Development that folks were hoping for. Thats an arrest in this. Of course, a lot of investigation to move forward. Are there others . Is this certainly the person . Those questions investigators working on right now. But our colleagues are going to continue to follow this throughout the day. We have our colleague kate bolduan coming up right now. Really appreciate it. Thanks so much. As you said, breaking news out this morning. And a new chapter begins. A man arrested in connection with these bomb packages. With these suspicious devices. 11th and 12th suspicious devices intercepted today. A lot to get to. Let me get to Shimon Prokupecz. You and the team have been iworking on this all morning. What do we have . We dont know who he is. We dont know anything about him. Heres the bottom line. Since last night, i would say, early last evening, we had heard there was significant progress made, and that they believed they had identified someone who
was responsible for this, or at least that was their suspicion last night, the authorities. They have been doing a lot of work in florida the last 24 hours. Certainly once they discovered the Sorting Facility where some of these packages came through and it was during that time they discovered what they believed could be a person of interest, a person who could be responsible. And they worked off that. We know there is Forensic Evidence linking him or at least they believe. We dont know if its him or her, we should say. Forensic evidence linking this person. There may be images that links this person. Theyre working with a lot of information. And lets just say, and ill just tell you in general what happens in these kinds of cases, when the fbi has someone that they believe may be suspected in a crime, they do surveillance. What they call they sit on a person, conduct surveillance. We know there was surveillance, ongoing surveillance of a person. You know, again, we dont yet exactly know where this person
was arrested, but this is all sort of started in the last 24 hours. Early yesterday evening. Where they were really focusing in on this person in nearby miami. Both evan perez and i were hearing this yesterday. We began working this. We knew something significant had happened. Thats sort of how we have been explaining it all day, in that they really thought they made a lot of progress in the last day or so. And so now we have word of this arrest. Obviously, going to be probably a huge relief, i would assume, for a lot of people. The other thing thats important is they need to make sure there are no other packages. Whats clear is the packages that have been discovered today, if they were sent in the mail recently the same time as the others or a different time. Lets assume this. If this person was under fbi surveillance, then the fbi would know there were more packages placed in the mail and they would have been able to intercept it. So its probably safe to say that these packages were not mailed in the last 24 hours. They probably were old, part of the old group of packages that
he sent. Have you been able to get a sense of how long this person has been under surveillance . I have not. I have not even gotten a sense that this person is necessarily under surveillance, but in these kinds of cases, thats what normally happens. Of course. What was the break here . I think ultimately, and i dont know 100 , but just in talking to people, some of the fr forensic stuff. I also think its going to be photos that help them link this person to some of this. You have to assume that this person had to go somewhere to mail these, right . Maybe a mail box, maybe a post office, so there could be images from there. Also, we have become Law Enforcement, you have to think, just in this country, we have become so good at tracking cell phones. So they could have picked something up and triangulated. They look at Cell Phone Sites and triangulate Cell Phone Sites
and see if someones phone was pinging in a certain area. They can use all sorts of methods to try to connect the dots. Its probably going to be several things, but i suspect there will be forensicevidence to ultimately link this person and also i think they were just waiting to have probable cause to go ahead and make this arrest. Interestingly enough, the Attorney General was supposed to travel today. He cancelled his scheduled trip. Probably because of this. So well see. Hopefully well hear more from the folks over at the Department Of Justice where this person would ultimately be charged. Do you get is there any sense obviously, question number one is are there more packages out there . Are there more explosive packages out there . Question two, is there anyone else connected . And that we dont know. We dont know if this is a larger network, more than one person that was part of this. Are they looking for other people . Im sure by now, the fbi has probably run a lot of that down because they can, you know, also track this individuals cell phone and they could see who
theyre communicating with. Theres been a lot of work. I know fbi agents since this started, since the first incident. The soros package. On monday, theres been an fbi team on this for 24 hours. They were working through the night last night. Through the day today. And they waited. And they waited. We heard there was going to be some movement, and they waited and waited. Finally, for whatever reason, they chose to do it when they did, and finally an arrest has been made. So much more to learn, but this is a Huge Development in a situation of domestic terror, as we have heard from Law Enforcement officials calling it. I want to go back to washington, evan perez, do you have more information . Poppy, we now know that the Justice Department is going to hold a Press Conference later at 2 30. The Attorney General, as shimon was just mentioning, the Attorney General had plans today. He cancelled them in anticipation this might happen. So it appears that the Attorney General will be able to give a lot more details about this
investigation and certainly as you guys have been pointing out, a huge kate, im sorry, kate. A lot of things going on in my head. No worries at all, please. And in my ear. Yes, kate, we expect that the Attorney General would be able to announce a lot more details about what went down, how this arrest was made, or this person in custody now with the fbi. As you guys have been pointing out, a huge sigh of relief for everybody involved here because we knew, as shimon was pointing out, overnight, they were making good progress. Even this morning, we were told we might expect to see some action today. And now, i think the Attorney General is going to want to announce this because this is obviously a Huge National importance investigation. Absolutely, evan. Its also going to be the first time, i think, we see the Attorney General speak in a situation like this. I cant think of one. I cant think of one either. Thats going to be certainly
