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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

New York Doctor Isolated with Ebola Symptoms; Hatchet Attack in New York City Injures Two Police Officers; New Video of Suspected Ottawa Gunman; Official: No Evidence Suspect Linked To Terror Network

Aired October 23, 2014 - 20:00   ET

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

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening from Ottawa, thanks for joining us.

The new images are striking and so is what we're learning about the man who is in them. The killer who tried, tried to terrorize this city and this country.

This is new video as he run into the parliament moments after mortally wounding a soldier at the War Memorial just over my shoulder.

We're learning about him and we're also learning that in the wake of all of this people here in Ottawa and all throughout Canada do not scare easily. There has been fear here but there is also pride and there is a resilience to move forward.

We also got news just a short time ago that the hatchet attack -- you're looking at video of it in New York City as it happened. The hatchet attack that sent two New York City police officers to the hospital, one with critical injuries, it is now raising official concerns about whether it like the killing here in Ottawa yesterday may have been a case of homegrown terror.

We're going to have all the latest information about that hatchet attack.

Also on top of that, word from New York about another potential case of Ebola. A city ambulance, the crew observing full biohazard precautions, complete with a police escort, making its way to New York's Bellevue Hospital. A being taken very seriously right now for some very good reasons starting with this. The patient being treated is a doctor just back from treating Ebola patients in West Africa.

So there's is a lot to get to in this hour. The doctor's name is Craig Spencer, he is an emergency medicine physician at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York and he was working with a group Doctors Without Borders in Guinea treating Ebola patients. He posted this picture on his Facebook page before he left.

Now Guinea, as you may know, is in the thick of the epidemic, of course, as is Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Doctor Spencer returned about 10 days ago. Here's what Mayor Bill de Blasio said a short time ago. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, NEW YORK: We can safely say it's been a very brief period of time that the patient has had symptoms. And obviously the fact that the patient is a medical doctor makes this a particular situation where he was quite aware to quickly get in contact with the authorities upon feeling that there was a problem. Our understanding is very few people were in direct contact with him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: We want to emphasize that we do not yet know if Dr. Spencer has Ebola. Those test results are still pending.

Poppy Harlow, Elizabeth Cohen, are working their sources as well. Want to start with Poppy who is at Bellevue Hospital.

So this doctor, when -- do we know when he started feeling symptoms?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We do. We know that a few days ago, Anderson, he started to feel sluggish, but he got those more severe symptoms of 103-degree fever, nausea, pain, and fatigue last night. He came here at the Bellevue Hospital, the hospital designated by New York City to deal with situations like this, around 1:00 p.m. Today they immediately did that test. So again the really significant symptoms started late last night, early this morning.

COOPER: And how much do we know about his whereabouts, or more importantly do authorities know about his whereabouts prior to going to the hospital today? Has that all been documented?

HARLOW: Some of it has been sought out. I mean, that's a critical question, where has he been in the past 10 days since he's been here. We know that yesterday he took an Uber, so a taxi basically, from wherever he was to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to go to a bowling alley. And that is the concern, when exactly did the symptoms start? Did they start while he was out in public but again we have to stress, Ebola, you can't contract it just by being next to someone. This is contracted by direct contact with a person. But again, that's heightened the alert here, Anderson.

COOPER: Also, do we know has the health department already started to or completed tracking down people that he may have come in contact with?

HARLOW: They have. And they say immediately when he came here to the hospital they started tracking down and continue to track down each and every person that he came into contact with over the past few days. But very important to note as you just played from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, they say he has had very little direct contact with many people, so just a few people he's come in direct contact with.

COOPER: His girlfriend is one of those people, is she under quarantine or is she just monitoring herself at this point?

HARLOW: No, she is now under quarantine, we've learned in the last two hours his girlfriend has been taken into quarantine.

That would make sense because he is in quarantine. This is his girlfriend, someone who has been in direct contact with in these last 10 days since returning. But at the same time, you've got her in quarantine. We don't know about anyone else. We don't even know if he's had direct contact with anyone else.

The mayor of New York City also making an important point today, Anderson, this evening, saying that he is in, quote, "good shape" and that he is being very communicative with all the health officials here because he himself is a doctor. He called the FDNY immediately this morning when he started feeling those severe symptoms and was rushed here.

And we're told that the process of bringing him here to the hospital from his home was done seamlessly, that is what the mayor is saying.

COOPER: All right, Poppy Harlow, thanks very much.

Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins me now from CDC headquarters in Atlanta.

How has the CDC been reacting to this latest news?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, I think it is a very different situation than it was in Dallas. Right now a team of three folks who were on the CDC Rapid Response Team, they are at Hartsfield Airport, within the hour they will board a government plane that will take them to LaGuardia. When they land they will be going to meet with New York City health officials.

And they sort of at this point have a dual purpose. One, they want to help with that contact tracing that Poppy talked about. And number two they want to go to Bellevue and make sure that they are following proper infection control procedures.

And you know, Anderson, you and I were out in front of that Texas hospital in Dallas, this is a different situation. Bellevue is the Ebola-designated hospital for New York City. They have drilled for this. They are very familiar with what they need to do.

