and the suspect is described as a 64-year-old white male. >> thank you very much. we are coming up on 5:30 now on the east coast, 2:30 until the west coast covering this mass shooting that unfolded last night in las vegas. at least 20 dead, more than a hundred injured. at least 12 in critical condition. the shooter has been killed. it all unfolded at the route 91 music festival last night. police now searching for this woman right here, marilou danley, described as the roommate of the shooter who has not yet been identified, an asian woman, 4'11", 111 pounds. they're searching for two vehicles, a tun day tucson, nevada license plate and a chrysler pi chrysler pacifica. this was the scene unfolding at 10:08. that is jason aldean on the

stage right now. he is described as an eyewitness having dropped his guitar once he realized it was indeed a shooting. at first so many in that crowd thought it was bottle rockets, fireworks, couldn't be real. it was all too real as brian ross just reported. unfolded over 4:30. more than 200 rounds fired over 4:30. that must have beseemed like an eternity. the shooter is down. this was the moment police went in. >> the suspects door. be aware of it and get back. we need to pop this and see if we can have a response from this guy, see if he's in here or moved to smnlsz. >> all units on the 32nd floor, breach. all units move babb. all units move back. >> breach, breach, breach. >> that was the moment, breach, that was an explosion.

the explosion was from the police right there. they did take down the shooter. i want to go back to las vegas now. matt gutman on the scene. >> you guys go ahead. thank you. yeah, i'm here. i hear you. thanks. >> matt. >> hey, george. so everywhere you go, people come to you and you say, we were the ones who were running away, those folks who just stopped to talk were in the mandalay bay. and i asked them if if they had shot any video. they said nobody shot video. we were only running. that's the story you hear across the city right now. folks were caught obviously off guard. nobody expects a lone shooter like this. but the number of the bullets fired, the massive chaos, when you're talking about 10,000 people plus just at that concert venue alone and then you're talking about the tens of thousands of other people who are all over the city, out for the night life, here for the concerts and the bulk of the hotels here from mandalay bay

all the way to -- oh. >> i think we lost matt gutman right now. linsey davis is with us. >> 26 patients were received here at the university medical center. 12 in critical condition. two were pronounced dead at this hospital. police are not allowing family members in at this time. they say they're trying to assess the situation. so you can imagine that this is just further gut wrenching agony for families arriving here. they not only they can't get in to see their loved ones, but they can't even get an update on their condition. police have the entrance blocked off. we've -- it's relatively quiet here. though we've seen two ambulances that arrived within the last 15 minutes or so with flashing lights, no sirens on. but in one, you can see an emt working on someone in the back. now, this hospital is where the majority of the injured have

been taken. but, again, because we're talking about more than a hundred people injured, this is just one of several hospitals in the area where victims are being treated and then also you haver more than 20 dead. among them police officers. additionally, we know at least two officers are injured, one of them discredit callie. >> right. those are police officers on the scene. we heard that from sheriff lombardo earlier this evening. thank you very much. i want to bring in now joseph ostenoi who was on the scene at the jason aldean concert. thank goodness you're okay, but you were with a friend who did get hit? >> agree. i w yeah. i was with my friend. she got hit, right shoulder. >> is she okay? >> i just talked to my friend's family, her brother. she's in stable condition. >> tell us how the scene

unfolded. >> you described it pretty well. we all that it it was fireworks going off in the strip. it kept going and going. when jason aldean ran off stage, everybody started running. it was absolute chaos. and, you know, we're lucky we got out. and how did you get out exactly? how far did you have to run? >> i mean, we had to run a decent distance. we had to hop a fence to get out. luckily, there were people assisting people hopping over this wall the that we hopped and we're lucky we got out. >> how long did it take you? >> it took us probably about -- no less than five minutes. >> so you -- and could you tell from where you were where the shots were coming from? >> we knew they were coming from somewhere on the strip. it didn't sound like it was coming from inside of the venue. so it sounded like it was coming

from las vegas boulevard. >> but you were able to get to your car and really get far away from the scene. where are you now? >> well, i had a friend pick me up at the hospital because the hospital is on lockdown. there's police everywhere. there's police in riot gear standing in front of the emergency room. my dad's is a clergyman. they tried to flash his credentials and they wouldn't let him in to check the status of my friend. >> and your friend who were shot, at first you weren't even positive she was shot? >> no. i wasn't sure at all. she kept complaining that she was hurt. and i felt up her whole body. i listed up her shirt to check to see if if there was any wounds. we didn't see anything. once we got to the designated place we agreed to go to, we double-checked her again and sure enough, we found a pretty large wound in her right shoulder, probably about an inch and a half.

>> wow, that is an incredibly large wound. and it just -- a chaotic scene in those first moments, huh? >> i mean, it wasp. when everybody started kind of running, it was. we hit the ground a kul of times probably on our way out. i mean, it was chaos. it was a war zone. >> a war zone. and from what we know, the shooter on the 32nd floor had just an open shot on the entire scene as we're seeing it up on the screen right now. how far were you from the stage at first? >> we were pretty close to the stage. i mean, i don't know how many feet we were away from the stage. but we were pretty close. >> thank goodness you're okay right now, joe. thank you for joining us this morning. i hope your friend is okay. we're sending her our best wishes, as well. i want to bring back our chief

investigative correspondent brian ross right now. they are really zeroing in on this one shooter, the suspect, now they're trying to find out everybody possible. >> searching for a companion for questioning at this point, not knowing whether that person was involved at all, not knowing whether that perpendicular has fled. clearly they've got to this suspect's home. they are a be on the look out, two vehicles they're looking for. >> and brad garrett, our former special agent, you know, the police, we now know as we see marilou danle why b, that's the person of interest police are searching for right now. even though this unfolded over about 4:30 of shooting, those are the two vehicles police are looking for. the police were able to pinpoint where they shots were coming from relatively quickly, take him down one is that you could visually probably see the fire from the

barrel. perhaps somebody was in close proximity, let's say in the next room, somebody because walking down the hallway. so they figured out what direction it was coming from. so quickly assess what floor it was on. again, based on witness information and obviously they breached the correct door. so they had a comfortable level. their guy was inside whatever room it was on the 32nd floor. >> room 135. >> room 135. we now know that. we heard from an earlier witness who was on the 24th floor that this had an open shot of the concert. >> a clear view of the location and as brad was saying earlier, clearly something well thought out. this was not a spur of the moment attack. somebody took the time to gather the weapon, the ammunition and determine where would be the best vantage point to open fire, spray on thousands of spectators. >> and brad garrett, from what

we know about the shooting so far, about the person of interest the they are searching for, as well, any kind of a profile you can put together or what kinds of questions would you be asking in these moments? >> well, george, this is going to be a guy that has some sort of grievance. is he mad at society because his perception is society has treated him in an awful way so he's gon going to inflict damage on the rest of us? is it in particular to the hotel, outside where the concert occurred, the mandalay hotel or is it some sort of religious philosophical driven sort of attack? you know, had this would be sort of a new approach if it's one of an islamic extremist. but basically, everybody is on the table today with isis as far as way toes kill people. so we'll have to see. but, you know, planned to the extent that he had a really

