video i want to warn every single viewer here the video i'm about to show you is far more graphic. you see the camera panning to the right. again, this is user generated content, meaning this was filmed on cell phone video from bystanders. the three circles right here as we go over the bannister, those are bodies. those are bodies that are laying, misshapen on the ground. the first body appears to be a white human there on the ground, stomach is exposed. and then what you see there is a bystander in shorts, purse over

her shoulder looking around, right there, where your camera is frozen, and i have to say, hallie, of all the videos i have combed through, that is actually the most heartbreaking image to me. because if you watch this video, and i've watched it countless times, that bystander is sort of pulled away, tugged by, it appears to be a police officer, emergency responder, and she can't move. she cannot take her eyes off of wh she is seeing, presumably a friend, perhaps someone she knows on the ground. she is literally in traction, stuck in place. and then if you look further down, you can see these green authorities running past her. but then further to her right there is another body on the ground. this body facedown. and you see someone there also comi to their aid, but i think what this shows us, hallie, is not only what has happened but the chilling effect of the psychology of a community when something like this happens. so that's a bystander who will be unable to forget that image for the rest of her life. and then those of us who are

combing through these videos are seeing more and more of reactions like that, and if you heard earlier, when you were -- you and i were both here on the desk sort of listening to that initial press conference from the mayor and from the superintendent, the intendant was saying, look, you know, i want you all to know the city will be safe later on today. we have the sugar bowl. we want you to go about your day, but this is what they're dealing with, right? they're trying to encourage the community to continue to enjoy thee city kwn as the crescent city, the big easy, one of the most popular cities and the american memory for fun and revelry, but it's hard to convince people to be safe when there is still more to come in terms of safety measures now for the sugar bowl and subsequently for the super bowl that will be in new orleans in just a month, because the psychology and the aftereffects. people are prepared for gunshots and worst case. people have been hearing about this, school shootings, countless school shootings we've covered, but now having to worry

about a car, a car barricading through people, killing ten people, injuring dozens more and sending them to a hospital in a city that is known for fun and renewal. but i also want to tell you how we found these videos. in this age of media where there is so much mistrust, the good thing about user generated content, content from viewers, it allows us to peel back the camera for people who were there in real time. the hard part is that we have to do so much work to verify these videos. it's important to our viewers to know that's why these teams are important. that's why the hard-working people who are here on new year's day and nbc news are important because we do what social media cannot do. we make sure we are verifying these videos. we are bringing you accurate videos. we are bringing them to you in real time and they are, in fact, depicting the images they say they are depicting. we have teams working around the clock talking to sources on the ground but also making sure that we aren't in violation of copyright risk, fair use, in an

issue like this in breaking news real time and matters of the public interest we can show you videos like this. i want to show you a third video and we're talking about that, of this white truck. this is allegedly, possibly, the truck that, right here on your screen, that the suspect used. and if you look very closely, my producer here beside me was showing me, if you look on the back there appears to be a pole, almost like a flag or some sort of cloth that is tethered to the pole. if you look even closer you can see four holes in the back of that windshield. they appear to be gunshot holes. right? we do not have that verified. there are four holes in the glass that appear to be gunshot holes that are consistent with the reporting that we have. but, hallie, we still have images that are pending. we have a series of checks and balances process at an organization this large to make sure all the videos we're combing through, i'm combing through, our producers are combing through, are checked and

accurate. i've been looking at a lot of videos we can't yet share because we haven't gone through that completion process. another one that shows it looks like emergency responders rendering aid, and they're rendering aid to a body on the ground beside that white truck. we also see other people who are bystanders who were rendering aid to other victims along the way. and, again, that is before oftentimes it was consistent with when you heard the apparent gunshot wounds or large rounds, large bangs we heard in the air. so that is how we're finding these videos. that is how we are bringing these videos, and that's how we're able to report on the details that, again, are consistent with what authorities have reported thus far, this happened at 3:15 local time there in new orleans, that in the sequence of events, that alleged driver plowed through a crowd of people and then began a shoot-out with police, and in that shoot-out injured two police officers who are currently in stable condition. of the things we're waiting to hear are the current conditions of the victim, those 26 who are

