injuries after a bizarre and tragic turn of events. nbc justice correspondent pete williams has late details. >> reporter: the urgent call went out around 2:30 this afternoon. gunfire at the richmond, virginia greyhound bus station. >> we have an active shooting, 2910 north boulevard. they are still actively shooting. >> reporter: witnesses reported a panic to gunshots. others were just about to go inside. >> i had my hand on the door handle when i heard two gunshots go off. i didn't think they were gunshots. then there were like five, maybe ten more after that. i could see the muzzle flash through the tinted door. so i ran out of there. >> reporter: officials say state police were conducting a counterdrug training mission at the bus terminal which included talking to people in the bus station. they say an officer in uniform approached one man, who pulled a gun, shooting at close range. the wounded trooper was rushed to the hospital. the gunman was killed by police and two bystanders were hurt. >> one trooper is being treated for life-threatening injuries. two civilians being treated

correspondent pete williams. >> reporter: this suburban washington woman was furious when the hospital cancelled three days of her husband's radiation treatments. >> other people worse than my husband. god love them. i hope they get it faster and get the treatment somewhere. >> reporter: a cyberattack forced medstar health to shut down computers monday at ten hospitals in the washington area, and many patients got this voice message. >> our computer systems are still down, so we need you to bring a list of your current medications. >> reporter: medstar now says with backups it's returning to normal and that overall patient care has not suffered. medstar calls its computer malware, but investigators say it's the latest example of ransomware, locking up a computer remotely and holding it hostage. james lyne is head of research at a computer security firm. >> they are quite literally holding data to ransom on your computer and demanding that you pay money to get access to your data once more. >> reporter: a los angeles medical center hit last month paid $17,000 to get its system going aga

urges victims not to pay the ransom, advice many find hard to follow. pete williams, nbc news, washington. >>> another of the four americans killed in the brussels terror attacks has been identified. gail martinez of texas was traveling with her husband, an air force officer and their four children when she was mortally wounded in the airport blast. one american victim has yet to be identified. meanwhile, as our keir simmons reports new evidence recovered from the attackers suggest the isis target list might include world leaders. >>> tonight a new look at the devastation airport, an explosion at the check-in desks. the second suicide bombers blood on the floor and this is where the third bomb blew up after the airport was evacuated. but were the isis terrorists also planning to target a european head of state? the "new york times" citing a government official tonight reporting the men behind the brussels' bomgsz had a floor plan and photograph of the belgian prime minister's offer. they were found on ibrahim el bakraoui's computer left in a trash can and found not far from a

meeting a republican senator. our justice correspondent pete williams is at the court to tell us more. >> reporter: lester, the tie is a big boost for unions representing millions of the nation's public employees, teachers, nurses, firefighters, police, and roughly half the states. a group of california teachers challenged the requirement that public employees who don't want to join a union still have to pay a share of union dues to cover the cost of negotiating contracts. but the tie leaves a lower court ruling in place in favor of the unions. and tonight a sign of another possible tie. the supreme court ordered lawyers in the obamacare case to address a possible compromise it would give contraceptive coverage of religiously affiliated groups without making the groups complicit in providing it. and merrick garland nominated to succeed justice scalia, had his first meeting with republican senator mark kirk of illinois, garland's home state. lester. >> pete williams, thank you. >>> emergency evacuations tonight of americans overseas. the state department and pentagon are ordering the f

correspondent pete williams is at the court to tell us more. pete? >> reporter: lester, the tie is a big boost for unions representing millions of the nation's public employees, teachers, nurses, firefighters, police and roughly half the states. a group of california teachers challenged the requirement that public employees who don't want to join a union still have to pay a share of union dues to cover the cost of negotiating cross the, but the tie leaves a lower court ruling in place in favor of the unions, and tonight a sign of another possible tie, the supreme court ordered lawyers in the obamacare case to give address a possible compromise. it would give contraceptive coverage of religiously affiliated groups without making them complicit and the first meeting today with a republican senator, mayorik garland's home state representative. >> emergency evacuations overseas and the u.s. pentagon is ordering the evacuation of diplomats and families in such turkey because of increased terror threats. the move affects several americans. there are new fears in pakistan after that deadly

