we'll be back at 7:25 with a live local news update. >> you know we're always on and you can go there and get all your information. >> [ music playing ] good morning. the face of evil. a disturbing pick emerging of the suspected gunman behind that florida high school shooting massacre. a 19-year-old former student recently expelled, now accused of killing 17 people and wounding 14 others. >> this is just absolutely pure ev evil. >> investigators now pouring through his disturbing social media posts. the fbi searching his home. this amid dramatic stories of survival and herreroism. >> a teacher pouulled me in and locked me in a door and i was in a closet with like 40 other kids. >> as the nation mourns yet another senseless tragedy.

we are the latest on the investigation the suspect, and the victims, today february 13th, 2018. >> from nbc news, this is a special edition of "today" florida school shooting with savannah guthrie and hoda kotb live from pyeongchang, south korea. >> and welcome to "today" on this thursday morning. we are here in olympic park in pyeongchang, south korea, but it goes without saying that our hearts are definitely back home. >> our hearts are heavy. it's hard to even imagine that this has happened -- >> again. >> again. we want to get to the latest overnight the death toll, in a word, it's staggering, 17 people were killed, making this one of the deadliest mass shootings in american history. at least 14 others were wounded. some of them are in critical condition this morning. >> the suspected gunman is in custody.

officials identifying him as 19-year-old nicholas cruz, a former studented a marjory stoneman high school who had been recently expelled. >> we see images recorded as students barricaded in classrooms. this is what kids and their teachers went through. this is how it looked, how it sounded and felt for them. we will show you. we should warn you, it is disturbing. [ gunshots ] >> oh my god! >> no! >> there's something about seeing that video that puts you exactly where those kids were. >> and we cannot become numb to this. >> we can't. we have complete coverage for you this morning. we will talk to one of the students who was wounded. we will begin, though, with nbc

news' gabe gutierrez. >> reporter: that shooting is so hard to watch the local gunman booked into the jail, surfacing 17 counts of premeditated murder. authorities say he came to the school. shot three people outside, went inside, shot and killed 12 others. two people died at the hospital. students and teachers huddled together. at first they didn't know what to make about this they had the fire drill earlier in the day. unfortunately, there was no drill. >> let's go! >> reporter: these are the unforgettable images of the horror inside the nation's latest school massacre. >> get down. >> reporter: authorities say the lone gunman 19-year-old nicholas cruz was a former student at marnlry sto marjory stoneman douglas school in park authority. just after about 2:00 in the afternoon, he stormed with with an ar-15 rifle. >> we heard gunshots. >> reporter: he is 14, yet he

saw the unthinkable. >> i saw two girls dead next to each other holding hands. there was another body in front of me. there was three on the bathroom door. >> reporter: s.w.a.t. teams swarmed the building racing from one classroom of terrified children to the next. >> we have got the patient loaded, we're getting out of here. >> reporter: from students barricaded inside came heart breaking messages to parents and loved ones. >> she was sending us texts like saying, i love you, i'm sorry. and all that because she didn't think she was going to make it. >> reporter: overnight the fbi interviewed eyewitnesses, including a senior, he and 15 other students crammed into a closet fearing for their lives. >> i can't run. i just had surgery. she's like, you need to come now. i'm hopping to her for dear lie. within it get there i hear gunshots to my left.

>> reporter: students were marched out of the building. >> we didn't know what was going on, once we saw the students running, i started to think, like what's happening? i heard the gunshots, oh my god i just ran. >> i just hope all the other kids are okay and oh my god. >> reporter: president trump not speaking on camera, but tweeting, my prayers and condolences to the families of the victims. no child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an american school. among the 17 killed, a football coach, 14 others were injured. not all of the victims have been identified. >> some of these children had no i.d.. they had no -- they left their back papg backbacks, there was no cell phones to trace it back. >> reporter: police tracked him down to a neighboring city and took him into custody about an hour later. >> no parent should ever have to send their kids to school and have them not return. >> reporter: now, the school superintendent says just before the rampage, the alleged gunman

actually came to the school in an uber car. this high school remains closed the rest of the week. grief counsellors will be on hand at this community. hoda, savannah, unfortunately we are seeing this over and over again. but this shooting is now among the list of the deadliest school shootings in u.s. history. back to you. >> that is heart breaking. gabe, thank you. we turn now to a young woman samantha gradgrady. she was actually grazed by bullets during that shooting. samantha, good morning. it's good to see your face. thank you for being with us. >> any time. thank you for having me. >> samantha, first i have -- i want to know how you are feeling. i know you did get some bullet wounds. i know your best trend was shot right next to you. >> yeah. >> do you know how she's doing? have you been able to hear what happened to her? >> yeah, unfortunately, she

didn't make it. >> oh. >> samantha, we are so -- >> yeah. >> we are so sorry about that, samantha, so sorry. are you okay, honey? >> i'm okay. thank you. >> we're sending love and prayers to you right now. >> thank you. >> tell us, if you can, who it was -- what it was like in that classroom during those moments? did you hear the gunfire first? what happened? >> well, i was doing an assignment for my holocaust class and we were -- leak i was typing and i took my phone out, because i wanted to show my friend something and i heard two shots. my friend pushed med and said, sam, and i ran to the left side of the classroom, that's where like there was a big book shelf and we all kind of huddled there together. we were all making, like we all

clamped like really close tightly together and then students in front of me, there was this cabinet, they pushed it in front of them so that it would deter some of the bullets and the gunman, like there was two people in the hallway that i know and i believe, that were shot and after those two, after i heard those two fun shots, then we started running and then he came for our classroom. so he came after he shot those other two people. >> and samantha, as i understood it, the door to your classroom was actually shot, but he shot through the glass. is that what happened? >> yeah. yeah. the door was locked, thankfully, but like he shot quite a few bullets into the glass and it hit a few people behind me and, yeah. >> sometimes you put anything in front of you that can you to try protect yourself.