currently in the hospital, the identities of the victims, the identities of the alleged gunman, shooter, the person who was plowing through this mass casualty event creating hellbent on the chaos, as we heard the superintendent say, that was created in the crescent city today, hallie. >> morgan radford, thank you so much for walking us through that. let's take you back to our local nbc station wdsu on the phone with the lieutenant governor of the state of louisiana. let's listen in. >> i had a national press person tell me, ask me, if i could confirm there was an isis flag on the back of the truck, and that's what he heard. i do not know that for a fact. but that was told by a reporter that was boarding a plane from new york to come to new orleans to cover the story just abobout5 minutes ago. i don't want to start a rumor. that's just what he heard and he asked me to confirm that, which

i could not do. >> we do want to say that is not confirmed at this time, lieutenant governor. still a fluid situation. that is not confirmed at this time. we just know that the person drove the truck down bourbon street killing ten. we do appreciate your time to join us from california where you are right now. >> let's continue to pray for everyone. >> we also want to get to what we do know. the time line of events, how this unfolded because so many of you are waking up this morning, if you had new year's eve celebrations and now waking up to this move. we are joined live with what we're learning about the situation and a time line of exactly what unfolded in the early morning hours along canal and bourbon. >> reporter: randi, travers, we got news in, a picture from a source says is the pickup truck that crashed. >> you've been listening to wdsu

showing that photograph that we have been showing you of what allegedly appears to be that pickup truck involved in this horrific new year's day ramming in the city of new orleans on bourbon street in the french quarter, at least ten people killed. you see the photograph there. 30 plus in the hospital including two police officers who were shot when the driver, who is now believed to be dead, opened fire on police. there is also an investigation into a homemade bomb that police are looking into as well. i want to go to ken dilanian who is tracking all of it. the president is apair of this. he's been briefed. the attorney general, merrick garland, briefed as well as the fbi is calling this an act -- a potential act of terror. that's how they're investigating this. >> reporter: that's right, hallie. we have a new statement from the attorney general i want to summarize for you. i want to mention that, speak to the thing we heard from the lieutenant governor of louisiana about this idea there may have been an isis flag on the truck, and the reporter made clear that's not confirmed. we can see in photographs

there's a pvc piping and a black cloth emanating from that on the back of the truck. i have been asking, tom winter has been asking our federal law enforcement sources what that was, and we have gotten no good answers to that. so just to be clear, we don't know what that was. there's no confirmation that there's any link to isis as of right now. obviously we're asking those questions. as for the attorney general, merrick garland, who has three weeks left in office, he issued a statement trying to console the nation. he pointed out the country woke up to news of a terrible tragedy, ten people killed, many more injured. he said his heart is broken for nose who began their year by learning people they love were killed in this horrific attack. and he added that the fbi is investigating this matter as an act of terrorism. he said the fbi the atf, the justice department's national security division and the u.s. attorney's office for the eastern district of lineup will you will continue to work with law enforcement partnersnd will deploy every available

resource to conduct this investigion. so, look, clearly this is more than a local tragedy. this is a national incident being investigated as a potential act of terror. merrick garland fully engaged on this. the president has been briefed. the fbi taking the lead in this investigation. >> ken dilanian, thank you very much for that. obviously still so many questions here. i want to just reset for folks for a moment who may just be joining us on the west coast or elsewhere as you're just waking up to let you know what's goings-on. just after 3:00 this morning, as we've been reporting here on this nbc news special report, a man driving a pickup that white pickup truck we showed you, plowed into a crowd of people right here in the french quarter at bourbon street near canal street in new orleans driving at least some distance, according to eyewitnesses down bourbon street, killing at least ten people. 30-plus people are in the hospital as we speak. according to police, the driver then opened fire on new orleans police officers, two of whom were shot. they are in the hospital in