effective weapon. and he at least took enough time to get a location, and elevated enough where we had a clear view of basically shooting down on this crowd. he wouldn't have been o second floor, he wouldn't have been high enough. so he may have asked some of those questions in a very innocuous way when he checked in. but clearly thought this out and said tonight is the night i'm going to go do this. >> if it were connected to isis or al qaeda or someone inspired by isis or al qaeda, they usually want people to know. >> they do want people to know. and so maybe that would suggest on the front end this sfot the case. that this is really a personal grievance driven sort of shooting. if you ask me to guess, it may well fall into that category. we really don't know enough yet to make that statement. and as everyone knows, if it's islamic extremism, they'll take

credit as soon as they sort of figure out what they've got here. many of these attacks that are now driven by religious extremists, you know, isis doesn't have clue they're about to go do this. they do it and they go, oh, we can take credit for that and then they jump in. so we'll have to see. >> right, brian, that's an important point that brad just makes. very opportu for isis when they see something happen. >> indeed. in had this case, the name is not being released by authorities there, but the person they're looking at who is the companion, marilou danley, a 64-year-old white male. >> local resident in las vegas. we've seen had his companion, as well, his roommate who police are looking for right now. be we don't know -- there she is right there, marilou danley. but we don't know yet. we haven't seen anything posted. >> nothing like that at this had

point. >> although police now are fairley certain that he acted alone, at least he's the only shooter. >> he was the lone gunman. we believe all the all the firing came from that one room, room 135, over about 4:37 we counted with at least six or seven bursts, about 30 rounds in each bursts. these are extremely powerful and deadly weapons, an automatic weapon which is extremely difficult to obtain, even on the black market. >> and this is the scene as those shots were fired. you see people just running away from that open area where tens of thousands were watching the jason aldean concert. one of them, vincent sager who was right there and vincent, you actually saw people get shot? vincent sager, can you hear me?

i think we must have lost vince ept sager. brian, as we keep that up on the scene right there, for well over an hour, there were reports that there was more than one shooter the in more than one location. >> as people ran about from hotel to hotel, the echos of the sounds would bounce off the walls in those tall las vegas hotels. people not sure where to go, what to do, to save themselves with bullets raining down, har to tell where the fire is coming from. >> vincent, can you hear me? yeah, i can hear you. >> so vincent, tell us what you saw and heard. i was told you actually saw people get shot. >> yeah. i mean, i don't know if you've seen the video that has been out there, but we were standing in the front of the stage to the right. you first heard a couple, like, single shots. there were multiple. it almost sounds like a pyrot h

pyrotechnic going bad. from there on, we didn't know if it was a malfunction of pyrotechnics or fireworks and after you look up and you see jason aldean run off the stage and the music stopped. you've got people running in front of us. somebody got shot, they were saying, they're down and we had people running with blood on their shirt the there was another gentleman running out where he knew it was most serious. a gentleman got shot in the back and you see a hole in his shirt and blood coming out. that's where we kind of realized, yeah, something is going down and it is serious. >> could you tell where the shots were were coming from and which direction did you run? >> yeah. you can tell they were coming from mandalay bay where we were at. we ran obviously away. as i explained on another interview i did a moment ago, it

was plain red light green light with gunshots. and you would hear, you know, him loading his clip and that's when everybody was ducking, getting down, hiding. as soon as you hear the gunshots stop, everyone b would get up and run away from mandalay bay inside the casino. >> you're saying you could hear him changing clips? >> well, i mean, you can't hear him changing clips but you know they are because he was shooting up from the hotel. just like in the video, you hear the gunshots rattling and then it would go quiet. then it would be quiet for 30, 45 seconds and then it would go again. you could tell he was reloading. >> and when did you know that you were safe? >> about an hour ago. >> an hour ago. >> we evacuated from when it first started at 10:00.

we ran out. took us about an hour to get off the grounds. and then everyone evacuated the mgm. we were safe in there. and then there was a bunch of accusations going on that there were other shooters and other.pros and bombs and what not. so everyone b was letting hr mind wander in a way. people were saying one thing and running around. >> where were you getting the information? what have you heard of reports of other shooters? >> this was coming from -- but, you know, friends and family knows that i was at the festival, getting outside information given to me on my phone saying we're going on the news and what they were hearing. you know, one person says one thing. so you really don't know what is accurate to compare to what is

not. we heard from our sheriffs a little bit ago. >> what was your instinct in the moment about what to do? >> well, i was with some friends and it was to make should you sure everyone was safe. get down, take cover. i was standing up at first, thought it was fireworks. but then we realized it wasn't fireworks and it was trying to keep people calm. >> are all your friends okay? >> yeah. we did have a mutual friend that is being taken care of right now. but we're with good right now. >> well, we are glad you're okay, vincent. thank you for joining us right now as i bring back in our chief investigative correspondent, brian ross. you know, the scene they talk about for several hours after the shooting, not knowing -- >> exactly.

as rumors spread, there were shooters here, shooters there, at least or four different hotels, people ran in panic trying to find a safe place and they can not. as the eyewitnesss have described to you this morning, george, they did not feel safe until just recently with the sense that the shooter had been taken down and there was no more gunfire. >> just in the last hour or so. we see some of the wounded being loaded into ambulances right there. i want to go back to linsey davis at the university hospital. one of many hospitals, linsey, now taking in the wounded. more than a hundred wounded, at least 20 dead acourting to police. it appears we don't have linsey davis. right now, i want to go back in to pierre thomas, our senior justice correspondent in washington. okay. sorry for the confusion. linsey, i hear you are with me. tell us what's happening at university hospital. >> yeah.

just last -- we received a few minutes ago, the number of patients here at university medical center hat has doubled. so they now have received more than 60 patients at this hospital. still we're told that 12 are in critical condition and still two that have been pronounced dead here at the hospital. the entrance remains blocked off by police cars. and so, you know, i mentioned earlier, that has to just be a huge frustration as far as families and we've seen about three carloads of families trying to come and check to the status of their loved one. they're simply not able to get to the hospital at this point. that could change at any time. police could say they're still trying to the assess the situation here. >> earlier, we had been told that of those injured at the hospital, 12 were in critical condition. as the numbers double overall, does the number of critically injured go up, as well? >> that did not change. the most recent update, they're still giving the same numbers as

far as the critically -- those in critical condition and those that were pronounced dead. so they haven't had an increase apparently in those. >> linsey davis, thanks very much. i want to go back to pierre thomas in washington, our senior justice correspondent as well. we saw at the press conference by sheriff joe -- >> we're not going to say who the source is, though. >> pierre thomas. >> yes. george, i've just been speaking to some law enforcement sources and the officials are looking at this as some kind of assault-style rifle that may be augmented to make it fully automatic. it's also possible that this was purchased as a fully automatic weapon. again, they have the name of the person they think did it. they are doing an extensive background check on this person to see whether the gun may have been purchased also. they are getting information on the am mow, mo, as well. they are on the scene working with law enforcement officials to get some of the court raartr

