released this morning. now the rush to find the shooter. >> when this happened when they heard the shots, and when they heard the bullets singing past that they saw muzzle flashes, but the muzzle flashes were probably about 125 yards away. this is the number one priority right now of the st. louis county police department to identify these individuals. that individual or individuals who shot our police officers. >> today condemnation from across the country. attorney general eric holder saying his stomach churned when he heard the news, calling it an ambush. and president obama saying quote -- violence against police is unacceptable. our prayers are with the officers in missouri. the path to justice is one all of us must travel together. and the parents of michael brown today denounced the shootings as senseless, saying it can't be tolerated. tonight law enforcement from missouri state highway patrol and st. louis county are taking over security from local police -- from local ferguson police. let me be clear. this shooting was deploreable and reprehensible. those of us organizing in ferguson are denouncing this. we don't know who did it or why, but we must come together police and protesters standing as one against this despicable violence. that's how we can begin to heal and lead to a new day. joining me live from ferguson are msnbc.com's trymaine lee, brad rayford, an eyewitness to and pa trisha barnes, a democratic committee woman for ferguson township. thank you all for being here. trymaine, what are you hearing about this manhunt? are they close? >> chief john bellmer setting the county police department's number one priority to catch the individual or individuals who fired at those police officers. here we are just hours away from nightfall. everyone is bracing. i spoke to protesters who say they're tired and exhausted emotional and physically. jan bellmer said they're going after the folks with full force, as typical in ferguson as nightfall and protesters gather so much is unknown, but again, the family of michael brown, organizers all denouncing this violence, but until those individuals are captured the police department and the county police are on a mission to find those folks. >> committeewoman barnes people will gather for a candlelight vigil tonight. what's the mood? >> the mood is very com better because we don't know who did this and we also aren't quite sure someone would try to backtrack the progress that's being made when we have so many people it seems resigning, and things are starting to move in the right direction, where people are being held accountable for things something like this could very possibly deter and take us off-course. >> this is something i've been saying committee woman, this hurts those of us who have wanted to see progress towards some kind of police reform. it certainly doesn't help. it hurts the cause. >> it most certainly does. actually there were many people involved in the protests that were very scared. the thoughts many of them said the shots came from behind them and they were very, very scared about what happened. >> brad you were an eyewitness to the shooting. tell me what you saw. >> i saw -- the muzzle fire from the guns up the hill on temperaturet. ppen avenue as well as the officer on the ground wounded by the gunshots. >> brad reportedly the shots didn't come from the protesters in front of the police station where the officers were struck but is it instead from across the street. i heard the police chief saying that it was many yards away more than a football field away by someone armed with a handgun. so brad the protesters were actually in the line of fire, weren't they? >> we all were in the line of fire. there's no telling who they were aiming towards, and the bullets really don't have a name to hit anybody. so it's only a matter of time. i'm glad no one got hurt last night besides the officers but there could have been anybody hit by the bullets last night. >> what was the mood after the three shots rang out? what was the mood like? >> after the shots rang out, the crowd pretty much dispersed, except for around 25 who couldn't leave because their cars were parked which was now a crime scene. they couldn't go anywhere until please released them. it was very, very somber as patricia said. the officers were obviously in the streets wondering what can they do to help out their injured officers fellow injured officers that were hit by the gunfire. it was definitely a scene i won't forget for a long long time. >> brad let me ask you something straight up. you've been out there, active. i've been in and out, certainly patricia has been there night and day. have you heard anyone act as though that this is any way, shape or form something that they condone or celebrate? >> not at all. i've talked to a lot of the remaining protesters last night. they want to emphasize the fact that they said people to know this was not a protester-sponsored shooting. it's sad to say that but they wanted people to know it's a person or persons who want to cause harms towards officers or people, no telling who the target -- but they won't -- -- and they were able to do that last night, protests want people to know they were not involved in any way, shape or form. >> give the people around the country, brad an idea of what the protests have been like? what are the normal protests