you. up with correction. in ohio state a couple years ago there was in fact a vehicle attack. it was a smaller degree to this. this would not be the first time for an attack like this. but certainly in this size of a city this is a first. >> we are going to stay on the story. chuck todd is going to pick it up from down in washington. >> thank you nicole, be afl yourself going home. i'm worried about all of you up there. we are following that breaking news coming over, a deadly incident in new york city. w nbc reports at least six dead and 15 more are injured after a vehicle drove at least seven blocks through a pedestrian and bicycle path in lower moip after the 3:00 p.m. hour in afternoon. the suspect identified as a man in his mid 30s exited the vehicle and shouted allah akbar before tiring a pellet gun and possibly another weapon.

he is currently in bellevue hospital in new york. it is being investigated as terrorism. and a fbi terrorism joint task force is asissing on the same. it was said this is an intentional act. hard stop. the governor and mayor are being briefed. we expect to hear from the n.y.p.d. in approximately 15 minutes. we will bring that to you live when it happens. let's go to your array of correspondents. ron allan is near the scene in lower manhattan. i know it's been chaotic since you got there. is it less so now? what can you see? tell us. >> reporter: the gravity of what happened is starting to sink in here. the first reports of this made it sound much more innocent than it actually is. a terrorist attack, and people are hearing about it and reacting to it. and with just horror and concern. looking at this pike pat from where i'm standing along west street, it's not protected at all. it just kind of runs along the

side of the highway here. west street, which is actually a highway. so there would have been absolutely no warning that something was going to happen. we just saw the last injured person taken away from the scene oh, just about five or ten minutes ago. he was not terribly badly injured but it has taken a while for the authorities to essentially stagize the situation here. the area blocked off for four or so square blocks. and the other really erie thing now is that school is out now and we see a lot of parents coming home with their kids. this is a residential neighborhood. it is a tourist area. new york, as you know, everything happens in a lot of congested areas. so there is a loss happening in this little part of town. parents are now bringing their kids home. some of them are in halloween costumes. there is a school nearby, residences nearby. people are breathing a sigh of relief this wasn't worse but of course it is a horrible situation so many people lost

their lives on what was a typical fall day here in new york city. and now the investigation begins. there are police everywhere. there are emts, and medical workers everywhere. as they secure the area we have seen dogs going around to make sure there are no other weapons. a lot of people we have been talking to have been reacting with horror after hearing the gunshots that were apparently the officers taking the suspect down. again, at this point people just trying to take this all in and get their heads around what has happened chuck. >> i thing they are not alone. ng we are all doing the same thing. ron allen, thanks very much. let me bring in one of our chief -- no. i'm going to go to the scene here. we have got another colleague of mine, lewisburg dorve is down on the scene. louis, i know this isn't far from where you live. in fact, i believe you were among the first folks on the scene. tell me what you first saw. >> yes. >> and now sort of -- put some piece of this puzzle together for us as best you can.

>> i stepped out of my building. my building is right where canal street middle east the west side highway where that bike path is. i walked out of my building and saw a bunch of construction workers running across the west side highway kind of frantically as if someone had been struck by a vehicle. kind of as i got closer to that bike path i realized that it wasn't one person, that it was multiple people. and then police started to arrive on the scene. they were really the first responders. as the police kind of arrived, i could see some officers, uniformed officers and some kind of emts -- not ambulance people but just some emts trying to tend to some of the victims that were just laying there on the path. they were badly injured. one emt was giving cpr, mouth to mouth and chest compressions to one person who was not being very responsive from what i could see. and what we realized, and you know, very quickly, is that this

wasn't just in one block. this was multiple blocks. in the very beginning it was very scary because it was really people trying to assess who was the worst out of the people injured and trying to tend to those people. emts were running up and down the bike path. nothing was secured. so it was really a terrifying scene. again it's at 3:00 which is fairly busy time. school is letting out. there were a lot of people on that path. people walking with their children, cyclists. >> did you hear the gunshots? >> i did not hear the gunshots. i don't believe that the gunshots -- i -- obviously, i don't know for a fact but i don't believe that the gunshots happened as north as to where i was. from what i heard from eyewitnesses, that happened lower down where they eventually found the truck near chambers street. i did not hear the gunshots but i definitely saw the damage that

this attack did, and you know, some of the eyewitnesses that were just sitting there that had just narrowly escaped being hit by this vehicle were extremely shaken up. >> this is your neighborhood. how trafficked is that bike path? i mean is that one of those things that any time of day when the sun is out you just see people -- is it that kind of busy? >> it's one of those things that it doesn't matter the time of the day, each on rainy days, that is a path that is heavily used. it's not only used by people who live in the neighborhood but really people that are you know trying to get from uptown to downtown, tourists. because it feels like a safe place. it's two lanes. it's very wide. there is another walking path that's towards the water. and at any given time, there are, you know, hundreds of people out there. you know, it never really felt like that a place that would be a target. i don't know that this -- i know that they are investigate this

