News coverage here in New York City now. Craig melvin at msnbc headquarters. The nation on high alert, on high alert over a domestic tryst terrorist whos been waging war through the u. S. Mail all week. Pete williams just a few moments ago reporting that a person has been taken into custody at this point, a person were told perhaps in his 50s taken into custody in florida for questioning in connection with the mail bombs that have been sent to prominent americans all over this country over the past few days. Details as to this persons connection right now, those Details Remain unclear. This coming as two more explosive devices were discovered today, a total of 12 devices have now been sent, 12 explosive devices. Today one package found at a new york postal facility on the west side of manhattan. That one was addressed to former director of national
intelligence James Clapper. The other intercepted in florida. That one was addressed to new jersey democrat cory booker. All of these devices have been sent to prominent democrats. All of them critics at one point or another of President Trump. The president so far only weighing in on twitter today about what he has called a quote, the bomb stuff. President trump will be speaking at an event later this hour. We will be watching, of course, for that. With me now to cover all of these late breaking developments, nbc newss Investigative Reporter tom winter. Kerry sanders is in opalocka, florida, at that aforementioned mail facility. This is plantation, florida. This is the scene, a live look you can see were told some fbi activity on the scene there in plantation, florida, trying to get a better sense of whats going on. Tom, do we know if this is where
that person was taken into custody . Not to put you on the spot. No problem at all. This fits the profile weve been told as far as a possible location. It appears to me and we cant control this helicopter, but it appears to me to say fbi on the back of those armored plates. The body armor that they have. If so, thats likely hrt, the Hostage Rescue Team of the fbi or the fbi local squad. So each Fbi Field Office has a s. W. A. T. Component, and then of course they have hrt which is the fbis National Program for making arrests on this. So at this point just taking a look at who were seeing there, it appears to me that this is these are fbi resources. It would make sense given the nature of what weve seen, a wide ranging 13 or im sorry, 12 packages. Im jumping ahead of myself because my colleague is learning of a potential other package theyre looking into in california at the moment, which
would bring this to 13, but thats still being looked at at the moment. Were told a short time ago that a male, perhaps in his 50s, was going to be somebody who they were looking at strongly and that this person was located in florida, but were waiting on more information, and i want to really underscore a point that Pete Williams made that this person has been taken in for questioning. So this is somebody that at this point has not been charged with sending these 12 devices. We can also report right now that the Department Of Justice is reporting a 2 30 News Conference. Federal officials will be giving us more information at 2 30 eastern, information regarding the person in custody. Word on that one coming down. I can tell you that if thats the case, then i think the person that has been taken into custody here is likely going to be the person thats going to be charged for this crime. They would not announce a Press Conference at 2 30 if it wasnt for if it wasnt to announce arrests. They dont do Press Conferences at the Department Of Justice to announce people being taken in for questioning. This certainly you see an nypd officer there on the sidewalk. I would say at this point this is likely the person they were looking for. Believed to be a male in his 50s. Were still waiting on some sort of additional confirmation on that. This is somebody who theyve been circling for at least the past several hours or so. This is somebody who we were told that this was occurring in florida. We didnt have a specific location, and even if we did, we wouldnt have said it. I think at this point given the amount of evidence that theyve been able to gather and given the Law Enforcements capabilities of being able to being able to investigate these type of things, weve even had some indication yesterday that a video cam was underway sorry about that. If youve got to take that, you take that. Thats okay. Thats okay. We were told that a video canvas was underway yesterday at some point looking for potential images of a suspect. This all fits with the time line and the information that we received, but obviously were going it need to get more details. We had some preliminary indications while this person may be taken into custody, obviously wherever they were going to be that were doing this, that the case is going to be brought here possibly in new york. So we need to get some confirmation of that as well. Those are things that are up in the air and fluid, and i am going to get back to the phones here, craig. Get back to the phones. When you have new information, do come back to me. Lets get Clint Van Zandt on standby as well. We can tell you that the Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions is also at the white house right now. This is per our white house crew there in washington, d. C. It looks like the Attorney General just arrived at 1,600 pennsylvania avenue. Left side of your screen, plantation, florida, we should,
