in the meantime, we have pete williams standing by for us in washington. pete, what more do you have for us? >> well, the names here and the family backgrounds are starting to become much clearer now to us. we know that dzhokhar tsarnaev was born in kyrgyzstan and he's 19 years old and resident of cambridge and his brother, the 26-year-old, is a legal permanent resident born in -- sorry, became a legal permanent resident in 2007. he's 26 years old. born in 1986 in russia. and we believe that they came to the united states with their family, probably ten years ago. 2002 or 2003. and, apparently, the family had claimed asylum. his father had worked in chechnya. so, they have -- there's a contact or there's a context with russia, chechnya and kyrgystan. now that we know the who part of the boston marathon bombing. the why part is where everybody is going to be focusing on now. what it was that caused this family that came to the united states because they saw it as an answer to problems, seeking asylum and seeking to escape something. why would these two broth

want to go to pete williams who's been working his sources. pete, by this point, it's been widely concluded that this is in fact related to the bombings of monday. the question is, are the two men confronted today the same ones we saw that in that photo? >> reporter: it does appear that the answer is yes. two law enforcements firnls have told us that the incident did involved the two men who are the suspects in the boston bombing. one is dead. the other is at large. the person who set the bomb they believe at the second bombing site at the boston marathon is at large. the so-called "white hat" suspect. let's repeat this lester. we have been twoeld independent law enforcement officials that the whole thing tonight in watertown involves the two people whose pictures were shown by the fbi, the two people the fbi believes were the boston marathon bombers. one they say is dead and the other is at large. the so-called "white hat" suspect. this is the that person you just saw, the one with the black hat, we believe is dead. the person with the white h

let's get to nbc's justice correspondent pete williams who has the latest on the suspects and the investigation. pete, good morning again to you. >> reporter: good morning, savann savannah. we've been told the names of these told. we're told that they're brothers. they've been in the united states for at least a year. one of them was living in the cambridge area. we're told that the man with the white hat, the one on the left, the one who is still at large, the one who is the reason for all of this police activity and this extraordinary lockdown in boston and the suburbs is 19 year old tsarnaev. he has a massachusetts driver's license. is a resident of cambridge. we don't know the first name of his brother. they obviously came here many months ago, at least a year ago. the other thing is it bears repeating, savannah, that all this started thursday night not because the fbi was moving into arrest them. there was no tactical operation planned. five hours after the fbi showed their pictures. they were not about to arrest them. five hours after the pictures became public, they apparently decided to

pete williams live in d.c. we should note, we've been covering this story all night, since it started at 11:00 at night. we were uncertain throughout the night whether any of these events were linked. it started with reports of a shooting at m.i.t. then it turned to the violence that was taking place at watertown. then while all of this was taking place, we were hearing reports of a carjacking. we were hearing reports of a robbery at a 7-eleven. we didn't know if any of this was related. we didn't know if any of this was related to the boston marathon bombing. throughout the night, we've been trying to ascertain what was what. we wanted to make sure we were very responsible in our reporting and not jump to any conclusions that we didn't have evidence to support. at this time, here's what we can now reasonably conclude. law enforcement officials believe that this all began last night when those two suspects in the boston marathon bombing, the men they released photos of on thursday, those two men you're seeing o

let me bring in pete williams since we have referred to him so many times already. pete, you are working the phones, as we like to say here. we understand the anxiety here. people want a solution. they want to know who the individual is responsible for this. especially this has been compare so much to the atlanta olympic park bombing and we know it took many years for someone to be convicted for that crime. but pete, back to the information with the surveillance video, and i don't know if we have the answers to this, and i'm hedging the bets we do not. but if the video shows someone placing that bag down, wouldn't that video show the bag exploding? would the camera move away from that vantage point? would that tell the story perhaps? >> it might. it might be obscured by people in the foreground. could be a momentary gap. but let me get to where the facts are. tam ron, at t tamron, at the end of the day, someone will be right. pick your conclusion. someone is right out there. i can only tell you what we have been told by senior government officials. >> absolutely. >>

it's been a lot of pete williams all morning. i have more pete williams. he reports officials think they know where this suspect in the white hat is holed up. they think they have located him. he also says that there may be a third person of interest in this now. there is definitely something going on boston right now. some outlets report that they smell smoke in the area. cnn just had a reporter on the scene and was reporting from where there is a lot of police activity and a police officer came up and told her to get out of the area and they are trying to reestablish a shot and police are sort of swarming around that cameraman. something is going on right now. i am not sure what it is. we will you know. >> is this the same office apartment complex? >> this is a different complex than the one they were looking at earlier. >> chris, you know, i was seeing something, but i haven't been able to watch. are there any videos on youtube of these guys? i had seen something of twitter. does that provide any clues of who these guys are? >> yes. there is actually ha

