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Law Enforcement Obtain Key Video in Manhattan Bomb Investigation; Witnesses to Explosion Share Experience. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired September 18, 2016 - 20:00   ET

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

[20:00:00] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ACNHOR: We have just learned in the past few moments that law enforcement has obtained key video that will help them in this investigation of the two sites where bombs were found last night. One of those bombs detonating on 23rd Street, injuring 29 people. The second bomb not detonating, a pressure cooker bomb found four blocks up on 27th Street.

Breaking the news tonight, first on CNN is our Crime and Justice Producer, Shimon Prokupecz. You got this from all your law enforcement courses. You've been careful in this reporting, talking to multiple sources really all day long.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE PRODUCER: That's correct.

HARLOW: This is the biggest break they've had in this. It's a key video that clearly shows someone's face.

PROKUPECZ: Yeah, clearly shows someone's face, you know. And we've been very careful and diligent. Evan Perez and I have been on the phone with people, because it starts to become sensitive at this investigation moves. It's sort of moves into a different phase now. And I think this video has provided some significant clues for law enforcement. And so, we've been extremely careful in trying not to certainly disrupt the investigation, so we're really trying to be careful.

The video is significant. I mean, they now place someone at the scene. They have someone who is holding what they believe is the pressure cooker, wheeling it kind of around Manhattan, right, around this Chelsea neighborhood.

HARLOW: Let's back up and walk through it all, OK. Just so our viewers know, we don't have this video. So you're not going to be seeing this video, because they're actively looking for this person, as far as we know right now. So you have to be sensitive in what can be reported about him.

PROKUPECZ: That's correct. And we don't have -- we have no specific information that this person has been identified. But, you know, it's significant. So ...

HARLOW: So walk us through, what happens last night, 7:50 p.m.? PROKUPECZ: 7:50 p.m., they see this man on 23rd Street, near the area where the explosion occurs, with this duffel bag. And he's walking it. They don't see him place it by the dumpster. They don't see what he does with it, but they do see him. They only make the connection after they see the video on 27th Street.

HARLOW: Four blocks up.

PROKUPECZ: Correct. And so, they see the video on 27th Street and thank you like, "Oh, my god, this is the same guy." On 27th Street, they actually see him leave the duffel bag. In it, eventually, is the pressure cooker, which they see these two men come by the duffel bag, take out ...

HARLOW: Two different men.

PROKUPECZ: Two different men. They have no idea two these guys are. We don't -- not that we know of, anyhow. And there's nothing to say they were involved in this. They take it out of this bag, this duffel bag. And then, they sort of walk away with the duffle bag, leaving what they think is just something in a white garbage bag, which turns out to be the pressure cooker. And they leave it there, and they walk off with the duffel bag.

HARLOW: They've also found of what they're calling now as definitively a cell phone attached to the pressure cooker, so what does that tell us, Shimon, is about the true nature of this device, how whomever was planning to detonate it.

PROKUPECZ: Well, I think the cell phone will probably find out offered a lot of clues in the end. Certainly, tells them how this device was meant to go off, how it was supposed to detonate. But besides that, we haven't -- they haven't -- law enforcement certainly hasn't shared with us everything they have learned from the cell phone.

But the cell phone is significant. But I don't know much more than that. I've been told that some way, it has been proven pretty significant.

HARLOW: OK.

PROKUPECZ: And so, you know, they're working with it. They have it and whatever it is that they're doing with it, they're doing with it.

HARLOW: All right. With me now, stay with me, Shimon, this is a fascinating reporting. Great job on getting all these information. It is a huge development. With me is CNN's -- Top National Security Analysts are with us and we're going to breakthrough all of this, and this major development in just moment though.

First to our Deborah Feyerick is on West 23rd Street, where this all happened last night, also working her law enforcement sources. And earlier, when we were speaking with you, Deb, there was activity behind you, in terms of a vehicle that investigators were clearly interested? DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. They were very interested in that vehicle. They identified it later in the afternoon. It had New Jersey plate, it was a Subaru and they were taking a lot of pictures of it, the NYPD forensic investigators.

One of the team put on a Tyvek suit, probably to avoid cross contamination of the vehicle in case there was DNA or fingerprints or something like that. And they took that car away.

Now, we can also tell you that there really two big question right now, Poppy, that is who is why. And Shimon clearly identified that they may know who but the NYPD has very sophisticated surveillance system throughout the city. So they were looking at store video, they were also looking at their own video. So the fact they were able to make this match, clearly is very, very significant.

