let's go to ron allen, who is near the scene. what are you seeing and hearing, ron? >> reporter: it's -- it's virtually shut down. i'm at the corner of 34th between broadway and fifth avenue, just a block or so from part of the empire state building talking to people in the crowd about what they saw and heard, because the people have basically evacuated most of that area in front of the empire state building. everyone is in complete shock, because, as you said, this is a heavily traveled area for tourists. there are countless people taking pictures, trying to see the sights, what have you. this happened completely out of the blue at the height of -- the rush hour was just over, and traffic is relatively light this time of year. but there's a feeling of confusion, nobody knows what's happening form the police are trying to move us back even further to get away. there must be two dozen police cars, you can hear planses, several helicopters above head, and we're trying to get information exactly what happened. there's speculation it may have been a robbery of a commerci

ron allen, nbc news, watertown, new york. >> that's nbc "nightly news" for this saturday. i'm lester holt reporting from new york. i'll see you tomorrow morning on "today" and back here tomorrow evening. good night, everyone. >>> good evening, kris sanchez. hundreds of people are paying tribute to a marine who died serving his country.

ron allen, nbc news, watertown, new york. >> that's nbc "nightly news" for this saturday. reporting from new york. i'll see you tomorrow morning on "today" and back here tomorrow evening. "today" and back here tomorrow evening. good night, everyone. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

ron allen is at the scene with the latest details, ron? we just, all right, we just lost that shot. going to try to get that back. it would appear according to mayor bloomberg of new york, and ray kelly that the nine people who were injured in that tragedy all will survive. they're expected to make it just fine. we'll have more on that as we get ron allen back on the line. the dow continues to move higher, the highs of the session right now, a gain of 96 points as we head toward the closing bell. are wealthy people pulling back on their spending to avoid backlash in this tough economy? and who gets hurt when that happens? we'll look at both sides of that issue. and mitt romney says big u.s. businesses are doing just fine thanks to tax havens. maybe not the smartest thing politically to say, but why do businesses news tax shelters to succeed. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 when i'm trading, i'm totally focused. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and the streetsmart edge trading platform from charles schwab... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 gives me tools that help me find opportunities more easil

ron allen joins me now with the details. first off, pennsylvania, what was the judge's reasoning for upholding this law? >> the judge essentially said that the new law would not immediately prevent people from voting on disenfranchise them. that's somewhat legalese, but let's be clear what we're talking about here. the law requires people to bring a specific i.d., a government-issued i.d. with a photo, driver's license, passport, to vote. in the past, you only had to bring a bank statement. the plaintiffs are saying this puts an unfair burden on seniors or minorities who don't have driver's licenses or government i.d.s. the lead plaintiffs in the case was elderly women. she was born in the south and the records don't exist anymore. that's the sort of complication we're talking about. most of these laws were passed by republican-controlled legislatures. the democrats are alleging that all these laws are an effort to suppress their vote because the people who will be -- >> those necessary to maintain election integrity. what c

we have ron allen with the latest on the campaign trail.s erupted over the fire storm over todd akin? >> thomas, we would like to get some questions to the candidate ryan. they are not offering a lot of media for the press following him. he will give local interviews today. i spoke with a campaign official this morning about the akin question. he will be asked about that. it will be interesting to see what they say about that. i asked why governor romney did not come out and demand that todd akin resign that senate race he is pursuing in missouri. the feeling among the campaign is it is almost a lose-lose situation for the governor. if he goes that far as senator scott brown of massachusetts has and asking for representative akin to quit and if representative akin doesn't quit, there may be hay made that mitt romney is the official leader of the republican party cannot able to control. paul ryan serves in the house of representatives. he is very pro-life. i doubt he will bring that up in the speech behind me. they will talk about we did bui

ron allen is on the scene. ron? >> reporter: good afternoon. yes. it's calm here now. the police still have 5th avenue shut down for the better part of six blocks now and closed down east-west, as well. this started down 33rd street where you see the people in front of an apparel zoer and the gunman confronted a former colleague. someone who had filed a grievance against and then the gunman ran in this direction around the corner to the front of the empire state building where he was shot dead by police. a distance of about, oh, a couple -- about 100 yards or so. police say about 14 shots fired here at 9:00 in the morning as you can imagine, the streets were crowded with tourists, people going to work. this is one of the busiest parts of manhattan. police roped off the area. there's a possibility that the police because they fired perhaps a dozen shots or so may have hit some of the civilians who were hit. there were nine civilians wounded. most of them grazed by police they say. but the gunman identified at 58-year-old jeffrey johnson, fired by an apparel store about