like? >> if you watch the live stream the protesters come they gather they plan what they want to do. they most likely will block the streets. the officer tell them to get off the street, it's like a band and forth all night. and reply much at the end of the night people go home. >> but no violence nothing of confrontation in terms of violence with police? >> certainly, of course, if you consider a confrontation of a person getting arrested. but that's pretty much the gist of the conversation that folks have with the police department. >> right. >> that's pretty much what i've witnessed the last seven months. >> committee woman, as i mentioned tonight, law infers friend from missouri state highway patrol and the st. louis county are taking over security this is after the justice department report. what are you expecting, committeewoman? >> well, i'm expecting decrease i'm kind of glad they have done that. i think the officers from the ferguson police department will be quite anxious and scared after last night's activity so i can certainly see why we have the need to st. louis county and the state troopers to come and step in. i'm sure they'll be anxious and bracing for what happens, but at least it won't be the ferguson police department under this constant pressure to man the protests tonight. >> trymaine you've got in there for i teases that anytime i've gone in and out i've almost -- have you seen any shift in the mood? what are you sensing on the ground? is there a shift in all the time i've been there? >> it's always tricky and so when you talk to those organizers and protest ersers they're trying on how to pivot from the broader moment, that validated what so many in this community had said the police targeted black folks, poor black folks to buoy the city's budget. they have insdrim instantly arrested and targeted with fines and fees. they're still reeling from the report that validated their claims but they're also waiting for the next hammer to drop perhaps a consent decree. with all of that going on, last night's shooting threw everything into greater chaos. folks on the ground last night said it almost felt like august all over again. there were so many people officers lined up with shields, and protesters on edge then the shooting, and now the fallout, and another night of preparation as night begins to fall. the mood is -- >> we're watching. we saw some live tape of their moving barricades around for the night. >> that's right. >> patricia what is your constituents? what do they want to see next? isn't there an election coming up? are there any preparations from political motivations? what's next in terms of organizing on on the ground? >> as a matter of fact tonight there is a candidates forum for wards 2 and 3, wards 2 is where the police department is, and ward 3 is where cantfield is. so even tonight there's a candidate forum scheduled to take place here in ferguson. i'm sure there will be even more questions for the candidates on how they feel about what happened last night, and what they think are good ideas to start trying to repair the relationship between the police and this community. but the candidates -- >> is the mayor on the ballot? >> the may is not. there are three city council seats up one in each ward. the election is april 7th. >> let me show you to you, patricia brad and trymaine let me tesh you what eric holder said. >> i stand ready to offer the full investigative resources much the department of justice, the fbi to solve this crime. what happened last night was a pure ambush. this was not someone trying to bring healing to ferguson. this was a damn punk a punk who was trying to sow discord in an area that's trying to get its act together and trying to bring together a community that's been fractured for too long. >> no doubt it's deplorable reprehensible, and i'll be talking about it more in the show but i they we cannot in any way, shape or form rush to conclusions. everyone is calling for the apprehension of whoever is responsible for this, and we should not blame anyone until we know exactly what happens. brad, what is it that the protesters beyond wanting to see this person captured, what is it that you said to see happen now in terms of the reform of policing in ferguson? >> talking to some of the protesters, they have a topdownover all-of the ferguson administration completely. they want the city hall mayor to step down the administration step down and start fresh, anew to -- a new start for the community as a whole so we can move past and move forward. >> that's what they're going to keep fighting towards, patricia including these three council seats that are up in less than a month? >> absolutely. ferguson is a strong community. it's going to move forward regardless, because of the people. we are fighting for the direction of the city. that's what the fight is about. the city needs to move in a right direction. we need a culture change in the city government in the police department and in the municipal courts. >> trymaine lee, and brad rayford, and patricia barnes thank you for your time. i agree the city needs to move forward, they need to move forward together and whoever did this horrendous act certainly is trying to move the city back. they have in many ways harmed all sides in something that must come together and move toward progress. coming up, what's wrong