as, you know, a potential terror attack but it's not a place that you would think would be a specific target. and it does feel safe. and it was really, i have to say, the first responders were incredible. to see them work and to see them try and make sense of you know, maybe a 12, 13-block crime scene was scary. but the way they handled themselves, it was very aggressive. >> paint a picture of this neighborhood a little bit. you are not familiar with new york you hear lower manhattan, you think that's close to the world trade center. what else do i need to know? is this in the heart of wall street? or is this more residential part of lower manhattan? how would you describe it to somebody in kansas city? >> yeah, i would describe it as extremely residential. there are high-rises that line the west side highway. and you go from west townsend street where it looks like this

started down to chambers. these are long blocks. lots of people out with their families. lots of people out walking dogs. actual lie along that west side highway, you know, park and walk, there are play grounds, there are dog park runs, there is a miniature golf course on one of the piers. i mean this is a place that people go, you know, all day long to enjoy themselves, to get away. and it's right along the water. and you know, you can see the world trade center the whole way through. so it is a very iconic spot for people to come to. you can get a view of the statue of liberty. you can also walk there fairly easily. there are multiple train stops there. and like i said it's pretty spread out. i mean these are long blocks. for this truck to have traveled from canal or even four blocks north of canal, west howster street all the way down to chamber street that's an

extremely long way. and this driver, this suspect would have encountered a lot of pedestrians arc lot of different types of people, whether they are bikers, whether they are out walking with their children. and that's -- that's the most frightening thing. >> lewisburgoff with nearly a first-hand account. certainly an early hand account of what is happening down there. louis thanks for doing this. appreciate it. >> thanks so much. >> let me bring in michael light lighter. you know him as a national security analysis and counter-terrorism expert. he also ran the counter-terrorism department for this country both for presidents bush and obama. thank you, sir. okay, it's a van. using a van as a weapon. this is now -- are we up to our fourth or fifth incident around the world? i'm losing track. this is now a pattern, is it not? >> absolutely. these are weapons of maybe not mass destruction but significant

destruction. these are deadly weapons. it started in full in nice in france with a large truck attack that killed i believe 80-plus. we saw it in barcelona and here in the united states not necessarily through islamic inspired terrorism. one mentally ill case. and shalts. all sorts of understand in an open society you can't guard all pedestrians and these vehicles are great easy access weapons. >> all right. interpret this for us. u.s. intel officials are telling us, you used to be one of them that they are treating this as a terrorist attack and examining whether there is a connection to international terrorism. that's according to someone close to the u.s. counter-terrorism center a place you used to work. what does that mean right now? what are your former folks doing. >> the first thing if you are the director of the national counter-terrorism center you

want an identity on this person. i don't know if they have that yet, certainly if an individual screams allah akbar that puts it into the realm of international terrorism, isis or al qaeda inspired. as soon as that happens, the joint task force and the n.y.p.d. are really a seamless web in new york city. i hate to say that this couldn't have happened in a better place. >> i know what you mean. >> in that sense, in terms of immediate response and overall counter-terrorism effectiveness new york is the center. >> after the fbi, the most trusted law enforcement. >> is the n.y.p.d. there have been rivalry in the past but, et cetera a seamless connection. they are figuring out who this is and what the connections are. you will see schultly in new york and other cities there will be an increase of defenses especially on night like halloween where you already have more people out, more

pedestrians out. police naturally think of this as a more vulnerable time. >> i don't know how much you call yourself a profilar these days. i know we have people that are officially profilers. but the date and the location, significant. >> do you feel like these are -- okay, halloween is a time to scare pedestrians, and hey, it's lower manhattan? >> i would say maybe. it's certainly an indicator because there are a lot of people out on the streets. so i remember when we had the attack in boston. immediately thought -- >> boston marathon. >> boston marathon bombing. this is an event that if you are from boston you know about it and it's really important. if you are not, in the so much. that led me to conclude these were probably locals. i think if it has to do with halloween, just because you have more pedestrians out there it's someone who understand whaz that means culturally. >> international terrorism -- your best guess now. >> someone with linkages. >> linkage but inspired by? yeah. there is another thing i thought, this is rental truck

reportedly from home depot. >> which are done by the hour. >> it's so cheap and so easy. you compare it to what we had post 9/11. we were thinking about crop busters and people taking light aircraft. and that was something that the department of homeland security and the fbi could really monitor and to a great extent control. when you are talking about rental trucks from home depot, this is a piece that fundamentally although we can truce likelihood, try to find people before they are radicalized or not radicalized, we don't know what the cause is, but the weapon, the tool of choice here is one that is so widely accessible, police really have a hard time. >> i was just going to say, look, i can picture we are going to have barriers now on pedestrian walkways in every city in america in five years. right? whatever -- maybe in five months for all we know. so i could picture us there. but then of course it's like i also remember we were going to

regulate how much fertilizer people could buy over oklahoma city. >> which we still do. >> right. >> we have some of that. you think about the u.s. capital here. you think about new york. the ball ards around times square or any major city. the large pot airs which also can guard against a truck bomb or attack like this around federal buildings. fundamentally when you are talking about an urban environment, whether it's again, charlottesville with protesters or new york, these pieces are indefensible. you really only have two options. one is to defect people either with mental illness or political motivation before the fact or after the fact be able to respond very, very quickly which at least in the first instance what we see probably occurred. >> this has to be frustrating i assume in the only for you but for any of us as american citizens. on the one hand we are obviously very good at stopping the bigger attacks because they are having

