you are watching msnbc special coverage of a deadly new year's attack in new orleans. i'm ana cabrera reporting from new york. a heavy police presence on historic bourbon street after an attacking plowed a pickup truck

through a large crowd around 3:15 local time this morning, driving through several blocks and killing at least ten and leaving 30 hospitalized. the fbi has taken point on the investigation. they are investigating this as an act of terrorism. the suspect is dead but officials have not shared details about the attacker's identity. president biden has been briefed on the latest and has called new orleans' mayor this morning. joining us now is emilie ikeda, ken dilanian, and also retired nypd detective tom bernie, retired in charge jim cavanaugh, and assistant director frank fugazey. thank you for staying with us as we continue the coverage. emilie ikeda, what is the latest? . >> reporter: this is being called a brutal and intentional killing of people who were just

trying to celebrate in new orleans. and not just any part of new orleans but this is the heart of the french quarter, a regular hot spot with 24/7 establishments. this is an incredibly busy area. to add to this, there is the new year's eve celebrations and tens of thousands of people flocking to new orleans for the sugar bowl set to play later today. so when a driver drove down bourbon street, it was packed kroorg to police and they bheefb he did so intentionally saying he drove down bourbon street in a white pickup truck around 3:15 a.m. local time at a fast pace. the police superintendent said he tried to run over as many people as he p cshed the vehicle as you can see on your screen, appears to havera with t damage there and started firing at police officers, according to police. we are just learning from police that there was an exchange of

gunfire. the suspect shot two police officers who are in stable condition. the suspect was also shot and declared dead on the scene there. federal law enforcement officials tell nbc news that they are investigating this as a potential act of terror with the governor sharing thoughts and prayers on social media. >> thank you. please keep working to get more information for us. i want to bring in gabe gutierrez who covers the white house for us. and gabe, we read the statement earlier from the white house. do we expect to hear from president biden at all? >> reporter: we do not expect to hear from the president just yet but this is a fluid situation and that could change at any time. we expect president biden to depart for camp david a little later on today. right now he is in wilmington, delaware after ringing in the new year there and attending a private wedding ceremony last night. we have heard from the white house that the president has been briefed by senior fbi and

homeland security officials. a short time ago, we learned the president has called the mayor of new orleans for support. the fbi is the lead agency. the president has a role as commander in chief and consoler in chief. we do not know if we will get a statement from the president himself or if he will speak on camera. this is a fluid situation at this point. we are hear in south flor in west palm beach, this is where president-elect trump spent the night. he had a new year's eve party at his mar-a-lago estate. we have not heard anything from the trump transition but we have asked. the news from the white house is that president biden has spoken with the mayor of new orleans and pledged full federal support. we expect him to be briefed throughout the day but we do not know if he will speak publicly

as he heads to camp david later on today. >> okay, thank you for that latest information. we hope to hear from law enforcement at noon eastern. what additional information might we expect them to share at that press conference? >> the biggest piece of information we are hoping to learn is the identity of the subject which they likely know by now because they have a license plate, a texas license plate attached to the white ford pickup truck. we have seen photos of that now. there may be a wallet in the person's pocket. he was shot dead at the scene. that was new information, he was shot by police after engaging in gunfire with them. and they have fingerprints. they have likely been able to identify the suspect and are now combing through social media and determining the motive. we may not hear about motive but we may hear identity.

another important question is whether they have ruled out any coconspirators, whether this person was acting alone or if there is danger to it public. there is a huge football game scheduled to be played in new orleans tonight. that is a very important question as to whether the person acted alone or if there is any reason to still be concerned about other potential attackers. those are the big questions we are looking for. this was a carefully planned attack. i say that because it is the first incident that i'm aware of where a person used a speak to kill people but then also shot at police officers and then potentially had bombs. the fbi said there were potential improvised explosive devices. that suggests a level of planning that you know took a while, and a lot went into it. any details that the authorities are learning about that would be important for us to understand. >> and we are looking at live

images now from new orleans, 9:06 local time. we see a number of law enforcement milling about. tom bernie, help us understand what we are looking at. >> good morning and i would like to say happy new year but it is not turning out that way so far. my condolences to those who have been affected by this. as some of the prior guests have discussed, the biggest concern here is whether or not as the reporting was just brought to us is whether or not this person is connected to other people our a larger group. when we talk about explosive devices, a lot of times when a device goes off, usually secondary device not far away. the fact that he had explosive devices in the truck would leave one to believe there are explosive devices in other places. so that's a concern there, whether or not he is connected to someone else or a group is a concern. or is this a lone wolf type

situation, is this your garden variety psychopath that just snapped on new year's eve and decided to cause all kinds of carnage. that is our initial concern. this investigation is not over by along shot. this will go on for days and potentially weeks depending on how far reaching it needs to go. as far as tonight with the sugar bowl, as was discussed in the prior hour, i know the concern would be is it safe to go. my initial thought is yes because events like that already have multiple layers of security to ensure that someone like this is not able to gain entry into a large stadium like that. so that would be my initial thought there. if i was someone going to the game, i would suggest to arrive early because it is likely going to be additional layers of

security now that this has occurred. >> and the next news conference is scheduled for noon eastern, two hours from now. jim cavanaugh, what do you think is going on behind the scenes now as officials get ready to brief the public? >> well, they are trying to organize chaos and that's usually the way it is in the command post on these events, bombings and mass murders and stuff. the chief and special agents in charge and the political leaders, they are trying to get together. they want to see what messages they can put out. first they have to put out to calm the public's fears, is this something where there is more tax afoot, do they have more information on that or can they put that to bed. it is interesting that the guy survived the impact of the wreck which was zero when he hit the lift truck. he hit that thing pretty hard.

you can see the damage on the f150. and yet he was able to still fire on and injure two new orleans police officers. and some officers, either them or others returned fire and he was killed. he was probably somewhat hurt in the wreck. but he survived enough to engage them. as far as the improvised explosive device, we don't know quite what that is yet. it could be some large hand held device that he was going to light and throw. it doesn't have to be a very sophisticated one. it could be more sophisticated that he planned to detonate electronically or with a hand held detonator or something but it impact of the wreck you know caused him to fail to do that. it could be something like that. a lot remains to be seen. it is just not seeing barricades where someone could not drive

down bourbon street. you can't protect the whole city with dump trucks. it's not possible. >> jim, i'm sorry to interrupt. i will go to our affiliate dfwu, listening in from the district attorney of new orleans talking about the investigation. >> it appears the president did talk with latoya cantrell, the mayor of new orleans. he is being briefed by senior dhs leadership right now. you try to implement a strategic plan with technology, social media, called in former cia operatives to work with your agents. is this going to shake out where this is going to be someone who had an agenda, tried to make a point, just had if you will the wish to go cause carnage on the streets of new orleans? >> clearly, the goal was to hurt as many people as he could as fast as he could. i'm not going to speak to the investigation, it's too early, it's too fluid.

those blocks of bourbon street, that is a massage carnage scene that has to be processed and preserved. where things are should not be disturbed, where you saw the crime scene tape. that tells a story. that provides information. if there are other items found in other places connected to this individual, that tells astery. i want to comment on the specifics of the investigation and what we know and what we are still trying to find out. it's still too fluid. >> what about the other explosive devices that they are trying to track around the corner? i know the nopd, they went through and did a sweep before this and had a plan in place. but we were togging when aubrey was giving a live report, it is really hard to prevent something like this. you can't constantly sweep the french quarter or can you? are there things you can do to constantly change that and increase the security there?