stable condition. there is also a homemade bomb, essentially, what police are calling an investigation into an imimprovised explosive device, that was found in this area as well. we have heard just heartwrenchingly graphic descriptions of what it was like in the aftermath of this terrible scene on new year's day in new orleans with new questions now about the security surrounding this area. you are looking now at some of the scenes of the aftermath, that short clip, you can hear what sounds like the audio of gunshots going off. the sound of gunshots. police say this driver managed to get around barricades, although some eyewitnesses suggested they did not see a number of bollards or barricades in place. remember, all of this is happening just hours before the sugar bowl is set to kick off at the superdome in new orleans drawing in crowds of thousands of college football fans looking to see georgia and notre dame play tonight. the security posture in place intense in new orleans as its

investigation continues. i want to take you back to local coverage from wdsu for more. >> police were sweeping the area and some were possibly detonated. >> reporter: it looks like the quarter may be opening up a little bit for the first time in hours. taxicab driving right now, resident in a car driving right now, so it does appear that the state police and the nopd are potentially, just based on the traffic patterns i'm seeing, are opening up the quarter just a little bit right now. we do have some more police cruisers coming through. we're on dauphine in new orleans. if our photojournalist goes to his left, you'll see st. louis cathedral, on the other side jackson square. this is really a sad sight. you see the st. louis cathedral, the french quarter looking down orleans right here at dauphine towards bourbon and you see the police tape there. the reason the police tape is up is because of what you alluded to, travers, that the ongoing

investigation here, the fbi said they were searching for ieds, which is hard to wrap your head around. we're talking about ieds. we normally hear about that about conflicts in other countries, and we're talking about an ied search in the french quarter, because there were reports that this suspect may have planted those devices in the quarter. the special operations unit came to bourbon and orleans, where you're looking at now. there was a suspicious paage. two different times we heard, fire in the hole, and we heard a detonation. two different times. it sounded like a loud firecracker going off. mike cahn can given you more perspective. that is a precaution, they're detonating the suspicious package to make sure it isn't anything more grave or dire. there was never a sense of panic in law enforcement, of clear the entire area. we had to move one block back. as of right now large portions

of the french quarter completely closed off to driving traffic. people can walk through this area and people can walk around, but there is no driving in this area of the french quarter right now. we also saw police officers doing sweeps searching each and every trash can, gloves, flashlights, looking for more suspicious packages as well here in the french quarter. i will say the police presence has dissipated a little bit over the last 20 or 30 minutes, and it doe appear potentially -- i don't want to put anything out there that we don't know for sure -- but it does appear that the quarter is loosening up a little bit. there's more media here now, some cars are being able to drive through and as people wake up and get out, they are definitely walking through this area on dauphine street right now. >> fletcher, hang tight. we are going to come back to you. we have numerous crews. aubry killion, cassie schirm, anum siddiqui are all over this. mike cahn, who was at his house

for a couple of hours here, is now joining us live in studio. >> for those of you just joining us, we want to recap, ten people dead, 35 hurt in hospitals this hour. portions of the french quarter still blocked off after someone committed an act of terror early this morning, plowing into the french quarter near bourbon and canal with a truck and just creating havoc and really a worst nightmare for new orleans especially as we prepare to host one of the biggest bowl games in the country tonight. >> yeah, ten people killed, 35 injured. the suspect shot and killed by two police officers. those police officers who got into that gun battle also shot and injured. they are in stable condition. let's just jump right into this. you've been on tv at your home in zoom. we appreciate you joining us live in studio. the feds have taken the lead on this. before we get to that, randi mentioned you have news on possible traffic tonight. >> all hotels and everyone going to the sugar bowl tonight, you

will not be able to drive inside that inner perimeter or where you would normally go game day for the saints or for a basketball team or anything else. so you will not be able to drive anywhere where that perimeter leads from those hotels to the superdome tonight at all. >> what does that mean for the parking garages, too? i know people tend to park in the parking garages. do we know anything about security there or amped up security for the superdome in general? a lot of people are now concerned about that. >> right. i would think the parking garages, and this is a plan that's still in motion, i would think the parking garages that extend off the area would be shut down as well with manpower allocations and other things like that. i would think your side streets and main thoroughfares will be shut down to only allow pedestrian traffic to go see the game tonight. >> you were a police officer for a very long timeme. you ran the s.w.a.t. team. we were just talking about this.