to resort to simplistic methods. and yet, let me ask you this, this is now a very effective terrorist attack for them, sit not? because of the attention it gets, and they did get a small mass casualty. >> it is, and i hesitate to each say this an hour and a half or two hours after the event. it's of course successful for them. we have got possibly six dead, 15 injured. this is a tragedy for at least 21 people and their families. and it's awful. the real question of whether it is an effective terrorist attack in a strategic sense, not in a tactical sense of this victory for the enemy. >> i'm talking about in a -- pr. >> in a strategic sense is how we as a country respond. we say that over and over. what do we do politically, in terms of civil liberties, how do we respond in attacks like this. >> let me pause you there. we have new information that we've learned key law enforcement sources, tom winter what have you got for me? >> chuck we know there are now eight people confirmed dead as a

result of what appears to be a terrorist attack in lower manhattan along the west side of manhattan. at least 15 people are injured. the numbers obviously in a little bit of -- in flux a little bit. we know that this person today who -- and we just want to update the age. we originally said early mid 30s. it appears they are working on an i can of the suspect now who has been described to us as a middle eastern man who is in his late 20s. in what four sources have told nbc news, when he crashed this truck that you see on the left-hand side of your screen that he got out and started yelling allah akbar and then he got out and began firing what appears to police to be some sort of a pellet or beebe un. there is another gunther checking out. that gun may turn out to be a mock or a fake gun that he had. we had shown some of that video before. right now, police russia is had a briefing with all of new york

city's top law enforcement and government officials with the governor of new york, andrew cuomo and we know the joint task force is involved. separately we heard from joe val death who works with us in the investigative unit that the fbi will be a major part of briefing that you see at 1 police plaza the headquarters of the n.y.p.d. the fact that the briefing is occurring there, the fact that the comments that this suspect allegedly made who is currently in the hospital -- this is a right now a very serious police investigation. i mentioned at this point only as a landmark because there is nothing that ties this to the world trade center. but where that truck is is approximately a block, two blocks north of the world trade center for thoeks that are familiar with new york city, that's just kinds of a -- i use that only as a landmark. >> sure. >> but that's the latest that we are hearing right now. >> tom winter on top of this for us. thanks very much some we are anticipating that briefing. let me bring in michael lighter since he use to be one of those

guys that would quietly give us information he wasn't supposed to be doing -- i'm teasing. >> that is not true. >> unfortunately. he brought up the world trade center. first year of the clinton administration, there is an attack on it, first year of the bush administration there is an attack of the world trade center. here we are, trump and there is an attack near the world trade center. obviously new york is very important to al qaeda, isis. it seems as if -- you can't not connect that. >> yeah, i think that's probably right. certainly new york is. new york has long been an iconic target for al qaeda and isis. that's why the new york police department has taken it so seriously and is so good at what they do. there is another juxtaposition think about it in 2001, again, aircraft flying into world trade

center. here we are 16 years later still fighting the fight and what we are looking at are rental trucks from home depot. that is exactly how this threat has metamorphed into what we face today which is so much more distributed and lower tech. >> i was going the say. you are at the counter-terrorism center. and one of the posed lessons from the 9/11 attacks is always thinking -- frankly, thinking more creatively, unfortunately. >> that's right. >> now they are going low tech on us. and in some ways causing similar panic, even if they are doing less destructive things. >> you are exactly right. we do go through these political spasms when you have these events even when they are a scale which is much much smaller. >> i had it easy when i was at the national terrorism center. i had to guard against the big things. rd gag against the smaller things is vastly more difficult. that keeps them up at night. you can do defensive things, have the ball ards, investigate

people. but finding one person is very, very hard. >> what do you make of -- the n.y.p.d. in the joint task force does this alot, more than any other entity, which is they seem to find potential targets early, bait them essentially, to or potentially bait, to see if they are active and then catch them in advance -- how effective do you think that strategy is? it comes across as that. >> there is different legal terminology they would use because bait implies you are bringing them in when they are not incliented to do that. >> they say okay let's see how far they will take this. >> exactly. n.y.p.d. and fbi. >> is that an objective? >> absolutely. >> yes. >> it does require strict guidelines and sensitivities so you are not simply targeting mosques and communities but you are finding those who are radicalized and inclined to mobilize towards violence.

