price. >> the president himself said the other day that the people who stormed the capitol were coming in hugging and kissing police officers. congresswoman mikie sherrill, sorry it was so brief, but thank you for joining us. just to reiterate, the u.s. capitol police has confirmed that one of the police officers involved in today's incident, one of those struck by this car, has died of their injuries. the suspect has also died of his injuries, shot by capitol police after exiting that car and brandishing a knife and lunging at capitol police officers. just a heartbreaking day. and that is going to do it for me. ayman mohyeldin picks up our breaking news coverage right now. katy, thank you so much. i'm chris jansing in for ayman mohyeldin today. we're coming on the air with that breaking news we are continuing to cover from capitol hill. it is tragic news.

the capitol complex remaining on lockdown after someone crashed a vehicle into officers at a barrier on the north side of the capitol. the suspect jumped out of his vehicle with a knife and was shot by police. just moments ago, u.s. capitol police confirmed the suspect died at the hospital and the chief made another somber announcement. one officer has died. this incident comes, of course, about three months, just shy of three months after the january 6th riot in which hundreds of people forced their way into the capitol to try to stop congress from counting the electoral college ballots and affirming joe biden's election. what happened today, we don't have any motive. joining us now, tom winter, nbc news investigations correspondent and nbc news correspondent leigh ann caldwell is on capitol hill for us. tom, i think the acting police chief said it so poignantly today when she said this has

been an extremely difficult time for capitol police. what do we know? what are you learning about what happened here? >> well, chris, perfectly said. good afternoon. i think the issue here for law enforcement at this moment is confirming that the person that they believe drove this vehicle through a barricade, into this barricade, this blue car you're looking at on the left side of the screen exited that vehicle with a knife, was shot and succumbed to his injuries. who that person is they obviously know. we can't see it. they obviously know who that car is registered to, who the plate is. they probably have pulled a license off of the suspect at this point. now you need to try to match that information up and make sure in fact the person who that car is registered to is the person who tried to attack the capitol today. let's just call it what it is. we also know obviously very sadly that a police officer has died as a result of their

injuries from this incident. the police chief there said that at this moment they're not aware of any sort of a terrorism nexus. i think without knowing the motive, and they said they don't know the motive, it's probably a little too soon to say that definitively. if the person has a common name you've got to go through databases and look through social media accounts and it makes it that much more difficult. so that work is ongoing at this hour as we speak. on top of that, they'll look to see if they have had any other contacts with this person with other law enforcement agencies. i think importantly as far as ruling out potential motives or at least not leaning towards a certain avenue in this investigation, chris, is the fact that the capitol police chief pittman said they don't have a record of this individual in their file. what does that tell us? it tells us there hasn't been a threat directed from this individual to any member of

congress in the past. they would know that if they received that sort of threat in the past in their history. so at this point it doesn't appear that this person was known to the capitol police insofar as there hasn't been a threat this person has directed toward a member of congress, either sitting or somebody who used to be in congress, so that's interesting. the other thing is that the metropolitan police chief, contee, says there's no other threat in the area so they must have information that leads them to believe this is an isolated incident by one particular person or there's no other attacks planned as of now. so we're still trying to get information we can report as far as who this individual may have been and what their background is and see if that informs us from here on out as far as why this happened today. >> yeah. we want to talk a lot more about what would be going on right now in terms of the investigation, but i want to go to leigh ann

caldwell. tell us exactly where you are in the capitol complex right now, what you're seeing and what you're hearing. >> reporter: so, chris, i'm right in upper senate park. this right behind me is where the capitol police chief pittman gave her press conference and unveiled that tragic, tragic news at the death of one police officer who succumbed to his injuries is what she said. she also said that two capitol police officers, including the person that did die, were hit by a car. the car hit the capitol police officers before they hit that barrier that we've been watching that car all afternoon crash into that barrier. if you can see just behind me, i'm not sure how much you can see, but at the end of the grass and where the cars are parked is constitution avenue. there's an ambulance there. there's still some first responders, sirens up there.

right past constitution avenue is the entrance to the actual capitol complex. we are on the senate side and that is where it happened. that's a thorough fare that senators use every day, either with that you are cars or my foot. staff, many people walk through that entrance on a daily basis. of course that's not happening today because the senate is in recess for their easter recess. it is good friday. so there's not a lot of people around. this obviously is a big shock to the system, but it's completely tragic. the capitol police have been through so much this year. after january 6, of course what happened, they have been working so hard. morale is extremely low. i've been talking to some of these officers almost every day as i walk in and out of the building. right after january 6 they were working 18 hours a day, six days