and we were reading that your friends suggested to you, just get a book. hold up a book. can you tell me about that? >> yeah. my friend, she was -- she was the one that pushed me. we were running, we were already situated in the, by the book shelf and she's like grab a book, grab a book, so i took a book. it was a tiny book. i held it up. i believe maybe the book kind of deterred some of the bullets. so it didn't hit me so badly. but she was the one who gave me the idea. yeah. she definitely helped a lot. >> samantha, i know you were able get out of the school. you went over to where it was safer by the ambulance and at some point you were able to calm your parents and see your parents. they must have been so happy to see you. what was that reunion like? >> well, when i first left the school, they didn't know anything had happened. so i hid behind a truck and i called them and i made sure i was kind of calm because i

didn't want them to go crazy. so after that, i -- after a long story short, i went to the ambulance and then while i was in the ambulance, they rushed down to the school, but their phone died. so tabor rowed someone else's phone. and then i told them, i'm in the ambulance, i'm on my way to north broward and i will, like if try and come there, and then ask for me. i'll tell them your names and that's what happened. so they rushed there, i was already taken care of. i was already in the hospital bed. they walked in. my dad was really worried. like it was etched all over his face. my mom, she was like balling. as you can imagine, it was pretty scary for both of them. >> well, you are such a brave young woman. just the fact that you were in that classroom, you had the presence of mind to call 911 and you are worried about your parents' feelings. that's what you are thinking about.

tell us what happened when you got home. were you able to talk it out with your family? did you feel like discussing it? >> well, we did have, i mean, a lot of people asked -- i was actually at the hospital. someone came in and they told me talk about it as much as can you so you can get it out of your brain, so you don't have like nightmares about it. so whenever the opportunity came, whenever someone asked, i freely talked about it. because i don't want nightmares. my family, we talked about it at the hospital. we came back, we had discussions. i told them details i didn't tell other people. i told them spec details. it was an intense moment. my whole family like, we came together. it was, it was pretty -- it was done. yeah. the support was nice. >> samantha, you have been through too much, way too much for a young woman your age, but what bravery you showed and our hearts are with you and we're

sending you our love. thank you for being with us. >> thank you any time. thank you for having me. >> thanks, samantha. and as we said, we are now learning more about the suspected shooter. this is new video of 19-year-old nicholas cruz, he was arriving at jail this morning. nbc news' tom costello has that part of the story. hi, tom. >> reporter: they say the picture is of a problem teenager. he had a fixation with guns, his parents died. he had been kicked out of school and on wednesday came to school with a semi automatic weapon. this morning it appears 19-year-old nicholas cruz planned the attack on his high school. >> he had countless magazines, multiple magazines, at this point we believe he had one ar-15 rifle. i don't know if he had a second weapon right now. >> reporter: his intention, authorities say is to cause

chaos and cause as much hoff vac as well. >> he wore a gas mask. he set off the fire alarm so the kids would come out into the hallways. >> reporter: investigators say cruz had been expelled from the same school last year, tore behavioral issues and threatening other students. it contained images of cruz wielding knives and showing off a gun. buzzby is reporting the fbi was warned last year about a youtube post from a user nicholas cruz, who wrote, i'm going to be a professional school shooter. according to buzzfeed, agents spoke with the person that alerted them in october and asked them to follow up after yesterday's shooting. fellow students say cruz was a socially awkward kid with a pre occupation with guns. >> i was in the vocational school, an alternate school. he showed me his guns and how he shot them for fun.

>> he's always been a crazy kid. i heard people say one day he would have done this, unfortunately, today was the day. >> reporter: since his mother died in september, he was staying with a family friend. the lawyer of the friend says this all came as a shock. >> he was a very mild mannered kid. he was going through tough times with losing his mom. >> reporter: the question for investigators was anyone aware of what he was planning. ti the fbi agents say the mo is all too common. >> a lot of times you have a disenfranchised young man who is really outside of the norm in the sense as a rupt of bullying, anti-social behavior, is it a romantic issue, just to make a name for himself? there's multiple motivations. >> reporter: this morning, yet another mass murder at another american school, yet another heavily armed angry young man determined to kill.

this is the 18th school shooting this year alone. since the sandy hook massacre in 2012 when 26 were killed, there have been 273 more school shootings. fbi profilers say there are signs of danger to look for among a potential shooter. somebody who is brooding, depressed, disenfranchised from other students, making remarks about others online, maybe drawn to firearms and previous mass murders and almost always say investigators, there are warning signs on social media if anybody is paying attention. savannah, who dark, back to yho. >> thank you. the president tweeted about this, he offered his prayers and condolences, he is tweeting again this morning, let's go to national correspondent peter alexander, who is at the white house. good morning. >> reporter: savannah, good morning. a very administration official telling me there is a strong chance president trump will publicly address this tragedy at some point today. at the moment there are no public events on his schedule.

on wednesday the president didn't make on-camera remarks. his advisers recommended he say something. you talked about him on twitter moments ago, tweeting, so many signs that the florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. neighbors and class mights knew he was a big problem. must always report such instances to authorities, again and again. with parkland three of the too much ten deadliest shootings in u.s. history have now happened during president trump's time in office. officials here this morning telling me since the shooting, the president and staff have been speaking directly with law any, fomt and governor rick scott. connecticut senator chris murphy an outspoken advocate for gun reform, especially in the wake of the sandy hook massacre tweeted this. don't tell me this isn't the appropriate team to debate gun violence. if you are a political leader doing nothing about this, you

are an accomplice him an interesting note the school where the shooting occurred is 40 miles away from the president's mar-a-lago estate. this morning officials are discussing whether the president might visit the area when he's scheduled to be in florida this weekend. savannah, hoda. >> peter alexander at the white house, thank you. we will of course continue to cover this. 7:17. we should get our first check of the weather. >> good morning. we'll show you what's happening. first of all, we got foggy conditions stretching right now from the gulf coast into northern florida. a foggy and wet conditions through the upper ohio and mississippi river valleys. snowing through the northern rockies. record highs in the central plains and heavy rain making its way into the southwest. we're going to get to your local forecast coming up in the next 30 seconds.