you have to be careful. the n.y.p.d. although they have received some criticism has also done some of the best local intelligence in the world and cities across the united states, and really governments across the world have gone to the n.y.p.d. to learn about that. and that's built by people like bill bratten and ray kelly and names that others don't know. and mike bloomberg did a fabulous job. >> as you can see here, there's a lot of -- a lot of folks at the briefing that are very recognizable. sounds like it's going to be a long one. let's go to it right now. >> good afternoon, everybody. steve are we good? >> yes, sir. >> all right. just keep in mind, this incident occurred a little more than two hours ago so all the information we are giving you right now is preliminary and subject to change. after i speak you are going to hear from governor cuomo and

mayor deblasio, bill sweeney from the assistant director in charge of the new york fbi offices up here. members of my executive staff, cy vance and members of the state police. first i want to say today there was a loss of innocent life in lower manhattan. the dead and injured were just going about their days heading home from work or school or enjoying the afternoon sun on bicycles. this is a tragedy of the greatest magnitude. for many people, families here in new york city and beyond today. commend response the an nooichd on post near the location who stopped the carnage moments after it began. also the work of the first responders, including the fire department and ems personnel surely helped save additional lives. i'll give more of a chronology in a couple of minutes. right now i'd like to introduce mayor deblasio. >> thank you commissioner. it is a very painful day in our city.

horrible tragedy on the west side. based on the information we have at this moment, this was an act of terror, and a particularly cowardly act of terror aimed at innocent civilians, aimed at people going about their lives who had no idea what was about to hit them. we at this moment, based on the information we have, we know of eight innocent people who have lost their lives. and over a dozen more injured. we know that this action was intended to break our spirit. but we also know new yorkers are strong. new yorkers are resilient. and our spirit will never be moved by an act of violence, an act meant to intimidate us. we have been tested before as a city very near the site of today's tragedy. and new yorkers did not give in

in the face of these kinds of actions. we'll respond as we always do. we will be undeterred. and i want to thank everyone at the n.y.p.d., all our first responders, for their extraordinary efforts in the midst of this tragedy, starting with the officer who stopped this tragedy from continuing. all of the first responders who came to the aid of those who were injured. the investigation is underway to get all the facts. what we'll tell you today of course will be preliminary. but we know we'll get down to the bottom of what happened. i want to ask all new yorkers, all americans, to keep the families of those lost in your thoughts and prayers. they will need our support. and i want to ask all new yorkers to be vigilant. we know it's halloween night.

and we know in the days ahead people will be uneasy. we ask all new yorkers to live by the idea of you see something, say something. tell an officer immediately if you see anything unusual, anything that worries you. be vigilant. and know that there will be extensive additional deployments of n.y.p.d. officers this evening and throughout the days ahead. we will also keep you posted as this investigation continues and as the n.y.p.d. gains more information. governor cuomo. >> thank you. first, our thoughts and prayers are with those new yorkers who we lost today. it reminds us all how precious life is. they left the house this morning. they were enjoying the beautiful west side of manhattan on a beautiful ball day. and they are not going to be returning home.

and that shock and that pain is going to be very real. and our thoughts and our prayers are with all of them. our first responders did an extraordinary job. the n.y.p.d., the fdny, the fbi, the new york state police, ems, they -- we have the finest security on the globe. and to see them in action today proved that once again. the new terrorist tactic, which they have called for publicly, are these lone wolves who commit an act of terror. this is all very preliminary. it's only been a couple of hours but at this point there is no evidence to suggest a wider plot or a wider scheme. but the actions of one individual who meant to cause pain and harm and probably death

and the resulting terror. and that was the purpose. we will be vigilant. more police everywhere. you'll see them in the airports. you will see them in the tunnels. it's not because there is any evidence of any ongoing threat or any additional threat. it is just out of vigilance and out of caution. and the truth is new york is an international symbol of freedom and democracy. that's what we are. and we are proud of it. that also makes us a target for those people who oppose those concepts. and we've lived with this before. we've felt the pain before. we feel the pain today. but we go forward together.

and we go forward stronger than ever. we're not going to let them win. and if we change our lives, we contort ourselves to them, then they win and we lose. we'll go about our business. again, there's no ongoing threat. there's no evidence of that at this time. so there's no reason to have any undue anxiety. you will see more security forces, but that's only because it's an abundance of caution and not a signal of anything else. and there will be continued investigation and justice will be done. but, again, to those we lost, they are in our thoughts and our prayers. to the first responders, thank you. thank you, thank you for the job you do. you put your life on the line

every day. you do it better than anyone else. and to new yorkers, be new yorkers, and live your life and don't let them change us or deter us in any manner, shape, or form. thank you. >> thanks governor cuomo. thank you mr. mayor. >> as i said i'm going to go through the chronology here. i know when i'm done you are going to have a lot of questions but we are not going to go too deep it into. it's only two hours. after i get done, dan will talk about the injuries. at 3:05 p.m., a male driving a rented home depot pickup truck entered the west side highway bicycle path at houston street began driving southbound striking a number of ped treens and bicycles along the route. at chambers street the truck collided with a school bus injuring two adults and two children. after the collision, the driver

of the truck, a 29-year-old male exited the vehicle brandsishing two handguns. a uniformed police officer assigned to the first precinct confronted the subject and shot him in the abdomen. the suspect subject was wounded and transported to a local hospital. the paint ball gun and a pellet gun were recovered at the scene. the subject's identity is not being released at this time pending further investigation. at this point, there are eight fatalities reported in connection with this incident. in addition, several people have been injured and the commissioner from our fire department will discuss that further. dan? >> thank you, jim. as police commissioner said, six of the people died. they were pronounced at the scene between houston street and chambers street. they were all males. two others were transported in traumatic arrest and were pronounced at the hospital. we also transported 11 people,

