this is one major investigation under a code name perhaps but every investigative agent or officer will have access to this information and kept in a large database and then facilitate much faster. in essence, if i come up with a name and jim, there's no need for us both independently to find this person and talk to. once that information is pulled, okay, let's move on again. you have a lot of people right now available for an investigation like this. you want to make sure you use -- you make the very best use of them possible and it's going to be daylight soon and law enforcement wants to make sure this investigation is movinging on before the first light of day. >> as the cliche goes, just like in the movies or just like on tv, what they're doing. they have the power of technology as they're trying to coordinate the pieces of information from various sources and then, of course, you have various organizations processing

that information and then coming back together to bring their collective intellectual firepower together to figure out what's happened and try to prevent what may happen. 11:00 p.m. eastern, 10:00 p.m. local. garland, texas. breaking news, what has happened, what we believe to have happened in the last four hours is during an exhibit and a cartoon and illustration contest in, garland, texas, of deprixs of the prophet muhammad, that two suspects approached the center where this group was holding the event. shot at a security officer. then, in response, police, garland police, shoot at the two alleged suspects and then they die. that is what we understand right now. kxas has been our affiliate in the air providing us information. let's go to what they're broadcasting now live for a

moment. take a moment. >> just released from the hospital. >> police shot and killed the two men who opened fire. we have live team coverage starting with jocelyn lockwood. you were literally next to officers as they secured the scene. tell us about that. >> i was, and to be honest i'm here with officers. this is a very active police scene. it's been all day as extra security was called in just for this event. but right now, i would like to bring in joe harn with the garland police department keeping us abreast of the situation as it develops. thank you for joins us. tell us what happened. >> just before 7:00 we were outside. we heard gunshots at the front of the event center. officers started responding to that area. what we found out, two men pulled up in a car. started shooting at a garland isd security officer. officers garland police officers on the scene, engaged, shot and

killed them both at the scene. >> both men had a gun and shooting in this situation? >> yes. right now what we're doing is because of what happened there, concerned about the vehicle that they were in, may have an incendiary device or a bomb. our bomb unit is trying to clear that car. >> not just your bomb unit. departments from all over north texas kind of in this area now helping you guys out. tell us about that. >> we have several agencies coming to assist. one brought in a bomb trailer a while ago so if we find something, it was a container trailer. and that's where we are right now. it's still an active scene. the two men are still here at the scene that were killed and we're just waiting to get that clear. and then to identify those men and figure out exactly what happened. >> any idea who the two men are and why they opened fire at this event? do you believe it's elited to the event? >> too early to say that. certainly that's what we're

going to think and too early to confirm that. but again, two men drive up, get out of the car, start shooting at a security officer looking like a police officer but he does not have a gun. thank goodness there were officers, garland officers close by, was able to engage them and stop their shooting by shooting and killing them. >> there was a lot of extra security for this event. let's talk about that. that's why there's so many officers to begin with. tell me about that. >> true. because of the event in january, they contacted us about this. we beefed up security with this and as it's ended up it's paid off we did that today. >> all right. joe, i appreciate you joining us. joe harn with garland police joining us live to update us on the situation. garland police killed two men who pulled up in front of the curtis culwell center. opened fire on a security guard. that security guard has been

released from the hospital. he was treated and he is okay. police are still on the scene. they're searching the vehicle that the men were in. they are searching it just in case there may be an incendiary device in there. police are not saying if the shooting is in relation to this event. they say it is too early to tell. this event, we were here for it this afternoon. it started at 5:00. we were actually inside the building just about 30 minutes before. we had just left when the shots were fired. this event was a muhammad art exhibit and contest. it was held by the american freedom defensive initiative. they accepted entries of cartoons of the prophet muhammad considered offensive by some. but again, we don't know if the shooting is related to that. we are going to stay here on the scene. we are with police. we have been here all afternoon and we'll bring you the latest developments just as soon as we

get them. guys? >> all right. jocelyn, thank you. and as the shooting happened, cameras rolling inside the curtis c lwell center. this is a live streaming. people running and can't hear anything but, of course, like i said, see the people escorted out by the armed police officers there. and in that area, officers evacuated three major stores right after those shots rang out. people poured out of an academy, sams club and walmart. nbc 5's kevin cokely is live there with the latest. kevin? >> amanda, we are on the north side of the bush turnpike. the other stores evacuated when the shooting happened, only about a block away from the evacuations. we did manage to get right across the street from the stores before garland police moved us over here. told others with us to move back further. the police have several streets blocked off.