that may have been found, as well. extensive investigation under way to look into this person's background. no indications thus far of terrorism. once they go those cartridges, once they get the weapon, how long would it generally take to find out writ was purchased, how it got there? >> well, one of the things you have to see, sometimes the criminals will file down the serial number. every gun has a serial number on it. i'm being told that this will be done within hours at the latest, george. that this is deemed urgent. and, again, the name of this people is being run through every database that the u.s. government has to see what kind of picture they can create of the perpendicularson's backgrou. >> so far, they're saying no connection as far as they know to international terrorism. >> correct. that is the early indications. but, again, george, very fluid

investigation. >> thank you, pierre. chief investigative correspondent brian ross, he was described as the lone wolf type. >> listened aboved about an houm las vegas, we're told. they're searching for a person described as his companion. they put out word across the states looking for this woman and two possible vehicles she could be in. clearly they have gone to the home outside of las vegas and did not find her there. now they're looking for her to see what if anything she might know about what happens. >> a lot a hyundai and a chrysler pacifica. >> it's called a bolo, a be on the look out for. every agencies. these days, there are license plate readers. so if it comes across it or near

you, they can look for it and pick it up. >> we're not certain marilou danley is on the rin at this point. we don't know a lot about her. >> we don't know anything about her. but any association with the shooter can be critical as to maybe figuring out motive, other people involved, people have other people buy weapons for them, buy them off the black market, they buy them at gun shows. hopefully it will go forward that he purchased the gun and it goes right back to him. so much we don't knot this point. >> 64-year-old white male. doesn't seem to fit the profile of someone equiconnected to isi. >> typically not. and the other thing, george, because of his age, he probably doesn't use the internet.

social media, like younger people tend to do. so his social media footprint may be less. another thing, events like this are triggered by something else. i'm suggesting he had some triggering event. >> some kind of triggering event. brian ross, 64-year-old white male, puts me in mind of the suspect responsible for that shooting at the congressional softball practice earlier this summer. >> exactly. with some sort of agreements, spent his time trying to figure out how to cause the maximum attention to his grievance in

some twisted way. this woman they're looking for now, her last money address was mesquite, negative me. nevada. >> do we have any indzcation as to how long they were living together? >> no indication right now. >> we want to go back to our senior justice correspondent pierre thomas, as well. pierre, right now, based on what they are seeing, homeland security, a the tf, fbi all involved? >> everyone involved, george. these agencies in in this kind of situation have to know what this is and what this isn't. again, no early indication of ties to international terrorism. again, early in the investigation. here is why it's so critical, george. if there was, there could be additional attacks. that's why law inform from the

federal government jump right in with the locals early in these kinds of cases to see what they are dealing with. also, george, i think it's unfortunate to point out that mass shootings in this country happen on a pretty routine basis where people take assault style rifles and they shooting and killing people, usually not to this level. usually not this many wounded or killed. but these type of incidents, unfortunately, happen regularly in our country. >> yeah. fairley regularly. we're talking about every week, every couple of weeks, we see some kind of mass shooting. but this one with the numbers we're seeing right now, at least 20 dead, at least a hundred injured. this would be the single worst mass shootinging since the shooting at the orlando nightclub, the pulse nightclub. >> had exactly, george. and that's why you saw the federal law enforcement so quickly to assist the locals. when you have this many casualties, the first thing that comes to mind is whether this is an act of terrorism. no indication of ties to

international terrorism at this point. but law enforcement officials have to be at that level of concern until they know that it's not there. >> the other big difference, we remember back in orlando, they saw the shooter. he was right next to them going room to room to that club. this one to a high vantage point. 32 stories above that. >> that's right. in orlando, the shooter there actually took time out to call 911 and claim responsibility on behalf of isis. there's nothing like that in this case. >> nothing like that. and we heard that -- i want to play it again right now. we heard that moment where police took down the shooter, breached that hotel room on the 32nd floor with explosives. >> it was very scary. it was frightening. it was -- >> on the suspect's door. i need for everybody in that

hallway to be aware of it and get back. we need to pop this and see if we get knit response from this guy, see if he's in here or if he's moved somewhere else. >> all units on the 32nd floor, police are going to breach. all units move back. >> breach, breach, breach. >> brad garrett, we heard that breach. we heard the explosion right there. at that moment, it's unclear whether the shooter was alive, was dead, but we know the police determined they had to go in. >> exactly, george. and you use explosive breaches on doors. so it literally blows the door back into the room. so the -- two things are going on. you can get into the room quickly and it is a distraction, at least for the shooter, if he's still alive. so that's the whole key. you're trying to buy part of a second so you can get a round off before he does. but yes, it's unclear whether he had taken his own life or they ended it.

>> we are coming up right now on 6:00 a.m. on the east coast. 3:00 a.m. in the west coast. some of our stations are going to be leaving us now for local news, but our coverage will continue here on abc. we are back now t with latest on that shooting that unfolded around 10:08 in las vegas last night at the route 91 country muk festival. at least 20 dead, more than 100 injured by a shooter who has been taken down by the police. police are still looking the for the shooter's companion. marilou danley, described as the roommate of the shooter who is a 64-year-old white male. we do not know his identity yet, but we do know police are searching for those two police cars, as well. there you see the flashes. from where the shooter had been targeting pp those at the concert, brian ross, 32nd floor, mandalay bay hotel. >> exactly.

room 135. 4:30 of sheer terror as he used an automatic weapon to shoot down on the crowd as ter andyhe find it. >> bursts of fire. 30 to 35 seconds of fire. >> clearly changing magazines, according to weapons experts we've talked to this morning. an automatic weapon, an ak-47 would carry a magazine of about 30 shots. it seemed as though he fired for around 30 seconds with, stopped to reload and then shot. >> let me go to former special agent brad garrett who is also with us. brad, what we've heard describe to us by eyewitness through these last several hours are not just those initial moments of terror, but several hours of chaos. >> george, when they things

happen and your adrenaline takes over and these sheer vulnerability of who is out there, who else is going to shoot at me, how do i get out of harm's way, because you're basically trapped. this area apparently was fenced in, but with an open air of outside, obviously. and so all of that kicks in and, you know, even people, george, that are trained to deal in these crisis situations will begin to panic and figure out how can i save myself and hopefully save others? it doesn't go away quickly, george. >> no. we've heard the witnesses describe that and you also hear people describe their thought processes to this first instinct to run. others want to find shelter. we talked to one eyewitness, i think it was brian claypool who said once he was in that small room, he was brought back to those stories of orlando .didn't want to feel like a sitting duck. >> you're going to feel vulnerable probably anybody else

if you're close to the proximity where the shooting occurred. unfortunately you're stuck in the proximity for several minutes before you can go in and move to another area inside another hotel, etcetera. so everything he's feeling and experiencing and those flashbacks of what has happened in other occasions grabs you and i overtakes you like it did him, being trapped in that room. what happens if the shooter kicks in the door .starts shooting? probably not rationale, but it doesn't matter. you're at such an emotional fever at that point, that's all that's driving you. >> and we also heard the scenes of panic, the people actually breaching the security at the airport which is close by, as well. as we see that video of people running. for a while there, the airports were shut down and now all the hotels in the area on lockdown, as well, because of this initial concern about multiple shooters. >> correct. and we didn't know. and we get reporting early on about thee hours ago, multiple shooters, don't know all their locations because what happens