a week in order to keep up with the security posture. those of hours have ultimately declined a little bit but they are still on 12-hour shifts most of them six days a week. it's been very, very difficult for them over these past several months. and then t.o. this happen to them and lose yet another capitol police officer in the line of duty is just a very, very horrible and tragic, tragic situation, chris. >> leigh ann, we will come back to you. of course the acting police chief asking everyone who is watching for their thoughts and prayers. in the meantime this investigation is just getting under way. joining us now, msnbc terrorism analyst jim cavanaugh. jim, tlts start there with what we just heard, that this does not appear to be terrorism related. what is happening on the ground

there at the capitol but elsewhere as well to try to figure out what happened here and what the motive is? >> yeah, chris, there's detectives and agents all over this guy's information, his public information and probably at his home, drawing up a search warrant to go through his home. certainly going through everything in his pockets, his car, his iphone, computers, whatever they were able to seize at the scene. they're going to be talking to family, neighbors, friends. they're going to see who he is and what he's about, what drove him to this. we know from the reporting it's a deliberate attack. it looks like he accelerated the car into you know ford united states police officers -- >> jim, can i interrupt you for just a second. >> sure. >> we are being told i believe that the lockdown has been lifted. that would be in line with what we just heard at the press conference that they believe there is not an ongoing threat.

let me go back to leigh ann caldwell. >> reporter: hey, chris, we just heard the external intercom system telling all the people inside the building that the lockdown has in fact been lifted, so people are now able to come and go through the office buildings inside the capitol and the adjacent office buildings. we did hear in the press conference moments earlier that the capitol police chief pittman did say there was no longer an immediate threat and so now that has been communicated to all the staff and aides who are inside the building. there's one another thing that just came through as well and that is house speaker nancy pelosi has ordered the flags at the capitol to be lowered to half staff to honor the victim, the capitol police officer, who did lose his life today, or her life today, chris. >> okay, leigh ann, we'll come back to you i'm sure again on the scene. jim, let me go back to you.

i interrupted you, but you were talking about the investigation in these early hours. >> that's right. so they are going to be all over this guy's personal information, drawing up search warrants for his rresidence, talking to his family and neighbors. they want to know because it can stop the next attack, put some answers to questions here. how can it stop the next one, does he have associates? he's probably alone. we don't have cases in the united states with multiple attackers with edged weapons. they have seen some of that in london, multiple attackers with edged weapons with terrorist motives but that's not what we see here usually. we have a vehicle attack first and that's followed by an attack with a knife on the police. the chief said the assailant lunged at the uniformed officers with a knife. he was running at them and lunging at them. you can close space fast with a knife.

all police officers know this. we're trained on it when we're rookies. we know people running at you can sometimes beat the draw of your pistol, so you have to understand there's got to be some spacing between you and people or they can get at you. we don't know if an officer was slashed in the face or not. we don't know if the officer died from being struck by the vehicle and the knife or one or the other. a lot of unclear fact right now. they should be able to release more since there's not going to be a trial. they have to deal with the officer's family certainly and that comes first. there's not going to be a trial, the assailant is dead, so they'll be able to release more facts hopefully to paint a clearer picture for the law enforcement community, the american public, to know what happened today. >> yeah, i already see them just in that picture in the last couple of seconds rolling up the

crime scene tape. jim, stay with us. i want to bring in kasie hunt, nbc news capitol hill correspondent. it's hard to put into words, particularly those of you who have spent so much time on capitol hill, just how devastating it is what we're seeing. there's an emotional aspect of it obviously, but there's also an operational aspect to it and there's a political aspect. since january 6th this has become security at the capitol a very political issue, hasn't it? >> it has become political, chris. but i will say i'm going to start with the personal. this is devastating. this is absolutely devastating. these officers protect me, they protect thousands of staffers every day. they protect all of these lawmakers. they're protecting this branch of our democracy and they have been through so much in the last just few months after what happened with january 6th. leigh ann caldwell did a very

nice job summing up just how hard they have been working, the sacrifices they have been making to try and keep this building safe, all while struggling with their own trauma. and so when the acting chief said pray for us, pray for these capitol police families, there's a reason she said that. i've gotten so many notes from lawmakers, from staffers, from others who work in the complex every day that there is -- there's not anyone i've heard from who isn't completely heart broken and devastated that the capitol police have lost another comrade here. so i think that that is the overwhelming sense right now. but you're right that the reaction to this situation appeared the fact that there is so much tension around the scene that we're seeing here is absolutely political and that is because of january 6th. there have been many security incidents around the capitol over the years. many turn out to be false

alarmed. i can't even tell you how many false alarms i've covered in my career. there was one incident completely unrelated to politics where a woman drove a car into a barricade at the capitol. she ultimately died as officers were trying to make sure that the building was protected. but it could have been a random incident anywhere else in the city, it just so happened it was the capitol. that's all changed in the wake of january 6th. suddenly not only is the possibility of a politically motivated attack all the higher, but the sense of vulnerability is still there. and while i think that there is an impulse to pull back the fencing and try to make sure that there is a statement being made, that this house is still open, it's still the people's house, it's the heart of democracy, people are still very much on edge. nobody expected, and we've said it a thousand times, but what

