Texas finally in custody after being discovered hiding in a closet under a pile of laundry, and hes not the only one whos been arrested. More on that coming up. But we begin with those explosive allegations from the kremlin claiming ukraine attempted to assassinate Vladimir Putin in an overnight drone attack. Video released on social media and russian state tv purports to show the roof of the kremlin on fire as well as flying objects shot down over moscow. In a statement today, russia placed the blame squarely on kyiv saying, quote, we regard these actions as a planned Terrorist Attack and an attempt on the president. The russian side reserves the right to take retall toir measures where and where it sees fit. Volodymyr zelenskyy addressed the allegation at a Press Conference about an hour ago. Listen. We dont attack putin or moscow. We fight on our territory. We are defending our villages and cities. Nbc news chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel is following the story from london. Our National Security and Global Affairs reporter dan de luce has the latest. And peter baker, a chief White House Correspondent and msnbc political analyst. The kremlin providing no evidence of this attack. Kyiv denies it. What do we know right now . Reporter we know that officials in russia are escalating their rhetoric. They are vowing to respond to this alleged attack. In fact, dmitry medvedev, the former president and Prime Minister just a short while ago on his Telegram Channel said that, quote, there is no other option except the physical elimination of zelenskyy and his clique after this attack. So that is a message from a very senior russian official, former official still close to the inner circle around Vladimir Putin. They are trying to use this as it seems as a justification for some sort of escalation, whether they will escalate or not, they are certainly building the case for that. This is not unusual to have threats of this level coming out of russian officials. If you listen to what theyve been saying and watch Russian Television over the last several months, really from the beginning of the conflict, but it has escalated over the last several months, they often talk about destroying kyiv, the need to use nuclear weapons, but now they are specifically saying that in response to this alleged attack, which Russia Claims was an Assassination Attempt against Vladimir Putin, even though he was not in the kremlin at the time and ukraine has denied any involvement, now this one official says russia needs to respond an eye for an eye by eliminating zelenskyy. All right, so dan, we know the u. S. Is working to validate this attack. What are you hearing . Thats right. The u. S. Is not ready to confirm that this alleged incident even took place. And they certainly arent confirming there was some kind of an Assassination Attempt, and you have a lot of analysts look at this Video Questioning how it has been distributed, how it came to be. It didnt really follow the normal, typical pattern of how these videos usually emerge, and also analysts saying if there was some kind of explosion and a drone near the kremlin, isnt that more of a warning shot . It doesnt really look like a serious Assassination Attempt in the middle of the night. So a lot of questions around that. You also have the Secretary Of State Antony Blinken also saying publicly we just dont know what happened. But he also said, you know, look, ukraine is under daily attack, a barrage of missiles and artillery rounds on civilian targets, peoples apartments, homes, cities, and he said, you know, its up to ukraine how it wants to defend itself and how it responds. It is also important here, there is context. There are a lot of suspicions that there have been some mysterious Sabotage Type Operations inside russia previous to this outside of ukraines border, not Assassination Attempts but explosions at airfields and so on that some people have linked, tried to link to ukraine and perhaps proukrainian groups were involved. We dont know, so thats also a context here. Peter, when you were a bureau chief in moscow, when you look here at the situation, how its unfolded, what gives you pause . What are you thinking about . I think dan raised a lot of important questions. Obviously you cant trust on its face what russia puts out there. They have reasons to exaggerate if not completely invent scenarios like this to justify actions that they want to take. We dont know at this point obviously. One thing thats important to understand, he said they called it an Assassination Attempt against putin. It seems more like symbolism than Anything Else. Putin wasnt there at the time, and he doesnt spend a lot of time at the kremlin. Most people know that in moscow. He doesnt actually come to the office, if you will. He works in the country or other locations like that. If it was an attack by a Hostile Force it would be meant to be showing off in effect we can do this. Keep in mind, the idea of attacking a foreign leader is not exactly new to this conflict. It began with russias attempt to take Down Zelenskyy, that was the whole strategy at first was to decapitate the zelenskyy government when they first went in in february of 2022. They were going to take Down Zelenskyy and replace him with a Puppet Regime that would then basically make ukraine into a vas el state for moscow e. We dont know yet whether this was the ukrainians or whether it was something else. Dan, when we say, when you hear Secretary Of State blinken saying we dont know what happened yesterday. Do you get a sense theyre Holding Things close to the vest . Why is it so difficult to exactly discern what happened . I think well just have to wait. It will take them some time to look at these videos and try and gather more intelligence about what happened. If you talk to former officials, they also point out that authoritarian regimes need enemies, they need adversaries, they need scapegoats, and this incident would kind of fit that bill possibly, right . You have russia having tremendous difficulties on the battlefield. They have manpower problems. They have supply problems. And the war is not going according to plan obviously, so this kind of incident alleged incident is a possible Propaganda Opportunity where they can then justify a response or justify why they have to conscript more russians to fight in that war. Dan de luce, our thanks also to richard, and peter, youre going to stick around. We have Breaking News right now out of atlanta where there is an active shooter situation. The local police have reported multiple people are injured and the shooter is not in custody at this time. The police are urging people in the area to secure their buildings and shelter in place. Obviously this is unfolding as we speak, i want to bring in former atf Special Agent in charge Jim Kavanaugh here. Jim, unfortunately here we are again talking to you about another active shooter situation. The shooter not in custody. Multiple people injured. Were looking at some video here from the scene. What are police on the ground likely doing right now