all with serious but at this moment not life threatening injuries. the injuries are what you may expect as a truck went at high-speed down that bicycle path and struck bicyclists and pedestrians. there may be more injuries as people self evacuated, and we will determine that later as we do our survey. but that's the patient count and the deaths as we know it now. >> all right, at this point we will take some questions. miles. hold on. hold on. miles? >> this is something that -- terror attacks or these kind of things where they rented a truck. this is something that you guys in the field -- [ inaudible ] have you talked to home depot recently about being vigilant about this? >> john, do you want the talk about the program a little bit?

>> sure. as you know through the shield program we do a very wide outreach. we have just under 20,000 members in the private sector. after isis, reaumia magazine came out with an issue about two years ago around this time of year suggesting car attacks. you will recall one of the targets it suggested was the thanksgiving day parade. we went and did extensive outreach to the truck rental business. we visited over 148 truck rental locations in this area. the obvious ones, u-haul, ryder, home depot, et cetera, we talked about suspicious indicators, ways to come forward on the attacks after christmas market and at nice we made more contact going back to the same places. so the industry has had a high level of awareness on this matter from the n.y.p.d.

>> any indication that the suspect is a lone wolf, perhaps radicalized here in america? or any indication of a wider -- >> it's way too early to discuss that. this just happened two hours ago. that is of course part of our investigation. >> [ inaudible ]. >> initially we thought it might have been but it turned out not to be. >> do you think he had a residence in new york? >> this is part of the investigation. >> security status. [ inaudible ] schools under lockdown? [ inaudible ] people in that area should be aware of beyond -- >> no, this incident is over. it ended by stifrson high school. we had to make sure all the kids were taken care of. we held them in place for a while. it was important that we do that. but this incident is over. david. hold on. hold on.

david. >> by the age of -- and the victims -- [ inaudible ] . was there any indication that the -- [ inaudible ] >> he's a 29-year-old male. i'm not going to talk about the truck right now. right there. >> have you heard that the suspect said allah akbar or anything like that? is this the only indication that this may be an act of terrorism? >> he did make a statement when he exited the vehicle. if you just look at the m.o. of the attack, that's consistent with what's been going on. so that along with the statement has enabled this to label this a terrorist event. >> [ inaudible ]. >> not right now. >> do you have his nationality? was there any intelligence leading up to this, that it was something in the works? >> again, two hours old and we'll update you awe go along. lenny. >> who is in charge of the investigation? >> it's being conducted jointly with the n.y.p.d. and the fbi. >> [ inaudible ]. >> from florida? i'm not going to go into that.

yep, john. >> [ inaudible ]. >> john, not right now, no. yes. >> [ inaudible ]. secure the -- [ inaudible ] >> after the times square incident -- i talked about this. any incident that happens in new york or happens in the country or happens around the world we have to learn from that. of course we are going to take a look at that. >> any changes for halloween -- >> he's in the hospital. i'm not going to tell you what hospital. and i'm going to let chief gomez talk about what we are going to do for the halloween parade tonight. >> in less than 90 minutes that parade will kick off. we are continuing with the parade. we have more resources, heavy vehicles, blocking the streets leading to the roud and more sand trucks. there is also heavy within weapon scenes being deployed at key iconic locations. >> [ inaudible ].

>> that's -- this is why we do investigations. you know, initially, i'm sure whoever put that out wasn't sure what the event was. now two hours into it this is the determination that we made. yep n the first row. yeah. >> [ inaudible ]. >> too early in the investigation to know that. rocco? >> preliminary reveal anything that may lead. [ inaudible ] >> i haven't looked at the video yet. we are retrieving as much video as possible. what we do know is he entered the bike path at houston street and exited at chambers street when he collided with the school bus. there are no intersections on the west side of the bike path between houston and chambers. hold on one second. in the back there. >> children from the bus all right? >> dan, do you have that. >> among the injuries that are serious but not life thenning. >> they are among the injured they are serious but not life

threatening. yes? >> [ inaudible ]. at which home depot -- [ inaudible ] >> we are not going to talk about where the home depot was rented from just yet. do we know how many people were on the bus. >> two adults and two children. >> there were two adults and two children on the school bus. in the back. >> [ inaudible ]. >> don't know. that's part of the investigation. >> [ inaudible ]. >> we don't have that yet. >> as we said there is a lot of information to be gotten. we wanted to give you a preliminary. wee we don't have too much detail. we'll give you another briefing as more information becomes available. at this point i have to ask you to wait until we get further information and have another briefing. >> i'll close this off by saying look again n.y.p.d. is investigating this with our federal partners, with our state partners in. there is going to be a very, very thorough investigation. but the most important thing, as governor cuomo said, as

