l.a. police chief charlie beck said the threat in the email late last night was specific to all campuses in the l.a. school district. the imply threat involved explosives devices. a specific threat was shooting attack with the use of assault rifles and machine pistols as a result. we know 900 public schools, over 1000 if you include charter schools were closed. 640,000 students told to stay home. some of the students already had gone to school and had to be taken home after this announcement was made. they say the email to the l.a. school district came from an i.p. address that wept back to frankfurt, germany, but the police chief says he believes the origin was much closer and not in europe. as david just mentioned the new york superintendent of schools also received a very similar email. however, it was dismissed as a hoax. and that is exactly what new york police commissioner bill bratton said. he said, look, there were errors in this particular email that made it appear to be a hoax. it was n

the chief is a veteran of the san francisco and l.a. police departments and believes the shootings influenced the school districts decision to close. >> i'm sure it probably had something to do with that. you have to stand by the decision. >> the new york city police commissioner has said l.a. unified overreacted. new york city schools received a similar threat and decided not to act. in san francisco, abc7 news. >> this morning hayward police arrested a 15-year-old student for making threats. the student reportedly admitted to posting a threat of violence yesterday on social media. >> happening now, it's debate night, the last debate of the year featuring the republican candidates is underway at the venetian. hillary clinton is outlining a new plan to protect the nation from home grown terrorism, empowering muslim americans to be front line allies is key to preventing attacks. this is in contrast to her republican rivals. >>> the democrats will debate in new hampshire saturday, world news tonight anchor david muir and also martha will moderat

well, to listen to the l.a. police chief, theirs was very targeted, very specific. we also talked about this issue, you will note it's just l.a. unified as mayor garcetti pointed out. that's because the threat was to l.a. unified, not private schools, not parochial schools, not community colleges. mr. mayor, perhaps -- >> brian, although i'm not mayor any longer, i continue to operate 17 schools, 16,000 kids in watts, downtown and on the east side of los angeles so i can tell you, our schools are closed as well. they are part of the l.a. unified school district although my partnership runs these schools so they are closed as well. this was, we felt the impact as did the other schools, the 900 or so. look, again, i wasn't part of this decision making. i'm not mayor any longer. but you started out with i have been in this kind of situation in the past, not exactly this. when law enforcement gives me -- tells me that it's a credible specific threat that we ought to take seriously, we take it seriously. that's what they are done here. we can second-guess tomorrow and the

while acknowledging a hoax was possible, l.a. police chief charlie beck said the threat was very specific, and warned against being too critical. (chief charlie beck, los angeles police) southern california has been through a lot in the recent weeks. should we risk putting our children through the same? i'm steve nannes reporting.> ((dave courvoisier)) > if a similar threat were made here, clark county district officials say they have a plan in place. ((denise valdez)) but just like in l.a., searching every school than 320- thousand students would be a monumental job. paul joncich talked to school officials about how they would do it: ((paul joncich)) > just think about the logistics. l.a. has about 900 schools....in a pretty dense area. there 336 schools in the clark county school district, but they are spaced out over an incredibly large area, 79- hundred square miles. ((paul joncich)) closing and searching all those campuses is too big of a job for ccsd police. so they would bring in additional law enforcement agencies. according to

. >> reporter: in l.a., police there not second-guessing. >> it is very easy, in hindsight, to criticize the decision based on results that the decider could never have known. it is also very easy to criticize a decision when you have no responsibility for the outcome of that decision. >> reporter: but signs of a possible hoax clear. in addition to the two letters, the writer claimed he had 138 in l.a., he claimed he had 32 comrades that would help set off arms and explosives. officials say that is not very realistic. l.a. school officials might have made the call quickly, with just hours before school opening. >> to me the lapd should have been consulted. i'm not certain they were consulted. i think this was a decision made first by the school authorities, not the police. >> what we didn't do, we didn't have an adult in the room, homeland security, fbi, who said, no, no, we're taking a look at this. this is not something you need to react to. >> reporter: after the recent san bernardino shootings, some not questioning the decision. peter king who sits on the homeland security committee

