as an act of terror. just to tell you a little more about that bike path that runs along the west side highway. after 3:00 this afternoon it would have been packed, joggers and bikers and people walking this is around the time just after 3:00 p.m. that school gets out and halloween and parents getting out early to gather their kids and take them trick or treating. i'm on the corner of a major street. chambers in downtown manhattan in tribeca. people are all over standing here with looks of disbelief on their faces. a lot of people saying it was only a matter of time. it appears that terror struck here once again in the heart of manhattan. >> that neighborhood there not all that far from ground zero, the site of the 9/11 attacks? >> reporter: that is right we are very close to the 9/11 spot, and memorial museum there and

this neighborhood very, very busy. downtown is kind of where it is out on halloween the village not far from here is where the big parade season the area where this person was struck would be a very busy area, the west side highway, the pike path there, and as you mentioned school was letting out as well. >> i am joined in the studio now with the former chief of of police of new york city ray kelly. this is the kind of thing you prepare for year after year after year and it happened. >> it doesn't make it easier, a lot of police in the general area but not specifically where this individual went on the bike path and at least a four block run. at 3:00 in the afternoon that bike path that is very wide bike path is very busy with joggers and bikers. clearly intentionally clearly an effort to kill people. we know that the seven dead so far.

this individual made statements and made a statement allah akbar. >> do we know he said that? >> it's reported by witnesses. >> this is what police are finding out? >> obviously at love potential witnesses, gathering people and questioning will take some time. this is what we are told. i'm not sure if he had a weapon reported a weapon that didn't work. but the only shots fired appears from the police. >> and they did injure the driver? >> he was struck in the buttocks and in custody now alive. >> would they already be talking to him. >> no, probably way too early to talk unless there was an immediate threat. obviously doing a lot of background examination of him and we are told he may be of bosnia origin. they are checking with the fbi and certainly talking to people

in interpol organizations like that. find out any bit of information that can give them a better feel. >> and try to figure out if there is any kind of coordinate with anyone else or a followup attack? >> where did he live or what is on his phone that is significant. any criminal record. any of these things are checked already or in the process of doing a deep dive on this individual. >> joined now by counter terrorism expert richard clark, this is such a pattern seeing now no signs yet he was working with anyone else but still very deadly. >> the pattern we see both in the united states and in europe is individuals. who become responsetainously members of isis. and then go out and get a truck and police in the united states and in europe know this is a

possibility. they are going around the special events and blocking things with trailer trucks and dump trucks. but you can't do that anywhere. this technique is well known now around the world. the potential terrorists know it works. >> we have seen it in nice and barcelona and london and germany. and dick it's perhaps no accident that this comes, this reaction comes as we are watching the man right there driving the pickup truck as isis is taking more defeats on the battlefield in iraq and syria. >> we have been anticipating and saying george that with isis losing control of the major cities. they still have thousands, tens of thousands. and they will continue the struggle isis is not dead and the fact they can create people spontaneously becoming members of isis and within hours of that

decision going out and killing people here in our country and all over europe. isis will be a force for a while. >> describe how the messages get out? >> there are a lot of isis related and al qaeda related websites that are persuasive to a certain kind of individual. >> thanks, rick. i want to bring in another eyewitness, dimitri. tell us what you saw. dimitri, can you hear me? it's george stephanopoulos here. tell me what you saw. >> i was on the westside highway reading my e-mail when my uber driver said, look, the car is

basically mowing people down. when i looked up, i didn't see the car, it had already past. i saw three or four people lying in a pile of blood. first, i thought it was a halloween performance. i was looking and couldn't tell what was going on. i saw the police heading towards the fire and shots fired. shots were definitely fired after those people were mowed down. >> this happened very quickly. >> police came in two or three minutes, two minutes out there, while i was thinking, is it sort of like -- two minutes tops. the shots were fired and they hunkered down. then they started waving to us. then, when we came there, i saw

the car, rental truck, some sort of like that, enterprise, like a truck. doing things. it was a very very large truck. then, i saw the speed bump also like a small speed bump badly damaged. then, as they were waving us to quo past, i saw the gentleman lying down, in a pile of blood. police were looking at him and there was another very fat gentleman on his knees with his hands in the air, standing on the side. >> i just want to be clear about one thing. you're saying you saw a man on his knees with his hands up in the air surrounded by the police and another man? you don't know? you don't know that? >> whether that man was part of it or not, right? he was in the middle. he was way past this three

trucks. he tried to ram, one of the trucks. i'm not going to speculate. i can only say what i have seen personally. >> what was he wearing? >> the gentleman that was -- appeared to be very fat and it seemed like the one wounded had like a black beard. >> okay. that's the person we see running around before he was brought down by police in something like a dark track suit with a red stripe across the back, is that what you remember? >> that, i didn't see because he was already on the ground. at the time. >> you mentioned a small school bus had been hit. we were told there were special needs children. could you see any people inside, any injuries inside? >> no. because the school bus was probably 200, 100 meters.