interesting. Also interesting that its the Department Of Justice announcing the arrest. A spokesperson in a tweet for the Department Of Justice. This goes into the politics of everything, sort of the climate were in, but the Department Of Justice here, the spokesperson announcing an arrest. Obviously, the fbi, the nypd, and really the police in miami, and really Police Across this country and the joint Terrorism Task force, as the Assistant Director in charge of the new york office here, the fbi said yesterday, this was a coast to coast investigation. They moved fast. And really, they were able to learn clues quite quickly. We cant forget, also, in all this is the postal inspectors. They were key in this because these items were going through their system. And there are things they can do that we dont talk about publicly and they dont talk about publicly and they dont tell us, but that seems to be in all of this as well. Hopefully well learn how they cracked this case. Its going to be fascinating, i think, and i think as evan has pointed out, this guy probably
made some mistakes. Theres going to be a lot of Forensic Evidence to help authorities here. Is it jumping to too early of a conclusion that if you have the Attorney General coming out at 2 30, that they are very that you would maybe assume they would be confident this threat has passed . Yes, perhaps, that the threat has passed, that theyre pretty comfortable this is the person responsible. Warrants have already probably been drawn. They were probably waiting for the warrant. A complaint has probably already been drawn. We probably have this person in court at some point, if not later today, tomorrow. Eventually, this person will have to come to new york. The fbi in new york is overseeing the case, so it could be that this person is eventually brought here. So yeah, it is for certain that look, sometimes in these cases they wait before they make an arrest because they want to make sure there is no other threat. They want to make sure no one else is involved. It could be thats what they were waiting for. I also am curious to find out
come 2 30 how careful they needed to be, if there was surveillance. If youre dealing with someone putting together explosive packages, how careful they needed to be in getting near this person. And they wanted to build a better case. As the news events are happening surrounding the investigation, were all reporting on it, new information is coming out. How is this person reacting. Who is this person calling, who is this Person Texting . What are they doing . And b, also, if the person is on their surveillance, they could build a better case. They think if they have it contained where the person is not going to flee the country or the state, and therefore run the risk of obviously escaping and them not being able to arrest him. You know, they usually wait until they can build a better case. Shimon, stick with me. Evan, im going back to you. You have new information . Thats right. One of the things the authorities were doing today was simply sitting on this suspect. They knew the suspect was from florida. I think we have been all but
hinting and hinting at that issue. Because we knew that the authorities were focusing all of their attention in southern florida, in the miami area, and we now know thats where the suspect lived. The arrest, hes now in custody and now in the hands of the fbi. But that was one of the sensitive things they had been working on this morning, was to make sure they were sitting on him, making sure that they couldnt do anything, get away, or harm anybody or harm himself before they were able to move in and arrest him. So it appears that they were able to do all of that without any harm coming to anyone. But we know that the suspect lives in florida. Hes from there. So that was a huge relief for the investigators, as they were trying to get to the bottom of this yesterday. Kate. Evan, as you were speaking, i was getting more information. Let me pop up video were just getting in. Im going to look at it with you guys for the first time. This is from our affiliate out of miami. Were told in plantation, florida. Theres a whole lot of activity that you can see right there. You know, kate, we know theres been a whole lot of activity in florida. For the last 24 hours, outside of the Sorting Facility. Youre seeing, i dont know if thats fbi or local. It looks like its fbi. So those are the teams, it looks like, the kind of s. W. A. T. Teams that go in and make these arrests. They could be serving a Search Warrant at that home to look for obviously evidence. These two areas are both outside of miami, right . These are kind of near miami, outside of miami. Just looking at it, about a 30minute drive from opalocka to plantation. Thats where i have been told by a source thats where the arrest was made. Outside of miami. So that would jive. This is broward county. That would completely jive. You have these fbi agents there on scene, in this heavily armed gear with protective gear. Of course, theres a palm tree right in the way, but it looks like thats some sort of a tow truck. That could be his van, maybe. Like a van theyre removing. I wish we could go in even further to look at that. Evan, does this i dont know if evan is with us. Let me know what you think with what were looking at. Thats right. Were told thats the place where the arrest was made. Now, i dont believe this is the home of the suspect. The suspect lives a few miles away in another location there. This is all in the suburban area of miami. All of this is all within a few miles of each other. The opalocka Postal Processing Facility is just down the road, just north of miami. Plantation is in southern broward county. And the suspect lives not far away. Also in that same general region. So the fbi has been certainly moving all their resources. The atf and the u. S. Postal inspection service, all of them were sending all of their resources to that same area because they knew that that is the likely place where this is all going to end. And so what youre seeing there,
the pictures youre seeing there, i believe its not a home. Its a business. And this person was put into custody there this morning without incident, it appears, according to sources we have been talking to. Wait, according to your sources, this person was taken into custody at a business, not his or her house . I believe this is not his home. I believe he lives in another location not far away from there. Okay. All right. Im just watching this with you, trying to see what else we can see, as this tow truck is moving in, positioning near this van. Well keep an eye on this. The same time, im also getting from cnns liz stark, evan, that Jeff Sessions is actually at the white house as we speak. Right. Right, thats right. Jeff sessions is probably briefing the president. This is exactly how this situation you would do it, a case of this kind of national importance. And given the fact that this is something touching on politics and political figures, and were a few days from the election,