[20:05:00] Whether the individual has anything to do with the car that was earlier removed, clearly, there are a lot of unknowns. We do know that investigators were working the scene all day. They were able to render the second device, the device that was found at 27th Street, the pressure cooker. They were able to basically neutralize it while maintaining the integrity of the pressure cooker, the wires and the cell phone. All of that now has been taken to Quantico where it's going to analyzed.

And they were going to look for things like DNA, a fingerprint, a hair perhaps, something that could potentially trace it to the person who left it there, but there are also other clues, including where they may have bought a pressure cooker like that, or even something identified in the cell phone.

So, all in all, a pretty good day for investigators as they move along to see who this person was or people were.

HARLOW: Has there been any movement, Deb, in deciphering whether or not there was a connection between the pipe bombs that exploded yesterday morning in new jersey, right, at that site of the 5K Marine race, and this.

I mean, I know they said there similarities in the devices, but are they making any progress on any potential connection there?

FEYERICK: No. And the FBI chief here in New York was clear about that. They're going to maintain strict operational security because they don't want anything to leak out that could potentially compromise the investigation or compromise their ability to find the people or person responsible for this. And that really crucial because they don't know a lot of things, they don't know why the devices were placed in this area, in Chelsea, on West 23rd Street, and then, another four blocks away. Why this area? Why now?

The cell phones are interesting, according to someone I spoke with. Because it suggests they can be detonated, the devices can be detonated from a far stance, unlike the Boston marathon bombing, as you know. Those bombers were right in the proximity of the bombs.

HARLOW: Right.

FEYERICK: But with the cell phones, it means they've got have greater range. So all of that is coming into play, what they don't know is as important as what they are discovering. And with the United Nations' General Assembly, clearly, the stakes are very high right now.

HARLOW: absolutely. President Obama landing in New York tonight, he's already in New York for fundraiser. And then, you've got world leaders truly from across the globe landing here this week for the United Nations' General Assembly. We know that Mayor de Blasio said in his press conference today, the NYPD presence in the city now after this will be "bigger than ever this week".

With me now, our panel of law enforcement experts, CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst and former FBI Assistant Director Tom Fuentes. Also with me, former CIA Operative, Bob Baer, and CNN National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem with us. And on the phone, CNN Law Enforcement Analyst Matthew Horace, formerly with ATF, specializing in explosive devices.

Juliette Kayyem, to you, what are your thoughts, on this major development that are some (inaudible) is reporting and that is the fact that they believe they know who is responsible. They have video of the same person at 23rd Street and 27th Street, right around the time of the bombing.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: And I think they always went with that belief that they -- it was too much of a coincident to believe the four block difference was two different people. So here's the good news.

This is all good news so far and it just takes a little time for these investigations to unfold. It's only been about 24 hours. They'll do face recognition, other sort of matching to determine if they know within the police department, if they know who it is. They'll cross reference it to the Joint Terrorism Task Force to determine whether they have any facial recognition.

If not, you may see something similar thing that like what happened in Boston, which they -- essentially had the crowd sourced the identification. Remember with the Tsarnaev brothers, they had no clue who in fact they were. The second, they put those pictures out. They then get information from friends, roommates, whomever else that then narrows down the search.

You have to be careful when you do that, because the person who it is or the people will react in potentially violent ways. But in terms of understanding the motivation, we're just -- we're not there yet still. This is how these investigations unfold. Hopefully, if they find out who it is, then the question of what animated this and what you were saying, why this area and why in a dumpster, and why are there so many questions about the method, will then begin to be answered.

HARLOW: Tom Fuentes, to you, someone is tweeting me right now, saying if there was video showing a suspect's faced wouldn't the cops want the public to see it. Walk us through why not. TOM FUENTES, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I don't know why not but I think, at some point, the only reason why not is that they've already made an internal identification, either gotten a phone call, a tip, or a police officer recognized that face that's dealt with the individual, or surveilled that individual, or arrested the individual before.

[20:10:05] In that case, they may want to go on their own track down the person because they know who it is. But if not, they are going to, at some point, crowd source and get help from the public.

There some other aspects of this investigation that are very important. One is that, that cell phone that was attached to the pressure cooker, chances are, that calls were made to that phone already, to test it. So whoever built these devices may have just worked with the triggering in the past, with the other device. There might have been another phone on that one and made phone calls.

And if that's the case, they would have phone calls going to those cell towers that night, possibly from their phone. If they can get the metadata from the phone attached to the pressure cooker, it may reveal what number called it. And if they get that number, that may track back to the person dialing the trigger phone ...