to get this shooter in custody . Well, theyve gone and set up their command post on the street. You see a lot of officers with their Tactical Gear on. Theyve got the job, their task today is, you know, locate, isolate, and eliminate the threat. Theyve got to find the shooter and right now they dont have him. We dont know if they have him located or not, but what theyve got to do is locate him, and hopefully that comes from citizens in the building, nearby who have heard the shots or see the person, and theyll call 911 to help the officers locate him. Once they locate him in a room or a building, they can isolate him, squeeze him down, get the perimeter secured, and then they can evacuate behind them so they got to locate him, and then evacuate behind the officers and then they can deal with the threat, eliminate the threat by arrest or if they have to shoot him or if they can talk to him into surrendering, whatever. Thats the process that the on Scene Commanders have to deal with. This is a heavily trafficked area, right now is lunchtime. Whats the biggest concern here on the ground for the people to stay safe near the scene . Yeah, well, a guy in a building like that, you know, in downtown atlanta, weve all been around atlanta a lot, and you know, a highrise building can bust a window out, can be shooting people on the street if he loses targets inside if people run and hide. Of course officers can deal with that, but the question is it takes time so you have to he can get off shots at pedestrians on the street a block away or or two blocks away if he has a rifle. Its a very, very dangerous situation at the moment in downtown atlanta. Everybody in that area has got to really lay low, get hidden, you know, dont be peeking up through the windows, curiosity killed the cat. You know, lock yourself down, get your loved ones locked down. Get on the phone to your loved ones. Listen for wait for police commands. Monitor the media. Dont be running around trying to see whats going on because, i dont know, the killer might be able to see you. Lets give the police a chance to locate him, isolated, and then eliminate that threat. I mean, this is, you know, so eerily familiar to so many situations that we have been in recently. Right now were showing you a map of where this is taking place. We have, yun, you know, Highland Park last summer, that July 4th Parade on a city square. Right now as were looking at the screen, these are new pictures that the Police Department there have tweeted out of the suspect here, the person that theyre looking for. You can see here that this was taken via Surveillance Video, and we see a suspect here in a facemask, in a hoodie, looks like maybe some kind of backpack around the front of them, doesnt necessarily look like Tactical Gear, and im not also certain if we can necessarily see the weapon or if its sort of camouflaged against the dark pants. As you look at these images here, whats standing out to you . I cant really tell about a weapon here, could have a handgun if this is somebody whos shooting, handgun could be in the bag. Could be hidden by his jeans. I dont see anything in his left hand. He might have hidden it by the bag. The bag looks heavy, may be full of ammunition. Maybe he has a handgun, but you know, thats still, you can kill a lot of people with a handgun. The killer at Virginia Tech had two hand guns and he killed 32 people. Dont discount the deadly effect of a handgun in proximity to people trapped this in a building. Hes going to lose the gun battle if he gets involved with atlanta p. D. , but the question is can they do it quickly. We just saw the whole texas slaughter, and were dealing with a rural area where deputies have to respond over many miles and it takes a lot of time. Here were in one of americas major urban centers, Midtown Atlanta and you get a very Strong Police response, a lot of officers there right away, and they can deal with that. But they also have, you know, large buildings and those buildings have rooftops, they have basements. They have offices and nooks and crannies, they can connect to other buildings. There can be alleyways, so it presents other challenges to them. Yeah, i remember at Highland Park it was kind of scary, where is the suspect . Is the suspect hiding in a local business, is the suspect shooting from above. When you see the Surveillance Video and police got it out incredibly quickly, they want to apprehend this person or find out what they know. It looks like its from a business, not necessarily clear if that shooter went inside a business and shot. Obviously these are questions we still dont know, but i mean, you know, based on what were seeing just from this Surveillance Video, do you glean here that this shooter did go inside a place of business . Thats what it appears to be, and it looks like he might have a pistol in his right hand. Its hard to tell because his jeans are dark, but its possible that he does. And the bag looks heavy, so i would, you know, pause at that, not for sure, of course, but posit that that bag might be full of ammunition. He can reload multiple clips. He can reload with different magazines as he moves. Hes clearly disguised. Hes got the facemask. Theres a photo with his facemask off, you know, if somebody knows that guy, they need to call 911. They need to let Atlanta Police know who he is. That can really help. If they can make contact with the guy by knowing who he is, you know, the negotiators can call him by his name. They can talk to him. They can maybe slow it down. They can maybe go to his house. They can maybe find some, you know, notes or something he left to see what hes trying to do. Yeah, that is important to call everybodys attention to the screen to see this is the first photo that were seeing here of the Person Police want to talk to here in relation to this active shooter situation in the Metro Atlanta area here. The first picture were seeing without a facemask and jim, we just saw a bunch of very large white vehicles, one of them even looked like potentially a semi. Were clearly seeing Law Enforcement here set up for a robust response, it almost looks like some kind of command post theyre setting up. Theyll bring in the command post where the onScene Commanders will gather from all the agencies. Youll have the atlanta pd, the gbi, the Georgia State patrol, and youll have the federal agents, fbi, atfs, u. S. Marshals, theyll all gather there. The commanders of those agencies will get together. They will discuss strategies. Theyll bring in more people. Youve seen some s. W. A. T. Vehicles, a bear cat, you know, those Armored Vehicles that can protect s. W. A. T. When theyre moving in. Theyre blocking the streets off of course. They have ambulances on standby. Theres a Motor Officer coming in. Theyve got to help with traffic. Theyve got to keep people back. This is the strength here of a city Police Department that has all these officers that can deal with it quickly. But nevertheless, nevertheless, they still have the challenge of finding the shooter, and it can be daunting. Yeah, and jim, how do they go about