i don't know the name of the street the particular west side highway. all i see was it was badly damaged, from the looks of it. they were waving us by. now, i sort of feel like -- try to help somebody. they were waving the car to go by. and see him shooting, crazy. >> you can't blame yourself for that. can you tell us more about how many you saw and injuries you saw? >> there were three or four people lying by the westside highway. there were kids from the high school that were mowed down, in some sort of performance, some sort of show for the hall been, at first, before i realized what is going on.

>> alas, it has turned out not to be the case. glad you're okay for turning in those details. i'm with our chief correspondent as we learn more about the perpetuate. >> that's right. our colleague believes they have the suspect identified, 30 years old of middle eastern dissent, carrying an id from florida and we're looking into his background we're being told it was a deliberate act of terrorism. >> and kelly, the chief of police, will be able to coordinate quite quickly with authorities. >> absolutely. you want to get into his home where he lives, into his cell phone. they will be working closely with the florida authorities and fbi will, of course, respond to his residence. you want to get any bit of information, granular information about this individual and make sure there

is no one else involved. tonight, we have a halloween parade in new york city. >> explain that. after an incident like this, how does this city like new york prepare for halloween, what kind of additional resources do they put on the street? will they tell people not to go out? >> no, i don't think that will be the case. you will definitely see more police at the parade and blocking vehicles and the nypd has blocked to block off streets. i think it will be very safe and certainly have a lot of police officers. this is the biggest department in the country, 54,000 employees, able to do multiple things at the same time. >> let's bring in the senior justice correspondent, pierre thomas. no indication anyone else is involved, pierre. these kind of lone wolf attacks, if that is indeed what it turns out to be in the end, proliferating across the country, the highest state of alert in so many cities. >> george, i can tell you the

last several months, this has been the highest priority, most imminent threats concerning authorities. bulletin after bulletin have been sent out by the fbi and homeland security officials to police around this country reminding people terrorists and people are inspired by what they're seeing primarily overseas in europe to conduct what they call low scale unsophisticated attacks where you simply need the will and a vehicle to run over people. this is an ongoing concern and will only heighten after this incident. they're investigating this, believing it's possibly an act of terrorism. they're trying to get additional information about this suspect including looking at his mental health, i'm told. this is the nightmare scenario police have been concerned about, george, because there's so many different places you can see people walking and then run over them. it's just that simple. >> none of the people on that bike path when the truck made

that turn -- andrew joins us now. andrew, what did you see? >> hi there, george. i was walking along that bike path, along the hudson river, to the south, towards chambers street. luckily for me, i was over on the right side of the path. i heard a very loud noise, unexpected noise to hear on that bike path of a truck driving by me, at a very high speed. very very rare to see any vehicle on there, certainly don't see trucks and certainly don't see trucks driving so fast. powering by very fast. i saw the truck impact, for sure, one cyclist, who was riding north, hit the windshield, went up to the air and landed motionless. >> the truck went straight for him? >> yeah. the truck wasn't even deviating on the path, was just going

straight down, so it doesn't look like was trying to hit the cyclist but simply going at a very high speed, right down the middle of the path, taking out anything in its path. >> could you see how far he drove? >> so, yeah, then i saw the truck continuing. that was about a block farther on, when it collided with something on chambers street, i don't know if it was a utility pole or what, the truck spun, then was facing east. i saw the driver get out of the car and then flee. it looked to me he was then fleeing southward, away from me. about a minute later i heard a few gunshots. at that point, some of the others who had been witness to this, started to run themselves, to run north, away from the sound of the gunfire. >> when you saw him flee, could you hear him say anything? see if he was carrying anything?