l.a. police chief charlie beck said it might be a hoax and didn't want to take any chances. >> southern california has been through a lot in the recent weeks. should we risk putting our children through the same? reporter: that e-mail appeared to originate from germany. they suspect the origin >>> thank you, tim. the situation in los angeles and new york leading to questions about safety. marty walsh and police commissioner addressing concerns today. dan hausle continues our team coverage now. reporter: boston schools not named in the threat from new york to l.a. but boston was the target of a cyber attack today. city officials say the two aren't connected though and they say the schools are safe. boston school children head home after a full day of classes here. many parents aware of the threat in new york and l.a. >> it concerns me. >> boston schools stayed open. mayor walsh says there was never any threat to schools here. >> we have no reason to believe there's a threat towards boston, our sch

sheriff's office and the l.a. police department. so it's a huge task. the schools receive threats all the time, and in fact, i know of one school that is not far from where i happen to live, where there was a threat of a suspicious person. in that was not considered enough to close down that particular school, let alone the entire school district, so this threat, must rise to considerably higher level. and the superintendent of schools cited recent events internationally and locally, meaning presumably, the attacks in paris and san bernardino, in deciding in an abundance of caution to shut down the schools. and of course this is also in addition to this scary security sweep caused a lot of chaos for a lot of families in this town. >> i was reading a few hours ago, rob, before all of this happened, that the san bernardino couple were suspected of planning something much larger possibly involving an attack on a school. and i suppose what will be interesting to fine out is whether the heightened terror alert in los angeles has been linked to what has been

and we're going to talk to bernard parks the former l.a. police chief out there. you may recall him from several high-profile cases. we'll talk to him by phone in a few short moments. >> but right now, let's go to our correspondent on the phone. dena, how and when were parents notified that the schools were closed this morning? >> reporter: good morning, patty, the parents were notified roughly around the same time that the schooled were closed which was around 7:00 local time. the threat came in around 5:00. and parents were notified one the threat was found to be real. we are told that buses were being turned around in the middle of the morning on their way to pick kids up. so some students are already in schools right now. those students are told to sit tight. when evacuations start to happen, they are told to meet with their patients at the various reunion gates. there are 900 schools being affected, and 187 charter schools. everybody is waiting to hear from law enforcement and the school district itself at what point they are going to meet up with the childre

the chief is a veteran of the san francisco and l.a. policeartments and believes the shootings influenced the school districts decision to close. >> i'm sure it probably had something to do with that. you have to stand by the decision. >> the new york city police commissioner has said l.a. unified overreacted. new york city schools received a similar threat and decided not to act. in san francisco, abc7 news. >> this morning hayward police arrested a 15-year-old student for making threats. the student reportedly admitted to posting a threat of violence yesterday on social media. >> happening now, it's debate night, the last debate of the year featuring the republican candidates is underway at the venetian. hillary clinton is outlining a new plan to protect the nation from home grown terrorism, empowering muslim americans to be front line allies is key to preventing attacks. this is in contrast to her republican rivals. >>> the democrats will debate in new hampshire saturday, world news tonight anchor david muir and also martha will moderate. >

director james comey visited the bureau's l.a. police who investigated the massacre in san bernardino nwhich 14 people were killed. and for the first time, we're getting a look at the visa application filed by one of the terrorists to get into this country. here's homeland security security correspondent jeff pegues. >> reporter: eight months before syed farook entered the united states with his bride-to-be, he applied for a fiance visa for tashfeen malik. in the document dated december 31, 2013, farook, an american citizen, wrote that they had met through a matrimonial web site. when asked for more information, farook wrote in a statement that after several weeks of e-mailing, he and malik decided to meet each other. that happened when they both attended the hajj pilgrimage in mech asaudi arabia, on october 3, 2013. and it is on this day, he says, that we got engaged. he signed that statement january 20, 2014. and received proof. visa stamps that both were at the hajj. ultimately, the application was approved, clearing the way for the s

l.a. police chief defended the decision to close all the schools for the day. >> all of us make tough choices. all of us have the same goal in mind. we want to keep our kids safe. >> new york city received a similar email threat but unlike the l.a. school district, they kept their schools opened. police commissioner there said there were clear signs of a hoax. >> the language in the email would lead us to believe that this is not a jihadist initiative. for example, that, um, allah was not spelled with a capital a. that would be incredible to think that any jihadist would not spell allah with a capital a. >> since the attacks in paris and san bernardino police are on edge. intelligence officials say it's harder know you to discern which threats are credible, especially because of offline propaganda from terror groups. experts say isis sends anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 tweets a day. >>> investigators are still looking for the person who sent the emails. they were routed through a server in germ