is people see behavior in their -- as they're in their crisis mode that they think may have something to do. they may see plain clothes police officers with weapons drawn running, thinking he or she might be a shooter. so that's where that all comes from because it's consistent. we get that information, maybe multiple shooters and a vast majority of the time or most of the time it ends up being one shooter. >> brad garrett, thank you very much. now we have matt gutman on the scene. he's been there for several hours talking to eyewitnesss, as well. this was pure chaos, matt. >> absolutely, george. if you think about it, there were at least 10,000 people at that concert and day, las vegas hosts 43 million visitors a year. so you can imagine when the entire strip that you're seeing behind me is on lockdown, the chaos that ensued. as brad just mentioned, you see people with guns, often plain

clothes officers running in the street with guns, the scene unimaginable. because of the canyon-like effect of the hotels and the buildings, people didn't know where it was coming from. they began trampling each other. people began falling down all over the place. 20 dead, a hundred had wounded. they were running right over the victims. friends were trying to pull their victims to safety, literally hauling them over the fence of the concert venue to try to get them under a stage. we spoke to one man, mike cronk, they were here on mike's 48th birthday. took three bullets to the chest. they have heaved him over a fence and under the stage where they had to physically plug his wounds. the victim himself put one of his fingers in the wound. he survived.

but one of the men they were evacuated with died literally right where i'm standing here. that serves to show you how chaotic it was here, george. >> and we see the video of the scene. this is right in the heart of the las vegas strip. and that must have been planned. you see the mandalay hotel facing directly over the music concert, bringing in automatic weapons, that must have been planned knowing what room to be in, how high to be up, what time to be there .bringing in a tremendous amount of weaponry. this is definitely a planned event, george, and that just -- you know, serves to exacerbate and heighten the horror that we've seen here. what is also astounding, george, is that we are probably with about five hours after the event itself and we're still hearing ambulances scream across the city. still a very heavy police presence here. still very much a city on its toes and there are still

thousands of visitors here who can't get back to their hotel room because most of that strip remains on lockdown. >> thanks very much, matt. i want to go to adam pain right now who was at the music festival tonight. matt, i'm sorry for this, i understand a good friend of yours was shot? >> yeah. he was shot right in the stomach. >> is he okay? >> yeah, actually, he -- as fas as what his family has told me, he just came out of surgery. they removed the bullet and he's now in stable condition. >> tell us about your experience. >> well, me and my girlfriend, we were center stage about maybe 100, 150 feet back from the actual front of the stage. everybody was having a great time singing and dancing, you know, whatever is going on. and the initial string of

gunfire sounded like a small chain of, like, fireworks, like fire crackers. there was maybe a ten-second pause between first and second string and by the time second string got a little louder, a little bit deeper and everybody started turning around, running around. the performer even ran off stage, him and his band. >> is that when you knew it was real? >> yeah, yeah, kind of right then and there everything hit the fan. you realize that it's not just fireworks, you know, something is actually going down. >> and how did you -- you were pretty close to the stage. how did you get out? >> it was kind of a mess. everything happened with my friend actually is how i got out. when we turned around, we started running out toward the exit. and i just happened to glance down at the right time that he was laying on his back. so i stopped to help him and i

told my girlfriend, keep on going, get out, i'll find her when i got out. picked him up, him and i as i was carrying him out, everybody kind of got ahead of me. we just got really lucky that, you know, even that -- we were some of the last people out. >> you actually carried him out? >> i carried him out as far as i could carry him until a paramedic came and took over for me. >> wow. as you said, we know he's going to be okay right now. where did you go from there? how did you find your girlfriend again? >> that was actually a really long and hard process. everybody kind of split up, went opposite directions. some of them went to the mgm grand. a lot of people ended up at the tropicana partnership ended up at the had mgm grand which is not where anyone i know ended. i'm fortunate enough in a group

of good samaritans and i was able to charge my phone and get ahold of my mother who had my girlfriend's phone number. i didn't know it on in my phone for whatever reason. i don't know. but once i got ahole of my mom b, i got her phone number, her mom's phone number. it was probably every bit of 2 1/2 hours later. >> where is she now? >> currently, as far as i know, there's receivable hundred if not a thousand people held up in the tropicana. i was told that there's like metro officers searching people once and they're having a second officer come back again and searching them twice before they're letting them go. >> so are you able to move right now or are you on lockdown at the mgm had grand? >> no. i am actually out of the area. i am now at sunrise hospital, the trauma center, in hopes that i'll be able to see my friend

soon. punish i'm not sure what the chances are of that being tonight. >> so you're at sunrise hospital. describe the scene there. what's the scene like at the sunrise hospital? >> right here outside the trauma center, there is a lot of metro. everywhere you look, there is probably a cop everywhere you look. other than that, it's -- it's not too hectic. there's not too many -- actually, there's none crazy motions running around or anything. i think everyone that needs to be with their family is with their family inside. they're only letting the media family in right now. >> earlier this evening, there had been a false report that there had been a shooter at the mgm grand, as well. when you're at the mgm grand, by the time you you got there, had that been all cleared away? yeah. there was also false reports of of suspicious packages at like

the luxor and there was another report of an active shooter at the harris hotel. from everything i saw on the news and from what our local police chief was saying that they diffused all the situations, they got everything under control and they're looking for two outstanding people. i'm not exactly sure what their relationship is to the incident, but -- >> but in those first minutes .hours, you don't know what to believe, you don't know what the situation is like. everything is a mystery. >> oh, no. it was hectic enough to the point where i believed for a while that there was more than one shooter. but they're saying now it was a lone wolf kind of attack and everything that happened happened off the 32nd floor of the mandalay bay hotel and

casino. and police are saying they've taken down the shooter on the 32nd floor. adam, thank you very much for sharing that. we hope your friend is okay as we take another look at that scene as the shots were fired from the 32nd floor at the mandalay bay hotel. we know a little bit more about the shooter. >> an automatic weapon of some sort, loading and reloading magazines to continue to shoot unabated for more than 4:30. by our count, some 200 rounds were fired from what was from his point of view a perfect vantage point to cause maximum mayhem and carnage. >> and, brad, we heard matt gutman talking about how this would take care of some kind of

planning, some kind of forethought, but not necessarily the kind of operation that would need a lot of help or a big team. >> or no help. if you have the ability, george, to acquire a weapon, know basically how to shoot it and you rent a hotel roll. all you have to do is face basically these concert goers who are outside and be up high enough to get your rounds off. that's really all you need. so we tends, i think, to overstate how well these guys plan these shootings. they are premeditated. they do think about doing them, but with sort of minimal logistics. think about the shootings you and i have talked about over had years from orlando. you name it. a lot of carnage. but the idea that it took a lot

too shoot people, it doesn't netly take a lot of planning. >> and not necessary to be a skilled marksman when you've got an automatic weapon and 10,000 people sitting below. >> right. and perhaps if you had it on a tripod of some sort which would make the barrel more stationary, that is going to give him better control as far as the weapon going up and down which is a problem when you're hand holding a weapon shooting automatic. >> you talk about people with a grievance who have some kind of a trigger moment at this point. but to take on a kind of scene where you know you're going to kill or you i guess hope to kill dozens if not hundreds of people, to most of us, that seems unimaginable. >> well b, it does. but in his mind, whatever his vent might be, george, he is really driven by -- those aren't people out there. those are -- they're part of the crowd that's made my life miserable. which, you know, makes logically rationally no sense at all, but these guys have -- they don't believe they're shooting you.