COOPER: The health care workers treating Dr. Spencer, are they going to be monitored? I mean, I would assume so.

COHEN: Right, I would assume so, too. I haven't gotten official word on how they're going to do it but what they ended up doing in Dallas -- they didn't start out this way, but what they ended up doing in Dallas is that those folks were supposed to take their temperatures twice a day. They were supposed to be in contact with a local health official to tell them how they're feeling.

I would assume that that is the way they're going to handle it this time in New York and not make the same mistakes that they made in Dallas. Really keep track of these people.

COOPER: Elizabeth, thanks for the update. I want to bring in Dr. Irwin Redlener, he's the director of the

National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University in New York.

Doctor Redlener, what do you make of how this has been handled thus far? You and I have been talking about this now for weeks, and obviously officials in New York watched what happened in Dallas and have tried to learn the lessons.

DR. IRWIN REDLENER, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Well, you know, it's been extraordinary the amount of preparations that's been done in New York. And of course the -- one of the big motivators was the entire world looking at what went on in Dallas mostly from the health care point of view in the hospital as well as the public health management of it.

And I can assure you that it's not going to be the case here in New York. It's been -- I mean, I've never seen so much preparation for anything. And I think, you know, it's good that the CDC is sending a team down. But it is almost superfluous, the amount of intellectual and public health fire power in New York is extraordinary.

And I think that, A, this doctor who has got the possibility of having Ebola will have the best possible chance of recovering from whatever he has and getting the diagnosis made rapidly. And second of all, I mean, there is literally a complete effort to make sure that every single possible contact is being treated.

And New York City has got a lot of innovative things that it's going to be doing, including making sure that every family or every person needs to be quarantined will have a lot of services available to them to make it possible for them to actually follow the quarantine guidelines.

So the city is, I think, way ahead of the curve. And people really should be reassured that the chance of anyone else getting it from this particular doctor still remains extremely slim.

COOPER: If somebody wanted to go to some other hospital in New York City, would they then be taken to Bellevue? Is that the designated place for anybody who may have Ebola?

REDLENER: Yes, and actually, the plan is for four or five different hospitals in New York City to have the capacity to handle an Ebola patient. In the meantime, there are still things that would have to be done in the smaller hospital or community hospital that is not a designated center so that every hospital has actually been given the guidelines, is getting help in training their workers to make sure that even in those few hours between arriving at the hospital if that is where they happen to show up, and actually getting transferred to the designated treatment center, that the workers there are safe, that the patients are being handled properly.

And that people handling that patient know exactly what they need to do. So it's a complex process, but New York City is quite immersed in those protocols.

COOPER: Dr. Redlener, I know you've been involved in that as well. Thank you so much for being with us tonight.

Coming up next, the horrifying hatchet attack on the streets of New York. Two police officers wounded in that attack. One of them critically. The question now, was it a homegrown act of terror?

And all the latest from here in Ottawa. We now know about the attack that killed a soldier here yesterday. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back, we have more breaking news tonight and it raises a serious chill in the U.S. A case in New York City's Borough of Queens that may be more than first met the eye. It was horrible enough in and of itself.

An apparently crazed man attacking four police officers with a hatchet. The attack caught on surveillance video which you're just about to see right there.

Officers shot, the attacker dead -- two other officers shot the attacker dead. Now investigators are learning more about the would-be killer and what they have uncovered raises the stakes considerably.

Chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto is joining us with late information.

So, Jim, what more have you learned about this attack particularly the concern that it may have been an act of terror on the heels of what happened here in Ottawa?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'll tell you, Anderson, this was a brazen attack, a shocking attack in broad daylight on the streets in Queens, New York. There were four NYPD police officers, they were walking, they were recent graduates from the academy. Someone asked them to stop to take a photograph. They stopped and this is when this man who you've seen in that video came up and attacked them.

The police do not believe that the person who asked them to stop to take that photographed involved in any way. In fact, he's been cooperating with them. But as you could see in that video then he came up, swinging that axe as he did. He managed to hit one of the policemen in his arm, the other unfortunately in his head. And it is that police officer who is now in critical condition.

Now, what concerns NYPD police particularly following the attack in Ottawa where you are now, Anderson, is that they looked at his social media, his Facebook page, just posting on YouTube and elsewhere. And those gave them concern about possible motivation tied to Islamic extremism. They're still investigating it. But those things that they saw on the Facebook page, YouTube postings, et cetera, gave them that concern and they're looking into it.

Now as a result of that, this attack that they saw on social media, as well as the attacks, in fact, two attacks this week in Canada, they have since issued a bulletin to all officers in New York asking them to increase their situational awareness to look out for attacks like this.

You know, they're taking this very seriously, Anderson, and it's exactly the kind of attack that many intelligence officials that I've been speaking to are concerned about. Lone Wolf attacks, very hard to predict, very easy, unfortunately, to carry out.

COOPER: Yes, I mean, we've been talking about the threat of this for quite -- quite a while now. I mean, and again, it's early hours so there's probably a lot we do not know. And I just want to emphasize this. But does this guy have a record at all? I mean, I know you talked a little bit about a social media profile. Do we know if he has a record or he has a mental health history or anything like that?