l.a. police say the e-mail threat that shut down the school district described an attack with assault rifles. new york officials received the very same threat, but they dismissed it as a hoax and held class as usual. >>> take a look at this. a homeless man built this cave 15 feet under ground. why he's now facing criminal charges after trying to give himself a better life. >>> plus -- >> no one would ever expect to go into a restaurant and have this happen to them. >> he says he took a sip of beer and instantly knew something was wrong. what this man is accusing a restaurant of putting inside his glass. aundrea? >>> it may become easier to get a job even with a criminal record. coming up i'm going to tell you about changes that force employers to give you more of a fair chance. >>> and why it's taking longer for your holiday packages to arrive this year. >>> plus, we have heavy rain coming before the week's over. then it will feel like winter this weekend. i'll show you the timing of the rain and

the l.a. police chief says the threat was very specific... and they refused to take authorities said they received a similar threat. here in clark county.... the school district says it is constantly updating its security measures to keep students safe. c-c-s-d -- preparing for possible threats and emergencies by making a crisis response plan and making sure staff is trained to detect and respond to the threats. capt. young: we never say that it couldn't happen here. our motto is to prepare for anything that does occur. we are always anticipating that we could receive this type of a threat and we prepare accordingly " ccsd also has an automated messaging system that allows school officials to get information to parents quickly and put out a community alert for the larger public. the las vegas division of the f-b-i is looking to see if there are more victims.... of the north las vegas man arrested for kidnapping an arizona teen and holding her captive in his home for a month. investigators jimmy carter kim is charged with felony kidnappy and s

i'm sure this is going to be a real effort of the l.a. police force, and it is going to take an entire city to deal with the fact that there are all these kids who are out of school today, and the police chief and the head of the school district said in the press conference earlier this morning that they really hope that everyone will be understanding if employees have issues getting to work today because they have to deal with the fact that all of a sudden every single kid is out of school. >> yeah. big, big impact, surely, to the city. can't do this every week or certainly every month, but an important development. we'll continue to track it. >> one other thing i think is worth noting. here in los angeles we are not used to having snow days. in other parts of the country schools are shut down many times a year because of weather. schools aren't shut down because of weather here. it just doesn't happen. we are not as accustomed to dealing with that kind of city-wide school shutdown. >> yeah. indeed. many follow-on affects. we'll have to watch t

l.a. they shut the school down telling all 640,000 school kids to stay home. our police commissioner bill bratton called that an overreaction, said a close look at the e-mail show a lot of inconsistencies, series jihadists simply wouldn't make. >> we do not see that as a credible terrorist threat. for example, allah was not spel spelled with a capital a . incredible to think that any jihadists would not do that. >> it is very easy in hindsight to criticize the decision based on results that the decider could never have known. >> reporter: the attack in new york city and l a mentioned nerve gas. commissioner bratton said he thinks the author of these e-mails were lifting that plot line from the hit tv show homeland because they came from germany, mentioned nerve gas, that centers around a plot on the show. maybe this was someone trying to make hollywood and create a little chaos. that is the latest from lower back to both of you. ben: thanks very much. a big shake-up in the department of homeless services. gilbert taylor stepping down after two years in that job. currentl

police commissioner saying i knew it was a hoax. i probably wouldn't have closed down schools. what they did in l.a. who's right? >> i know that there is a division in new york city police department that really studies this carefully and knows how to go through it and determine right off the bat whether or not it's a hoax or real. i spoke with john miller who runs the new york terrorism unit and they received this same thing at 7:00 a.m. this morning. they did an analysis on this and realized that in fact, it was a hoax. so, for nypd at least, going through the police department and the terrorism unit, they decided we're going to leave the schools open and they were going to go ahead and investigate this and see who was responsible for it. >> so, it begs the question, bob, do we have any sort of comingling of information between the two largest cities in the united states of america. if they knew that, do they have any sort of alerts they send out, hey f you receive this kind of an e-mail with a lower case a, it's a hoke. >> well, i think remember, bratton and miller set up the terrorism unit in los angeles. yea

l.a. unified is a very big and very autonomous school district. it is the second largest employer in los angeles county. the district has its own police force and the school board and the superintendent make all of the decisions. now, former l.a. mayor antoifouo bring the school board under the control of the mayor's office. for a short time he did. in the end the school district fought back and regained its authority. in new york the superintendent or chancellor, as it's called, cannot close down the schools without approval from the mayor and police commissioner, but here in los angeles, shep, the superintendent has the final say on what happens within the 1,000-plus schools in the l.a. unified school district. >> so at the end of all of this, the person who said, yes, close them, or no, keep them open, that's the commissioner. >> that's the superintendent. the superintendent of l.a. unified school district along with the board has all the power. they are the ones that say yes or no to closing the schools. the police, we're told the police force was asked to weigh in, but the decision was made before the police force actually got ba