this is all about revenge. that's the key word in had this, revenge, whatever his motivation might be. i will tell you, george, he's old enough to really have a lot of negative things to have occurred in his life, whether it's employment, domestic relationships, finances, children, whatever it might be, he may have a great big bag of grievances he's carrying around and he finally said, i'm not going to take it any more, and you, you, society, are going to pay for it. >> revenge and attention. >> of course attention. and despite the fact that he is dead, he's famous this morning for a number of hours or days. and it's all about glory, too. again, makes no sense because you're not alive. but let's face it, somebody rationale and logical is not going to go and commit an act like this. >> and no one who commits an act like that believes they're going to get out alive. >> typically not. rarely do we have these situations where the shooter just lays down the gun and says,

take me into custody. they either make the police shoot them or they shoot themselves. that's typically what we see across the board. in terrorists situations, they love to get into shoot-outs with the police. you know, we have seen in a number of locations in europe. so my sense would be he wasn't going to walk away from this last night's shooting. >> we also saw that in the -- at least with one of the brothers in the boston marathon. although the other one ran away and tried to hide. thank you, brad garrett, also here with our chief investigative correspondent brian ross. authorities now zeroing in on the identity of the suspect not ready to release it. >> they have not made it public at this point. they are looking for a person described as his companion, marilou danley. we believe her last known residence was in the town of mesquite, nevada. it's about an hour from las

vegas. >> we know if the suspect -- not the suspect, the shooter, if the shooter lived there, as well? he was listed as the owner of a residence she lived in. >> they're described as roommates. >> and we don't have the name from police of the shooter himself. we do know the shooter is dead. he unloaded as many as 200 rounds from hesitate pitcher on the 32nd floor with a powerful automatic weapon with a -- it's a -- using bullets that are about 7 millimeters wide. they are extremely lethal. >> i want to go back to matt gutman in las vegas. we got the first reports of shots around 10:08 p.m. las vegas time. so -- so it's not eight hours ago, it's actually five hours ago. matt, what's the scene now in las vegas? >> you can see, one of the things that was so striking

tonight, george, are the sounds of the strip. typically when that attack happened, there would be dozens of planes in the sky about to land. mccarron airport is an extraordinarily busy airport. the strip would be bumping. there would be bumper to bumper traffic here. for the past several hours, now you see traffic starting to filter through, but it was completely still here. they had blocked all the streets. they had begun locking down all of the hotels on the strip basically from the mandarin on south all the way to mandalay where the attack happened. thousands of people stuck in the rooms. then there was the chaos outside. officers with long guns still as what gunfire rang out. people didn't know writ was coming from. there were reports that there were attacks in multiple hotels. obviously the 10,000 plus people at that concert absolute chaos there as they tried to scramble

out of harm's way. people falling right and left as they tried to flee the scene. at first, people thought they were hearing fire crackers. some people thought they heard confetti in the air. and then, of course, the carnage. one man i interviewed said hits friend took three bullets in the chest. they were side by side. another man riding to evacuate to get out of harm's way so they could meet an ambulance died in his had arm right why i'm standing on this street right as paramedics tried to get to him. his friend did survive. but those are the stories and the sheer numbers are astounding. there's 20 dead, a hundred plus wounded. those numbers are likely to rise. unfortunately likely the dead because medical officials are telling us a number of those people are in critical condition still. and right now, obviously, george, everything is focused as

brad and brian have been saying about the investigation. trying to figure out what led to this attack. the planning to this attack was rather extensive. the shooter took to this room, knowing that it was facing this concert, that there were thousands of people below him, knowing he could open fire, bringing his automatic weapon and opening fire. dozens of rounds fired into that crowd. people called it a kill box, shooting fish in a barrel. when you fire a weapon automatic, it is notoriously inaccurate. but when you're firing at tens of thousands of people, it doesn't take much to do extreme harm. >> it was sheer chaos here. again, the way -- there are so

many tall buildings in this area because it is a las vegas strip. and the way the echos of the gunfire sounded between the buildings, this urban gunfire was very misleading for a lot of folks, which is what led to all of these false reports of gunfire up and down the strip. people breaking into the fence of mccarron airport to try to flee the gunfire. everything trying to find an escape route. one of the saddest anecdotes that we've been hearing are that some of the victims were trampled over. just absolute chaos. still, we are seeing ambulances go to the scene. you see there are dozens of police officers around checkpoints still set up around the strip. you still can't go in there. so this had is still very much an active scene in that sense, george. >> thanks very much. jake owen right now is on the phone with us, as well.

jake, what can you tell us? >> it was wild. i was on the stage, actually, watching zason play. i had just come off the stage previously. and standing there, you could hear the bullets start to hit the roof of the stage and people started fleeing everywhere. you could hear people screaming. at that point, the only way to go wag was just wherever you -- it sounded like gunshots were coming from all around us and this is before any of us knew that it was coming from above. it's -- it was chaotic. i keep saying it was like a bad the movie that you've seen before, but never thought it would be real life. >> so you were actually right on -- right on the stage? >> i was on the stage watching about -- jason. z jason turned around and started running back to the riser to get away once he realized the what was going on. it was a bad scene.

there were people literally being shot. you could see blood everywhere. it was something that i don't ever -- you know, wouldn't want to ever see again. >> and it seemed like jason played for a couple of minutes and then he dropped the guitar and ran off stage. >> yeah. i think what a lot of people don't understand is when we're up there playing, we have those in-ear monitors in our ear soes we can hear each other. and i don't think at first he could even hear the shots that were going off until someone in his crusade hey, you need to run off the stage and get back here. but at that point, we were all not knowing what to do. >> well, we're glad you're okay right now, jake. thank you very much for joining us. >> we now know the shooter. >> that's right. the shooter is 64-year-old steven paddock of mesquite, nevada. he's been identified by two law

enforcement officials to abc news as the dead shooter. >> so the shooter has been described by police as a lone wolf type. in that's right. they are looking for 62-year-old marilou danley, his companion. here looking for her to try to learn more about who this person is, what was his motivation. >> and to do that, senior justice correspondent pierre thomas, going to go through his home, his internet postings, everyone he came in contact with. >> that's right, george. i just spoke with an official who confirm the name. right now, no tie toes international terrorism. right now, the las vegas police is still the lead. fbi is involved in this investigation, department of homeland security is nopt

involved. right now, the key is to exploit any cell phones or computers this man has. it is critical kal to find out from the woman he lived with what she may have known about the this horrific attack. >> we remember the orlando shooter was in contact with police. we knew something about what he had on his mind. so far with mr. paddock, we don't have that. >> you don't have that, george, and it doesn't appear this guy wants the attention. one of the reasons that islamic extremist shooters call the media is they want attention. they want to wave the flag, so to speak, for whomever they're following. but when you get an older guy and it doesn't appear, at least at this point, that we're dealing with somebody that is

