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Man Attacks Police Station in Dallas, Texas; Suspect in Standoff with Police in Dallas after Attack Police Station. Aired 10- 11a ET

Aired June 13, 2015 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[10:00:12] VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: All right, it's 10:00 eastern, and you've just watched a news conference from the Dallas Police Department. That was chief David Brown giving us the very latest on this attack, as the department describes it, appropriately so, that happened just after 1:30 eastern time this morning in which a suspect shot at police headquarters, then rammed a cruiser, and then drove off and was chased.

Here's a map and timing of what happened. And there has been a standoff for at least the last eight hours or so. We have learned that at about 5:07 I believe that time was, SWAT snipers shot the suspect through the front windshield. No confirmation if the suspect is still alive although the chief there said that he believes this suspect is deceased. They're not approaching the vehicle because in a phone call, at least in negotiations, this suspect mentioned that he had C-4 there, an explosive on board that van, and of course, does not want to put any officers' lives in danger.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: And we should point out, too, one of the things that everybody was questioning this morning -- are there more than, is there more than one person involved here? You heard the chief there say they do believe this was the one and only suspect, although they have not ruled anything out, obviously, because he kept reiterating early in the investigation.

Tom Fuentes, I want to come to you first, because, as we know now, he said as Victor said, they're not going to send anybody in there, because they're afraid that the van could be rigged. But they are going to send a robot in. And he mentioned that they're going to be looking at areas around the van first. What happens from this point on? And how long might it take before they get that finished and can get in that van to get some of the evidence and to see if the man is even alive?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I think, Christi, it's going to take a while. They're going to be very deliberative with that robot. You know, it does have a camera. It does have other sensors on it. It does have arms that can be manipulated. So that will be the first chore to work on the outer part of it and see if something explodes, if something goes off. And then maybe try to use the robot to pull on the door handles or try to get that vehicle opened and get a look inside, see if they can determine.

If the robot is there and it's not attacked, it's not causing shots to be fired, then there's other tools that they use to get a camera in there. If they get an opening in the van, SWAT teams, we use fiber optics for instance, like a doctor would use, and send a tubing through the opening to get a camera to look inside and see if they could tell movement or if a subject is inside there.

If they use the .50-caliber sniper rifle to disable the engine block, which is what I thought earlier this morning when I mentioned that's how they disable the vehicle. If they used that also to shoot him, I think the ability to withstand being shot by that type of bullet would be zero, frankly. So if the sniper was in a position to have a good view of him through the glare of the windshield, through the whole situation, street lighting being dim and all of that, if he had a good shot and shot a 50-caliber bullet into that vehicle, that's why I think the chief is confident that he's probably not alive.

BLACKWELL: Is this video we're looking at, is this live or on tape? So this is live video. It appears, and Christi, you tell me if you see something different here, that there is a robot circling around this vehicle.

PAUL: Yes.

BLACKWELL: OK. So, you know, the reporter there, one of the reporters in the room, Tom, asks a pretty good question. We know that pipe bombs were utilized, at least one, because it detonated, pretty basic makeup, pretty crude device. But this suspect claimed to have C-4 inside the van, different class of explosive. How easy or difficult would it be to obtain C-4?

FUENTES: Unfortunately, Victor, just about everything bad that can be applied, whether it's firearms, explosives, is so easily attained that it's, it's very difficult. The police are in danger all the time. I think people take for granted that it's hard to get, they can't get that. No, people get that. These militia groups get that. White supremacist groups get that. Other wannabe terrorists can get their hands on that type of explosive, so it's very difficult.

Typically, pipe bombs are black powder explosives. I'm not familiar with C-4 being a common element in that type of explosive. And he could just be bluffing that he doesn't have C-4.

[10:05:06] But the fact that two of those packages exploded, you know, they can't take that lightly when he says that he's put explosives on that vehicle.

PAUL: OK, CNN law enforcement analyst Cedric Alexander is with us now. So Cedric, we're talking about the classification of the C-4, how powerful is it? If he's got it in his hand, what could happen?

CEDRIC ALEXANDER, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, C-4 is a very, very powerful plastic explosive, and oftentimes it's still, as far as I know, can be used, has been used by the military. It certainly can create a lot of damage and do a lot of personal harm.

I think the position that the Dallas Police Department is taking right now is one of a great deal of caution. Time is on their side. They're going to surveil that vehicle. They're going to allow the robot to rotate around that vehicle while they send images back into the command vehicle. And they're going to very methodically, I'm quite certain, they're going to very methodically go through the process of trying to secure that vehicle before they approach it.