with the secret service? the agents shown in this video reassigned after allegations of drunk driving into a white house barricade. we'll go live to the white house. and new york police making an arrest in that awful mcdonald's brawl caught on tape. the question everyone is asking -- why didn't anyone step in? >>. plus john mccain has a bizarre new explanation for why republicans wrote that letter to iran. big show ahead. please stay with us. buying a used car can be a scary proposition. you walk onto that lot and immediately you are surrounded like a guppy in a shark tank. it just feels like car salesmen want to sell whatever car is best for them, not best for me. there's gotta be a better way. ♪ ♪ as long as people drive cars carmax will be the best way to buy them. alright, so this tylenol arthritis lasts 8 hours, but aleve can last 12 hours... and aleve is proven to work better on pain than tylenol arthritis. so why am i still thinking about this? how are you? aleve, proven better on pain. serious questions need to be answered tonight after an explosive report revealed two secret service agents spent a night drinking then crashed their government car into a white house barricade. now, those agents are reassigned to non-supervisory and nonoperational jobs but these were high-ranking guys one of them mark connelly was the second in command on president obama's detail the original george ogilvie was a senior supervisor in the washington field off. according to the post officers on duty who witnessed the march 4th incident wanted to arrest the agents but the officers were ordered by a supervisor on duty that night to let the agents go home. this comes less than a month after the president named a new director to fix the scandal-plagued agency. from eight agents getting fired after accusations involving prostitution in colombia to a man with a knife getting over the fence and deep inside the white house before an off-duty agent tackled him. today congressman elijah cummings says it's out of control. >> i'm very upset about this. we've made major changes to the secret service with regard to leadership, but obviously there's still a lot of work to be done. you cannot have two supervisory personnel disrupting a crime scene. it's ridiculous. >> so what happens now? and has anything really changed? joining me now from the white house is nbc news senior white house correspondent chris jansing. thank you for being here. >> thanks rev. >> a spokesperson for the president says he's quote, disappointed to hear about the allegations. what else can you tell us? >> there's a lot of investigatoring going on one of the key pieces of evidence is there are cameras everywhere. there's government video of this and one of the people we have talked to who has actually seen the video said that those agents, when they broke through a police tape and arrived on the scene, they came very close to hitting it. that area was secured, but you had a woman who got out of her car and said this was a bomb. so obviously this was a potentially very dangerous situation. the other thing that i think is happening, reverend is they want to get this done quickly, because joe clancy who was brought in to change the agency wants to show he can take decisive action here. >> but chris, mark connelly is the second-most senior member of the president's personal security details. this news certainly suggests the secret service has not been fixed. is that the feeling there at the white house? >> i think there's actually a feeling not just at the white house, but also some of the biggest critics of the agency on capitol hill have said to me that they're taking a wait-and-see attitude. they think that joe clancy have made some changes that have born fruit. some feel it's institutional, that there's vision 245 the a little believe they can get away with anything. we have seen it in cartagena, in amsterdam. >> this is very concerning. chris jansing at the white house, thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you. >> joining mess is congresswoman eleanor holmes norton a member of the house oversight committee. thank you for being here tonight, congresswoman. >> of course, reverend. >> what's your reaction to this new secret service report? >> i think this new set of incidents is beyond unacceptable, probably career-ending, but it's useful in this sense. it points us to the guts of the agency, the personnel, and we have to ask ourselves -- why has there been this misbehavior overseas, now in the nation's capital? if you read the report of the special panel on the secret service, you begin to understand what's been happening to the personnel. these men and women have been working 12-hour days getting one day off there have been increasing mission, terrorism, cyber, drones no new resources, and here you have people blowing their steam. unacceptable when it comes to a mission that must have zero failure, but you've got to look at the men and women of the agency not just at the leadership. >> are they not moving quickly enough on this congresswoman? >> absolutely not, but congress is to blame for that. we just got their appropriation out last week. the leadership was able to do nothing until that appropriation came out. the panel whose report has been out now for about a month, said that the men and women are working an unsustainable number of hours. you see