>> there is a human instinct to try to figure out how this could have been prevented and unfortunately, there are certain things that are beyond our human control. when an individual chooses to drive a vehicle into a crowd of people, the officers can respond and respond quickly and that's exactly what they did and they should be commended for their quick, fast work. because it saved more lives. we have to look at it from that standpoint. we can't get inside of someone's head. we can't reverse engineer. this is not minority report no matter how many experts you have. what you have is a plan in place, officers in place and they were there. they did respond and they did save some lives and we all owe them greatly. >> district attorney caisson williams, we appreciate you stopping by. it is a hard day for everyone.

we keep going back to this. it is rare if ever that we have dealt with a quote unquote terror attack in the city of new orleans. >> especially with a high profile tourist weekend. i think that is the hardest thing for us to contend with. this is a big game tonight. there are so many fans from georgia, from notre dame who are in town. >> it is the biggest game of the year for me. i was looking forward to today. it is the first day of our new year. there are no words. >> all right. >> again, we appreciate your time so much. and if you could keep us posted on any new developments and our hearts and prayers go to the victims. >> we have crews all over the city right now. >> okay, we will break away again. that was our affiliate wdsu. they were interest interviewing the district attorney there. i didn't hear any real news made as far as the investigation but clearly his office will be

involved. this is now a collaborative federal, state, local law enforcement investigation with the fbi taking the lead. so because of that, we are listening to also what we are hearing from federal officials. let's go back to ken dilanian who has more from attorney general merrick garland. >> that's right. attorney general garland who has been briefed on the situation and has less than three weeks remaining in office issued a statement, not really any news in it but i will read it to you. the country woke up this morning to news of a terrible tragedy in new orleans that killed at least ten people and injured many more. my heart is broken for those who began their year by learning people they loved were killed in this horrific attack. my prayers are with the dozens who were injured including the new orleans police department officers who risked their lives to safe others. he added that the fbi is investigating this matter as an act of terrorism.

he said the fbi, atf, justice department national security division and the u.s. attorney's office for the eastern district of louisiana will continue to work with law enforcement partners and will ploy every available resource to conduct this investigation. that is attorney general merrick garland. again, new years day, obviously, most federal officials taking time with family and now having to mobilize to respond to this awful, horrific tragedy. >> thank you for bringing us the latest, that statement from attorney general merrick garland. frank, this is a delicate time when it comes to this transition from one administration to another. how does that impact an investigation like this? >> so there is some good news here. these things don't rely on politics. the rank and file of all of the

agents will do their job. this is not something that will be impacted by transition at all. i'm sure there are fly teams coming out of quantico, virginia, washington that will assist with evidence response teams, all kinds of resources, bomb teams and experts will fly in or in this case, it is quite possible that the evidence of the bombs, the ieds, whatever they are will be shipped now safely so they can be assessed. so i wouldn't worry about the co prosecution. the suspect is dead. at least the one suspect we know of. so we are not planning for a protracted trial here. >> so on that note, knowing the suspect is dead, officials still haven't provided a lot of information about this person's identity or background or anything. how are authorities deciding how much information to reveal about this attacker and the

circumstances of his death? >> that is something they are carefully pondering. i took note, we have the active district attorney on television which is kind of interesting. you would not likely see this if this was an active investigation or by that i mean if they didn't know the identity of this man, if it was up in the air about cells being out there. there's a joint intelligence command and a joint media command that decide who is going on the air and who is going to say what. they are planning for this press conference, what can we give out safely. if they have the identity, and they are solid on it, they may decide to go ahead and give that identity. we may hear some inkling of why they are looking at this but it is obvious. it is the deliberativeness and the idea of planning that went into it.

and if there is some classified reason why the fbi took the lead here, i would not expect any details on that. i think they would be very closed mouthed about that. but i have been in these situations as others on the panel have. you literally draft out your statements and pass it around and people say i don't like that, let's throw this in, take that out. it should be a collaborative effort. >> just looking at the live images we have up right now where you can see the intersection apparently where this is part of the crime scene, not exactly sure of the intersection here but we know that the initial crash into people who were on the street happened at bourbon and canal according to city officials. we don't see a lot of action in this image. can you help us understand what the roll of the people on the scene in this area and what else is happening that is out of sight? >> it is good news that we don't see a lot of people milling

about. they have learned the lesson. this is closed and this is a crime scene. if you don't have a need to be inside the perimeter, you don't belong here. the people we see inside would be evidence collectors. i would expect the fbi to take the lead on evidence collection, along with atf, and the local police department. but you will have the new orleans fbi field office team and then augmented by people who do this for a living out of quantico, virginia. in each office there is an evidence response team but an ancillary duty. they have a case load of cases but they will need help from the pros at quantico. >> stay with me, frank. wdsu is interviewing the lieutenant governor in louisiana, let's listen in. >> a lot has been done.

the police, the headquarters in there is catching criminals in real time before they commit crimes and have made a great impact in the quarter. i have seen it personally. so new orleans police have really done a good job but you're right. you can't prevent something like this when you have a crazy person that is wanting to cause havoc and take lives. >> and speaking of a crazy person and you have been briefed, do we know anything about the suspect and who they could have been, the vehicle they were driving, have you been briefed on that? >> i had a national craftsperson get on a plane headed to new orleans ask me if i could confirm there was an isis flag on the back of the are truck. that's what he heard. i don't know that.

that was reported by someone coming to new orleans to cover the story just about 45 minutes ago. but i don't want to start a rumor. that's what he heard and he asked me to confirm that which i could not do. >> we do want to say that that is not confirmed at this time. still a fluid situation. >> okay, we are going to pull out of that since they are getting into territory that is unconfirmed at this moment. that was the lieutenant governor billy nungesser. and one of the key quotes was you can't prevent this when you have a crazy person wanting to take lives. what is your reaction to that sentiment? >> it is very difficult to secure venues such as this. when we are planning security apparatus, we want to be on the offense. but when someone is looking to deviate from what we have put in

place or conduct nefarious activity, we become on defense and have to stop it. looking at the screen, you have all of those things going on on bourbon street, the crime scene where a lot of bad activity took place this morning. they will be getting all of the evidence and work what happened here. if someone wants to do something and they do preplanning and have the right assets and tools, they will probably be able to effect some o of the things they want to do. it is unfortunate to say that. >> with the sugar bowl tonight, do you expect authorities to comment on whether there is an ongoing threat to the public? >> i'm sure that question is probably going to come up and they will have to have to devise a unified response for the entities wushing on this and how

they want to present that, a sense of confidence that everything is well and the game will go forward or whether discussions are being had with the game committee on whether they will go forward. i think the questions will be asked kw i hope they are forming a unified response to alleviate the fears of the public who may be going to the game tonight. >> jim cavanaugh we have heard what to do in the event of an active shooter but that changes in a large crowd and much harder to run from a speeding truck. how can people protect themselves in these increasingly common ramming situations? >> it is just devastating to me to watch these new orleans officials say this can't be prevented. i'm just bulled over by officials saying that. it's wrong. anyone with common sense and the public police know that's not right. look, we are talking about

bourbon street. we are talking about a vehicle that drove on the most narrow street eight blocks before it struck the lift truck. no vehicle should be able to drive on bourbon street on new year's eve. it's one of the most iconic streets in america. they know they have to protect it. they can protect it with a number of dump trucks and apparently they didn't do it. so for anyone to say, you can't prevent every attack, well, look. i understand you can't protect every block of the city. and i understand that if people are walking across canal street which you see in that shot where the police cruisers are and officers are holding the crime scene, and it's a five or six lane street, and when the crowds are there, they start to thin out because they are going to hotels and restaurants, you

know, every block or two or three away from bourbon street, you can't have that protection everywhere. but you can have it on bourbon street. it's a narrow street. i think this is a gross failure of imagination to secure that. if i was a victim's family, i would be extremely angry at this, that t my loved one was run over by a truck, an attack on the street where no vehicle should ever have been able to egress on new year's eve. so i reject that. it's a lack of imagination. if we took 1/20 of the officers and resources that we have there now to do the crime scenes and evidence, if we had 1/20 of them using thought process prior to this to barricade this street effectively, you wouldn't have to do this. i don't agree with that

assessment. when i see a truck driving eight blocks on iconic bourbon street, it was preventable with the proper barricades. i see that as a gross inefficiency. unless there is new information, like dump trucks there and they moved them away. >> i think that is one of the questions that reporters will be asking at the news conference, what type of barriers were there. we heard in the first news conference from a police superintendent that the driver went around barricades that were in place. she also mentioned there were 300 police officers on scene. so they were able to respond immediately but certainly not able to prevent the level of tragedy that has occurred with at least ten people dead and 30 more injured. the extent of the injuries not known at this hour. we don't know a lot about the victims, only according to police that most of them were locals as opposed to tourists.