commissioner o'neill said, people should go about their business knowing the n.y.p.d. is out in force with our partner agencies tonight and throughout the wee. very important additional measures are being taken for people's safety but the bottom line is we are going to go about our business in this city. we are not going to be deterred. and we'll get you updates later on. thanks, everyone. >> all right. you were hearing there mostly from the police commissioner there, james o'neill, but a little bit from governor cuomo and a lib from new york city mayor bill deblasio. let's check in with a few of our professional analysts and get their take on what they heard. malcolm nance, an msnbc terrorism analyst. what did you hear there about this incident that you think viewers didn't hear? >> for the most part, the viewers have heard quite a bit of information, in fact. i think over this last hour, the details have been extraordinary. the mayor makes the most important point right off the

bat. new york city is prepared to handled the overfaaftermath of attacks and we have to go on. this incident is over for the most part -- now, i know there were halloween parades planned for tonight. new york city's forces are going to be out on the streets in force and they really need to take stock in that. >> this is being investigated as an act of terror. in the last two weeks, we have made millitarily significant progress against isis in both iraq and syria. do you think this is connected in that -- in the sense that you have that they are losing grounds but they feel as if they need to send a message around the world that they are not? >> i think ices has been losing grounds for over a year now, i mean significant amounts of ground. and they are in their end state. you know, it would bewell within their playbook to go out and try to push forward and attack like this. but as you see and as you were

saying with michael lighter in a segment which i thought was informative, which is that terrorists have deinvolved from the large scale strategic attacks. that's a technical term they use, a strategic attack. these are now qualitative attacks which are small scale but which have a big impact, especially as they bush out into the news media. excuse me. for isis to do that, you know, they don't even need a central command anymore. they have essentially eliminated that and gone on to what we call a ghost jihad where they have moved out and all of their information is in the cyber world and it inspires people to carry out acts. >> all right. you just said some of this is designed to be more symbolic than it is to be destructive. not to say that killing eight people in new york city is not a destructive act. it is. but they are looking to make -- take a smaller attack and make it seem like a bigger deal. obviously, government response in this country, and media response play into this.

are you suggesting we've got to rethink how we cover terrorist attacks? >> no. i'm not saying that. because, look, ever since 1967 when the black september blew up eight airliners in ntd from of tv cameras, terrorism has always used the news media. and that is always a factor in disseminating fear. and that's what they want. they want these attacks prop gate on a broad scale. you know, in some countries and in some incidents they do terrorism blackouts. it's sort of like the s.w.a.t. blackouts we have in the united states where they don't show the immediate incident where you get a narrative of the incident but not seeing the imagery. in this modern world with social media and facebook that cannot be done. we can mitigate the terrorist incident by showing -- how can i put it, by showing the incident

and also contexting it so that everyone knows that these people are devoid of values and what they are doing, you know, insults their own religion and humanity. >> once again, a whole bunch of mayors around the country, a whole bunch of police chiefs around the country are going to be battered with questions about should there be, you know, newberryiers here at this park or at this ped streechb walkway or at this outdoor attraction. do we need to start securing for this? or does this become a we are sort of chasing a solution that will evolve into something else later? >> to a certain extent we are. you know, what is happening right now is called counter-terrorism. counter-terrorism is the response of postincident, which requires people to have been injured or killed for them to understand where their vulnerabilities are. but we've seen this vehicle as weapon system attack which started in israel. over 50 attacks like that. then nice, paris.

the with incidents in london, and then you know the one we saw in barcelona in la ram blah. you can put up barriers and ball ards like we see on 42nd street everywhere. but there is always going to be a point of vulnerability, whether it's just the crosswalk when the light changes. for the most part we have to be more proactive in our intelligence collection. we are going to find out most likely that this individual, who by the way -- there was an interesting point that hasn't been brought up yet. he carried that paint ball gun and that air pistol to die at the end of that attack. just like we've seen with the fake bombs that were carried in london. he had no other purpose than to die. he needed to die in this attack and facilitate his martyrdom. for the most part we cannot outbuild terrorists. we just have to put steel facilities around everything and then you would loose all quality of life in this city. >> i want to pivot the conversation a little bit. malcolm nance, i appreciate it.

i hope you can stick around for us. we may come back to you in a couple of minutes. we have a few initial reactions first from the president. he tweeted the following. in new york city, looks like another attack by a very sick and deranged person. law enforcement is following this closely, and then in all capps, not the u.s., exclamation point. vice president pence also tweeted saying the following, saddened by the tragedy in new york city. our thoughts are with the victims and and first responders. let me bring in paula pletka she focuses a lot on national security issues. you heard us devolve in the conversation about okay now what, there is going to be a public policy response. we have the political response here. this is -- you could look at this incident and say this is a result of the success of the military campaign against isis in raqqah. it's possible we may look at it that way. but there is going to be a demand to do something. what should that something be? >> that's an excellent question.