people doing what human beings will do except you can't do it if you are involved in protecting the president of the united states. >> congresswoman, though there was another car crash inside the white house barricade back in 2013 when a woman crashed a car with her child inside into the white house barricade. agents and police shot and killed miriam carrie. what are the differences? >> the only difference is one is perhaps even more inexcusable, this one. they didn't even get punished. they didn't get aroasted. >> they didn't get a breathalyzer either. >> extraordinary disparate treatment. that's why i think this is career-ending for them. but it ought to make us look more deeply into the agency itself and into the men and women we depend upon. there's something going on there, reverend. while we have looked at the leadership changed the leadership finally got the appropriation out, it's time to focus on what the manual said was a need for significant new resources. they say you need 200 more uniformed officers and 85 more new agents and they say that's a starter. >> well the question is is this security fixing by the secret service? congresswoman, thank you for your time tonight. >> my pleasure. still ahead that terrible mcdonald's brawl on tape. a teenage girl beaten as witnesses stand and watch. tonight new questions and an arrest. also new reporting tonight shows the racist chant in that frat video may go back decades. stay with us. if you're running a business legalzoom has your back. over the last 10 years we've helped one million business owners get started. visit legalzoom today for the legal help you need to start and run your business. legalzoom. legal help is here. shopping online is as easy as it gets. ♪ wouldn't it be great if hiring plumbers carpenters and even piano tuners were just as simple? 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don't celebrate a hugely successful policy helping millions of people? okay. so what should people be celebrating, senator? how about the gop wasting time on the keystone pipeline. or perhaps they could celebrate republicans almost shutting down the department of homeland security. well that crowd sure looks serious. maybe they should celebrate tom cotton being called a traitor for the letter to iran he orchestrated. >> surely we get more than a slow clap for that one. all i know the white house could celebrate the senate not voting on loretta lynch's confirmation. she waited longer than any attorney general nominee in recent history. these folks know what i'm talking about. and they know senator barrasso has this all wrong. health care is exactly what we were all be celebrated. we learned this week that 11.7 million people are now enrolled for health insurance under the aca. 11.7 million, and 86% are receiving subsidies, helping a lot of people who wouldn't be able to afford insurance otherwise. these numbers are the real reasons to cheer. did senator barrasso think we would ignore his party foul? 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why nobody stepped? in? >> joining mess is jamani williams, whose district is right next to where the attack took place. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> obviously this is extremely disturbing, but what can we make it a fact that no one stepped? >> obviously it's deplorable. i was horrified, then i tried to step back to make sure i can put it in some perspective. i've been trying to figure out whether or not these are happening more often. when i was going to school these things happened we heard about it we witnessed it or is it so used -- we're being desensitized. what struck me is the fact that absolutely no one, including adults did nothing at all. more and more females are getting more involved. there was a similar video in long island where it was white young men doing it so i want to make sure we're clear, this is not just to our neighborhood. >> that's true. >> but what i want to say is what's different in long island some of those people have a social network, and the communities like flatbush the social network is fwho there. the cycling keep continuing. >> you wrote about the incident and you say the teens involved must accept responsibility, but, quote, this type of youth into at that time only proves the need for increased funding for violence interrupter programs and others that would further engage students in extracurricular activity. how much more do we need to do? >> a lot. we want to stop the knee-jerk reaction of saying just police. the police are not the ones who didn't call anybody. the police didn't cut the programs that have the kids hanging out in mcdonald's to begin with. they must be held accountable, but we have to provide something better for them. we always say there's something we can do starting today. the first is every time we go to work and come back there are a group of young people we never say hello. say good morning, good afternoon, and engage. invisible people act invisibly. that's part of what i wanted to ask. do you have any kind of background on how this started? what was the whole thing that provoked this? >> from what i'm hearing if may have been gang related. we're waiting to hear exactly what may have started it. >> now, do you think if it's gang related might be the reason that this young lady and her mother will not cooperate with police? >> it