but we do know this is a highly populated area with tourists, lots of bars and restaurants in this area on bourbon street. new year's eve, huge parties and celebrations happening. law enforcement knew there would be big crowds which is why they positioned themselves in the area. now they have it all shut down. how do you balance the fact that there are so many people, busy area with tourists in town, how do you get things moving and at the same time, keep the sanctity of the evidence that may be stretching several blocks according to one eyewitness. this truck went eight or ten blocks. >> yeah, look, the priority here is this crime scene. wherever and however big it is. you recall the boston marathon bombing, much of boston and the route along the marathon and the

hotel right there near the finish line that was impacted, people saying look, i have luggage in my hotel. the airport is closed, i can't get into the hotel. a lot of people are stuck. that may be the situation. you will have to corden off the area that you need to assess for evidence. it's going to be a while. people shouldn't expect this to be over in an hour. it gets more complicated if there are other evidence locations. search warrants, did this person stay at a hotel nearby. all of that becomes a crime skoon as well and will have to be controlled. i feel the need to share the sense of frustration that jim cavanaugh shared. i keyed in on it as soon as the person said you can't prevent this stuff. nonsense. even if you don't like the word prevention, the word we use in

security is mitigation. sure, if someone wants to harm, you may not be able to prevent but you can certainly mitigate the damage they will do. the other thing i have to share from 25 years in the fbi and scenes like this is politicians are going to politic. you have the lieutenant governor going on the air himself expressing rumors, you have the active da going on tv just feeling the need to, you know, he's an elected official, i'll leave it there. but what it tells me from a command situation is the command center doesn't have control. they never have control of people who have to get elected for their jobs. what i have done in the past, whether it was anthrax or other events i have been in charge of, look, i go to the elected officials and i go, i'm begging you, i'm going to keep you informed but you can't go off on your own and do this.

that has to be taking place now. >> tom, your thoughts on all of that? >> yeah, this is a chaotic situation to be gin with. especially as an investigator, trying to make a sense of the chaos and then you have elected officials who feel the need to put themselves out there and show face and then they start saying things which may or may not jeopardize an investigation. that's why you try to keep the circle of trust here and circle of information here in one place and let the investigators then sort of pipe that up as to what information is able to be released at certain times that are beneficial to the investigation that won't necessarily hamper or jeopardize the investigation. i can't tell you how awful i feel for new orleans. i have an affinity for new orleans having been down there a number of times. in 2005, i was part of a team of

300 that came down from new york city after hurricane katrina, very familiar with new orleans. and as far as these red zone streets or hot zone streets, however you preface it, these are areas that absolutely should be cordened off when you know you will have tons of people throughout the night. as we did last night in times square. you couldn't get to times square with a truck last night on new year's eve. it would have been very difficult to make your way cles to times square given the event that takes place there every year. the same thing that goes for new orleans. there are certain areas that you know you will get an influx of people. there will be a big celebration. they have to deter as best you can or thwart an incident like this from occurring by putting

in place different layers of countermeasures to ensure as best you can that a vehicle or the group of people, someone armed with a gun or something else doesn't make their way to the area to cause damages. >> my colleague tom winter, nbc reporter has some new reporting from three senior law enforcement officials who have been briefed on this investigation who are telling him that federal investigators and local law enforcement are looking into reports or trying to determine if the suspect who was driving the vehicle was also firing a long gun rifle into the crowd while running people over on bourbon street. this is an image of the alleged pickup truck used in this attack. in addition, we are told the vehicle is the focus of investigators using a license plate, a texas plate to try to determine more information about

the suspect, case, and what led up to the tragic incident. on the rear of the vehicle, we are told according to senior law enforcement officials, there was a flag or a marking which investigators are focusing on now trying to determine the motive. so frank, a lot of information there potentially about the vehicle, texas plate, potential long gun rifle involved in the attack. this coming from law enforcement briefed on the investigation as points of the investigation that they are currently probing. >> yeah, this new information seems to further corroborate the absolute objective to take out as many lives as possible. i'm going to do it with the tires on my truck, with a firearm. we don't know the nature of the

long gun. it hasn't been fully described to us but it could be a large capacity magazine. i don't know if we are hearing reports of people with bullet wounds. perhaps it is too early to make sense of that. it is possible people experienced being run over and being shot. i don't know. but we would start hearing we have bullet wounds here. we haven't heard that yet. so that is interesting. whether that was a reflection of the desire of the suspect to take out police officers. with respect to the information, we should be careful on whether there was terrorist affiliated flag on the back of the truck. he should be careful. it could be a distraction. it could be a distraction. it may not be a distraction. we would be listening for a terrorist organization to take credit. that could happen or this could

be a lone actor. i talk about the speed of radicalization that i was witnessing as i was retiring from the fbi. from the point you are first approached with the radical sermon or a video series, we are seeing young people radicalized in record time. we have noted sometimes just nine weeks to radicalization. meaning nine weeks from the first exposier to violent ideology to acting out on it could be nine weeks. that is a battle being fought because it is online. it moves at the speed of the send button. all of that will happen through social media analysis, talking to friends, loved ones, coworkers, getting inside of his devices, which could be password protected and that could be a speed bump but it is all hands

on deck to assess this. >> are you surprised we haven't heard more about this reported, suspicious device, what we heard from the fbi agent was considered to be an improvised explosive device? >> i lack clarity here and perhaps you can help. i'm hearing conflicting reports of the location of the ies, whether it was in the truck or another location. i expect to hear more about that at the press conference. >> okay. let me go back to ken dilanian who continues to dig into more reporting on all of this. ken, do you have any clarification on what we were discussing related to the explosive device, where it was located and whether it was

directly connected to the ramming incident, the vehicle incident? and what more do we know about the vehicle itself and the types of clues it may be giving investigators? >> i don't have any clarification on the ied question. but between phone calls i had with federal law enforcement sources and tom winter's reporting, i can tell you that investigators are focusing intensely on this white pickup truck with a texas plate. they are examining what possibly could be -- possibly a flag of some sort affixed to it. there was some white pcv piping and a cloth attached. they are trying to figure out if that has significance, whether there is writing on it that could tell them potential connections and motives. tom winter is reporting that local investigators are trying to determine whether the suspect used a long gun rifle and was

firing into the crowd while he was rupping people over on bourbon street which would add a new and deadly dimension to this. the bottom line here is the more we are learning about this, the worse it gets. this was a horrific attack that appears to be the result of significant planning on the part of the person or persons responsible. i think we will learn a lot more on the next law enforcement briefing. >> thank you for your reporting. bobby, how do you keep the public informed in a situation like this without stoking fear or panic in the local community when so much is fluid right now? >> very difficult to do. it is all in the messaging and the way the messaging gets out. hoping they have unified discussion on that and they want to allay fears that they have the situation under control. some information will be able to

be given out but some information based on the investigation will not. it is a bit of a dance that has to be done by the management team, local officials, management of the agencies to get a message out that will allow for confidence in the public to know that this situation is under control, that the investigation continues, that the next of kin are being notified in a compassionate way over the loss of their loved ones, and that this will move forward but the city is safe, will continue to be safe and that the events of tonight can go on in a safe manner. it will be a delicate situation on how to manage the information flow out to the public moving forward. >> everyone stay with me. joining me now in louisiana is louisiana illuminator editor greg rose. you have been doing digging on the barricades around the area. what are you lurping? >> yeah, what we are just learning, there are these balards that rise from the

ground. they are moves down to allow pedestrians to move freely. they were erected in 2017 specifically to prevent what we have seen occur overnight. what we just learned is that the bollards in this section of bourbon street were down to allow for street construction. the driver of the truck was able to go around a police barricade. that is simply a portable fence that they placed at the front end of canal and bourbon. so that driver apparently was able to get down about three blocks of bourbon before it collided with a lift vehicle where the shootout then took place. >> and i'm wondering, since you know this area well, i think of

mardi gras and how big of an event is new year's eve in new orleans? >> it is way bigger than the typical weekend of new orleans. it is a tourist town and you expect crowds every weekend but multiply that times 100 for new year's eve. not quite as big as mardi gras but you combine new year's eve when the fact that the sugar bowl takes place tonight. there are fans from georgia and fans of notre dame which has supporters all over the country, it is fairly significant. we have seen folks restricted from the area and wondering exactly what they are told, if it is safe to go about. as they are investigating this stretch of bourbon street, not only that, we know they are

scouring the french quarter and other portions of downtown to see if there are other improvised explosive devices. >> i have to ask you as someone connected to this community, what went through your mind when you heard of this incident this morning? >> it would have been about 5:00 eastern when my phone alerts started coming through. i live about 15 minutes from where this occurred. terrorism honestly did not enter my mind first. bourbon street is known to have multiple mass shootings. and to me it was like goodness, here we are again. but it seems we are hearing more about the fbi taking over the investigation with officials here, using the word terror attack. it is disconcerting to say the

least. >> what are your top questions when we hear from law enforcement expected a little more than an hour from now? >> yeah, i think top of my mind is seeing that this was one person acting alone, were there collaborators and no one has said that to this point officially. certainly in the early stages of an investigation, it will not be ruled out. we are expecting a police briefing at noon eastern coming up. i will be attuned to that and waiting to see how wide of a net are they casting at this point. >> greg larose, thank you very much for taking the time and sharing what t you are learning in your reporting this morning. we appreciate it. >> you're welcome. >> let me go back to jim cavanaugh. one point of information he shared about the bollards there

in louisiana in bourbon street. he says they are devices that can go up and down, the barriers there. these particular barriers were lowered during this time because of ongoing construction work. there was a portable police barricade that had been put up in that area. that obviously speaks to someone that may have known this was an area of vulnerability? >> it is a gross failure. when the commanders set up security if you don't have one method, you are the lieutenant in charge to protect us against vehicle attacks, you're the luteiant in charge to protect against bomb attacks, you have to talk to atf.