HARLOW: That's interesting.

FUENTES: ... and identify that person.

Secondly, all of the ...

HARLOW: Well, let me jump in there, Tom, because I have a follow-up question on that, right?

FUENTES: OK.

HARLOW: I mean, after we saw the terror attack in San Bernardino, the whole ensuing debate over, you know, encryption and what could be found on the iPhone and what, you know, Apple would, you know, help or not help to be deciphered, you know, given smartphones and given encryption, and given the passwords et cetera, to get into them, how much does that complicate or make their job harder to be able to see what phone numbers were dialed on and et cetera?

FUENTES: OK. They can get from the phone company, the records of what numbers dialed that phone and what calls were sent.

HARLOW: OK. So not from the device but from the phone company but, I mean, how long would that take? Do they need a court order?

FUENTES: Yeah, they'll get that. That's no problem. They'll get all of that. But it's the data on the phone, the actual text messages would be recorded into the memory of the phone. And that's what the FBI was trying to get from Farook in San Bernardino.

HARLOW: Right. FUENTES: So that, if text messages went to other individuals, you remember the two attackers that went from Phoenix to Garland, Texas. They were texting with individuals and it took a long time before they could crack the content of those text messages, which were in the phones, so that's a different matter.

But the actual dialing of the number to detonate, in practicing with that phone and actually detonating the other device, near the dumpster, that would be probably traceable and find records that, at that precise moment, which cell towers have that number going through it, and what was the number dialing the cell phone, you know, at that device.

And that's what I'm speculating is that, the person detonated the first device, then dialed the number for the second one and it just didn't go off. So you would have the dialing into that phone to try and detonate it. As I mentioned, possibly the two guys that stole the duffel bag jostled a wire loose or something and that's why it wouldn't work, that they basically disabled the detonating mechanism of the cell phone.

Now, I was going to mention the car is another issue. All of these video cameras also would have a track on that Subaru that they've just took to a garage somewhere.

HARLOW: Let's -- I think we can pull that video up so people know what you're talking about. That there were number of authorities around this Subaru parked on West 23rd Street tonight and they loaded it on to a flatbed truck. We don't have the video, but go on, Tom.

FUENTES: OK. Here's what's important there. They would have the license plate identification number of that car, obviously. They would have some idea of how long it was parked there. We don't know what specifically aroused their suspicions about the vehicle. They tow it to a garage because it's dark out now and they can work on it all night indoors in comfort and with light.

But the key thing is here that the same extensive network of video cameras, theoretically, can tract that vehicle to New Jersey vehicles. You would have the cameras at the tunnel entrances, the bridge entrances to Manhattan. They might be able to track that vehicle coming from New Jersey. And more importantly, if they had good coverage of that vehicle as it was being parked at that location, would that show possibly the guy pulling the duffel bag out of the vehicle and going around.

So that's where the connections could be made from videos of the subject taking the wheelie duffel bag around with the devices. And secondly, who might be associated with that Subaru as far as who parked it or maybe went back to it later and got, you know, the duffel bag out of the backseat or something like that. So these possible separate tracks of the investigation could intersect and overlap, and give more information about the person that set the devices out there.

Tom Fuentes, stay with me, Shimon as well, Juliette Kayyem and Bob Baer. [20:14:57] We're going to a quick break and much more on this huge development on our breaking news right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. Investigating an explosion of any type requires a lot of patience, meticulous gathering of evidence. That's where the ATF or the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Post-Blast Investigative Training Comes in. You can imagine what they're going through right now, given all that has transpired in New York City in the last 24 hours.

CNN will take you inside of the ATF Lab, where they learn what they look for after an explosion. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fire in the hole. Fire in the hole. Fire in the hole.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we go to a scene, whether it's an explosion or a fire, you know, we don't go in with any preconceived notions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can talk to you and tell you what it feels like. But until you see actually see it firsthand, you really don't understand.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The training that we are putting on here, dealt with giving the first responders and investigating agencies the tools that they need to be able to conduct an investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the items are sifted and collected for evidence, they're categorized. Are they something that is common use, or if not, they may be part of the actual explosive device.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Collecting evidence, you know, to be sent to the lab for processing. It also can give you an idea of what type of explosives may have been used.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Once it is submitted to the laboratory, we take all of the information we gather from running it on these different instruments, and all of that data together allows us to determine what the explosive is. In addition to looking for the explosives, we're looking for components. Anything we can link the suspect to the device or the device back to the suspect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The end result is we all want to figure out, number one, is a criminal event and if it is a criminal event who did it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[20:20:00] HARLOW: Just giving you an eye into some of what goes into looking at these devices. I should note that's the ATF is the FBI right now is the lead on this. We know this pressure cooker found last night on West 27th Street is at Quantico. Right now, let's bring back to my panel, Bob Baer, former CIA Operative with me.