garland road, frontage streets along the bush turnpike and impossible to get close to the convention center. we did manage to talk to a few people who were inside the walmart, heard that gun fire. >> we heard a bunch of popping. we thought it was fireworks. my wife's like, no, that's gunshots. >> we heard it pop, pop, pop real quick and a pause and then pop, pop. i was like, that's gunshots and then an announcement. make final selections, get up to the front and like he said, this cop was just frantic. get out. get out now and if you don't get out now, you're getting locked in here. >> everybody got out of the store as quickly as possible. left the parking lot. police have had garland roadblocked off. they are letting people get to the super target on the other

side. this is about as close. garland police remain here while the bomb squad checks out that suspect's car. nbc 5. >> all right. thank you, kevin. we'll take a live look from chopper 5 right now where reports of two men were shot and killed. we also have a report of a garland isd officer who was shot. he was injured but released from the hospital. as we mentioned earlier, people from the convention center taken to an undisclosed location. police asked us not give away that location. >> what you're looking at right now from chopper 5 is, in fact, the culwell cultural center. so david, how many people are you seeing right there? >> so we just saw about two bus loads of people unload into this undisclosed location. security is pretty tight out

here. we have officers walking around that are armed with rifles. and nobody's getting in or out of this location. without express permission from these guys. so it seems to be pretty locked down. and earlier there was a local fire department that came through and delivered some ice. for the evacuees. and right now we're just standing by to see what developing out here. >> david, this incident happened around 7:00. did you notice if they were bringing in food or any water to the folks that were being evacuated? >> i didn't notice any food or water. i'm sure that, you know, that that is one of the priorities at this point. but as far as from the vantage point that we have had here, they have pushed us back some distance, i didn't see any food or water delivered at this time. >> all right. david bridewell, thank you for checking in with us right now. we'll check back with you a

little later. the event held inside the culwell center was the muhammad art exhibit and cartoon contest and told by garland police about 200 tickets sold for the event. it featured cartoons of the prophet muhammad, part of the reason security at the center was very tight. garland police say organizers spent about $0,010,000 here on extra security. back in january, thousands of protesters and counter protesters held american flags and signs outside of the muslim conference where the shooting happened today. the conference titled stand with the prophet against terror and hate. it was a fund-raiser to build a center to dedicate, to teaching muslims how to combat negative depictions of their faith. the organizers asked for extra

security but there were no arrests. as we take another look, a live look from chopper 5 from the culwell cultural center. three people were shot outside the center during a draw the prophet muhammad event. police say two men drove up in a vehicle and shot a garland isd. the officer was taken to the hospital with non life threatening injuries and the car you see there is the car that was involved in this shooting. the two men who were killed, their bodies are still in this area and why chopper 5 is keeping a very wide look at this scene. >> i also want to mention that the garland isd officer shot released from the hospital. right now we are working to get you updated information on this situation here. we sent you alerts from the nbc dfw app shortly after the store broke and if you haven't doneloaded the app get it. we'll take a quick break and

we'll be back. >> all right. local coverage there of affiliate kxas covering when's going on on the ground and we have jay gray gathering news there. we have also clint van zandt and as well jim cavanaugh with us all evening covering this. one of the points we may take if we take the discussion to the next step and that is, the muslim community in that area, they were noting in local coverage there how there was a muslim conference in january and now in the month, the first day of -- excuse me, early days of may, this event put on by another group based out of new york. this group that is called the american freedom defense initiative listed by the southern poverty law center as an active anti-muslim group. so those are sort of the bookends of what we're looking

at today, at least if we can say bookends in recent time. jim cavanaugh who's a special atf -- excuse me, former special agent in charge and lived in plano, texas, which is right next door there to garland, texas. describe what you know about the muslim american community in that area right outside of texas because, again, we are talking about, what? a bedroom community of dallas, really. >> well, i don't have a specific interaction with the muslim american community in dallas specifically. but, you know, i have had it in other parts of the country and it's pretty much the same. they're very good to help law enforcement. we work so many cases of attacks on mosques and car bombings and they worked with us all the time. certainly there's a small percentage of muslims and very