someone has to own it so that when the event is set up, the lieutenant in charge of vehicle attacks says, hey, we don't have obstruction on the east end of bourbon street and he has to be responsible. what no one is responsible and then it doesn't happen. and briefly, building on ken's reporting, you can see in the image of the truck that slammed into the lift vehicle, you can see the white pvc pole on the back. there is some sort of a cloth black thing on the top of it. you can't tell what it is. but the back windshield looks to have seven or eight bullet holes in it probably as a result of police gunfire while they are responding behind the vehicle trying to stop him. there is a lot of evidence, rifle, truck, deceased, plenty

of evidence. lots of effort now but we needed more security effort in the beginning so he couldn't get down the street. >> right. >> just a really sad one. >> tom, what do you think about the fact that these bollards in this area were not activated, the fact that they were down? does that suggest that the suspect knew the area well or knew the point of area where he could pull off this attack? >> well, a couple of guests suggested earlier that there was planning that went into the attack. he knew to pack this truck with potential firearms and ieds. he knew where he would get the greatest impact, like what street would you drive down if you want to kill the greatest amount of people and he knew

that would be bourbon street. whether or not he knew the timing of the bollards being lowered is up for debate. it is unclear if the bollards are taken down or put up at specific intervals or not. that will be a part of the investigation as to whether or not there is a certain time to do that or not to do that. or if he happened to be lucky and they happened to take them down and that's when he made his move. as i talked about earlier, and as we have seen with other investigations like this, i would caution people to be patient as best as they can. this is an odd investigation to be involved in. there will be lot of moving pieces. this truck had texas plates on it and texas is right next to louisiana but it could be a rental truck. they have plates from all over the united states. it is unclear if the truck

belongs to the individual, whether it is a rented truck. that will come out in the investigation and whether or not this flag or whatever it was at the end of the truck, that will be interesting to find out what part that plays in what his motive was. for those who are wondering how this is being coined terrorism, generally terrorism for the fbi definition is when using violence in the furtherance of a political objective. so that is the basic definition of terrorism. so whether it plugs in here or not is undetermined but it will be determined based on the facts and evidence in the investigation. >> we know security is in the process of being implemented at the capitol for the election certification coming up on monday, january 6th. do you see this affecting security plans for that and for

the inauguration? >> i think security plans for inauguration and certification are air tight as best they can be based on knowledge of the fisicality of the area. i think the capitol police and other entities in the area will be well prepared. you may see a slight augmentation in some personnel and assets but i think everything is tight there for the next couple of weeks. >> frank, what other types of changes in security needs to happen when it comes to other big events? we talked about the sugar bowl in louisiana, new orleans later this evening, should that come forward. a sugar bowl statement came out saying they are in touch with federal, state, local law enforcement to see what the best path forward is.

there is the super bowl, the inauguration, election certification we referenced. there is the rose bowl. so much happening this time of year. what adjustments need to happen? >> you know, we have been seeing the bulletins and advisories coming out jointly by dhs and fbi since october 7th and israel and the hostage taking. we have seen nothing but continued tensions and conflict there. hamas, hezbollah, iran entering the picture. iran is a state sponsor of terrorism through hezbollah, not to mention the continuing conflict with ukraine and russia. all of this puts us in a heightened environment. we have been warned by the intell agencies about this. chris wray, the director of the fbi testified on the hill repeatedly that he feels we are in a heightened threat environment. they are seeing things, seeing chatter. you have to look at all of these

large scale events that make attractive iconic targets through the lens of a heightened threat environment. this is business as usual for some that may not be sufficient. clearly, with regard to what we learned now from the local newspaper editor, this is a failure. your bad guys will find the weakest link in security. you can have the most hardened perimeter ever imagined but if you take down a barricade that's your weak link right there. >> let me read a statement we just got from statement of homeland security alejandro mayorkas. we are working closely with law enforcement partners in response to the situation in new orleans. this attack is being investigates by the fbi as an act of terrorism. our hearts break for the families of those whose lives were lost and our prayers are with those recovering from

injuries. we are grateful to the first responders for their bravery and urge the public to be vigilant. nbc's tom winter is joining us now. you have this great reporting about where the investigation is focused on. fill us in from your sources. >> every indication is that this is a serious terrorism investigation involving the fbi. it is occurring in multiple locations. it is an investigation that is very active we are told. at this hour, there are three senior law enforcement officials briefed on it that tell us several things. they are investigating whether or not this individual was firing shots into the crowd while conducting this ramming attack. he may have used a long gun, looking into that. he may have fired at police using a long gun. there are several police

officers injured, expected to survive. they are also looking into something affixed to the back of the truck, on the hitch, a stick or a pipe, white in color. that the top is a black cloth. there could be a logo or writing on it. there is something on that that has driven them to the idea that this is a terrorist attack and could be a motive ascribed looking at that. that is one of the things they are looking at as well as several or at least one potential ied, something someone put together to create a fire or explosion that was in the vehicle. whether or not it was a device that could have gone off or a hoax device, we don't have that reporting yet. the other thing is unfortunately, and awful news out of all of this is that i'm told according to officials that the injuries are quite severe

and that this death toll unfortunately will likely rise when we hear more from officials. they are obviously doing whatever they can in the medical community to save these lives. we can only imagine, this pickup truck, i don't have a make or model, but it is a late model pickup truck, driving through this crowd at a high rate of speed made it at least several blocks we are told. the type of damage it could cause to individuals is just very sad for sure. obviously, very difficult for people in that community and perhaps from other communities for individuals visiting a major tourist attraction on new year's eve. >> very difficult for anyone who is watching right now to be hearing and learning of this awful, awful situation, ten people at least killed and at

least 30 others seriously injured. many of those injuries life threatening according to tom winter. and tom to follow up on a couple of things you brought us, you said several police officers injured. we heard from the police superintendent saying earlier that at least two police officers were shot when this driver, the suspect and the pickup truck ran over a bunch of people and fired after crashing. do we know if some of the people have gunshot wounds? >> good question, i don't have that information yet. we are reporting it as they are looking into the possibility. i don't have that one way or the other just yet. >> and just clarification on the ied, is this a suspicious device they found in the vehicle or somewhere else nearby? >> in or around the vehicle and there is a bit of a question as to whether or not there were others they spotted. i want to give folks context on

this. we have seen it in other terrorist attacks or other intentional attacks. someone will find in a moment like this, vehicles ramming people over, running through the crowd and you drop a bag, you drop a purse, you just run. from a law enforcement perspective, anything left behind is suspicious for obvious reasons. we will look at those and go one by one. there is a way to do it quickly in a crowd with efforts of the boston police department bomb squad, incredible work they did when they went from bag to bag at the finish line, slicing open each bag and looking into it at break neck speed. now that the scene is secure, they can go back to items and if there is a large packback, there are certain things they would look for bomb squad and safety,

not going to get into that. but there are certain things they would look for. those require further inspections. it may turn out it is perfectly inocue osand would make sense for someone to have. but they will go step by step. >> as we look at the images, we have an upcoming news conference in about an hour from now. do you have a sense of additional information we may learn in terms of types of questions that investigators hope to answer by then? >> i don't have that level of clarity yet. i expect we will get an update on fatalities and injuries and we will see if those numbers unfortunately change. >> okay, tom winter, thank you. we will let you go and you can work on the reporting. frank, i'm thinking of the massive law enforcement this will take. can you put in perspective this