doing that . We have a clear picture here of the suspects face, and you had mentioned, you know, they might rely on the public to hopefully be watching News Coverage or maybe see it online, see if they recognize this person, other than that how has does Law Enforcement go about a picture can help of course but at the end of the day, if theyre trying to locate this person, locate what their motive is, maybe try and talk with them, negotiate with them, how do they go about doing that . That comes thats the one end is the detectives trying to glean information from the photo from the public. The other end is the active officers on scene, the Patrol Officers and tactical officers who are pressing into the building against an active shooter, active killer, so theyre pressing in, if this building is in place where the photo is and where shots were fired, those Patrol Officers are Pressing Down the hallway until they can find a victim or make contact with the shooter. Pressing down, can you explain what that means . Walking through, rapidly going through with their tactical rifles, looking in every room, moving, moving. Kind of what we saw on nashville Body Cam Video . Exactly what you saw there. Youre pressing to contact, what youre trying to do is get to contact with the shooter so his focus is on Law Enforcement and not the citizens in there who are not armed. You got to keep pressing and pressing. In fact, the training is if theres wounded people in the hallway, you step right over them, which is counterintuitive to Law Enforcement training generally because you want to help people who are wounded. When you have an active shooter or killer you have to step over those people. People can even be calling out to the officers for help, and they have to step over and press to contact, press to contact so they can slow it down, isolate and evacuate behind them and then they can get medical help to those wounded behind them, and thats a task. You see a bear cat there, thats a s. W. A. T. Vehicle, its armored for protection. So theyre getting reports no doubt of gunmen around from various witnesses, which always happens on these things. And sometimes what citizens are reporting, they should always report, but sometimes theyre seeing plain clothes officers with rifles getting out of their vehicles. Nevertheless, the police have to respond to those reports because it may be the killer. So they have to or shooter in this case, we dont know if hes killed anyone. They have to keep pressing. That block there is large, the size of those buildings, to search and clear those buildings takes a lot of personnel and it takes time. All right, atf Special Agent in charge Jim Kavanaugh, former agent special in charge. Were going to see if you can stand by here. People told to shelter in place. Lets go ahead and listen to our local nbc affiliate there. Police are looking for the shooter. Seeing the grady ambulance reminded me how fortunate we are that theres a Level One Trauma Center within a short distance of where this happened for the people who have been hurt in this active shooter situation. We did see the ambulances on the ground there, a Level One Trauma Center is where you want to be in the unfortunate event of Something Like this happening and grady very close in proximity to the images youre seeing now live from our 11 alive sky tracker. We have not heard any updates on the conditions of the people who were hurt in this active shooting, and again, the the word police have used is multiple in terms of the number of victims. Yeah, i mean, you got to imagine theres so many people watching right now who have someone they know or love who works or lives in midtown. This is a huge hub and must be so scared right now. Police just updating us as quickly as they can, understanding that they are working a very active and stressful situation releasing those images relatively quickly as well. You can see it seems like they have shut every, i mean, road down within peach tree and that midtown area. You saw that from sky tracker. The entire midtown area surrounding this building shut down. We have police blockades, multiple Armored Vehicles, multiple people working this situation right now to try to get answers. Theres a really sobering contrast, right . You see an incredible amount of well, you see some people in scrubs right there probably going to the ambulance, but you see this presence of Law Enforcement, dozens and dozens of people in s. W. A. T. Gear, but you see nobody else. Thats the contrast, right . Its empty. The balconies are empty. The street is empty. This is right off a launch hour in a very busy time of midtown, and that is people listening to the warning from Atlanta Police to stay where you are, stay away from windows and most certainly stay off the street. Wow, the power of social media too, right . Youve got to imagine police and security were going in these buildings telling people to shelter in place. The ability to get thousands of people in the middle of a metropolitan area in the middle of lunchtime to shelter in place within a matter of minutes, really, i mean, goes to show not only how functional and effective our police and security in midtown are but also the power of social media and how this is spreading. Again, if you know anyone who commutes in the midtown area, police asking people not to go to that area right now, all the roads blocked off. If someone is in midtown right now, they are asking you to shelter in place. I saw someone tweet saying they were grabbing lunch and as they went to leave, they were instructed to shelter in place away from windows. Atlanta police saying the suspect still on the run right now. We do have those Surveillance Images that they gathered very quickly from what appears to be inside the building. Yeah, a good perspective here live for you of the 11 alive sky tracker of the police response. You know, it looks like theyre spread out. Theyre kind of going building to building. Theyre strategizing. The Atlanta Police mobile command center, a semi, an 18wheeler is on the scene along with a lot of Armored Vehicles we see driving Up And Down The Street as well. Just to reset if youre just joining us here on 11 alive news following this Breaking News. The first alert came from Atlanta Police at 12 37 of an active shooter in midtown. Five minutes later at 12 42 came the tweet that multiple people were hurt and they did not have a shooter in custody. And that alert to stay in place and to avoid that area. That all happened very quickly. Were not even an hour we have been listening to some local Media Coverage here of this active shooter situation in Midtown Atlanta. I want to go ahead and listen to a local reporter whos on the scene who is interviewing somebody who is a witness. Lets go ahead and listen in. It makes me wonder where is he. It could be anybody out here right now and we dont really know whos the shooter. Or his whereabouts. So we were just obviously talking off camera, youre live right now on channel 2 action news. Im glad youre okay, i know you were talking about just trying to catch your breath