Bob, obviously, the fact that this was not detonated gives them so much information. Not only fingerprints but what the wiring tells us, what instructions were followed from, say, Inspire Magazine or something else, we just don't know, to build it. As they disassemble this, what are they looking for? What are the key things they're looking for?

BOB BAER, FORMER CIA OPERATIVE: They're going to be looking how the phone was rigged up to the black powder if that's what it was. They're going to be looking for wiring. They're going to be looking for, you know, the cell phone itself. Is it prepaid? I imagine it was.

But at this point, if I were doing the investigation, what I'd look for is where the prepaid cell phone was and in other cells in the vicinity. If somebody had a cell in their other pocket, for carrying the pressure cooker, you would show that tracking. And it's amazing what, you know, these people will continue to use two cell phones and keep one in the pocket, or if it was bought in New Jersey, for instance. They can tell so much about this.

I mean, you know, any time you use a cell phone, you're leaving an incredible trace behind you, which is -- which be found efficiently. They know how to do this now.

HARLOW: Juliette Kayyem, to you, when you're looking at -- what appears to be as our Shimon Prokupecz has reported, the same individual on 23rd Street and 27th Street within a matter of minutes last night, and what sounds like clear surveillance video showing the face, walk us through what's going on right now in terms of the delicate balance that they're walking, between, you know, apprehending this person, but also seeing are they connected to a wider web before they take this person down.

KAYYEM: Well, their priority is apprehending these persons. The only question now is, what's the safest way to do so? And the best possible circumstance, the NYPD and FBI would -- are going to sort of cross reference the facial recognition. Look through all of their files, cross reference with the JTTS, Joint Terrorism Task Force, there's any other databases. There's probably over two dozen to scrub the facial recognition against.

And that their hope is that, they keep this it internal, not that they want to keep the public out of it but only because the safest way to get someone is surprise, right? Because what you don't -- but if you end up, as we had to do here in Boston, sort of crowd sourcing it, the people who your looking for may end up turning it around and getting violent as they tried to escape or get out of the city, as we saw here.

So -- there's no ideal situation in these circumstances, but what you're trying to do is minimize the harm to anyone else. And determine who this person and then any other people. But they want to catch him. There's no question about it. There might be a larger network but they're not going to survey him for too long. The fear being that he would go underground and you miss him.

HARLOW: All right. And I want to bring Shimon back in here, as well, who broke this news for us, and Tom Fuentes.

Shimon, to you, you haven't seen this video but it's been described to you by a number of law enforcement officials. They have a clear view of this person's face, anything that they said to you about what stands out about this person?

PROKUPECZ: I think they're kind of surprised by how they were able to identify him and see him.

HARLOW: Really?

PROKUPECZ: And I think there was some surprise. I think some folks sort of, you know, the whole thing with the two men that walk over to the duffel bag, I think some have chuckled at that. There is some thinking behind that but ...

HARLOW: In what way, what do you mean they chuckled?

PROKUPECZ: I think they just think it's perhaps an odd kind of coincidence. Like no one really thinks these two men were involved.

HARLOW: Why is that?

PROKUPECZ: I think -- I don't know. I think it's based off their investigation, you know. We also say like, Evan Perez had spoken to a couple people about this, too, described the video to him. On it sort of -- in its initial appearance, you know, perhaps they thought maybe the other two men were involved. But I think, law enforcement has pretty much moved away from that.

And again, there so much that has been going on today and so much that they've found out. I think they've made so much progress. So I think that's, you know, sort of their -- that's where they are right now in sort of their thinking.

HARLOW: As they try to identify this person, they may already identify them, we don't know.

Tom Fuentes, talk me through with the experts at the FBI, who is lead on the investigation now, what they're doing in terms of the facial recognition technology is so great at this point in time, that they could take a snapshot of that surveillance video which are the clear image of the face according to Shimon, and they've run it in their database, right? And they see, you know, do they find any matches? Do they find any hit?

[20:24:58] FUENTES: Well, maybe, but that facial recognition software is not perfect and specially, it can be thwarted if the individual wearing glasses, and wearing -- or has facial hair, wearing a hat pulled down. It obliterates some of the reference points on the face, that facial recognition measures, to try to match one face to another individual's face. And the more of a frontal view you have, the more accurate it will be, if the person is clean shave and no sunglasses, no hat, but we don't know all of that at this point. So it can be helpful, it's just not foolproof.