. >> ron allen reporting from the scene, thank you again. the police commissioner and mayor able to confirm that the shooter is 53-year-old jeffrey johnson killed on the scene by police. he was able, according to witnesses on the scene as he showed up on the site, a 41-year-old ctim. clint, i know there was a lot of hectic listening going on, as we were trying to get the facts from the mayor and police commissioner. i heard one of the original reports this person may have been fired yet, but the mayor clearing it up maybe he was fired over a year ago? >> yeah, that's what we're hearing, too, the individual was let go a year ago. when i was talking to your colleague chris jansen last hour, she asked what are the statistics as far as when someone comes back and i explained i've seen them act within a few minutes, and i've seen one person come back seven years later in a workplace. a year seems a long time, but you put yourself in the terrible position of this shooter, someone who blames everything in his life, his failure to perhaps get a new

nbc's ron allen joins us live from the site of that shooting and, ron, what more are we learning aboutlice are questioning his neighbors, his friends, his relatives trying to figure out why he came down here today and carried out this act. right now you can see up here just in front of the empire state building across the way they are cleaning off the sidewalk. that is the place where two police officers shot dead the gunman jeffrey johnson, 58, and they're trying to clean that up right now. it's right in front of the empire state building and at 9:00 this morning there would have been hundreds of people inside the building trying to get up to the observation deck and more people here on the streets. when you stand here and think about this it could have been so much worse. we understand that the nine civilians and passersby who are grazed by bullets are all going to be just fine. none of the injuries are life threatening. and police say that there were 14 shots fired by police officers. they don't know how many shots the gunman fired. there is the possibility that police perhaps shot

. >> let's bring in nbc's ron allen who is on the scene with the latest. what have you learned and what do you know from the last hour? >> well, fifth avenue is opening up to traffic. that's one thing that's happened. things are getting back to, quote-unquote, normal down here. they've been cleaning up the sidewalk across the street behind me in front of the empire state building, cleaning off the entrance of the building as well preparing to reopen it to tourists. perhaps at some point later today. we're unclear about that. at this point police are no doubt trying to find out everything they can about this 58-year-old disgruntled employee jeffrey johnson questioning friends, relatives, neighbors, co-workers trying to understand what set him off today. as we know, he was fired or laid off from his job a year ago but for some reason today he decided to carry out this act. i can also if you pan the camera up fifth avenue you can get a sense of how busy it is during a typical summer day. there were thousands upon thousands of people in the vicinity. you had a

for "today," ron allen, nbc news, grand island, nebraska. >> hunter and his parents are now with us.otally different accounts of what happened. you say hunter could not use his sign for his name. what do you say the school officials said to you exactly? >> at the meeting with the principal, the quote from the principal when i asked which policy we would be in violation of was, well, technically it's a violation of our weapons policy. >> you say they told you he can't use that sign anymore. >> right. they said in school it is unacceptable. >> well, the school has said flat out they never made such a request and if you take the school at its word, hunter would be free to go to school today or tomorrow and continue to sign his name that way. you have tried to do that? >> we've been sending him and to the best of my knowledge at this point they're still finger spelling his name and they've made conflicting statements at this point. >> morgan, when you heard this, how did you feel about this request you say the school officials made? >> i was hurt and upset at first. i'm kind of just over

ron johnson. i hope you heard the interview we just did with allen questrom.e's not sure he can turn it around. >> knowing allen questrom and how far ranging your interview was with him, you covered everything except the leadership change of china, i was surprised he was, in fact, as cautious about condemning ron johnson as he was. he takes no -- doesn't mind taking a swipe at his immediate successor michael monday who did a fantastic job of changing allen's strategy at jcpenney. allen did a wonderful job trying to make it barney's. a little studio high end for mike thought it should go. mike did great things with ralph and others, american living approach. you know, a different style. but the last year of mike was tough for everybody in retail. and as ron johnson has come in, things he's done which are really bad in terms of the professor's rating, you have to say that a c plus would be generous. probably more of a "d" but he can learn. trashing his customers, trashing the company legacy. jcpenney, this is where sam walton learned the business. in 1940, i thi

john spencer and ron batel are penciled in as oakland starting quarterbacks and they will play the denver broncos twice this year. oakland set an nfl record with 162 penalties last year. allen has the unenviable task of trying to reduce that number >> making everyone, while they're here and doing what is expected of us. that comes with the discipline and we have to be more disciplined football team than we were last year but i think we're headed in the right direction >> the offense is also headed in the right direction. carson palmer has a full training camp and mcfadden is finally healthy >> it is one of those things you will need to deal with, you will get hurt sometimes but me personally i just put it behind me and move forward to this year >> the raiders lose both michael bush who had 977 yds rushing and replacing mcfadden and they lost face and campbell to sign with the bears. but they add veteran guard mark baziel from the texans, the veteran quarterback matt leonard and goods and who got hurt last week but is doing better. both those guys were looking to back up mcfadden and there is not a lot of depth at running back position >> they're both injured for tonight's g

did he ron west is charged with assault, sexual crimes and burglary. police say he entered the home on allen dale drive just before 6:00. the girl's mother heard her screaming and ran to the door and saw the man leaving. police found west's wallet at the bottom of the ladder which led them to his house on the same block. >>> a scary scene at one silver spring home after a ride-on bus crashes right into the fronted of a house. >>> we are also checking in with gwen for the full forecast this morng. find out if the gray skies will clear up today. stay with us.  >>> it is back to school time and you know that means parents pulled out the camera to capture the first day of school. we are showing some of those picture you posted on our facebook fan page. this is diego. hope the year is a great one, diego. we say good morning to the kids in spotsylvania and calvert counties. they go back to school today. >> everybody, one by one, going back to school. >> look at him. too cool for school. with that little lunch box. >> got the backpack, the lunch box. >> he is adorable. >> when the