the real problem that we talk a lot about in national security in the war on terrorism is the fact we don't have a strategy for what we do after we win in raqqah. >> right. >> for what to do in iraq. what to do in syria. for what to do in yemen. we have got two problems. we have got the problems in those countries with terrorists there who are waiting to come back. but we also have foreign fighters in all of those countries who are flowing back to europe, the uk, france, belgium, and of course they will flow back to the united states. it will require a lot of border security and lot of vigilance. >> it's obvious our law enforcement system is working very well. this person didn't have any guns to him. it's eight people that died. not thousands of people that died. on one hand we are having success at minimizing terrorist risks but we are not eliminating them? >> no, we are not. sadly the problem for me is we have actually begun to tolerate these terrorist attacks. we don't talk about orlando, and don't talk about it as a

terrorist attack. we don't very often about what happened in san bernardino. and that was a terrorist attack. we should be talking more about this. we shouldn't tolerate it. it should be intolerable to us. and the only way we are going to end it is by having an actual strategy to end these groups ones and for all. >> what does that mean? it is infiltration? is it our own version of propaganda to counter it? it seems that one thing isis is much better at than we are is on the social media propaganda end of things. >> sure. of course it's partly an ideological war and we were not good at that. we were excellent during the cold war. we are not doing it well anymore. in addition to that it means actually providing alternatives to people who turn to these groups for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with islamic extremist u who turn to them because they don't like the government they are living under, they don't receive protections, we are seeing that across africa. that's going to be the next hub zhao let me bring in tom winter.

he has more updates. >> as you might imagine the situation is little bit fluid right now. there are reports out about a name of the suspect. but i'm not -- there is a little bit of uncertainty, in law enforcement circles as far as what his name may be. there are some connections between him and florida. that does seem certain. we know he is in a new york city area hospital as commissioner o'neill said where he was taken after being shot one time in the stomach by a first freechk patrol officer normally assigned in manhattan: he shot him after he exited the vehicle you see on the skpreep and shouted allah akbar. we know in a the new york field office and the jttf, the joint terrific task force here in new york along with the n.y.p.d. are investigating this. they are investigating it as an act of terrorism. so this is an investigation that is unfolding rapidly as they do.

at that same point it's taking time and care to make sure there may not be anybody else out there they want to talk to. >> i was going to say we know there is a connection to florida. i assume we are hesitating on the name because we are worried about dual names or a couple of things. why are we so sure of the florida connection if we are not sure of the name? >> they are so sure of the florida connection. i think there may be some things tied to the rental of that truck that leads them to believe to the florida connection as well as the identification. but the problem that happens here is the name is entered into a computer system. it goes out on a wire. you know, the law enforcement services have become very good about sharing information and transmitting information. just sometimes the wrong hit of a key stroke on that could lead to a misidentification. so that's just one thing where we are being extra cautious on. you about he does appear to have ties to the west coast of florida at this time. >> we know he's still alive.

is he conscious? >> we don't know the extent of his injuries. we are not getting very much information about that at all from police. we don't know whether he is -- whether he is in fact alert, awake, whether or not he may be in a position to speak to police, and whether or not he wants to do that at all. at this point there is going to have to be an determination whether there is going to be a terrorist investigation in the federal courts or something handled locally in the manhattan district attorney's office and the n.y.p.d. that's a determination that from a legal perspective needs to be made here soon. and also you know information about when and where he rented this truck. as the deputy commissioner john miller who he had up intelligence and counter-intelligence for the n.y.p.d. said they have a robust program not only in new york city, but also in new jersey and philadelphia to talk to these rental centers to advise hey if anybody comes in that looks suspicious you want to give us a

call or maybe look into their backgrounds a little bit before you represent them that box truck or large pickup truck as we see in lower manhattan today. there is a lot of information that investigators will need to get here, that truck that you are looking at on screen right >> and do they know for sure whether the driver of that truck was living in new york city but happened to be a resident of florida? or visiting from florida? or have they not made that derrellation yet? >> it's not clear yet whether they've been able to make the determination. if he is not from new york city, how long he may have been in the new york city area. it is a little bit in the investigation at least as it is being relayed to us. all right. thank you very much. malcolm, you've heard the update here. what we know, a little more information. we're being careful about saying the name because i think a lot of news organizations have been down this road before. it is possible to use somebody else's drivers license to rent the truck. you have to dot a lot of i's and

cross a lot of t's. what's the portrait you have in your head of this guy? >> well, i'm afraid to say that i've had this portrait from the very moment that i heard about this attack. these vehicle as weapon systems attacks. that's what we call these. someone takes a rental vehicle as we saw in barcelona. that was a rented van that they used to go down a pedestrian thorough fare and run back and forth and kill pedestrians. as soon as i heard that he had run down seven to 20 blocks and then crashed into a school bus, that created a profile of a person carrying out a deliberate attack which may have been inspired by isis or al qaeda. and taken that vehicle weapon system as their mode of attack. i found it interesting that the person brought two dummy womens. that immediately spelled out to me that they wanted to die at the end of the attack.