we can't recall any incident like this, maybe the howard johnson shooting, maybe the upstairs lounge fire, but when you hear act of terrorism andnd somebody driving down a city street with the intent to kill people this may be historic, it may be a first time for the city of new orleans. >> it's been the first time -- i've been with the police department for over 30 years. it's the first time we've ever had a situation where per an investigation the feds came over, took it over. now obviously we have other events. we have had the super bowl, many other different events, after 9/11 when the presidents came and it was run by the secret service and other entities. we've never had an investigation that required this, which a federal investigation does when you deal with acts of terrorism, and because of who the actor or actors are that it requires them to take the investigation over and utilize their resources going forward. >> if this wasn't a lone wolf, and we don't know if it was or wasn't, if this wasn't somebody

who acted alone, what are police and fbi doing? are they trying to chase down other people, work surveillance? how does that work if, in fact, this person may have had assistance or help, whoever he turns out to be? >> it becomes a massive effort. if you can imagine one room right now in an area in the city where you have everyone, nopd, the fbi secret service, everyone getting involved wanting to help. everyone wants to run down a part of the lead. what's this individual's social media? what social media accounts did they have? what names have 24e they used and what names and emails led to different accounts? so they're tracking all of that. what did this individual google, if ever, at a certain point? do they have any local addresses? where did the truck come from? what's the license plate on the truck? is it a good plate? did this come from a house in texas? a search warrant on the house. did they stay in new orleans for a period of time? search warrant on the house in new orleans. where else did they go where crime cameras show them go

inside the city? cameras object almost every street. go back and interview those people now and then take the routes these people or the individual drove last night and going back to those routes, where are these ieds being found. ieds are being imploded in a careful manner, figuring out if they're the same ones who made them. an enormous amount of things happening all at once and everyone is doing their fair share. >> could this ever have been prevented? the big question is about the security that's been out there. in your opinion, do you think something like this could have been prevented in the french security quarter with our security plan in place for the sugar bowl and new year's eve festivities? >> in past years we've had certain plans where certain things have happened where i think you'll remember they even brought dump trucks in and they cordoned off streets so you couldn't get to the innerimeter. those years, yes, that would

have prevented a vehicle from doing this. sometimes during mardi gras you'll have hard barricades that will prevent people from getting through. is it possible to do it? yes, absolutely. did something potentially fail in this? it may have. they're going to have to go back and evaluate it and look at it. >> mike, stay right here. we will leave you on set. we want your expertise in real time when information comes in. we can tell you that from the white house press pool, the president is in constant contact with high-level filefy and dhs to be apprised of the situation. another federal official right now, a federal delegation is getting wiwind of this. we will keep up here while bewe go to congressman troy carter. >> congressman carter, we want to just hear from you. i know that your thoughts and prayers are really with the victims right now. [ no audio ] >> we're having a little bit of an audio issue with his zoom

link. we'll get back to him. >> as soon as we work that out, we do want to hear what congressman carter has to say. i think he's back. and, look, congressman, for those that don't remember this, some of us of a certain age, you were a former city councilman who has deep ties to the french quarter and represented that district when you were on the city council in the '90s and early 2000s. >> that is correct. i served on the city council for multiple terms. i understand intimately the ins and outs of downtown and the french quarter. so i would caution everyone to please, this is not a time to come out to see, to look what's going on, please cooperate with our local, state and federal officials. i have been in communication with the fbi the white house, and secretary mayorkas of homeland security. every possible resource has been dispatched to the city of new orleans and to downtown to make

sure that we secure the area, identify any other possible threats be they bombs or any other devices. the ones that we're aware of we have detonated and that area is now safe. we continue to gather information. we know that it appears to have been a lone suspect who was taken down by law enforcement. we know that he was driving a vehicle that appears to have had texas license plates, this appears to be someone from the local metropolitan area. we can't say much more about any of the other information other than every possible resource with federal, local and state agencies being employed. we're in constant communication with the white house, with the fbi to make sure that we are securing the area for visitors