this is the most important case going on in the nation. So this is something that the Attorney General would definitely go personally brief the president to let him know how this has been resolved. I believe one of the things youre looking at, the pictures there of that vehicle, i believe this might be a vehicle associated with the suspect, and thats the reason why youre seeing the tow truck and all of that activity there. But this is how what they would do is they would take this back, make sure is there any components, anything associated, anything of concern. They want to make sure they secure it so nobody in the public gets harmed. Thats what youre seeing there in the pictures, is anything associated with the suspect would be taken into custody, would be searched by the fbi to make sure that its rendered safe and to make sure that the businesses there can go back to doing their work. Absolutely. Can we just say in this moment, shimon, that i mean, we started the morning with an 11th and 12th package being picked up. Bomb squads being called back
in. More fear, more talk of domestic terror. And this moment of real relief to see an arrest made in this case. Absolutely. For everyone involved. Certainly for us and then people in the public, and then also Law Enforcement. Absolutely. This is so important to get this. This was consuming so many resources. Obviously, it has to. And also trying to make sure that there were no other threats and making sure no one else was involved. Yeah, its a huge relief. Look, you could start i started to hear the confidence and the optimism and the tone was changing yesterday, for whatever reason. No one would really tell me, but i could tell in just talking to people that the tone was changing in terms of where they thought they were in this case and this investigation. Which led me to believe that they were close and they were zeroing in on someone, and also, i was told there was evidence. They started gathering evidence, started gathering images,
Forensic Evidence that was all starting to match up. And then they started, you know, as evan has been reporting, surveillance of this person. Monitoring cell phones, keeping track of where this person was going, and we have the arrest today. This person made a mistake somewhere, maybe a lot of mistakes that added up. Its also important to know, we dont know this yet, but interesting the arrest didnt take place at his home. Thats interesting because sometimes in these kinds of cases youll see the fbi move in early in the morning, Catch Someone by surprise, s. W. A. T. Team goes in. Pulls them out. In this case, its interesting that they watched and stayed with him and then they chose to make this arrest outside in public at a business. Its an auto zone, i believe, from what i see there on the building. Clearly, all of the focus is on this van with a whole bunch of decals on the windows. There will be lots of questions. Was he going to purchase something, to do something. Those are good questions. Was he just hanging outside in the van . Just hanging out. They chose to do this out in
daylight. I think i see theres fbi. You can see there, there even may be someone with an nypd thats what it looked like. They would have the joint Terrorism Task force assigned. Theyre kind of designated as fbi agents. Yeah, theres an nypd jacket. That shows the cooperation, the team effort that was going on there. Think about the people who were part of this investigation. The atf, the fbi, the nypd, postal inspectors, often forgotten in this type of situation. You have the miami, the local police there he seems comfortable enough that he was just like touching the window of the van. Yeah, it doesnt seem like anything is closed off there. It could be theyre waiting for a bomb squad to come in or robot to come in and take a look inside that van. To see if theres anything suspicious. Youre right. The fact theyre standing around it. Its going to be interesting to see all those stickers and decals. Thats exactly what i was
wondering. What is on those windows . It switches its shot. One thing im thinking about theyre going to tow it. Theyre going to tow it, pick it up and tow it. When youre talking about the coordination that is involved, how many agencies are involved . The manpower involved here. Its huge. But maybe not surprising when you think of who was targeted here. Youre talking about two former president s of the United States that are targeted in this attack. Yeah. I mean, probably hundreds excuse me, agents on this case from new york to miami. All over the country. It was striking to hear the Assistant Director yesterday say this was a coasttocoast investigation. We dont know about all the leads they were following. Empty leads. He said they had lots of tips. They could have been running everywhere on this. This is quick. And this tells you why kind of
the tone changed yesterday and why they really, really started feeling comfortable yesterday. Joining our conversation is former secret Service Agent larry johnson, and ray lopez. Larry, what do you see here . You see this activity thats all playing out, the arrest this morning, the activity here in plantation, florida. Whats your take . Well, my take is the investigation is really just starting. One thing about this individual is theyre going to do a background, check analysis, look into associations. Theyre probably going to get warrants, as previously described for his apartment or his house. But one of the other things is theyre going to now clone his phone, what is called ims side catchers. Theyre going to now keep probably not reveal the identity of this individual because
actively, they can still collect social media, email, other messaging that might be important to link others that might be involved in this investigation to him. Ray, you see how things moved today. It started the morning with an 11th and 12th package located, discovered, and now an arrest. Your take on this. I think it was inevitable. I think yesterday we had ten packages. The investigation was proceeding. I believe yesterday they probably already identified this individual. With the discovery of the 11th and 12th package, i think it becomes a Public Safety issue. How many more of these things out there . And you know, we dont know the design, the construction fully of all these things. Thats going to have to come from laenforcement, but if it becomes a Public Safety issue, if tomorrow we have a 13th, 14th, 15th, its a slow, steady drip. You eventually have to get ahold of this guy and say how many did you get out there . Where are they . Where did you send them . Because it becomes a Public Safety issue. He only has to get lucky once. These guys have to work hard to make sure nothing happens. The bomber only the to get lucky one time, and thank god he didnt. Thats true. Ray, whats happening with the suspect right now, in custody, in fbi custody, as evan and shimon are reporting. What do they do with him . Theyre going to start questioning him. All the guests are correct. Theyre going to start going after the digital footprint. In todays world, he may have a facebook, a twitter. You know, hes going to have email accounts. And you have to go back and see his associates and what hes been doing. Also, you want to check his accounts to see, did he get this information to build these devices off the internet . And what other sites was he visiting . We dont know the extent of the knowledge that he obtained on the internet, when he started this, who helped him plan for it potentially. So theres a bunch of things i think that are critical to do right now, and then the investigation eventually will