incident? >> the numbers are astounding. and the leads may be around the world. particularly as tom shares with us more information that this is a real serious terrorism concern here. this may explain why we saw the fbi come in so quickly to take the lead. a lot of people don't know there are fbi offices literally around the country. the last time i looked, 80 nations and then they cover other nations from those offices. they work in the u.s. embassies and consulates here. not unusual for leads to be cut right now, get out of bed, whatever time it is where you are in the world and get with the host country security services, we need to get this person interviewed, we need to

check the travel and lodging. this is all hands on deck. it is possible for every field office in the fbi to be put on stand by for leads to come in. >> okay. everyone police stay with us. i just want to give us a reset. thank you for joining us on this new year's day. you're watching breaking news coverage on msnbc. major developments out of new orleans this morning after a horrific new year's eve attack that left at least ten people dead and 30 hospitalized after police say a man intentionally drove a pickup truck into a large crowd in the city's iconic bourbon street around 3 this morning local time. around 3 ths morning local time around 3:15 this morning local time. right now the fbi is ndme investigating this as an act of terrorism. three senior law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation tell nbc authorities are trying to determine if the driver fired a long gun as he drove into a crowd while running people over . sources tell us this vehicle

you are looking at right there, the alleged pickup truck used in this incident is the intense focus of the investigation. you can see it sitting there mangled in the historic french quarter. about an hour from now we will get an update on authorities and we hope to learn a lot more about potentially the suspect, the planning that went into this and the victims. here with us now, msnbc law enforcement at a list, former fbi director and retired secret service special agent also sticking with us. emily, just reset for us everything we know and the latest. >> reporter: a terrible tragedy and police call it very intentional because they say a man in a white pickup truck ku drove around a barrier around 3:15 a.m. driving down at a fast speed on bourbon street striking people.

trying to strike as many as possible. when he crashed you can see there were some pretty significant damage. he exchanged gunfire with officers.un we are also learning from sources the suspect was hit and died on the scene there. right now as it stands about 30 people injured and transported to various hospitals, 10 people tragically killed. one outstanding question is the conditions those injured victims are in at this ontime ct with fears the death toll could continue to rise. there are a whole host of other high-profile events playing out today from the parade in philadelphia, there is the peach bowl in atlanta, police departments across the country saying they are ramping up their security presence even more in light of this awful tragedy.hi starting to get underway right now is the rose parade in pasadena. city officials underscoring they have prepared for months alongside working in tandem

with law enforcement at every level.nt they say this is an event that draws some 800,000 people. aw they are blocking off the entire stretch of the parade route entirely to vehicles and at intersections they have quote very robust barriers along with 1000 or so law 0 enforcement officers working the parade and later the bowl. we have seen this end up security presence leading into new year's eve including here in new york city. thousands of officers spend out across the city for the largest new year's eve celebration in times square in the entire country within estimated 1 million people all cramming into times square. yes, there were canines, officers in and out of uniform, drones but there were also sand trucks and dump trucks and concrete blockades. that was a thoughtful measure at preventing vehicle rhyming attacks. when we just saw a few weeks ago in germany, a vehicle rammed into a crowd at a

christmas market killing several people and injuring more than 200. police have said in terms of those barriers in new orleans one of the reasons they believe it was intentional because the driver drove around the barriers. we don't know what those barriers looked like but we know it was something they carefully consider in the aftermath of this tragedy. >> thank you for that latest reporting. let's go to fletcher on the scene right now in new orleans on bourbon street. what is the scene there? talk us through what you're learning. >> reporter: so, to follow up on the report you just had on top of what happened on bourbono street with all of the people hit and people killed in the fire fight between the suspect and police officers the fbi agent at the briefing this morning mentioned there may have been ied's planted around the historic french quarter.

i will step out of the way because we are on bourbon street. the tape you see right now is the corner of bourbon and orleans in the historic french quarter just behind bourbon street one block away is the historic st. louis cathedral. two hours ago a louisiana state trooper said he found a suspicious package here on the corner of bourbon and orleans. they called special operations, they came out and within the course of 10 minutes we heard two different times fire in the hole and a small explosion and five minutes later we heard one more time fire in the hole and a small explosion. since then they've put police tape up around the entire area. we have seen officers canvassing this area as well searching in trash cans come under cars, going to everything looking for anything suspicious. we have a former s.w.a.t. team commander onset and he says this is normal procedure when they find a device to detonated to make sure it doesn't cause any larger harm that's what's

happening here right now. not only did we deal from the horrific accident this morning and tragedy this morning, but now they are scouring the french quarter looking for ied's.oo as someone born and raised in new orleans and covered news and sports here for 20 years this is an unprecedented situation at the biggest time of year for tourism. new year's eve, sugar bowl tonight and the french quarter is empty and people in the city right now have far more questions than answers as to what happened, why and what's next. >> we appreciate giving us a look at what's happening there and describing what you have seen and heard with your own eyes and ears as a reporter on the scene there. you mentioned bourbon and orleansio. for those of us unfamiliar with the french quarter and bourbon street how far is that from where this vehicle attack happened and specifically we are told the main focus of the vehicle attack was at bourbon and canal.

>> reporter: that's a great question. the french quarter for prospectivech is 10 blocks by seven blocks. 70 blocks total. it goes from canal street it runs the length of the mississippi river. canal street is the 100 block, the very beginning. that is where the truck plowed down -- plowed through the first block of bourbon street. we are six blocks away from that six city block. this is a little further into the heart of the french quarter. about the midway point. the st. louis cathedral in jackson square. it's maybe the most iconic building in new orleans. jackson square is one of our famed areas and big landmarks so we are about six blocks in from where the tragedy took place this morning. police officers have been in this area everywhere going through garbage cans and they did find that they believe is a suspicious device and called

the bomb squad. two different times we heard fire in the hole and what sounded like fireworks going off . i had to make assumptions in a case like this as we believe they were safely detonating that suspicious package. street in the lyfrench quarter are starting to open. they had about a 15 block radius completely blocked off. ff some of the larger arteries here . some are finally starting to open but bourbon street we will show has the police tape completely shut down for almost all 10 blocks from canal street going all the way to esplanade. what you're looking at right now is right in the middle in the heart of the french quarter. about six blocks away from where the truck hit people and the firefight happened in the 100 block earlier this morning. >> fletcher, that suspicious device you believe was detonated where you are six blocks or so away from bourbon

and canal where the vehicle was ultimately involved in this attack, do we know if that's the same improvised explosive device we heard referred to by the special agent in charge earlier today? >> reporter: again, i know theyr will do another briefing at noon eastern time, 11:00 central time. i don't know if it is tied to this investigation. all we know is a state trooper found a suspicious package, they called the bomb squad and handled it using their normal procedures. was it related to the incident tied to that? the mayor, the police superintendent and fbi agent didn't take any questions as they said it's a very active fluid situation and they didn't want to say anything and speak out of turn so i think we will have a lot more information coming up. there is a sense of vigilance here and hypersensitivity looking for what is suspicious

packages all throughout the quarter because once the fbi said that i think it put the local law enforcement authorities on high alert. we have never seen an investigation taken over this quickly by the fbi so i think that had everyone at a heightened sense of awareness. i can't say for certain this was tied directly to that, but it was tied to it at least on the periphery. >> thank you. we appreciate that. fletcher mackel, reporter at w dsu in new orleans. thank you for joining us this morning. we are now getting statements from both president biden and president-elect trump. um let's go to florida with more on all of that. >> just within the past few moments we received a statement from president biden. before that from president- elect trump. me start with president biden.

he says he's been continually briefed since early this nt morning by federal law enforcement leadership and we list top homeland security and fbi officials. he says i've directed my team to ensure every resources available at er the federal state and local law enforcement and he also says he will continue to receive updates throughout the day. he says his heart goes out to the victims and their families who are simply trying to celebrate the holiday and he says there's no justification for violence of any kind. we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nations communities. president biden spent the night in wilmington, delaware. he intended the private wedding of his niece. we expect him to travel from l wilmington, delaware to camp david a little later on today. it's unclear whether he might make any on camera statement. so far the white house said there's no change to his schedule. let me switch gears and talk about president-elect trump. he put out a statement a short time ago as well.