SCIUTTO: We don't -- we don't know yet. He did have ID on him, and remember, the police officers shot him afterwards, they shot him dead, in fact, after the attack. He did have, I'm told, ID on him but police are working to confirm that ID so that they know that it's him. These are the questions, and you're right to say that it is early because based on that name they looked at those social media pages but they still have to 100 percent confirm that that is the guy they're talking about.

So I do think we should urge caution here, but I'll tell you enough concern from police that they immediately issued that bulletin to other officers to look out for attacks like this.

COOPER: All right, Jim, stay with us. Because I want to bring in Wesley Wark, he's a professor at the University of Ottawa. He's one of Canada's leading counterterrorism experts. I appreciate you being with us. And Philip Mudd, also a former senior counterterrorism official at the CIA and also at the FBI.

Philip, let me start off with you. First of all, what stands out to you in this New York attack particularly one day after what happened here in Ottawa?

PHILIP MUDD, FORMER OFFICER AT THE CIA AND THE FBI: Well, it brings me back to my old life, Anderson. I can't look at something like this without filtering it through a thousand cases. A couple of things strike me. One, remember, we're talking about Ottawa. We saw an incident like this in the U.K. sometime ago, where an extremist took out a butcher knife, like a hatchet, and in broad daylight massacred a British military officer.

Significance here, we don't have a military officer, we have a police officer but it's not a civilian. That's really significant in my world. It's harder to convince an extremist to kill a civilian than it is a representative of the state like a military officer in Ottawa or a police officer in New York.

The other thing I'd say, Anderson, is if this person is not a homegrown, I'd be surprised. And the reason is, if you're an ISIS or al Qaeda and you recruit somebody who is an operative, who has access to the West, you don't waste that precious bullet with a hatchet attack in New York. You get something more sophisticated going. It's hard to recruit people like this. So my old filter tells me this is of interest. As you said we don't know we have here yet but there's some interesting signals.

COOPER: And Jim, I just want to be clear. This was the New York City police commissioner himself who mentioned Canada in the context of this. This is not some leap that we're making?

SCIUTTO: No, no. It's not a leap we're making. The New York police commissioner mentioned that. And I have spoken to my own NYPD sources who mentioned the same thing, but remember, that they are always cautious because they have an -- they have an investigation to complete here.

But I'll tell you, when I called my NYPD source, you know, I asked him, I said is this something that we should, you know, slow pedal here? And he said no, we're concerned, we're looking into it. And that's why they issued that warning.

COOPER: Professor Wark, in terms of the situation here in Canada, obviously the attack yesterday was a shock, the one two days before was a shock, as well.

How aware are authorities of the threat here and how real is the threat of radicalism?

WESLEY WARK, PROFESSOR, OTTAWA UNIVERSITY: I think, Anderson, that the tendency on countries -- about countries that don't know Canada well is to assume that perhaps we're a bit lax on security. In fact, we've invested very, very heavily and take it very seriously since the 9/11 attacks.

Our current preoccupation like many other countries around the world has been with the foreign fighter problem.

COOPER: That's where the focus has really been.

WARK: That's been the focus. But what we've seen in these last two attacks, the first two successful attacks in Canada, is something different. These weren't foreign fighters coming back, they -- perhaps one of them at least have tried to get to Syria or Iraq. But these were homegrown terrorists and one of them clearly, according to the RCMP commissioner, is completely off their radar screens.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: And it's something that, I mean, all countries are trying to figure out, what makes somebody radicalized. And I mean, do you feel like authorities here have a firm grasp on how real the threat is, radicalization? Because it does seem like the Muslim community is very well assimilated as it has been in the United States.

WARK: No, I think -- I think the general assumption here and the proper assumption is the Muslim community is indeed well integrated and there's not much traction for jihadist or extremist Muslim ideology.

That said, I think what the RCMP, our the federal policing agency sees this, the intelligence agency have done and done properly and done well and invested heavily in what they call community outreach programs. That is really trying to be in touch with Muslim communities that might be at risk where these kinds of tendencies community might just develop in the corners of those communities in order to develop kind of tradition and association of trust to develop early warnings signs.

And that's really the key, I think, to counterterrorism in a democracy when you're dealing with this progress from extremism to violence, which is everybody's concern.

COOPER: Phil, you know, we'd like to believe that there is something that can be learned from the attack that occurred here in Ottawa to prevent another kind of attack that there is something that can be learned about radicalization process.

Is there or, in your experience, and you have a lot of experience as it is, I mean, you can learn more details about the attack itself. But is there something bigger to be learned?

MUDD: Boy, a day or two into this I'm already running through my head what lessons we can take away to apply to future cases. We already have somebody murdered in Ottawa. Can we use this to build a better counterterrorism program in Canada and the United States?

If you're going to do that you've got to take a cold-blooded look at this and say, is there a sign that there are financial contacts with terrorists, communication with terrorists, training? If you look at all those indicators, and I'm taking the Internet off the plate, Anderson, because there is just too much hate speech on the Internet to sort through.

I don't see something to get my hands around to tell me that we're going to learn a lot here. I think most people outside the counterterrorism business would look at this and say hey, you've got to learn something, you've got to apply a lesson learned. Let me give you a reality check. I think the frustration of this is that there is not a lot to learn and that we will see this again.