turn to forensically as that information gets the Fingerprint Analysis and the other forensic parts start to get analyzed and reports are generated, youll try to tie that individual more and more to those devices. Larry, our shimon and evan, their reporting right now is that its Forensic Evidence that ended up pinpointing this person. Does that so that does that have to mean that this person is in some database somewhere . Correct, i have not seen an instance where this would be the first time this individual has come to the attention of Law Enforcement. So whether its federal, whether it was the secret service, one of the incident responders, to the first package that was delivered to the clintons. There was a trail of evidence, whether it was materials, and one thing that we havent talked about is dna evidence. That evidence could have been in play in this situation, in this investigation. Its also preserving the evidence. Chain of custody, all of the investigators are making sure that they dont make a mistake, so what they have collected will be relevant if there is a prosecution down the road. So for everyone who may be just joining us, what were looking at now, a man has been arrested in south florida in connection to the suspicious packages, the bombs that have been mailed to now 12 people, including News Organizations like cnn. What were looking at now is plantation, florida. A van. A van at a business, we believe its an outo zone. A man covered up with a tarp. Fbi, nypd, florida Law Enforcement on the ground there. Theyre going to be towing this thing out. This in connection with that with that arrest. If this is one person, ray, what does it take for authorities to
feel comfortable that it is . That they have the one person, theres no one else who knew about it, was working with him, that they have him . I think its going to be forensic based. I think theyll go through all of these devices and ultimately, theyre going to put this individual with those devices. If theres other traces of another individual in there, and also his electronic signature, his footprint. His social media, all of that will be tied together to see if they can identify if anybody supported him or helped him in any way. Guys, sorry, just getting direction from the control room in my ear. Randi kaye is at the scene of the arrest in florida. Shes joining me right now by the phone. Where are you exactly and what are you seeing . Randi, can you hear me . Were going to try to get
reconnected with randi. Were going to try to get reconnected with randi. I want to find out exactly where she is, if she is i are you exactly and what do you see . What im seeing right now is i am just near the scene where they have been covering up the vehicle with the blue tarp. And i can see two helicopters in the sky, as i was coming into this area here in plantation, florida. Randi, can you still hear me . I think were having a hard time connecting with randi. We will reconnect because shes the first person we have on the scene. Well bring you what she can see on the ground. Larry, ray, let me bring you guys back in. I cut you off. What are the next steps right now, as were watching this continue to play out in plantation, florida . Ray. I think the next steps are actually, you know, identifying
fully who the individual is. And that includes major case prints and also getting a dna analysis of the individual, and then beginning to work backwards. Thats to take the evidence thats been collected, the Forensic Evidence collected and tying that individual to that evidence. Then also, secondly, is also as our other guest mentioned, taking that footprint, that electronic footprint and finding out who hes been socializing with, who hes been cooperating with potentially and identifying other individuals in his circle. Shimon just jumped back on set. You said the electronic footprint is going to be key. The cell phone and electronics was key in helping Law Enforcement locate him. And find out theres other evidence, clearly, we have been told theres Forensic Evidence. We dont know if he has any kind of criminal history. Maybe there was something on file. Were working on that. Theres a reason theyre covering that van with that tarp. I dont know, but i think theres a reason why, because i think it would give some suggestions perhaps. Full transparency for our viewers. The monitor we can see in studio is probably smaller than as close as to your tv. You might be able to see more than we can at this moment. I promise you, my folks are looking at it, and were going to see what you can see and bring that to you when we can. Our monitor, when that popped up, was quite small. We were both not able to decipher what we saw. A lot of dekales and stickers. Let me bring ray in on this. Thats a great question, ray. Is covering up the vehicle of a suspect, is that, with a tarp, is that standard procedure . Or do you think this is done for a reason . No, in most cases its standard procedure. They dont want to disrupt anything inside the vehicle. Thats going to be on top of a flat carrier. They just want to avoid any they can talk down the road, forensically saying they made
every attempt to keep everything intact in that vehicle. So theyre trying to preserve everything in there. You know, its standard procedure for most vehicles involved in a crime scene to be treated this way. And larry, what do you expect to hear . We know the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, theyre going to be holding a Press Conference at 2 30, suggesting to a layman they are confident in their arrest and theyre confident they have the person. What are you expecting . What amount of information do you think theyre going to be able to provide come 2 30 . This moves really fast. Yes, i would be im very interested in what they have to say, because that will tell us a lot. If they come out and continuously talk about its an ongoing investigation, that will give us clues that there might be more individuals involved. If they come out and identify the suspect or the individual arrested, then thats probably going to give us a clue that its a lone wolf. Mainly because the investigation will be slowed down because all of that persons associates will not communicate any further with that individual. All right. Stick here with me. Do we have abby phillip at the white house, guys . Okay. All right. Just hold on with me, everybody. Shimon, lets bring everybody up to speed on what we have right now. We started the morning with an 11th and 12th package. Being discovered. One in new york city, in midtown manhattan. The second addressed to cory bookers office in camden, new jersey, but intercepted at that facility in miami, florida. Your sources had a major break, maybe the major break in this case, as a man has now been arrested in south florida. What led to this . So, there are several factors, i think, that led to