Also I think it's very important to note, too, guys, that Chief Brown really has done an excellent job in terms of this most recent press conference and others that he's been able to do and information that has come out of his department over the last eight hours of keeping the community around Dallas very, very informed to what's going on. And that is so crucial and critical in a situation such as this where people are continuing in certain parts of a very large community move about feeling a sense of security and they having that area contained. So our hats and kudos to Chief Brown and his personnel to in terms of keeping the community very much involved and staying very transparent while at the same time as well, too, not giving out too much information that could compromise this very active investigation.

BLACKWELL: That was an important point. That was the question I was going to ask you as the chief walked up to the podium, the balance of telling the community everything you think they need to know without compromising the investigation. But one thing we learned from the chief is that the department will now have to as he said, we think and reexamine security measures not only at headquarters but all of the substations. What's that process look like?

ALEXANDER: Well, you know, each and every police station and substation across the country are situated differently. There are some departments that have already taken those types of security postures, for example, NYPD as others as well.

But, you know, we live in a different time today, and we all have to be very mindful of post-9/11 of the threat that continues in this country both domestic and foreign. So they're going to, I would imagine, probably now expedite any plans that they have to readily secure their headquarters and their other buildings as well, too, around public safety as they move forward.

PAUL: All right, speaking of that, I don't know if you've been watching your screen here, if you just been listening in and now you want to look at the screen here, I wanted to point out, yes, that there was one robot it seems right next to that van. Another one, we saw another one pull up towards that van, but then it seemed to go in another direction. Also seeing I believe, I believe it's a police officer who is walking that highway because they've closed off I-45 in both directions. So this is how far out the perimeter is. I have to assume that the people in those homes and obviously in the restaurants, everything around there has been evacuated we're assuming.

But when we, what would be the purpose let me ask you, Cedric, what would be the purpose of bringing in two robots to surround that van?

ALEXANDER: Well certainly in a situation like this, a van is very different than trying to have a robot go through the front door of a house and an apartment. I think they're just taking all precautions. They're utilizing all of their current technology that they have at their disposal. And they want to make sure before any of their officers approach that vehicle that they have a pretty good sense what they want to do next before they make that approach.

And it will be interesting as they continue with the investigation there at that scene how they're going to make that approach and what decision is going to be made. I don't want to be too speculative here merely because of the fact this is very sensitive. It is still very much a threat to the officers that are in and around have that area secured. And even though I'm quite sure they're maintaining a safe distance, they just don't want anyone to be at risk of being injured at that time.

[10:10:05] BLACKWELL: Tom, we know there's a lot that's unknown, to us and to the investigators, the bomb squad that's now and part of this operation.

Go ahead, Christi. Is there something new?

PAUL: There's a new tweet from the Dallas PD saying "Attempted to take out the windshield of the suspected vehicle with an explosive breech. It had no effect. Will use the .50-caliber rifle to strategically take out the windshield of the suspected vehicle with four or more shots." So that is where they're going right now.

BLACKWELL: Tom, are we looking at minutes? Are we looking at hours?

FUENTES: I think maybe a few hours at the moment here at this point. If they're successful and the sniper rifle takes out the windshield, they'll get a great view from afar hopefully into the interior of that vehicle, and it will give them a pretty good idea here.

But in terms of officers' safety, the robots are great. I watched them work in Iraq when I was there and watched the military work on bombs with them. They only go so far. And the problem is going to be at some point before this is over police officers are going to have to physically approach that vehicle and look inside or get inside of it one way or the other. So there are officers that will be in danger. What they're trying to do now is minimize that, and if any possibility exists of a bobby trap, have it go off now and kill the robot, not a person. And that's what they're trying to do now. The next step here seems to be to take out the window so you can get a good view inside of what it looks like. Is he alive? Is he moving? Is he still? Just get a better picture of that.

PAUL: You know, Tom, I think one of the things that was really interesting listening to the police chief was how he said, first of all, the van stopped on its own. They didn't stop him. Secondly, that he called 911 initially I believe it was after the initial shooting, that the suspect called 911 and he ranted for about four to five minutes just talking -- making threats, was increasingly angry and agitated and threatening.

Tom, when you hear that that seems very unusual to me, that somebody would call 911. Do you get the sense that the man he clearly wanted to be heard? And did he -- when you plan on something like this, as we were talking earlier, you go to a police department, to a station, and you shoot it up like that, do you expect to live?

FUENTES: I think he expected to live from the initial shootout, the time of night and the fact that he probably didn't see many people outside on the sidewalk, so I don't think at that point it was a suicide mission. And I think that the 911 rant, I think in some cases the length of the rant is probably excessive. But that whole conversation, presuming he used his own cellphone, that enabled the police very early in this incident to at least have a cellphone and at least look at the content of the rant, that he was talking about his custody situation and the police situation, that that helped them identify him much earlier in this incident than might normally happen. And if that was the case the investigators have had eight, nine, ten hours to be looking at all of his background and contacting other people that may have known him. So it's not like now they have to start it once they get an identity of him. They at least have a head start, you know, hoping that that was the right information, that that was the individual that would turn out to be inside that van. It's still not 100 percent confirmed, but given the context of what he talked about they can confirm pretty quickly was he in a custody suit. Was he -- do other facts that he mentioned, do they match his history, what he's had with the police, what legal problems he's had in the past. So I think that that helped the investigators in this case.