minute percentage engaged in terrorism and not the muslim american community that has to be faulted there. but this group here that was putting on an event, you know, is known, richard, as an anti-muslim group. the writings and speeches are that. they're very anti-muslim. and the southern poverty law center as you said designated them as a hate group so that just is -- could be the motivation for the attack. you have two players here. usually you don't have an act of a mental defective or someone who's sick or something, you have a conspiracy, you have two people acting with violence to shoot someone. they don't like. with free speech comes a lot of ugly, bigoted speech and still free speech and gunned men are attacking that. now, why they did it, the motive

may be obvious in the case and has to be sorted out if that's the new motive by law enforcement. and so, there's a lot to be done here. the main thing, though, for law enforcement, the terrorism task force, the garland detectives and everybody is to once they can save the two bodies and check the car for no bombs to get in there and who are the guys? their wallets, cell phones, their ids, the identifying of them because they're dead but who could be acting with them tomorrow, the next day? you know, who inspired them? this is really the time clock for law enforcement. i spoke with this very subject, this exact scenario to the international association of chiefs of police years ago. how critical it is on these terrorist events to get that

immediate intelligence to the broad community to work that information out. so they can stop the next attack. you can't just lock these things down forensically totally because there could be more. we hope there's not. garland pd said they don't believe there's actors in the immediate area. certainly they check and don't see anybody but they can't know if there's other actors in the state or somewhere afar. >> right. i'm going to go to clint in a second. just before we do that, jim, one last question and since you used to live in the area. i mean, one of the headlines and going back to january here from our affiliate, one of their headlines wrote -- because in january they had the muslim conference they were just reporting on. and when they conference, at the very same center, the muslim conference.

at that conference, at the very same location looking at today, there were thousands protesting the fact that a muslim conference having it there. not sure will whether they're locals or individuals from other areas. but that then implies a dynamic and i know it may have been sometime. not sure how long ago you lived in the area, not specifically in garland but there's a dynamic there. were there any headlines, any understanding of that as, again, the assistant special agent in charge there of the dallas office that you were watching as a dynamic that would be of interest to where we're at today? >> right. great point. and we have seen this same group and this same group of people who run this anti-muslim group do this around the country. you know, they came to nashville, tennessee, area to try to block the building of a mosque in tennessee.

and they were some of the key drivers behind trying to block the mosque. you know, the mosque the members of the mosque in that muslim community has been citizens of tennessee for a long time. they were a well-established americans that lived here. they were not anything to do with terrorists. they were trying to block the mosque with a lot of anti-islamic talk and very active group around the country like you mentioned richard trying to block the ground zero mosque and another example of anti-islamic meetings. it can be ugly speech. we have people now who come to this event. we don't know their exact motivation but two people that come to the event trying to shoot it up and shoot at a garland independent school district officer. they shoot at him.

he's unarmed and garland pd on site they're able to engage and. they're there to murder. they're there for mass murder. now, who are they? and what motivated them? and that's got to be, you know, gotten on very swiftly. i know that garland detectives, they have a great detective bureau there and so much help here. it's going to be plenty of help to get it done. they have to get on that. they'll be doing it all night. >> clint, to you, former fbi profiler, msnbc contributor. if you can please tell us in 30 to 45 seconds, it's a same location of thousands protesting against the muslim conference there to raise must understand to open a muslim center in the area. what is your reaction to that dynamic? >> well, again, as jim's talking, you have to consider the motivation. number one, you have the group

that we have talked about that appears to be anti-muslim. number two, their contest, $10,000 to draw a picture of the prophet muhammad which, of course, is totally against that religion. and number three, the keynote speaker was a dutch member of parliament. he was on al qaeda's hit list and potentially a number of reasons why the event, those sponsoring it or those speaking at it may have been targeted and the reason that brought about the shooting tonight so the authorities are going to be able to identify that primary motivation. >> clint, stand by. jim, stand by. we'll be right back. when you're living with diabetes, steady is exciting. only glucerna has carbsteady,

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continuing to follow breaking news mere at msnbc. that is a live picture near garland, texas, right there by dallas, texas. and it's the scene of a two vehicles. we are under the understanding according to local news sources there that we are keeping a close eye on the vehicles because two suspects are believed to still be in the vehicle, two suspects killed

earlier. actually, i'm being told they were shot nearby and they were killed earlier in a shooting outside of a muhammad cartoon contest in texas and waiting to see what happens with local police on the scene. of course, we do want to give you an update on the officer who was killed, a security -- he was not killed. he was actually shot. a security officer was shot as the two suspects approached this cartoon contest and injured that security guard and he is since released from the hospital. it is an active scene as officers still trying to determine what to do with the remaining body there is on the scene. we understand that there were some local businesses nearby that were evacuated as all of this was happening a few hours and want to take you to information we are getting from some local law enforcement on the scene. so let's take a listen. >> tell us what happened here this evening.

