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Latest on This Morning's Deadly Vehicle Attack in New Orleans. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired January 01, 2025 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

BROWN: We are following the latest on this morning's deadly vehicle attack in New Orleans. Law enforcement officials tell CNN the FBI is looking into possible associates of the suspect, including connections that they may have had to the State of Texas.

But last check, according to officials, they believe that the suspect acted alone. But again, very early in the investigation, and that could change. With us now is former NYPD detective Tom Verni and CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst Charles Ramsey.

Tom, from your experience as a former NYPD detective, what stands out to you right now?

TOM VERNI, FORMER NYPD DETECTIVE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT AND SECURITY CONSULTANT: Good morning, and I'd say Happy New Year, but it's so far not turning out to be so happy, right? And listen, I feel bad for the people down there in New Orleans. I have a great affinity for that city. I've been there a number of times, including 2005 during Hurricane Katrina as part of a team of 300 NYPD officers that went down to help stable the rescue recovery of the city.

[11:35:00]

And you know, so this is a terrible incident needless to say. It's -- when you have a celebration in the street like this, this would be considered sort of a soft target versus the Sugar Bowl later on today, which would be considered more of a hard target. Why? Because there are multiple levels of security that are going to be in place that were already set to be in place -- that were already set to be in place. And now, I'm sure they're going to add additional resources to that venue to try to best ensure or at least deter some sort of an incident like this from occurring.

The investigation so far -- you know, this investigation is going to go off for quite a while, by the way. So, we would ask for people's patience as this -- you know, it's a lot to -- a lot of facts and evidence that needs to be gathered here. One of the things that was brought up was that this truck, you know, has Texas plates. You know, Texas is right next to Louisiana. So, that's not too farfetched to have a truck with Texas plates on it from Louisiana.

This truck, it's still unclear whether or not this individual owned this vehicle. It's possible that this vehicle could have been rented and had Texas plates on it from a rental.

BROWN: Yes, I know. We don't know yet, and that's one of the pieces of information.

VERNI: A lot of things to go through here.

BROWN: Right. We're trying to sort all this out. But, Tom, hang on for me. Moments ago, President Biden just spoke before departing for Camp David. Let's listen.

VERNI: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you say he's a foreigner or was it domestic?

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: I'm not going to say anything until I get all the facts in hand.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).

BIDEN: Again, I'm not going to comment until I speak (INAUDIBLE) later. I've spoken to every member of the agency from the CIA to our National Security team, to our DLNNC (ph) (INAUDIBLE).

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Obviously, that was really bad audio. I was told in my ear that he said, you know, I'm not going to say anything until we have all the facts. I don't know what else he said because we couldn't decipher it. But, Tom, I want to go back to you. And welcome, Chief Ramsey. I'd love to get your thoughts as well.

I want to talk about the security around this. You had said that this was considered a soft target. If it's considered a soft target, would you have expected more security around there? From what we know, there were just these flimsy barriers at the entrance there that anyone could just drive through. I believe we have some video of that. And an eyewitness said that that's all he saw as well, and he thought that was peculiar. And of course, this was before this mass casualty event. Let's put up that video, guys, showing our audience what I'm talking about here so that they know. Go ahead, Tom.

VERNI: Yes. So, to use New York City as an example, last night from New Year's Eve, obviously, every year there's a big celebration in Times Square. It would be almost impossible, I won't say completely impossible, but almost impossible to have driven a truck down any of those streets to get to Times Square to cause this sort of carnage and damage because there are multiple layers of security apparatus put in place to prevent that from happening.

And, you know, with all the best laid plans in place, your attempt is to try to prevent or deter an incident like this from occurring by putting in place different things that will make it difficult for whether it be a group of people or a lone wolf actor to do something like this. Now, it's my understanding that there was some construction in the area that was being done, which indicate why they have these bollards that were lowered into the street that would normally prevent the vehicle from entering that street. And they were lowered, I assume for that reason, but it's still unclear.

BROWN: It's still unclear. And there was a program going on where there would be temporary barriers and presumably that's what this was. Bollards for our audience not knowing what they are, they're these tall steel barriers that a truck wouldn't be able to just drive through. And so, it does raise all kinds of questions why that wasn't there. Unfortunately, I don't believe we've showed the video yet of what the actual barriers were that were there.

So, I want to go to you on this. You know, there is this question raised, Chief Ramsey, on the timing of this at 3:00 in the morning rather than at midnight when the crowd was really out. What do you make of that? And the suspect who was driving this truck with Texas license plates, we don't know if it was rented or not, and these explosive devices as well.

CHARLES RAMSEY, FORMER PHILADELPHIA POLICE COMMISSIONER: Well, there are a couple of things in terms of the time. It could be that the reason why it was 3:00 or 3:15 in the morning is because security was tighter earlier around midnight when the majority of people would have been on Bourbon Street celebrating the new year and perhaps, and I heard Juliette mentioned this earlier and I think she's absolutely right. There could have been somewhat of a drawdown of personnel.