we have a note for pete williams. two sources tell nbc news that two people have video of a person placing a black bag down. one confirm authorities have video of several individuals including this one person who they are interested in questioning. these have been described to nbc has solid leads. looking for him to question. this is what we are getting at nbc news from law enforcement officials. not about an arrest. not about an identified suspect per say. but that they have leads based on the video surveillance cameras that they have had access to. >> we know this. a security camera is the camera which has captured much of the video that law enforcement officials are using in their investigation. that is from google maps and that is the camera on the corner of the lord and taylor. nbc news investigative producer on this. bob, maybe you can answer a fundamental question from our viewers. >>> it is the hallmark of this investigation. and he is said to one of the things that we have to be assured of is that we are gett

i want to go to pete williams in washington, d.c. pete, what can you tell us about what's happening here this evening? >> el with, i think there's ample reason to think what we're seeing h ining here is connecte boston marathon bombing. number one, we know that the fbi was very interested in this part of massachusetts based on the initial information they had gathered and some of the tips they had received. this is not that coincidence. there was a great deal of interest beyond the mere fact that this suburb is near -- in the same state of massachusetts and not far from boston. so that's the first thing. secondly, we have seen and we're not reporting the names yet. but we have seen the names of the two people that we believe have been arrested there. one of them was a name that the fbi was very interested in tracing down based on a couple of factors, including the fact that the fbi had received a number of tips based on people looking at the pictures saying that one of the suspects looked very much like this person. so it was a name o

i want to go back to pete williams who has been doing some great reporting for us this morning. pete, as we consider the public safety issue now present in boston, this isn't just a matter of getting hands on this suspect, but needless to say he's extraordinarily dangerous and we've had reports through the night that during that chase with police, both of these suspects were allegedly hurling explosives at police. >> yes. it is interesting. i can't think of a time when a major community like this was basically under lockdown. even when you have a killer on the loose or someone who escapes from prison or gets out of police custody, an active shooter. to lockdown an entire city is really extraordinary. it tells you the seriousness with which they are taking this. now, we know that they had a good deal of explosives in the car that they carjacked. that suggests that they were carrying quite a few explosives when they just grabbed somebody else's car. they hadn't loaded up a car with explosives first. they had them on their person. perhaps they are acting on the supposition that if t

i want to bring in pete williams, who's also standing by for us in washington, d.c. and pete, i understand that there was an initial positive test, but there's really no way to know whether it's really ricin until additional testing is done. >> ever since the anthrax mailings, no mail has gone directly to the white house, capitol hill and many other government offices. it's all sent to off site facilities to test it for various things. both facilities gave an initial positive for a poison called ricin. there were subsequent tests, they were conflicting. but you can't really know for sure what it is until it's sent to a lab and cultured and then you look under a mike scope to see what it is. now, we have seen events in the past, craig, ice ricin is made tr castor beans and someone will just take dried beans and grind them up and put them in a letter. now, that will test positive for ricin even though there's no ricin there. i guess it would be like the difference between poppies and opium. they're related, but it's not the same thing. so you won't know whether it's ric

bombing started to emerge this week as a moment of silence was observed around the country. >> pete williams did a great job when he was covering this terror attack. brian williams did a great job. >> tensions grew on capitol hill over a stalled immigration bill. meanwhile the associated press had their twitter account hacked. >> the ap's twitter feed was hacked by a group called syrian electronic army. i saw them at bonnaroo in 2006. amazing. >>> embarrassing moments for oscar-winning actress reese witherspoon. and for jennifer lawrence. >> we are happy to present glaad's advocate for change award to president glib -- bill clinton. >> but the flub heard around the country came from this news anchor. >> your news leader in high-definition. >> guy [ bleep ] [ bleep ]. >> it quickly became an internet hit as did the new evian babies ad which racked up more than 34 million youtube views. that's nothing compared to psy's new music video, shattering records with 38 million views in a single day. mike myers and dana carvey reunited for a special "wayne's world" screening. schawing! and it's all ab

started to emerge this week as a moment of silence was observed around the country. >> props to pete williams who did a great job when he was covering this terror attack. brian williams did a great job. serena williams, i thought, was very good. robin williams, will.i.am. everyone. >>> tensions grew on capitol hill over a stalled immigration bill. >> never said that. >> didn't say you did, sir. >> meanwhile, the associated press had their twitter account hacked. >> the ap's twitter feed was hacked by a group calling itself the syrian electronic army. i saw them at bonnaru in 2006. they're amazing. >>> embarrassing moments for reese witherspoon and for jennifer lawrence. >> we are happy to present glaad's advocate to president glib -- bill clinton. >>> your news leader in high definition. >> okay. [ bleep ]. >> it quickly became a hit as did the avian baby's ad. but that's nothing compared to psy's new music video. it shattered youtube records with 38 million views in a single day. >>> mike myers and dana carvey reunited for a special "wayne's world" screening. schwing! >>> and it's all about

