pete williams in washington. thank you very much. savannah, we should mention here for no other reason than to put some context on this, we have both seen this movie and it is a movie filled with dramatic action sequences. lots of gunfire. lots of explosions. you can imagine depending on what part of the film was showing at the time this happened the people in that theater may have been somewhat numbed to the idea that an explosion or a smoke bomb was set off in the theater and the gunfire even initially might have seemed as if it might have been part of this movie. >> that's right. of course it goes without saying this is a dark theater. some reports said this gunman appeared to come out of nowhere near the front of the theater, let off some kind of tear gas canister, and then begin slowly working his way through the theater opening fire on the crowd. we want to get to our nbc's kristen welker traveling with the president in ft. myers, florida. kristen, what can you tell us? >> reporter: good morning, matt and sa

let's bring in nbc's justice correspondent pete williams. 3th, 1987. now, he had this address in aurora, colorado, that's on the record on parastreet in aurora, colorado where jace is reporting from right now. earlier today, matt, authorities told us that their only encounter with him had been a traffic ticket a year ago. he was not on any list of known extremists or potential terrorists. they've said there is no connection here they don't believe to any kind of organized terror group. so, you know, who he is and why he did this is a complete mystery to them. now, i should say that i've talked to jace. he is actually -- he can't see what we're seeing right now because he is on the other side of this apartment building which is apparently about four miles from the movie theater. you see that the -- they've decided not to try to go into the door of the apartment building. they're now going through the window of the apartment. they've got these authorities -- it looks like firefighters -- on a long boom on a fire truck boom so that they can ente

from our justice correspondent pete williams. >> reporter: a system run by the federal government has helped computers infected with a virus connect to the internet. that fbi run system shuts down midnight sunday for some in the u.s. logging on monday could be a problem. odds are your computer will not be affected but if it is you can blame this man, one of six astone ians charged. affected computers were hijacked into using internet servers that sometimes redirected them to sites the user didn't want. the scammers made money for ads they posted. >> absolutely brilliant what these guys were doing. they had found a way to tap into one of the most lucrative sources of money on the internet and they have online advertising. >> reporter: when those behind the scam were arrested affected

> it appears the decision has been affirmed in part -- >> invalid -- >> reversed at part -- >> pete williams is ready at the supreme court. pete, good morning. take us through. >> reporter: okay. the bottom line here is the supreme court has upheld the health care case. >> here's how it played out on cnn, and it wasn't pretty. >> we're still going through the reading -- the opinion, but i want to bring you the breaking news that according to producer bill mears, the individual mandate is not a valid exercise of the commerce clause. so it appears as if the supreme court justices have struck down the individual mandate. the centerpiece of the health care legislation. >> wow, that's a dramatic moment if, in fact, the supreme court has ruled that the individual mandate is, in fact, unconstitutional. that would be history unfolding now. >> the court striking down that mandate is a dramatic blow to the policy and to the president politically. >> as we're reading through this again, we're reading that the entire law has been upheld, wolf. >> if in fact that is the justification, then it's a huge, h

pete williams. >> nothing of that magnitude comes to mind. but i do think the obama administration's decision to fast track the health care case, bypass the big court of appeals and move it to the supreme court was very bold. chris: fast and furious. >> when you --eth nigsity, i was surprised how long -- ethnicity, i was surprised how long it took for a gutsy move. i was going to say jeb bush but olympia snow and her decision when she resigned to call it as it is and say you cannot function in this part. chris: and jeb bush had said earlier, said recently that this party has moved too right for him. >> actually similar turns from both of them. >> i was going to say either jeb or olympia snow but i'll fall back on a member of the court justice john paul stephens who at age 92 is still out there making big speeches against citizens united and yesterday, was in the courtroom when he saw the liberal majority prevail. >> i live in new york city. and the mayor, mayor bloomberg, has just banned the sale of huge cups of sugary soft drinks. and the bo