. >> pete williams, thank you. >>> let's turn to grant, a senior vice president at the senior advisory firm. good to have your expertise on this. who might be the person that helps the fbi unlock this code? are you talking about a retired software engineer? could it be a wiz kid in a basement somewhere? >> if you read the government's statement, it's intriguing. they talk about, it could be a foreign government, potentially friendly to the united states. it could be a cyber security firm. a lot less likely, but sometimes hackers finding vulnerabilities and sell them to governments. >> go ahead. >> we don't know that. what we do know is this is what apple was afraid of all along. that if you gave access to this iphone, it would create a backdoor that would make all iphones accessible to data, putting all our personal data at risk. >> i can barely retrieve my own e-mails, but i've read perhaps the way they went about this -- you and nod your head -- they create a digital copy of that iphone and then they use that digital copy to try to crack the password. they crack it until the

iphone used by one of the san bernardino attackers. nbc's pete williams joins us right now. pete, why the turnabout? >> because, lester, the justice department says tonight it has unlocked sigh he's farook's iphone and extracted the data. farook left it behind in a car. just a week ago, the fbi said an outside party suggested a way to disable the phone's security features so it could be unlocked by repeatedly guessing the pass code. now there's no need to force apple to write software that would do the same thing, something apple vigorously opposed, saying that would jeopardy the security of all iphones. the fbi wants to know if others were involved in the shooting. officials say the data they extracted from the phone will take some time to decode. now the fbi faces a dilemma. the government generally tells the tech community when it finds a vulnerability like this, but doing that could blunts its fusful. >>> republican front-runner donald trump continues to fire shots at ted cruz in the feud over their wives. but cruz today taking a new approach has tried to move beyond that nasty ba

bernardino attackers. nbc's pete williams joins us right now. pete, why the turn about >> reporter: because, lester, the justice tonight it has unlocked syed farook's iphone and extracted the data from it. farooq left it behind in a car. just a week ago the fbi said an outside party suggested a way to disable the phone's security feature so it could be unlocked by repeatedly guessing the pass code so now there's no need to force apple to write software that would do the same thing, something that apple vigorously opposed saying that would jen ditz security of all iphones. the fbi wants to know if others were involved in the shooting. officials tonight say the dat tech community when it finds a vulnerability like this but doing that could blend its usefulness in future cases. lester? >> pete williams, thank you. >>> in the race for president republican front-runner donald trump continues to fire shots at ted cruz and the feud over their wives but cruz today taking a new approach has tried to move beyond that nasty bat. let's get more from nbc's hallie jackson. same rivalry, now play

, pat. joining us now is nbc's pete williams who is going to fill us in a little bit more about the suspect, larry dawson. is that his name? and what it means when they're known to the capitol police. what is this incident that happened? >> known to capitol police because of an incident in october when he authorities say disrupted a proceeding of the house. the house was in session. he was in the visitors gallery, and he shouted out that he was a prophet of god. he was charged at the time in superior court with disorderly and disruptive conduct on the capitol grounds, and then also charged with interfering with arrest according to the court documents. he pushed a police officer and he was charged with assaulting or interfering with a police officer. as a result of that, you will see on october 23rd he was issued a stay away order. let me show you something here if i can hold this map up to the camera. he actually was sent this by the superior court. it's a map of the u.s. capitol area with a line drawn around the capitol building and all of the on this side house office buildings, t

correspondent pete williams reports, without justice scalia, this one could be headed for a 4-4 tie. >> reporter: the little sisters of the poor, catholic nuns who care for the elderly, say they should be exempt from providing employee health care coverage for contraceptives. the government said they can opt out if they object on religious grounds and turn over information about their insurance. but the nuns and dozens of other religiously affiliated charities, seminaries and colleges are suing, saying having to do even that is too much. >> the services would still become a part of our health plan. and that's something we can't agree to. >> reporter: while groups on both sides staged spirited demonstrations outside the court, inside the four remaining conservatives seem to agree with the nuns. chief justice john roberts said the government wants to hijack their health care plan, just as anthony kennedy wanted to hijack it. the obama administration said a group's religious freedom does not exclude the right to restrict health care for employees, and students at lnlsly affiliated coll