pete williams is still with us. there seems to be a key period in his life, six months when he went back to russia. his father says that he went to visit him, but i guess the key question is, was it at that point that he somehow was radicalized? >> well, that's a -- that's one question. and the second question is, where did these -- where did this expertise really you have to say with explosives come from. i mean, these two -- if you think about it, it's -- yes, the design of the devices was sort of basically out of the, you know, anarchist cookbook or right off the internet of how to make a bomb in a pressure cooker. it's unfortunately very sadly on the internet. but it's still difficult to make it work. and you add to that the fact that they managed to set off two bombs with some apparently sophistication in how they were detonated, whether they were by a timer or remote control. that certainly you assume is not something that you could do if you were just trying to build a bomb for the very first time. in most of

pete williams, you have something new? >> well, yes. several law enforcement officials confirmed he's alive, in custody. unbelievable, as one said who's been following this. the next question is what sort of condition is he in. is he gravely wounded, walking? we don't know. we are trying to find out now. >> a big night in watertown, mass. i will tell you, what a 24 hours those people have endured. these are just citizens of a town in eastern mass. this was visited upon them after they witnessed the horrible bombing at the finish line of the boston marathon. there is your suspect, in custody and alive. we believe he survived one or more bullet wounds last night in a hail of gunfire. lester holt is at street level, as we have seen. across from the town diner in this town that can now start to breathe and live a little bit. lester? >> we heard 30 seconds of sustained applause from the crowd when word got out that he was in custody. these folks have lived through hell with the shots and explosions. i'm with rita who lives in the neighborhoo

you heard pete williams. n an investigation, they see a picture, they want to talk to obviously anyone who might be seen putting down a package. that doesn't mean a person is a suspect, but certain -- >> when pete was given the description, it reminded me of the times that you and i, a lot of americans buy those 1,000 or 5,000-piece puzzle. magnify that by a million. they have more pictures or videos that you can imagine, but they'll do it in a me tick las incremental way just as they're picking up pieces of evidence on the scene, they'll do the same thing with the picture puzzle from all the video undoubtedly they received. it's a good and appropriate investigative technique. >> you know what goes on in a situation like this. obviously we have a suspect or suspects at large, who produced a terror attack and killed people. so there is a real impetus to get answers, a political impetus obviously there's pressure to get answers, but at the same time the worst thing would be to go after the wrong people. what's g

joining me now, nbc news justice correspondent, pete williams. we know about their ability to communicate with him and about the legal steps that they will be taking? >> well, their ability to communicate with him is limited, because of this injury he has, his injuries are pretty serious. ehe's said to be in serious but stable condition. he's on a ventilator. they can't engage in a conversation with him, which is what they had hoped to do. it's something we're told that they do for brief periods because of his condition. it's written questions. it's written answers. nods. that kind of thing. so it's not a very, what you'd call a very robust conversation. >> what about the charges, arraignment charges? what is the legal process going forward? >> well, it's a little hard to tell, andrea, quite candidly. you know, my suspicion is not confirmed, but my suspicion is just reading all of the various signs and tea leaves, is that the charges have probably already been filed under seal. and why that is, i don't know, whether they're you know normally in th

this is just coming from pete williams of nbc news.ast night, police in watertown, massachusetts, got into a shootout with both suspects. they ever both brothers from chechnya. you might recall the surveillance photos. the one in the black cap, 26-year-old sam german tsarnaev, ted not only of a gunshot wounds but shrapnel wounds and thermal wounds indicating he might have been hurt by an explosive device. the brothers did reportedly throw at least one bomb during a shootout with police. the suspect in the white cap, he is 19-year-old dzhokhar tsarnaev. he is the one that we are still looking for. he told the "associated press" that he was an angel. police ask asked you to shelter in place and not open the door unless it is police. we will have more updates in two minutes. hey! did you know that honey nut cheerios has oats that can help lower cholesterol? and it tastes good? sure does! ♪ wow. [ buzz ] delicious, right? yeah. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... ♪ well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? bee happy. bee hea

before we go to pete williams, one question for richard engel. by the fact you have been around so many weapons and fire fights over the past ten years of your life. if you have been around any weapons, listening to the audio you can almost tell which ones are the .9mm reports and which one are the versions of the m-4 rifle. since the good guys had had, let's assume, laser sights, night vision, but also these good guys are not used to active connective fire fights. i'm surprised it didn't end with two dead suspects. >> i'm surprised it didn't end right there with that much gunfire. clearly there was a lot going down. you saw that one high velocity round that wednesday through the wall and soon in the reporter's calendar on the wall. how the other brother wasn't hit and wasn't killed in the scene is very remarkable. but if he was going fast and there was lots of cars in the way and it was nighttime, somebody missed him. >> nobody is finding fault. goodness knows it's the fog of war in an suburban environment. as promised to d.c. we go and pete wil