>> just before 7:00, we were outside. we heard gunshots at the front of the event center. officers started responding to that area. what we found out, it's two men pulled up in a car. started shooting at a garland isd security officer. officer garland police officers that were on the scene engaged them, shot and killed both of them here at the scene. >> and both men had a gun and both men were shooting in this situation? >> yes. right now, what we're doing is because of what happened there, we're concerned about the vehicle that they were in may have an incendiary device or a bomb. our bomb you nilt is here trying to clear that car. >> it is departments from all over the north texas kind of in this area now helping you guys out. tell us about this. >> we have several agencies that have come to assist. one brought in a bomb trailer a while ago so if we find something, it's a containment trailer. it's still an active scene.

the two men are still here at the scene there were killed and waiting to get that clear and identify the men and find out what happened. >> any idea who these men are and why they may have opened fire at this event? do you believe it's elated to this event at all? >> too early to say that. that's what we're going to think and too early to confirm that. but again, two men drive up, get out of the car, start shooting at a security officer who looks like a police officer. but he does not have a gun. thank goodness there were garland officers close by, able to engage him and stop their shooting by shooting and killing them. >> there was a lot of extra e security for this event. tell me about that. >> true. we because of the event we had in january, gisd contacted us about this. we beefed up security with this and as it's ended up it's paid off that we did that today.

>> all right. that's the latest from the local nbc affiliate there in dallas. again, we are looking at an active scene as you heard from the officer, maybe a bomb inside that vehicle. they're trying to determine that. that's why the vehicles are still? place and learning, too, two bodies of the suspects are nearby. so a lot to be taken care of. this is an active scene at this point because of those situations. i want to take us now to nbc's jay gray on the scene. jay, both of us used to work in the dallas area. this is something that obviously no one was prepared for except for the fact they understood that this cartoon contest could cause some possible situations given the nature of it. but, you know, garland is a pretty quiet area. >> very quiet area, betty, as you well know. i have just gotten new information.

you talked about the stepped up security in place for this event. i know and had it confirmed at least one garland s.w.a.t. officer had been there since 9:00 in the morning and tells you the extent to which they were prepared for what was going to happen today. whether it happened or not. obviously, it turned into what was a terrible event there. and something they're still trying to sort out. but again, at least one garland s.w.a.t. officer was on site from very early in the morning there and part of what it sounds like was a very strong security contingent at that building throughout the day. >> yeah. they had we heard from the officer just moments ago they had indeed beefed up security. they were prepared for the possibility of it, obviously. no one was expecting anything, hoping anything like this would occur and thankfully there were no other deaths related to this except for the two suspects. and as for the security guard on

the scene, he is released from the hospital. correct? >> that is what we understand. he's going to be fine. i think it's important to point out and we heard the public information officer from the garland police, joe harn say this. he was unarmed at the time. so it was the quick actions of the rest of the security team there, most of them garland police, this moved in. it's a situation where this is now going to branch out into what's going to be a long and very detailed investigation and as you guys have been talking about all night, you have garland police working on it getting help from agencies not only across this area but federal agents, as well, moving in and try to piece it together. try to find out the background of the men and takes some time according to the agents and the officers on the ground here. >> yeah, but the fact that this event even took place there and the security that they had

brought in, surrounding it, there was some concern something like this goes down and it did. >> you know, betty, they had an event in january where there was some pushback from protesters. it was an event at the center that was centered around the muslim faith, but also, the -- their role as americans and it was an event that was met with maybe a thousand protesters throughout the day and a potential for a problem here and i think that's why they beefed up that security when it started. >> all right. stand by for us if you will. i want to bring in clint van dan zant and we're learning more that a bomb robot is being brought in to check on the vehicle. in fact, more than one bomb

robot. obviously, this is still a bit of an active scene and worried there's incendiary devices or bombs inside that vehicle that was used by the two suspects. >> right now, of course, we don't know whether this is just good police work and an abundance of care and consider the potential of a situation like this and could be also accompanied by type of an explosive device or perhaps law enforcement had some type of information either at the scene or otherwise able to gather that suggested there could be an explosive device used this situation. they're going to make sure what they have before they allow anybody -- >> all right, clint. i have to interrupt you. i understand police are speaking. >> they started to shooting to that man and did shoot him. he was taken to the hospital and treated and has been released. officers, garland officers close