>> in california police are looking for the suspect in a shooting in a luxury hotel in downtown l.a. police say the shooting began with a fight early sunday at the standard on flower street. four people were taken to the hospital where one died. it is not clear whether the victims were staying at the hotel. >> eagles 230-20 victory -- 23-20 victory over the bills left lesean mccoy frustrated. the eagles held him to 74 yards rushing and no touchdown. he kissed the eagles logo before the coin to toss, but ran off te field right after the game. >> i know he wanted to make a statement after he got the big yards. >> he is one of the best backs in the league he made plays on us, i don't know what he finished with, we felt like we did a good job throughout the game. 6-7 eagles remain tied for first place with washington, they take on arizona at home sunday night. >> still ahead on "action news," a military dog named rocky livings up to his movie hero name. >> reporter: it's foggy out there, tell the kids to be careful crossing the streets, slow it down because it will be hard to to see animals, ki

reporter: while acknowledging a hoax was possible, l.a. police chief said the threat was specific and warned against being too critical. >> southern california has been through a lot in the recent weeks. should we risk putting the children through the same? horace: now overseas. turkey state run news agency says the syrian islamic state militants suspected of planning a suicide attack at u.s. consulate has been arrested. the consulate was closed down last week over unspecified threat. defense secretary ash carter is in turkey developing the best strategy to take down isis. this comes after president obama threatened isis leaders. don't be alarmed if you heard noises around the marine corps base in quantico. they are in the midst of ground and aircraft training and it will continue through friday. most days training will begin around 8:00 in the morning and will end at 6:00 at night. anyone with concerns should contact public affairs office. autria: in the last half hour, the jury in the freddie gray case told the judge they for deadlocked but the

the police commissioner, the former l.a. chief of police, says his department is investigating the e-mail as a hoax. a different reaction from his cross-country counterpart. >> we would be concerned with overreacting. >> it is easy to criticize the concern over the outcome of that decision. >> southern california has been through a lot in the recent weeks. should we risk putting our children through the same? >> los angeles officials defended today's schoolcl caution. the e-mail threat mentioned assault rifles, explosive devices. more to come in a press conference. jim: at 5:00, the pentagon is warning the terror group isis is growing afghanistan. another front to fight this battle. violence by isis terrorists on the rise in afghanistan. the u.s. has 9800 troops in afghanistan. on landing in nashville. the jet slammed into a ditch. three people were hurt. we can tell you the injuries are all minor. no idea yet why that plane crashed into the ditch. jim: here in town, some traffic trouble. >> we are trying to figure out exactl

an l.a. police task force served a search warrant at his home. a former girlfriend gave police this is not his first legal issue. a former girlfriend filed a lawsuit against him in 2013, accusing him of sexual battery. oklahoma crews will begin searching again this morning for country singer craig strickland, the lead singer of the band, back road anthem. he vanished while lunting ducks with a good friend over the weekend. his good friend was found dead on monday, but strickland's wife is hopeful that her husband is hot there and will be found alive. hospitalized after becoming sick over the weekend. according to tmz, they diagnosed him with diabetes, saying that kardashian didn't know he had it. unlike the rest of his family in keeping up with the kardashians, he has avoid the the public life for two years, he struggled with wait gain and depression in recent years. time for tom hawley and this week's edition of the video >> preparations are well underway for tomorrow a night's grucci family fireworks display on the strip, as well as celebrations