now but again, can you just take us through what just unfolded . I was well, i work in the building right next to where the shooting took place, and i was going on my lunch break. I was Crossing Over to go into whole foods, and all of a sudden they was pushing us out of the building, pushing us further back into the streets telling us to get away from the building where the active shooter were at and just telling us to get back, its an active shooter and we dont even know who the shooter is and where the shooter at right now and so its really you know, its really nerveracking. What was the first thing you did though when they started saying active shooter . What do you do . What could you do . Because i went to start looking up to make sure nobody wasnt hanging a rifle out of one of these windows or many anything like that. I went and put my back against the wall and just trying to do whatever the officers were telling us to do at the time. I dont know if youve seen this yet, Atlanta Police released photos of the shooter, the suspected shooter. I dont know if he looks familiar. Not right offhand, no, not right offhand. Can you just tell us though again, its become so common for Something Like this to happen, but for you to actually be living this and experiencing it, when it all went down, was everybody around you just kind of joining together . We were, we were. We was joined today. Its kind of nerveracking because the officers just came up to me thinking i was another suspect they was looking for, and i just had to show my i. D. , so they could realize who i was, and so you know, its nerveracking because i guess they got a little picture of him, but we dont know who hes working with, whos helping him out or anything, so they havent yet caught him. Anything you want to say to your friends or family they may be trying to get ahold of you, cant reach you . Just be aware of your surroundings, cooperate with the law what they ask you to do, you know, anytime situations like this occur, we just want to all Work Together and try to avoid getting shot. Thank you, were glad youre okay. Any other eyewitness im antonio. Antonio. Im antonio williams. All right, weve been listening to that witness, antonio on our Affiliate Wxia describing some of these moments here that he was told to get down, shelter in place because of reports of an active shooter. I want to go ahead and bring in a former Seattle Police chief and current msnbc legal analyst, carmen best. Carmen, we know from police here that the photo on the left, the photo of the man on the left here without the facemask, they are saying theyre photos believed to be of the active shooter. Anyone with information about where this person is is asked to call 911. This person is armed and dangerous. The person should not be approached, and we also know that theyve isolated it essentially, it sounds like, inside a building here in this area in Midtown Atlanta. Multiple people injured. This person is still on the loose and everybody is still being asked to shelter in place. So carmen, when you hear those details, when you see the footage here of what would be normally likely a bustling area during the lunch hour here, essentially people listening to the calls to shelter in place. What are some of the things that are happening Behind The Scenes to try and get this person in custody . Well, you know theres nothing more important right now than finding the suspect in this shooting and taking them into custody. At this point theyre going to be looking, getting information, any information that they can from some of the victims, people who are around who may have a picture of the suspect, anybody who may recognize the person from a previous encounter or being a former employee or something of that nature. Additionally, theyve been looking and listening for any additional shots fired, obviously that would bring officers immediately into the area to track this person. So its a very vulnerable situation at this time. Nothings going to be more important than finding this person. You dont know if somehow they managed to escape to a vehicle or theyve gone underground. So officers are going to be deploying and searching with a high level of caution but also a level of urgency to locate this person in question. So carmen, when we think about and just so Everybody Knows the area that were talking about here that police have said, if anybodys familiar with the atlanta area, its a building on West Peach Tree between 12th street and 13th street. Im looking at a map here. It looks like there are several businesses in that area including a Medical Center. Carmen, when we think about people, these Law Enforcement officials trying to go in, app apprehend the shooter. The number one goal being to find this person. We see the Law Enforcement presence on the scene here. When we think about multiple people being injured, time is of the essence to render potentially Life Saving Care but you do have to square that whoa with reports of an active shooter, also just trying to find this person. How do they weigh and how do they potentially get in more people to try and help those who are injured . You know, there will be, as you can see, a massive response from not only the local jurisdiction but federal partners as well as other jurisdictions will come to make sure they have teams to go into each one of those buildings and check. Theyll be going room to room. Weve seen this in School Shootings and other shootings to make sure the people are sheltered and locked down or to ascertain where in fact the shooter may be. At this point we dont know if that person has gone to ground, gone highing. Changed clothes, changed their appearance or if they have a selfinflicted injury. Theres going to be a lot going through, lots of potential outcomes here. Its still very early on. Information is fluid. Youll know that everyone is going to be searching diligently and gathering any intel they can about the person in question here who is the shooter. And so that will sometimes you can get information from some of the victims. I know there are some casualties, you know, the level of injuries is unknown to me. There may be someone who was injured and is able to give a description and other information. Theyll be gathering all that information and passing it on to the people who are responding and arriving to atlanta there to locate the suspect. Those other businesses and all will be on lockdown. Obviously they dont want people on the street reporting about anybody at this time is potentially a suspect. So the safest thing to do is to remain in lockdown until they locate this person or ascertain that theyve, you know, have broken the perimeter in some way. I want to draw everybodys attention to the screen and the photo thats on the left, and police want to talk to this person, photos believed to be the active shooter. If anybody is watching, could recognize, know this person here in the hoodie to maybe call a tip in at this point. That would of course greatly help Law Enforcement and carmen, when we think about this being such a main thoroughfare