pete williams is our justice correspondent. d? >> reporter: i think the way to describe this is to say the investigation is basically going on in three places. at the theater itself, where authorities are now going through, recovering obviously those who were killed, very carefully checking to pick up every shell casing, thoroughly exploiting the evidence there,y additional evidence, a gun apparently, the second place is the apartment building you talked about and the third place is in san diego where he apparently grew up, he was a high school student there, then came to aurora, colorado, and we believe was in college, was a student at the time. now, earlier we had heard there were tennessee plates on his car, that apparently is not the case. there is apparently no tennessee connection here. that's an early first report, that sometimes happens in these situations, and was wrong. there have been some internet postings, but these are apparently hoaxes, matt. we have been running down quite a few of these in the last couple of hou

first i want to go to nbc's justice correspondent pete williams. pete, you have identified the suspect. it's james holmes. law enforcement has. we know where he lives. we know that federal authorities have gone into his apartment where he says he may have had more explosives. what more do we know about mr. holmes? do we e know where he grew up, where he went to school? where did he work? what other pieces of information are trickling out? >> it's premature to say they have gone into his apartment. they are gingerly taking the window off the outside of the apartment building. we can see firemen on a hook and ladder boom trying to pull the window frame away to clear the way for them to go in. the reason they think there are explosives there is that's what james holmes told authorities when he was arrested. consider one of the odd things about this horrible situation is after committing this act he apparently stood outside the theater near the car that he drove to get there and was arrested right there on the scene. he didn't turn the gun on himself or

pete williams in washington. pete, thank you very much. >> let's get over to natalie morales who has the morning's other top stories at the news desk. >> good morning, everyone. as the situation in syria deteriorates into civil war, president bashar al assad made his first televised appearance in weeks. he was seen swearing in a new defense minister on state tv. the successor to one of the four top officials killed in a bombing in damascus on wednesday. this morning the syrian national security chief also died from wounds sustained in that blast. syrian activists say more than 310 people were killed across the country thursday, which would make it the deadliest day since the syrian uprising began 17 months ago. >>> to some important health news now here. whooping cough is rising at epidemic rates in this country as the u.s. is set to have its worst year for the potentially fatal illness in more than 50 years. some 18,000 cases have been reported nationwide so far killing at least nine children. health officials bl

here is nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. >> reporter: police were looking in 1981 for a who raped a woman at gunpoint when they say someone they thought fit the description. kirk odom spent 22 years in prison. was arrested and convicted. >> they sent me to hell really. to be honest with you. they sent me straight to hell. >> at his trial an fbi lab technician testified that a hair found on the victim's clothes was so similar to odom's. that it was virtually indistinguishable, a very rare phenomenon. but on friday a judge declared him innocent. a recent dna test showed that it could not have been odom and the hair was not his. the u.s. attorney in washington says he suffered a terrible injustice. >> the jury was left with misinterpretation how strong the link was. the evidence linking the defendant to the actual crime scene. >> reporter: the fbi says it is now going through the thousands of other cases from the days of dna testing to see whether witnesses or prosecutors exaggerated the significance of the fbi's hair analysis. >> the fbi insists that the science itself is

several members of congress are now vowing to close that loophole, brian. >> pete williams reporting on the story tonight from d.c. pete, thanks. >>> wild weather in about the eastern third of our country causing headaches for a lot of air travelers tonight. as cool air pushes out, the latest heat wave stirs up some very violent storms across a wide region. our friend weather channel meteorologist jim cantore is with us from headquarters tonight. jim, some real violent weather across a big area. >> yeah, big time. a lot of times we focus on tornadoes and hail size and damaging wind threat. today it was all about the lightning. check out this picture that was captured. the empire state building frequently gets struck by lightning. rarely is it caught on camera. it was today. and we just had electrical storms all over the place. the chronology of this thing was, record highs in the hundreds from hartford, connecticut, all the way down to washington, d.c. really by about 2:00. after that, storms just blew up and we're talking about storm that went from ground to 60,000 feet, 12 miles hig