by saw what was going on. engaged the two men. shot and killed them by their car. because of the situation and what was going on today and history of what we have been told, has happened in other events like this, we're considering their car and possibly containing a bomb. our bomb unit is there and working on that vehicle. and that's where we are at this time so far as identifications on the men, we have not touched the bodies because they're close by the car and then we'll find out who they are and what's going on. we are in the process of interviewing any witnesses. along with the man that was shot. >> joe, any idea how long it's going to take to clear the car? >> it's a very slow, tedious operation that goes on. a lot of things and maybe even have to x-ray different things and takes several hours or end in 15 or 20 minutes and we don't know. >> able to see anything in the

car? >> don't know that. >> did the men yell anything before they shot? >> i don't know anything so far as conversations that take place and they drove up, got out and opened fire on the security officer. >> do you know who they are? >> sorry? >> -- who they are? >> don't have any idea who they are. >> anything of the car that leads you to be suspicious? >> it's a matter of precaution of what happened and happened at other events with these people and taking every precaution we can. the event center, evacuated businesses close by, evacuated the event center. putting people in garland school buses and away from the area. >> do you know if officer joiner heard anything from the suspects beforehand? >> i don't know that. >> any immediate threat right now in the area? >> not that we're aware of. you have seen police helicopters flying overhead. >> the parking lot, described

seeing a third suspect being put in the squad car. >> i don't have any idea of that. the only thing that i have been told is the men out shooting that were shot and killed at the scene. >> to be clear, the officer shot, was he here working this event? >> yes. >> part of security? >> when this event was going, were you thinking someone like this could happen? >> we prepared for something like this because there were additional officers that were hired for this event by the school district. we had talked with them. and preparing for this event. and in case something like this happened. >> how many people were inside the event? >> approximately 200 attended the event. >> how long do you anticipate the area to be locked down? >> no idea. don't even have a guess at this point. >> do you have a guess for how long the sequence took? >> very short. i was outside, heard the gun fire start. gun fire lasted seconds before it was over. >> when's the first thing you did? >> got in my car. got in secure area to secure an

area where people could enter, where the media was coming in. secured that area so no one could come in there and looking for anybody else moving around. >> any description of the shoot shooters? >> no. two males. >> any indications they're connected, the event and the suspects? >> not right now. certainly we're going to be look at that but there's a lot of investigation to be done once we get that car cleared first to figure out who it is and see what their connections are. >> describe the process. >> the bomb unit, they were getting ready to take up a robot and go through it. several different devices. they also brought a bomb containment trailer in case they find something where they can put a device in that vehicle, in that trailer. >> talk about the evacuation. how large was it and how big of a task? >> line up the school buses, get the drivers, we moved those

people towards the back of the building further away from the car in case there was a bomb and went off. once ge dot the buses secured, we brought them on property and out the doors they were taken in to and evacuated them that way. >> do you know if the suspects -- >> say that again. >> the area businesses. how big of an evacuation is going on right now? >> the evacuation's done. and we're working on the car. that's what's happening right now. >> do you know if the car is -- >> no idea. >> how close did the car get to the building snooits. >> it's stopped out in front of the building and i would say it's to the -- not in front, probably to the side of the building. there is an entrance and i believe that's on the west side on the roadway is that where that is. >> people in the school buses taken to an undisclosed location. will they stay there for a while or free to leave themselves? >> it's my understanding where they are and i've just told there's media there where they

are. >> staying there? >> no. they'll wind up once the area is secure, all the vehicles are back at the event center and they have to get the cars. don't know that's tonight or tomorrow. >> there was a chance -- indicated -- responsibility for this. have you looked into that? >> all kinds of social media out there. a lot of things put out there were not true. everything i have given you is simply fact right now. >> -- suspects had explosives on them? >> we are looking at the cars and look at them, too. we are being cautious on everything. >> were there any credible threats before the event? >> -- in and out -- >> so far as threats, we have been monitoring this for several months. for a credible threat we had like this event what happened, no. >> any residents that are affected? can they get to the homes and out? >> not to my knowledge did we evacuate any residents. >> what about a nearby hotel?