You know, most departments in this country are short staffed. Some of the people who were there early this morning will be used tonight for the Sugar Bowl. They may have relieved a few people. But going back to this whole issue of the barriers, if there was construction going on and those bollards were not being utilized because they couldn't be utilized, then you have to take additional steps to make sure that you can keep that street secure, especially as long as you still have crowds of people in the street.

[11:40:00]

And so, having the dump trucks, even if you use police cars or use concrete barriers, whatever it is, you have to secure that particular street. Now, more information will come out and certainly everybody looking at that right now. But that is an issue. I mean, you can't get around it. And it's going to have to be answered.

BROWN: Right. And it is important to note to our viewers, we don't know if there was a dump truck or some other type of barrier there as well. So, there's a lot of information. We're hoping to find out from officials soon. They're going to have a press conference here in about 20 minutes. That's what we're expecting.

I'm wondering what your perspective is, Tom, from the NYPD perspective, to what Charles Ramsey said about, you know, sometimes with these cities, they don't have the resources to keep the same amount of manpower and the overnight hours. Was that something you all ran into at NYPD? What do you make of that?

VERNI: Yes. Well, I mean, NYPD has got a -- you know, a series of problems going on right now there. But even with NYPD, prior to 9/11, you know, we had an upwards of 41,000 police officers. And now, their manpower is down to around 30,000. So, you've lost, you know, 10,000 to 12,000 bodies, which makes it extremely difficult for -- to police a city like New York with, you know, eight and a half to 12 million people there on any given day.

So, you know, to sort of offset that. You have to use other methods of trying to either oversee or protect certain areas, critical areas like that. Like the chief had mentioned, you know, using vehicles. So, what would happen is in New York City, if you were going to have a secured area, and you would need to open and close that street periodically, you would -- you potentially would use police vehicles to do that.

You'd have them, you know, operated by police officers, and they would either block off the street. And then move the vehicle back when you need to get apparatus from personnel in there and then re block it off again as sort of a temporary measure, if need that someone with a vehicle like this wanted to take a drive down the street and cause chaos.

BROWN: Right.

VERNI: So, there are some ways you can, you know, try to put up temporary barriers to secure what would become critical locations, but there's really no -- you know, there's no place of having personnel to be able to, you know, sort of fortify those areas. You need the people to do it.

BROWN: Yes, you need the people to do it. But you have to wonder, you know, look, there was this car attack in Germany just recently. You would think that that would have been top of mind for security officials there as they try to prepare the area for these New Year's revelers. Now, 10 dead, more than 30 injured. What are investigators doing right now, Chief Ramsey, in terms of the suspect and figuring out a motive here?

RAMSEY: Well, I mean, the fact that the feds are now saying this was a terrorist event means that they've come across some information that makes them comfortable in saying that because they wouldn't say that unless they had some information that we aren't privy to right now.

But there are search warrants being served. You have a vehicle. You probably have at least one residence, maybe one in New Orleans, one in Texas somewhere. You've got social media. They're going to be seizing any kind of electronic devices going through. And even though he's dead you still want to get all the information you possibly can because, you know, from an intelligence standpoint, you need to know as much about this individual as possible.

And you always have to keep in mind and make sure this was a lone wolf. This was a lone actor, nobody else involved. You got the Sugar Bowl tonight, you got the Super Bowl coming up. And let me just say, the Sugar Bowl isn't the only big football game today. There are a lot of football games taking place. And I'm sure that any city that's hosting this right now is taking a look at their security and maybe pushing out the perimeter a little more to make it a little harder and cut traffic maybe a little further back than you normally would, just to make sure you don't have a copycat that would do something that hopefully doesn't happen.

But you know, we have a lot of idiots around that just do stuff like this that you can't explain why, but they do it and you have to be prepared for the very worst possibility.

BROWN: We certainly do. Tom, Chief Ramsey, thank you. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:45:00]

BROWN: Welcome back. We continue to follow the deadly attack in New Orleans this morning. At least 10 people are dead after a suspect rammed his truck into a crowd of Bourbon Street. Joining us now is New Orleans City Councilmember Oliver Thomas. Thanks for joining us. I know information is fluid right now, but what are you learning about this attack and the attacker?

OLIVER THOMAS, NEW ORLEANS CITY COUNCIL: What do we know now is that the perpetrator has been neutralized. The FBI has taken the lead on the investigation, still in partnership with Chief Kirkpatrick, Colonel Hodge, with our state troopers, and they're doing their job not only to find out what happened with this incident, but if we're still under threat, I think they're calming the area to see if there are any other devices.

We've -- be some secondary potential dangers invite -- devices have been found. Of course, we've heard about the long gun and the silencer and some of the stuff that was on hand when they investigated the truck that the perpetrator was in. But it's an ongoing investigation and we just want to work with all of our partners to make sure that we come to the very best conclusion.