>> no. it was too far away to really see much about him, what he was doing, also very distracting because there was probably a dead cyclist right there, which was the concern for those of us who were klose by. >> when you're walking down a path like that, this is not something you can imagine happening. >> exactly. this is something. i ride on that path all the time. this is a key recreational part of new york city. to have that event happen in shadow, that sense of peace and recreation, which is what that path is all about, is deeply disturbing. >> we're glad you're okay, andrew. this is quite a serious incident. thank you for filling us in on what was happening. we learned a little bit more, right there, traveling at a very high speed on that path, almost no way to prevent something like that. >> no. a truck that size would pretty much fill up the path. i'm very familiar with it.

it's a wide path. a truck, a pretty significant truck, couldn't deviate left to right. he obviously wanted to kill as many people as possible at a high speed and he would have continued unless he didn't hit whatever he struck on chambers street. >> the rental truck from home depot are cooperating right now. >> exactly. this is what they're calling on others to do, get a truck, as pierre has said, what you have seen again and again, whatever they can get to take off. in the long list of cities hit like this, starting, i just made a list here. nice and ohio state, berlin, jerusalem, and london, three different, stockholm, charlottesville and barcelona and now new york. >> now, new york city as well. and new york city in five days, new york city marathon, tens of

hundreds of people, all in the five boroughs. >> the new york city police department is structured to protect the marathon. 26 miles of intense crowds, no question about it. when they get into manhattan, probably a million people watching the route. there'll be a lot of blocking cars involved with the marathon as they always do. they will increase that. >> what kind of changes were put in place for the marathon after the attacks of the boston marathon? >> we put in cameras. we had a lot more portable cameras that we put in, all along the route. we wanted to increase as much camera exposure as possible, increase the number of police officers assigned. overall, increase the security where there are significant crowds. generally speaking, the crowds are pretty thick. some thicker than others. >> that's why generally day-to-day you have a significant presence in time

square. not necessarily an average neighborhood in downtown new york. >> you're right, absolutely right. he was saying it was only a few blocks away from the world trade center site. a lot of police there but not along the bike path. you can't be everywhere and you use cameras as a force multiplier, i don't know how many were along the bike path. >> i will go to gio benitiz on the scene, we're waiting for the mayor of new york city, bill de blasio and the mayor. what's happening there now? >> reporter: i want you to see how busy this area is. we are seeing student after student in this area, because this area is actually filled with schools. you mentioned the high school that is right there in that area where this happened, this is independent square here. clearly, a lot of students are in this area, a lot of people in

this area. we are just under the world trade center, we can see it here. that's this type of area you have a lot of business people. that happened as schools were letting out and made it so dangerous, especially these students. that business area is always filled with bikers and pedestrians, george. >> at 3:00, when the schools were being let out, we were just told ps 89, and children still dressed in halloween costumes finally being let out. >> reporter: we're seeing student after student in this area. that's why i think we will have a lot of witnesses that shot

this video, all in this area and the police has the street blocked off in this area. a block or two blocks. if we pan this camera you can see it totally blocked off and see all the police still there. >> thanks. we will come back. we are showing the podium we expect to hear from the mayor and governor and ray kelly. presumably now, they have been in constant contact with police officials and able to give us the most up to date information. >> you will get, i think, all the information they have gathered, obviously, some things you don't want to put out now, but mostly, you're going to get a lot of detail. >> something a lot of people don't know, new york city police department has a huge intelligence operation as well. >> it has over 500 people in the intelligence division, certainly the biggest police department in the country and also has people assigned overseas, now 12 cities.

they're over there to act as tripwires and gather any information they can. it may be relevant here depending what the individual's background is. >> we see the officials and the police commissioner, mr. o'neill. looks like he will speak first. >> looks like the police commissioner will speak first. >> the mayor on his right and governor on his left. >> state police behind governor cuomo. >> let's listen. >> good afternoon, everybody. we good? all right. keep in mind, this happened a little more than two hours ago, all the information we're giving you right now is preliminary and subject to change. after i speak you will hear from governor cuomo and mayor de blasio and bill sweeney assistant director in charge of the fbi offices standing with me and members of my executive

staff. we have members of the state police. first, i want to say that today there is a loss of innocent life in lower manhattan. they were just going about their days, heading off from school and enjoying the afternoon sun on bicycles. this is a tragedy of the greatest magnitude for many in new york city and beyond today. the command in response that was on post near the location stopped the carnage moments after it began. also the work of the first responders and personnel surely helped save lives. i will give you more but right now, mayor de blasio. >> thanks, commissioner. a very painful day in our city, horrible tragedy on the west side. let me be clear, based on the information we at this moment, this was an act of terror, and a particularly cowardly act of terror, aimed at innocent