for this atlanta area, the Atlanta Metro area and the fact that we are just seeing people really just Law Enforcement on our screen right now for the most part it looks like, see somebody taking some cell phone video. For people who are sheltering in place, what should they be doing right now . I mean, you think about just the terror thats going through them. This is the terror that every american lives in fear of at this point now whether theyre going to a parade outside, going to a prosecutor, going to any event or even at their place of work or at a school, what should they be doing right now . Yeah, unfortunately as you mentioned, there have just been so many of these mass shooting incidents across the country that now it is just a part of our almost natural response to be prepared for some type of event like this when were going to whether its work or school or even a large gathering, a large event, and so most people know to shelter in place, lock the doors, barricade yourself inside, thats the safest thing to do. If they have access to watch whats happening via television or on their cell phones or whatnot to track whats occurring outside so they can at least have some information about whats happening and have the assurance that police are on scene and are actively trying to locate this person, setting up Contact Teams and support teams to go in. Thats a level of assurance. If theyre not hearing anyshots being fired we know that its not active at the moment anyway. That gives a level of relief that some ways it will be a lot more stressful if you could hear, you know, shots being gone and the shooting happened. In uvalde there was a period of time in which that shooter wasnt shooting and started shooting again. That impacted that whole response. Im just going to have to update everybody with some horrible news that we never want to bring people, but we have information on some of the victims here that there are four total right now. Three have been taken to the hospital and a fourth who has died on the scene, and so never any kind of news that we want to bring all of you. This is of course tragedy unfolding in the middle of a busy area here in atlanta, Midtown Atlanta as were continuing to follow the latest. Carmen, when we saw, for example, the massacre in texas, in cleveland, texas, about 45 minutes outside of houston, and we saw that that person, oropesa took days to be apprehended, ultimately was hiding in a home in a closet under laundry. That is not where Law Enforcement wants to go in a manhunt like this. We dont know where the shooter is. Police are looking for the shooter whos on the left and potentially going through some of these buildings to find that person. That is the last thing officers want is for this person to slip through their fingers. Absolutely. Obviously the suspect has a little bit of a jump because, you know, clearly they know where they are and know the route theyre going to take to try to escape. Sometimes that doesnt happen, and sometimes it does. If in fact they have an escape plan set they obviously have more information than the officers do, and the officers are coming into these large facilities searching for essentially a needle in a haystack, although they do have a picture of the suspect. Theyre going to have to look through multiple buildings and corridors, and access lots and parking lots and vehicles to see if they can find this person, and thats if, in fact, the person still is dressed as we see him now. Often people if theyre going to try to make an escape theyll try and throw officers off track by changing clothing. Those are all things that Law Enforcement has to be aware of as theyre putting themselves in harms way and trying to find this person. Again, to update everybody here, we have four shooting victims according to police right now, three transported to the hospital, a fourth pronounced dead on the scene tragically. Interesting carmen, that they also say officers are actively searching for the suspect and any other victim, so there could be more here. Talk to us about what Law Enforcement officers are likely doing in this area as they try and not only tend to and find victims here but also get this suspect in custody. Yeah, theyll be going into the facility. Theyll be looking for as you noted additional victims, people who may be injured or severely injured that they can locate and try to get to safety, notify other authorities and officials, additionally like i said, theyll be searching through the building to see if theres any place that the suspect may have gone to ground, gone to hiding, checking out parking lots and vehicles to see if the suspect somehow made it to a vehicle and was able to hide within a vehicle, that type of thing. Theyll also be looking at any Camera Footage or anything from that to see if they can get a track of where the suspect may have entered or exited or if they may be within the facility as well. So all of those things are in progress as we speak, you know, trying to make sure that they can locate this person as well as ensuring that, you know, hopefully no other people are harmed or injured. Right now of course its a very dangerous situation as this person who is most likely armed is somewhere. We dont know where, either in the facilities or, you know, on the lam on the run. Either way it presents a danger to others so that nothing of more importance than locating this person. Law enforcement will set up a command post. Theyll be in coordination with, you know, all the jurisdictions that are responding, additionally with all of the federal partners who are responding, dei, the fbi, the etf to make sure that they can track down this person and use as many resources as possible to bring this person into custody. Carmen best, if you can stick around for us, i want to bring in nbc news producer Charlie Guile who is calling in live on the scene in atlanta. Charlie, let us know what youre seeing and hearing. Are you in a Media Staging Area . What can you tell us . Weve been pushed back a couple of blocks away from the scene. Looking down southbound West Peach Tree, you can see two ambulance, i would say three dozen or more police vehicles. At the moment, it does seem that things the tension has sort of subsided since i arrived on scene about 15, 20 minutes ago, but you can still see officers with long guns Walking Around checking the sidewalks. I did see a team with long guns go in and out of the marta station, thats the Public Transit station here. Theres a stop about a block and a half south of where this shooting took place. And, you know, its a very populated part of midtown. Theres tons of Construction Cranes because theyre building a lot of buildings here, lots of places potentially for somebody to hide. You can see people taking shelter, people coming out of restaurants to sort of see whats going on. Right now police have not told them to go back inside, so if we could sit here and wait on more information. Charlie, what else can you tell us about this area . I mean, we know its lunchtime. We know people have been told to shelter in place