happened on january 6th shocked everyone because everyone all thought being inside the capitol would be the absolute safest place to be. and with that sense ripped away really, it makes every incident like this all the more terrifying. while before we would probably look down at our phones and think it's probably a false alarm, it's probably nothing. instead i think everyone who was there on january 6th, certainly for myself, my first thought was which members of our team are on the ground there, are they okay, are they safe? and i think that is not something that necessarily would have been where we would have gone initially. and we can't ever get that back, chris. >> just 86 days ago, kasie, and you cannot overstate the significance, the symbolic significance of that capitol building. the three years that i worked in washington, d.c., i never got over the awe of walking into the

white house. i never got into the awe of looking at that capitol dome, of seeing it at sunrise, of seeing it at sunset. i was thinking today as this was unfolding that i had just been thinking about, and a totally different story, the cdc was lifting travel restrictions with these school groups to get to go back to washington, d.c. one of the things that would knock me out of my seriously when i was working in washington was seeing the awe of tourists, of school groups, and the idea that now you do wonder some of the things that were put in place for january 6th, kasie, and maybe have been taken away, will there be a conversation about will they go back again. >> i think that's possible, chris, although i will say the security measure that stopped this car was a measure that was in place before january 6th that they never would have considered taking down. it's one of a series of

barricades that are right outside of the capitol building. while this is incredibly devastating news we've just heard, the reality is the capitol police officers in this case did their job. the capitol was not breached. there has to be a perimeter somewhere. so they have to make a call about what they think the value is there. the capitol police or member of the national guard will be protecting any gate, in ibarrier like that and have to face down this situation. i think there is a deep desire among members of congress in both parties honestly for the capitol to be the kind of open and majestic place that you were just describing. i completely agree with you. sometimes i would find myself trudging to the office or if you don't get enough sleep the night before, every time i would walk into the building, i would try to make a point to walk on the second floor because it puts you through the rotunda. you can look up inside that

beautiful stunning capitol dome, of course where brian sicknick, the last capitol police officer who was killed in the line of duty lay in state in that rotunda just a few short months ago. it's majestic. it reminds you that we all share a common country, share in theory a common purpose of trying to build a more perfect union and that the members of congress are there to try and do that together. and that sense, i think, has been deeply shaken in the wake of january 6th. but i do think there's a desire to try to get some of it back. to have those eighth graders tumble off the buses at the base of the capitol and be able to walk right up to the front of it, take pictures of themselves on the steps. it's something that is a ritual for so many people across the country. and to lose that i think would

be a significant loss for the country. i think members of congress understand and know that and don't want to contribute to that. but of course at the end of the day if in the end the capitol is now seen as a target and a potentially vulnerable target when it wasn't necessarily before in a significant way, it's unfortunately possible that that may have to change. i think we can all agree that none of us want to see these kinds of attacks and moments and that we hope that we can in fact get back to that point where our schoolchildren are coming and learning about a building that is open to them because it is the seat of our open democracy, chris. >> and we are lucky enough to operate in a democracy where we as journalists can go there freely and do our jobs. thank you for that, kasie. joining me now is nbc news producer julie sircan.

tell us where you are and what you're seeing. >> yeah, the lockdown was lifted as my colleagues, kasie and leigh ann spoke about. i was standing down the block from where this accident, this scene has been taking place. it was guarded by a wall of national guard in shields. they were armed, they had weapons strapped to their thighs, they were in their uniform and their garb. in the last minute i was allowed to walk through the barricade with my press badge and i'm now approaching the scene. there's still ambulances, there's still fire trucks, significant national guard presence in pockets here within these senate office buildings that i'm passing right now. i see about three dozen national guard troops and they all kind of marched away in unison. i spoke to some staffers and

they were just anxious to get out. this easter weekend was coming up and they were nervous and they were scared. as kasie put it, they just went through this three months ago when the insurrection took place. i'm walking around here on the senate side. i'm on constitution avenue where this took place. again, i'm still seeing a very heavy presence of ambulance cars and police cars and of course national guard troops that are here in pockets as they are protecting the capitol complex. >> julie, thank you for that. kasie, if i can come back to you, how different is it now around the capitol than it was in the days and weeks following january 6th? >> so it is actually -- >> just in terms of the security. >> sure. in fact i was just up there today. it is remark -- it is markedly