we heard people at a hotel locked inside. any plans to evacuate them? >> i don't know that. i haven't been told that. >> you said a minute ago the bodies are outside the car? >> yes. >> on the ground? >> yes. we are not going to expose ourselves to a bomb inside a car and the bodies are close to the consider and yes the bodies are still outside near the car. once that collar is cleared, we'll take care of the bodies. >> no immediate threat, credible threat that you had going into this, specifically? >> no. >> did both suspects have guns? >> second. >> did both suspects have guns? >> yes. >> what kind? >> don't know what kind of guns. we'll know that once we get up to them. but again, right now, the threat that we're worried about and dealing with is the car and any possible bomb that may be in that car. >> were you able to speak to the isd officer and his account of what happened? >> detectives are talking to him now. have not heard what he's said. >> was he hired by the group?

>> he works for garland independent school district. >> the security out here, all the security, the extra security, was it paid for by the group that sponsored the art exhibit tonight? >> my understanding yes. for any event they hire off duty garland police officer with the security officers here tonight. there were additional police officers that were hired for this event simply because going back to the event here in january and then what surrounded these type of events and other parts of the world, additional security was added to this event tonight. lucky it was because it ends up we had a threat and they executed that threat. >> how many officers were there? >> i don't have a number of all the officers that were there. >> would it be dozens or -- >> i don't know. i can give you a number later on but i don't have those numbers now. >> joe, will this impact the high school next door tomorrow? >> i wouldn't think so simply

because we would expect to get this cleared, the car cleared. of course, we have a crime scene there. that's going to take hours to work. i wouldn't think, though, it is not close enough to the high school that it should delay any school opening there. >> can you describe the suspects? >> all i know it's two males. >> can you describe the aftermath of the shooting? >> locking down, secure areas, making sure nobody else is moving towards the event center. that may be carrying a gun or trying to harm anybody else. >> a lot of people in the parking sflot. >> no. not a lot of people in the parking lot. excuse me, it was probably 10 or 15 minutes before the event was going to be over. when this occurred. okay? okay. that's pretty well it. >> any update on when you might be out again to talk to us? >> don't know right now. it's all depending on this bomb work-up. and i just don't know how long that's going to take.

okay? but as soon as we have something additional and put it out, we'll let you know. okay? thank you. >> thank you. >> you have my microphone. >> that's the latest update of garland police giving us a detail of what happened. according to those reports, this shooting occurred about 10 or 15 minutes before the event was over. that's a cartoon contest there in garland about 18 miles outside of dallas. security officer, bruce joiner, is his name. he was the person who was shot by the suspects. 58-year-old officer bruce joiner from the garland independent school district. he was working that event when the two suspects drove up and basically just opened fire. he has since been released from the hospital. so that is some good news here but to the left of your screen, you see and now full screen an active scene. there's a vehicle there in which the suspects drove up in and the bodies of those suspects both of them have been killed, killed by officers. garland police officers shortly

after the shooting occurred. and those bodies are still there nearby that vehicle. now, what is taking so long? we just learned from garland police that there is a belief that there could be some type of incendiary device or perhaps a bomb inside the vehicle. and because of that they're not moving anything until they can get those bomb robots in there and the bomb squad there to determine what indeed is in that vehicle and if that is a safe area. once they get that contained and ensure that if there is a bomb that will be taken off site to a containment area, once that is contained then as we heard from the officer they'll take care of the bodies so as you're seeing from this helicopter shot, this is still an active scene right there. i want to bring in now clint van zandt and talking to him before the press conference began. a former fbi hostage negotiator. as we heard, he sounds like this could take a very long time. he says a slow and tedious process to determine if there's

a bomb inside there and then diffuse it, obviously. >> well, yeah. and you have got two different things going on. you have what is happening as the officer describes the crime scene. you have the bomb robots there and you have got the officers trying to determine if there's an explosive device inside. so they're taking their time. they don't want do get anyone obviously injured or set off a bomb or anything like that. and because of as the police spokesman tell us that the two shooters were nearby the vehicle, we're told they haven't been fully identified yet. but law enforcement still has the license plate on that vehicle so that would enable an investigation to start to identify whose vehicle it is. they have probably already gone to the address that's linked to that vehicle and started interviews based upon that. there's more information to be gained. they have to render safe any explosive devices.