And I'd like to echo something Cedric Alexander said. I thought that this chief has done an outstanding job in the two pressers that he did, particularly this last one at this point. The explanations were excellent, factual, concise. He just laid it out, I thought, very, very well. And actually I give a compliment to reporters that were there. They weren't screaming and yelling. He even controlled them to provide a situation where the questions were orderly and well asked as well.

BALDWIN: Not only that, but they're giving some good information right now, too, on Twitter, saying they're taking action now to take out the suspected vehicle windshield, that that is to happen momentarily. The goal is to enable the access inside the suspect's vehicle. "We are advising to alert the public so there will be no alarm if you hear gunfire."

[10:15:02] BLACKWELL: Let's go back to these live pictures, because this is a ground view of what we've been watching for hours now from the sky. You see in the center of your screen just on the other side of the wall this dark blue, quote-unquote, "armored van" that was reportedly used in this incident this morning.

You saw a robot go by. We've seen two robots, these explosive ordinance division detonating robots. So we're told that they will detonate areas around the van to try to minimize. We just saw a shake there. I don't know what that was from. But minimize the threat to officers and people in this community.

You mentioned one call, Tom, the call to the police. But there was another call that was mentioned by the chief, this call to WFAA, to a television station there locally. Someone disguised their voice and claimed to have a bomb. Now there's no suggestion or description of a disguised voice from the

suspect earlier in the morning. This now disguised voice, what do you make of the description of this call? Do you believe it possibly could be the same person, a copycat? What do you glean from what we heard from the chief about that call to WFAA?

FUENTES: Not much. I think it's too soon to determine you know, whether that's involved with this incident or just somebody calling in. Again, normal police business, people are calling in, you know, crazy things all the time. You know, this is a big urban area. They have their crime problem, their regular clientele out on the street between 11:00 p.m. and 4:00, 5:00 in the morning. So a lot of things happen every day in our cities, and they have to contend of all of that going on as basically business as usual. So whether that's related, we don't know.

PAUL: We just saw what looks like a policeman and possibly somebody from the SWAT team as they had a vest and a helmet on, and there's somebody else walking around. And then these people had been walking towards that van. So again, we're waiting, as they said, action to take out the suspect's vehicle windshield. This will happen momentarily. I believe this is the windshield that we're looking at, is it not? Isn't this the front of the van? It's hard to get a gauge.

BLACKWELL: It's a side of the van. I think, I'm a distance from the monitor. But what we do see, Tom, is a bit of traffic passing by, typical camera lenses. They can't be too far off. How much traffic do we expect is going through this area, and how close?

FUENTES: I don't know. It's hard to tell because telephoto lenses compress the image. If they could be, those vehicles going by the camera screen there could be a long way off from the van. If they thought there was any possibility of a ricochet from the .50-caliber bullet going through that wield. They would have the traffic stopped already. That traffic could be five blocks away. It's very difficult when you have telephoto lenses in use.

PAUL: By the way, our producer telling us now, they believe that that is the passenger side of the van that we're looking at there.

You know, one of the things that Chief Brown talked about a lot throughout the press conference was he said you know I believe we're blessed that our officers survived. We barely survived the intent of this suspect, and went on to say this suspect meant to kill officers. In a situation like this, and in a situation where they're most likely been officers out at the scene for the last eight, nine -- well, nine hours as we edge to the nine-hour mark here, I would have to believe Cedric, why don't you take this, there is some mandatory counseling for them. Would that be correct to say?

ALEXANDER: Well, you know, this is -- officers are oftentimes cognitively prepared for incidents such as this. They train for it. And of course when these type of incidents occur, does it take a toll on any human being? Yes, it does. I think at the end of this -- we still have this story still has not come to an end yet. But whatever support mechanisms Dallas Police Department has in place, I'm quite sure those officers would utilize that if they feel a need to do so.

This is a very stressful situation. Their police department came up under attack this morning. And, as you heard, the chief said earlier, we're really very fortunate and very blessed that there were no injuries to those officers or that civilian personnel there as well, too. But there's going to be plenty of support emotional, psychological, whatever the case may be. And I am, I can only assume, quite strongly as a matter of fact, that Dallas has those types of individuals in place to assist any of their personnel, civilian or sworn, should there be a need to receive any counseling later on.