good morning, i'm meteorologist kari hall. as we take a live look outside in san francisco an all clear and chilly start. our highs today warmerian yesterday up to 62. 66 in san jose. 67 in concord as well as 67 in santa rosa. ukiah up to 60 today. 65 in palo alto. over the next few days a blast of some really cold air by the end of the weekend with some gusty winds and that stays with us into the beginning of next week. >> and that is your latest weather. . >> and that is your latest weather. hoda.

>> just ahead, we will have more on the investigation and the victims of that shooting in florida. >> then we will talk to one of the teachers who is hailed as a hero. she hid her students in a closet as the gunfire rang out. we will talk to her just

just ahead from here in south korea, we will have more from our visit to the dmz. exclusive visit to the areas rarely seen by the outside world. >> after your local news and weather. lips lose natural color over time.

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yeah, it can do that too. it's google home mini, now only $39. here is the latest from a very good morning to you. it is 7:26. i'm laura garcia. here's the latest from parkland, florida, the high school where yesterday's deadly shooting rampage took place. the suspect is a former student there due in court today. authorities are supposed to have an update anytime now. the "today" show will carry it live. 17 people confirmed dead. 14 others are in the hospital. president trump is scheduled to speak on the shooting just 30 minutes from now. nbc will also carry that address live in a special report. you'll also be able to link the news conference from our home page. i'll personally tweet out a link to that. follow me @lauragarcianbc. a look at the forecast for this thursday morning. another cool start, kari.

it is a cool start which is all sunshine as we get a live look in san jose. this is what we'll see as we go into the rest of the day, a lot more sun than yesterday and slightly warmer temperatures with a high of 66. 65 in palo alto and 62 in san francisco. mid-60s for the north bay. santa rosa, 67. some low 60s for the next couple of days. a blast of cold air will be here by the end of the weekend. that continues into early next week. what's happening on the roads now, mike? getting ready for the big build after 7:30. we're looking at recovery for the dumbarton at 84 and 92. 237 at the bottom are alternates traveling west consider them. more problems in the north bay as this crash leaving a couple of big rigs on the shoulder, at least one is being removed now. down to just one lane, your left lane, eastbound 80 into vacaville out of fairfield. i-80 to the bay bridge a typical

pattern there, slow. another local news update in half an hour.

. good morning, everybody, 7:30 on a thursday morning. it's the 15th of february, 2018, and it's a hard morning, a day when sadly our country's mourning and coming to grips with yet another school shooting. this time it was parkland florida, just near ft. lauderdale. >> the 19-year-old suspect was taken into custody early this morning, he has been booked on 17 counts of premeditated murder. 14 others were wounded in that rampage. in a moment, we will talk to a very brave teach worry action may have saved some lives. first, nbc news' tammy leitner has the latest on the

investigation. tammy, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, guys. this community is waking up realizes that 17 members of their community are dead, while police are searching the gunman's house, trying to find answers as to why this shooter has opened up and fired on this community and yet another deadly shooting. this morning, we are getting a look at the shooter, 19-year-old nicolas cruz, he has been charged with 17 counts of premed indicated murder. we now know cruz entered the school just after 2:00 p.m. he had an ar-15, multiple magazines, gunfire rang out. students took cover, barricading themselves inside classrooms wherever they should. this went on for more than an hour, cruz was somehow able to slip outside of the school, not before killing 17 and injuring 14. police tell us they were able look at under surveillance video from the school to determine who

cruz was. they located him less than a mile from the school. they picked him up, took him to a nearby hospital and then booked him into the jail. now, yesterday we spent the afternoon speaking with students, teachers and parents and most of them said that there were warning signs. they tell us that cruz was a troubled individual, that he had shown other students pictures of guns that one day he had even brought bullets to the schools. so the big question today is, could this school shooting that is now being called one of the deadliest mass school shootings have been prevented? guys. >> all right. tammy, thank you so much. this woman teaches at douglas high school. she hid with 19 students in a closet. all made it out safely. mellissa, good morning to you. >> good morning. i know you had such a long night. just let us know how you are feeling this morning.

>> i'm not really sure. i didn't sleep very well last night. mostly i feel grateful that i got to go home to my family when many others didn't get that. >> you had such a presence of mind to get your children and put them in a closet. was that just instinct? >> i think that that really speaks to you know the training that we had. we had a training about a month ago and you know we talkedant these different scenarios and what to do soond once we made it to the classroom and you know we heard the sirens and the helicopters and it was very obvious based on the time it was happening that it wasn't a drill. you know i made a decision that that was another layer between us and whoever you know was the active shooter and so you know we just moved into the closet and we were there for a while until the s.w.a.t. team came to get us.