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

i want to thank everyone at nypd, all our first responders for their extraordinary efforts in the midst of this tragedy starting with the officer who stopped this tragedy from continuing and all the first responders who came to the aid of those injuries. an investigation is under way to get all the facts and what we tell you today will, of course, be preliminary. but we know we will get down to the bottom of what happened. i want to ask all new yorkers, all americans, to keep the families of those lost in your thoughts and prayers. they will need our support. i want to ask all new yorkers to be vigilant. we know it's halloween night and we know in the days ahead, people will be uneasy. we ask all new yorkers to live by the idea of if you see

something, say something, tell an officer immediately if you see anything unusual, anything that worries you. be vigilant and know there will be extensive deployments of nypd officers this evening and throughout the days ahead. we will also keep you posted as this investigation continues and as the nypd gains more information. governor cuomo. >> thank you. first, our thoughts and prayers are with those new yorkers who we lost today. it reminds us all how precious life is. they left the house this morning, they were enjoying the beautiful westside of manhattan, on a beautiful fall day, and they're not going to be returning home. that shock and that pain is going to be very real. our thoughts and our prayers are with all of them.

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

everywhere. you will see them in the airport, you will see them in the tunnels. it's not because there is any evidence of any ongoing threat or any additional threat, it is just out of vigilance and out of caution. the truth is new york is an international symbol of freedom and democracy. that's what we are. and we are proud of it. that also makes us a target for those people who oppose those concepts. we've lived with this before, we've felt the pain before, we feel the pain today. but we go forward together and we go forward stronger than ever. we won't let them win.

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

live your life and don't let them change us or deter us in any manner, shape or form. >> amen. >> thank you. >> thanks, governor cuomo, thank you, mr. mayor. as i said, i will go through the chronology here. i know when i'm done you will have a lot of questions. we won't go too deep into it. it's only two hours. after i go through the chronology, dan will talk about the injuries. at 3:05 p.m., a male driving a rented home depot pickup truck entered the westside highway bicycle path at halston street striking a number of pedestrians and bicyclists on the route. at chambers street it collided with a school bus injuring two adults and two children. the driver of the truck brandished two handguns. a uniformed police officer

assigned to the first precinct confronted the subject and shot him in the abdomen. the subject was wounded and transported to the local hospital. the paint ball gun and pellet gun were recovered at the scene. the subject's identity is not being released at this time pending further investigation. at this point, there are eight fatalities reported in connection with this incident. in addition, several people have been injured and commissioner knight from our fire department will discuss that. dan. >> thank you, jim. as the police commissioner said, six of the people died, they were pronounced at the scene. between halston street and chambers street. they were all males. two others were transported in traumatic arrest and were pronounced at the hospital. we also transported 11 people, all with serious but at this moment, not life threatening injuries. the injuries are what you may expect as a truck went at high speed down that bicycle path and

struck bicyclists and pedestrians. there may be more injuries as people self-evacuated and we will determine that later, as we do our survey. that's the patient count and the deaths, as we know it now. >> at this point, we will take some questions. miles, hold on. hold on. miles. >> this happens all the time, terror attacks, in a truck, this is something that you [ inaudible ] all the time, truck companies. have you guys talked to home depot recently about this kind of individual about this? >> john, you want to talk about the program a little bit? >> as you know, through the shield program we do a very wide outreach and we have just under 20,000 members in the private sector.

after isis, a magazine came out with the issue just about two years ago, around this time of year, suggesting car attacks, you'll recall one of the targets they suggested was the thanksgiving day parade. we went and did extensive outreach to the truck rental business. we visited over 148 truck rental locations in this area. the obvious ones, yu-haul, ryde, others in this area and ways to come forward after the attacks on nice. we pret those visits two more times eats telephonic or e-mail going back to the same places. the industry has had a high level of awareness on this matter from the nypd. >> is there any indication that this suspect is a lone wolf, radicalized here in america

or -- >> it's way too early to discuss that. this just happened two hours ago. that's of course part of our investigation. >> police activity -- >> initially we thought it might have been but we thought it might not to be. >> if you had a residence in new york -- >> this is all part of the investigation. did he have a residence in new york -- >> and we heard some schools were under lockdown. anything going on or anything people in that area should be aware? >> no. this incident is over. it did end by the high school and we had to make sure all the kids were taken care of and held them in place for a while and it was important we do that but this incident is over. hold on. david. >> do you have the age of the suspect and victims. was there any indication earlier the man resembled --