our justice correspondent pete williams in washington has more on this tricky investigation going on at the apartment of this 24-year-old suspect which, remember, they found booby trapped upon arrival. pete, good evening. >> brian, the question is how soon can they get in there? all these hours since the shooting and they still haven't gotten inside. people i've talked to say it is a hellish jumble in there. there are bottles with liquids, fireworks, containers with ammunition, powders, all connected with trip wires. they don't know if it's the real thing or not. they have to assume it is partly because he has indicated he is willing to kill, partly because of recent purchases that he's made. and there are obvious reasons they want to get in there and disarm it. they want to preserve evidence. all of those things are evidence. they're also hoping, brian, somewhere in there is an answer to why this young man did this. they want to look at any writings that he has, any receipts that he may have had. they want to look at his computer, at his e-mail, all of those things are very important

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >>> friday's lackluster jobs report showing the unemployment rate stuck at 8.2% has provided mitt romney backers plenty of fresh ammo. as they launch into another round of attacks on president obama's handling of the economy. but the obama camp is not lacking ammo of its own on the subject of jobs. >> reporter: the president today back from camp david to a sweltering south lawn as republicans kept up their fire on the weak economy. >> the president is the head of this country. the fish rots at the head. >> reporter: a conservative super pac is out with the $25 million ad by hitting the president on jobs. >> obama has lots of excuses for the bad economy. >> reporter: wrapping up his new hampshire vacation mitt romney spent the day fundraising appearing behind closed doors at the southampton home of david koch. price per ticket $50,000 a head. $75,000 a couple. but not everyone was on message. >> thank you for being here today for mitt romney. >> reporter: roll call reported that at a recent fundraiser, house speaker john boehner was asked, can you ma

pete williams, nbc news, at the justice department. >> tonight we are learning what went wrong in that fiery crash last april when a navy fighter jet slammed into an apartment complex in virginia beach. the navy says both engines failed within moments of takeoff. the two-man crew was unable to regain control and ejected at the last second. miraculously, nobody on the ground was killed and tonight the navy says the pilot did everything by the book and it doesn't know what caused the exceedingly rare dual engine failure. >>> there is shocking video tonight from syria of the moment of a funeral procession when it was hit by a car bomb in damascus. the capital where not even a funeral can take place in peace. dozens were killed in the attack. it's not known who did this but the survivors blamed the syrian regime. >>> mexico has a projected winner in its presidential election with a comfortable majority of the vote enrique pena nieto is not yet in office but is wasting no time getting started pledging changes to the drug war and to the economy. but his presidency comes with controversy. nbc

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >>> and tonight, skywest airlines tells nbc news it's investigating how a murder suspect was able to get access to one of their aircraft. a regional jet sitting on the ramp in st. george, utah, sometime after midnight. the suspect identified as brian hegland was a suspended skywest pilot himself. he got the aircraft rolling but clipped a wing, crashed the plane into some parked cars and killed himself. he was wanted by police in colorado springs for allegedly killing his girlfriend last week. >>> and in tuscaloosa, tonight, the hunt is over for a man police say opened fire overnight in a crowded bar near the university of alabama campus there. 17 people were wounded, at least one of them critically. the alleged gunman turned himself in today. police think he may be responsible for a second shooting now in the area. >>> overseas, the crisis in syria is playing out for a third straight day. notably now, in the heart of the capital city of damascus. the syrian army is fighting the rebels, an ominous development in a civil war that so far seems to have no