from the images were seeing on the screen overhead here. Were mostly just seeing mostly if not all just a Law Enforcement presence here. Im curious if youre seeing the same, and what can you tell us about some of the businesses in the buildings . When i look up this area, Peach Tree Street between 12th and 13th, theres a Medical Center. Theres an Office Building in which google has some offices. So what can you tell us here about the area . I know you were pushed back a couple of blocks. Do we know exactly where Law Enforcement officers are honing in on . It does seem like they are honing in on that hospital, North Side Hospital. I spoke with somebody who was working in the building next door. He said that they were told that there was an ongoing shooting. They were told it was a hospital. They sheltered in place, and then he made his way a couple of blocks south so where i am. As far as the location goes, yeah, there are lots of Office Buildings around. Its a pretty busy place during the lunch rush hour. Theres a whole foods nearby, you know, during the afternoon youll see people walking there. Apartment buildings as well. This is a pretty, you know, if you live in this area, you know, this is these are your stores that you go to. These are the streets that you walk on. So its definitely a scary situation, but right now, you know, i have not heard any definite confirmation beyond that one witness, i take that back, that one person that was sheltered saying that they were sure its the hospital but thats where it seems the Police Presence is centered on. Just to let everybody know police are telling us there have been no additional shots fired since that initial incident unfolded. That initial call coming in at 12 37, and 12 42 a tweet from police saying there was a report of an active shooter and people to shelter in place. Just so i make sure i heard you correctly, you heard from a witness who was told to shelter in place inside the hospital. Heard that this shooter was initially taking shots in that hospital and then left that building . Let me be clear, the building next to the hospital, and he was told to shelter in place immediately before he came down the street. But they were told that this happened at the hospital, like i said, theres not a confirmation, but thats definitely where the police, like i said, seem to be centered. Its four or five blocks down west Peach Tree Street. Right now im looking at theres a squad car who just pulled out and coming north on West Peach Tree. So its unclear exactly whats happening. Some police armed with long guns turned walked down West Peach Tree. Like i said, right now maybe since the active shooting stopped a little while ago, maybe thats why the tension has subsided a little bit. But right now evens just playing the waiting game. So charlie, you are familiar with this area. Youre based here. You know it incredibly well. What can you tell us about some of the major thoroughfares here in this area, if this suspect did indeed leave the area, which we dont know if that is the case, would they have easy access, for example, to interstates . Charlie, you still with me . Yeah, yeah, im right here. Sorry, there is many ways to get out. Public transit is one potential way. Theres a highway that runs North And South, its a main artery right through atlanta, and the area, yes. But this is West Peach Tree. One block over is Peach Tree Street and a shopping and Dining Center that is extremely busy during the lunch rush hour. Actually live about six blocks from here, so these are the places i walk around in the middle of the day, you know, to get things done. So as you can imagine, it does hit close to home. Charlie, stay with us, and flag us whenever there are more updates or Anything Else that youd like to jump in on, and certainly continue to stay safe there at the scene as this suspect is still at large. I want to bring in msnbc National Security analyst Frank Figliuzzi, frank, you are very familiar with this area. You worked at the fbi Atlanta Office here, former obviously Assistant Director for counterintelligence at the fbi, so sort of a confluence of your expertise here. And just before i start asking you questions about this area, about where this possibly could have taken place including the fact that theres a Medical Center in the area, just anything that stands out to you about what you want to let us know about this unfolding situation . So yeah, i did do five years working at fbi atlanta as a field agent there, and look, theres good news and not so good news. The good news is the Law Enforcement community there is easily partnered. It will be a Streamline Partnership to block this off in grids. Its a methodical process that theyre going to undergo with Clearing Building after building after building. I will say this, i know its early but yet weve heard an interesting report, right, which is that this may have started at North Side Hospital or the related medical buildings. Look, we know now that hospitals can represent a convergence, almost a perfect storm thats built for this kind of acting out. People are often at their lowest, theyre facing a medical crisis in their family. Sometimes if theres a birth center there you see Family Members coming in who have tensions between them about whats going on, Angry At Hospital staff, nurses, doctors, all of this represents a security risk. Thats why we have hospital security, often Actual Police officers assigned to hospitals. So the good news there is lots of video and Security Camera footage will exist of this. Not so good news, the guys moving about. They dont know where he is. Its an urban center filled with buildings, offices, places to duck and hide, and that means the clearing job, the finding job is going to be extremely resource intensive. Ill certainly tell you youre going to see marshals, fbi, Fulton County sheriffs and police and city of atlanta Police Department all coming together to try and contain this. Contain the subject so that he understands hes boxed in and he cant get out, and then the public, this photo thats been released is going to be immensely helpful. While were talking about that and all this containment is going on, investigators are at that hospital or wherever it started and theyre doing interviews, what happened . What set this guy off . Thats going to identify this guy likely, we know who this is. We were having a bad exchange with him. Thats very helpful as well. Now you can start taking that Identity Information and zeroing in technically on devices and other things. So lots going on right now simultaneously. Frank, what can you tell us here about shelter in place procedures at Medical Centers and hospitals and the security in place . I know that any hospital or Medical Center that ive been in in recent times i have seen some kind of Security Presence in the lobby, obviously, theyre trained to be on the lookout for any kind of people who might want to do anyone harm inside. Yeah, indeed. Again, many large hospitals and likely this one if this is the main hospital for north side, theyll have sworn police