>> he's a 29-year-old male arched i won't talk about the truck right now. >> can you confirm if he aid alla akbar or anything? if so, is that the only indication this would be an act of terrorism? what else do you need to label that? >> he did make a statement when he exited the vehicle. you look at the m.o. of the attack, that's consistent with what's been going on. that along with the statement led us to label it a terrorist event. no, not right now. >> do you have his nationality? is there any intelligence there was something in the works? >> again, two hours old and we'll update you as we go along. lenny. it's being conducted jointly with the nypd and fbi. >> [ inaudible ]. >> from florida? i'm not going into that. john. john, not right now, no. yes. >> did you manage to secure

the -- >> after the time square incident, i talked about this, any incident that happens in new york or happens around the world, we have to learn from that, of course we will take a look at that. >> [ inaudible ]. >> yeah. he's in the hospital. i'm not going to tell you what hospital. i will let chief gomez talk about what we're doing for the halloween parade right now. carlos. >> in less than 90 minutes a parade will kick off. we will proceed with the parade and we added more resources and police officers, heavy weapons teams, block of vehicles leading to the route as well as more sand trucks. there's also heavy weapons scenes being deployed throughout the city at key iconic locations. [ inaudible ]. >> this is why we do investigations. initially, i'm sure who ever put that out wasn't sure what the event was.

now, two hours into it, this is the determination that we made. in the first row. yeah. >> too early in the investigation to know that. rocco [ reporter requestiasking a que. >> i haven't looked at the video yet. we're retrieving as much video as possible. he entered the bike path at halston street and exited the bike path at chambers street when he collided with the school bus. there are no intersections between those two. i'm checking in the back there. dan, do you have that? >> among the injured that are serious, but not life-threatening. >> there are injured serious but not life-threatening. yes. we're not going to talk about where the home depot was rented from just yet.

do we know how many people on the bus? >> two adults. >> two adults and two children on the school bus. lisa. don't know. that's part of the investigation. no, we don't have that yet. >> there's a lot of information to be done. we wanted to give you a preliminary at this point. we will have more later. we will give you another briefing as more info becomes available. i will at this point ask you to wait for further information at either briefing. >> look, i'll just close us off here by saying, look, nypd is investigating this with our federal partners, with our state partners. there will be a very very thorough investigation. the most important thing as governor cuomo said, as commissioner o'neill said, people should goo about their business knowing nypd is out enfor in force with our partner

agencies for people's safety. bottom line we will go about our business in this city and will not be deterred and we will get you updates later on in the evening. >> there you have it, the mayor of new york, bill de blasio, governor cuomo and commissioner o'neill saying this was an act of terror in new york city unfolding at 3:05. when a man in a white pickup truck went down a bike path at halston street drove at 60 miles an hour, barrelling through cyclists and pedestrians before he hit a school bus carrying children and he ran out of the car waving either a paint or pellet gun shouting allah. we now know who this individual is. >> that's right, george. "abc news" confirmed from law enforcement forces his name. he has an id from tampa, florida, he is 29 years old.

no known criminal record. we're still checking on that. >> that is what we know right now. what we don't know is whether he had any help. you saw our commissioner saying he didn't want to go into great detail saying this investigation is two hours old and a joint investigation with the federal government. >> absolutely. now they have the name and will look at this is social network. right now, my sources are saying it looks like a lone wolf incident based on the information they have so far. george, i'm being told the primary thing that points towards terrorism is what he said when he got out of the car. they're still doing the background investigation. yelling allah akbar, and you heard the police chief commissioner say, based on that and the mode of attack, that is why they're determining this is an act of terrorism at this point. there's a lot of work to be done

on his background. again, we have the three sources giving us the name of the suspect a 29-year-old from uzbekistan. again, an international and national investigation involving every data bank the united states has. we will talk with our foreign partners. everything is being put forth to figure out exactly where this man has been, who he's been communicating with, what he's been looking at online, all of that will be done pronto. >> that investigation going on. i go to the scene now as we again show that video of the gunman carrying a paint ball gun jumped out of the car. gio benitiz was on the scene just as schools were being let out right by a school in the area and he eventually hit a school bus carrying special needs children. >> that's right. we also learned there is a community college in this area. one of the main buildings for that community college is where this happened.