maybe driven by some extreme religious idea, he's going to be pretty much self-contained. probably got the weapon himself. maybe miss danley can shed light on his mind-set. usually people who go down this road, their thoughts, their images, their beliefs get darker and darker. so i would think we're going to find a fair amount of information, but we may not find it on the internet. >> you talk about revenge and grievance. different from the workplace shootings we covered in the past which seem much more targeted, much more specific, not as general or random. >> right. yes. that's personal to that location because you fired me, you wronged me, you did whatever you did to me. the now i'm going to go and take you out for doing that. this probably has, i'm going to

guess, a little bit more of a global view than like a -- even a school shooter to a certain extent but certainly a workplace violence shooter where he is being driven by maybe just mad at life because of his current state domestically, etcetera. and it's like you pushed me too far .now you're going to pay the price. >> but the revenge is not necessarily directed at the victims. that way, it is a form of terrorism because you're trying -- you're punishing the innocent for something that was done to you. >> no question that this is a terrorist act. i'm only suggesting that this may well be driven by something in his head, not by some maybe outside philosophy. we'll just have to see. but it sort of has that flavor on the front end of it, the idea that you can methodically shoot an automatic weapon for a period of time, pour or five minutes.

also would suggest somebody sort of measured, more organized, and more determined to pull this off and can shoot as long as he can shoot before the police get to him. >> and he was able to shoot for about 4:30. brian, we're coming up on 6:30 right now and it's 3:30 in the west and we're waiting for another police briefing from the sheriff. they're developing information rather quickly here. >> exactly, they are. and they now have the name of the shooter, i believe, 64-year-old steven paddock. they have been to his home. they're looking for a woman described as his companion. no doubt they'll look for phone records, computers, anything to help understand what led to this horrible night. >> and we've heard the the moments where the police finally took him down and they brooechd him. unclear if there was a shoot-out or not. we did hear the explosion. >> exactly.

we don't know if he killed himself or police shot him. we do know he shot unabated for 4:30 just spraying bullets down from an automatic weapon, which is not an easy thing to obtain, even on the black market. >> and it all unfolded about five hours ago in las vegas, 10:08 p.m. las vegas time. a mass shooting at the route 91 country music festival. police have all right rod more than 20 dead, more than a hundred injured. if you're coming on the air right mow, they have a suspect, has been killed, 64-year-old stephen paddock. they're searching for his roommate, an asian woman being sought right now along with two vehicles, both being sought by police as we're waiting for law enforcement officials to give us more informationing. earlier in the evening, there would been more reports of multiple shootings. that turns out not to be true.

also of explosives, as well. down into the crowd at this country music festival. matt gu gutman on the scene if in las vegas. >> hey, george, that's right. and in the absolute chaos that unfolded after that shooting broke out, dozens of shots fired right into that pit where there were thousands of people at the harvest route 91 festival. they were right there. there was nowhere to run for many of them and people called it a kill box because there was nowhere to move. right .left, people fell down as survivors scrambled for safety. they trampled each other sometimes. they even broke into the airport. such was the fervor, the need to get out of harm's way. many people sought refuge under the stage and administered first aid to some of the wounded

there. and it's taken hours for the las vegas strip to sort of come back to normal. you can see the traffic is still being diverted away from the vegas strip. some of the hotels are still on lockdown. people in their rooms unable to get out, told they should remain there, even though we understand there is a single shooter and he has been neutralized. we now know him in any case, stephen paddock, 64. but i guess out of precaution sake, a lot of these people have not been told to leave their rooms just yet. police continued to comb the las vegas strip searching for any clues that might yield more information about who this shooter was and what his motivation must have been, george. sfwlit was the scene of absolute chaos that unfolded for several minutes and then hours in las vegas. one of the people in the scene is lindsay lee, joining us by phone right now. i understand you were trying to rescue people on the scene? >> yes. >> tell us what happened. >> well, you know, we just saw -- we heard like what

sounded like -- i don't know, we thought it maybe it was an electrical problem because we saw sparks and then we thought maybe it was fireworks and then everyone was yelling to get down. we really didn't have anywhere to go. so we all got down to the floor. then it sounded like it got louder. we're all sitting there looking at each other and we're all thinking we were going to die. a security guard got shot right in front of us and then another man got shot. then i called mi my mom to tell her i love her and good-bye. finally, everyone gets up and running. so we're all running and trying to get out of there. i was actually with a group of people that did end up in the airport and break into the airport. we were all hiding behind a

hang hangar finally, we went back and we started piling people in the back of my truck. >> so you were able to get to your truck and you actually started to take the injured to the hospital? >> yes. >> how many were you able to take. >> five injured, but my truck was full of people. >> oh, my goodness. >> one guy did -- >> i'm sorry, lindsay, we have to break away for another police briefing, sheriff lombardo. >> is everybody ready? >> yeah, we're live. >> we're ready. >> all right. well, thank you for being here. i'm here to give you an update on the situation as i know it at this point. i think it's very important for you to understand that this investigation is going to be

long and contracted before we get to the bottom of everything associated with it. but one of the things i wanted to update you with is we have located the vehicles that i had put ott in the first briefing and we believe -- we're confident but not 100% sure we have located the female person of interest. so i want the people to feel confident and calm in thats aspect that we've accomplished a lot in a short period of time. the number of injureds i do not know yet, but we are looking at in excess of 50 individuals dead and over 200 individuals injured at this point. i do not want to give you an accurate number and it be wrong, so subsequently that is why i am portraying it in that manner. now, the suspect i am going to provide you his identity at this point. his name is stephen paddock. last name spelled p-a-d-d-o-c-k

date of birth 4-9-1953. as far as his history and background, we haven't completed that part of the investigation yet. but we located numerous firearms within the room that he occupied and that's -- like i stated earlier, it's going to be a long and tedious investigation. now we're bringing in all the resources of the fbi to assist us in this investigation. in particular, to their victim witness advocates and their csi folks to help us process the scene and ensure that we are getting all the evidence that we can possibly obtain. furthermore, i want to provide you the phone number i said i would provide in the first briefing. that number for family and friends to get an zup date on loved ones is 1-866-535-5654. one more time.

1-866-535-5654. obviously, this is a tragic incident and one that we have never experienced in this valley. so what we're going to try to do is the best we can to get our first responders back on their feet and responding and conducting a proper investigation and ensure that we have the safety of this community at heart. my condolences go out to the loved ones that lost their lives and their families and we will do the best we can to make it as easy as possible for you to get information as we know it. i think it's important for you to see the fbi, county fire and commissioner sislick behind me shows that we have full support of all the government entities to solve this situation as soon as possible. >> do you have any sense of -- >> no, not yet. >> how many law enforcement officers lost their lives?