So as I said, I'm a little bit unclear on if they have an actual identity of the individual and are looking for him now, or maybe already have that person and are surveilling that person to see if he leads to other co-conspirators. I'm a little unclear if they've gotten that far at this point in the investigation.

HARLOW: Tom Fuentes, stay with me. Juliette, Shimon, Matthew Horace with ATF, we got to get a quick in here much more on this major development in our breaking news, straight ahead after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Breaking news tonight in a major development in the New York City explosion, that possible terror attack that rattled the Manhattan neighborhood and sent 29 people to the hospital last night. Up until now, police had very few clues, very few leads and frankly zero suspects. That is all different now.

[20:29:59] CNN just learning that law enforcement has obtained key video that is helping them immensely in the investigation into those two sites in New York where police found these explosive devices last night. One of them exploding on 23rd Street injuring 29 people.

Let's go first to CNN Shimon Prokupecz, our CNN Crime and Justice Producer.

You've been talking to your law enforcement sources all day, and this is, by far, is the biggest lead we've had on who carried it out, because they think it's the same guy.

PROKUPECZ: Yeah. I mean, they certainly do, right. This video clearly shows the same man, what they think is the same man walking on 23rd Street near the site of the explosion, and then again on 27th Street dumping this duffel bag which contained the pressure cooker.

HARLOW: So, let's take it piece by piece. Let's start first with 23rd Street. What does the video now today show them this man was doing on 23rd Street?

PROKUPECZ: So, all they see in the video is the man walking. They see him walking ...

HARLOW: OK. Not carrying any device?

PROKUPECZ: Well, they don't -- he has the duffel bag with him.

HARLOW: OK.

PROKUPECZ: But they don't see where he puts the duffel bag. So far, we've not been given any indication that there is video that actually shows him leaving the duffel bag by this dumpster where this explosion they believe took place.

He's then seen about 15 minutes, 10 to 15 minutes later walking on 27th Street with the same duffel bag. He looks the same. There is -- the physical features are the same. Everything about him is very similar. And he has the duffel bag and he's seen walking on 27th Street with the duffel bag, it's on, it has wheels, and he's kind of pulling it and he leaves it and walks away. And some moments later, I'm not sure of the time frame, two men walk over. They opened the duffel bag as they kind of feel it. They see what's in there. They take out what's in there and then they walk off with the duffel bag.

There's no indication that these guys were involved. There's no indication that they knew what was in the bag. And in fact, some law enforcement believed they had no idea what was in the bag. And they took out what was in the duffel bag, which wound up being the pressure cooker which was in this white garbage bag.

HARLOW: So, it's really important to note that they are not saying whether these two people they found a duffel bag on 27th Street took the pressure cooker out are related in any way to this. They may have literally been just been looking for their money in this bag, what is there, and we don't, oh, we need this and then putting it to the side.

PROKUPECZ: Yes. I mean, no one is really sure why -- why they we're doing. I don't know that law enforcement has spoken to the two. Perhaps, they have -- they have not shared that with us. But, yeah, I mean as of right now, no one thinks that they were involved. And they walked away with the duffel bag. And that was it.

HARLOW: They're not releasing this video to the public. Have they said why?

PROKUPECZ: No. I mean, I can tell you we've asked if and some folks have not given us any indication about whether or not there were plans to release it. I don't think, you know, I'm not at a point where I think we should read anything into that.

HARLOW: Right.

PROKUPECZ : And, you know ...

HARLOW: Well, what we can read into it is they don't need the public's help identifying this person. Couldn't you? I mean, that's why they released it in Boston after the marathon bombing with the help identified.

PROKUPECZ: Right. And that even took some time. But I think perhaps -- I mean, I don't know, you know, who knows what they're thinking and why. You know, maybe they have good leads and they're chasing them down and they don't want it out there for whatever reason.

HARLOW: Right.

PROKUPECZ: Also, the other thing you have to think about is that this is going to eventually become evidence in the prosecution if they win it. HARLOW: Sure.

PROKUPECZ: And they do arrest this man.

So, they could be thinking that as well. I mean, who knows. I mean, right now, the FBI is kind of calling the shots on this and they're deciding what's getting released and what's not.

HARLOW: Absolutely FBI is actually the lead on this. And also, they've got, you know, the pressure cooker that didn't detonate up in Quantico in doing a lot of forensic work there. Tons of clues they can get from that.