the bureau of manhattan community college and we're told by some students here the security in other buildings just went up into their classrooms and said, stay put, we're not letting you out because we don't know what's going on right now. we have seen more ambulances come through here. that's the worry, all these students who were here were right in front of an elementary school here. we have a ton of students in college, high school and, of course, elementary, many of them in their halloween costumes just out in this neighborhood, george. >> you heard the former chief of police, ray kelly, of new york city, you see that scene right there, that bicycle just mangled by a driver going 50, 60 miles an hour. they talked about a heightened police presence across new york city tonight but the halloween parade and tradition in new york city will go on. >> it will go on. i'm sure it will be very well protected. obviously additional resources will be provided and heavy weapons. we know blocker cars will be put

in place and actual blocks will be moved there by the nypd counter-terrorism people. i think it will be very well protected. you always have to be concerned about something happening in some other place in the city. >> you heard governor cuomo talking about new york being an international city which makes new york an inevitable target. >> absolutely. 10 million people here on a business day. we want free and open access. these things unfortunately are the type of experience we're going to have in this post 9/11 world. >> it's the type of experience we have again and again and again. all across europe and in the united states. the attack we've seen in nice, london and here on halloween night. >> new york city also the home of president trump. john is at the white house now and the president has been briefed and seeing his first tweets. >> the president was briefed by

chief of staff, john kelly and we will continue to get updates we just heard from the president. in new york city, looks like another attack by a very sick and deranged person. law enforcement is following this closely, all in caps, not in the usa! we also heard from the first lady about this attack via twitter. she tweeted my heart breaks for new york city today. thoughts and prayers as we monitor this situation. >> perhaps we'll hear more from the white house later this evening. can we see the driver there, as he came out of the car waving his guns, was shot by police. so far, no claim of responsibility by any terror group. >> that's right. no claim of responsibility. police are basing their information this was a terror attack by shouting allah akbar and had two weapons inoperable, paint guns or pellet guns. what they will do, they will take that license plate and

backtrack where that car came from. >> they did not say -- they know it was a rental car and from home depot. they did not say where it was from. no information yet. >> home depot confirmed it was one of their cars and they will instantly know based on the information where that's from. looking at the license plate number, commissioner kelly helped install that system and they can see if there is anybody else that might be involved. >> that is the big question, peter thomas, senior justice comment. the mayor leaned into the idea it was a lone wolf and the police commissioner didn't say they knew for sure. >> that's right. it's too early. until you can find out about his friends, family, what he's been looking at, you won't know. it fits the pattern of lone wolves inspired by what they may have been seeing on the internet. george, i can tell you, given the frequency, increasing

frequency we're seeing these kind of events, law enforcement across the country are going to be rethinking, they're putting out notice and warning. they have to come up with something more than they currently have because clearly, this is the mode of attack not just used by international islamist terrorists or lone wolves, look what happened in charlottesville, that person involved in that racially motivated case decided to kill people using the same method. >> very low tech, using a pickup truck and paint ball gun, not even a real gun. that's what makes this so difficult. you heard the mayor say again, see something, say something. what could you see here? the guy made a turn on halston street and started to plow down bicyclists. >> it happened so quickly, probably a minute to get from four blocks down from halston street. i also think this individual is looking to die. he had two guns not lethal weapons and knew there would be some confrontation ultimately

with the police. he wanted to be shot and killed. >> in that case, what was the engagement for police? were they shooting to kill or injure? >> no. you shoot to stop. shoot to injure takes an awful lot of skill. he had two reps and they were apparently pointed at the police. at least they knew he had two weapons in his custody. it's certainly a reasonable action on the part of the police officer to use his weapon and you stop him. you shoot for mass, you don't shoot to wound. you just can't do that. >> back on the scene now, gio benitiz, you there? >> yeah, george. we've been talking about that community college in the area. we're with one of the students. tell me, what did you see? >> i just saw him walking with his gun down the sidewalk. that's all i see. >> you actually saw the gunman? >> yeah. >> with the gun. at that point, what were you seeing? at that point it must have been