this. From what both evan and i have been told. Cell phone. Cell phones, Forensic Evidence, maybe dna, maybe other. Theres a lot of devices here. It could have been a hair, it could have been something else. It could be also fingerprints. I think the cell phone here and the work i keep saying this, through the postal services, through the United States postal service, through the postal inspects, i think well learn some of that was key in trying to track this and trying to identify this suspect who is now under arrest. Were learning a little bit more about the suspect. Let me go to evan really quick. I think hes got that for us. Evan, what have you got . Kate, we know a little bit more about this man who has now been taken into custody in connection with these mail bombs. The suspected mail bombs. He has an aventura, florida, address, just south of miami. Hes in his 50s, and he does have some new york ties. He has some criminal history. This is all stuff that Law Enforcement has been digging into since they sort of identified him and tried to figure out who he was overnight. But now we know. Were not saying his name, but we do know that this aventura, florida, address. He was arrested, as you saw in the pictures, arrested, taken into custody at this business. I believe its an Auto Parts Store in plantation, florida, which is just a few miles away, west of aventura, but he does have some new york ties. It appears he maybe had lived there in the past, but his most recent address that we found is one in aventura, florida. Again, hes a man in his 50s. Kate. Evan, thank you so much. Let me go now to abby phillip at the white house. What are you hearing about we know Jeff Sessions is at the white house. What about the president being briefed . Hi, kate. This morning, we just learned moments ago the president has been briefed on the arrest of
this person in florida in connection with these bombings. Now, as that was announced publicly, Jeff Sessions, Attorney General, also had arrived at the white house. Its not clear whether sessions was also part of that briefing, but i was told by a white house official, the Chief Of Staff john kelly was the person who briefed the president on this latest development in this case. And hes expected here in this room in just a few minutes. This is an event for black republicans. Its not clear yet whether hes going to address this issue, especially as the Investigation Continues to be ongoing, but we have heard from him on this subject on twitter this morning where he tweeted about the bombs, putting the word bombs in quotation marks. And lamenting it has slowed the momentum of republican going into the midterm elections. This is a very serious issue unfolding throughout the country. Hes being briefed by his Law Enforcement agencies, ongoing throughout the morning. And now that there is potential
arrest of a suspect, we will be looking to see what he has to say about that latest development and what he has learned in those briefings about what this investigation is unfolding, what might be the suspects motivations and what happened after this point. Especially after the tweet this morning, very interested to hear what the president has to say, if he addresses it at 11 45. We know from the Justice Department there will be a Press Conference on this at 2 30 this afternoon, which of course, will bring many more details. We also have more details on the ground in plantation, florida, where this van, where this arrest took place, where the van is now being taken, as can see from the video, this van is getting ready to be towed. Randi kaye is on the scene of the arrest. What are you seeing there . Kate, right now, im standing at a restaurant just across from the scene. They have closed all the streets as we were coming in here to plantation. There were lots of heavy, heavy Law Enforcement chasing behind
us. Clearly, they were racing to get to that car, that vehicle they have now put the tarp over. They have closed the roads right now for us to get any closer. Theres a ton of media here trying to get through, heavy, heavy police presence. They have put that tarp over the vehicle. We dont know exactly what connection that vehicle has to this. There are a couple helicopters, Police Helicopters in the air. Everyone around here is armed. A lot of the roads are cut off. A lot of the main thoroughfares. And i can tell you just where we are in terms of plantation, florida. We arent far from opalocka, where that Mailing Facility was where at least some of the packages, we know, we understand had gone through. And were not far from aventura, which evan was just reporting where the suspect is believed to have been living. So it would make sense that this is a clear connection here in plantation, florida, and that vehicle that they seem to be very focused on. But as we get closer, we hope to
learn more, kate. Absolutely. Thanks so much. Stay on the phone, bring me anything youve got. Youre our eyes and ears on the ground. Joining me with Shimon Prokupecz in studio is josh campbell. We have been watching this this morning. Your perspective on what were seeing play out in plantation. The van towed away, the tarp put over the top. This is fascinating. We have been sitting here discussing, obviously, as the development have unfolded. Theres something making Law Enforcement officers place a tarp over the van. We believe it might be the suspects van. This is not normal when youre moving evidence. If you think about, we have seen vehicles on tow trucks before being moved from crime scenes. Some cases i worked, we would package up a vehicle if there was a question of whether evidence might come out of it or as youre moving it from crime scene to the police station, but the undercarriage of this vehicle is not being covered. Theres something that at least in my judgment, i am just assuming here based on what
were looking at, that perhaps Law Enforcement officers dont want us to see right now as they move this. They know once an arrest is made, it will be high profile. Youll have the news media helicopters. It could be as easy as wanting to cover up a License Plate for privacy, but thats bizarre to see that kind of covering over what may be potential evidence. Important perspective. Stick with me just one second. Ill get back to evan perez. You have new information . Thats right. One of the big concerns was whether or not there would be additional packages that are still on the way, and were told at this hour that authorities in sacramento, california, are investigating a package that was addressed to senator Kamala Harris. Now, again, this is early in this process. They have to identify it, they have to make sure it looks like the other packages, but one reason obviously that theyre cautious about this is they have to make sure they look inside or perhaps do an xray image to see