Shimon, stay with me. Great reporting, breaking this news.

Our Deborah Feyerick is on 23rd Street. She's right near where the blast happened. And Deb, obviously, this is -- this surveillance video is a key, right? And what they're doing at Quantico is a key. But they're also continuing to do things where you are at the location. The street is still closed. They're still sweeping. And there was this vehicle earlier tonight that they were clearly interested in and eventually removed. But I think we have some video to show that as you tell us what happened.

FEYERICK: Yeah, absolutely. Late in the afternoon, and all of a sudden, there was a team from the NYPD, forensic investigators. They were looking at the vehicle. It has New Jersey plates on it. And so, whether there's an indication that that car, obviously, was connected somehow to the incident that happened in New Jersey, all that under investigation. But they were specifically interested in that and took it away. There was another car they were removing from the scene.

I can tell you just a short time ago, Poppy, they brought in big salt spreaders from the Department of Sanitation. So, we don't know whether those are going to be used to block the scene. There was FDNY truck and they were using the ladder to try to get very high in order to see if they could find any sort of bomb residue, bomb components, bomb parts. They looked everywhere. All the material is going to Quantico to be analyzed. It's a big victory also for the bomb squad today, the NYPD bomb squad, because they were able to take the device that was on 27th Street, which was not detonated, and they were able to render it safe, they were able to neutralize it.

[20:35:10] And that gives them evidence a lot of evidence that have in terms of how this device was made, where they may have gotten the blueprints for this. For example, was it inspired by al Qaeda? Or whether -- and just because it was inspired by al Qaeda, it doesn't mean it is al Qaeda, it just means that someone is reading those magazines. But they can also look for DNA evidence. So, that is also at Quantico. That's also under investigation. Still very active. You can see cars coming and going. Heavy presence here. Unclear when they're going to be reopening at least these parts of the 23rd Street, Poppy.

HARLOW: Ahead of a big week here in New York, not only as President Obama here for a fundraiser, you've got the U.N.'s general assembly kicking off this week with global leaders descending on this video city.

Deb, thank you very much.

Let me bring my panel back in. Tom Fuentes is with me, Bob Baer, and also CNN law enforcement analyst Matthew Horace, who managed explosives investigations for the ATF.

Matthew, walk us through what they're doing right now. The fact that, frankly, they're lucky to have this pressure cooker that did not detonate last night. And therefore, it is a plethora of information for them.

MATTHEW W. HORACE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: You're absolutely right, Harlow. They are trying dissecting the device. They're trying to establish where the device came from. They're using date codes and other identifiers, trying to determine where it was purchased. They're trying to ascertain what type explosive, if any is inside of the pressure cooker, and if there isn't that trap hole of any kind (ph) inside of the pressure cooker. Also, what is the device made out of? The detonation device looks like a cell phone, the battery, wire, (inaudible) for the wire and others. They're trying to use all of that to try to make sure they can run down and figure out where this device was manufactured and who manufactured it.

HARLOW: Tom Fuentes, when you look at what the FBI is doing right now, can you walk us through the process there in terms of the first two hours last night when they receive and what they'd be doing today and the key piece of evidence you think they can get. Is it the cell phone attached to it?

FUENTES: There are so many separate components the investigation, Poppy. I mean, if there will be hundreds of people, the FBI is in a position to bring in 1000 additional agents if they think they need them, either evidence experts, explosive experts, just investigative assistance in general. They have to do a lot of work with the phone company, trying to track down these bombs, the actual devices and work with the phone companies as far as what signals went through which towers to try to track that, working the police with all of the video cameras. And as I mentioned, all the way and back from New Jersey, not just immediately around that block or a couple of block areas. So, that has to be done.

Just trying to look at every aspect of that, looking at all of social media has anything been put out there, either prior to the event or since yesterday, were there some chatter about it that they can identify. They're contacting every source they have to see what may have come from that. All of the 70 plus JTTFs in the country are scrubbing their databases to see if there's been any information leading up to or subsequent to these devices being deployed yesterday. There are probably thousands of agents and police officers and analysts and technicians and laboratory experts working on this case and have been working since yesterday.

HARLOW: Tom, stay with me. We got to get a quick break in here. But we have much more on this breaking news. Coming up again, video of 23rd and 27th Street the police now have and the FBI now have law enforcement saying they clearly believe they have a key suspect in all of this, the same man seen on both of the streets. Much more ahead.