star, played noah pucker man, police say selling was taken into custody after served a warrant in l.a., police found more than a thousand images of child sexual exploitation on his computer, he they took tablets and cell phones in to evidence as well. >> just inbieber may be facing. >> legal trouble. steve: a san francisco city attorney not a big fan of ads from bieber's new album. >> an early case of new year's eve they test the confetti they allison: in the city, you would think that hipsters are alive and well. steve: many say their day has come and gone, stacy delikat with who has taken their place. reporter: hipsters, a subculture of individual men and women -- art and indy rock, and witty bike, and l train commute. >> any something something that dresses bo bohemian style. >> long hair, big glasses. >> they want to sort of look like they are starving artists but they are not. reporter: however you define hipster, add this, a thing of the past according to everyone from vice to guardian to mashable, the hipster is dead, you might not like who comes next. >> cultural markers, have since pr

the l.a. police chief blasted those who criticized their decision to shut down school today. >> it is very easy in hindsight to criticize a decision based on results that the decider could never have known. it is also very easy to criticize a decision when you have no responsibility for the outcome of that decision. the school district safeguards three-quarters of a million lives every day. when they make a decision, they have to take into account the safety of the children of los angeles. i think it's irresponsible based on facts that have yet to be determined to criticize that decision at this point. >> president obama has been informed of the threats and the fbi and atf are assisting. joining me now, cnn national correspondent kyung lah who is live for us in los angeles and also cnn national security analyst juliette kiem is joining us as well. >> reporter: what we know from the police chief is that the e-mail threat came in very late last night. he said that it was specific to l.a. unified school

she met twice with the l.a. police department this past year, and she met once in a lengthy meeting with the l.a. district attorney's office. and they've been keeping touch with us. they've been conducting their investigation. and the case is still open. they have not told us one way or the other at this time whether they're going to bring charges, but we're hopeful. she's hopeful that they are now emboldened by the actions taken in pennsylvania that they will take action as well. >> assuming this were to go to trial, the expectation from legal experts is there would be essentially a parade of alleged victims who would come in and testify in the andrea constand case and that the prosecution would try to illustrate what is a pattern of behavior for bill cosby. if that were the case, is your client, is chloe, willing to go before a judge, before a jury in this case? >> yes, in fact, since day one when she went to the police department and gave her account of what happened to her back in 2008, she told him, even if you ca

until friday for our first chance to see it and the movie is being screened in three theaters in l.a. police to shut down four blocks of hollywood boulevard just so crews could set up tents to prepare for the big night. sgloor i'm meagan fitzgerald at the washington regional transplant committee where 2400 people in our area are waiting for organs. we spoke with a mother of a woman who lost her daughter stacy five years ago in a bicycle accident. stacy was an organ donor and managed to save the life of five different people. today her mother met one of them. >> so nice to meet you. >> so nice to meet you. >> so special just being able to see you. >> coming up at 5:00, the emotional meeting officials here say hardly ever happens. >> boy, oh, boy. if that wasn't enough to warm your heart, we have to tell you about an incredible outcome to an effort in our area to send blankets to syrian refugees. an incredible 60 tons of blankets have been collected so far this year. that's three times the amount folks donated. the blankets are on their way to turkey to be distributed to refugees. >>> too clos

here is the reaction from the l.a. police [ cheers and applause ] >> i would say this to people that are critical. it is very easy in hindsight to criticize a decision based on results that the decider could never have known. it's also very easy to criticize a decision when you have no responsibility for the outcome of that decision. >> and that's a good point to make, but when you hear from local authorities here, whether the police chief or others, they will tell you they support whatever the decision is made but that decision was made solely by the university -- lausd so the police and fbi, they again told us very early on they didn't feel it was credible, that it was someone taking advantage of the situation here in southern california, specifically with what happened two weeks ago, and they were surprised that the l.a. usd took the action that they did, neil. they think, again, they say it's a bad precedent to set and that what it's done is really cause the a lot of commotion and problems, not only here locally and acros

one of those plots is something a top l.a. police official tells us they've never encountered before. tonight, enrique marquez has had his bail denied by a federal court judge. and his alleged role in another plot with san bernardino shooter syed farook is causing major concern among counterterror officials. the criminal complaint says starting in late 2011 marquez and farook mapped out a plan to attack the 91 freeway near los angeles at rush hour. marquez told investigators, farook was to start the attack by throwing pipe bombs on to the highway on a stretch with no exits. the explosions would disable traffic. then farook would move among the stopped vehicles and fire at them. >> in a place like this what you're essentially looking at throw pipe bombs, you're setting up a combined space and able to set up traffic and they're not able to get out. so you can slowly pick through people and build up your level of casualties. >> reporter: a top l.a. police counterterror chief tells cnn this is the first time a terror plot involving freew