contraceptive coverage for their employees, and as our justice correspondent pete williams reports, without justice scalia this one could be headed for a 4-4 tie. >> reporter: little sisters of the poor, catholic nuns who care forth elderly, shay they should be exempt from obamacare's requirement of providing employee coverage for couldn't [c raceptives contraceptives. the government says they can opt out if they provide notice that they object on religious grounds and turn over information about their insurance, but the nuns and dozens of other religiously affiliated charities, seminaries and colleges are suing. they are saying having to do that is even too much. >> the services will still become a part of our health plan hand that's just something that we can't agree to. >> reporter: while groups on both sides staged spirited demonstrations outside the court. inside the four remaining conservatives seem to agree with the nuns. chief justice john roberts said the government wants to hijack their health care plan. justice anthony kennedy used that same word, hijack. >> we welcome y

yesterday. nbc's pete williams is at union station in washington, d.c., this morning. train station there. pete, good morning. >> savannah, good morning to you. rail commuters across the country can expect to see more security on the ride to work this morning. airline passengers will see it, too. it is a precaution. officials say there's no intelligence warning of a similar attack here. on commuter trains and subway systems from washington to los angeles police are out in a highly visible show of force. beefed up security, too, in miami, chicago, atlanta with heavily armed foot patrols. more security, too, at many of the nation's airports, especially in the outer lobbies where the airline ticket counters are. nationwide, more specially trained units and bomb sniffing dogs. more plain clothes officers, too. extra searches of bags. >> we want communities to feel confident that we're here, we're able to respond. we have an enormous capability if we need it tactically. >> reporter: amtrak says it's adding additional transit police and randomly screening luggage. it's an especially aggressive

terror attacks in brussels, nbc news justice correspondent pete williams has more. >> in new york's times square, extra police swarm in with 50 officers deployed to the subway station there. on bridges and tunnels, more random checks of cars and trucks. on commuter train systems from los angeles to washington, a scramble to turn out a visible show of force. nationwide, fbi agents are stepping up surveillance of terror suspects on the lookout for possible copycat attacks here at home. u.s. officials say there's no known threat of a brussels-style attack here. and the experts say the security picture here is far different. police in europe are overwhelmed, trying to track the nearly 7,000 people who have been to train with isis compared to the roughly 200 who have gone or tried to go from the u.s. >> some of the countries in europe have unique challenge. i think it's probably because of their close proximity to some of the countries of concern. >> and the fbi has proven adept at stopping potential attacks here. but u.s. officials say they face one big challenge their european counterp

williams is atn in washington, d.c. this morning. pete, good morning. >> savannah, good morning to rail commuters across the country can expect to see more security on the ride to work this morning. will see it, too. it is a precaution. officials say there's no intelligence warning of a similar attack eporter: on commuter trains and subway systems from washington to los angeles, police are out in a highly force. beefed up security, too, in miami, chicago, and atlanta, with heavy armed foot patrols. more security, too, at manytion's airports, especially in the outer lub, where the airline ticket. nationwide, specially trained units and bomb-sniffing dogs. plain clothes officers, too, and search of nt communities to feel confident that we're here, we're able to respond. we have enormous capability if we need it police and randomly screening luggage as passengers board the trains. it's an aggressive presence inty, with 50 officers surging into times square. the mayor made a point of ridingnstrate the safety. >> expect to see extraordinary nypd presence out over the coming days, as a s

response. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams has more. >> reporter: in new york's time's square, extrapolice and on bridges and tunnels, more and a scramble to turn out oo visible show of force. nation wide fbi agents are stepping up surveillance of terror suspects, on the lookout for possible copy cat attacks at home. they say there's no known threat of a brussels attack. they're overwhelmed trying to track the nearly 7,000 people been to train with isis, compared to the nearly 200 hn 00 have gone or tried to go from the u.s. >> i think it's because of their close proximity to some of the countries of concern. >> reporter: and the fbi has proven adept at stopping puterngsal attacks here. they say they face one big challenge that makes terrorists harder to track. the use of encrypted apps, disposable phones and other ways they say the u.s. has a head start, working hard since 9/11 to prevent terror attacks. >> and they keep adapting too. so, this is not a static situation. it will keep moving. it requires united states' security to keep improving. >> that is nbc's pete wi