COOPER: And Jim, just in terms of numbers of Americans tied to radical groups or radical beliefs, I mean, are there -- are there numbers out there that intelligence officials talked about?

SCIUTTO: There are numbers. The number that you hear most often is 100, and that is the number of Americans who either attempted to go to Syria to fight, to join the fight there or who have succeed in doing so. And about of that 100, a dozen or so Americans in particular who attempted to join or have joined the group, ISIS in particular. But beyond the folks going to fight jihad over there, you've already had a number of cases of them answering the call in effect.

And there have been public calls from jihadi groups, ISIS for certain, but also al Qaeda to say you can, in effect, fight jihad at home, as well. A couple of examples you had and police still investigating the ties, but this Oklahoma man, the beheading, he had other things on his social media, which indicated Islamic radical beliefs. You had these girls in Colorado who were looking to go join ISIS and

were stopped as they tried to travel there. But you also had Americans who have succeeded in going there. There was a short time ago, a number of weeks ago, a man from Minnesota, he went to fight for ISIS and he was killed fighting for ISIS. You had a Florida man who went to fight for the Nusra Front, the al Qaeda tied group in Syria, and in fact carried out a suicide bombing. So sadly we have a number of cases like this.

COOPER: And Professor Wark, finally, it's people who aren't on the radar which are really the concern, because you don't necessarily need to have an actual direct affiliation with any group or any contact, you can just watch videos and people who are either deranged or have -- or ideologically or have a religious motivation can act accordingly based on those motivations.

WARK: These are the tough cases. They're probably the rare cases as well. I mean, security and intelligence people will also say there can be lone actor attacks, but they're rarely really lone attacks. They'll have some connections with other Muslims in some kind of community. If they perhaps (INAUDIBLE) imams that might be known to their community. There are leads, they're not strong leads, they're not great leads but they have to be developed.

COOPER: Professor, I appreciate your time.

Professor Wark, thank you very much.

WARK: Thank you very much.

COOPER: Phil Mudd, as well, Jim Sciutto, as well.

Coming up next, the Ottawa killer on the run from one crime scene to the next. Bent on taking even more lives. Authorities here releasing remarkable images of the terror attack in progress, shedding a whole lot of light on who the gunman was, what he was doing, whether he had any ties to other groups inside Canada.

We'll take a look at that and I'll talk to Canada's foreign minister ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, as we said at the top of the broadcast we have a flood of new information today on yesterday's terrible attack here at the War Memorial which is just over my shoulder. Also the attack on the parliament building which is just up the hill.

We got our first look at security camera video, documenting the killer's brief and deadly run. In addition to these images, we also saw just how determined the Canadians are to restore a sense of normalcy. And the pride that they exhibit today.

Today in the building where dozens of shots rang out yesterday morning, Parliament was back in session. The sergeant-at-arms who saved so many lives was back on the job leading the procession. It was a remarkable show of defiance and resilience.

Late today, we learned from authorities here and officials back home about the scope and the dimension of this killer's ties to extremism as well as what may, and we say, have motivated this. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): The first time you see the shooting suspect he is driving away from the War memorial toward parliament. You can see people begin to scatter away from the monument. The video shows him pulling up near one of the front gates of parliament. This person walks toward the vehicle before turning and running away. The suspect runs out of the car with his gun heading full speed toward the center of parliament.

The shooter approaches these vehicles, parked outside the parliament building. And he heads to the car parked in front. There's some type of exchange between the shooter and the driver of the front vehicle and the driver eventually runs away.

The suspect takes the car and drives toward the main parliament building. When the Royal Canadian Mounted Police take notice they begin to follow the car. With officers in pursuit he pulls up to the main entrance, gets out of the vehicle and runs inside. Only seconds later shots ring out.

Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers finally shoots and kills the suspect. This is video of Vickers just moments after the shooting rampage stopped. Three others are injured.

Today, cheers and applause for Vickers as parliament reconvened. And law enforcement searched for answers about the shooter.

BOB PAULSON, RCMP COMMISSIONER: He is a Canadian citizen and we have information that he may have had dual Libyan-Canadian citizenship. He was born in Montreal and has lived in Calgary and most recently in Vancouver.

COOPER: Police said the suspect was not part of the 90 so-called high risk travelers Canadian authorities were aware of. But he recently applied for a passport intending to go to the Middle East.

PAULSON: According to some accounts he was an individual who may have held extremist beliefs.

COOPER: Authorities say he'd been in Ottawa since October 2nd, and people of this homeless shelter downtown say he'd spent time there in recent days.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Saying things like we should be praying five times a day because the end of the world is coming and sacrifice.

COOPER: The imam at the local mosque in Ottawa says he was not known there.

MOHAMMED LAHLOU, COMMUNITY IMAM: We have no knowledge of that person, and thanks God we don't have such person in our community.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: A lot of questions remain. Deborah Feyerick joins us now.

I know you've been looking into this. This man had a long drug history.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, he did, and this is what's really interesting. There are court records that was found that suggest that back in 2011 he underwent a psychiatric evaluation. At the time, the judge was determining whether he was mentally fit to stand trial. And he said that in fact he was addicted to crack cocaine. That he wanted to go to jail. It was a sacrifice he needed to make in order to pay for his mistakes.