police presence. that's a sort of counternarrative to what l.a. just did. >> interesting, juliette. you think it's a timing thing and not a severity thing. as you said, i can't remember a shutdown like this. you're talking about more than 600,000 students. >> 900 schools. what they say they to want do right now is search these schools with expert personnel. the superintendent said some type of unspecified threat involving backpacks and other unspecified -- >> john, it's curious. the superintendent was talking about i, i made the decision, i made the decision. i think we will hear over time where the mayor's office was at this stage and also where the l.a. police department was. the school district has its own police department, own security apparatus given its size and diversity of the school district. based on solely specified schools across a school district that, as you said, includes almost 1,000 schools, i'm not seeing it yet. i'm not seeing what would have triggered this except the timing issue. that's my only explanation at this stage that they wake up in the morning, they ha

and new york's police commissioner says l.a. overreacted. but with the attacks in san bernardino still fresh in their mind, imagine being the official who has to make that call. migel almaguer has >> reporter: shortly before 7:00 a.m., police were mobilized and the decision was made public. the nation's second largest school district saying it received a credible threat, abruptly shutting down all campuses just before the morning bell. >> they said that it wasn't no school due to a bomb threat. it's very scary. >> reporter: the unprecedented decision is what many woke up to. >> breaking news of the massive district-wide shutdown of lausd schools. >> reporter: the threat came by e-mail. a person claiming to be a high school senior ready with an army to attack schools with guns and bombs. los angeles is just 65 miles from san bernardino, where 14 were killed in a terror attack less than two weeks ago. >> i think the circumstances in the neighboring san bernardino, i think what has happened in the nation, i think superintendent am not going to t

new york police commissioner bill bratton, once the l.a. police commissioner said he thought l.a. overreacted, that was a comment that was not welcome across the country. >> the school district safeguards three-quarters of a million lives every day. when they make a decision, they have to take into account the safety of the children of los angeles. i think it's irresponsible to, based on facts that have yet to be determined, to criticize that decision at this point. liz: fox news' adam housley is in los angeles with the very latest. and can you tell that the l.a. officials from mayor garcetti to of course charlie beck were unhappy that people were second-guessing them. i don't really blame them. >> reporter: there's a lot going on here, liz. tell you about the facts of what went down yesterday. last night when the e-mails were received, and quickly as i was told by investigators locally and federally, they have to deem them as credible. early on right away, if you get a threat like that especially in light of san bernardino, you have to deem the threat as credible. i was told by f

so 1992 -- four l.a. policeor what sure as hell looked to me like a wildly excessive and prolonged beating of an unarmed rodney king. in april of that year, they were acquitted. for me, it was a holy [ expletive ], i never saw that coming moment. for african-americans it was a somewhat ruder surprise. to say people were angry would be an understatement. >> they don't represent the people no more! >> south central was that way. so you could almost feel it like a tidal wave coming. >> the lapd were completely unprepared for what happened next. >> everything you see right here, all this was being looted, chairs and rocks and everything being thrown through walls. if you go straight down western on venice, the whole plaza burned on fire. we were calling 911, and there was no response. >> did the cops come at all? >> i was here all three days. i didn't see any cops. >> well, where did they set up their front line? >> rodeo drive. >> where did the forces of law and order set up their perimeter? not here. koreatown was

. >> with me on that, former l.a. police detective and fox news contributor mark berman. well said.id. >> you know, when i listen to his words, they're so heart felt and so meaningful. can you tell they're coming from his heart. but i think everybody should know that right now in america, just to go out in a police uniform takes -- is really an act of courage. the way the public has demonized the police and i think everybody should realize that i think this shooting in san bernardino we realize that we are at war. but the special forces, the special ops that are going to fight this war inside the united states are cops. the cops in uniform. the cops in plain clothes and detectives and the more you demonize them, the less motivated they're going to be able to be the less sure of their actions. and this is going to be a safety issue for the entire country. >> for all we know this cop was watching pigs in a blanket frying like bacon a couple weeks ago and what do we want? dead cops. whether do we want them? now. that's the context for, you know, how cops have to go on the job these day