pete williams has been working the story from his end in washington as well, pete? >> reporter: something to think about here, brian as we watch this unfold, there's a belief that in the encounter, that he was wounded. he was driving the car that they carjacked in which he and his brother fled from cambridge to watertown, when it was stopped by police, there were like 200 rounds, they said, were fired back and forth between the men and police there. he managed to get away in the car. his brother got out and was killed. but he managed to get away and abandoned the car a short time later. looking at the car, and looking at the scene around the car and where they think he went. they said there was blood, so they believed he was wounded. how serious it is of course they don't know. that is something to bare in mind here. >> 200 rounds, some of the rounds i saw still pictures of and on television. ranged from, there were some 9 milimeter and some larger to the caliber of the police assault style weapon. a whole lot of rounds, even in a war zone, saying nothing of a resid

pete williams has reported now that his brother, his own brother in fleeing in that mercedes suv ran over his own brother. eventually that suspect died at the hospital. but we can't overstate how remarkable it's been this morning, chuck, that there is a lockdown of a major american city. a shelter in place, as it is known. this is the kind of thing you hear about when there's chemical leaks or huge gas explosions. people stay inside for their own health and well being. we talked to police chief john timany who headed up the police departments in philadelphia and we talked to michael chertoff this morning and neither of them could remember a situation, not only where this has happened but where it is considered to shut down and ask all residents of a major american city to go inside. they talked about it during 9/11, but decided against it. you have people in a middle class town seeing s.w.a.t teams out their window. a no-fly zone over a small town in the western suburbs of boston. it is unprecedented. >> it's unbelievable there, willie. thank you. >>> want to bring in roger, a long-t

pete williams nbc's justice correspondent is on the line as well. i'm sorry, i said there were two confirmed dead, it's three confirmed dead in the incident now. bill keithing is joining us with and reporters there on scene today. the bottom line is 113 wounded by blasts, at least three people killed. and in boston today, as you know today is the boston marathon, and the boston marathon is held on a state holiday in massachusetts only that's called patriot's day. and that always makes today a different kind of day than the rest of the year. but driving through boston tonight to get here to get to mass general, it's eerie. it's eerie in boston tonight that even with all of the security response that we've got right now, there's just nobody out. and obviously people are doing that and staying at home in order to respect the wishes of law enforcement authorities who are telling people essentially to stay out of the way while the investigation continues. as we get further details on the investigation, boston is left to confront the fact that with everyt

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams is standing by. i am just reading information that you put in regarding the components of this bomb and what authorities believe was used to make the explosives. what can you tell me? >> they say they were crudely made. that doesn't mean that they weren't powerful and they were. they were made with gunpowder, bbs and ball bearings packed inside a pressure cooker. let me point to a picture from a homeland security bulletin. we're going to get in real tight on these little pots down here. this is what pressure cookers look like. give it a second to focus and see how much tighter we can get. these are what pressure cookers look like in case you haven't seen them. these are rather inexpensive pressure cookers. in case you've not ever dealt with one. a pot with a cover on it that you can make basically air tight and food cooks faster. and then for at least a decade, they've been used to make bombs around the world. so inside is the explosive and the authorities believe it is gunpowder or smokeless powder.

pete williams, the big question at this moment, was there a foreign connection to terrorism? what do we know? >> well, we don't know the answer to that question. the big gap here is what was the older brother doing in russia for six months last year? he leaves in january, arrives in july, and the russians have told the fbi that they were a little worried about him. but what was he doing during all that time in russia? his father says he was visiting him, that he went to see his family, went to renew his russian passport while he was awaiting american citizenship. he was here as a lawful permanent resident. did he -- the thing i think that's the biggest question for investigators now is, "a," why did he turn this way? but, "b," where did he get his expertise in explosives? where did he practice them? it seems really unlikely these two bombs successfully were detonated without some practice runs. where did he learn to do that? where did he practice? those are the big questions. >> we look at the pictures of the suspects and biographical information we have, dzhokhar, who is the

let's turn to pete williams.ys -- the two bombers are that's the relationship there. he says they came in early 2003 heard this morning that the family received asylum. and then you may recall that later this morning, the father in russia, and the uncle just said that his brother did go back to russia, so that explains that. you just said something about whether he didn't know if they'd traveled. and that reminds me that undoubtedly right now federal authorities are checking their travel records, these two young men, to see if they ever did go overseas to any kind of terror training camp, because we had heard that they had military experience. that was the initial assessment we had heard from several sources this morning. well, if they came here a decade ago and the one they're looking for still is only 19 years old, obviously he didn't have any military experience at the age of 9 before he came here. and the brother is 26, so i suppose it's possible that he might have had a little military experience. but it doe