different from the immediate aftermath and the time during the inauguration in that they had closed the main avenues on either side of the capitol, independence avenue and constitution avenue. and just to give people who don't live here or perhaps haven't been here a sense, they're these wide picturesque boulevards. the smithsonian institutions line them. the capitol sits at one end. the washington monument is in the middle, the lincoln memorial at the far west side, the national mall in the middle. it is the heart of washington. these boulevards run on either side of the capitol as they head down into the national mall area where you would find the world war ii memorial and anything you might come to see in d.c. basically is there. those roads were shut. there was no traffic that was allowed along them. they are also commuting

thoroughfares. it's a working city. there's a livable neighborhood behind capitol hill. so there were significant road closures. and i think there was a sense from everyone, republicans, democrats, certainly many of the rest of us who are part of the broader capitol hill community that keeping those roads closed, keeping the fences so far out that when he got off the highway you couldn't even drive toward the national mall, you had to go all the way around, really made it feel like a fortress in a way that underscored -- it just give it a sense of foreboding that i think people were ready to be done with. they wanted it to feel a bit more open. so what they did is they collapsed the security perimeter into a smaller footprint so they could open those roads. today traffic was running up and down those roads. that's why that car that crashed into the white barrier was able to get to that particular barrier.

it is a birier that's just right off constitution avenue. so that's a difference that a car would be able to get that far. that said, there is still a very heightened security posture. you can see it right here on your television screen. there are 2,300 national guard members still in washington. as julie pointed out, she's been watching them line up across the streets in d.c. i don't know if you can see some of those gray fencing just beyond those guard members that are walking. that fencing is new, it's taller, it's nonscaleable. that is still in place. that's a measure that didn't exist before the january 6th insurrection that was put up ahead of that. essentially they had moved the perimeter out beyond the office buildings. there were only a couple of places that you could enter with a car. that's all gone now. i think it's important to

underscore there's been reports and work done about what to do to try to, quote unquote, harden the capitol complex. it sounds like they're going to spend as much as $2 billion to figure out how to do that but it will have to know a bill from congress they'll have to consider on the floor. i think the main question there is finding the right balance between security and the freedom that we were just talking about to have school kids come through and people to have access. frankly, washington has a lot of experience doing this. if you look at some of the other buildings in washington, i know you worked at the white house, the treasury department has a set of extremely expensive ball ards that drop into the ground. there are a lot of creative ways that they can build infrastructure to maintain the security of the building, that they can use to respond to threats that doesn't necessarily

impact the everyday experience of going to the capitol. so i think these are the questions that they're going to have to answer. again, i think it's important to remember that the capitol police did their job. they lost another one of their own in the line of duty but they protected the building. this man did not reach the complex. perhaps he was specifically trying to attack capitol police, we don't yet know. but the security in this case did actually work and i think we should keep that in mind as we proceed with this conversation about what happens next. >> yeah, the most important point arguably, which is that there's a lot that goes on there. there are a lot of barricades both outside the capitol, outside the white house. you talked about some of the different ways that could possibly be considered. but in the end it's the men and women of capitol police, the men and women of law enforcement around washington, d.c., who

ultimately are on the front lines there and tragically today one of their lost their life. let's bring in nbc news vaughn hillyard who is near the scene. i know you've been making your way there. what can you tell us, vaughn? >> reporter: yeah, they just allowed us to move closer here. the perimeter is shrunk here. this is constitution avenue and you can see the ambulance from the greater aerial shot. come around here and get a better shot of the scene on the ground now. there's about 2,300 national guard, chris, that are on site here. the pentagon confirmed that the national guard, there's an emergency response team sent to the site here. they had constructed a larger perimeter. almost where the second layer of fencing had been up until two weeks ago. they have now essentially allowed everybody here back up closer. i'm going to have scritch take a

shot to the left. that's the office building. every member as an office and that is the russell building. this is where you've been seeing video come from of the aerial view coming down. that's the building where you have seen aerial shots throughout the afternoon. but this is constitution avenue here. it was just two weekends ago, chris, that constitution avenue, traffic finally opened again. here it almost kind of felt like springtime. folks were riding their bikes, walking through this area. yet what you have seen here this afternoon is that first line of defense ultimately come into action and work. you know, it was general honore who was tasked by speaker pelosi just after the events of january 6th to make assessments as to what long-term security changes would need to take place here

around the capitol complex. it was general honore who said that law enforcement agencies have to look at the threats from the people here of this country here, and that ultimately that the manpower that was outside of the capitol complex on january 6th was not strong enough. what you have seen here is ultimately here today not only two capitol police officers, one killed, one injured, but also you saw that barrier here that ultimately did stop this individual. that barrier that ultimately the car ran into, that was operational before january 6th. that is sort of that post where usually only top members of congress, leadership are able to pass through or members from the white house or the executive branch. but what you saw today was that barrier ultimately come into good. you can still see that fencing here. that one line of fencing has remained from january 6th. that's typically not there here. these last three months have

been about the quietest you'll find in this area around the capitol. it was only two weeks ago when the streets opened up and people could go outside of the capitol complex for the first time. now there's questions on how that looks in the days and weeks ahead. i want to underscore this is mor than just being able to bear witness to the capitol here but i'm going to keep showing people that senate office building because this is the place where folks from all across the country can come and knock on the door and go inside the offices of their members of congress. not only to advocate their issues, but to have meetings. any member of the public can usually go in to the offices of their member of congress and have those conversations. and what you see now here is a complete conversation changer in terms of what happened in january and now again today about what long-term changes need to happen here around the capitol. >> thank you so much for that, vaughn hillyard, who has made his way to the capitol.