here in west palm beach, near here in mar-a-lago president- elect trump spent the night ringing in the new year as he always does with a black tie wa event at his mar-a-lago estate. the president-elect said in part that our hearts are with all the innocent victims and their loved ones including the brave officers of the new orleans police department. the trump administration will e fully support the city of new orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil. that new statement from president-elect trump. we are waiting on more information from the white house at this point but as they said we know president biden has been n continually briefed on this, unclear whether he might address the nation in any form later on today. >> thank you for bringing us t the very latest. let's bring back our law enforcement analyst now as we learn from our reporter on the r scene from our affiliate that there was a bomb squad at one

part of this broad crime scene that detonated what could've been an improvised explosive device, a suspicious package of some kind is what they were told on scene there. in the meantime some six blocks away is where we know bourbon and canal is the focal point of this investigation where the truck plowed through a crowd of people roinjuring dozens and dozens in fact killing at least 10 people sending at least 30 others to the hospital. somewhere told believed to have life-threatening injuries. cedric alexander, what do you make of how widespread this crime scene is? >> what we are seeing right here certainly we know what we have around canal street and bourbon and surrounding blocks u and areas.

outside of that i think what's going to be really interesting is they continue with the investigation throughout the day, night and over the next few weeks if not months is to really determine where he's from, who is he, who is he associated with, was he alone or were there other persons engaged in this operation which clearly there was some real preparation done before this attack.ef i think we certainly are going to find out more probably within the hour when they do in new orleans hopefully as to where this investigation is at this point now. they are going to be sparingly giving information because it's still a very active investigation and if it does involve any type of terrorism whether domestic or foreign, they are probably going to share information even more sparingly and understandably so

under the conditions in which all of this occurred. i thinking when the next hour or so we will probably see the implications may be around this attackou on our streets right here whether they were foreign or domestic. when we talk about terrorism and the term is thrown around a lot this morning we really have to at some point however they choose to define it it can be defined in this very generic sense of instilling fear in others who may have a different philosophical ideological view whether domestic or foreign. we really got to get to the crux of this because this is in many ways somewhat of a unique event in the totality of everything that's going on in terms of the timing, location, et cetera. i think we really have a real issue here that we really need

to address and be very honest with ourselves as to how we are going to address it. i think the country as a whole right now can stay very vigilant because we don't know where this attack came from, who all is involved and we are just starting to hear out. this is not to frighten anyone, but i think we have to be very realistic with ourselves and this country. this attack opposed a real significant concern and it should be for all of us. >> some important advice and guidance as we look at the sun shining on new orleans as this investigation is underway after an attack that occurred about seven hours ago, 3:50 local time in the heart of the french quarter of bourbon street where a car plowed into dozens of a people sending at least 30 to the hospital and killing at least 10 on the scene.

our colleague tom winter laid out how investigators are really focusing in on a vehicle there. a white g pickup truck alleged have been the attacker truck. texas plates, potentially a flag or cloth affixed to the back, some piping sticking up you can see. what kind of sweep are investigators doing on that vehicle and what kind of leads i can you get from it? >> there so much you can explore forensically from a vehicle like this. it'll be attempts to get dna and match a profile off of every inch of that truck, particularly where human skin contact would occur. a steering wheel for example, seat belt buckle. you will see hair and fiber exploited so they will literally do a mini vacuum all over that truck to see if they can get hair fiber to match it not only to the suspect because people might say why do you

need fingerprints and dna and hair and fiber, you've got your guy, maybe not. maybe there are others that could come up in a hit in a dna match or fingerprint match that are also known to be bad actors , so that's going to be fully exploited as well with fingerprints. if it is a rental truck that becomes significant because it has to get traced back to the rental business. do they have a video camera? they should showing someone, the suspect or someone else renting that. is it a stolen car, was it reported stolen? when and from where? this texas license plate may be meaningful or it may not but rest assured that residence or location in texas wherever that license plate comes back to is e having a very unusual morning this morning. >> have to wonder when we keep

talking about who's been briefed on the investigation in this attack, the president has been briefed, we know the attorney general merrick garland has been briefed. what are they briefed on exactly? what are they told? >> they are told everything usually by the director or deputy director of the fbi perhaps with the assistant director for countered terrorism as well. sometimes it's joint ag and president. the usually brief ag first and had to the white house and together with the ag -- not necessarily the white house because biden is in delaware, but this is likely an in person briefing that could happen or a secure videoconference that could be happening and set up in biden's delaware home regularly but they are saying here's what we've got. the president is hearing things we are not hearing right now obviously and he should. for example, why is it exactly the fbi jumped into the lead e position, what's going on, what is the intelligence that seems

to indicate the involvement of an international terror group? what is the chatter that the supersecret agencies have captured that might indicate some kind of credit or attribution right now? people may ask has an international terror group ever done anything like this? plow a truck into a crowd at a holiday event? yes. isis in 2016 did this in germany at a christmas fare, a winter fair and it was a very serious event and they took credit for it by the way. it'll be interesting to see if we hear somebody take credit for this today. >> seven hours in to the investigation following this ttack. no one claiming responsibility we know about this moment. we know the suspect directly involved is dead according to law enforcement officials. a quick follow on the briefings piece.

what is the white house national security team's role in a fast-moving situation like this? >>e they are all active right now, they are on secure calls, they may be heading into the white house depending on what the intelligence indicates. some things they are thinking about is did anybody in the intelligence community miss this? how about omour allies? i can assure you the intel community is in touch with our allies saying do you have anything that you can share? have you overheard, can you activate human sources and tell us what they are telling you right now? the national security council is the best advice the president is going to get because if indeed a negative until comes in and says we think we will be able to attribute this to a group or state sponsor now they have to start advising the president with state department help on how to address that and when to

address that. all of that going on right now as people in washington thought they had the day off. >> please stay with us. i want to play some more eyewitness sounds from the scene of this vehicle attack. let's listen. >> we were coming through the intersection and it all just happened so quickly, but the guy in the pickup truck just p punched the gas and mowed over the barricade and hit pedicab passengers and there were just bodies. the screams. you cannot on here that. it is chaos. and a very scary. >> when you saw the car did you think anything of it? >> no. it was the most bizarre thing.

the least expected thing, you know? i don't even know how he managed to maneuver that with the amount of traffic and people that were still out. yeah. >> tons of people. >> tons of people. cops everywhere. >> clearly a very traumatic time for anybody who is near that scene this morning. i want to bring in the former new orleans mayor. thank you for taking the time. as former mayor talk to us about what you know the security that is in place in this area and why it may have failed to stop this from happening.hi >> good morning. that has to be a central part of the review and investigation. why those barriers may not have been up. it is 3:15 in the morning. at that point in time the t french quarter is not closed, but the crowds tend to ease

after 2:00 a.m. the french quarter has a reputation for never closing. n those barriers should have been up, but certainly several witnesses said the driver sought to evade or avoid the barriersvo when there should no be a way to evade or avoid those barriers. right now many people back in new orleans at home are concerned about whether their loved ones may have been impacted by this because there's been no list of the e' deceased or the injured at this point. i think there is a regreat concn as to whether tonight's sugar bowl game is going to be safe. i am hopeful they will go forward with the game because with terrorist and mass killers what they want to do is intimidate and freeze people re into inaction. thirdly, the super bowl is upcoming in new orleans, but historically super bowls have had a much larger security presencear because of the role

federal law enforcement designating national homeland security events. there are a number of things er that need to be done, but in the short month i think it's important to find out who this person was, what was his motivation and perhaps as tragic as this was, it may have been something that could've been worse if those explosive devices had been detonated. this is an absolute tragedy, my heart goes out to those who lost loved ones today. >> absolutely. we don't know more if there were more than one of those devices, if they were even viable at this point. we hope to learn more when there is this news conference coming up in about half an hour from now. are you surprised federal investigators took over this investigation so quickly? >> no, i think it's the right thing to do because it's clear this investigation has ramifications beyond new

orleans. right now, the impact may be to think about this. something like this happened overseas, the use of an automobile or vehicle or truck as a weapon of death and destruction, this could happen in any other american city. there are other games taking place, other festivals taking place. the important thing is a federal law enforcement should step in and coordinate the participation by local law enforcementoc and regional law enforcement in connection with this until we get to the bottom we need to know a whole lot. the federal law enforcement has superior resources than any police department or sheriff's department anywhere in america. it's important they play a role. my hope is they are going to be in a cooperative mode that state, local and federal officials will cooperate with

each other, work together to respond to the public and make sure we know as much as we can for their participation coming up and i hope it sheds a lot more light on what happened this morning. >> we certainly hope that as >> well. we will take that news conference live as soon as it does begin. what went through your mind this morning as you heard this news as somebody who has led the city? >> i was shocked, hurt and in pain. the first thing you do is pick up the phone and call your family members to make sure they are safe, your close friends to make sure they are safe. i will tell you because it's new year's morning a lot didn't pick up the phone. they didn't know what was going on, they were sleeping in because it is new year's day. it's a tragic way to begin 2025 and it is a reminder of how precarious and dangerous the world we live in.