He told the judge that he was a devoted Muslim, had been since 2004 and that going to jail would not only help the addiction will make him a better man, a better Muslim. Now the judge listened to it and then tossed it out. He didn't serve very much time ultimately.

COOPER: Yesterday, based on a number of law enforcement sources, there had been reports that his passport had actually been confiscated, but that actually is not true. His papers were being held?

FEYERICK: That is exactly right. So the great clarification from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the head of the organization who basically said it was the passport that figures prominently in a potential motive.

That it was central to what was driving him to do what he did. He had either applied or was re-applying for a passport. It was being held up because they were investigating him for all his criminal activity, drug use, et cetera, and it was being held up.

His mother told authorities that he said that he wanted to go to Syria. They didn't know that. The reason the passport was being held up was simply because they're doing a very thorough background check.

So he was not one of the 90 who were being investigated. Now they really believe that because he was not getting the passport, Anderson, he was really upset, he wanted to leave.

COOPER: Deborah Feyerick, I appreciate the update. Thanks very much.

As I said, the war memorial is right behind us where I'm standing right now. You can see it over my shoulder. People have come with flowers throughout the day to lay candles, as well.

To pay their respects to the soldier who lost his life here Corporal Nathan Cirillo, a man who we're going to profile later on in the broadcast.

Joining me right now is, the Canadian minister of foreign affairs, the honorable, John Baird. Thanks very much for being with us. How much do you feel you and your government knows about the man responsible for this? Do you feel like most of your questions have been answered?

JOHN BAIRD, CANADIAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: I think a lot of them have come under focus. We need to get more information from the investigation. Obviously, he was radicalized and brutal violence. Very peaceful country, we don't have a lot of crime so this has really shaken people.

COOPER: How concerned are you about the threat of homegrown terrorism, radicalization. We've just seen this hatchet attack in New York, but now authorities in New York believe maybe somehow link to radicalization.

BAIRD: Obviously our thoughts and prayers go to the family there. We're deeply concerned. We took action over the last three years to criminalize going to fight abroad. We brought in measures to revoke citizenship on dual nationals who become terrorists.

We have taken a lot of measures, legislation we've introduced just yesterday to give the intelligence agencies more tools to be able to protect more Canadians to look at what happened and look at what else can be done.

COOPER: Do you understand, all countries are grappling with this radicalization, do you understand how that happens yet or do you feel it is something that needs to be looked into now?

BAIRD: I think it is something we can work with like-minded friends and allies whether it's in Europe or the United States to look at how we can identify this, how we can seem to combat it. Obviously we're not alone. There is a deep concern that we all have.

COOPER: It is extraordinary how open your democracy is here. How open your -- the institutions of your government are to people. There are yoga lessons on the lawn of parliament during the summer. I've seen pictures of just today, you know, the killer was able to get in through the front gates.

Do you think that is going to be looked into? That it will be changed because obviously it is important to Canadians.

BAIRD: I know it changed a lot after 9/11. We want to look at what happened and we want to make parliament an open place, but at the same time, we want to keep the people who are visiting and the people who work there safe. That may require some additional measures and actions.

COOPER: What is your message to Canadians? Because I have been very impressed throughout the day how resilient people are here. How you know people were coming to lay flowers, to pay their respects to Corporal Cirillo, who was killed here? But there is this result here as well.

BAIRD: Well, obviously, terrorism is a great struggle of our generation. We've got to do all we can to combat this 21st Century problem with 21st Century tool. So we'll take reasonable measures to ensure that we keep Canadians safe. COOPER: You were in the parliament building, you and the prime minister. I mean, it is extraordinarily how close this man, whether he knew it or not came to -- it could have been much, much worse.

BAIRD: He ran right by the room where the entire government caucus was. The cabinet, I was there, we could hear the ringing out of the rifle fire and then the huge amount of semiautomatic noise.

COOPER: Did you know at that point what was going on? I mean, did you have information?

BAIRD: Well, as it was happening, the first concern was this somebody trying to take Parliament Hill? Was it a group was our initial concern? So until we were able to get you know security officials in to tell us if there was a single gunman taken down we didn't know whether the door was going to be barged open and we would all be sprayed.

COOPER: Because the prime minister was is in the caucus room, which don't have -- my understanding is he didn't have security personnel with him --

BAIRD: Well, the security detail is actually right outside the door where the parliamentary caucus leads and you know, that was literally, you know, 30 feet from where the assailant was taken down.

COOPER: Were you there today, I mean, to see the sergeant-at-arms back. I mean, that was extraordinary again, a sign of resilience.

BAIRD: Well, yesterday, we suffered from an evil person. Today, we acknowledged a real hero, somebody who literally had the peace of mind to be able to get his firearm and literally walk right face to face with the assailant and take him down.

He literally was killed at the door of the library. There was a tourist group there, people who worked there. We could have seen more than a dozen killed had he not taken such quick action. Let alone the rest of us.

COOPER: Foreign Minister Baird, appreciate your time tonight. Thank you so much for joining us.