joining me now is investigative reporter for nbc news 4 in washington, scott mcfarlane. i know, scott, you've been working the phones since the first minutes of this. reset the stage, will you, for us at the bottom of the hour. what do we know and what do we hope to find out? >> we just heard from the capitol police union representatives saying that other officer that was injured suffered severe injuries. we have one officer dead, the third to die this year, the other officer has severe injuries. in her press conference the acting police chief said officers opened fire against the suspect indicating it was both of those officers or those from the outside who had to in their words neutralize this suspect. but none of this is happening in a vacuum. there's been a debate over the last few weeks about whether to take down the remaining capitol fencing and to send the rest of the national guard members home back to hair home chief.

the capitol police chief has been advocating to keep the guard here to help protect this complex. what happened today may reinforce the need of having national guard here and having that type of fencing. that security barrier vaughn was showing you, that does protect a real vip area. that's the capitol building itself. there's very limited parking surrounding that building. cars don't typically go through there when the senate is out of session because it's the senators themselves and the high-ranking staffers who use this point so an unauthorized car approaching that spot would cause concern. typically during spring break week this place is hopping. there's tourists, school groups, church groups. the pandemic has indefinitely cancelled all tour groups so this spring break has been quite quiet at the capitol. with a vehicle potentially out

of control here today, chris, it's quite fortunate there weren't large groups of people, pedestrians, in what is usually a heavy pedestrian area. >> it's hard to tell with the reflection but i thought earlier it looked as though the airbags deployed. do we know if the airbag deployed in that car? >> i saw that as well. we do know police have been going in and out of that week the last two hours. we don't know if the airbag deployed. we can't see the front end of that car either, to see if it slammed into those barrier or stopped at the barrier. because the senate and house are on recess because it's good friday, this capitol complex, which can have 10,000 staffers on a busy day has just a handful here today. most of the members of congress we called in the last hour say they have 100% telework for their staffers. that lockdown wasn't

inconveniencing a lot of people. >> thank you so much for that, we appreciate it, scott. joining me now, democratic congressman from illinois who is on the intelligence committee. what we know, congressman, is that a capitol police officer has again given his life protecting the capitol. the second officer that was injured is seriously injured. your thoughts as you see what has been unfolding the last several hours of the place you work so many days of the year? >> i think we're incredibly sad about the injury and the loss of yet another life due to our brave capitol police defending the capitol. they often serve in silence. they seek no credit or attention. the rank and file do their duty

every day. here they were trying to defend the capitol and yet another officer lost their life and of course the other one is in the hospital as we speak. it's unnerving. we are also angry about what happened and resolve to do everything we can to equip our capitol police and defend the capitol. >> we mentioned several times, congressman, that the acting capitol police chief asked for thoughts and prayers and acknowledged what a terrible year this has been for members of capitol police. as you have been there since january 6th, as you've had conversations with the capitol hill police officers, are you concerned about morale? what are your thoughts as you look to how do we help this organization of professionals deal with what is again another huge blow? >> i am concerned about morale.

they are oftentimes working a lot of overtime. they are understaffed, as you can see, from january 6th they were overpowered because there were just too few capitol police to deal with the threat on hand that day. i believe there were 800 to 1,000 insurrectionists who overpowered about 100 to 200 capitol police officers. in addition to that, we know that we need to reinforce the security perimeter. my understanding is that part of the security perimeter was relaxed today and perhaps we're going to have to revisit this. we all want to make the capitol accessible to the people because ultimately it's the people's house. but at the same time we have to make it secure and we have to make sure that the people's business can be conducted and people can be unharmed who are

inside of the capitol. >> the wheels, as you know, in congress can move very slowly. this is also not a situation that you want to deal with lightly. it has to be given some thought, some consideration, some investigation. but having said that, do you feel that there are things that need to be done quickly to make sure that at least what is needed by capitol police is starting to move in the right direction, has it already, what's your assessment? >> i think that there will be swift action with regard to at the least making sure that we can add a full complement of capitol police officers as suggested by folks like lieutenant general honore as part of his report following the january 6 riot. i personally believe that the capitol police need reinforcements right away and we should do everything in our