and residents alike. this is a horrific situation. new orleans, of course, is no stranger to being able to manage large groups and activities. so be assured that you have the absolute best trained people to address the issues at this time. >> congressman troy carter, thank you so much for joining us, giving us your insight. if you continue to get any new developments, please pass them on to us. you have been listening to our local nbc station, wdsu. back to our nbc news intelligence correspondent, tom winter, who has been on the phone with his sources. and, tom, you have some new information for us what you're learning about this investigation into the deadly truck ramming in new orleans. walk us through it. >> reporter: yeah, hallie. what i can tell you, this is a significant counterterrorism investigation being conducted by the fbi. at this hour what they're looking into is whether or not the individual responsible for this attack was firing a long gun into the crowd while they

were driving down bourbon street. apparently engaged with police, possibly using a lg gun. we talked about that just a few moments ago. possibly using a long gun, a semiautomatic rifle or a rifle, in order to -- basically when the car comes to a stop, firing at police officers. we know several were hit. no life threatening injuries are expected there for the officers. however, we do hear that the injuries to the people that were either run over or possibly shot in the course of this attack are very serious, hallie, truly horrific injuries, and so a number of people are really trying to get the best lifesaving care they can provide in new orleans. but it would not surprise officials if this death toll rose at this point just given the severity and the nature of this attack. it is an attack. the fbi is investigating it as an apparent act of terrorism. to that end, hallie, if you look at a photo of this truck, and i

understand we have one now that we've been able to confirm, and you look at the back of the truck, affixed to the hitch where you might put a trailer on, this late model white pickup truck, there is a pipe, a stick, white in color, and then on top of that, there's a black cloth wrapped around it. we're told investigators are looking at what is either printed on that, written on that, any sort of logos or insignias. they're acutely focused on that when it comes to motive. that's what they're looking at right now. and i think that's provided them some clarity, and the reason why they're going to call this a terrorism attack because what is written on that is indicative of an ideology or a motive. we're not quite ready to report that yet. we're just looking for some more information, hallie, but this is definitely a significant terrorism investigation, and there's a number of different components that are moving on it. we will track it and update you.

the key updates here are, number one, looking into whether or not this person was firing into the crowd while conducting this vehicle ramming attack, that they may have used a long gun. and indications are the death toll is, unfortunately, expected to rise given the severity and nature of the injuries and what this individual did here. so we will continue to update everybody, but that vehicle is of intense focus and as we've been reporting has a texas plate. just because it contains a texas plate, for example, i've rented cars in the northeast that have had texas plates, so we can't say definitively that that is the clue that points investigators to a specific location, but obviously it's a big clue, hallie. >> tom, a couple of quick follow-up questions. if people have been listening to this nbc news special report over the course of the last 90 minutes or so may have heard the state's lieutenant governor in reference a question about

whether or not that may have been an isis flag. to be clear, we're talking about the cloth on the back of the pickup truck that's affixed to the hitch. confirmed, right, tom?ot we don't know what that is. that is speculation at this point. i want to address it because it was on our air but i want to be crystal clear on that. >> reporter: i would personally be looking for a little bit more information before i would be comfortable reporting the specific nature of what's on the cloth. we just -- anytime we're talking about a specific motive or incident, we want to make sure to the best of our human ability we have the information locked in. i have nothing that disputes with what the lieutenant governor said, and as i just reported, i think that cloth is going to be a big clue for investigators. >> another question that has come up is whether this individual was acting alone. any guidance or indication from your sources on that piece of it? >> reporter: officials have not stated anything publicly about that at this point one way or the other. >> got it.