>> they wanted to be a martyr? that's what you assumed? >> they wanted to be a martyr. it is not a hallmark, it is a requirement for these attacks to be taken up and seen as a soldier of god, so to speak, by isis and al qaeda members. we don't know his ideology. he is shouting allahu akhbar so that's indicative. i guess the question is, how do you -- how do we have a response that doesn't panic the public? >> we are talking about this offline a moment ago. the problem is, when something like this happens, and the news absolutely saturates. >> it is halloween. let's be realistic. a lot of parents are saying, are

you kidding me? it is terrible news and you want it covered. that's what these guys are looking for and there's a balance out there. this is really, really a big challenge for the american people. how do we deal with it? how do we not terrorize people and keep people safe? new york city is having a halloween parade which is starting in 90 minutes and it is going ahead as far as i can tell. >> let me bring in someone who has dwelt this before. the halloween parade. there's always a parade in new york, of course. bill bratton, i don't know how much of that conversation you heard. this line here on the one hand. the nypd is gas as they've ever been in, they're as good as they've ever been as stopping attacks. this is a needle in hay stack. how do we plan in the future for

security for things like this? [ silence ] >> all right. we are having an audio issue there with commissioner bratton. we'll try to fix that. it is rolling breaking news. we'll get you back in there. so that to me is the hard part to fathom here. that we have on the one hand, the terrorist incidents are smaller than ever because there's only so much they can do. >> law enforcement is amazing. >> we're really good at this. we're so much better than we've been since 2001. if you can't eliminate the risk, it is easy to say, the news media needs to temper it. when do you know to temper it? >> it is a fine line to walk. you don't want to answer their

mail. you don't want to put propaganda pup helps these groups and lets them remain relevant. we may look like we're losing there but we're still relevant. look at the streets of paris and barcelona and new york city. isis. an isis supporter tweeted out new york city a month ago. one month ago and said we're coming. that is the kind of thing that's just mania for them. >> and they can't do much to us nil. but this does strike terror. if we're not willing to tolerate it, what do we do? >> i get that you say we're getting too used to it. >> we are. >> you can argue europe and the middle east have been used to it for 40 years.

is this a reality we have to deal with? >> i don't think we should. remember half a million people dead in syria. remember tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands dead in iraq. remember all the refugees. we don't talk about they will anymore. sure, in new york. this is terrible, our backyard. our home town but that's what it means there. >> i hear that commissioner bratton is now, his audio is good. so i know you started talking so you heard my question. we couldn't hear your answer. this is our dilemma. on the one hand, law enforcement better never stop in the big attacks. harder than ever to stop these needle in the hay stack attacks. what is that to you who used to run security for a city like this? >> the challenge is constantly increasing. this is now two significant attacks in new york city in the last 13 months coming on the heels of more than two dozen over the last 16 years

since 9/11. the pace is increasing. the pace of those attacks is increasing. as we've seen in france and england. you cannot prevent them all. we can prevent a lot of them but no capacity in a city as large as new york, with the huge police force to prevent them all. that's the world we're living in. the good news is that we get better at preventing a lot of them. and as we go forward, hopefully we'll get even better. >> look. nypd is on the front lines dealing with trying to stop attacks quickly or trying to respond to attacks that happened. washington is going to have to deal with the larger issue here. whether it is dorgs we need to figure out how to keep isis inspired folks from getting inspired by isis that live here in the united states? what kind of action do you think now the u.s. government needs to look at? you've been arguably dealing

with this since 2001. you've seen different iterations of public policy ideas. what kind of advice do you give now? >> the good news is that one of the significant factors in reducing these types of attacks is collaboration. seamless collaboration. we did not have that before 9/11. for several years, i was chief of police in los angeles at that time. we literally had to use a battering ram in washington, d.c. for federal government to understand they need the 800,000 local police and the almost 2.5 to 3 million security guards as part of the eyes and ears. and we finally won that battle, if you will. new york city is the living example, if you will, of that close collaboration. it is seamless. something i certainly worked during my three years. and as you saw tonight in the press conference, bill sweeney, the head of the fbi here, was standing there right beside him. governor cuomo heads up the

state police. they are there. that collaboration is the key. and the good news is that it is so much better than it ever was. it is going to need to continue. >> how about working in muslim communities? and continuing nypd has been on the front lines of that. and that's always concern. are there folks that fall through cracks? >> new york has almost 700,000 muslim residents among our 8.5 million. well over 1,000 who are police officers now. i shouldn't say we, i'm no long we are the department, but commissioner o'neal and the nypd work exhaustively to develop close working relationships with those communities. i can't tell you the number of mosques and centers that i was in as commissioner. commissioner o'neal still does the same. you need information. you need trust. you need the idea that that community believes that we are looking out for them and that we

want to work they will. >> we know trust is getting better. is it still shaky? or is there a level of distrust to break through? >> i think with that community still many issues are concerned. some of that has certainly increased with the issues over the last several years on the efforts of immigration. those are unresolved dilemmas at the moment and some of the tension between federal government, the local police, the so-called sanctuary city issues. those are still very contemporary and have not yet been resolved. >> all right. commissioner of new york city he and los angeles, as he mentioned, among other things. thank you for coming. on that's all i have for tonight. ari melber will pick up with this story. it's all yours. >> thank you. and our coverage of this deadly attack does continue right now. a cowardly act of terror against innocent people. that according to new york