There is more breaking news, we're waiting for major new word, we're being told on a suspected Ebola case in New York. The mayor and New York's governor and New York City's mayor expected to speak with reporters at the top of the hour. We'll obviously bring that to you as it happens, a major announcement about Ebola in New York City.

Coming up, we'll take you step by step, moment by moment from the war memorial right behind me where Corporal Cirillo was brutally killed through the halls of parliaments where lives were first threatened and then saved as you just heard from the foreign minister.

Plus a hero's welcome, Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers, a hero back on the job today where he was greeted with a standing ovation of more of that incredible tribute. And also we want to learn more about Corporal Scirillo, about the life he led, and the man he was.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Breaking news to tell you about, we have learned just a few seconds ago that test results on the New York City doctor, Craig Spencer, have in fact come back positive for Ebola.

CNN's Elizabeth Cohen joins us now with details. Elizabeth, I assume these are preliminary tests. There will be more tests, but right now the initial tests show that he is positive for Ebola.

COHEN: Yes, I tell you, Anderson, those initial tests, they are usually right. They did the exact same test that they will do here at the CDC. I have learned that a specimen from Dr. Spencer will arrive at the CDC shortly after midnight. It is being flown in.

There is a team here waiting for it. They will do the same tests and just make sure it is correct. But usually if it is positive at one of these local labs it usually is positive here.

COOPER: I also want to bring in our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. So Sanjay, obviously, you're joining us on the phone. Obviously, this will be a big deal, a big test case for New York City.

It seems like the doctor, as soon as he noticed any symptoms, telephoned authorities, and it all seems to have been handled as authorities would have liked from the moment that authorities and ambulance first showed up to bring him to Bellevue Hospital?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): It certainly sounds like that, Anderson. And as Elizabeth said, I think this is almost certainly going to be a positive test to be confirmed shortly by the Centers for Disease Control.

But he did the thing that you're supposed to do, which is it sounds like when he saw symptoms to go ahead and call the authorities, was rushed to Bellevue Hospital. My understanding he is in place in the isolation unit.

That is the crucial point even before tests come back positive. You want to treat the person as -- in isolation to make sure they can't potentially infect other people.

It is important to note, you and I discussed, really that somebody does not transmit the virus until they become sick, as well, and I think that is going to be an important point to remind people of, but also to remember in this case, as authorities try to outline his last couple of days as well, Anderson.

COOPER: Sanjay, I have already received tweets from people saying, why didn't this doctor when he came back from Guinea isolate himself for 21 days, even if he was feeling fine, just out of an abundance of caution? I'm not in any pointing fingers at this doctor. Is that something that is reasonable to expect people who have traveled to West Africa to actually do?

GUPTA: Well, you certainly have heard a lot of that. I think there has been a lot of confusion around this point because you've heard about people being quarantined, who aren't sick and put in isolation.

The science is really important here. It could provide a sense of comfort and that is again that you know someone certainly would be monitored. What that means is they take their temperature a couple of times a day, to make sure they're not developing a fever because that can be one of the first signs of somebody who developed an Ebola infection.

But unless they are sick they are not going to spread the virus. So if a quarantine is being done to try to protect the public's health it really wouldn't matter in the sort of situation. You would not need to be quarantined because he is not a threat to the public's health.

As soon as he or anyone develops symptoms if there is a concern about an Ebola infection they should do what it sounds like he did, which is to call authorities, go to the hospital, be put in isolation. And obviously reduce any chance that he could have spread the virus to somebody else.

COOPER: Our Poppy Harlow is standing outside Bellevue Hospital where the doctor is currently being treated. There is already an isolation ward at Bellevue. This was all planned. Officials met weeks to look over protocols, correct?

HARLOW: Absolutely, and this is as we have heard from the mayor of New York City this has gone exactly to plan from the moment that Dr. Craig Spencer called the FDNY late last night, early this morning to notify them of his high fever.

He was taken in an ambulance. The first responders were wearing those hazmat suits. The mayor called it a seamless transportation from his apartment location to here at Bellevue. We have some photos we may be able to show you also of what the unit here looks like.

The way that the emergency department is set up for any possible Ebola case, they showed it to the media two weeks ago just to show that this hospital is prepared for a situation like this.

I was speaking with a hospital official earlier here today, Anderson, who told me that likely because the first responders knew that he may have Ebola they would have taken him not even to the emergency department, but directly, directly into -- into isolation.

However, you're also dealing with a patient, an Ebola patient now that was out and about in New York City, bowling in Williamsburg, Brooklyn as recently as last night.

That is why the officials here, law enforcement is tracking down at this hour every person that has come into direct contact with him. They're going to keep a close eye on them.

However, the mayor of New York City only saying very few people did have direct contact with this doctor so not to be alarmist or for New Yorkers to panic. Still, the likelihood of New Yorkers getting Ebola according to the health department is extremely slim.

COOPER: All right, Poppy, I'm going to let you go because I know you're going to go to that press conference. And I'll remind our viewers, we'll have the press conference live. We expect to hear from New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio and New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo in just a few minutes. We'll obviously bring that to you as it happens.