normal. response. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams has more. time's square, extrapolice and on bridges and tunnels, more random checks of trucks. and a scramble to turn out oo visible show of force. nation wide fbi agents are surveillance of terror suspects, on the lookout for possible copy cat attacks atey say there's no known threat of a brussels attack. overwhelmed trying to track the nearly 7,000 people been to train with isis, compared to the hn 00 have gone or tried to go from the u.s. >> i think it's because of their close proximity to some of thef concern. >> reporter: and the fbi has proven adept at stopping puterngsal attacks here. face one big

justice correspondent pete williams has more on the stepped up security in the u.s. cities. >> reporter: in new york's times square, extra police swarm in with 50 officers deployed to the subway station there. on bridges and tunnels, moran dom checks of cars and trucks. on commuter train systems from los angeles to washington, a scramble to turn out a visible show of force. nation-wide, fbi agents are stepping up surveillance of terror suspects on the lookout for possible copycat attacks here at home. u.s. officials tonight say there's no known threat of a brussels-style attack here. the experts say the security picture here is far different. police from europe are overwhelmed trying to track the nearly 7,000 people who have been trained with isis compared to the roughly 200 who have gone or tried to go from the u.s. >> some of the countries in europe have a unique challenge. i think it's probably because of their close proximity to some of the countries of concern. >> reporter: and the fbi has proven adept at stopping potential attacks here. but u.s. officials say they face one big cha

correspondent pete williams has more on stepped-up security in u.s. cities. >> reporter: in new york's times square, with 50 officers deployed to the subway station there. on bridges and tunnels more random checks of cars and trucks. on commuter train systems from los angeles to washington, a scramble to turn out a visible show of force. nationwide fbi agents are stepping up surveillance of terror suspects on the lookout for possible copycat attacks here at home. u.s. officials tonight say there's no known threat of a brussels-style attack here, and the experts say the security picture here is far different. police in europe are overwhelmed trying to track the nearly 7,000 people who have been to train with isis compared to the roughly 200 who have gone or have tried to go from the u.s. >> some of the countries in europe have unique challenge. i think it's probably because of their close proximity to some of the countries of concern. >> and the fbi has proven adept at stopping potential attacks here but u.s. officials say they face one big challenge, their european counterparts do that

. ♪ >>> welcome back to our continuing coverage of the attack in belgium this morning. nbc news pete williams is with us now. pete, we're focused of course of the nightly news on the photo of the three men walking through the belgian airport this morning in brussels, and the two with the gloves. left hand gloves. >> reporter: well, nobody knows for sure, some of the supposition has been that maybe under the gloves, which they're only wearing on one hand, you see that right above where it says breaking news there, you see the left hand glove, but not the right hand. and that's the middle picture. not the guy on the right. one possibility is that they were wearing the gloves to conceal a detonator, but frankly, conflicting reports on whether these two in fact did set the suitcase bombs off. that's what we believe they were, themselves, right there, with the butt to on in their har walk away. that isn't clear at this point. but one thing that is interesting today is that isis had initially put out a statement saying that the attacks in brussels were people with suicide belts, but authorities seem t

reality, more people are killed in terror attacks on the rails. our justice correspondent pete williams has more on stepped-up security in u.s. cities. >> reporter: in new york's times square, extra police swarm in with 50 officers deployed to the subway station there. on bridges and tunnels more random checks of cars and trucks. on commuter train systems from los a scramble to turn out a visible show of force. nationwide fbi agents are stepping up surveillance of terror suspects on the lookout for possible copycat attacks here at home. u.s. officials tonight say there's no known threat of a brussels-style attack here, and the experts say the security picture here is far different. police in europe are overwhelmed trying to track the nearly 7,000 people who have been to train with isis compared to the roughly 200 who have gone or have tried to go from the u.s. >> some of the countries in europe have unique challenge. i think it's probably because of their close proximity to some of the countries of concern. >> and the fbi has proven adept at stopping potential attacks here but u.s. official