could be. i also want to be careful when we mention gang sometimes people turn away as if they're not human beings involved. >> these are real people. >> theser real people. the question is why are they choosing they bad behaviors. >> i think also you know you went to school and your district is near that area. i used to live in that area and my -- i went to high school in the area next to it. it touches close to home because these are areas that we know there are homeowners in the areas but this is not a reality show? no one calls the police. to deal with how we interchange and our community, and our families. >> absolutely. there's so many levels here. i hope that our parents here are looking at this talking to the kids about all the things that went wrong there. i hope people are asking their neighbors, why didn't you call the police? why didn't you jump in at some point? >> say something. >> she could have been killed. >> other than parents and police what also can be done about bullying? >> we had the violence interrupter programs that will go in and people who speak the language to disrupt violence to contrary that and say we need doctor so-and-so. the fire department new york we need to put him on a better track, but in some of these communities, we don't have that network to catch them. we have to build it up. >> jewel manni williams thanks for your time today. >> thanks for having me. coming up the racist chant in the university of oklahoma fraternity video. we now know much more about where it came from. and the gop's latest excuse for the insulting iran letter -- blame the weather! that's cold and it may be a new low. and is the secret service keeping the first family safe? 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do they? >> well apparently not, reverend. you just couldn't make this stuff up. it's extraordinary, and my colleague at the post has been doing this tremendous reporting on this for a long period of time. we wouldn't even know about this. it's not as if the secret service disclosed this. she was able to dig up this information. so it's hard to tell what's worse here. was it the alleged drunken behavior or the decision not to test these guys and essentially cover up for it? who knows if they ever would have told the world about it. they have a brand-new director in there. so now it's a question of whether things in fact will be different there. it's hard to say it's anything other than some pervasive cultural problem at this elite law enforcement agency. >> stephanie, isn't that the question? is it the crash or is it the cover-up that's worse? >> i agree with you, i think it's both. i'm not an expert rev, but when it's your main job to protect the president, you're not supposed to get smashed and drive your car into a fence around where the president lives. i don't know if it's this atmosphere of such unprecedented respect for this president, and this treasonous letter to iran and all of this. this is a lot of incidents, and they're going, are they trying to protect the president? it cutbacks? the sequester? what is going on? i don't remember in my lifetime this many incidents with the secret service, do you? >> caroline this is unprecedented in terms of the amount of incidents in a relatively short amount of time. >> yeah it's kind of disgraceful. disgusting is really the word. we thought there would be a new leaf for the secret service, with a new head but apparently the systemic failures have not been sorted out. it doesn't make a difference who is at the top. there seemed to be too many people entrenched within the service, in the way that they should be. this is just not the way to not only protect the united states or the president of the united states but it's not the way to actually be a person to put forward one's self in front of the american people. what example does this set for the rest of the government agencies, quite frankly? >> our next big story is the gop playing politics with foreign affairs, and some may now be regretting it. 47 republican senators sent a her to iran interfering with the president's negotiations. but now senator john mccain is questioning hess only decision to sign the letter. quote -- it was kind of a very rapid process. everybody was looking forward to getting out of the town because of the snowstorm. i think we probably should have had more discussion about it giving the blowback there is. caroline. the snowstorm made them do it? >> i'm so embarrassed for him that i want to cringe. if the floor could swallow me now and i was mccain, i would let it do so. how embarrassing yet another sign this gop is so faulty so hellbent on making any kind of attack, this is the lame-ass excuse. it's absolutely disgusting rob portman earlier today or yesterday said that this wasn't anything to do with politics. the letter wasn't anything to do with politics. how ridiculous how stooped does he think the american people are, quite frankly. >> senator mccain is saying you signed on a letter to enemies of america in iran and you didn't really read it and think about it? because you were trying to get back to arizona? you're writing iran! >> you know reverend it doesn't really pass the straight-phased test there. look i mean they thought they would be cute and play politics with an international issue. i think judge mccain is realizing 47 senators really made