again, preface this by saying we do not know definitively at this point whether there is a direct connection between what youre seeing on the left side of your screen and the 12 pipe bombs that have been sent to prominent democrats over the past, but our Investigative Unit believes strongly that there is a correlation between this heavy fbi presence, local police, nypd police there, excuse me, nypd on the scene as well. Plantation police sending out a notice, this is plantation, florida, the local police sending out a notice to local residents about the Police Activity on state road telling folks to avoid the area both northbound and southbound lanes are closed encouraging folks to seek some or the of alternate route. The Justice Department announcing a short time ago that roughly three and a half hours from now they are going to be holding a News Conference to brief all of us on this person
who has been taken in for questioning. Again, thats the language that were using right now. A man were told in his 50s taken into custody at this point for questioning. So thats the scene on the left side of your screen there, plantation, florida. On the right side of your screen, that was earlier here in New York City. West side of manhattan, and that is where we find rehema alice. Bring us up to speed on the scene there outside that postal facility, if you can. Reporter craig, what i want you to take a look at is tim, can you swing your camera over . What you see right now, these are postal workers from that post office were talking about. Theyve now been allowed to return to their stations, if you will. This is a sign of getting back to normal here in new york. Youre going to see some traffic coming down the street in just a few moments. Police have given the all clear if you will in this area. So 52nd and 8th avenue is about to be reopened. There was a brief Press Conference just a few moments ago. I call it a Press Conference. They made a statement, basically. Took no questions. Let me interrupt you, im sorry. Standby for me if you can, justice correspondent Pete Williams is standing by with new information. What do we have . Craig, we had said a moment ago that a person was detained in custody for questioning. We can rack that up considerably. What were told now is a person has been arrested in connection with a string of Package Bombs, and will face charges in connection with the bombing. Im not sure exactly what the charges will be. I dont know if the conclusion is that this is the only person involved, but i am told now that a person has been arrested and will be charged in connection with the bombing. We know that there will be an announcement at the Justice Department later this afternoon, and my expectation was if we got to that stage of making an announcement, it would be that they have arrested someone that they think is actively involved
in these bombings. So i think we can conclude, based on what weve been told by several federal officials, that they have made an arrest in florida of a man that they will charge in connection with these this string of Package Bombs, and that well hear more about it and details about it this afternoon at 2 30 from Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions and other authorities in new york who were involved, so actively in this investigation. This is the break they were hoping for, and theyve been leading up to this. Weve known a lot of details that we havent reported because we didnt want to jeopardize the investigation about a number of people in florida that they were focused on, talking to, watching very carefully, but lets just step back here for a second because were going to become involved in reporting all these details when they come out. This is a good time to pause and just think about how rapidly this investigation has moved. True. Now, grant it, you had a huge
advantage in this Bombing Investigation in that virtual will you all of tly all of the devices youre seeing in this graphic with the exception of the one to george soros, which police didnt know what they were dealing with at that point, all those devices, they had that huge trove of evidence from those devices, and they also have the fact that these were repeatedly sent, apparently, from florida, from the same they went through the same Mail Distribution Center it would appear. Thats all great investigative detail, but still to have an arrest this quickly is really quite stunning and its just an enormous success for Law Enforcement, although obviously we have to do all the usual kaf gna caveats that we dont know what these charges will be. Its merely the chargiing at ths
point, but its an important Turning Point in this investigation. Stand by, ive got a few followups. Tom winter here with me as well. Tom, i understand you have some new information. Pete and i have been talking about this for the last half hour. Pete, i have confirmed multiple senior federal Law Enforcement officials to nbc news. It is a male in his 50s that has been taken into custody here in regards to this. Just a little bit of a clarification as far as or not a clarification, but an update as far as who may be behind this. A male in his 50s, as pete so clearly said taken into custody and is expected to be facing some federal charges that well hear about in a little bit. Thats something thats still to come. Just little bit more detail on the suspect. Were awaiting a name on that suspect. We do not have it yet. But well hopefully get that for you here shortly. Do we know if this is someone who was known previously to Law Enforcement . Im not quite ready to discuss that. Theres a little bit of confusion about that point. This may be a person, though,