surrogate, appeared to claim responsibility. let's begin this half hour with nbc's pete williams who has been reporting for us all morning. good morning and bring us up to date with what you know. >> american officials that i've been talking to cannot confirm whether this was isis or not because they don't know, and that i have not they've not been told by counterparts in europe or responsible for this. the suspicious is certainly high that it's isis inspired, both because of the timing, right after the arrest of the isis-inspired mastermind behind the paris attacks or one of the key facilitators there, and also because of the hallmarks of the attack. that's certainly the operating assumption. there have been no threats against facilities in the u.s. so the response here has been relatively muted. there's much more visible points in the u.s., at american airports, subway stations, big train stations. in terms of operations of the airports or a change, a fundamental change in the security at and around airports, train stations, subway stations, we haven't seen that. but if you're travelin

a concern, but no specific information about it. savannah and matt? >> pete williams, thank you, in our washington newsroom. >>> earlier this morning we spoke with ryan heath, "politico's" senior eu correspondent who joined us by skype. >>> put into perspective what you're seeing and hearing, and i would like to ask you also about the level of fear that the people of belgium have been living in over these past several months. >> to be honest, it's quite chaotic. i've been unable to get back to our offices. 150 yards from that maelbeek metro station that was bombed. i'm back at my home, which is itself 300 yards from the molenbeek district. it has been chaotic. you hear sirens in the background the whole time. people have been given contradictory instructions. for the first half hour, hour, it wasn't clear how severe all of the activities were. some people are still locked up in bank branchs near the european union headquarters. others are told they must go to work or they'll be fired. there's a lot of confusion out there. of course, you have the scenes in the airport where most peop

appears to be a smoky terminal in the aftermath of these attacks. let's go to pete williams who is our justice correspondent who has been following this from washington and, pete, do you have any extra information for us and, if not, remind everybody the context in which this happens where you have one of the paris attacks arrested in brussels and a lot of people are concerned that these attacks may in some way be connected to that. >> either as a retaliation for it or plans that were in place that were accelerated because the police involved were closing in on him. who carried out these attacks. in terms of the united states, there is, we're told, today, no intelligence indicating any plans to attack subways, trains or airplanes in the u.s. no recommendation from the u.s. for those facilities to make any big changes. nonetheless, many major cities are increasing security on their commuter trains, their subway systems. we've been told in new york and in washington and in other big cities, you'll see much more visible security on subways and commuter trains. more of those bomb sniffing

developments. >> let's bring in our chief justice correspondent, pete williams, who talked to his sources this morning. pete, anything new you can add to this? >> a couple of points. one is we're expecting a statement shortly that, apparently, will come out of the white house. noting that the government is well aware of this. they're assessing and trying to decide what to do. there's been no formal guidance to airports or subway stations or train stations in the united states from the u.s. government. there have been internal messages f fm the usual places that keep these operations informed of attacks. these messages have been flowing for the past severalal hours, to let the operators of airports, train stations, subway stations give the best information they have and urge them to take appropriate precautions. the security of all those facilities is not a federal matter. it's in the hands of local authorities. we only know of one specific pl to do anything in response, and that is not surprisingly in new york. the new york police department says it is going to have a very aggressive and

statement coming shortly, though we don't expect a great deal of substance in it. >> pete williams, thank you. >>> we got a note, the u.s. officials briefed on intelligence tell nbc they've been expecting these attacks, or some kind of attack in europe after what happened in paris, that they're struck initially, not as coordinated or sophisticated as what we saw in paris. yet, we see they were able to inflict a lot of damage. let's go to tom costello who covers aviation for us. also very familiar with this airport, with this region. he has family that lived there many, many years. what can you add? >> a couple things. delta airlines flight 80, atlanta to brussels, is sitting on the ramp, unable to move the people off the plane because it is mass chaos on the ground at the airport. you've seen all these people being evacuated from the airport tarmac or rather the terminal out on to the ramp. the numbers of people, hundreds, even thousands of people, waiting to figure out where to put them. no trains, there are no busses, there are no taxis, there are no subways. everything in the city is s