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >>> in mexico the winner of last weekend's presidential elections enrique pena nieto is speaking about challenges ahead. in an interview with jose diaz vallard of telemundo he talked about the drug-related crime wave that has cost the lives of tens of thousands of mexican citizens over the past six years. >> translator: what the mexican state needs to do first is to focus its strategy, to have a better police force, a larger police force. we need to specialize these security forces to fight the crimes that generate the most violence -- homicide, extortion, and kidnapping. this is part of the strategy we're going to follow to focus the attention of the mexican state on what today hurts mexican society. >> president-elect enrique pena nieto. the concern on this side of the border is that under pena nieto fighting drug trafficking may not be as big a priority as reducing street crime in mexico. >>> for the first time in seven months nato supply trucks today crossed the border from pakistan into afghanistan. pakistani authorities finally reopened those

our report tonight from pete williams. >> on board delta airlines planes from the netherlands to the u.s. on sunday the strange and disturbing discovery was made on four flights. one to minneapolis and seattle and two to atlanta. inch long needles were found in turkey sandwiches served to three passengers and an air marshall. delta itself discovered them in two other sandwiches. >> i bit into it, it was like something jabbed me in the top of my mouth. my first impraegs was it was a club sandwich and there was a tooth pick or something. >> he was treated and advised to take the anti-aids drug truvada. the food was prepared by gate gore may, a global provider of food and other services to airlines. it appears this was done deliberate deliberately. >> we're taking this seriously, and we're doing an investigation at there moment. we have detectives working on this case. >> reporter: the tsa says when it heard about this on sunday it immediately notified all u.s. airlines flying out of amsterdam. delta the only airline affected says it takes this matter extremely seriously and is working

not reading the opinion. >> it was crazy. >> if pete williams is terrific we all agree. there are not many tv networks, they all had a person who was a full time reporter at the court. they don't anymore. so, people was in the best position to report this because he knows the court and knows -- knew the case well. i do feel really bad for the people out there, though. it's -- they got themselves in a bad situation of trying to say we are going to be on the air live and report this instantly when, you know, they didn't have a chance to read the syllabus. somebody is calling out to them saying, you know, the first point is this or that. somebody higher up in the organization should say let's not try to beat everybody to be the first to report this. it's going to take a minute or two or five minutes to read the decision. then let's go out and report it. let's not get on the air live and beat everybody to be the fastest. >> the only part i disagree is is that, part of our job is to beat the competition. it's what we all do. but, one of the things they drill over and over is

nbc news pete williams joins us. pete, we one you have new details about the shooter's appearance. >> reporter: well, you know, this has been rumored about since the police chief ray kelly mentioned this. there's a connection because you a errora, colorado police chief worked in the new york police department and has many friends there, and it's apparently true that the shooting suspect james holmes had dyed his hair red and told the aurora police when he was arrested this morning he was the joker, you know, what that means with the larger significance of that is i don't have the slightest idea. it remains a total mystery about why he, why he did this, what the motive was. there's no good answer to that. >> guy was pretty heavily armed and too early to know the answer to this question, how did he get the guns and were they legal? >> reporter: yes they were all purchased legally, all in the colorado area. three separate gun stores, all local stores of national chains. he didn't buy them until very recently. he bought

joining us now is pete williams. pete, thanks for joining us. the question a lot of people will be asking of course is where did this individual get all those guns? what do we know about that right now? >> we know where he bought them. he bought them at three gun stores in the denver area. one in denver, one in aurora, and one in a nearby community of thornton. officials say he started buying them in may and bought the most recent one just two weeks ago. these are the weapons he had. two .40 caliber glock. a rumming ton single barrel shot gun. probably the most widely sold shot gun in america. and the gun police believe he fired the most that's the smith & wesson ar-rifle. all were purchased legally. there was nothing in his background that would disqualify him from buying weapons. he had no criminal record. his only run in with the law in colorado was a speeding ticket in aurora a year ago. so there's nothing that would have disqualified him from buying these guns. and it's legal to buy them all in colorado. as a matter of fact, it's legal to b