crazy at your community college because we're told a lot of security guards were starting to lock it down. >> yeah. i was outside. >> you were on the street? >> yeah. on the streets, yeah. >> did you hear anything? >> i did not hear anything, no. >> by the time you got out there, were there people on the ground, what was going on? >> i was upstairs down there. i just saw him walking, i didn't see the road up there. i couldn't see the road. i was up there. i just saw him walking down the sidewalk with his gun and hoodie, maybe. i have a video of it. he was wearing a hoodie, something, i think, yeah. >> reporter: i can just imagine we have an elementary school here and your community college. there's one more. >> the high school there, a lot of students are in this area all the time. >> yeah. we walk there every time. >> right on the west side highway? >> yeah. >> people who don't know new york city -- >> i just moved here four months ago, this is something shocking

for me to see this in new york in front of one world trade center. >> reporter: right there. >> right there. right in front of me. it was something shocking for me. >> hamza, thank you so much. george, you're hearing it right here, so many students in this area and what makes it so dangerous in this particular area, we're talking about this world trade center area, you think it's just a financial district. not true. there's a park right there we saw kids playing in this park. this is very much a community here, george. >> people are saying before he did this, he said allah akbar. >> what? >> the thing, he was from the middle east and muslim and said allah akbar. like many say right now. want to clear he was not from middle east. you can tell someone was from middle east. he was wearing a hoodie and all, white and spanish and all and you couldn't tell he's from middle east or muslim and said

allah akbar. >> thanks very much. >> that's actually a very important moment, why we always try to be so careful in the initial minutes and hours after an incident like this. lots of people can be on the scene and hear and see different things. >> absolutely. you see that when you question witnesses. you can be totally off. you can imagine. the cameras are so important these days to verify that. >> and new york city has a proliferation of cameras. >> new york city has cameras. we also saw people on the scene pulled out their phones and took a video. there's something of a pattern here, not only cities being targeted in this low tech way, generally in europe there have been more incidences with more coordination, here in the united states, more lone wolfs. >> that's right. in france and london, there have been teams that have done the attacks from the vehicles and jumped out of the cars and begun firing or using knives.

that must be one of the great concerns initially here there might be others but hasn't been the case according to commissioner o'neill. that has been the pattern a team of attackers get in a vehicle and take off on civilians. >> in some instances, ray kelly, you have some chatter and some advance notice and go back to try to piece it back together. with a lone wolf, none at all. >> and they're using encryption these days. it's the type of thing very difficult for law enforcement to penetrate. they're using certain apps that make it very difficult to get into their communication. so their trade craft is improving. they don't communicate. they're perhaps on the internet reading but not necessarily communicating. >> one of the things we saw, brian ross, people can see messages they track with problems they're already having in their lives and may be mentally ill unbalanced in some

way and take off. >> they use this for excuse as a life that has failed and see this as a way out of your life. you suggested this was somebody who wanted to be shot and shot in the abdomen by police and in custody tonight. it's certainly clear we will know soon, very soon a lot about him. >> where he's from. we believe he was from tampa and we will find out other places he may have lived. we know where he rented the car from. as much as we learn sometimes that still doesn't give the answer i have in my head, that las vegas shooting, we still don't know what drove him. >> absolutely. that is one big mystery. could be this individual just wanted to be -- have his name in history, a bizarre desire to be known, i'm talking about the shooter in las vegas. so far, nothing has come up to show he's particularly aberrant. >> one of the key things of this incident, i want to know if the

suspect, the driver was in the area or deliberately came. >> right. >> to new york city. >> he doesn't appear to have any known new york address. we have seen address in other states, including tampa, florida. what brought him here and why is one of the things they want to know right away. that would lead to the indication, did they send him here or read something or inspired? that will be a key question the fbi wants to pursue informs of terrorism. is this somebody inspired over what they read over the internet or directed. most likely inspired. >> you heard the mayor say this is a joint effort, fbi taking the lead? >> it's joint. the nypd has vast resources as ray kelly will tell you. where the fbi will be particularly useful is working with state partners. they will be in contact with authorities and every

intelligence agency we have will be involved looking at this man's background and want to know did he recently travel overseas and if so, where did he go? who might he have met with? >> one of the things they train for every day to get information in a short period of time in a name so the federal government can have assessment of what are we looking at? is there a possibility of more coming? right now, that is the effort to determine exactly who we're dealing with and what is the potential there could be something else. again, no indication of that but that's what they're looking for. >> that's right. brian ross, you want to know if they went overseas. in this situation, it doesn't take any training at all. >> none. extremely low tech. the ability to rent a truck and moe down civilians, in this case