[10:20:11] PAUL: Cedric, the chief said there were bullet holes in the cars, cars where officers were sitting. There were bullet holes in the second floor at the information desk. We saw all of those bullet holes in the windows at the police department headquarters. Certainly -- and he said people have been sitting in those seats just before. That alone, knowing that you were that close to something happening, that alone has got to be jolting, yes?

ALEXANDER: Absolutely. That is a traumatic, a traumatic experience in every sense of the definition. And just realizing that coming to realize after things have calmed down just a little just how much you were at risk and fortunate enough to have missed being injured, and how sad that would have been for us today. So we're all very thankful that all the officers there in Dallas and civilian personnel as well, too, that not get injured. But absolutely, to your point, that is a very traumatic experience.

BLACKWELL: Just one detail to add some clarity to what we heard from chief brown. Major Max Geron with the Dallas Police Department, tweeting out "Two shots to engine block, one shot into the suspect." We heard this morning that SWAT sniper shot through the windshield, shot the suspect. It was a single shot into the suspect. The chief believes that the suspect is deceased, but as we've said this morning since the news conference, that these officers are not approaching the vehicle.

We'll continue to watch this live picture courtesy of KTVT. They're on the ground of this so called armored vehicle used in the attack this morning. Cedric Alexander, Tom Fuentes, thank you. Stay with us. We'll take a quick break. Our coverage of this morning's breaking news out of Dallas continues in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:09] BLACKWELL: All right, live pictures here out of the Dallas area. This is Hutchins, Texas. In the center of your screen just over that shrub in the center you see a bit of this blue van and you see a robot approaching it. This is one of the explosives-detonating robots used by the department. This van of course involved in the attack on Dallas police officers this morning. There's been a standoff for at least eight hours, close to nine now, after a chase ended in this location.

We're told by the chief about 30 minutes ago that several spots around this van would be detonated. There is a concern that there are explosives inside this van. You see the work being done remotely using this robot at the passenger side of the van. If you can't see, you're looking kind of from the passenger side. You see the window on the side.

They tried to get through, shoot through the windshield to get in. That was not effective. But of course we'll continue to keep up the live picture. They believe the suspect inside is deceased. A SWAT sniper fired one shot into the suspect. But no confirmation until they lay eyes on this suspect, and the officers are going up because of the concerns of explosives.

PAUL: And that may also be part of what this robot is doing. It may be armed with a camera.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

PAUL: It may be trying to look inside to get a good gauge of where that suspect and what his condition might be, if he's truly down. And in the forefront of the picture you can see the police officers who are stationed there to block off the perimeter there.

Tom Fuentes, as we watch this, we know it's very meticulous. We just lost the shot. But it's very meticulous what this, this robot has to do. Do you think -- is it taking pictures? After it takes pictures and how, then how are they able to assess whether there is a bomb inside without going inside? Can they do that?

FUENTES: Well, it will be difficult depending on what kind of access they can get just with the robot that rolls up at ground level, next to this vehicle. It is equipped with video cameras, and it is sending a continuous video feedback to the command post, back to the operators that are very close by operating the robot. It has other, you know, grips to manipulate other sensors on it. So it can do many things.

But, as I mentioned, at a certain point people are going to have to get close do that vehicle. Police officers are going to have to approach that vehicle, and it's very dangerous.

BLACKWELL: That shot coming to us from KTVT. We have no control of the camera, but they have been doing a great job all morning from not just the ground but the skies. You can see a second robot being utilized to go in.

Guys, I want to keep this picture up. But we do have the sound, if we can double-box it. We've got the sound from Chief Brown earlier today in this news conference. In which he talks about the really close calls some of his officers had as it relates to the explosives and the shots fired there. If we have the sound, just let me know. OK, so let's keep this up and see if we can get the chief up as well. Here's the chief from earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Some officers say we're very lucky. I believe we're blessed that officers survived this ordeal. There are bullet holes in squad cars where officers were sitting. There are bullet holes in the front lobby where our staff was sitting. And once that number had just walked away to get a coke, if they had stayed there during the ordeal they would have been shot we believe, and killed based on the trajectory of the bullets.

Looking at the front parts of headquarters there are bullets in -- there's a police helicopter inside as a museum piece, it's shot up. The second floor has bullet holes in it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So obviously there are going to be some tough memories to juggle through.

BLACKWELL: And it explains the caution, I mean, that we're seeing here on the scene, this suspect, and they have not confirmed his identity. They believe they know who he is. He identified himself as James Boulware, white male, 200 pounds, 5'10". That name connected to some threats in three, as he described them, family violence incidents involving the suspect in custody disputes over several years. But, again, they have not laid eyes on this man, so they're not certain that the person inside this van is James Boulware.

[10:30:04] PAUL: It will be interesting to see how this investigation progresses because not only do they have this rambling 911 call that he made after the initial shooting that lasted four to five minutes where he was ranting about the police, about the custody issue, and we understand he was becoming increasingly angry and threatening. But police also noted his social media footprint, that there were things on that that were very concerning.