host: "national journal" reporting the headline, "pete williams' reporting philosophy d y was g boon sighttory r guest: i would have to say that pete williams is the best i have ever come across, so measured and sofer. is amazing he was able to be showcased the way he was. this was a complicated story. a lot of journalists for getting the facts wrong as it was developing in real time, but pete williams was a constant force who was right 100% of the way. it is a model to all of us, people who were starting to this profession. host: the essence of the story is not jumping ahead of the story. on monday, some news organizations saying that dozens of people were killed. that was not the case, three weled.re kil the on-line sleuths pinpointed the wrong individuals before the fbi released those two photographs. guest: it is always important to realize and people get carried away in the heat of the moment, we have to be incredibly careful what we are saying on tv and in the press, that it really matters. imagine how people were trying to be on line sleuths. that seemed to trigger the fbi and

pete williams, thanks., former attorney general john ashcroft. sir, thanks very much for being on the show this morning from your perspective with your experience and your background on all of this, what are we looking for at this point and what concerns you that still remains a mystery? >> well, the first priority here has to be public safety and to guard against any future attacks or follow-on attacks. unfortunately all of us are aware that we're in a critical period of time right now. this week has been not only this week but historically a very difficult time including oak bomb and with the fertilizer explosion last night that we don't know all of the facts about and with the boston situation this is a time when i think we shouldn't rush to any conclusions about whether any events are related or they're not related. and public safety and prevention of additional events ought to be at the top of our understanding. obviously it should also inform the way we handle the investigation. it may be that informa

we will not report it until pete williams says it is okay. >> right.rd right now is if pete okays it we can go with it, if he doesn't okay it, we don't go with it. a staffer went up to pete williams and said you are trending -- this was earlier -- he said you are trending on twitter. he said i don't want to be trending on anything. it is somewhat telling that the guy who is associated with the best reporting last week did not tweet once last week. that's somewhat telling, unless maybe he tweeted late friday -- that's -- believe me i tweet like a thousand times a day. i love twitter, it is a great source for information, but there is something telling about that. he didn't spend the time participating in the noise. he spent the time doing his job. >> bill: not to beat up on cnn, but jeff zucker comes to cnn, and we're talking about the revamping of cnn, and get it right this time, and it could not have happened at a worse time for cnn,. would you agree? >> yes and there is another smart thing in karr's column. we criticize cnn, because we want it to be

about the explosives used in the boston bombings, joining me now, nbc news justin correspondent pete williams and michael leiter. pete, ha have you learn about the bombs themselves? >> well, what we're told by authorities, andrea, is that they're crudely made. they appear to have been assembled inside a pressure cooker. it may be some of our younger viewers don't know what that is, but in the olden days when you wanted to make something tender, you put it in this pot with a tight lid on it. and the steam wouldn't escape and you could build up pressure and things cook faster in them. the premicrowave days. inside a pot like this, a pressure cooker is assembled the device. it includes a low-power explosive. something like black or smokeless powder, gun powder, if you will. not a high explosive like dynamite or a plastic explosive or the common tatp, which seems to be the one of voice of terrorists when they build bombs, terror bombs overseas. so it's crudely made, it's set off they believe by some kind of electronic timer. it's carried to the scene, they believe, in some kind of back pack and t

pete williams in our washington bureau. pete, it probably bears repeating at this point while people may be seeing other aspects of security at their local airport train station, no reason to think this is anything beyond the boylston street bombings that we saw in boston. >> reporter: that's right. according to the officials i have talked to tonight, brian. of course they are still trying to figure out precisely what it was that happened in boston. we know that there were two bombs, but they are still saying there might have been others planted along the route of the marathon. packages found on the street were deemed suspicious and were being destroyed tonight. we still have not heard any firm confirmation of whether at least the five other packages actually were explosive devices, although some officials say there is reason to think they were. there is no suspect in custody. but people are very interested in questioning a young person with a student visa who has burns and was seen by witnesses running fromar. suspes are f

joining us massachusetts governor deval patrick, nbc's justice correspondent pete williams, chairman of the house intelligence committee mike rogers of michigan, former homeland security secretary michael chertoff, former director of the national counterterrorism center michael l liter. then, how the marathon bombings changed things after such painful loss. >> anybody that knew her loved her. >> there were powerful signs of resilience. alongside a renewed sense of vulnerability as a manhunt virtually shut down a major american city. we hear from assistant senate majority leader dick durbin of illinois, and our special roundtable. >>> and good sunday morning. what a week it has been. developments are still moving very quickly in the boston terror story. we want to go for the very latest this morning to the governor of massachusetts, deval patrick, who is with us this morning from boston. it's good to see you and congratulations on the end of a very difficult week. >> well, i accept your congratulations on behalf of the extraordinary team of law enforcement folks who have done this the

