announcer: from nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and savannah guthrie. live from studio 1-a in rockefeller plaza. and good morning. welcome to today on a monday morning. i m matt lauer. i m savannah guthrie alongside tamron hall who is in for natalie this morning. we ll get to today s top story, the deadly mall attack in kenya where militants are still holding an unknown number of hostages in a two-day standoff that has already left at least 68 people dead. we go right to nbc s ron allen in nairobi with the lat est. good morning, ron. what can you tell us? good morning, savannah. we re behind security from the mall where you can see smoke billowing out of the building. the morning began with five or six loud explosions and sustained gun fire that went on for some time, and also firefight firefights spilling out outside of the mall, and you can see the kenyan soldiers firing at places around the mall. unknown at this point is the fate of the hostages and the
now, this job isn t about firing guns, this job is about getting into the subject s head. (low murmur of raf s voice) ed: it s about listening to what they have to say. raf: i m gonna holster my gun. ed: you gotta connect. respect and protect. keep the peace. that s right. okay. (claps) you guys, who here has thought about being a cop? good. good, good. my son, clark, he s got other plans; i can respect that. anybody else? (gunshots pop) now, in my case, my dad was a cop, my brother s a cop, and i started out walking the beat. and it was actually this guy s dad who convinced me to join this new unit - the sru. wasn t easy - not for any of us. hundreds apply, few make it in. first you take a psych test, multiple choice - what kind of cop are you? what kind of human being? - 1600 questions. and you get through that, then it s fitness tests and drills. we specialize in marksmanship. (gunshots pop) bombs, tech, psychology, negotiations. every day, you push yourself to your limit.