tom winter, thank you for your reporting. a lot of avenues here. i know you will continue to investigate with your sources. tom, thank you very much. our nbc news intelligence and law enforcement correspondent. i want to go now to ken dilanian, another nbc news correspondent, who covers a similar territory. ken, talk us through some of the questions around security, specifically around the barricades that police say were in place, they say the driver went around the barricades when heading down bourbon street. eyewitnesses have described it as traveling for at least a couple of blocks, as it relates to this pickup truck. questions around a potential bollard replacement plan in the works ahead of the super bowl in new orleans next month and whether the barricades were enough or placed in the right locations. what do we know? >> reporter: yeah, well, obviously they're still trying to determine that question, hallie, but what i can tell you is, look, the super bowl is considered a special security event, and so federal and local law enforcement pull out all the stops for the super bowl. the fbi the department of homeland security, come in with

everything they've got and have a maximalist security perimeter. other events do not get that level of treatment, and it's possible the barricades erected -- it's obvious the barricades were not sufficient to stop a vehicle attack like this. we saw that in 2017 in lower manhattan. after that event the nypd reevaluated their approach to crowd events and mass gatherings in new york city. they began using sand trucks and dump trucks to try to head off avenues of vehicle attacks. it's the kind of thing tt occurs to people once it's happened. there may have been a lack of imagination here. that's not to fault anyone. crowds have been gathering on bourbon street for more than a century. new orleans authorities can be forgiven for not anticipating the idea of a vehicle attack. even if they erected additional barricades, you cannot possibly stop every avenue of approach in

a city where people are gathering block after block. it's, no doubt, going to be the subject of a lot of introspection and examination in the days and weeks ahead, whether, you know, the barricades should have been better, whether there should have been more security in place. the other question you were talking to tom about, the question of the black flag. again, you were right to point out we don't know exactly what that was. laup enforcement is looking closely at this question of whether it was a terrorist flag, whether there was a terrorist or isis message on it. the majority of these kinds of vehicle attacks in the past have been conducted -- were isis-inspired. there was one in munich back in 2016 and the one in new york city in 2017. both determined to have been isis inspired. there was one recently in germany on december 20th. the motive for that one is as yet undetermined. so not clear what happened there. by but this is a hallmark, these

kind of vehicle attacks, of an isis-inspired attack, hallie. >> ken dilanian, thank you very much. i know you'll continue to work the phones as well. let me go now to gabe gutierrez, our senior white house correspondent. gabe, we understand not only has the president been briefed on what happened in new orleans, but he has been in touch with the mayor and with local leaders there as well, right? >> reporter: president biden has been briefed throughout the morning and is expected to continue to be briefed throughout the day. he's in wilmington, delaware, after attending the wedding of his niece. he has been briefed by senior fbi and homeland security officials and in speaking with the mayor, he offered full federal support. as you know, the role will be consoler in chief. we don't yet know if he will make public comments on his way from wilmington, delaware, to

camp david, where he's expected to go later on today. we are right here in south florida. this is where president-elect trump spent the new year. he attended a black tie reception at his mar-a-lago estate last night. we have reached out to the trump transition to see whether they have any comment on the unfolding situation in new orleans. so far we have not heard back, but, again, hallie, president biden has been briefed by top officials at the fbi and the department of homeland security, and we will continue to monitor this throughout the day. it's a very fluid situation, though, so federal officials are being very cautious on what they say as the situation unfolds. >> gabe gutierrez live for us near mar-a-lago, the home of president-elect trump. we will monitor for any other national leaders and their response to what has happened. all of it, of course, is in place as the city is getting ready for the sugar bowl tonight. the city of new orleans, where tens of thousands of people are

expected at the superdome for that big college football game between georgia and notre dame. we have a lot of fans who have come into town and you've heard already discussion of the security posture in place. for more on that i want to bring in evy poumpouras, former secret service special agent. talk us through any changes you may be anticipating ahead of tonight's game. >> i think we will see a larger amount of police presence. help has gone out, more state police, local police departments coming in, giving that support, securing the area. we were just hearing earlier on from the local reporting that they're going to stop vehicular traffic in certain areas so people cannot actually drive through, they're looking to have more pedestrian traffic so likely you'll see people parking a little further out. there is even speculation they would be shutting down some of the parking garage areas, anything that's a little bit closer, so you could see they're putting in all these measures because they truly just want to make sure they have this locked in tight to prevent anything