nbc's pete williams has the latest on this case. >> reporter: as dzhokhar tsarnaev lies under guard at a boston hospital now upgraded to fair condition, federal officials say he's told interrogators he and his older brother came up with the plot on their own because they believed the u.s. wars in iraq and afghanistan were an attack on islam. officials say he claims the instructions for making a bomb came from al qaeda's online magazine "inspire" which contained a formula that was similar to make the bombs in boston. an employee at a fireworks company says that records show tamerlan tsarnaev bought fireworks at a store in new hampshire in february. >> it's a little disturbing and unsettling that i had any interaction with him. he was an everyday customer, so i dealt with him the way i would any other customer off the street. >> reporter: several online instructions including the one in "inspire" recommended using the contents of fireworks as a bomb component. 5,000 miles away, fbi agents were in the russian province of dagostan to interview the parents. the mother insists her sons could

pete williams, our justice correspondent, continues to make calls and report this story out from our washington bureau. pete, what do you have? >> reporter: well, i was struck by what the police commissioner said about urging people to stay home. the fact that there seemed to be at least as far as his information goes two separate incidents and two separate places in boston. one at the scene of the marathon, the other at the jfk library. and we also have seen a number of local communities raise their sort of alert level, putting more people on the street. and i'm assured, though, by a couple of federal officials that i've talked to that they're not -- this is not happening because of some additional information that something else is going on that we don't know about. that these -- that the department of homeland security, for example, an official there tells me it has not put out any kind of an advisory urging local communities to be on a higher level of alert. that what we're seeing around town or around the country, here in washington, around town, and around the country -- new yor

the prior -- conversation with pete williams was especially interesting. here's a little more of what we know. pete reported on part of this earlier. the 7-eleven robbery takes place a few blocks on the north street and cambridge where the two brothers lived. robbed the 7-eleven. they then shoot the m.i.t. campus police officer, who is in his car. the reasoning we're told is he, they probably thought that the police officer recognized them from their photographs being published everywhere and up on the tv screens everywhere and hours earlier by the fbi in the afternoon. they carjack an individual who is driving a mercedes suv. authorities know who the individual is. the news media know who the individual is. we know his name. we're not going to report his name, obviously. he has been fully debriefed. and is really part of a really interesting equation to this whole awful, awful story. in that they hijacked the car. they take his credit card. and they make three different attempts with his credit card to withdraw money from atm machines. the first one failed

as pete williams points out, there are many cautions now. because once these pictures are in the public domain, there will be more fits and starts and numerous false alarms. thatst the nature of the business. but for now, the fbi has told us there are two suspects. suspect one and suspect two. both of them young males, approximately, appearing to be the same age. one wearing a white baseball cap. we have them actually reverse there. that suspect two on the left with the white hat. suspect one on the right, a v-neck white t-shirt, raincoat. what they have in common. both carrying substantially sized backpacks, though, in fairness, no larger than many of the parcels we've seen people carry at public events and no larger than many of the backpacks than adjacent in the photography. now the dissemination is underway on people's personal devices, on television, and on broadcasts like "nbc nightly news." we'll be along with that as we get later into the evening, about an hour from now on the east coast. for our team from boston to washington, i'm b

pete williams is reporting there is a foyer sapphiris a is fire . there is a fire in a boat in the backyard of a home in cambridge. you see there on the screen. that is the boat. that boat where suspect number two in the boston marathon bombings is believed to be pinned down and trapped at the moment. dzhokar tsarnaev. he and his brother, it appears, we believe, a shootout with the police in the wee hours of the morning. and last night. that resulted in the death of his older brother, 26-year-old tamerlan tsarnaev. dzhokar appears to be in the boat in the back of that house. now that boat is on fire. there is tremendous amount of police presence. that convergent intensified in just the last hour in the wake of a police press conference lifting the request for people to stay inside and just a little bit after that, a rush of police into the area and an explosion of gunfire. joining us on the phone is rebecca kraeger. he backyard looks into the yard where everything is happening. rebecca with, can you tell me what you're seeing? >> right now i'm seein

and pete williams saying there has been though arrest made. the fbi coming out and confirming that. we've got video of somebody setting down a bag, but no idea. they also have what they call solid leads, but no arrests. that's what we stand as we hit 3:00 p.m. eastern time. >> we'll continue to follow it on cnbc. thank you very much for watching "street signs." >>> and we do welcome you to this edition of the "closing bell," a back and forth day of epic proportions for the markets and the news. i'm bill griffeth here at cnbc headquarters. >> and i'm michelle crusoe down here at the new york stock exchange, bill. let's go through what we know at this hour, one hour before the close. the news related to the boston bombings, certainly moving the markets back and forth today. here's what we know definitively. video shows is someone setting down a bag near the bomb location. authorities have told nbc news there are solid leads, but no arrest has been made yet. we've heard that now from numerous sources, including the fbi. no one has been specifically identified. we are waiting, however,