whether it matches the characteristics of the other packages. Certain at this hour, they believe this might be another package that was being sent to someone, another prominent critic of the current administration, Kamala Harris in this case, a senator from california. At this hour, theyre investigating at least one package in sacramento that was headed that was addressed to her office there. So well see whether its confirmed in the coming hours by the authorities, but thats what theyre working with right now, kate. Unbelievable. We could be now talking about, shimon, 13 explosive packages being sent. The question is going to be did he mail all of this at one time . Was this done over days . It could be that these are just being located now at the sorting facilities. I dont know how this stuff works. I find it kind of weird. If the fbi, lets say, had this person, this man under surveillance in the last 24 hours, and we know highly
unlikely he could have sent anything in the last 24 hours because they would have intercepted it, maybe allowed him to do the mailing but they would have intercepted it and not let it get to its destination. It could be that he mailed these before the surveillance started two days ago, three days ago. Look, the bottom line is the fact theyre finding more is frightening because the authorities yesterday were saying they thought they had this contained, that they had searched sorting facilities, postal facilities, and they thought they had found everything. Right, because the question becomes, shimon, and maybe there will be some clarity come 2 30 when the Attorney General were expected to hear from, but are they finding these packages because now theres so much consistency and similarities between the packages and everyone is on high alert, or are they just now turning up . It could be both. It could be a matter of timing. Obviously, mail is promised at various speed depending on different locations and how
things move. Also, this isnt just saying this from a media standpoint. This was Law Enforcement officers a the Press Conference yesterday where they actually mentioned that the package that was intercepted, that was sent to robert de niro, the reason the Security Guard knew what to look for is because he saw pictures on tv of what we were basically broadcasting, those images to get that out to the world. I think its both of those things, the speed, now obviously officers know what theyre looking for, but now the public knows to be on the lookout for these types of suspicious packages. As we have been saying, i say this as hopefully a Public Service to everyone listening. Were not Out Of The Woods yet because until this person is fully interviewed, we dont know if hes going to be cooperative, if hes going to lay out everything hes done, the public must remain vigilant because there can be additional packages out there. Just because the failure rate thus far has been 100 on detonation, it doesnt mean the next one wont. Folks still need to be on the lookout. Want to make sure everyone is
up to speed. We have, according to Law Enforcement sources, evan perez, Shimon Prokupecz, a man has been arrested in connection to these explosive packages. A man in his 50s with an aventura home, outside of miami. He was arrested at a business. This is where the focus of the video is youre looking at here. This van we have been watching throughout this entire hour that has been covered up with a tarp, put on a tow truck. Where it goes next, we will be tracking it. Our cnn producer david, hes on the scene, at the scene of where the arrest took place. Hes got a different Vantage Point than randi kaye had. What are you seeing . Hey, kate. Yeah, im standing a bit west of the State Highway where this auto zone is, where we see the van in the blue tarp loaded on to the truck. And actually, i saw a driver get into the truck. It looked like they were getting ready to move the van. Here, there were about a couple
dozen a large group of Law Enforcement in camo fatigues. A lot of guys with fbi on the back of their jackets. They have moved in the last two, three minutes. Gotten into Big Suburbans and driven out. Now we have six, seven Law Enforcement authorities. Some in suits, some in their uniforms. Gaggling next to the truck where a driver just got in, again, that truck looks like a big tow truck. It has yellow flashing lights, and it has that vehicle, the blue tarp on the back of it. This is a residential area where i am, west of the south State Highway 7 in plantation, florida, about 30, 45 minutes north of miami. A residential area. Theres a big brick wall between the residential area where there are families and children running around here unaware of Whats Going On on the other side of this 10, 12foot fence. Im standing on top of my car now, so i can see Whats Going On on the other side of the fence. The scene here has slowed down. Again, someone has gotten into that truck just in the past
minute. And it looks like they may be transporting the van momentarily. David, thank you so much. Please stick with us. I also am just looking at this new video the shot went out, but what we were looking at previously on the ground for josh and shimon, Evidence Collection . It looks like those are evidence bags. It looks like theyre looking at something and reading something. It looks like, i dont know, josh, boxes . What do you see . What were seeing here, three parts to when youre executing an arrest. The arrest team, the investigative team, and evidence response team. These are fbi specialist, agents, analysts trained in the collection of evidence and photography. All of this is now potential evidence that will be used as a prosecution if this person is in fact charged for these crimes. This is a very methodical undergoing were seeing now. It doesnt appear theres a sense of urgency there. They walked through methodically, step by step, catalog everything they found in the vicinity. Theyll notate that, and then we see pictures before the van being towed. From earlier. You can also see theres a person from the postal inspector police. Which gets to the point we were discussing, the enormous response and coordination thats gone into this. Correct, can i point out one quick thing now that were seeing this video . This is not the Vantage Point that we saw with the tarp. It looks like there are political Bumper Stickers trying to zoom in to the pictures. It looks as though we can see that from there. We dont know what the writing is, but that is of interest when we go back to the tarp. There are stickers that do look political in nature. Were looking. It struck me, why are they covering it up, because its not like theyre concerned that theres some kind of Forensic Evidence on actually the van. Sometimes if theres blood or something, so i was struck by that. You know, maybe there is a different explanation before this. We have folks looking, trying to take as close of a look as we can from these helicopter images