[11:50:00]

But while we're in prayer and praying for the victims, I think 10 confirmed dead, several people injured and I've spent the last three and a half hours in the emergency room with victims, with our law enforcement officers there who seem to be in stable condition, as well as a few of their family members.

BROWN: So, you talked about secondary devices. What more can you tell us about that?

THOMAS: Well, I don't want to get ahead of the investigation. I think it's best that we hear from our federal partners and our chief when they talk about the ongoing investigation. But what we do know is that there are some reports about potentially some other potential threats that were located even after the perpetrator was killed.

BROWN: Do you know where they were located exactly?

THOMAS: In the vicinity, in the area. I don't want to say specifically because I wasn't there, but there's still some concern. Until they finished combing the area, just to make sure that the threat has -- just been neutralized by the the death of the perpetrator, but that there aren't any harmful devices still out there.

BROWN: Of course, that is very important. What more do we know about the suspect? Because I interviewed a member of Congress earlier who said the suspect was a local, was driving this truck with Texas license plates. But at this hour, no one has confirmed whether the truck belonged to the attacker or not, whether it was a rental. What more can you tell us about that?

THOMAS: I mean, I think that's all that we know right now. But what we do know -- I mean, we have an example from the Luigi Mangione case where we know now that our federal authorities knew who he was and where he was from and his relationships long before we found out publicly. So, we're going to let them do their job, do as much investigating as possible so that they can find out as much information as possible. And I'm sure they'll share that with us and we'll find out at the appropriate time.

BROWN: What can you tell us about the security posture? Did it shift overnight? Was it higher at around midnight when there were more revelers out than, you know, 3:15 when this happened?

THOMAS: Yes. I mean, as much as I respect Chief Ramsey and NOPD and what they do, let's not forget that New Orleans Police Department, our men and women officers here are some of the best trained in the world when you talk about crowd events, Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest, NCA events, French Quarter Festival, which had almost 900,000 people in the last couple of years. So, we're no stranger to policing major events.

But this is something that -- I mean, there were 300 offices in proximity to where this madman, this evil person perpetrated this violent incident. So, how do you police that? How do you stop that? You know, but there's always a lesson to learn. What more can we do and can we do?

I mean, look, you're talking about an iconic, legendary street, Bourbon Street, in an international city. I mean, you know, we punch above our weight every year with millions of visitors that rival any large city in the world. So, we're not strangers to how we deal with our crowds, but the world is different today. Evil is different today. And we're going to have to reassess as a city, as a state, and as a country, how do we begin to deal with the environment that we're in today?

BROWN: I want to just ask you, do you know anything about the barriers? We had an eyewitness who said that they were just flimsy orange barriers. We have some video. We don't know if these were the actual barriers that were there at the time, although it looks like it's kind of broken there. So, we don't know that this was what was used. We don't know if there was a dump truck or some other truck there to create a barrier. But what can you tell us about that in response to what this eyewitness told us?

THOMAS: Well, what I do know is we have barriers and how those barriers will be used, especially post this incident. The FBI chief, I say troopers, and a combination of law enforcement officials here will determine that. I don't want to get ahead of --

BROWN: But let me just ask you -- I understand. Let me just to clarify a little bit, my question. There was a program apparently kicked off in November to help fortify and create new barriers. And it said that there will be some temporary barriers. Is that -- was that at play here, maybe those temporary barriers were being used as part of this program?

THOMAS: I've heard a lot of different reports that there was some construction in the area. Some barriers were down, that there were temporary barriers at other places. I don't want to speculate there.

BROWN: OK.

[11:55:00]

THOMAS: I think the FBI, Police Chief Kirkpatrick and SOD, Special Operations, they're going to do their due diligence and we're going to find out about what happened with that as well as how do we begin to use barriers? How do we begin to enforce safety? And what's the perimeter going to be like not just for what happened here, but with Super Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Mardi Gras, and other events? So, there'll be lessons learned here.

BROWN: You certainly have a lot on your plate. Councilman, thank you. Our hearts are with those families today that are grieving with those patients, more than 30 in the hospital right now who were victimized by this horrific attack. Thank you so much.

THOMAS: Yes. Well -- look, but being in the emergency room for the last several hours, right, and being with -- talk -- watching family members, watching law enforcement officials, watching the two officers who are being treated for their injuries. And then, one of the most touching events was a young woman who is a New Orleans police officer who came to check on her comrade who she was in the academy with, and he was one of the young men.

I know his family. We grew up in the same area. Just to see the tears in her eyes and her concern for him as well as the other victims, you know, that kind of brings to light just how tragic and how hurtful and how harmful this event was.

BROWN: Distance of humanity and the tragedy. Councilman, thank you. And thank you for joining us. I'm Pamela Brown. We're awaiting this news conference in New Orleans. Stay with CNN. I'll see you tomorrow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:00:00]