>> i don't know yet. because there's a -- there's some officers from other jurisdictions that was attending the concert. so i don't have an accurate number of that yet. >> have you gotten an update on your officers that have been injured? >> one was critical, but he's stable and one of my officers was off duty attending the concert and lost his life. >> can you give any more details about the firearms found in the room? >> no. i don't have any more details in the firearms. all i know b is they're rifles and we're executing a search warrant on the room as we speak. >> sheriff, how are you doing? >> we're holding up and we're going to do the best we can. and i don't want to say that's what we're paid to do because nobody is paid to do what we're experiencing right now. but in any preview of the police department, they're doing a fantastic job and we're going to have to look out for their well being moving forward. >> you said there were numerous other firearms found in his

room. is that in mathe room of the hol or in his had home? in the room of the hotel. >> how does the city recover from this and moving failure -- that's a hard question to answer at this point. it's too early in the process and please give us time so we can do a good job. thank you and i would provide you an update on a regular basis at approximately a two-hour window at a time. as you can imagine, we don't get a lot of information all at once, so please bear with us as i provide you information. >> several people on social media are asking where they can donate blood and if they can. do you have any idea -- >> the phone number that i provided, we will get that information out. but right now, you know, i'm knotting comfortable providing that information because we're overwhelm in the medical services at all the hospitals right now. but the united blood services has responded and once they get aller their personnel on the

ground .in place, we'll be able to provide that information. >> so this number is for people looking for their loved ones? >> looking for their loved ones. >> are families still being directed to come here? yes, ma'am. there were two locations where they have been responding. one is at the south area central command and then here. preferably, we will like them to come to police headquarters on martin luther kick so they're not inundaylighted in that area. >> and the families that you're seeing responding, what emotions are you seeing -- >> thank you very much. have a good night. >> more information there coming from sheriff lombardo. more than 50 dead, more than 200 injured after a gunman named stephen paddock started to fire on the crowd from the mandalay hotel. brian ross, as we look at the scene right there, a lot more information coming in now from the sheriff.

they believe they've located the vehicles they were searching for and the roommate of the shooter. >> they believe they found the companion, marilou danley. he said they are conducting a search at this point in the room and found a number of weapons in the room already. >> and this was the scene when the shooting began. brian ross has been reporting, over 4:30 of shoot, bursts lasting approximately 30 second. killing more than 50 people. police said they found numerous weaponses, rifles in the hotel room of the mandalay bay hotel where they were able to take down the shooter. this was the moment when police went in, breached the room when the shooter had had been targeting those concert goers. >> on the suspect's door.

i need for everybody in that hallway to be aware of it and get back. we feed to pop the this and see if we get a response from this guy, see if he's in here or he's moved to somewhere else. >> audience on the 32nd floor, all units move back. >> breach, breach, breach. >> that was from the the shooter taken down, bringing in our former fbi serb agent brad garrett. police got there fairley quickly, but not before immense karn aenl. >> immense carnage, under five minutes. what's interesting about what the sheriff told us is in multiple weapons, you know, that would suggest since i made a comment earlier, it sounded like there wasn't much of a break between shots in other words, even if you're good, it still takes a while to reload. maybe he's dropping a weapon, picking up another one and started shooting again so he had very little delay to get maximum number of rounds down range before he got caught.

>> and it soupdz shows the lethality of these automatic weapons. >> there's no question about it. and particularly when you're shooting in people that really can't go anywhere. again, much like the orlando shooter had them trapped in the nightclub, walked to the bathroom, even shot them in the bathroom. so you've got sort of the same thing, even though it's outside because people are confined. and then once they panic, they start to stampede basically to get away, you've really got -- you've really now set something up where people are going to die that even aren't shot because they're going to get trampled with other people trying to get by them. but the point being, they're fought going anywhere, at least for a number of seconds and maybe up to a minute or two. that's you a he needed, george. >> and you're not targeting people. you're just spraying. >> you're just spraying. one shot could even shoot two

people. you mentioned -- you interviewed somebody early this morning who said the person next to him got not shot three times. if he's got it on automatic and he's trained one place, you're going to get shot multiple times before the weapon moves on. but literally, i'm going to guess that most of the rounds he cranked off probably hit somebody. >> okay, brad garrett, thanks very much. linsey davis on the scene at university hospital in las vegas. we just heard sheriff lombardo say all the hospitals in the area simply overwhelmed. >> exactly. we were all kind of trying to die with guest the idea more than 50 dead and comparing that with pulse nightclub, having the 49 deceased and now hearing on top of that more than 200 people are injured. here at umc, they have more than 50 of those patients and that number had just doubled from the first time they told us to when we got the update here. we haven't heard yet an update on the critical patients. at this point, they're standing firm on 12 critically injured at

this location and 2 pronounced dead. i don't know if you can see all the way down this street, but there is a line of police officers and this perimeter goes around the whole hospital. so we have been here at family members have come up and they're turning them away. so as you heard the sheriff just say, they're asking family members to go to police headquarters. they don't want them to come here. so you have to imagine how agonizing that is for the family members. you can see it on their faces as they pull up here and they're not able to not only come to see their loved ones, but get an update on their conditions. >> and so terrifying to hear these numbers climb hour by hour. >> you have to imagine that this is just -- >> go ahead, linsey. >> you have to imagine this is excruciating, george. we are not getting an update,

except they're only allowing hospital personnel in here. we have seen some people who pulled up, they're able to show they have cards to get here. they are the only ones getting admittance into the hospitals. but, again, the sheriff saying they are overwhelmed and we heard over the scanner asking for additional beds at other hospitals. >> linsey davis, thanks very much. i want to go back to george thomas, latest news from officials on the scene, numerous weapons. george, this is the nightmare scenario the i've been talking to some federal law enforcement sources devastated by this information, george. this is a thing that they have been fearing for quite some time, that someone would simply take an assault rifle, automatic machine gun and simply mow down people at some kind of soft target. in this case, a concert where people unsuspecting of what was to come. they are exercising every effort to find out what they can glean about stephen paddock's background.

so far, no ties to international terrorism. you can see from the press conference that the las vegas police still believe. the fbi will help with the evidence gather egg and the forensics. but that tells you right now where the federal government is from a terrorism standpoint. george, again, law enforcement officials have been studying these kinds of active shooter scenarios, which have been happying with increasing frequency in recent years and they are just concerned that this could be inspiring copycat situations, but this morning, devastateded. >> completely devastated. so far they have identified the shooter. it seemed that they've identified and are speaking with a companion, as well. she would have crucial information. critical to talk to her, george. and were govern and, again, they're going to

look at where these weapons were purchased, if they could clean anything to give them a sense of how to deal with this in the future. right now, it seemed like if this man didn't have any type of critical kal background, if he somehow augmented if assault roo rifle, you can in some ways augment these assault rifles to make them fully automatic. but if this is a person that has limited access to weapons are easy to get and this situation from firing from a hotel vantage point high up and killing all these people is something that law enforcement, again, had long been concerned could happen and it actually did, george. >> it did. brian ross, chief investigative correspondent, they should be able to get a lot of information about this man very quickly. >> he had a lawsuit filed against a hotel in las vegas five years ago settled in arbitration. >> not the mandalay bay? >> not the mandalay bay.