too much violence, too much bloodshed,oo too many people being harmed and hurt. in this moment, the pain i don't think it's something only i feel but family members and friends and people all over the country, you listen to the witnesses talk about how heinous and violent these debts werees, how just awful, despicae human being mode people down who were there to have a good re time enjoying themselves is absolutely a tragedy. it is heinous and despicable and i condemn it. >> new orleans has been through so much. what is your message to the residents of that city? >>t they are strong, resilient and must remain strong but they must hold together as the nation must pull together. this

tragedy should not be exploited by anyone for political purposes. i'm looking at leaders. the president, the president-elect, other politicians not just to see them exploit this because you want to advance your own agenda. right now, americans are hurting. a we have 10 people who lost we their lives, 30 who are injured, family members of those 10 people who now are going to lose a loved one. let's not jump so fast to start pointing fingers at each other with respect to this event and let the process of investigation proceed, give us the answers we need and give us the clarity that we need. i think that's what's important in this moment and i encourage any elected official like myself who had to leave through tragedy

understands it is not a time to play games or point fingers on some podium or position of me safety. it's time for people to pull together on behalf of victims. let's get an answer. what happened in new orleans could be any other american city. that's ulwhat's important. that's why we have to pull 's together to get to the bottom of it and there will certainly be a discussion of how to a harden security but i'm also interested in to whether law enforcement or intelligence agencies, if this is someone who has planned this as a terrorist attack, if there were any shadows, any forewarning, any hints that this might occur. that's a very important part of this investigation we have not heard a lot about. did anyone know anything? was there any foreshadowing? we need to have answers to that

as well. >> so many unanswered questions. thank you so much for joining us. thank you for being here with us.re we know the president has been briefed and issued a statement a short time ago is now departing to head to camp david after saying he's directed all his staff and federal resources to collaborate with those local and state law enforcement to get to the bottom of what happened, why, who is involved and whether there's any additional public safety threat out there with the president addressing some media cameras moments ago. let's listen. >> you all got my statement. i'm not going to comment on any specific. i've contacted every agency in the federal government as well as the state all coordinating to get to the bear facts so we

know what the facts are. i'm not going to say anything until i get all the facts in front of me. >> has the suspect been identified? >> again, i will not comment until i speak to the group ti later. i've spoken to every member of the agency from the cia to our national security team to our fbi and we are gathering -- i spent a lot of time. my reaction was one of anger r and frustration. thank you. >> the president just moments ago leaving from wilmington, delaware headed to camp david having been briefed on the situation in new orleans and what is being investigated as a possible terror attack by federal law enforcement officials and local law enforcementan which is expected to brief the public and media to coming up at the top of the hour.

the president declining to offer any new information g saying he is waiting on the sa facts and waiting for further updates as we move through the day. live images now from new orleans. the president was asked at vewh point whether the suspect crossed the border. we are told the vehicle in question had texas license plates. the president said i will not comment on that right now. he refused at the moment to give any specific information that hasn't already been made public beby officials of there the scene. again, that of a coming up within the half an hour or so from now. still here with us is the senior law enforcement analyst, former fbi assistant director, retired secret service special agent bobby mcdonald and retired atf special agent in t charge also joining us now. what will you be listening for t when we hear this news

conference? >> we will be listening for the information on the individual. i know the vehicle has been brought up a couple times. i want to caution it could've been a rental vehicle as well. when we look at the christmas en ramming vehicle that happened in germany that was a rented vehicle. one of the things that is interesting as well is it is a pickup truck. it is something to think about did the person happen to have a pickup truck or if they did rent the vehicle did they pick this specific vehicle for its cl ability to ram through and break through the barricades as well? any identifiable information on the person when we see these types of attacks, typically the person has communicated to others they were going to do rs this. did they tell any family members, friends, coworkers, social media? going through all social channels to see if they communicated that as well.

we know the individual had a k weapon, where did they get it from and was it legitimately purchased as well? we know they created their own ied, how did they do that? going through that person's history hopefully they will so give us information. i would think at this point given they have a vehicle, tags, there is cctv footage we heard police does have so they are able to backtrack and see e where the vehicle came from, i would say it's very likely theyl do have the identity of the person and that is what i suspect we will be hearing about shortly. >> what questions do you want law enforcement to answer at this? >> what i'm going to be listening for his of course whatever information they will divulge to the community up to this point or to the country i should say, but also to try to listen for what they are not saying and the things they may

not say to suggest that this investigation may be far- reaching and that may raise a series of other questions. at this point, for me it's to listen attentively to what it is they are able to share, but also for me in terms of how i analyze information is also listen to what they're not saying because that could prove to be very important as well. but understand what they are not able to share at this point is important that they don't because this is very early in this investigation and you have to be very careful with your words and how you use your verbiage when you do these type of pressers when you have an event such as this. this is a pretty devastating event on the first day of a new year in this country. >> we know fbi is the lead investigative unit right now on

this case as somebody who is the former assistant fbi director, what kinds of expectations do you have about the type of information they e can or can't provide? >> they are not going to give up what we call singular source information, they won't give up classified methods and techniques. for example, we won't hear something like in an intercept on an isis leader last night we heard him talk about new orleans. they would never say that or ar even a human source, but they might say if indeed this is even true we do have indications of foreign terrorism,in we might hear something like that. i want to note although president biden's comments were brief and generic it caught my attention he said the agencies he's heard from include the cia. i don't want to make too much of that, but if it were an

entirely domestic driven situation it is less likely, not impossible because sometimes a cia rep will show up whenever the national security council was activated and be in the room, but less likely so if this is just a guy from texas or new orleans who had a bad night. that caught my attention. also with regard to the press conference upcoming i've become a huge fan of crowdsourcing crime solving. i like putting photos out and information. for example, if they've got a photo may be off a driver's license of the suspect in might be helpful to show it to the public because the public might say he stayed at my hotel last night, he rented an apartment from me, i'm friends with his brother. something like that. unless there are investigative reasons not to to err on the side of putting out what you

have.at >> this wasn't just a ramming attack, it was a shooting. a shootout with police potentially explosive devices at the scene, does that multifaceted nature complicate the investigation? >> i think you're right ahead of it. we can't jump 'rthe gun. the assailant comes with three possible means of attack. ss if the street had been properly blockaded it might've taken away the vehicle ramming option to him and he might've just had to exit the pickup truck with his rifle and start shooting or toss a pipe bomb or something if in fact the ied plays out to be real. he could've planned i'm going to go kill a lot of people and when he shows up there's no barricade to stop him so he drives through it. as we talked about earlier it could be a rental truck.

it could be a stolen truck. once you're a killer and you y acquire a rifle it's real easy to acquire a truck. you can shoot the owner and leave him in a barn and drive over. if it's a rental or stolen al truck he somehow affixed the flag, the improvised pvc pipe you see on the back onto the trailer hitch. rental trucks don't come that way so you would have to affix that on there personally. if that turns out to be some sort of emblem of a terrorist group, we don't know yet. certainly that's not the way you rent a vehicle. there's a few nuances to hear and if it was a lack of proper barricading he just took advantage of it and drove through and was firing a rifle as he went. if he didn't have that possibility he might've just gotten out and started firing ed

the rifle but you have policeman everywhere down there. they are every yw10 feet. if you do come out with the firearms attack that's where they are very effective. you'll see s.w.a.t. , special response with the rifles and they'll engage the guy quickly. it's likely the vehicle driving a number of blocks. we have heard different lengths, but at least a few blocks and just running over a petal car and running people over, just the sheer vulgarity of it. i think the fbi has a lot of answers, police have a lot of answers. they are working it back to see if he's got a confederate, did someone drop him off, did he kill someone, is it his truck? there's going to be a lot of information for frank's guys if

it turns out to be an international connection whether inspired or not because they will be all over that at fbi's headquarters and in the new orleans division. >> you bring up so many unknown answers or questions in the ways that investigators are going about trying to get those answers in the moment. we understand there are potentially hundreds of investigators right now working this case in new orleans and beyond even. here's what we know based on he the last news conference we had now some 4+ hours ago. this all began around 3:15 local time that a truck plowed into a crowd of people there your bourbon and canal street in the french quarter. at least 30 patients were . transferred to the hospital, 10 debt on scene. emergency officials were already there. bt some 300 lease officers were already on the scene because of it being new year's eve and the celebrations taking place and the packed area that this