officers, armed police officers, welltrained and staff rehearses for this. The Lockdown Procedure is very rehearsed and exercised. But you know, it may not have worked here if reports are accurate that this person, this shooter may be blocks away at this point. So its almost beside the point. The camera coverage, the training of people inside the building, the interviews going on will assist tremendously, and youll see some sophisticated resources layered in technically to try and isolate this person somehow. But be prepared for a protracted search. Again, very crowded, very difficult area here. And also the fact, we know that no shots have been fired since those initial shots recently. As charlie was telling us, this is an area a lot of Public Transit, a lot of interstate thoroughfares. Just to recap everybody here, we know that so far four people have been involved in this that we know of, four victims. Three taken to the hospital for treatment, a fourth sadly, tragically pronounced dead at the scene here. We also know that as this area remains under a shelter in place order due to an active shooter situation, a lot of Public Schools in the atlanta area will operate on Exterior Lockdown for the remainder of the day out of an abundance of caution. We dont know where this shooter is. We dont know where this person is. And we also know that people just in the area need to be on the lookout, if youre directly in that Midtown Atlanta area, there needs to be some sort of shelter in place. Frank, i want to keep you on standby here if we could, and i want to go ahead and bring in vaughn hillyard, nbc news correspondent whos here on set with me. Vaughn, as we continue to look at the photo here that police put out, be on the lookout, this is the person believe to be the active shooter. You lived in this area, what can you tell us about the type of area this is, the type of businesses, what people would normally be doing at 12 37 in the afternoon when the reports of those first shots came out . I think charlie gile provided a good look at this area. Ive walked these streets with charlie. Youre talking about in the heart of the day traffic not only from the Business Community but also those that live nearby. The apartment complex where i lived was just one block from here. Youre talking about a building that is 30 stories tall. Theres another Apartment Building right next door to that here. This is not just a business area, not just a medical facility, but also one that is highly trafficked by folks that are actually living in this community. When you look here at the map, this is what is so difficult here for authorities when youre trying to track this individual. Youre talking about the 85 and the 75, those thoroughfares that go North And South right through the heart of atlanta. That is just that Freeway Entrance is just one block away from here. You also have the likes of georgia tech university, just a half mile away here, youre talking about several square mile campus there with more than 15,000 students. Youre talking about Georgia State university, two miles south of there with another sizable student population. Just about three blocks from where the shooting took place is colony square, an outdoor shopping plaza. Theres an indoor food court. Theres a movie theater. Youre talking about one block away from there piedmont park, a fourmile square loop park. When were talking about the greater atlanta area, youre talking about a very wooded area here, its populated, dense, but also a large amount of park space. So really for authorities here, youre dealing with a very large area. Theres an ikea, a target about One Mile North of there, the town of buck head is about three miles north, and so youre dealing with an e expansive area as this gunman appears to still be on the loose. I want to go ahead and bring in nbcs Miguel Almaguer who is following the very latest for us. We know this is fast unfolding. Catch us up to speed on what we know. We know the search still underway for the suspect. Youve seen photo. Thats the best lead investigators have at this moment. They are asking people as you mentioned to shelter in place. This is a very active scenario. You can see the Police Presence there. We are told multiple agencies are on the ground. There are heavily armed officers on the ground, s. W. A. T teams and the Armored Vehicle in the middle of the screen there. At this point, in terms of the victims, we know there are at least four victims, three are injured. One has been killed. Those three injured have been taken to a local Trauma Center in atlanta that is close by. Obviously doctors are doing the best they can to work on those as the massive search for this gunman does continue. Investigators have to go through building to building. Vaughan was talking about how many highrise buildings are in the area, commercial buildings, also residential buildings. Theres a lot of concern in the area. Police asking everyone to shelter in place as they get more helicopters in the area to search the expansive area. They are literally going building to building, floor to floor to canvas the area. Miguel almaguer, thank you for keeping us updated on that. I want to bring back Frank Figliuzzi here. For everyone at home watching, i want to give a warning. The next photo were going to show on the screen is very disturbing, at least it appears disturbing to me, and i want to ask frank about it. When we look at the photo were going to show everybody. This is a photo that was disseminated by the atlanta Police Department. It was disseminated among a cluster of photos of the person believed to be the shooter on the left side. Right now were looking at one of those photos here, and as we continue to sort of go through some of the photos that the Police Department tweeted out here, theres one in particular, frank, i want to ask you about when we get to it. First of all, we see the suspect, the person believed to be the suspect in a hoodie and face mask and a bag or backpack strapped to their stomach. This is the photo. Frank, as we look, it appears the Person Police believe to be the suspect raising an arm. This is a very eerie photo, and we know that there were reports of an active shooter. Were putting the dots together here. This could be a photo here of the suspect raising a weapon. Its disturbing to know what the police are up against, but its become common today to deal with this kind of fire power, and accessibility to weapons. Im going to continue to focus on the more positive, which is the more photo images that are out there publicly, the more chance the public will help solve this thing, and then well figure out where did the gun come from, what was the motivation, what was the driving force, but Law Enforcement frequently faces these decisions about whether to release photos and what to release and more and more, were seeing what i agree with, which is leaning toward and erring on the side of putting the images out. As disturbing as they may be, its how increasingly these cases get solved and someone gets identified. So, yeah, its part of our sad life right