from happening. a couple of extra things you can do, which i'm not sure they are going to do, sometimes you'll see on the outer perimeter areas removal of trash cans or mailboxes. why is this important? in case someone has an ied or homemade device, you want to prevent areas where packages or items can be concealed. it's something they actually do here in new york city new year's eve, actually remove the mailboxes and trash cans from "the new york times" square area because you can just dump anything in there and it's concealed. those are things you can do, less vehicular traffic, the funneling of people, magnetometers, also k-9s, used in areas like this, you want to have people going through the magnetometers, looking for weapons, guns, knives, anything like that. in addition, having the k-9 picking up a powder residue on a person. fire trucks, police presence in

addition to having fire trucks there. any type of fire, arson. what do i need to look at? again, you want to be creative, think like an attacker. if i want to do harm, how could i do it? having paramedics on the ready should something happen and even when you do auto perimeters, it's not an extreme thing to think of radiological or biological attacks. radiological, any type of devices coming in. you can put sensors there, have people actually at that outer perimeter seeing if they pick up on people. we would have those all the time and then actually inside stadiums we would have individuals walking around in the stadium just going through the people, the crowd in the stadium, seeing if anybody hits, pick up on any type of radiological residue on that person. chemical or biological, another

concern, having what they call a decontamination site. what does that mean? if somebody were to release in the area a chemical or biological attack, so they will have a designated area, and this is where the fire department comes in. this is where you bring in water to decontaminate people, set up a decontamination site. these are the things they will be thinking about and checking off those boxes. it's a site that has a structure to it. anything with walls, it's so much easier to secure rather than an open venue like we saw here with the crowd and vehicles moving. mitigate all these different variables, your chances of

suess in securing a site is definitely heightened. >> evy poumpouras, thank you very much. obviously this is having reverberations well beyond the city of new orleans in the state of louisiana begin how many events, parades, how many games happen on new year's day. we are learning from the city of atlanta, they are boosting security ahead of the peach bowl there later on today. we also understand that in philadelphia where there is the mummers parade on new year's day, they are closely monitoring areas involved. of course, in just a couple minutes the rose parade will begin out west in pasadena, california, and there, too, they are reiterating they have a number of security measures in place to keep people safe later on today. emilie ikeda has more on that angle of the story. emilie, good morning. >> reporter: hallie, you can trust that officials of major events playing out across the country are paying close attention and taking into consideration how they are securing their own major events. as you said, from atlanta with the peach bowl to the mummers

parade in philadelphia and the city of pasadena underscoring and reinforcing that they have been prepariring f months for this parade to get under way that attracts 800,000 people, about to play out any minute now in its 136th year. they say they had a hard shutdown of vehicles along the entire parade route. they have added very robust barriers at intersections along the rose parade route as well with 1,000 or so law enforcement officers working the parade and later on the game as well. we have witnessed countries amp up security ahead of new year's eve and new year's day celebrations. we saw it here in new york city. in addition to the k-9s and the drones that new york city rolled out and the thousands of police officers were sand trucks, dump trucks, barricades, concrete blockades to prevent vehicle ramming attacks. we saw one happen a few weeks

ago at the christmas market in germany. we know there were some kind of barriers in place according to police, because they say the driver drove around the barriers to run -- to drive down bourbon street in new orleans. it's something that will be evaluated closely in the aftermath of this terrible tragedy. >> emilie ikeda live with us for the pparations coast to coast for other new year's day events today as new orleans is beginning its 2025 with this nightmare of a scenario in the french quarter. you're seeing some of the video on the left side of your screen, some of the aftermath now in the daytime, people leaving after a truck plowed into a crowd of people celebrating new year's eve just after 3:00 this morning killing at least ten people. 30 plus others are in the hospital with injuries including two police officers who were shot when the driver of that truck opened fire. police are looking into an improvised explosive device as well. the superintendent of the police department saying that this