and he also held a private pilot's license. >> but so far, no incidencation -- >> no criminal records at all. >> and no ties to international terrorism? >> no ties at all to international terrorism. not a person who appears to be using much of social media. >> brad garrett, that one piece of information brian just had in a lawsuit feeds into the used of at some point in sort of grievance. >> no question about it. and it may well be, george, it's going to be a grievance that you and i and others would look at each other and go, are you kidding me? you would go shoot people over there? but people like mr. paddock are so brittle that they're just waiting or looking for an excuse to launch a horrific attack. and whatever happens to him in the last couple of days was the triggering event for him. probably small in relative terms, but not in his mind. >> what is happening in the moment for a killer like this? i know you're speculating, but

we've seen the stories about islamic terrorists, others who describe moments of ex ta city is i and joy. here you're dealing more with anger? >> and empowerment. it's intoxicating, i'm mad, i'm going to tate out on you, the this is revenge. but now i'm taking control. i'm controlling the situation. i'm controlling who is going to live and die. naturally a big deal in somebody who feels powerless. the point being this is empowering. i'm taking control. i may be dead in a few minutes, but before that happens, i'm in charge. empowerment, but an absolute absence of empathy. >> zero empathy because he believes the people he's shooting are not human, they are just people who have wrong him,

that have made his life more troubling and they need to be -- we need to get rid of them or in his mind he needs to get rid of them. again, not personal. it's just like i'm mad at society and you're going to pay. >> and you're going to pay. okay. and pierre thomas, we don't know the motive yet. what we do know is that we are seeing mass shootings like this, not this bad. this one turning out to be, it appears, the deadliless mass shooting in america but we are seeing mass shooting at schools, nightclubs, every single week and every single month in this country. >> george, this sort of almost feels like that movie theater shooting in colorado from a few years ago. again, people packed in, nowhere to go, simply mowed down. and you're right, the fbi has been studying active shooter scenarios. at one point we were averaging at least 16 a year. which meant that every month more than once a month that people were showing up and at soft targets at malls, at

schools, at different scenarios. we all remember sandy hook and killing the innocents. i can tell you this incident will be examined, they will look at how the weapons were purchased. this right now is emerging as a steady, routine, chronic crisis that explodes in our faces every so often. >> you talk to law enforcement officials every day at the federal level. what do they say they need to get a handle on this? >> one of the things they're talking about is more tripwires, informing the public to if there is someone who as a grievance and you know that those people have access to weapons, to not hesitate to call law enforcement to discuss your concerns. they're talk about more tripwires in terms of mental health, in terms of people that have issues. now, we just had a case just a

week ago where a man showed up in washington, d.c. not far from the white house who had a vehicle with weapons. who knows how that scenario could have unfolded. so these kind of scenarios are happening more and more and i can guarantee you, george, this will be talked about, discussed, examined at the highest levels of law enforcement to figure out what can be done about it. because, again, as far as we know, this man had no criminal background, no significant criminal background to speak of. how do you stop something like this? >> that's the point. brad garrett, there would be nothing to prevent this man from getting a weapon. >> of course not, george. the idea that if you're a convicinitied velo convicted felon, we have 300 plus million firearms in this country. and i realize that's an

emotional issue for people. i get that. but the readily availability of these heathal type of assault weapons play into people that are troubled like mr. paddock. and it's so easy for them to get their hands on them and then we end up having their horrible conversations about mass shootings of which you just said, this may be the worst in recent years. >> i saw weapons indiscriminate killing machines. >> there's no question about it. >> and brian ross, authorities now going through the background of stephen paddock. that was the scene earlier this evening. so far, again, we've said no ties to international terrorism that we can see of any kind. and, of course, he doesn't seem to fit that profile. >> not at all. a 64-year-old white male from the town of nevada. he had a huntingla license in alaska. he was a private pilot.

as to the weapon, you can tell from the audio that we're hearing here, according to weapons experts, he is firing a fully automatic weapon and those kinds of weapons are not easily available. >> not easily, no, they're fought. i want to go to steve gomez, as well. former fbi agent. steve, right now according to the details we got from brian ross, not a whole lot for the fbi to go on. is steve with us? apparently we've lost steve gomez. let me bring that to brad garrett. some scant details now coming in on the shooter. >> yes. and what you're going to find, george, is that this shooter will -- i am going to guess he's got a texas driver's license. he's lived basically what i've been able to pull up at a number of locations in the last year. his most recent address in negative was in june.

so does that mean that he specifically went back to nevada to commit this shooting? i don't know. he didn't pull that venue out of his hat. he went there for some reason. it could be as simple as it was a mass gathering outside with a big target. >> earlier this summer, we were talking about the shooting at the congressional softball practice. the shooter had gone from illinois to the d.c. area. >> correct. correct. that's not totally uncommon. even the orlando shooter traveleded. he was in florida, but he traveled a couple of hours to get to orlando to commit that shooting. so the idea that they're going to move to a venue where they think that they're going to, you know, exact their revenge is not uncommon. and it apparently mr. paddock may well fit that profile. >> right. and brian ross, what they're looking for now authorities that trigger event, what set him off. >> exactly.

this was not, as brad garrett said, not somebody who snaps, but for some reason or a period of days, weeks or months decided that he was going to do something evil and he did it. >> he built up quite a stockpile. >> absolutely. he fired off more than 24u7b rounds base odd what we can hear. police say they found a number of firearms from that hotel room, he had the perfect vantage point to spray these bullets -- >> and it appears he may have been simply dropping one weapon and picking up the other. >> exactly. we just don't though. >> the shooting started around 1 10:08 p.m. our coverage will continue all through the morning here on abc. "good morning america" coming up in just a few seconds. right now, we want to show you some of the eyewitnesss we've been talking to all through this terrifying evening. but we are looking at in excess

50 individuals dead and over 200 individuals injured at this point. >> scary. it was frightening. it was confusing. it was just can't even explain what happened to us. >> and it just started going pop, pop,.pop, pop, pop,.pop, it kept on going and it was nonstop. hundreds of pops coming down. >> we heard several series of pops in a row. it was like bottle rockets going off. it didn't sound like gunfire or anything.

>> looking around, everybody was ducking. people thought it was bottle rockets or mini fireworks or something. then we saw them yank all the performers off stage. >> i saw jason aldean drop his guitar and i'm like, i'm out of here, okay? it's one of those things that's surreal. you don't realize what's going on and how life changing it can be just in that moment. so i'm just thankful for all of our friends getting out .hopeful for anyone that got hurt that they have a good, quick recovery. >> people still didn't understand, like, when the shooting started, that a shooting was happening. they were had like in that frozen moment and i was like oh, man, i hope these people don't get hit. >> the audience on the 32nd noor, going to breach. all units move back. >> breach, breach, breach. >> t

good morning, america. breaking news, deadly rampage in las vegas. a shooter opening fire killing more than 50, injuring over 200. that's the sound of bullets taking over the arena at a country music festival on the strip. the shooter taking aim from froh above inside the mandalay bay hotel firing rapid rounds for 4 1/2 minutes. >> it just kept going and going. >> chaos erupting. thousands scrambling running for their lives. yi tngo ke some hiding under the stage for the spray of bullets. >> i heard thesep, popop,po, pop, pop,