now, until we get our hands around the gun problem, the violence problem, the various Mental Health issues all converging to create a far more Threat Environment for everyone today. We talked about hospitals earlier, look, doctors and nurses will tell you and the data is there that is particular since covid, they face increased threats. People are on the edge. They dont like the medical news theyre getting. They dont like frustration, waiting for results, whatever is going on there, theres an increased Threat Environment if this kicked off inside the hospital. The question is how well was it planned . So if it was not so planned, this person may not know where theyre headed next, and may not have a logical escape route planned. If it was planned out, this is tougher. If they got on that marta, we talked earlier about the Public Transit right there, the theres a station there. Thats tough. You can get on there and go quickly. Good news, lots of Security Camera, the police can flood the marta trains quickly with resources and see if they can locate this person. Theres going to be a lot of consternation. Its disconcerting to get stopped, frisked and identified by police but theres going to be a lot of that going on, particularly on Public Transit throughout the rest of the afternoon. Frank, as you have been talking we have an update from police now that there are five shooting victims now. The number has increased from four to five. Four victims have been taken to the hospital. A fifth being pronounced dead on the scene, and, frank, when we have that situation where we havent heard of more shots since the initial additional shots fired, do you get a sense here, and obviously were going to learn more about once we find out who the shooter is what their motives were, but do you get a sense it could have been targeted . Will Law Enforcement be looking at that route . Right. So good question and good observation. This likely becomes less of a spree shooting, someone simply moving about shooting almost randomly and more, perhaps, about a targeted shooting where this person feels like they got their job done, their objective was meant, perhaps, targeting a place or people in that place, and now theyre all about escaping if they can. So good news, in a city environment, Office Spaces like this, a gunshot would be heard if this person was continuing to shoot. So the fact that they have not heard gunfire since the incident does take us toward a theory that this might have been targeted. Frank, stand by, i want to ask vaughn about this area, hotels, parking garages, an incredible amount of area that people are going to need to come through to find this person. One of the particular areas is three blocks from the shooting. And frank knows this area well, and we can harken back to late last year. There was actually another shooting in broad daylight that turned our cameras and a Police Presence much like this, it was outside of colony square, and to what frank is potentially suggesting, there was a targeted shooting that left two dead, and so this is very kind of eerily reminiscent of that here. We have four or five hotels from the ritzcarlton to the marriott within two blocks of this facility. Youve got parking garages, whole foods, a movie theater, an indoor food court. This is also just a half mile away from georgia tech university, just two miles north of Georgia State university as well as the Savannah College of art and design, their atlanta campus. Just one mile from there here. Piedmont mark is a couple of blocks away. A Four Mile Park that is wooded, a large area, so when youre looking at this midtown area around peach tree, authorities are dealing with the reality that this is a sizable area that is not only commercial, medical, but also residential. Several highrise facilities, i live one block away from there. I know charlie himself lives about six blocks away at another facility, and so this is a very difficult situation for authorities because of just how populated it is at all parts and times of the day. Frank, do you want to respond to what vaughn said . I have more questions to what Behind The Scenes work is being done to try to find out the name and identity of this person. Vaughn gave an excellent picture of what the challenges are here because if containment is not successful quickly, say a five block radius, and this shooter gets out and about, now its a different picture. Youre talking about the potential for piedmont park. Again, lots of trees in atlanta, lots of trees in the park, the wooded areas, and then, again, the public transportation, so the key is the containment. So we dont know how fast he moved. We dont know if hes injured and slowed down by that either. So this is going to be a long afternoon and hes going to feel increasingly cornered if hes in that contained area, and then decisions have to be made also by Law Enforcement about letting people home and out. Thats the kind of discussion going on right now in the Operations Center amongst the executives in Law Enforcement. Can we clear a building and let them out . Well, yeah, the buildings clear, but we havent cleared the block that were letting them out on to or have we. That plan has to be put in place about getting people out and home while theyre still actively looking for a murderer at this point. So, frank, we know, for example, in the cleveland, texas, man hunt, that suspect was apprehended on the fourth day of that man hunt as that suspect shed clothing, dogs lost the scent. Law enforcement do not want that situation repeated here. Are they essentially at this point at the mercy of tips, somebody watching, somebody recognizing this alleged shooter . Theres active investigation going on with detectives right now, so and what do i mean by that. We talked already about wherever this started, lets assume for a moment it was in the hospital. Those Hospital Personnel are being interviewed, who was this guy, how did it start, what set him off, give us an i. D. , Family Members, if they can identify the person, theyre going to the house, and theyre going to talk to Family Members and neighbors there. Also the wounded. Detectives will be headed to whatever Emergency Rooms these wounded people were sent to and if theyre able to talk, then the detectives are going to speak with them and say what happened, do you know this guy . Were you targeted . Whats going on . All of that Behind The Scenes, and pretty sensitive Technical Resources being brought in. You know, we talk about the cleveland, texas, shooting. That guy lost his phones. He apparently may have grabbed another phone at some point because he was communicating and that person had help, right, we have already heard today that others are being arrested for harboring and aiding his escape, so he had assistance, but what made him a challenge was that because of his alleged unlawful status in the United States as an undocumented migrant, he didnt live on the grid. He lived every day not wanting to be found by Law Enforcement because of his status, and so that means not easy to track Credit Card Use and all ofha