powers to add the personnel that they require. as far as the perimeter fencing and other issues, again, i think maybe we're going to have to look at it more deliberately and make sure that we can, you know, prevent incidents such as these and discourage and deter others who might plan similar incidents going forward. >> congressman krishnamoorthi, it is kind for you to speak with us and we very much appreciate it. joining me now is kelly o'donnell, yamiche alcindor is also with us. kelly, what do we know about the president knowing about what happened? >> reporter: the president is at

camp david. he and the first lady left here a couple of hours ago. some of his senior aides are here in the west wing. i've checked back repeatedly over the last couple of hours. we know the president has been informed about what has taken place at the u.s. capitol and we're awaiting what i'm told will be a lengthy written statement that will address the incident today and have a lot of reaction from the president and perhaps give us a more full response than the standard initial kind of information about the president being aware of it. if you put it into the context of joe biden's public life, of course he served in the senate for a very long time and then served as the president of the senate while he was vice president, so he is someone with direct personal day-to-day life experience with u.s. capitol police. and of course when january 6th happened, he was president-elect, but not yet in office. so this is a tragedy that's now happening on his watch. we've seen other gun violence in the time the president has been

in office. and at camp david, of course, it has the full complement of things that any president would need. it is a military installation but it's secure and also has senior staff with him. the flags here at the white house are still at full staff and we expect that it would be perhaps one of the considerations that the president would be thinking about, whether to call for a lowering of the flag. nancy pelosi, speaker of the house, has the jurisdiction to do so and she has done so. we're waiting for an official statement from the president. i'm told we should not expect him to return back to the white house because it is, of course, the easter holiday weekend. he'll be with family and has all the tools of the office available to him. there has been a lid called here. you know from your days working alongside us here that means no planned events are happening. but when you are president and when there are situations like this that no one can plan for,

the apparatus of the white house, the government, has to be able to respond so there are plenty of people here in the west wing. the press briefing was happening earlier at that when we first had reports of this. jen psaki, the press secretary, had not yet been informed of it. we raised that with her at the end of that and she will give us that additional information when it's available. chris? >> i want to go to pete williams. pete, i understand we have some new information on the suspect? >> yes. we've now been told by several law enforcement officials that the person who attacked the capitol today is a 25-year-old indiana man named noah green who may have some ties to virginia, may recently have lived in virginia. the car had virginia plates. we're told by several law enforcement officials who have looked at his facebook page that he has a facebook page. he says he's a follower of the nation of islam. and in recent postings, the last posting was apparently just

within the last couple of days. he was expressing some despondency saying he's lost his job, was looking for spiritual guidance. so i'm sure this is the kind of material that law enforcement will be looking at. i know in fact that they already are looking at it as they try to understand what possibly could have motivated him. 25-year-old noah grown, n-o-a-h green, common spelling. from indiana was shot and died in this attack which happened a little less than three hours ago outside the u.s. capitol. >> tell us a little bit more, pete, and we've talked about this over the years, about the sophistication of the operation in a situation like this in various federal agencies trying to track down of course something like a facebook page,

but how deeply they'll delve into everything that could possibly be online, how many people they may talk to, where are they going to try to figure out besides this sketch that we have now that he was someone who seemed despondent who had lost his job about what might have been the motivation for this? >> well, your question sort of answers itself in a way. you've given the indication of all the things they will look at. i will say that we have to remember that as a technical matter this is an investigation for the washington, d.c., metropolitan police department. the federal agencies, of course, will assist them and gather information for them and in fact are doing that now. but you're right, they'll look at all those things. they'll obviously look at all these things we've been talking about, his facebook postings, any emails, phone calls, chats he's had, talk to his friends, talk to his family, try to paint a picture of what was in his

mind when he came to the capitol. and then at the same time they will literally try to trace his movements, put that car in reverse and trace his movements leading up to today. not just the minutes, not just the hours, but the days. he had a knife. when did he get the knife? why did he have a knife with him? try to build a picture of what was going through, what perhaps complicated things were going through his mind when he came to the u.s. capitol today. it's going to take some time to build this because obviously the most productive line of inquiry in a situation like this would be to question the suspect, but that's not going to be possible. so they will have to depend on what they get from friends and family members and his own writings. >> thanks so much for that, pete. let me bring in former fbi special agent and nbc news national security analyst clint watts, who is a distinguished research fellow at the foreign policy research institute.

what are you thinking right now, clint, as you're hearing this and we're getting a very cursory first look at a 25-year-old young man who has lost his job, is looking for some sort of spiritual guidance, may have some ties to virginia. that is the license plate on the car. what are the things, what are the questions that you have that you think investigators will be able to get some answers to fairly quickly? >> thanks, chris. i think one of the first things out of the gate is any potential other connections there might be to other individuals. you know, they want to know does he have any associations, is he part of an ideological movement. based on what we know it seems like he might have been looking for some sort of guidance. we don't know what that means but you want to eliminate other threats. the other part we want to know right away is why this target? our natural inclination is we just saw january 6th.