but they're not waiting with the investigation. that's going on in other parts of the city, perhaps even other parts of the world by now because not only the local agencies involved but fbi, atf, the cia will be involved, nsa could provide help in any type of communications that are involved in this. so this will not simply be a local crime. this will be a national and international investigation. >> that's a really good point because they're still piecing together exactly who these guys are and trying to find some identity there. as we're zeroing in a little bit on the scene right there, you can see, i believe there are two robots near the vehicle. perhaps maybe even three and see them sometimes move closer in. do you have any details on exactly how that process works with those robots? >> well, in one -- for one

thing, you've got different agencies that brought those to the scene. you may have fbi may have brought theirs from dallas, texas. you may have the dallas pd. you may have other organizations so they're all going to have perhaps a different type, a different style but there's going to be an overall incident coordinator. in essence at the crime scene watching right now, there's going to be someone that's involved, some police officer or federal agent. he or she, it's their responsibility to coordinate the actions of those robots as well as the bomb disposal personnel on scene to make sure they check that vehicle if there's anything there, render it safe, and again, get them time to identify the two shooter that is are down on the ground at this time. >> you mentioned bomb disposal and we heard from the garland police officer there's a containment trailer on site in case there's a bomb device to be taken and i guess put it in the

containment trailer and set it off to make sure it doesn't cause any harm anywhere else. >> yeah. they would always deploy something like that at the scene and have it. we are looking at literally tens if not hundreds of tos of dollars of equipment that is not used very often and if it saves one law enforcement or civilian's life, that's probably tax money well spent and for the last probably dozen years or so the federal government has been contributing across the board to help agencies beef up their response capability in situations just like this. so it's not just local dollars but this is federal tax dollars in action and i tell you what. from the men and women on the scene right now, you would sure rather have a robot go up to the car and look through the window than a police officer and the last thing they see is a clock ticking down from two seconds to

zero and going off in their face and they're going to be very careful while they're doing this. it's a dallas. it's trying to make sure that no one's injured. if there's an explosive device, they deal with it and get the investigative information and the identity of the two shooters to let the investigative colleagues find out who we should be looking for, who may be related and start looking at the cell phones, any type of communication devices as i talked to richard earlier, they're going to be creating a wiring diagram and this wiring diagram probably by sometime tomorrow may link one, two, 10, 20, 50 people or more to the 2 shooters as law enforcement is out identifying, trying to figure out who's responsible for this over and above the two shooters and are there any other activities planned by any other individual or group that we need

to stop, obviously, before something like this takes place? you know, one thing interesting tonight is that as the police spokesman suggested, the shooting took place a little after 7:00. that was about -- that was after this meeting, this art exhibit, this fair was over with. so it probably ran a little bit late. and with the timing involved, these two shooters driving up, they may well have fully anticipated that part of the 200 people who were allegedly at this meeting would be coming out at that time as the meeting ran longer instead of seeing 200 people coming out the front door, they encountered this unarmed security officer so his presence and the timing there could well have saved the lives of dozens of people. >> it did happen toward the end of the event according to the police officer giving that news conference there. about 10 to 15 minutes before the event was over so the event

was wrapping up. this was on the tail end of that. clint van zandt, thank you so much. stand by. right now i want to bring in jim cavanau cavanaugh, a former atf officer and has detail of the garland police officer. and looking at the active scene and the robots, you have to say thank goodness for the technology to have this in place and heard earlier from clint we don't have to see officers get close to vehicle, get close to possible bombs or incendiary devices and put themselves in harm's way. >> exactly. the u.s. law enforcement has great special teams like bomb gads and s.w.a.t. teams and one of the things to note here, this is a great visual of what america's bomb squads can do. extremely efficient. they're capable. really, the story tonight is good command decision making by garland pd to put s.w.a.t.

officers at the scene. i think we're probably going to find out that s.w.a.t. officers and that, of course, we all know, most of us know that means special weapon and tactics and highly trained police officers or agents who really, who reall shooting and techniques to move and tactics to win in a gun fight. >> right. >> people that do our most high-risk situations. those s.w.a.t. officers were there -- >> this could have been a different story had that been the situation. i'm going to have to ask you to stand by. we will take a break and come back with the latest details on this breaking news out of garland.