pete williams confirms the suspected shooter is a 24-year-old man named james holmes.arking lot. arrested without incident. he was standing by his car as police approached him and realized he was the shooter. 50 people wounded when the suspect opened fire. they have been sent to various hospitals around the aurora and denver areas. the youngest victim being treated reportedly just 3 months old. a 3-month-old with a gunshot wound at one of the hospitals. the incident happened after midnight local time during the showing of that film. the shooter wearing all black. a gas mask and a bullet-proof vest kicked in the emergency exit door, set off gas and shooting. you hear the eyewitness accounts. they said they thought it was part of the show. they thought even the gas in the room was part of the show. then they realized something was terribly wrong when he opened fire. that's the vehicle behind the theater. he had explosives in the car and in his apartment. when police checked the car, he said it was boobie-trapped. now you can see the sun has risen in north aurora, colorad

guess they weren't watching pete williams. what does that mean for the president's campaign to build support coming ahead? dr. zeke emanuel is one of the architects of the president's program when he worked in the white house, he's a former health policy advisor for the obama administration, now a professor and vice provost at the university of pennsylvania and chair of the department of medical ethics and health policy at the perelman school of medicine. i can't add another title. we don't have enough space. dr. zeke, let's talk about the health care bill. how do you sell it to the american people? half the people were unaware or 41%, i should say, not aware of the supreme court ruling. the nation evenly divided right now. so it is a blank slate. we're seeing a pickup in democratic support but the swing voters are still out there. as a political matter, how does the white house -- >> you're asking the wrong doctor about politics. >> you've still got that emanuel gene in you. >> we have a communications challenge and i think t

[laughter] >> it was crazy. >> pete williams is terrific. there are not many tv networks -- they all had a person who was a full-time reporter at the court and they don't anymore. he was in the best position to report this because he knows the court and he knew the case well. i feel really bad for the people out there because they've got themselves in a very bad situation of trying to say we are going to be on the air live and report this instantly when they did not have a chance to read the syllabus. someone is calling out to them and saying the first point is this or that and somebody i robert organization should say let's not try to beat everybody to be the first to report this. it will take a minute or two or five minutes to read the decision and then let's go out and reported. let's not get on the air live and try to beat everybody. >> the only part of that i would disagree with is that part of our job is to be fair competition. that's what we all do, but one of the things that they drill over and over again is first get it right. there

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >>> let's check on the weather now. >> we are talking about big changes according to the computer models here across the next couple days. looks like a trough will dig into the western half of the country, and even today places that got into the 80s and 90s, they got very close to 90 degrees, and those places have already began to cool, about 5 to 7 degrees, and 75 in san jose, and that's a sure sign the trough is bringing in much cooler weather. we still have clear skies across much of the inland valleys, but it's the coastal locations that are starting to see the fog build in, and there are showers and thunderstorms building in all across the northern plains because of the trough, and that cold eriair colliding. and the south bay for tomorrow topping out in the 70s, and same for the east bay with very blustery conditions throughout the day. and we will talk more about the forecast and when things will warm up, because it's summer after all, right, diane? >> absolutely. >>> coming up next, we will show you what happened to jason kidd after he twe

also joining us is nbc chief justice correspondent, pete williams. i understand you've been looking into the guns in particular that this individual used. what sort of guns were they? where did he get them? could he have been prevented from getting them? >> not under colorado law. they were all legally purchased. there were two handguns. very commonly used throughout the u.s. by gun enthousiasts. then a shotgun, then the rifle that probablyd the most shots. a smith & wesson ar 15 type rifle. these are somewhat contin controversial. you can't buy them in five states. they're banned in new york, new jersey, connecticut and massachusetts. they were all purchased within the last couple of month. the first of them was bought in may and the most recent one was bought just two weeks ago so that would indicate if holmes was in fact the shooter, whoever was planning to do it since may. the place say he was extensively decked out in bulletproof everything when he walked into the theatre. he had these guns. at least three of them. we don't know whether he was c