So if this does indeed turn out to be James Boulware, certainly we'll be able to get much more information on who he is, why this happened, what his state of mind was. And again, we don't know whether he is alive or if he is deceased inside the van. They just know that he has not moved.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Hey, Tom, considering the phone call, the social media that's being described by the chief, would you expect there to be writings in his home, in this van, as well?

FUENTES: Yes, that's a good point, Victor. And I meant to bring that up earlier, that because they would have had a preliminary identification of him very early in the incident, then they would have spent investigators to his residence. They would have obtained warrants to search his residence and look for computers, look for other information.

And the problem being there is whether there were explosives at the residence. So if he's in an apartment building, they may have had to evacuate it if they knew where his residence was. If he was in a stand-alone house out in the countryside somewhere, it would be a little bit easier to have a more controlled situation.

But yes, they would have probably earlier in the evening, during the night, conducted a search at his residence to find all of the usual information that you try to get in any kind of case like this. Computers, records, find out what his email address is. Find out --

BLACKWELL: Tom, I've got to jump in here. This is the second of two explosions here. We've got puffs of smoke, wafts of smoke here as investigators, the chief said they would try to detonate areas around this van. So you now have two.

PAUL: And it looks as though part of the windshield or part of a window may be broken because of that.

Tom, when we are watching this robot seeming to detonate something there, or to get in there and give off some sort of explosion, how many, how many times, how often do they have to do that? Do they do that all the way around the perimeter before they clear it? Or is there, I mean I would think there would be the possibility that if they hit the right spot, and if there is something in that van, it would explode immediately. Would that be yes, no?

FUENTES: I think that would be yes. I think the robot poking at the vehicle, trying to jostle it, because that's what happened earlier when they jostled the packages that exploded. But I think what you saw there, it looked to me like it might not have been an explosion of an explosive, but it might have been the part of the window becoming powdered if it was hit by a .50-caliber sniper rifle. When it hits the glass, it would basically turn it to powder. That's the hole that it would make.

So the question is, that's what the original plan was, we heard from the chief that they were going to shoot the corners out of the windshield and hope that was enough. And if they weaken the windshield enough, they might be able to get the robot up to it, grab it and pull the rest of the window out, pull it away from the vehicle. They obviously would like less debris inside of it because they have to still work inside the van later. But if they can pull the window away from the frame of the vehicle, that would be the best outcome now to hopefully try to get a better look inside.

PAUL: Again, this is the passenger side window. At what point in time you see the grip there, the robot has now, it's opened up the grip and it looks like maybe it's going to try to start taking out some of that. At what point do you go in?

FUENTES: I think when you've exhausted every other opportunity to check for explosives.

PAUL: At what point is that? Is there a way, does he have to go all the way around the van? Will they just -- if he's gotten this far and they hit this thing, the snipers would hit it with bullets and nothing happened?

FUENTES: Well, when they get the front windshield out, the next question is behind the cab part where the driver would sit, is there some kind of a blanket hanging or some kind of a screen or curtain hanging that still prevents them from seeing inside.

So the objective here is to clear away as much of that vehicle, the outer part of the vehicle, glass being easier than the metal, shoot the glass in the corners, weaken it, have the robot grab it grab sections of that glass, pull it away from the vehicle, get a bigger hole, and then stick a camera through the open windshield.

[10:35:02] Now, if they still have problems, they may want to take out the side window of the driver's side or passenger's side, they may want to do more of that. They may want to shoot a hole in the side of the van and stick a fiber optic camera through the hole, into the inside of that vehicle. And, you know, doctors use that to conduct an examination of your insides, which I won't describe, but SWAT teams use that, too. We use that all the time. The proctology-type scope to look through an opening in that vehicle to try to get an idea, is he dead or is he alive inside that van?

BLACKWELL: We saw just for a moment as the camera panned left some of the other resources there. You saw SWAT team. We know that there are state authorities, FBI, ATF. And we learned from the chief there that FBI would be taking over certain elements, or, in his word, relieving the DPD, the Dallas Police Department, as it relates to some elements of the investigation.

You were assistant director of the FBI. What when you go in, do you take over first, because the FBI does it better. Is this something that would be done by the FBI, or is this likely still DPD? Or is there any way to know?

FUENTES: Well, I mean, it depends on the classification. If this was classified as a terror investigation and the special agent in charge of the FBI and the chief of police and the prosecutor's offices had a conference and said this looks like a domestic terrorism, then the FBI would have the main jurisdiction.

But if they're leaving it as a local matter, they maybe they just had one lone idiot take on the police department and not classify it as terrorism, then Dallas Police Department will maintain the lead. And everybody else, whether it's the FBI, ATF, any other federal agency, would be providing assistance as requested.