the l.a. police defended the decision to close all schools for a day. >> all of us make tough choices. we all want to keep our kids safe. >> new york city received a similar email threat but unlike los angeles, new york kept its schools open. investigators there determined that the threat was not credible. >>> investigators are still looking for the person who sent the emails. they were routed through a server in germany. the server's owner is cooperating with law enforcement. >>> today the hayward police department is launching a new crime-fighting program called empowering your electronic security or eyes. residents and business owners can register their privately owned surveillance camera systems. it will allow police to check surveillance footage to investigate crimes committed near the cameras. hayward is among several cities to start such a program. >>> health advocates say california is discriminating against low income latino patients. they filed a complaint yesterday with federal health and

the l.a. police the decision to close all schools for a day. >> all of us make tough choices. all of us have the same goal in mind. we want to keep our kids safe. >> new york city received a similar email threat but unlike los angeles, it kept its schools open. the police commissioner there were clear signs of a hoax. >> the language in the email would lead us to believe that this is not a jihadist initiative. for example, that, um, allah was not spelled with a capital a. that would be incredible to think that any jihadist would, um, not spell allah with a capital a. >> since the attacks in paris and san bernardino, police are being extra cautious. intelligence officials say it's harder now to discern which threats are and are not credible especially because of online propaganda from terror groups. experts say isis sends anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 tweets a day. investigators are still looking for the person who sent the emails. they were routed through a server in germany. the server's owner is

that does not sit well with los angeles especially l.a. police chief charlie beck who said, you know what? easy for you to say but you don't have to live with the consequences of your decision. but that said, the latest word, deirdre, it appears to be hoax. deirdre: ashley, thanks very much. >> sure. deirdre: as ashley mentioned, email terror threat along with numerous districts around the country. new york city determined the threat that was not credible for new york. >> l.a. is a huge school system, 600 square miles school system and to disrupt daily schedules of half a million schoolchildren, their parents, day care, buses based on anonymous email without consultation, if in fact consultation did not occur with law epforcement authorities i think it was, a significant overreaction, yes. deirdre: with me now is a former deputy assistant director of the fbi, danny coulson. you created and commanded the fbi hostage rescue team. you commanded four field divisions. when people say new york underreacted and l.a. overreacted, these are pretty tough c

as l.a. police fanned out and began checking schools today, officials said the e-mailed threat came from germany and mentioned everything from guns to bombs to nerve gas. for many parents, it was unnerving. >> well it's real, watching from what happened in san bernardino, that's pretty close to home. now this one here, even closer, it's pretty scary. >> confusion, chaos, nervousness. you're not really certain what's going on, what's entailed behind it. there are a lot of different emotions behind that. >> ifill: meanwhile, officials in new york city said they received a similar, if not the same, message. they discounted it as a hoax, possibly based on a tv show. >> we believe the email originated overseas. the language in the email would lead us to believe this is not a jihadist intiative, for example, that allah was not spelled with a capital a. that would be incredible to think that any jihadist would not spell allah with a capital a. i think the initiator, instigator of the threat, may be a homel

l.a. closed down the schools, the former police commissioner from los angeles who is now the commissioner f new york city saying we received the same threat as l.a. and our schools are open. the threats are promoting fear and we will not allow it to raise fear and he was concerned with people overreacting to it. that is criticism coming from the police commissioner in our city. there is a bit of back and forth. regardless the school district is shut town. mark, fox news contributor, you worked in l.a. 20 years plus. what is your reaction as we know it? >> i think it is interesting the way new york handled the threat in the way. this is the decision of the school district. i hear people that will react the same way in the fut and you are the thing that alarms me and that i look at. it could be a probe to find out how the city reacts and what they do, and the command posts they form and where they form them and how they literally drain the city of law enforcement for a short period of time and when the threat is not there, or they concede the threat not to be a threat, then it goes back to n