which we do not control. These are wonderful affiliates giving us access to their shots. We have folks looking at it, but we dont know what they say, i will say that. We do know, though, there is a lot on there, and theres. A lot to look at. There is a lot on that. It brings up the question, if youre Law Enforcement, someone made the decision that were going to shield this from view, from the public. And again, someone made the decision, we need a tarp. We need to cover this up. I mean, cover this physically up. And then move it without the public seeing it. Just came in as well as we were talking about, President Trump tweeted out an announcement hes going to be speaking, as abby phillip is at the event at the white house, young black leadership summit. He said hell be speaking shortly and he will be addressing the investigation into the bomb packages. Noteworthy this time bomb is not in quotation marks, shimon. Noteworthy that the president has been briefed. Hes probably been briefed all along, so he will know he
should know. I think the fbi has a good idea of what the motivations were here. By this person. So the president would know what the motivations are likely behind this. And you know, it will be interesting to see what the Department Of Justice lays out at their 2 30 Press Conference. There will be court documents. Now were seeing the van get moved. We have seen a lot of trucks and vans moving the last few days. A lot of the story in following it. A lot of important things moved around. Were watching this van taken from the scene of the arrest, and where its going, were going to be tracking it. Randi kaye, cnn correspondent randi kaye is at the scene of the arrest. I think shes now live with me. Great to see you, randi. Bring me up to speed on what you have been seeing. Kate, were now set up here on the corner of state road 7 and peters road in plantation. This is a pretty busy thoroughfare normally. Im not sure if you can see the scene behind me, but whats
coming towards me, let me move out of the way a little bit for you, is, it looks to me, like the van with the blue tarp, the vehicle with the blue participate. And surrounded by quite a bit of heavy security. You can see that coming through this area. As i said, this is normally a pretty busy thoroughfare, but they have closed all of this off. All of the main corners, as i was saying here. This is the van. Take a look. Thats the one they were focusing on, covering with a blue tarp. And that was in the area just on the other side of this thoroughfare from us. They have obviously looped around. Where theyre taking that right now is unclear. Certainly, a lot of evidence that they want to get to in that van. Presumably so. And they will take a look at that as soon as they can. Once again, you can see where we are. Theres a heavy police presence. This is in plantation, florida. Were about 27 miles away from
aventura, florida, where evan perez has been reporting the suspected bomber lived. This is an area which is surrounded by businesses, surrounded by private homes. Surrounded by small restaurants, gas stations, convenience stores. Everyone here is sort of standing around and gathered watching this all unfold this morning. We knew they were focusing on florida as of yesterday. We knew some of those suspected packages had come from this facility in opalocka, which again, is not far from here. Now, they have taken this one very large piece of evidence into their custody. That van, that vehicle with the blue tarp over it. Clearly, lots of work ahead for them today, kate. Absolutely. Randi, Pretty Amazing that van went right by you as we were watching it. Timing is everything. Its at least something. You always have good timing. I really appreciate it. Well get back to randi in a seconds. Im wondering as we watch this, theres so many similarities in all of this, as we watched the bomb truck take the packages
from manhattan to the bronx, were now watching this huge piece of evidence, as randi put it, the van that obviously is connected to the man who was arrested from the Auto Parts Store in plantation, where does this van go . Josh campbell is back here with me. Josh, where does this van go immediately from the scene . Its going to go likely to the fbi office, if theres a Satellite Office nearby, or local police station. Some type of Law Enforcement facility over which they have control. Again, this is now part of the Chain Of Custody in the case against this person. So obviously, every movement, every step of this vehicle will be tracked and documented. Theres going to be evidence all over this thing. Look at the writings. Full of evidence with regard to his dna, with regard to possibly maybe indicia of some of these explosive devices. Also, this van, they likely may have this van on Surveillance Video somewhere when he was going maybe to ship some of this stuff or to buy some of this stuff. You think about the packages, all the material. All of that, there may be remnants of that. We have to remember, this is just one piece of evidence here. Theres also likely going to be a residence or perhaps an office. It will be a major investigation. One of the reasons also they need to transport it, they need to get a Search Warrant to search it. They need to do that, get a Search Warrant, and wherever it goes, theyll search it. There could be components, fibers, lets say, from inside the van found on the devices. Its really mindboggling when you think about the Forensic Evidence that can be picked up by the technicians, by the experts who do this. Theres fibers in these cars. Theres hairs. There could be anything that they can find that would be helpful to link them to this man. But i bet they have a ton of evidence now linking him. You know, the arrest obviously happening. They got the warrant, they have a criminal complaint now drawn. Hopefully well see that
about exactly how all of this went down. And obviously the question of how did they arrest him . How did they find him . Thats something to find out. There have been no words from your sources on how the arrest went down . I think cell phones will be key in this, too. The actual taking him into custody . Im fascinate and josh can speak to this. They chose to do this in a public location. Not in his home, in the middle of the night, or Early Morning. You sometimes see these situations. Sorry that a sense of urgency or out of necessity . You are right. There could be an instance where they wait until the Early Morning hours and effect an arrest. They are obviously not expecting it, but one thing is the fbi will surveil somebody while they attempt to gain probable cause. What we have seen is a cost
benefit if they have the person under surveillance, which say massive effort. Bringing in untold number of resourc resources. They will get the court paper and its cleaner. Hes in the system and we are off to the races. Stick with me as we continue. What you are seeing on your left is video from earlier when we first had images of this van that fbi, 90, local Law Enforcement and even the u. S. Postal service inspectors were on the ground. Before it was covered up and put on a tow truck. On the right is live. Where that van is going as it is connected to this case. On the scene is where this van was is where this man was arrested. This 50yearold man with a criminal history that was known to police is now in custody. I want to go now to the white house as we are waiting to hear what the president of the United States is about to say. A tweet going from the president