And that would, as he mentioned, he can't possibly have enough crime scene investigators to do the forensic work when you have so many bullet holes in the building, in the cars, in neighboring buildings probably as well, all the shell casings that they have to find and determine where they were fired from, and possibly if more than one person was involved, more than one rifle was involved in the shootings.

So there's so much investigation that everybody works together. But they're used to that. This is something, you know, when I ran an FBI field division, that you work closely with your partners. The State Department of public safety would come in and provide help, the county, the city.

But mainly the chief of Dallas Police Department is probably going to maintain overall management of this case and be in charge of it. Everybody else will be augmenting that. And also the FBI has national and international reach to be able to do interviews, if this guy has family members or former neighbors or friends and they're in another state or another country, the FBI can go do those interviews, can track those people down to conduct leads that extend beyond Dallas and beyond Texas.

PAUL: OK, speak of that suspect, we want to go to CNN's international correspondent, Sunlen Serfaty. Tom, do stay with us and thank you so much. Sunlen, I understand you've been doing some investigation into who they believe this man might be. What have you learned about the suspect thus far?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Christi. Well, there's not a full picture yet of who this person exactly is. We do know, as you have been reporting, he identified himself as James Boulware to police. But police as of now have not been able to confirm his identity.

But we're starting to hear just beyond the basic descriptions that he was a white male, 5'10", approximately 200 pounds. We're starting to hear a little bit more about what might have motivated him to do it, although police are continuing to say that they do not have a known motive at this time.

According to the police chief, he says that the suspect's social media footprint was concerning, noting that in the past the suspect seemed to have made threats against federal, against judges in the past, that he might have been involved in some sort of family custody battle with his children, and specifically, the police chief referenced that the suspect has three earlier family violence offenses. We're not sure exactly what those offenses are, certainly something that police are looking into.

But the newest indication from police that this is just the only and sole suspect they believe at this time. Earlier there were some indications, earlier this morning, many of the witnesses reporting that they saw up to four people involved in this incident. But the police chief saying that they believe now that that was just different vantage points being reported in by witnesses and that this person is the only known suspect.

Police do say that there's no known nexus to terrorism here. That was coming from some of the information that the suspect reported over that long and angry rant to 911 in which he told police that they had accused him of terrorism.

[10:40:12] But, again, police confirming that they believe there is no known nexus to terrorism at this time. And now they're just looking into the background of this man, beyond just confirming whether he's dead or alive, shot through the windshield of the van, looking into the full background of what potentially motivated him to do these horrible incidents today. Christi?

PAUL: Sunlen Serfaty, we appreciate all of that work. Thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: We have on the phone with us Kelly Williams. She lives across the street from the police department and witnessed this morning's attack. And Kelly, I first thank you for joining us, but I may have to jump in and interrupt if there's something. We're watching this live picture in Hutchins at the scene of the van. So forgive me if I have to jump in. But first, are you back in your home now, are you still being held at some distance.

KELLY WILLIAMS: I am back in my home now. They allowed us to come back an hour ago. My husband and I spent all night in the basement of our building.

BLACKWELL: OK, so you're back in your building. Tell us, what did you see this morning? Just paint the picture for us. Where were you? What did you see? What time was it?

WILLIAMS: It was about 12:30 in the morning. And I was in the living room working. And all of a sudden I heard these loud bangs. And they were very kind of slow but rhythmic. and I wasn't sure what it was, so I asked my husband, who just retired from the Marine Corps if they thought they were gunshots, because I didn't know what else they would be. The streets were pretty quiet. And so he opened up the window and he stuck a phone out and started recording. And then a lot more gunfire happened. So it was very scary.

BLACKWELL: And I saw some video that I believe it was your husband, Rick?

WILLIAMS: Yes.

BLACKWELL: That Rick shot this morning. We spoke with him several times. What is going through your mind as you see this happen and as you realize that this is not a jackhammer, this is someone shooting at the police department across the street?

WILLIAMS: I was, gosh, I went to the ground. I was ducking and yelling at my husband to duck. But he was being nosy. And I was just scared out of my mind. I was shaking. Definitely, he's used to this type of thing, I guess, and I am totally not. So we had completely different reactions. But yes, it was very scary.

BLACKWELL: Understandably.

When did the evacuation happen? Who came in? And describe that process for us.

WILLIAMS: I'm going to say the evacuation was maybe 20 minutes after the gunfire, 30 minutes, maybe. Maybe an hour. So, you know, a little while after the gunfire. And we just heard knocking on the doors and doorbell ringing. And I finally got to the door and it was a couple of police officers saying that they were evacuating. They found what they thought might be bombs directly across the street from where we are. And our apartment is all windows, so we definitely needed to get out of here.