. >> the reporter: while action knowledging a hoax was possible, l.a. police chief charlie beck says the threat was very specific, and warned against being too critical. >> southern california has been through a lot. in the recent weeks. children threw the same. >> vanessa: now at 5:00 p.m., city inspectors are investigating after a wall suddenly collapses in maldin, crashing down on top of five people, including a mom and her baby. that 30-foot section fell this >> >> tonight, we are hearing from the people who raced to help free the people pinned underneath. fox 25's kerry kavanaugh joins us in maldin with their story. >> maldin police say fortunately, the five people, including a baby, pinned underneath, none of them suffered any serious injury. the wind was definitely blowing when the wall fell on the sidewalk behind me, but as soon as it did, city inspectors came out and made sure, as you can see, that the rest of it was cleared up. we want to show you surveillance video from a local shop of that wall, coming down on several people, including a baby if a

new york's police commissioner bill grate ton who was once l.a.'s police commissioner said l.a. overreacted to the hoax. >>> southwest airlines plane rolled right off the runway while it was taxiing to a gate. this happened in nashville at the international airport. you can see the nose of that plane on the ground. passengers and crew of course got off safely. investigators trying to figure out how this happened. >>> now here's storm team 4 forecast. >>> feeling like winter again. we're down near freezing in the shenandoah valley and out in the mountains this morning. closer to washington. nearby suburbs mid to upper 30s. near 40 degrees around the beltway. inside the beltway and downtown in the mid 40s. bay waters, low 40s. partly cloudy, mostly clear sky. remaining cool through noontime. a light wind during the afternoon as we hover into the mid 50s. late afternoon back down into the mid 50s. so overall a very nice day. big changes coming for the weekend. look at that cold plunge. that's coming up next weather and traffic on the 1s at 6:21. melissa, problem on the beltway. >>

was our colleagues there who asked for the help of the los angeles police department as that shooting unfolded, or this morning when l.a. usd reached out to the los angeles police department and the city of l.a. for assistance, we are here because our first job is to ensure the people are safe in this city. it is very easy for people to jump to conclusions and i've been around long enough to know that usually what people think in the first few hours is not necessarily how it plays out in later hours. we see investigations un fold sometimes for a series of days, but decisions need to be made in a matter of minutes. i have been immediately on the phone when we learned of this mta, to ensure that students could travel free on our busses and our rail lines today, to ensure they can get home safely, to make sure that they are able to get through this city without having to worry, because we know at love parents still have to continue -- a lot of parents still have to get to work and cannot even afford to miss one day. we are here, chief beck and i, with lapd's extentsive leadership and training that connected some of the do

l.a.'s choice is understandable. one local police chief ackowledged he and others are seeing school threats here in the bay area. >>sot we get threats all the time. we receive bomb threats in some of the those here and we vet those out >> reporter:that from oakland school police chief jeff godown who says that threats to our bay area schools have become fairly common. >>sot i just talked with a chief of another school districtnot going to tell you the district but he just threats this week alone so. >> reporter:in new york school officials opted to allow schools to stay open despite a threatening email.in l.a. they closed the schools. former fbi special agent rick smith of canon street investigations weighed in. >>sot my personal feeling is that something would happen then they would send some sort of special message that they were responsible for it as opposed to warning peoplebut we're in a different era and anything could happen. >> reporter:smith says the language and content of these emails has to be read, evaluated, and compare

l.a. usd police. it would have been made in conjunction with other local authorities, including our own lapd. but certainly as i understand it, federal law enforcement was also involved in this decision. >> chuck todd has some information on the level of this threat has it's described. >> mr. mayor, i was told that the la formally calls it a level 1 terror threat which under your system meant mandatory evacuation of the schools, that there was no -- is that the information you were given, that this is being called -- >> that's what i understand as well, chuck. i know that the threats transpired over a period of time, beginning last night and into the early morning and after evaluating these threats -- and there were multiple ones -- the decision was made to close the schools. >> can you tell us any more about these threats? at this point the superintendent said it was a message to several schools here. the associated press is reporting that these threats appeared to have come from overseas. what more

l.a.'s police chief, said it is always easy to second guess. >> southern california, has been through a lot in the recent weeks. should we risk putting our children through the same? >> reporter: interesting to note that the l.a. superintendent who made the call, ramon cortines, was a former superintendent here in san francisco and also a former superintendent at the schools in san jose and one other big city, he ran the schools in new york city. reporting from san francisco, mark mathews, nbc bay area news. >>> schools in the east bay also took note of the threat in l.a., but they say the scare did not reach a level that called for any extra safety measures. >> we get threats here in the school district, bomb threats and other threats, that we vet out over the course of the school year. we handle all the threats as if they're a viable threat until we determine they are not. there wasn't anything that caused us a concern here. >> still ahead on nightly news who may be responsible for all of this and how such threats have become the new normal for americans. nightly news begins at 5:30. >>>