asses of themselves and it's very important for john mccain. he's the chairman of the armed services committee. perhaps the most important and prominent republican on that as a signatory to that disgraceful letter other than mitch mcconnell. that's what gave it weight. it wasn't just tom cotton and ted cruz and other people on the fringe. it was serious people like john mccain. he's the one who's got to be regretting this the most. >> absolutely. >> stephanie, the other thing that kind of caught my eye and my ire is he said we should have talked about it more given the blowback. so if there headline been any blowback he would not have been reconsidering it? >> i think they thought it would be fine to commit treason because they saided a snow day, rev, they wanted to make snow angels so they thought this might go passed unnoticed? how many times can we use the word unprecedented? this is just beyond the pale. my dad ran with goldwater in 1964. it's like if they called cruschev, and then using your analogy, i was rushing for a plane to get away from the snowstorm and i didn't read what i, an elected u.s. senator signed writing the enemy kruschev. you know stefly in your heart, you know i'm right. ha ha! that was a good one. >> dana you're not old enough to know that was the slogan. >> i know goldwater. there's been a recent chant "read the bill" now we can say "read the letter." thank you all for your time tonight. >> thanks. when we come back we are learning much more about where and when that racist fraternity song started. that's next. we are learning much more tonight about that racist fraternity song at the university of oklahoma that was caught on video. [ bleep ] . the ringleader in the video said the chant was taught to him, and nbc is learning more about its history. a former student at angelo state university in texas tells nbc she heard the exact same song at a different frat in 1973 or 1974. another man reports hearing the song at texas tech in 1963. and yet another heard a similar chant at the university of georgia in 1961. meantime the investigation at the university of oklahoma is moving forward with the president saying additional students could face disciplinary action including expulsion. we'll be watching this story as it developing. what the cloud enables is computing to empower cancer researchers. it used to take two weeks to sequence and analyze a genome; with the microsoft cloud we can analyze 100 per day. whatever i can do to help compute a cure for cancer, that's what i'd like to do. ♪ at kraft we start with quality ingredients all expertly blended to make our mayo. so you can take whatever you're making from good to amazing. meet the world's newest energy superpower. surprised? in fact, america is now the world's number one natural gas producer... and we could soon become number one in oil. because hydraulic fracturing technology is safely recovering lots more oil and natural gas. supporting millions of new jobs. billions in tax revenue... and a new century of american energy security. the new energy superpower? it's red, white and blue. log on to learn more. we are back with breaking news for the manhunt. we can confirm that several people were questioned today, but all were released and no arrests have been made. i want to make it clear -- if you're fighting for change violence is never the answer. our thoughts and prayers are with the two officers injured in this senseless shooting. the county police chief describing it as an ambush. they could easily have killed both men. this was a cowardly act. the gunmen will be brought to justice. michael brown's parents today rejected any kind of violence directed towards members of law enforcement say it cannot and will not be tolerated. attorney general eric holder said this -- >> you know seeing this attack last night really turned my stomach. in the last week since the justice department released 9 pattern and practice report on ferguson i thought we had begun to see important signs of progress. make no mistake, we still have a long way to go to bring about the sis stemmic change that's needed and long overdue. i think the early indications have truly been positive. the senseless acts of violence threaten all the progress that's been made. as i said at michael brown's funeral and right after the grand jury decision anyone acting violently is not part of the movement. they are in fact against the movement. >> if you're on michael brown's side you walk with dignity. if you're on michael brown's side, you stand up with pride and call to uphold the law. if you do anything to harm others you're on your own side you're not on brown's side. >> senseless, reckless violence is never to be tolerated. movements must be built on trying to uphold the exact moral code that they're trying to bring forward and trying to say they want to see present and how they're dealt with. you must be the change you seek. otherwise you become much more part of the problem than you are the solution. we must denounce it and stand together on this. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. \s. hate mail. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. if you're in public life, you get hate mail. you also have people saying things that aren't true. nothing has been quite so underhanded as passing around this letter to sabotage the serious talks with araujo.