>> mellissa, it's 19 students and you in a small closet and you are hearing gunfire and helicopters and sirens. i can't imagine what those moments were like. how were the students holding up? how were you holding up? >> i mean, we were -- we were on the opposite side of the building you know from where the shooting was happening, so we didn't hear any gunfire, but we could hear you know the hox and you kn -- the helicopters, the kids were hysterical from moment one. so it's just, you know, trying to keep them calm and telling them that they're going to be okay and everything is going to be okay, just knowing that it doesn't really matter you know what i'm feeling in that moment, like they need to be calm and feel like they will be okay. you know, that's my job. i just did my job. >> you did your job, but i know there was a moment when you called your mom and that must have been heart wrenching? >> yeah. my mom actually, she called me

and you know when i picked it up, in that moment, i sort of lost my composure and i told her i was okay but i had to get off the phone because i didn't, you know, she ned to know i was okay. but the kids needed me to be composed and so, you know, it's hard to in that moment to stay composed so you know i sort of got off the phone with her and you know recomposed and carried on. >> there were so many casualties in this and i was just wondering if you knew any of the students who passed away. were you close with any of them? >> you know, they haven't really released the names, so i only know, you know, kind of what i'm hearing you know through rumors and the grapevine. so i know that there are some former students and current students that i have that may have had siblings that they lost in the shooting. and i don't think that you know there is any one of us at the

school in this community that isn't going to be affected, know someone who's affected, know a student a. faculty members and feel that sense of loss. >> mellissa, you did everything right. you did exactly what they told you. you knew the drills. you put the kids in the right place. yet this happened anyway. so what message do you have given all that? >> i just think, you know, i've seen this on tv. we all have this you know shooting after shooting and you know there is always the same thing is said. it's not the time to talk about gun control. it's not the time. it's time to pray for the families and i just think that that hasn't gotten us anywhere. i mean, here we are and we're like the latest statistic on you know on school violence and as a society, you know, as americans, we're failing our children. we're not keeping them safe and congre congress is failing us, the

government is failing us and something has to be done. >> as hoda say, mellissa, you did it all right yesterday. thank you for your bravery. our hearts are with you. >> thank you. >> all right. let's switch gears now and go to mr. roker. hey, al. >> all right, guys. as we talk about what's happening, as far as our weather is concerned, we're looking ahead to the weekend and early saturday, low pressure in the southeast brings a lot of heavy rain, moderate rain across the region. a secondary storm forms off the southeastern coast and americans, brigg snow with it saturday night, depending on where that storm forms and how far off the coast. we could see heavier snow along the coast. right now, we think the heavier amounts will be up into parts of coastal connecticut on into new england. snowfall apples about four-to-six inches. the rest of the country today, heavy rain in the southwest. record highs in the central part of the country. we got plenty of sunshine in

central california down into the good morning. i'm meteorologist kari hall. a lot of sunshine today. and after this chilly start, it will be a very nice afternoon, slightly warmer temperatures than yesterday. look for a high of 66 degrees in san jose. 63 in livermore. 67 in concord. oakland, 63. in half moon bay, 62. 62 today in san francisco. the north bay some mid to upper 60s there. we're going to have some cooler temperatures moving in by the end of the weekend into early next week. enjoy this while it lasts. >> and that's your latest . >> and that's your latest weather. >> al, thank you so much. and when we come back, we'll turn to the competition here at the winter olympics and mick ra shiffrin. she had a delayed -- big la shiffrin, she had a delay, but it won't be the only one. >> we will catch up with her

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welcome back. >> indeed, our craig melvin joins us. hello, craig. >> reporter: for the fifth night in a row team usa struck gold after a string of weather delays, mikaela shiffrin making that debut here in pyeongchang and promptly won the giant slalom. now, one of the world's biggest skiing stars hopes more gold is in her future. >> giant slalom gold for mikaela shiffrin in pyeongchang. >> reporter: with the fierce winds on the mountain finally settling down, american skier mikaela shiffrin blowing the competition away, grabbing gold in the slalom after bad weather

postponed the event for several days, shiffrin got her first chance at a medal. >> finally down goes shiffrin in hopes of more olympic history in south korea. >> reporter: after putting up the second fastest time on her first run. >> not the run but certainly enough to put her in contention. >> reporter: the 22-year-old shiffrin glided through gates to a gold medal finish. >> these games could not set up any better. the 22-year-old mikaela shiffrin. >> that second run i really risked everything that i could. it's an incredible feeling right now. >> reporter: from the top of the mountain to a showdown on the ice, the u.s. women's hockey team battling what may be their toughest competition. canada. the two teams pushing and shoving each other, mask-to-mask in a rivalry that dates back two decades. >> the shot. score! 2-0 canada. >> reporter: the canadian taking a 2-0 lead into the 3rd period.

the u.s. quickly scoring a goal of their own. >> kevin connell. scores! 23 seconds into the 3rd period. the united states is on the board. >> reporter: then a last-second shot, leading to a scramble in front of the canadian net. >> the puck is under there somewhere. the question is, did it cross the line? >> reporter: following a lengthy review by the referees, the answer the americans did not want to hear. no goal. >> the game is over, canada officially wins it 2-1. >> reporter: finally, another first for team usa. married figure skaters. alexa and chris knierim to complete the triple twist in a competition the duo who won a bronze in the team event finished in 15th in the pairs free skate. they say despite their score, they skated from the heart. >> we wanted to skate for the 17 children that died in the

florida shootings and today was much more than about us. we had a lot of mistakes, but i think -- >> we are coming on the air with breaking news. officials in broward county florida are about to hold a news conference to give an update on wednesday's tragic mass shooting. at marjory stoneman douglas high school in parkland in western broward county at least 17 people were killed. a 19-year-old student was taken into custody. this morgue, he was charged with 17 campaign 2000 of premeditated murder. we will take you to the news conference. it looks like it is about to begin. we will tell you president trump plans to address the nation shortly after the end of this news conference. we will cover all of this. theic with us. >> good morning. today is not any easier than yesterday was.

all the victims' families have been notified. we will be releasing a list of those that lost their lives yesterday. it will be released through our pio in a very short period of time. but all the family have been notified. our detectives worked through the night on this very darkening and -- daunting and challenging task. it had to be done and the right thing to do and they worked tirelessly. this community is hurting right now. there will be a lot of conversation over the next couple of days and weeks and i'm going to be very animated about what i think this country can do to possibly prevent these tragedies in the future. today is a day of healing. stood a day of mourning. the suspect is in custody. he will be appearing before his first magistrate today at 2:00 p.m. at the broward county courthouse.