Sanjay, though, in terms of the treatment, obviously it's critical what we've seen the best success rates with patients who test positive for Ebola is that they receive treatment as quickly as possible, whether it is a blood transfusion from someone like Dr. Brantly if their blood matches.

So it gives the antibodies to the patient that seems to have worked or at least been beneficial in several cases, and also any experimental treatments and also treating the other conditions. Treating fevers and you know, night sweats, all the supplemental issues.

GUPTA: Yes, replacing fluids. People who have Ebola tend to become very dehydrated very quickly to the point where the dehydration alone could be potentially fatal. So replacing fluid is very important.

Replacing even normal blood because sometimes as you know people can have bleeding problems if they have an Ebola infection, and then as you mentioned, two other big things, the transfusion, it will be important to see if there is blood available that matches his blood.

Dr. Kent Brantly, as you well know, Anderson, you talked to him. He donated his plasma, a few times full of these antibodies and these experimental therapies.

We are starting to get more data on this, Anderson, remember when we talked about this a couple of months ago no human in the world had ever received one of these experimental therapies before Dr. Kent Brantly.

The doctor will say we're not sure if this worked or not. We need to study it in many, many patients. My guess is, exactly what you said, Anderson, that those will be options put on the table for Dr. Spencer as well, blood transfusions and possibly experimental therapies.

COOPER: And we should point out, Dr. Brantly, himself received a blood transfusion when he was in Liberia near death. He received a transfusion from a 14-year-old Liberian boy who he had actually treated and had been cured.

When I talked to Dr. Brantly about that, he said he didn't really believe that transfusion necessarily is what helped save his life. But he actually started to get sicker after having the transfusion. He credits his faith, as well as the ZMapp and all the care that he received in Atlanta at Emory University.

Dr. Seema Yasmin is also with us. She is staff writer at the "Dallas Morning News." She is also a former CDC disease detective and a professor of Public Health at University of Texas at Dallas.

Dr. Yasmin, let's talk about what you used to do for the CDC as a disease detective because that's something that New York authorities are officially now going to be doing trying to track down everybody that this doctor may have had in contact with.

See who he was in contact with at that bowling alley in Williamsburg, Brookly, in the vehicle, the Uber car that he used to get out there and anywhere else he may have had contact. How difficult a process is that? How do you actually go about it?

DR. SEEMA YASMIN, FMR. CDC DISEASES DETECTIVE: It can be quite challenging, Anderson, especially when the time has lapsed between when first became infectious and the time that you're informed about the first time they received the infection.

They ask them questions such as where were you, who did you travel where, where to, and reaching out to find out what type of contact they had. You cast the net wide at the beginning and slowly start to narrow it down as you find out what kind of contact people had, and the risk level they have of contracting the disease.

COOPER: It is interesting, Elizabeth Cohen, who is also standing by at the CDC. Elizabeth, we showed video earlier that Bellevue, that New York officials had put out previously about a week or two ago of the facility at Bellevue of where this doctor is being treated.

In it we saw two different health professionals, one wearing full protective gear, the other wearing partial protective gear. It looked like part of the person's head or neck was uncovered, as well. We'll show it to you.

Clearly, the head is still visible, the neck still visible. We now know the protocols by the CDC have changed. What the other health care worker is wearing may have met CDC protocols two weeks ago, it no longer does. And it is unlikely anyone in Bellevue is still currently wearing that partial protective gear.

COHEN: Right, I would imagine they're wearing that full gear. It was thought sort of back a month or so ago, a couple of weeks ago that if you didn't have direct contact with the patient, if you were not in the patient's room perhaps you didn't have to wear the whole outfit.

But now I think the thinking is different. The thinking is maybe you do need to have all of that equipment. Maybe you do need to be completely covered. Why not err on the side of caution.

COOPER: Juliette Kayyem is also joining us. She worked in public health and public safety for DHS and others for the Department of Homeland Security.

Juliette, obviously, you know, in a major city like New York this will get a lot of headlines and have a lot of people nervous, have a lot of people in New York talking. The city when I ride the subway every day, you're brushing up against people. People are touching, sneezing out in public.

As a public health professional, what can you tell people about the realities of this? Because when I look at who has ended up testing positive in the United States it really is all health care workers except for Thomas Eric Duncan who came directly from Liberia after helping somebody who died from Ebola.

That, to me is a positive sign that it is not any of the 48 people who had contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, in his day to day life, prior to going to the hospital.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: That is right. I worked mostly in public safety. The basic lesson is always to protect the first responders. So what we're learning here is the pick-up on what Elizabeth said, absolutely err on the side of caution in terms of the recommendations made to hospitals, public health areas, where they come into contact with people who have Ebola.

I know the fact that someone in New York has it is distressing, but once again put it in perspective. This is somebody who was working with patients who have Ebola. He self-identified. And the good news is, the system here learned the disasters of the state of Texas.

It was ready, they isolated the patient. So each case, we're learning from each instance, and in realtime. That is probably what the mayor and governor are going to address.

COOPER: And Sanjay Gupta, I just want to reiterate, we're waiting for a press conference, the governor of New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo, and also the mayor of New Yor, Bill De Blasio, that is supposed to take place, we believe right at the top of the hour. We'll bring that to you live from Bellevue.

