[Cloud Chief Of Police:] And I will defer some of those to the lead investigator on this case, Lieutenant Lori Elleri. So feel free if you
[Fredricka Whitfield, Cnn Anchor:] All right, sorry. But we lost that signal out of St. Cloud, Minnesota. But you heard there, the press conference unfolding, describing that there are now nine victims, stabbing victims, when this man who they are not yet ready to reveal the identity of, simply walked into a shopping mall in St. Cloud about 80 miles outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota and started stabbing people. Nine victims in all, two women, ages 15 and 50. Seven men ranging in ages of 20 and 53. There was no elaboration from authorities there as to the security, private security firm uniform, that was earlier reported, that this stabber was wearing. But we do know that investigators have said they have now found the vehicle that was parked in that shopping mall. They have looked through it and of course they have search warrants for at least one address. Let's talk more about this with my returning panel. Evan Perez is joining us out of Washington DC. Art Roderick, Matthew Horace, Shimon Prokupecz and Paul Cruickshank all with me now. All right. Let's talk about what we heard and what we didn't hear here. So Sir Matthew, we heard from investigators there that it's quite clear, this off-duty police officer really prevented the or saved the live of many by unloading on this stabber, he just indiscriminately walked around and stabbed nine people. What more needs to be determined in this investigation in order to figure out the motivation behind this assailant?
[Matthew Horace, Law Enforcement Analyst:] Well I think the chief mentioned that they had done a couple of search warrants and there maybe many more to come. They're going to be checking social media, trying to determine what the suspect was communicating, who he was communicating to, who he was communicating with and what they were planning? And in the most recent cases, we've always going back and reviewed cell phone record, Twitter, other social media and it seems like they usually leave a path on social media. So that will be the first thing that they're focused on today.
[Whitfield:] No further comment, Paul Cruickshank on ISIS claiming that this man was a soldier of the Islamic State. Obviously, investigators are going to look further into that but how will they be able to determine whether he was a lone wolf so to speak, whether indeed he was trained, directed by ISIS? Why ISIS would want to take credit for this?
[Paul Cruickshank, Terrorism Analyst:] well, they're going first of all look, is he radicalized? Has he got a network of radical contacts? We already heard about that they will be going through all the social media history of this individual but the ISIS affiliated news agency, Amaq, just in the past few hours claiming that he was a soldier of the Islamic State answering their call for followers in the west to launch attacks. And just recently, one of their top commanders instructed followers to stay home, rather than travel to Syria and Iraq, stay home to launch attacks. But ISIS offering no proof that he was following their orders. They may be just opportunistic here, seizing on early media reports that he supposed to have said, "Allah" that he perhaps asked the religion whether they were Muslim, some of his victims or it might be that they do have some information that he reached out to them before giving them some confidence to claim that he was inspired by them. But ISIS are not saying he was recruited in Syria and Iraq and sent back. We got to make that make that distinction very, very clear. That just saying that he was inspired by their cause.
[Whitfield:] OK. And Art, what are you hearing in this press conference that elicits more information for you as to whether indeed it looks like we're going to take you right back to St. Cloud there because they're now taking some questions. So let's listen in to what's being said here.
[Dave Kleis, St.cloud Mayor:] prevented additional injuries and potential loss of life through his or her rouge action.
[Unidentified Male:] Can you describe what you see in that video?
[Kleis:] In that video, what I've seen in that video is the suspect is entering with carrying a knife into Macy's and that's where the video that I had an opportunity to see last night. Clearly, he has knives in his a knife in hand. You can certainly see the officer, Officer Faulkner, when he came in, clearly and from witnesses say, you can't hear the audio in video, but what I've heard from witnesses, he identified himself as a police officer. And asked him to you could actually see him going down by command and then immediately lunging towards the officer. And this is something, somebody, you know, I'm a layperson to law enforcement, but in witnessing, what may have been 20 feet or beyond covered in less than two seconds with the knife. So you saw him lunge at the police officer. The officer then fired a few rounds. You see him fall. And then you see him get back up. Again, fired upon, you see him fall. You see him get back up. Three times. And then even after that, to the point where he still was attempting to get back up again within the officer with fatal blow but and then you also see our officers, St. Cloud PD, entering the scene at that moment.