himself said he is going to address this whole situation when he speaks before a summit. We are looking at the white house live right now. Kaitlan, are you hearing what the president is going to say . We know he has been briefed on the arrest, but is he going to shed more light than we have heard from evan perez so far, but he is attending this young black leadership summit. A formal event. He is going to take time at the top to address it. It is standard. It is interesting. Before the president tweeted that he was going to be speak being this arrest, his last tweet from about an hour ago, he was saying he thought republicans were doing pretty well in the early voting and he said this bomb stuff happens and the momentum greatly slows. A lot of questions were raised
about why he had the word bomb in quotes. We reached out to see what that was a reference to . Was it a reference to the experience theories that this was a false flag operation . They didnt get back to us. A lot of people drew conclusions and he said it is very unfortunate going on. Not the bomb situation, but the fact that it was slowing down republicans in the early voting and politics was not the main focus of the news coverage. We know that President Trump has been frustrated by this coverage because he thinks he is being unfairly linked to whoever this person is who sent these suspected Package Bombs out and his allies have said the same. We saw his focus turn from when we saw the developments happening when a number of bombs came in calling to a band on the calls and renewing his attacks on the media, saying they are the ones responsible for the division and not President Trump and his rhetoric. That was of course a
conversation that came up since the people who were targeted in this were also targets of the president s verbal attacks. The president hasnt made any phone calls still to anyone who has been a target of the attacks. Not president barack obama or Hillary Clinton or joe biden. None of these people have been called or any contact from the white house to update them on the investigation. I talked to someone last night, a senior official said there were no plans for President Trump to do that. That raised a lot of questions as well, but back to the developments, we could hear from President Trump maybe a little bit more on who this purpose is that is arrested in connection. We do know the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, who has been spearheading this investigation is here at the white house right now. Its unclear if he met with President Trump before this event to give him an update on what exactly is going on. Vice president mike pence is in the air right now, but we should be finding out more soon from
President Trump himself and hopefully he will shed more light on who this person is who has been arrested. And is this over . Is that the working assumption that the threat and the danger and the risk is passed . The president was supposed to speak a little while ago and its delayed at this moment. We will bring it to you as soon as the president begins speaking. You can see on the left, live pictures of the white house waiting for the event to begin. On the right is where i would like to venture to guess, the nations eye are at this moment. Looking at plantation, florida, near miami on a tow truck we are following. This was a van in the parking lot of a business, an auto parts business, where the arrest went down. A man according to our sources, the man arrested in his 50s. He has an aventura address and a criminal hast and ties to new
york. You see the Video Playing from earlier this hour, the video on the left is where it went down. Josh campbell is here after the tarp went on and we saw them collecting evidence and a lot of that work taking place. The public seems that arrest would be in the parking lot of a business. One key factor sets this crime apart from others is the presence of explosives. If you were an arresting team, you would much rather take this person away from his residence rather than risk injury to officers as they enter the residence. Perhaps there could be a type of booby trap or the presence of explosives in the residence that may cause concern for officers. Whenever they do, they do a manual breech or explosive breech if they need to get in. Thats all insendiary when you couple that with the presence of explosives. Officers would weigh if there is a threat to the public end, but i know they wouldnt move on this person if it might injury people around him. They waited for the sweet spot when the person was away from his vehicle, which is another potential crime scene. They were able to take him into custody apparently without incident. On the left, there were no vehicles nearby when we at least started seeing it. We are watching the live pictures as the vehicle continues to be towed. Where its headed, josh said as a suggestion, if its nearby. Let me bring in a former official of the differently homeland security. Julia, thank you so much for being here. You have been watching this develop this hour. What sticks out to you at this moment . So specifically, something that josh has been raising the tarp issue. This is a political time. We dont know or are not reporting on what the Bumper Stickers say, but covering it will have next phase implications. I agree that they covered it already. The investigation may be over. We dont know if hes an accomplice or a piece of the investigation could be over. They are thinking about the court case and thinking about a jury. The Law Enforcement does not want to have anything that would be viewed as potentially tainting or damning a potential jury. This is how smart our Law Enforcement and agents are. They are thinking about phase two. They are thinking about how do we now put this person potentially behind bars . On the macro level, i want to make it clear. We do not know if the person
taken is an accomplice, is the person, or is the only person. So stay tuned in some ways. But we simplily do not know the reasons for the arrest. We will find out in the next couple of hours. There could be other investigations going on, in particular, what im looking at is the new york connection. Is there someone in new york that he was in contact with, given the scope of the delivery and the known addresses and things like that. Just open questions right now, but good news. I think most of us anticipated an arrest like this relatively soon, given the resources focused on this case. You make a very important point. On some level, be it big or small, a relief that there is a break in this case. But still, it seems that this opens up a very important next chapter in this investigation