this morning, we will -- we have begun working with the fbi. you will be hearing with a special agent in charge of the fbi, rob laskey in a few minutes. we are also working with the florida department of law enforcement under the direction of troy walker. we will interview every single student or every person in that school that possibly knew something or might not know they know something. they will be thoroughly debriefed. we will make sure we are able to prosecute this case. the suspect has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and law enforcement will do everything we can, the fbi, ourselves, to make sure that this person is convicted of all charges and that justice is served. sadly, there have been copecat threats made today in other schools.

we will respond to every threat. every threat we receive, we will not classify it as a copycat or a prank call. we will respond in full and investigate it. any call that is made fictitiously, any fake call, any calm that's made to take out resources at a time like this and place them in places where we don't need to be. we will do the full power of the sheriffs office will investigate this and charge anyone accordingly with a maximum charge we possibly could, for doing something so horrific, so pathetic. governor scott is going to come up and speak and then you will hear from special agent in charge of the fbi. i'll return to the microphone and answer some questions. i think it's noteworthy that at our next press conference, i

will be releasing a time line based on an investigation and video that we've captured as to what happened yesterday. i'd like to take you through it in chron logical order. we're not ready to do that at this time. we will be back here and we will release that. now i'd like to introduce to governor rick scott. >> thank you eb in the sheriffs department for all their hard work to make sure that the, one, the individual we have justice, two, to make sure this never happens again. so i think everybody appears will say the same thing. our hearts and prayers are with these families. the families that lost loved ones, other families that have loved ones in the hospital, i had the opportunity to visit with some of those families last night. also we want to make sure this never happens again. next week in tam has see, i'm going to sit down with state leaders. we will have a real conversation about two things. how do we make sure when a

parent is ready to send their child to school and in florida that parent knows that child is going to be safe? number two, how do we make sure that individuals with mental illness do not touch a gun? we need to have a real conversation so we have public safety for our schools in this state. i've spoken with the speaker richard corcoran, sitting president joe negron. they are committed to have a real conversation about how to make sure we have public safety. i want to make sure that my children and my grandchildren, yours, everybody in this state can wake up and be safe. i'm going to stay here and do everything i can. i know all the state resources are going to do here. i know the attorney general, everyone will work hard with the state department and the school district to do everything we can to go forward. but the violence has to stop. we cannot lose another child in

this country to violence in a school. there is many families grieving right now. we got to grieve with them, mourn with them, but give them their space. there will be a time that they'll want to sit down, tell their story. right now, as you talk to individuals, we went through this with the attack. they want their own time to grieve. so i want to thank everybody from the sheriffs departments to fdle, everything in the school district that they are doing to keep people safe. i want to thank the tomorrow for the victim advocates coming down here to be help. . >> good morning my name's rob laskey. i'm the special agent in charge of the miami division of the fbi. first of all, i want to express my heart felt condolences to the victims, the families the friends, the entire community who suffered a senseless and cow readily act. the fbi continues to stand by the broward county sheriffs office, support them, give them

every resource they need to investigate this heinous crime. in 2017, the fbi received information about a comment made on a youtube channel the comments simply said, i'm going to be a professional school shooter. no other information was included with that comment which would indicate a time, location, or the true identity of the person who made the comment. the fbi conducted data reviews, checks, but was unable to further identify the person who actually made the comment. again as a native floridian, my heart goes out to the victims, the families, the friends and the entire community. thank you. >> i'd like to bring up our superintendent of schools ron runc runcy. >> again, we can't say this

enough, every minute of the day is focusing on how we can support our families, our students, and our staff as we work through this horrific situation. we have provided grief counsellors at several locations for our students two in parkhappened, two in coral springs -- two in parkland, two in coral springs and we are doing etching we can to make sure we are supporting our students. we're also providing grief counsellors on site for students and staff at west glazed middle school, which is near here. throughout the district, we are providing guidance to all of our schools on how to have conversations with our students on this particular topic. i will tell you that students have been reaching out to me reaching out to staff, probably board members and others, saying

that now, now is the time for this country to have a real conversation on sensible gun control laws in this country. so our students are asking for that conversation. and i hope we can get it done in this generation. but if we don't, they will. the second thing i would say that the governor alluded to it, something that we can do now that we can get done in this legislative session is some real funding for mental health support for our youth and organizations in our community so we can properly provide the right kind of interventions. we should not have disconnected youth wandering around in hour communities when we know they need additional support. i have been on the phone with members of the legislature. they're going to work with the leaders there and the governor to substantially increase the ams that are being p amounts put on the table for

family workers and case workers in our schools is absolutely needed. the last thing i would say is that there have been a lot of inquiries as to where individuals can provide support. i want to thank everyone in the broward community and around the country for your continued thoughts and prayers, acts of kindness that we see minute by minute. there is a go fund me account that's been set up as we talked about yesterday, there have been a lot of fraudulent type of activities set up out there. so we've worked to establish something that's credible. it's a go fund me account. stoneman douse las fund. go fund ne, stoneman douglas fund, which folks can make contributions. again, please keep our babies, our families and this entire commune in the your prayers as we go through this healing ross says. it will take quite a fooil while for us to be able to deal with this.

but we will do everything key, every day, create the greatest amount of flexible we can to make sure we are supporting our families. again you want to thank our law enforcement agencies, sheriff israel, the fbi, first responders. they have been incredible. i want to act knowledge some heroes in our school. we had an athletic districtor, campus monitor who responded immediately when there were signs of trouble in the school. fortunately, those two heroes gave their lives for our kids and probably helped prevent this from being a worse tragedy that it is today. so we need to act knowledge the heroes in our school every single day, our teachers, our educators, for not only ensuring our kids are learning and developing the skills. they need to have a bright future. but they love them and treat them as if they're their own children. they put their likes on the line every single day. that's another thing to do to figure out how we can better compensate and reward teachers in this country.

