yeah, dara. we want to take you to this live press conference. you can see governor rick scott. let s listen in. good morning. i m here with the commissioner of the florida department of law enforcement. yesterday we experienced an absolutely hateful, evil attack on our state. people try to live their lives and enjoy the weekend were se e senselsly murdered. it was an absolutely horrific day. the person responsible for this act will be brought to justice to the fullest extent of the law. when you hurt one of u you hurt all of us. i arrived in ft. lauderdale yesterday afternoon a little less than two hours after the shooting happened. i spent the rest of the day getting briefed by law enforcement from the state, local, and federal levels. they re all working together to get answers. i saw the same thing after the pulse attack where state, federal, and local worked very
in the military. he was an overseas iraq veteran. there might be a case of ptsd. i m not trying to build a defense for this guy, but, look, he got a general discharge, which is one of five categories of discharge in the military that suggests he didn t meet certain stdard. one could be a mental health standard. he went awol a couple times in the military. looks like there is a history of ongoing mental health issues which what was just reported was perhaps a domestic situation with his girlfriend, you start to add this up. a few pounds here, a few pound here. you get a heavyweight mental health condition. our question is always why yesterday? why yesterday did he pick automatic gun, jump on a plane, fly to florida, and act out there? was there a command voice, was
going on. nbc s kerry sanders here in ft. lauderdale, florida, for us. the motive of the shooting obviously still unknown. that s a central question in the investigation. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams has more on that angle. pete? what are some of the things that law enforcement are looking at to help determine that motive? reporter: well, everything in his past and they say they don t know whether to call this an act of terrorism or not because they say santiago showed an interest in isis and downloaded some of the terror group s videos but they say he claimed it was voices in his head that made him watch them. as you heard earlier, in november he walked into the fbi s office in anchorage. they say he was talking incoherently but complained that the kcia was forcing him to wath is videos and join the group. local police were called. he went voluntarily to a mental health facility for treatment. his aunt and uncle in union city, new jersey, near where officials say h
it s interesting to note that just last month the state department put out a note warning u.s. tourists away from outdoor markets in this holiday season, pointing to credible information, that isis was planning attacks here. all right. max foster, stay with us. let s bring in cnn contributor michael weiss, terror analyst paul crookshank. paul, obviously this immediately conjures up pictures of the niece in a brutal attack last summer. in a magazine, isis called for more attacks like that, using trucks to drive into crowds. at this point do we know of anybody claiming responsibility for this. jake, there s been no claim or anniversary, but we actually are in hours after this. they are investigating this as a potential act of terrorism. as they see the m.o. of this
worked intensity. no suspects are in custody at this time and now, for the very latest, we want to go to our kate bolduan. it looks like investigators are making some progress this morning at least. a federal law enforcement official saying that a vin number has been recovered from the suv. earlier, officials said the number had been removed from the vehicle. well, it appears they were able to locate it from some part of the vehicle. they re not giving that information quite yet. the official adding that investigators are looking at the vehicle and explosive device for fingerprints and fibering that could provide additional clues. the goal, leading them to a suspect. as janet napolitano said, they are taking this very seriously and treating this as a potential act of terrorism. and you never know until you get that information in and they are far from having everything