we've just seen a lot of security around the capitol and a lot of debate about defending it. was that just a target of opportunity for this individual? it's maybe not tied to any ideological cause, just because it's something they heard recently. the next part of it is really getting to why this target, but also what did they do in terms of any sort of signaling, any sort of precalculus and reconnaissance about why they might pick this target. was it just a target of opportunity for somebody who wanted to push the limits of this and make a spectacular incident? i think you and i were talking about the national attack on christmas day where it was never really tied to much of anything other than that personal grievance of that individual. is that what we're seeing here or is it part of something much larger that needs to be looked into? with january 6th and the insurrection they want to eliminate any connections there might be. at this point it doesn't look

like there is any, but it is a very curious target to pick, especially since we've been talking about it for greater than two months since that incident. >> one of the things that struck me, clint, was how quickly they moved not just to have the press conference but to say in that press conference that at least it did not appear to be terrorism related and then a short time after that we saw them taking the crime scene tape down. they lifted the lockdown. are you surprised that they made that statement and made that move so quickly? >> i am surprised, but i also think it's the right call. i mean in terms of the way the media cycles and the social media cycles really played out, if you went out on social media, you see a lot of different names thrown around by a lot of different groups trying to pin it on whatever their out group is. they're trying to create conspiracies. so it was a smart strategy to get out in front of this if they had confirmation of who the

individual was and if they could be quite certain it wasn't tied to broader terrorism. i think to remind people who terrorism is, it is the use of violence or the threat of violence in pursuit of political or social change. they haven't seen anything that it's part of a broader terrorism plot. i think that's to move in front of the media cycle and calm some nerves and calm some fears. it is a quick press conference and i've not seen too many like that in recent years. >> if you could stay with us, clint, i want to go back to scott mcfarlane, investigative reporter for nbc news 4 in washington. scott, i understand you have more information on the sending capitol hill police officer? >> yeah, the condition of the second officer is front of mind. we initially got a report from the police union that officer suffered severe injuries. in a follow-up report the union is tell us only one of the two officers was medevaced to the hospital. they went to two different

hospitals. one was medevaced and the other was brought by some other means. medevac is for the most emergent of situations. the hospitals in question are just 10 to 12 blocks from the capitol. we have one officer who was not medevaced and characterized the injuries as severe. that's the union telling us, but it's the big open question right now. not only what was the nature of this assault, chris? was it with the knife or with the blue sedan, but also how severely injured is the second officer? this is a traumatic moment in an almost traumatic year for u.s. capitol police. they have already lost three officers this year. and for the second time in 90 days, chris, there's been a gunshot at the capitol complex. >> yeah. thank you for that update, scott. former atf special agent in charge and msnbc terrorism analyst jim cavanaugh is with us as well, back with us. i want to get your reaction to what we've learned about this suspect so far.

>> well, chris, it look like from what they're describing this is an aggrieved person who has decided to use this location to launch his attack. you know, just yesterday we had a mass shooting in southern california, orange city, california, where a person who was agrieved for personal reasons went into a business, locked the doors and killed four people including a 9-year-old boy so that person took out his vengeance and anger and frustration at people he knew. other attackers take a broader sphere. they attack city hall or the dome of the capitol. for whatever reasons, the grievance they have. this could be a few things that we discussed. they're saying it is not terrorism so they don't have -- i think what that tells us and clint laid it out pretty well but they do not have any end kaegs, they do not information and they do not have any reason

to believe it's terrorism and there's nothing we know. now, they still have to look at his stuff to see if there's anything that could be but right now they see a personal issue why he went there. just a suicide by cop? there's all those cop there is and if you try to make attack there on the police you'll probably wind up dead. maybe, you know, other attackers do that at the white house, as well. did he want to attack a member? you know, we think of these things logically. i'm not going to go up there and not going to meet with the president. logical people understand that's not the way it works but when people get in emotionaldy tress, their mind is spinning in different ways sometimes they

think they can. there was a man arrested outside the vice president's residence who traveled from texas and he was walking around the vice president's residence at the national observatory and he told the officers he wants to speak with and meet with the vice president. so people have these things in their heads. did he have something in his head to attack or kill a member of congress? many of the insurrectionists had that goal and people do have that goal when they're disturbed. we need to really hear some more facts about what's in his mind, the brave capitol police one deceased, one injured, stood up again. these barriers why that back place there because to protect from bombs and explosives. if that car had a bomb or explosive, detonated there, the