they're not just getting lip service to the quality of work that they provide. thank you. >> as i said yesterday, when our attorney general pam bondy bound out object this tragedy having dealt with the pulse nightclub and having a lot of expertise in this area, unfortunately, she got on a plane and was down here within hours and helped out and has begun to help a lot of our families out. i would like to bring her up here to tell about the great things they're doing to help our families in parkland. >> thank you, sheriff. thank you, governor. thank you special agent laskey. last night, there were two scenes going on. one at the actual crime scene and broward sheriffs office and fbi, they were second to none. they were unbelievable what they did. that crime scene from a prosecution point of view was meticulously detailed, pros sesd and it took as long as needed to take to make sure it was

thoroughly processed and accurately processed. the other scene was at the hotel where we were with the family members. having to tell with the fbi advocates and my advocates that a child is 14-years-old, dead, we've to the victims

who have lost loved ones. py pam bondy.

eif we don't have a due sti here or a police officer here. this is nationwide. we need more. more heroes, more first responders, not less first responders. i know many states have different terms to help our mentally ill, and we all pray for our mentally ill, we pray for them to recover. we all know someone or a family who's affected by someone suffering from mental illness. the baker act in florida allows law enforcement or medical professionals to confine a person earn voluntarily while they get examined and looked at. but you have to have a reason, have you to be able to articulate that they're a threat to themselves or a threat to someone else. what i'm asking our lawmakers to do, go back to places like

tallahassee, places like washington, d.c., and give police the power, if they see something on social media. if they see graphic pictures of rifles and blood and gore and guns, and bombs. if they see something, horrific language. if they see a person talking about, i want to grow up to be a serial killer, we need to have the power to take that person and bring them before mental health professionals at that particular time involuntarily and have them examined. people are going to be rightfully concerned about their rights as i am. but what about the rights of these students? what about the rights of young kids that go to schools with book bags and pencils? don't they have the right to be protected by the united states government to the best of our ability? and that's what we'll be doing. >> i don't know about the incident yet, or what actually

his performance was, but i know aaron personally. i coached with him. my two boys played for him. i don't know when aaron's funeral is, i don't know how many adults are going to go, but you'll get 2,000 kids there, the kids in this community loved him, they adored him. he was one of the greatest people i knew. he was a phenomenal man. i don't know the specifics yet, but i can tell you when aaron feist died, when he was killed tragically, inhumanely, he did it protecting others, you can guarantee that, that's who aaron feist was. >> what is the extent of their injuries, what kind of injuries do they have? >> we are for the nat today to have our doctors who work so tirelessly and saved so many lives yesterday. so we're going to bring up one of our doctors to speak about some of those questions and answer those questions. doctor?

>> thank you, sir. >> good afternoon. dr. evan boyer, director and chairman of the department of emergency medicine at broward health north, and i also have our colleagues from broward health main here, and the three of us collectively hopefully could answer some of those questions. so for starters. just because we're medical professionals doesn't mean we're numb to the emotions and we send out our sympathy to all the families involved, the worst thing as a parent is if your kid doesn't come home from school that day. we sympathize with that. with that being said, nowadays, unfortunately, we do drills for this. about nine months ago, we did a drill specifically for an active

shooter. i want to commend the prehospital personnel yesterday for all of their effortses and all the efforts at broward health north, broward health main and coral springs medical center got a couple patients as well. >> specifically to broward health north, and then i'll turn it over to dr. menendez. broward health north, we had a total of nine patients. one was the suspect treated and released. we had two patients deceased. three patients have been discharged. we currently have three patients in the hospital. one with an extremity wound who is doing well, and working with physical therapy. another patient who is still intubated after penetrating trauma to the chest, but is doing well and following commands. and a third patient who remains intubated and in critical condition. >> i'm director of the emergency department for broward health medical center. yesterday was a tragedy that we

all as a team took care of. we received seven patients. of the seven patients, right now, we have two patients in critical, stable condition, the other five went home or are on their way home, they're in good condition. the other twoville a trauma surgeon dealing with them. if you have any questions about tho those. >> i'm the trauma medical director of broward health medical center, and unfortunately this is becoming routine for us now. it's the second such episode we've had in a year, which is very sad. the first thing i want to say is that the second time around, just like the first time around, the first responders did a terrific job. and for those of you who understand what we do in trauma, time is of the essence, and really the delivery of those patience by that ems personnel was fantastic today.

it made a huge difference in the outcomes. we received seven patients, along with discharge last night. we had one that was in critical condition that went to surgery. we had two more stable patients that also require surgery. we have -- they're still -- out of the six still left in the hospital, we're hoping to be able to send home two of them today. but i'm expecting that all of them will fully recover. i'll be happy to take any questions. >> can you please tell us, are you prepared to tell us that nicholas cruz -- can you comment, is that the same person? >> we do not know if it's the same person. we did our database checks, we could not positively identify him, we're going back, scrubbing the information, looking at it again, i'm not willing to say at this time it was one in the same person. >> has anyone specifically targeted -- is there any indication that someone was

specifically targeted that started all of this? >> not at this time. it's certainly a possibility. the fbi, the florida department of law enforcement, and broward sheriff's office will be working con junktively to interview as many people as we can, down the road, we can uncover that information. right now, it's no more than a possibility. >> do you know how he entered the building? how he got in? >> we will speak about that. we do know about that, at our next press conference, i will take the media through a time line and talk about through videotapes, we'll matchup video with realtime information, with things we know, and we'll disemanate that. >> have you received the weapon? what can you tell us about how -- >> what is your understanding? >> we're not going to release that until later today, if we do at all today. that's something that alcohol, tobacco and firearms are trying