[Unidentified Male:] Can you describe the knife, was it a large knife, a small knife or definitely a knife?
[Kleis:] It was definitely a knife. You know, I would, from my vantage point, would be certainly something that would be more of a kitchen type knife that took away. Certainly, the type of knife that created injuries on nine individuals so it didn't really matter what the size of it, it was a knife that was dangerous and caused a significant amount of injury to a lot of people.
[Unidentified Male:] How much distance was it at the end of [inaudible] ball park on the distance to did he get close enough to the person that
[Kleis:] You know, I'm watching the video so what I see is, what I can look at, it looks like 20 feet from the first lunge and in each one getting closer, even to the point where close enough that the officer actually was almost to the point of falling backwards, he was that close if not there's clearly, clearly, the officer's life was clearly in danger and he made to me, in watching it, it looks like a training video for law enforcement, what law enforcement should do. Clearly, he made a decision. And if not for him being there, clearly, this would have been much worse than it was.
[Unidentified Male:] And the officer [inaudible] he has some background in [inaudible]?
[Kleis:] My understanding, he does.
[Anderson:] a couple more questions, folks. And then at the conclusion of this, briefing, we will continue to disseminate information the old fashioned way, via our media releases. And so, if there's a need for us to convene you again, we will give you ample time to get here so.
[Unidentified Male:] Was the [inaudible]?
[Anderson:] Not to my knowledge.
[Unidentified Female:] [Inaudible] show that he was carrying a bag [inaudible] carrying it inside the mall?
[Anderson:] The video shows exactly what the mayor said. He's wielding a knife. And he closed the distance on that officer in the blink of an eye.
[Unidentified Male:] [Inaudible] inside that all of suspects [inaudible] may have been living in our community or have you had contact with them in the past or [inaudible]?
[Anderson:] We have had minor contact group. I believe we have three in-house contacts with this individual, nothing more serious than traffic violations thus far. How long this individual has lived in St. Cloud, I don't know that yet.
[Unidentified Female:] Anything with the FBI?
[Anderson:] I would refer that to the
[Fbi. Richard Thornton, Fbi Special Agent In Charge:] So, at this early stage in the investigation, I'm not going to comment on that. You know, part of our process, again, is searching, you know, the entire repository of databases on, what we know about somebody, to include immigration records if they're applicable to include. Yes, as you mention, you have terrorism watch records, our own internal databases, criminal databases, that's an ongoing process. It just takes a little time to, you know, to kind of put together a definitive package on that. So I don't want to comment prematurely.
[Unidentified Male:] [Inaudible] question about kind of [inaudible] terrorism aspect that you're looking, what initially [inaudible] in looking at [inaudible]? ANDERSON Well, first of all, there's a certain amount of irony given what else happened yesterday. Again, we don't know that there's any nexus between these events but that's a good start right there. One more question, you guys. What was the age of the suspect?
[Anderson:] Not releasing any information about the suspect right now. We're deferring to the medical examiner on that.
[Unidentified Male:] Yesterday's comments about what the suspect may have said in relation to Allah and in relation to asking people if they were possibly Muslim, can you clarify exactly what has been [inaudible]?
[Anderson:] No. That's exactly it. That's all I know right now. I suspect I will get another briefing after we are done here. But what I said yesterday is all I know for right now that there was at least one victim who was asked if they were Muslim. And beyond that, I don't have any more information on that right now.
[Unidentified Male:] [Inaudible] a guard at the mall [inaudible] has a gun.
[Anderson:] To our knowledge, the suspect was not an employee of the mall. Suspect did have on a private security uniform and, again, we're in the process of figuring out if the suspect was actually an employee of private security firm or former employee or what. That's all I got you guys. Right now, unless, the mayor want to add something.