we get our report tonight from justice correspondent pete williams. >> aurora, colorado is aware of the devastation of a shooting ram page. in 1993 an employee of a family restaurant went on a shooting rampage. four people were shot who worked there. nathan dunlap was up so the over being fired. the shootings at columbine high school in 1999 prompted the state to change laws causing the gun show loop hole that allowed purchases at gun shows without a background check. but the purchases are commonly allowed nationwide with only a few exceptions. allowed handguns are legal to buy across the country and the shotgun is widely used by hunters. only the semiautomatic rifle is restricted. five states ban it's sale, four in the northeast, new york, new jersey, connecticut and massachusetts, california is the 5th. both the rifle and the 100 magazine found at the scene would have been illegal under the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004. >> members of congress and legislators across this country should not be afraid of the nra or the gun manufacturers and should be standing up to say we are

let's get to nbc news justice correspondent pete williams who has been following the story for us thispete, what can you tell us about the suspect, the 24-year-old james holmes? >> i think the biggest question here is what the motive was, and police are not giving us any indication that they know what that is. he's 24 years old, apparently lives in the aurora area for the last year or so. got a traffic ticket from the aurora police last year. that's their only known connection with him. he was not on a list of extremist groups or terrorist organizations. this is a name that police simply weren't familiar with. he was born december 13, 1987. now, we're told that there were tennessee license plates on his car, so we're trying to figure out what the connection was to tennessee. his parents live in san diego. i think that they own the apartment that he was in in aurora, colorado. when he was arrested standing outside the theater near the car that he drove there, he was telling them there were explosives in the car and his apartment. they didn't find anything there, but they're searching hi

want to go to pete williams, our chief justice correspondent. and, pete, as you join us, we understand the fbi says they are working along with aurora police. is there some thought that this could be something more than just some sort of a lone deranged gunman? >> not at this point, matt. it is nearly the investigation. and, of course, because it's a murder case, the local police will have the lead on it, but they say at this point, they find no indication any of connection to terrorism. now you may think, well, an act like this is by its very definition that. but in the conventional sense of some kind of a political statement or some kind of a active, a traditional terrorist group. so far they've seen no indication of that. >> pete williams, thank you very much. stay tuned. any other information comes in, please let me know. if you are just joining us this morning, we're covering a tragic and breaking story developing story out in aurora, colorado, which is really a very close suburb of denver, colorado. just about 10 or 12 miles to the east of

i want to go on the phone to pete williams, our chief justice correspondent.nd, pieete, as you join us, th fbi is working along with aurora police, is there some thought this could be something more than just some sort of a lone, deranged, gunman? >> not that the point, matt. it is early in the investigation. of course, because it's a murder case, the local police will have the lead on it. but they say at this point they find no indication of any connection to terrorism. now, you may think, well, an act like this is by its very definition of that. but it's in the conventional sense of some kind of a political statement or some kind of a act of a traditional terrorist group. so far no indication of that. >> all right. pete williams, thank you very much. stay tuned. if any other information comes in. please let me know. if you're just joining us this morning, we're covering a tragic and breaking story developing story out new hampshire aurora, colorado, which is really a very close suburb of denver, colorado. just about 10 or 12 miles to the east of the denver m

. >> i want to bring in our justice correspondent pete williams who has, of course, been following this throughout the morning. i know you were listening there to the police chief in aurora county a short time ago. let's talk about what we know at this point about this 24-year-old gunman. what can you tell us? >> not much. he grew up in san diego. he went to high school there. came to colorado to study neuroscience in denver. came in last year and then just this year began the process, the school says, of withdrawing, but why we don't know. no record he's ever served in the military. he had been living in aurora, colorado. arrived at the theater with four guns. as you have heard the police chief describe it's not clear whether he used all four or just three of e four. i guess one of the strange and remarkable things about this is that as the police chief said he was just standing there behind the theater when he was arrested. he didn't make any attempt to flee. he was clearly well prepared for this. all kinds of tactical gear. bullet proof things basically from head to toe and all the s