suspect was hellbent on carnage, and yoyou can s some of the aftermath of the carnage there. i want to bring in rob d'amico, a former fbi agent, who has worked at the a nexus to counterterrorism. the driver, the suspect here, is dead at this point. however, the identification process is well under way. police are looking to suss out any motive why he did this. >> i think they probably have the i.d. already and are not ready to release it. i think they're, again, looking at -- we talked about that flag on the back of the truck, and that could be a reason the fbi quickly took this over to indicate something beyond what they initially thought. i think what everyone is talking about now is all these other events, the security is being enhanced. now some of it, as has already been done, big games to begin with, so inside the target they

talked about with all the security, the problem is what they're going to do is they're going to start pushing these crowds further and further out to walk. and these groups do not look at going after hard targets, and i mean a hard target is inside an event or inside the perimeters. what they start doing is, okay, we're going to restrict traffic around it. now you're going to have a bunch of uber drop-offs further out, people will have to start walking in. they look for the easy targets. so if you have someone else, even if they're not part of a conspiracy or terrorist plotting group, even if they're inspired or triggered by this event to do something, they're going to look for these groups that are forming to walk in, and they're going to go to where they can get without getting through a blockade. i think as much as security you take, you have to be careful of any large group gathering outside of that event to start walking in and be, again, head on a swivel, be looking out for

things, hearing about a car roaring, speeding up or something, where you're going to go because you can't secure everything. and it's now just pushing these groups further out that they're going to be accessible to a vehicle. >> highlights the difficuy in protecting and hardening the so-called soft targets, rob. >> i think, like new orleans probably should look at some better barricades. you see the ones -- the big thing is they have to clean the streets up after all these events and they have the crews drive in, so you don't want to put really hard targets, but i've seen some cities that put rising steel barricades from underground that they can put up for events to block it off and put down for when vehicles have to get in for other republics. i think they will have to start looking at that, places that have these big events. i think it's worth the investment to be able to do that, to slow vehicles down, not give them access in. it is too hard, as you see.

i worked the thanksgiving day parade in new york city for counter drones, but you lookow they lock it down with the garbage trucks and sand trucks, but it's difficult to put in place all the time for a big event. again, it starts pushing the crowd out. they're looking for thehe easy target, so they know if they're walking a further distance they're just going to drive where the crowds do form. >> rob d'amico, rob, thank you very much. as mentioned, president biden has been briefed on what happened this morning in new orleans. we've heard from the white house already. we are now hearing from the incoming president, president-elect donald trump. gabe gutierrez has more on that new statement. gabe, what you got? >> reporter: hi there, hallie. that statement was posted to his social media platform just moments ago, and it says in part, our hearts are with all the innocent victims and their loved ones including the brave officers of the new orleans police department. the trump administration will fully support the city of new orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure

evil, the president-elect said. we're here in south florida where the president-elect spent his new year's eve at his mar-a-lago estate attending a black tie reception there. we are still monitoring president biden. he's expected to leave from wilmington, delaware, to camp david later on today. we did hear from the white house earlier today that the president has been briefed. he has spoken with the mayor of new orleans, and he was briefed by senior fbi and homeland security officials. he is pledging full federal support to the city of new orleans and plans to be briefed on this throughout the day. we do not yet know, though, if he plans to make any official public statement to cameras as he makes his way to camp david, hallie. >> that would not be outside the realm of possibility there. gabe gutierrez, thank you very much live for us in west palm beach in south florida. again, this morning 2025 new year's day off to a horrific start for the city of new orleans after that deadly truck

ramming that killed at least ten people. it is possible that we may learn that death toll could go up. some 30-plus people are at local hospitals in new orleans including two police officers shot when that driver, that suspect, who is believed to be dead, opened fire. we are expecting an update from law enforcement looking at the clock in just about an hour for now. for now that concludes our nbc news special report. we will have continuing coverage on our streaming channel, nbc news now and online at nbcnews.com. we will monitor the latest and come back on the air with welcome to 2025! >> now, excuse us, but we've got a parade to start. >> let's go! >> happy new year from the "u.s.s