How officials will try to find Kirk suspect

Samantha Vinograd joins me here at the table. She is a relied-upon and well-versed expert in the field of domestic security, domestic terrorism, international, and the like. Begin to walk us through what's going on on the ground. Anna Schecter just told us they're still searching the campus of Utah Valley University. That means this is an evolving and still potentially dangerous situation and that whatever happened escaped the immediate ability of authorities to put a dragnet around that particular individual. Well, Major, based upon the fact that a suspect has not been identified or located, as far as we know, it is entirely possible that there is still an ongoing threat to the public. So right now, law-enforcement officials are incredibly focused on trying to ascertain who fired the gun that killed Charlie Kirk. They'll do that from eyewitness accounts by using video taken by individuals at the event and other advanced technology to just try to figure out who the suspect is and, from there, whether it's searching buildings on the campus and/or looking through the individual's social media and tracing his or her movements, try to ascertain where this person is so that they can be apprehended and try to mitigate any threats to the public. And part of that analysis will be the wound itself and the directional relationship because Charlie Cook was under this tent. You can see it. Came somewhere around here, from eyewitness accounts and the available video. That suggests a sort of area. Law-enforcement officials have a range of different technologies to literally trace where the bullet came from, what kind of rifle or other weapon was used, and then, from there, to just try to figure out exactly where this individual was standing when the shot was fired so that they can really narrow their search to try to locate the individual's face, in video or otherwise. The same time, there will be an after action, Major, of how an individual like Charlie Kirk-- his death is absolutely devastating. He was such a well-known figure, mass following-- how he was speaking at an event that was widely publicized. Everyone knew where he was going to be with some level of personal security but without any kind of screening for individuals who really just walked up to this event. And it is a sad reality in our country today that individuals with this kind of profile are a target, and there was not a security perimeter. There were not metal detectors, as far as we know. So some sort of after action by campus police and others will likely be undertaken. I don't want to overdramatize this, Sam, but I have to believe that those who were there on scene, university, local authorities, federal authorities, state authorities, are looking at this and saying, this person may well have had intent, some capabilities, and some means to try to get away. And that heightens, I would assume for them, a sense of urgency. Well, certainly, and every single counterterrorism official that you can encounter will say that the biggest terrorism-related threat facing this country comes from lone actors, individuals who radicalize and mobilize on their own. But again, there was no perimeter here. This was an open-air event. An individual was able to relatively easily carry a weapon onto the premises, essentially able to climb to some sort of elevated position and fire a shot, and then disappear. So there were law-enforcement resources and emergency resources available on site, but they were not able to prevent the suspect from firing the shot and, ostensibly, from leaving the scene.

Sam Vinograd, valuable perspective, as always. Thank you.