that is that did spend time in the New York State or New York City area previously. Okay. That is a little bit of Additional Information that i can provide. Its my understanding as of an hour ago, this is a person who is originally from New York State or from New York City, but im waiting to get some more information, and obviously this is fluid, and we dont have the persons name yet so we need to kind of check out all this information. Pete, the scene here in plantation, florida, we continue to watch these federal officials, local police as well. We saw some members of the nypd on the scene. It would appear as if based on what weve been looking at courtesy of this local news chopper that this is a situation that is under control. This does not appear to be some sort of active situation, pete. Do we know if this man whos in his 50s was taken into custody without incident, or is that something we dont know at this point . No, we dont know any of those details at this point. This is someone that they focused on, i think, just this morning because as of last night, it did not seem to many federal officials that we talked to that anything thered be any significant break in the case for the next 24 hours. Thats as of last night. And then of course two things happened today, one is the discovery of these two additional devices, one at the opalocka Sorting Center and the other in new york at a midtown mail facility, but they just got much more interested very quickly in this person in florida, and we started to get indications that things were moving in that direction several hours ago, and now obviously theyve moved. Pete, again, i want to just let our viewers know and our listeners on sirius satellite radio, we dont control this camera, this helicopter camera, but at one point it did seem as
if they were focusing on this white van. And we see a tow truck that appears to be getting in position to try and tow this van. The van, were looking at it just like you are at home from a distance. It would appear to be a van thats got lots of Bumper Stickers all over it. Again, it looks like at this point they are going to be towing this van away. Were keeping a close eye on that. Pete, lets talk about these bombs if we can for just a moment here. Were talking about 12 bombs. These pipe bombs made from pvc pipe. They contain a digital timer according to our reporting. There is powder in these bombs, xrays showing there was likely some type of Shrapnel Inside as well. What might investigators be able to determine from these bombs . What might we learn about the bomber based on these bombs . Well, so now that theres an arrest, this changes the way the
investigations going to work. I mean, obviously the and its hard to read these Bumper Stickers. I agree, they are kind of interest, but this is clearly something that the authorities want to haul away because they want to check it for possible evidence. And lets just think about for a moment why would a Bombing Investigation be interest instead a vehicle . Well, for the simple reason that you have to get the bombs somehow to the post office, and if theyre going to be carried in a vehicle, then potentially a vehicle could contain evidence that would be important to that so thats one reason why. And of course in a case like this, youre going to want to search everything connected to anyone whos a suspect. So that would be why theyd be interested in the vehicle. And they might want to know whether theyre you know, its possible that additional they were this person was preparing to send additional bombs, if that is the person responsible. But they will now, if they have
a suspect, they can try to go back and knowing what theyre looking for, try to see if they find specific things on those packages as they continue to go through them at the fbi lab. That is a very Pain Staking Process because its all photographed. Its all documented as they take those devices bit by bit apart looking for fingerprints, looking for any kind of fiber evidence that would connect someone to the devices. And i suspect that when we at 2 30 were going to find out what the Critical Evidence was, whether, in fact, it was something off the devices. I mean, to get an arrest you have to have probable cause. You have to get an arrest warrant. That has been done here. You have to go to a judge and say this is the evidence we have, and thats why you should give us a warrant to arrest someone. So they obviously have evidence tieing this person, they believe, to the bombings, and were going to find out at 2 30, i think. Get a pretty good idea of what that evidence was. And were also going to hear from President Trump here at 11 45. The president expected to speak at 11 45. Lets keep this up, guys. Were getting some new information on this white van. According to our nbc affiliate there in miami, this is wtvj, according to our affiliate, that white van, the windows on what theyre describing as the suspects truck. The windows are completely covered with, again, from wtvj covered with pictures of trump, the president ial seal, et cetera, and you can see a u. S. Postal inspector there taking a very close look at the van, presumably some other investigators there on the right also taking a very close look at this van. And tom, i know that youve got some additional reporting on this vehicle as well . Some of the traffic in Law Enforcement circles confirming what you have just said there, craig, that theres its
being described to me as some right wing paraphernalia and stickers on this van, and whether or not this is specifically the suspects and we want to use caution. I know petes utilized a lot of caution here