But Sanjay, just a couple of days ago, New York, held in their convention center a symposium for hundreds if not more health care workers about dealing with Ebola. And I know through other doctors that I've talked to, other sources, there have been high level meetings for weeks in this city about exactly how to deal with the first case.

That is where they figured out, OK, Bellevue will be the go-to hospital. It does seem as though there has been a lot of attention paid in New York, and hopefully elsewhere in the wake of what happened with Dallas to how to deal with it.

GUPTA: I think there is for question that Dallas as you mentioned has served as a wake-up call. I think for a while over the summer since you know, April, even when people started to think about this, we were in West Africa in April in Guinea, perhaps maybe in the same camp where Dr. Spencer worked.

I'm not sure where he worked specifically. But since that time, people have been talking about this idea that the patients will arrive in the United States and be diagnosed with Ebola. That happened at the time. But I think it was until he came -- until we saw how it all transpired in Dallas.

That there may have been a little bit of complacency, and I think even folks at the highest levels of medicine and even within the CDC, sort of acknowledged that., but you're right, since that happened, emergency rooms departments, hospitals in general are figuring out their plans, designating specific hospitals and protocols, making sure people are trained.

I don't know how much training has gone on so far in Bellevue. But we know in Dallas, very little if any training happened. So that is training. Look, this is the world in which we live now. We don't know where a patient with Ebola may end up in the United States. But the assumption is they could end up anywhere. So everyone has to be prepared

COOPER: And Sanjay, you and I have done a lot of work with Doctors Without Borders, MSF, for years, now and a lot of places, I know you have a lot of respect for the organization. I have tremendous respect for the organization. I raise money for them.

I think they do incredible work all around the world. And the work they have been doing in Liberia, in Guinea, in the hot zones for months now they really have led the way. And their standards, protocols have been adopted by everybody else.

It is now with the CDC, the protocols there are now the same protocols as Doctors Without Borders and likely should have been weeks ago before the tragedy in Dallas began.

It will be troubling for this organization and they will have to look at exactly how this doctor was -- despite all the protocols they had, how this doctor may have come in contact with Ebola.

GUPTA: Yes, there is no question, and I will just build on what you say by adding that you know the strike team that we've heard about. I am curious if the CDC will employ the strike team I think up to 30 people.

Elizabeth may know better than me. The strike team will end up in Bellevue, as well, which is supposed to be a group of people who go in when a patient is diagnosed with Ebola, to make sure all the protocols are found, Doctors Without Borders have been part of that strike team because they have been doing this for a long time.

It will be troubling for a lot of people to hear someone who worked with the organization has tested positive for Ebola. I think it will be the third Doctor Without Borders that has tested positive. But keep in mind, Anderson, they took care of thousands of patients in the last few decades, and three patients --

COOPER: And going multiple times in the hot zone.

GUPTA: Right, and three people, they're obviously serious infections, but three people out of thousands of patients they cared for have tested positive where as in Dallas, one patient infected two people right away, one patient, two infections where in central and west Africa thousands of patients and three infections.

So they have done an incredible job. Obviously, we have to figure out what happened here. Was there some sort of protocol breach? Sometimes you never know the answer exactly. You have to recreate the entire situation. We may not know, but the track record despite this has been pretty phenomenal.

COOPER: I want to go to Miguel Marquez who is in this doctor's neighborhood, I believe in Harlem in New York City. Miguel, I wonder if you talked to people and heard from the neighborhood, if there were thoughts that somebody in the neighborhood tested positive.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we have been talking to folks. And while there is not a great concern right now as that news, that that positive test results starts to seep in here, people will begin to become more concerned about it clearly.

Folks earlier today were sort of laughing and in some cases they were walking to the stoop up here behind me taking pictures on it. Now there seems to be a slight change in the air here, an increased police presence, we may see more health officials coming to the neighborhood.

The apartment of Dr. Spencer has been sealed off waiting for the test. Everybody we talked to said look, we are waiting for the test, now that the news came out you see folks who are perhaps a little less you know, making fun a little less and taking this a little more seriously. And we will see here overnight if anything changes at Dr. Spencer's apartment -- Anderson.

COOPER: And Miguel, as you said that apartment has been sealed off. Are authorities still inside, or have they gone through whatever they need to and now just cordoned it off?

MARQUEZ: They are not, they are not inside. They say they sealed it off and were not going to do anything until the test result came back. Dr. Spencer's girlfriend has been isolated now, as well.

I spoke to a couple of different -- one person from the public health department and a politician, one of the council members who was here. They say that the hallways, the door knobs, elevator buttons, none of those things had been cleaned after this.

That may be changing. The virus can live for a few hours in a dry state, longer in a wet state. It is not clear he was sick enough to be contagious at this point. But they feel that the health officials we spoke to feel they have taken every precaution that they can.

The one thing they have done, they blanketed the neighborhood earlier with individuals from the public health department to find out if anybody had come in contact with Dr. Spencer.

You know there's a shop in the corner, the pizza place down the way. Everybody seems to have seen this guy, know this guy. So anybody who came in direct contact with him the Public Health Department wants to know. They collected their information so that they could then get in touch with them if this tested positive. This changes everything, Anderson.