>> pete williams in washington again for us tonight. pete, thanks. >>> in cambridge today, a sea of law enforcement, what seemed like the entire m.i.t. community and a whole lot of bostonians. they all came together to attend a moving memorial ceremony for the m.i.t. police officer killed thursday night as the alleged marathon bombers went on their last rampage. our report tonight from nbc's katy tur. >> reporter: a sea of 15,000 blue caps. family, friends, officers and strangers came to celebrate the life of fallen m.i.t. officer sean collier. >> he would love this. sirens, flashing lights, formations, people saluting. he was born to be a police officer. he lived out his dreams. >> reporter: collier was only 27 when he crossed paths with the accused marathon bombers. >> we have suffered. we are grieving. >> reporter: today vice president biden couldn't seem to contain his anger. >> whether it's al qaeda central out of the fattah or two twisted, perverted, cowardly knock-off jihadis here in boston, why do they do what they do? if the pu

our justice correspondent pete williams has been following the investigation all day. he's in our d.c. newsroom tonight. pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening. the fbi is pursuing very promising leads. one in particular tonight thanks to the abundance of pictures and videos rounded up in the two days since the bombing. we are getting a close-up look at how the bombs were made. >> guys, guys, guys. no way. >> reporter: the fbi says it is getting exactly what it asked for. pictures from several sources showing someone carrying a heavy backpack or duffel bag and placing it at the spot where one bomb went off. one of the most promising images, they say, comes from a department store surveillance camera high up on a building, able to look down at the crowd. on a day when incorrect news reports of an arrest distracted officials, investigators were working aggressively to discover, find, and interview that person. that's at the scene of the second bombing following the first by about 15 seconds. it's that second spot shown on this picture sent to nbc station whd

pete williams has taken a break from us to work the phones himself and is now ready to speak to us at our washington bureau. pete, what do you know? >> what we have been told by several sources that there is no arrest. then it begins to break down from there about whether -- let's start at the other end. what do they know? they believe they have video that shows what they were looking for. a person setting down a black nylon bag at the scene of oneover the bombings and walking away. now as we go towards the other end of that, we have two conflicting sources on whether they see that person, they look at the face, do they know who it is or not. someone says, yes, they are trying to find them. other sources say, no, they are trying to find out who it is. from the beginning of this, this has been the hallmark of the story. information that is pointing in totally different directions is coming from normally very dependable sources. we can't just flip a coin and pick one. we have to have them line up before we can say for sure what it is. so all we can say for certain is that all of our sou

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >>> at the white house today, president obama announced a major research project to unlock the mysteries of the human brain. the $100 million initiative would fund pure scientific research and produce leads toward treating brain disorders from autism and strokes to alzheimer's. scientists say they welcome the chance to spend money on research at a time when science budgets are getting squeezed. but it's not clear whether congress will actually approve this spending. >>> the state attorney general in arkansas is now investigating the break of an exxon mobil pipeline that sent thousands of gallons of crude oil flowing down the street into a residential neighborhood over easter weekend. the leak is bringing a lot of attention to our national network of pipelines, and re-igniting debate over another notable pipeline project. our report tonight from our chief environmental affairs correspondent anne thompson. >> reporter: from the air, it looks like a dark stain on this neighborhood. 20 miles north of little rock. >> the smell is unbelievable. i mean,

let's go to pete williams in washington. pete, you got anything? >> we are told that there is a fire now in the boat. don't know how big it is. could be the combination of incendiary devices and fuel in the boat or it could be the person in the boat set the fire himself. there is a fire on the boat. we don't know how big it is. >> well, that makes things confusing and interesting. we have seen no flurry of activity at the street level. depending on what kind of fire it is they have equipment on the s.w.a.t. trucks that are assembled. i saw a picture on a boston station that lays out the scene of just an entire line of s.w.a.t. team members taking a knee in front of the house. a lot of the vehicles are parked at the house itself. we keep looking at the cambridge bomb squad. they are parked well out of the perimeter. when it was clear they weren't needed at the scene. resetting, 8:13 p.m. just joining us, we have had two incidents of gunfire tonight. 30 minutes after the folks in watertown, mass. after a take cover order all day were told, you know w