bicyclists on a bike path not protected by the stands and barricades established in time square. >> that's what i was going to ask, we all know in washington, d.c. in front of the white house you see stands and barriers and in time square and other federal buildings. you can't have those types of barriers everywhere, you couldn't get around the city. >> and by the way, they're very expensive and not easy. and even in time square they can't get around it because of the complexity. to have them everywhere is unrealistic. >> back on the scene, right now, returning to any kind of normalcy? >> reporter: george, police are starting to let local residents in this area cross the street. not a whole lot changed other than that. we keep seeing numerous police vehicles headed towards the crime scene. we saw heavy emergency services equipment, big lights getting

ready for a long night to process that scene. we have seen the fbi response team as well. interesting, we're seeing a lot of new yorkers gathering around soaking up what has happened, a lot of people on their phones, going live on social media, describing the scene down here, kind of surreal for a lot of people that live in this area who have feared this and here it is. we heard from the mayor and from the governor that new yorkers, they want them to be vigilant tonight. they want them to be vigilant always, live by that rule, if you see something say something. the mayor and governor, telling people to go about their business. do not let this stop you. they said, there will be extra police all over the city tonight. expect to see heavy gun teams and sand trucks. they will let that west village parade go ahead. it is business as usual. >> thank you. >> it is so important to send

that message. >> things happening in the world made people uneasy and this compounds this. very important to let them know they'll be protected and a lot of of additional security not only at the parade but other places in the city and there will be other smaller celebrations. if anybody can do it, it's this police department because of the size and equipment it has. >> counter-expert joining us now from washington, d.c., one of the things we've been talking about is the pattern we've seen for the last two or three years ever since the call went out from isis, find a way to attack in any way you can. low tech attacks, major capitals all over the world. >> that's right, george. every time this happens it inspires the thought in another potential attacker, maybe i can do that. it doesn't seem to be that hard. maybe this is the way i can

contribute. this is a chronic condition for cities around the world. isis is not defeated, only defeated in the battlefield and not defeated on the streets. every city needs to look at every event and see if it can block those access points. as ray kelly said, with sand trucks and police cars. >> every city has to do it, i wonder how we all handle it. you say people see this, they get inspired by it. it could inspire someone else to go do it. what does that say about our responsibility and how we handle this? >> it means if we think we know someone who is acting differently, if they suddenly become very religious in islam, they're going to strange websites, being secretive, meeting with new people, you need to tell somebody. tell your mom, tell another friend, if you see that kind of odd change in behavior, don't just do nothing. >> and it often or not does

precede the attacks? >> it usually does. >> and on the scene as well, we've heard from the officials, they want everyone down in new york city to go about their lives, to be vigilant but also to continue. >> reporter: absolutely, george. they talked about that 9/11 memorial being blocks away, that reminder what new york has already been through. this story now, where we've been hearing from all of these college students now, so many have been telling us they were on lockdown around here, we're still seeing so many students in this area. police are still here. the scene seems to be calming down just a tad, george. we're seeing less police, but still very very much, a big police presence here as they try to figure out what went on here. >> let's recap what we know now, eight people dead in new york city, happened around 3:05 p.m.

11 injured. perpetrator driving a white pickup truck. we know who he is and in custody right now. >> that's right. his name is sayfullo saipov, 29 years old, from tampa florida. we don't know what motivated him, where he's from, whether he's an american citizen or not. and ray kelly, former police of chief now being led by the new york police, phish, running down every possible contact this man may have had. >> that's right. running down contacts and many witness reports and talking to many more witnesses as the night goes on. >> an act of terror here in new york cicity, 3:00 p.m., 11 injured, eight dead, three people in custody. we will go off the air right now and for many and mows people down. at least 11 other people were injured and this is cell phone

video of the suspect. identified as 29-year-old sayfullo saipov of tampa, florida. this is he after exiting the truck wielding what police think is a pellet gun, officials say when he exited the vehicle he yelled allah akbar and fired the pellet gun perhaps and police opened fire and he is now at bellevue hospital. the anti-terrorism task for was on the case in a short period of time. authorities in new york, yes are calling this an act of terrorism. a number of schools were placed on lock down in the immediate aftermath of the attack. again eight people are confirmed dead. remember nice, remember london, berlin and barcelona this the latest incident of vehicular terrorism this in lower han hat. lets go to sharrie