[Kleis:] I just want to, just again, reiterate the response and I want to thank not only, you know, again, the St. Cloud PD, the FBI, the BCA, the other law enforcement in our area, our St. Cloud Fire Department, the Gold Cross, the ambulance, the EMTs and all the folks at a crossroads that came to here tremendously a rapid response, their efforts
[Whitfield:] All right: Once again, we just lost that signal there out of St. Cloud, Minnesota but once again, we're not hearing a name, the identity of this now dead suspect, someone who stabbed nine people in a shopping mall there in St. Cloud, Minnesota just about 80 miles or so outside of Minneapolis. We also did hear a little bit more information from the heroism of the off-duty police officer who helped prevent anymore serious injury of the people there. He was described by the police chief and the mayor there. He saw this suspect stabbing victims in the shopping mall. He identified himself as a police officer. And then that suspect then lunged at him. And the mayor descried that three times, even after being shot by the off- duty police officer, that suspect lunge at him, tried to get back up and that he was using, in the words of the mayor there, it appeared to be a kitchen knife. Let me bring back my panel now to talk more about what we just heard about all that transpired in St. Cloud, Minnesota. One investigators are willing to share with us right now, Evan Perez in Washington, DC. Art Roderick, Mathew Horace, Shimon Prokupecz and Paul Cruickshank. All right. Welcome back to all of you. So, Art, let me go to you first. Because the mayor said it seemed insignificant, perhaps not important about the specificity of the knife, but perhaps learning more about the knife, the weapon used here, might be able to tell a little bit more about the sequence of events leading up to this. What other kind of information will investigators try to learn about this suspect?
[Art Roderick, Law Enforcement Analyst:] Well, I mean, where was he employed? Is he actually a security guard? I mean, as I have mentioned before, I think Bob had mentioned earlier too that this tactic, this stabbing tactic, was used over in the Middle East quite a bit and then Europe, where they couldn't get to a handgun or couldn't obtain weapon, so, where do they go? Well, they go to a knife. Where the knife come from? I think who has he associated with, where's his family members? I think Matt had mentioned something about the social media aspect of it, which is very key as to determining if he's been in touched with over the internet, been looking at Web Sites for inspiration or what were his associates right there in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Is he from the area there? How long has he lived there? So they've got a lot of information to go on and luckily enough, because Officer Faulkner's actions, they can now go back and take their time at piecing this together because you don't have an act of threat here because of Officer Faulkner's heroic actions in the particular event.
[Whitfield:] This off-duty officer, Jason Faulkner, he's a part-time officer in nearby Avon, there's a former police chief of the Albany Police Force and you heard the mayor there say that he prevented loss of life. A pretty extraordinary instincts and his training really kicking in. The mayor even saying this really should be training video used here. So, incredible policing on the part of this part-time police officer. What more are you hoping to, you know, hear about the suspect, the motivation, what the inspiration, especially after ISIS claiming some responsibility that he's a soldier of
[Isis. Horace:] Over the next several days, investigators are going to be working to validate or invalidate all that information. I still think this was an incredible act law enforcement bravery. And just like the chief said, exactly what we're trained to do, engage that suspect. He saved lives by his quick and decisive action. Amazing.
[Whitfield:] Paul.
[Cruickshank:] Yes. I mean, and just imagine if this perpetrator had a gun. I mean we could have been talking about an Orlando sort of sized event. I mean law enforcement have been very scared about exactly this kind of scenario, a shopping mall in middle America. I mean that's an attack on the everyday life of a lot of people here in the United States. But it's not clear at this point of the motivation whether this guy was motivated somehow by some kind of Islamist ideology or some completely different ideology or there's another set of explanations linked to mental health or so on. The authorities have really not revealed much at this point.
[Whitfield:] All right. The police chief only really touching on the earlier reports that this suspect asked if you're a christian or if you're Muslim to at least one of the victims and even in the name of Allah, stabbing one of the victims.
[Cruickshank:] Yes. And we've seen that in terrorist attacks from other groups in Africa, in the middle east before, where they've tried to single out non-Muslims and actually separated them out. So that remains to be seen if he was motivated by Islamist ideology. Certainly, on the face of it, according to those eye-witness reports, you kind of going in that sort of direction.
[Whitfield:] Okay.
[Horace:] I think from a law enforcement perspective though, we really don't care what the motivation is. When things come down to that level of violence, we're going to take the action and we're going to do it swiftly and that's exactly what you saw happened here today.
[Whitfield:] All right. So, we're going to continue our conversation a moment. We also want to talk about the commonalities or lack thereof, whether this is purely coincidence to be investigating an incident that unfolded there in Minneapolis and now New York authorities and New Jersey authorities also investigating incidents so we're going to come right back and we will have discussion about all of those things.