to track down the history of this weapon. we believe we know where the weapon was purchased, where the weapon came from, but that's being pieced together. that will be something that we will discuss at the appropriate time. >> as i said, i talk about this all the time. it's not a phrase -- it's not a term, it's the way we have to live our lives in sir ka 2018. if we see something, we need to say something. if that neighbor comes home every friday at 4:00 and he or she is always carrying a grocery bag and there's milk and eggs sticking out. the last two fridays they've gone to a different range and they've come back with bullets in the bag on fridays. that's a change in behavior, that's different, that's something we need to know about. you're our eyes and ears. one community member who sees something, could do more in a one minute phone call than sometimes law enforcement can do in a period of months. if you know anybody. right now, if you know anybody who's saying, you know what, this raises a red flag, i was

thinking of calling. don't think about calling us, call us, call the fbi, call the florida department of law enforcement. call the broward sheriff's office. if you have -- if there's something in your gut that tells you there's something not right with this person, this person has the capabilities in my mind to do this or do that. please don't remain silent. please let us know about it. >> can you explain why he was expelled. >> problems all the way back to middle school. he had an extensive disciplinary record. was he on the school district's radar in some sense? what was done about him, people have known him for years already, prior to his expulsion from the high school. >> you know, as a school district, we have to protect the privacy of our students. so i can't go into much detail at all about the students record and personal information.

i will tell you it was a former student. because of issues that arose here, he was transferred to another school within the county. >> was it a troubled school? what type of school was it? >> again, i'm not privileged to provide that information at the moment. it is a student that we have been providing supports for and recognize that there certainly were challenges there. specifics i can't get into. as far as the student coming on campus, the -- this particular individual came on the campus at the time of dismissal and that is a fairly open time for the campus, he entered the facility at that moment. >> were you aware -- having a disciplinary record. having been expelled. having been ruled as a problem in the schools.district knew he was out there, and he had had

had problems in the past, correct? >> let me just say this, when we have students within our care in the district we provide the services that we can provide them. this is bigger than just the school system. our kids are out of our schools, two thirds at a time, they're up. we need a communitywide approach to helping our students with challenges and mental health concerns. and so again, we've got to invest resources to make sure we minimize the occurrence of this ever happening again, if we don't. it's not a matter of if. it's going to be when. >> psychological trigger -- was there a psychological trigger with this student for this event? >> i have no idea. >> where are you guys processing the scene? >> there are somebody's that are still in the school. there's -- right now, the focus of the fbi and the broward

sheriff's office is on the successful prosecution of this killer. and we're not going to leave any stone unturned. we're trying to process this as quickly as we can. but the m.e. is involved, investigators are involved, there's science dna and a whole plethora of things. we want to go fast, but we're not going to rush it, we're going to get it right, before we get it fast. that's what's going on right now. >> a real conversation about -- >> do students in the school know who to report concerns to, if they were concerned about a classmate, is there a phone call or a system -- >> you'd have to ask -- i'm sure there is. >> he wasn't enrolled. there is a process, they could get ahold of teachers, guidance counselors, their parents, make aknown mouse calls to crimestoppers. if somebody knows something, there's certainly ample way to

say yes. >> we had a school resource deputy on campus, he was armed. he never encountered -- at this point, the only thing i can tell you definitively, he never encountered cruz. you. >> said you want to have a real conversation about -- how to prevent something like this from happening. does that real conversation include gun control? that's something that you'll look into? >> the two things i want to focus on when i have this conversation next week, i want to focus on school safety. and that's going to focus on dollars. it's going to focus as the superintendent said on mental health, dollars, it's going to folk us on what are the things we can do with regard to school safety. if somebody's mentally ill, they should not have access to a gun. so i want to focus on both of those things. i've already spoke tonight speaker of the house, and the senate president. and they're receptive so having this conversation about school safety.

all of us have children or grandchildren, nieces or nephews, none of us want anything like this to happen again. >> let me also say something -- i should have said something in spanish earlier. spe [ speaking spanish ] >> was there a diagnosis, or is it something we're assuming because he killed so many people? >> i think it's a pretty good assumption to start out with. >> you forecast for us, the conversations you plan -- how will they be different at that point conversations -- >> right. well, let's remember this.

first off, pulse was a terrorist attack. after pulse we put -- i asked for money, legislature supported adding more counter terrorism experts through our florida department of law enforcement. we did that we added 46 additional counter terrorism experts. we did that. what we have to think about. all of our schools have to be safe, it's as simple as that. how do we do that? it's going to be funding. it's going to be -- is there both for security, for mental illness, for counselors, things like that, on top of that we've got to say to ourselves, if we have someone that's mentally ill, they can't have access to a gun. so i'm open to having a conversation about things. i don't want my children, your children, my children, your grandchildren ever to go through anything like this. i don't want a parent to have to say, you have to learn how to be careful about a shooter. that's not the society we want to live in.