let's go to pete williams, our justice correspondent. good morning to you again. >> we know a little more now. we believe about these two. as we've been saying they're brothers. the first one who they are still seeking this morning, the one wearing the white hat, the one that they believe planted the second bomb, his name is dzhokar tsarnaev. he's the one who is 19 years old. we're told that his brother, the one, who died is 26. became a legal permanent resident in 2007 and was born in russia. we're told that they both came to the country with their number in 2002 or 2003. they've been in the u.s. for nearly ten years it would appear. we're certainly very familiar with the united states and certainly comfortable moving around here. you may remember when the police chased them into watertown, they stopped the suv that they carjacked. the older one wearing the black hat at the photographs in the boston marathon was strapped with explosives and police shot and killed him and i'm told by authorities now that when dzhokar, who is the one they

props to pete williams who did a great job when he was covering in terror attack.t job, serena williams i thought was very good, robin williams, will i am, everyone in the entire williams family. >> on a serious note, pete williams did do a fantastic job. >> will i am may have done well, too. >> steve colbert is thanking canadians after they thwarted a train attacks on trains in canada. take a look. >>> the royal canadian police or mountties have thwarted an al qaeda-enspiefrd terrorist attack, with i is quite a feat considering how hard it is for them to go undercover. so, folks, i would just like to say a word to our friend up north, you canadians are a brave and heroic people. if i have said it once, this is the one time i said it. >> he did update their uniforms, those mountties. >> the bearded mounted police. >> i don't know how they do it. >> it's iconic. >>> now, the moment we have all been waiting for, twitter's most infamous twitter makes a return, former new york congressman anthony weiner sent his first message from a new account yesterday, just about tw

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams has the very latest. >> at 2:38 last monday afternoon, 11 minutes before the first bomb goes off the fbi says, a surveillance camera catches dzhokhar tsarnaev and tamerlan tsarnaev walking towards the finish line with backpacks, a second and crucial piece of video, the fbi says, comes from a surveillance camera mounted on this restaurant. at 2:42, court documents say the still unreleased video shows dzhokhar tsarnaev with a backpack walked towards the scene of a second bombing. at 2:45, he slips his backpack off. still photos show the backpack on the ground at his feet. when the first bomb goes off, the fbi says, the video shows the crowd looking towards the finish line in alarm. but the fbi says tsarnaev virtually alone among the individuals in front of the strauvent appears calm. he walks away, it says, without his backpack, and ten seconds later, the second bomb goes off in the spot where he left the backpack. the fbi says both the marathon bombs were made with pressure cookers and metal bee-bees. they contained hobby fuse similar to this

>> pete williams in our d.c. newsroom tonight. pete, thank you. >>> another big story we are following tonight. the u.s. intelligence community now believes chemical weapons have been used in syria. president obama has previously said that would be crossing a red line for the assad regime. our pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski is traveling with defense secretary hagel in the middle east where he learned more about this today. >> reporter: after two years of syria's bloody civil war, the obama administration inched ever so slightly today toward u.s. military intervention. secretary hagel speaking for the white house accusing syria of using chemical weapons. >> the u.s. intelligence community assesses with some degree of varying confidence that the syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in syria. >> reporter: it's believed traces of sarin were found in blood samples taken from victims of an attack last month in aleppo. president obama has warned syria's use of chemical weapons would be what he's called a game

i'm mother. >> that was nbc's pete williams reporting. >>> charges against the mississippi man accused of sending ricin-laced letters to president obama and senator wicker has been dropped. investigators are looking at the home of a new suspect. tracie potts has the latest. >> reporter: good morning. dropped apparently for lack of evidence. they searched the suspect's home and found no traces, no evidence at all of ricin, this after paul kevin curtis spent one week behind bars. the mississippi man accused of sending those letters to senator wicker, to president obama and to a mississippi judge. but after being released he spoke with his attorney and said that he's looking forward to getting back to normal. here's more of what he said. >> i respect president obama, i love my country and would never do anything to pose a threat to him or any other u.s. official. >> reporter: now authorities are looking at the home of another mississippi man, another man from tupelo who says he's also innocent. he doesn't even know how to make ricin, but they're looking into his home. interestingly the tw

pete williams will join us with the latest on this story. but first, while we may not know anything about who attacked the boston marathon yesterday or why, just over 24 hours after the explosion, there is a lot of new information tonight about the devices used in the attack. about to exekt from the investigation. there were two explosive devices which exploded yesterday. no more along the route or city of boston. the devices appear to have consists of explosive and shrapnel put into pressure cookers. they have recovered black nylon bags at the sights of both devices. they are believed to have been used to transport the devices to the scene. what happens next is that every single fragment of bomb material recovered from those sites will be sent to an fbi land in quantico, virginia, where they can be analyzed by the fbi and atf experts and even checked for dna. investigators have launched a major push to seek information from the public, including tips on suspicious behavior and photo and video taken around the race. >> the person who did thi