typically is but especially on a celebratory night like that. in fact, the suspect in this truck event got out of the vehicle after crashing we are told by local law enforcement he then fired at officers and shot two police officers who are in stable condition when they were addressed there on scene. that's what we know now. the police commissioner or police superintendent saying this was a person -bent on creating the carnage and damage that he did and was trying to run over as many people as possible. this country and especially ours major cities have done so much to try to harden security in the new year since 9/11. we do not yet know for sure if this was terrorism, but has the terrorist threat changed in these intervening years and has law enforcement adopted? >> i think it has and i think we have tried. i'm focusing

right now on that intersection of canal and bourbon and what happened there or didn't happen. we heard the eyewitness in your piece a couple minutes ago indicate the driver of this vehicle just blew through the barricade. that's not vea barricade. if there was a situation the person was able to get through everybody that's got an event, every agency, town or city that's got an event today moving forward through the rest of the week really need to be key on how to harden up those areas with respect to where a vehicle can get into. we cannot make that easy for somebody and it was indicated earlier if somebody wants to do nefarious activity they will be able to find law enforcement's weakest link. we have to continue to harden up. i think the public across the nation should continue to be prepared for additional screenings that will take longer time at airports or getting into games or different things like that. that's where we are and we will have to be ready to acquiesce

to the various apparatus and platforms that law enforcement will have to do to keep us safe wherever we are. >> this investigation is now going to straddle the end of the biden administration and transition into the trump administration in just a matter of days, not to mention there will be a new fbi director that will have to hit the ground running coming up. does that transition present any challenges for investigators? >> i don't think so because everyone is collectively looking to prevent these. i think when you have something like this everyone's goal and mission is how to prevent these. i was actually in the world trade center on 911 so i lived through that terrorist attack. when you go through something like this and you see all these people around you die you can'tp do anything to help them it is such a helpless thing. i was a special agent at the

time so when you see all the mechanisms that come into place to try to prevent these and you've seen over the years decade after decade how we are trying to mitigate and prevent these things nefarious actors have imagination. they want to cause harm and we have to collectively work together, local, state and federal. i think we are seeing this happen here, i don't see any issues with transition of who's coming in or going out. i think there needs to be a shift in change in mentality as far as how we secure these fa events. i would consider this event we talked about this morning a bit of a hard event. when you look at departments like nypd, police departments like that look at what they are doing, they are at the top of their game because they are dealing with these at the forefront. there are 17,000 local law enforcement entities in the united states. we don't have a national police force like the uk does, so that means each of these departments

function differently. each have a chief of police, a commissioner and our government and everyone has to work to make sure they have the resources, training, knowledge. half of the police departments in the united states have 10 officers or less. when talking about new orleans they have the manpower but we ey need to be working collectively in this era to try to make sure if everyone has what they need, securing things the right way, if they don't have assets they need can they get them elsewhere? sometimes i would go to a smaller town and need to secure it and i would say i need trucks and they would say we don't have any and i would say reach out to the outer local counties and ask for help. i think this is what we need to start working on. choreograph better security at these events. jim and i were on this morning talking about this. it was the white and orange barricade they have up, you can

kick it down. it's a bike rack, you can ram through that. we need to be a lot more sophisticated in the way we are doing protection and the way wen are securing the sites today. >> we know law enforcement is taking action already because of what has transpired in new w orleans this morning. we got a statement a short time ago from nypd saying they are o closely monitoring recent events in new orleans and coordinated with federal and regional partners and have not identified any credible threats or nexus to new york city at this time related to what happened in new orleans. t we have the sugar bowl coming up in new orleans later today, the rose parade on the west coast in california, the tournament of roses as they call it and the city of pasadena also issuing a statement this morning talking about how they are preparing for security for those big events and big crowds that will be in the city of pasadena be

saying they have a hard shutdown of vehicles for the entire parade route in addition to robust vehicle barriers. they say over 1000 law enforcement personnel are working the rose parade and the game there. there is heightened alert and people already trying to make adjustments or at least reassuring the public of the security measures they currently have in place as they prepare for upcoming events today. frank, going back to zeroing in on this investigation and trying to get answers as we await this press conference we have learned has been pushed back a bit now we know there is this white pickup truck that seems to be a big piece of evidenceec that they have acces to right now. how are they going about utilizing that truck and trying to backtrack where it came from, who may have been behind the wheel, et cetera?

>> we talked earlier about frantically exploiting the truck and there's a lot lito do from here and fiber to dna to fingerprints and on. what we are hopeful of is we've got a drivers license on the ns suspect. that would be extremely helpful obviously identifying him and where he's from or the last known address. we have a license plate from texas. i can assure you that lead is being run down by fbi agents in texas. was it a po box, is it a suspects house or friend's house?ou how is it stolen and when? jim referenced this flag a fixed which we are focused on. we are being very careful, but understand a black flag if it has white writing is also potentially a match for an isis flag. we don't know that, we have no further description on the flag but it seems everyone is keyed in on it. is it merely a distraction or

is this for real? what is it mean these days because after 9/11 as we begin to take out the leadership of various groups, particularly als qaeda and you have a short self life if you became a senior leader so what happened? we saw a decentralization and radicalization now very dispersed and happening online. a green light could be given for a solo actor to do something, anything he could do right now and it's good news bad news there. the iconic terror attacks, the decentralized stuff that's hard to stop is the problem. >> thank you to everyone here >> has been part of the panel s these past several hours with me, really appreciate your expertise in all that reporting. that'll do it for me this very busy hour. frances rivera picks up our breaking news coverage after a short break. don't go anywhere.

[uplifting music] arearn: saint jude-- they gave it 110% every time. and for kenadie to get treatment here without having to pay anything was amazing.

on this new year's day i'm frances rivera at nbc headquarters in new york. we are following breaking news in new orleans. officials say at least 10 people were killed and dozens were injured after the driver of a pickup truck intentionally rammed into a large crowd of people on bourbon st. during new year's celebrations. >> it involved a man driving a pickup truck down bourbon st. at a very fast pace.

it was very intentional behavior. this man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could. it was not a dui situation. >> three senior law enforcement officials say investigators are trying to determine if the suspect used along gun rifle and was firing into the crowd while running people over. he then crashed his vehicle and opened fire on police officers. officials tell nbc news the suspect is dead. the fbi has taken over the investigation and is looking into it as an act of terrorism. with the smell is ken delaney and frank from the fbi and senior national security analyst. the retired seattle police chief and law enforcement analyst and former new york state homeland security advisor.

i appreciate you being with me here to all of you. we were supposed to get a briefing at this point, but that has been pushed back. it has been four hours since the last briefing from law enforcement. what are you expecting to hear? >> as much as possible. i'm a firm believer in crowdsourcing crime solving and getting the public equipped with what they need to help law enforcement. i also think some of the delay is coming from additional nuances. additional layers coming in not only from around the nation but around the world. you get one shot at your first press conference and you want to deliver accurate information while not creating panic. you want to get it right. you have to get everybody on the same sheet of music so you have a joint media center where all the media spokespeople are drafting the right thing to

say. prosecutors, even though there's no suspect necessary to prost get -- prosecute they will have to write affidavits for search warrants at various locations. they don't want to give away too much and they don't want anybody to mess with evidence. >> let's talk about that with what we know so far. the vehicle in question that was found that rammed into the dozens of people on bourbon st. we know from our law enforcement sources that there were texas plates on this white truck. there was also some peace of cloth on the hitch. what more can you tell us about what we are hearing in the last hour. >> i can tell you that the fbi and other law enforcement agencies are investigating whether that poll was a flag of some sort. whether there was any message on it that was

suggestive of motive. they are running down the providence of the car. it's not clear that the car was owned by the person driving it. that is one of the things they are looking into and trying to run down. it has texas plates but that does not mean the person driving it was from texas. they are trying to figure out what motivated this person. they likely know the identity by now. here is what we know. there has been a large number of vehicle attacks going back more than a decade around the world including in germany and new york city in 2017. many of them have been inspired by isis. that does not mean isis was directing them. it just means people radicalizing the united states, take their cues from things they see online and carried out the attack based on inspiration from isis. that's what authorities are trying to determine