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[20:42:55] HARLOW: Some of the first people to reach the blast victims in New York last night were bystanders who've heard the blast and ran towards it to help. They found panicked and bloodied individuals, many of them in an absolute state of shock. Look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(OFF-MIC)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come with me. Come with me. Come with me. I'm holding you, OK? Come with me. You're OK. Nothing is going to happen, OK? Nothing is going to happen to you. Come on. This is the ambulance, right here. I got you. I got you. Mommy, do you (inaudible)?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's wrong?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right here.

UNIDENTIFIFED FEMALE: What happened? I heard explosion and I fell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's OK?

(OFF-MIC)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What does my eye look like?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's OK. You're OK.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Rachel Crane is with me. She spoke with some of those victims as they left the hospital last night. You were there at Bellevue. As we were breaking the news on the air, you were there outside Bellevue where they took the biggest number of the victims from the blast. What stands out to you most from just what the victims had to say, how they're doing today?

RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, Bellevue is where 11 of those 29 victims were taken. And we were there when many of them were being discharged. As we know, all the 29 victims have been discharged from the hospital at this point. We spoke to one couple that was caught in the blast. David Martinez and his pregnant girlfriend. They described being in the blast. They were driving through the area. They said that part of their car was actually lifted up from the force of the blast that the whole left side of the car was damaged. David injured his leg. But he said that they're just simply lucky to be alive. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID MARTINEZ, VICTIM: I was driving the car, and next thing, you know, I felt an explosion and the car just tilted over halfway and came back down. And what happened was, I just blacked out, and next thing, you know, I'm in an ambulance.

CRANE: What about you? What do you remember?

BRENDA ABERO, VICTIM: Everything was so sudden and fast. It was more of a shock that I remember.

CRANE: How are you doing now?

MARTINEZ: Pain and, you know, a little traumatized.

[20:45:01] Just thought about that I was close to not actually seeing my son again, that was the scariest part of the night for me.

CRANE: Not seeing your son, that ran through your head?

MARTINEZ: Yes.

CRANE: You thought you're going to lose your life?

MARTINEZ: Yes. To be caught in explosion, I was like, oh, man. And we actually, you know -- I was just -- like everything was moving fast, but I was stuck in slow-mo, I felt like I was in mud, couldn't move, quick sand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Wow. I felt like I was in mud, quick sand, I couldn't move.

CRANE: Poppy, what struck me the most in that conversation is this man clearly thought he was going to die. He said he thought he was never going to see his son again. And thank goodness, nobody was more severely injured in the incident. Nobody lost their lives.

I did have a chance to speak with David earlier today. He said that he was still trying to make sense of what had happened. He said he was extremely tired that he hadn't slept very well and that his leg was incredibly sore.

I also spoke to some other victims as they were being discharged from the hospital. One young woman was completely in shock. She said she just wanted to go home and sleep. She said she was physically OK, but mentally, you know, that was another story.

And we spoke to obviously people who witness the scene as well, and they described it to be quite chaotic. They heard the loud boom, people running up from the subway.

I spoke to one woman who was in a restaurant at the time of the blast. But then everybody in the restaurant raced to the window to see what was happening. They saw people running down the streets. People then exited the restaurant and saw all these first responders on the street. And they of course decided to leave the area. Obviously, Poppy, the city on heightened alert, everybody is trying to come to grips with what has happened here.

HARLOW: And you think about the people, Rachel, who ran towards, because you always think, what would I do? And you never know until you're faced with that predicament. Do you runaway for your own safety or do you run towards the help?

CRANE: Well, as we saw in some of those videos, I mean seeing the bravery that comes out of situations like this is really so incredibly remarkable. And luckily, on social media, we're able to see some of that bravery and that heroism of New Yorkers and those first responders.

HARLOW: Yes. Rachel, thank you so much.

We have much more on this breaking news a major development in the last hour in terms of the hunt for whoever perpetrated this horrific attack last night. Much more of our breaking news ahead. Stay with us. This is CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:50:58] HARLOW: More of our breaking news, a major development to the New York City explosion last night that injured 29 people. And right now, a possible breakthrough. My panel is back with me, Tom Fuentes of the FBI, Bob Baer, former CIA.

But first, let me go to Shimon Prokupecz who has broken the news in just the last hour. This all comes down to who's responsible. Surveillance video showing your law enforcement sources, they think it's the same guy.

PROKUPECZ: Yeah. They think it's the same guy in two locations, a person who sort of drops this pressure cooker that police are able to recover and then whatever the device was that was used at the explosion site on 23rd Street. So they think it's the same person. At least that's what they believe, the scene leaving that area and then a scene on 27th Street. And one of the major clues, obviously, not only do they know what he looks like, is this duffle bag. He had a duffle bag with him that he used, they believe, to conceal the pressure cooker and then he ...