people would be safe. >> that is the threat that capitol police officers potentially face every single day. jim, thank you. i want to bring in yamiche alcindor and andrea mitchell. i was talking with kasie hunt about this earlier and the concerns that there are about morale, about security, what they're going to potentially do, how they're going to address it. what do you know given joe biden's long career on capitol hill, how well he knows how everything works and his association with capitol police, what kinds of conversations have there been about moving forward, about what they're going to do in terms of not just security at the capitol but what might happen in terms of the capitol police, the staff there, the morale there? >> president biden having four

decades of service as a lawmaker in this country and now, obvious, as president of the united states, is very, very familiar with the role of capitol police. he was a senator for a long, long time and also someone who has a long history, a long experience with tragedy so we are awaiting what i'm told will be a statement shortly from the president who is still at camp david and will talk about not just how to keep the country safe but the idea that this is a country the mourning. it is 86 days since the capitol was breached by that mob and the nation hasn't been the same since. everyone is on edge including the u.s. capitol police and expect the president to talk about security and tragedy, how to move forward, how to push through as the country is really shell shocked by yet now another capitol police officer dying defending the building. it was only 86 days ago we lost an officer who was trying to

keep people safe, officer sicknick. what we see there is an officer in a force trying to keep the peace and now losing a second and i expect the president to speak in personal terms of tragedy having lost his son, his wife, his daughter. i expect the president to also talk about a nation that is dealing with trying to figure out how to move forward in a pandemic where more than 500,000 people lost so many people and so many of us in mourning and personally as a reporter who was just at the capitol yesterday renewing the i.d. i want to get the i.d. together because who knows what will happen and when we need to identify ourself and security cleared to be around that parameter and now dealing with this a day later and i imagine the president talking about the fact that everyone is

on edge and trying to make sense of what happens next and how we as a country move forward. >> as we try to make sense of this, i'm not sure there are ways to make sense of it, we can get answers to some questions about why this may have happened but it doesn't make any sense and it certainly doesn't make any sense that we lost another capitol police officer, doesn't make sense another one may be fighting for his life at a hospital there in washington, d.c. i can't think of a better person to wrap up this hour with than andrea mitchell who spent so many decades on capitol hill, at the white house, all throughout washington. andrea, what are your thoughts as you are processing what we have seen unfold today? >> well, like all americans, certainly all washingtonians, i am so sad about the loss of a capitol police officer, another capitol police officer with the

capitol police force really having just recently been under siege, so many wounded, injured, permanently injured and traumatized what happened and the loss of officer sicknick and the other officer that died by suicide. just the way our freedoms are being restricted by the escalation of violence in our society over the decades. when i first came to washington you could walk in and all of the capitol without any fear. and there was a time when pennsylvania avenue was open, when i covered the white house and then, of course, that all changed after an assault on the white house several times. several incidents. but the way after 9/11 everything changed, there was a time when i worked full-time at the capitol and i had a park place right there on the plaza between the east front and the supreme court. all the reporters did. and that all changed after 9/11.

of course, the way access has been restricted to the people's house which is the way all of us whoever worked on the hill heard democratic and republican members, senators, speakers speak about the capitol. it is a beloved institution with such a great history and to see this now, a loss of life, only leads to more involvement by the national guard perhaps, more fencing. so these are all issues that i think about now and think about how congress will react. incredibly to me after january 6th, we still saw resistance from some of those who were besieged that day, some of those denying the reality and led by the former president donald trump and it was an insurrection and there was a life and death at stake and some people did die as a result of it. others were permanently injured. so for people to deny that

reality and now this incident may have nothing to do with any organized assault but it does add to the reality that they have to be prepared for anything. we saw how quickly the park police helicopter landed on the east front. they're mobilized in a way they hadn't been. we saw the rapid response to say what had happened by the acting police chief and the d.c. metropolitan police chief. all that is a different atmosphere post-january 6th. >> andrea mitchell, thank you so much. yamiche, thank you to you, as well. just to wrap up police identified the 25-year-old who was killed by capitol police trying to breach the barrier going to the capitol. the suspect 25-year-old noah green perhaps with ties to virginia. a follower of the nation of islam. expressed in some way feeling despondent, lost his job and

looking for spiritual guidance. the los of life includes one capitol police officer and another according to union seriously injured. we'll follow this story throughout the day here on msnbc. that wraps up this hour. "deadline white house" with niccole wallace picks up our breaking coverage. hi, everyone. it is 4:00 in the new york. we begin with that breaking news. one capitol police officer is dead and another is injured after a man struck both officers with his vehicle at a security barrier on the north side of the u.s. capitol. noah green jumped out of the car with a knife and shot by police and taken to the police where he died. sparking a massive security response. our friend punch bowl news captured this video of the hospital landing on the east front of the u.s. capitol. the