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welcomes back. we are following breaking news in garland, texas, which is 15 miles from dallas. there are bomb squad row bts on the scene. they are inching ever so close to a vehicle used by two

suspects who opened fire outside of a muhammad cartoon contest there. two suspects have been killed by police. but not before they were able to shoot at one of the garland school district security officers, that being bruce joyner. he was shot. you are seeing a picture of him there. 58-year-old bruce joyner. he has been since released from the hospital. only two fatalities involved here and those are the two suspects who were involved. we are trying to learn more about who they are. but here's the issue their bodies are still on the scene in the vehicles they drove up in. they are not moving the bodies because of the possibility of an incendiary device or bomb in the vehicle. until the bomb squad makes sure it is safe in the area they will not remove the bodies. in the meantime, we are learning more information about how this went down. i want to bring in nbc's jay gray who's on the scene and with

some details of what happened there today, jay. i know there was extra security due to the nature of this cartoon contest. while no one was expecting anything like this they were prepared for it, indeed. >> strong security throughout the day here. that did include at least one member of the garland s.w.a.t. team that was in place and on the ground at this event. they had some concerns. they were hired to come in by the school district. they were in place. this is where the event was supposed to be over. toward the end of the event it was apparently running but longer than anticipated. about 200 people inside. would have been finally out at the time this occurred but they were running behind schedule. that's when the two men got out of the car.

we are learning that security officer involved was shot in the ankle. he was taken to a nearby hospital, treated and released and the two men killed. the robots had been working the better part of an hour, if not longer. and not only working through this vehicle but in the area i around the vehicle. there's some concern because as you talked about the two suspect bodies are still there. they don't want to move in until everyone knows things are clear. i can tell you when it first happened in the daylight hours, everyone poured in to this area. we are talking about neighboring police agencies as well as garland police. there was not only a quick move to get everyone they could locked down and eventually out of the area but they also searched the area very vigorously to make sure there were no other issues, no one else involved and when that was clear, they started to focus on the car and the suspects that were killed. >> yeah, that's the focus right

now. that's what we are watching. a lot of people haven't talking too much about the 200 people who were in attendance at the event. i understand they were taken from the con venge center to an undisclosed location. are they still at that undisclosed location? >> for many of them they are, betty because their cars are still inside the crime scene tape. this is still a very active, as you have been showing all night crime scene. they will be brought back. we don't know if that will be this evening or sometime tomorrow. the garland independent school district brought in buses and school buses and they were moved out. the buses were back at the scene. they are staged outside of the scene or at the ready apparently to perhaps go get a lot of these people an bring them back. should it be time for them to move their cars out. right now they are being held and i'm sure being talked to by investigators with several

departments, several agencies. they are trying to find out everything they can about what happened. the good news, if there is any in this instance, they were still inside. like we talked about, they could have been coming out of the event at this time but they were inside when the event took place. they were hurried in to an area, held and watched over by law enforcement there until it was deemed it was safe for them to be moved to an undisclosed he case. that was done and then they are held at this point. anybody locally, i would assume after talking to investigators, if a friend or spouse or someone wanted to come and get them, perhaps that's the case, they are not telling us a lot about that right now and i wouldn't expect them to frankly. but that is what happened at the time of the shooting. >> reporter: do you know if any in attendance of those 200, if any of them are being investigated, questioned by police, especially in light of the fact this shooting occurred?

>> i haven't heard anything along those lines, but it is still early. i'm sure the officers, the investigators are looking at every possibility. i have not heard that to this point. >> okay. jay, i'm going to ask you to stand by. we are going to bring in jim cavanaugh, former atf officer. we were speaking to him before the break. jim you were talking about the fact that there are all of these pieces this they are trying -- they being officers, not only locally, but i imagine on a federal level, too, given the nature of the shooting and involving muhammad cartoon contest. that there's a lot of connecting the dots at this point. >>s that right, betty. the key for the commanders here is to get the identification of these two guys. they talked about the car tag they have already done that. they may know if it is their vehicle but of course it could be stolen, rented or borrowed.

so that is not always a sure thing but you want to find out who they are. their wallets, cell phones, as quick as you can but first you have clear it, but you have to clear it without delay. because there could be something afoot somewhere else tomorrow, another plot in another state. this is a task for police in the modern era now. with these terrorist-style attack clearly is a major motivation in this event that this would be a terrorist style attack if it proves to be the motive we think it may. they got to i.d. these guys right away. chi of the "charlie hebdo" attack. on the heels of the "charlie hebdo" attack, we had the attack at the market where the two brothers was in sync and going to commit mass murder. that's a fear you have