HARLOW: How big of a surprise was this to your law enforcement sources that they were able to get such a clear picture. Obviously, they haven't publicly identified this person but then they were able to get such a clear picture of his face.

PROKUPECZ: So, I think it was very surprising. I mean, initially they have said that they did not find a lot of surveillance video, and they went back ...

HARLOW: Right. And it was too grainy.

PROKUPECZ: Correct. There was some on that and they went back today. And I think they went to some of the stores that they couldn't get into yesterday. For all we know, they could have found some of this video last night and they were working through it and trying to enhance it.

The video on 23rd Street may not be as strong the video on 27th Street what I have been for reason (ph) I have been told is really strong and the quality is really good. So, they're really able to see what this guy looks like and what he's doing. The video on 23rd Street, there're some indication may not be as strong.

HARLOW: So, it's important to note, though, that the suspect as far as we know is still at large.

PROKUPECZ: Yes.

HARLOW: We don't have reporting otherwise.

PROKUPECZ: Correct. As far as we know, police are still looking for him. I don't know that -- no one has, you know, called them suspect obviously, so I think we should just be a little careful.

HARLOW: OK.

PROKUPECZ: But, yes, they're still looking for him as far as we know.

HARLOW: Right.

PROKUPECZ: They still want to talk to him. Along with the other two individuals that were ...

HARLOW: Who took the pressure cooker out of the duffel bag.

(CROSSTALK)

PROKUPECZ: Correct.

HARLOW: Bob Baer and Tom Fuentes, you both quickly deserve your final thoughts on the fact that this is, you know, an active search for this individual, Bob Baer, but they are treating this very differently than after the Boston marathon bombing. They are not shutting the city down. They're not releasing the video to the public. What does that tell you?

BAER: Well, there is no point of shutting the city down if you have no idea who it is and you don't have a better lead. Now, they probably got a good facial recognition and I think the good news in this is we're probably not dealing with the skilled network here. So, the chances of them moving to the next attack, I think are diminishing the more information we get.

HARLOW: Tom Fuentes, do you agree with Bob this happened? FUENTES: Well, that could be one thing that happens. But don't forget in Boston once the two brothers were identified, then they felt like cornered rats. You know, they killed a police officer and then separately engaged in a gun battle, throwing explosives out on the street, shooting on the streets. So, you know, this individual may now -- if he's watching television realize that he is on the run and he is going to be cornered and he's going to be very dangerous at this point.

HARLOW: Bob Baer, when you're talking about the work that they are still doing at that (inaudible) reported the street is till shutdown there. At 23rd Street, they removed a car and taken it away on a flatbed truck. What is the most critical piece of evidence that they can get. Is it going to be in that pressure cooker that they've already taken at Quantico and they're already disassembling?

BAER: Yes. They want -- well, they want to find out what the material was if was it black powder, was it flash powder, was there an addition. Some people believe they put something else in that pressure which you tell us a whole different story. They're still looking for the pieces of it if that was a pressure cooker or something else. So, they will be able -- this forensic stuff, I just love it. It just tells a whole story and then once you continue the story, you base it all on the facts and it's the way the investigation is done.

[20:55:01] HARLOW: And before we this evening, Shimon, back to you, your final thoughts after working the law enforcement sources all day, how confident are they feeling that they're going to be able to apprehend this person. But this is still -- it's still an active situation in a manhunt form.

PROKUPECZ: Yes. I mean I think they are cautiously optimistic. No one's glowing. I mean they are working. I mean there are people that are working right now in offices, you know, across the city, certainly at a joint terrorism task form, The NYPD along with the FBI. They're working. So, there is stuff going on and they are sort of still trying to figure out, you know, who this person is and they're going through whatever it is that they're going through. And I think there's a lot of technology involved in trying to track this guy.

HARLOW: And you don't know if they have a name tied to this person?

PROKUPECZ: I mean, we don't know. No one has certainly shared a name with us. But we have spectacular clues, right. I mean, they have this video, they have the pressure cooker.

HARLOW: Yeah.

PROKUPECZ: So, they have a lot of great things to work with.

HARLOW: Shimon, amazing reporting. He's always breaking the news for us first on CNN. Thank you so much. A lot ahead.

Thank you all for being with us. Tonight, coming up next on CNN, back to back episodes of "Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown". I'm so glad you are with us this weekend. I'm Poppy Harlow. Good night.

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