BLACKWELL: Kelly, stand by with us for just a moment. We just, our desk here at CNN reached out to a Dallas resident, Jeannine Hammond. She confirms she's the mother of James Boulware. That's the name that was used as the man inside that van. Police say he identified himself as James Boulware. In a brief phone conversation with an employee here at CNN, an emotional Hammond explained, quote, "My son is in a shootout with police." And then she refrained from further comment. That's what we're confirming here at CNN is that Jeannine Hammond, who says she's the mother of James Boulware, says or tells CNN that, quote, "My son is in a shootout with police." I wanted to get that in.

PAUL: So Tom Fuentes, Tom is still with us, and Kelly Williams, thank you so much. Tom Fuentes, you're with us still. And when you hear that from this -- this mother, who seems quite certain herself that this is indeed her son. And, again, we do not have confirmation of that, but what does that tell you about -- we knew there were three family violence cases against this suspect, if it is indeed him. What does that tell you when you've got the mother coming out and saying "My son is in a shoot-out with police"?

[10:45:19] FUENTES: It just says that she's just overwrought with the whole situation and probably, you know, just can't believe the whole thing is happening. And maybe she did know that her son had problems in the past or the custody battle or other previous incidents. But that's a long way from attacking the Dallas Police Department and carrying on this long shootout and having this whole ordeal play out like this.

So I think for one thing, if it confirms -- it doesn't sound like she's surprised that it's not. You might have a mother come out and say that's not my boy, he would never harm a fly, he wouldn't shoot at anybody. So to have a mother come on and be so upset and basically confirm the identity that, yes, this is her son in the middle of this. You now, it's kind of heart-wrenching to hear that from a parent.

We don't know the circumstances of the custody family issues. We don't know if she was involved in that in some way or not involved, just aware that her son was going through all that, we just don't know. We don't know if he was a troubled boy as a kid and she's had problems with him all along, or, you know, many parents again say, it can't be. He's a wonderful son, great man. You just don't know, but you have to feel sorry for the mother at this point.

PAUL: You do, because not only is she dealing with the fact that if this is her son that has caused this much commotion -- the good news is that nobody else is dead. She is now possibly also dealing with the fact that her son most likely may be dead in that van right now. And I'm wondering, Tom, when you talk to family members, after, after the fact, after something like this happens, do many of them, could they have foreseen it? And do they, do they even, I don't even know what I would do. If you could foresee it but you couldn't prove it, what options do you have to try to keep everybody safe and get some help for this person if they won't get help themselves?

FUENTES: You just about have no option, and that's the sad state. But the state of mental illness treatment in this country is just really pathetic. And so many family members, many parents, especially once their child, even if they've had trouble all through --

BLACKWELL: We had another explosion, Tom. I've got to jump in here. We just heard another boom and saw another puff of smoke there as the operation continues here to try to be able to -- the vehicle has been disabled, but to get into the van and identify this person as James Boulware.

We're up against a break here, Tom, but one -- and I hate to interrupt you, but one question I have, when we hear from the mother, "My son is in a shootout with police," there's no way to know for sure because we're not there. And there's another puff of smoke there potentially from an explosion initiated by the robot. How would this mother know? I mean -- did, would he have called? Would police have called her and asked? I mean, how would she know for sure that it's her son is involved with police?

FUENTES: I think once the name was released in the media I think that somebody watching or hearing it on a local TV or radio station in Dallas would have called her probably, or if they knew who she was and that she was his mother she might have been notified that way after the media put his name out there as a possible suspect. Now, yes, he may have called her and said goodbye, you know, I'm going to go do something terrible. He may have had, had other postings and she was worried all along and when she heard this in the news, that, uh-oh, I think it's him. So we don't know that. But there are many ways that family members find out that a member of their family is doing something terrible.

PAUL: And this would be I think one of the worst to turn on a television and see it happen. Again, we do not know, we do not have authentication that this is James Boulware. That has just been the name that has been out there.

I do day want to let you know that Dallas police, as we watch this scene here on the right-hand side of your screen and we see this puff of smoke, tweeting out that one shot into the suspected vehicle windshield just went in with that .50-caliber. So we know that the shot went in. We will continue to wait and see what happened. So we just have to take a really quick break, but we're going to bring it back to you in just a moment. Do stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:52:50] PAUL: All right, I want to bring you these live pictures again as we've seen this robot walking or rolling around, I should say, the van, around the perimeter of it, as they try to get into the van and get some sort of maybe camera access in there to determine whether the suspect in this shooting at the Dallas Police Department who is, who is in that van, whether he is alive or whether he is dead.

The police department just tweeting out that they're in the process of trying to gain access to the armored suspect's vehicle by taking out the windshield with our .50-caliber rifle. Remember there were threats that this van was, was armed with C-4 explosives. So the police chief has said they would not going to send any officers up to that van until they knew for sure that it was not rigged and all of the officers were safe. And again, the shooting, fortunately not one officers killed. BLACKWELL: Not one officer. Not one civilian. And we heard from the

chief, David Brown this morning, that typically at that time on a Friday night going into a Saturday morning, there are people walking up and down the streets, a hotel nearby, a nightclub nearby, no officers, no civilians injured.

We learned a lot, almost a minute-by-minute account of what happened beginning at the moment when the first report of shots fired came in at the police department headquarters, which is now a crime scene, here's a bit of the news conference moments ago. Here's chief David Brown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: This was an on again/off again negotiation. He would get angry during negotiations and hang up and stop talking. He would rant for a while, not have a conversation with us, and rant during the negotiations in Hutchins. And at some point negotiations just ceased on his end. So we don't yet know motive.

And of course, as I mentioned earlier, we're not go to send our officers up to that van at this point until we're sure that it's not rigged with explosives and would explode upon a sensitive touch, much like the bag at headquarters. So we're very cautious in the way we're going to approach. So of course we're going to try to get as much information as quickly as we can, but not the expense of officer safety. Yes, sir?

[10:55:11] QUESTION: Can you tell us more about the van that he used in this? Where did he get it from and how difficult it was to get inside?

BROWN: We don't yet know that. The van stopped on its own and the engine was continuing to run until our snipers took out the engine blocks, because we were concerned he might take off based on his agitation with us during negotiations. So we had to make a call to disable the van. The best way for us to do that was to shoot out the engine block. Yes, sir?

QUESTION: Did you confirm that this is the same man who was arrested in Paris, Texas in 2011, it could be '13.

BROWN: We have not confirmed the identity of this suspect. What we do know is it's a white male, and we've got a height/weight description. We're not approaching the van until our bomb techs ensure that it's not rigged with explosives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: That's Chief David Brown with the Dallas Police Department. And again, they're not approaching this van until they're sure it's not rigged with explosives. We've seen five puffs of smoke and occasionally a bit of a shimmy from the camera there as they do the work of detonating areas around the van. We saw the robot a moment ago being used to get through the passenger side window. And when you heard the chief there mention that the engine block was

taken out, we see more of the resources here, city, state and federal resources on scene, we know that two rounds from the .50-caliber rifle went into the engine block one into the suspect.

I want to bring Tom Fuentes back in, because, Tom, when you see all that happened this morning and then you have negotiations break down and a suspect goes silent for such a long time, is that typical for someone who has made these calls, these rants, if he is still alive, to simply just go silent?

FUENTES: No, not usually from my experience. They continue the rant. You know, the negotiators would try to dial it down to get them back on topic, back to let's have a peaceful resolution. No one's dead. You know, we can still solve this without anybody getting hurt. When it goes completely silent like that, under these circumstances where they fired a shot into the van, I think they're looking at yes, he was disabled somehow, dead or dying from that gunshot.

PAUL: Tom, what do you anticipate is going to happen from this point forth?

FUENTES: Sorry, Christi, I just want to add one more point. I said he was dead or dying. Also, his cell phone could have been dead or dying because when they take out that engine block, it prevents him from keeping a phone charged up. So if he was ranting a long time. Maybe he was calling other people, the police will have his phone records at some point and know if he did call his mother or he did call other relatives. He could have ran the battery out on that phone and not be able to recharge it because the engine block was out and he couldn't keep the engine running. So that was another aspect of it going silent.

But, you know, with the robot close at hand with, cameras, microphones, all the equipment it would have, that's also part of the confirmation process, and the confirmation from the sniper if that sniper was confident that the shots actually struck him.

PAUL: And they're cutting out -- they're trying to cut out the windows. They're trying to get the arm in there, because, is it safe to say that if they tried to open the door, they would suspect that would be one of the first things that would be rigged?

FUENTES: Well, it could be. The other thing, personally I'm a little doubtful he would have rigged it the way he did the other package bombs, because he's driving around and he struck -- to me if he had explosives when he struck the one police car fairly hard, you would think that things would have blown up at that time. So he may not have had it rigged.

But what they're going to do now is peel the van open like an onion, get the windows out, maybe get the doors open and just try to gradually get that opened up enough. Now, when they get to a point where they see him, that will help. And the more things that they peel away, doors, windows, side panels, bumpers, that don't explode, I think that will give them a pretty good indication that he probably did not put explosives, or at least booby trap explosives in that manner.

BLACKWELL: All right, Tom Fuentes, CNN law enforcement analyst, former assistant director of the FBI, thank you so much for your expertise and pointing all this into context for us this morning.

Our breaking coverage continues this morning.

[11:00:00] We hand things over now to Fredricka Whitfield for the next hours of CNN Newsroom.