>> i also -- we have out here today -- i'm flanked by many of our school board members, our elected officials on the school board. we appreciate them being out here. and we're going to make sure they're part of the conversations too. they deeply care about their students and this community. i'm glad to see them here today. a few more questions. >> what has -- >> we're not going to release anything he said to detectives. >> why does -- >> if someone can look forward to your agency -- what could you legally have done about the fact that you owned -- >> well, if he legally owned a gun, we couldn't do anything about legally owning a gun. if we think a red flag goes up, and that there's something not right. and we think this person has a

propensity to do such a horrific act. i think police all over this nation need to be empowered to take that person and medically deliver him to a medical or her to a medical facility. where they can be examined. thank you for your time. we'll be back in about an hour. >> did you talk to cruz? >> you heard, that was the last person speaking there, the broward county sheriff, scott israel. let me go to the scene now, at parkla parkland. gabe gutierrez, we have a lot of updates from the sheriff, from the governor, from the superintendent, fill in some blanks here, i think the -- i think we now know all the victims' families have been talked to. but fill in some of the blanks that we now have learned throughout the last hour. >> well, hi there chuck. big piece of news that we just found out from the fbi is that they said they did receive that report back in september of 2017. now, filling in some of the

blanks here, some of the questions we often have after these school shootings is warning signs missed. a mississippi bail bonds man back in september, saw a comment on his youtube channel saying, i'm going to be "a professional school shooter." he says he reported that to the fbi. in that news conference you just heard an fbi spokesperson say they weren't able to positively identify the commenter there. i spoke with a school superintendent this morning. he says he does not believe the school missed any warning signs. there was a lot of talk among students who say this gunman had a troubled past, that he often talked about guns, that he had social media accounts talking about guns. and that he was expelled because of disciplinary problems. the investigation is active here overnight. authorities searched the gunman's home, as you have reported 14 -- 17 people killed rather, at least 18 injured, the school remains closed at this point. but there are grief counselors on hand to help this community

heal, chuck. >> gabe gutierrez from parkland. we're awaiting comments from the president. he's going to address the nation in a few minutes. let's go to tom costello who has been doing a lot of background checking on the suspect himself. yes, a lot of people said something, there were a lot of warnings, clearly the way our background check system works for purchasing firearms, none of that information was in any database or in any rudimentary background check that was done in this country? >> he legally obtained that a.r. 15 we're told within the past year or so, and there were plenty of people in the school who were raising concerns about his erratic or awkward behavior and his threats. so much so that he had been banned from going on to campus. expelled from the school, and local authorities there, at least the school employees were told, watch out if he shows up with a backpack.

and other students as we've heard over the course of the past 18 hours or so, other students had said, yeah, he talked freely about guns, about killing animals, about this preoccupation with weapons. and they thought that he was, in fact, dangerous. uber, by the way, is now confirming one of their drivers took him to the school, just before the shooting. and according to the police, he showed up at about dismissal time. so the time line now is starting to appear, and we're expecting to get more of that over the course of the next few hours. >> obviously we still need to learn what did the uber driver see or didn't see when he dropped him off at the school. the president is speaking in the diplomatic room. let's take a listen. >> my fellow americans, today i speak to a nation in grief.

yesterday a school filled with innocent children and caring teachers became the scene of terrible violence, hatred and ev evil. around 2:30 yesterday afternoon, police responded to reports of gunfire at marjorie stonam douglas high school in parkland florida. a great and safe community. there a shooter who is now in custody, opened fire on defenseless students and teachers. he murdered 17 people and badly wounded at least 14 others. our entire nation with one heavy heart is praying for the victims and their families.

to every parent, teacher and child, who is hurting so badly, we are here for you, whatever you need, whatever we can do to ease your pain. we are all joined together as one american family, and your suffering is our burden also. no child -- no teacher should ever be in danger in an american school. no parent should ever have to fear for their sons and daughters when they kiss them good-bye in the morning. each person who was stolen from us yesterday had a full life ahead of them. a life filled with wonderous beauty. and unlimited potential and promise.

each one had dreams to pursue, love to give and talents to share with the world. and each one had a family to whom they meant everything in the world. today we mourn for all of those who lost their lives. we comfort the grieving and the wounded. and we hurt for the entire community of parkland florida that is now in shock and pain. and searching for answers. to law enforcement, first responders and teachers who responded so bravely in the face of danger. we thank you for your courage. soon after the shooter, i spoke with governor scott to convey our deepest sympathies to the people of florida and our determination to assist in anyway that we can.

i also spoke with florida attorney general pam bondy and broward county sheriff scott israel. i'm making plans to visit parkland, to meet with families and local officials, and to continue coordinating the federal response. in these moments of heartache and darkness. we hold on to god's word in scripture. i have heard your prayer. and seen your tears. i will heal you. we trust in that promise, and we hold fast to our fellow americans in their time of sorrow. i want to speak now directly to america's children. especially those who feel lost, alone, confused or even scared. i want you to know that you are never alone, and you never will be.

you have people who care about you, who love you. and who will do anything at all to protect you. if you need help, turn to a teacher, a family member. a local police officer or a faith leader. answer hate with love, answer cruelty with kindness. we must also work together to create a culture in our country that embraces the dignity of life that creates deep and meaningful human connections. and that turns classmates and colleagues into friends and neighbors. our administration is working closely with local authorities to investigate the shooting and learn everything we can. we are committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools and tackle the difficult issue of mental health.

later this month, i will be meeting with the nation's governors and attorney generals where making our schools and our children safer will be our top priority. it is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference. we must actually make that difference. in times of tragedy, the bonds that sustain us are those of family, faith, community and country. these bonds are stronger than the forces of hatred and evil. and these bonds grow even stronger in the hours of our greatest need. and so always, but especially today. let us hold our loved ones close. let us pray for healing and for peace, and let us come together

as one nation to wipe away the tears and strive for a much better tomorrow. thank you, and god bless you all. thank you very much. >> that was president trump, as you heard there, deciding not to address any policy ideas at all in his remarks, leaving it mostly trying to strike an empathetic tone. but it was surprising that he decided to strike that tone today given what we heard from governor rick scott, from the superintendent down there, from the broward county sheriff's office. where the governor is already talking about, what do you do to keep mentally ill people from actually being able to purchase a gun. that is something that the president stopped short of even entering into a conversation on that. >> let me bring in peter alexander watching this at the white house. peter, i guess what struck me most about those remarks is, they made a lot of sense if he

uttered them yesterday. today it feels as if he's almost about eight hours behind. >> yeah, chuck, i think that's exactly right. i spoke to a senior administration official earlier who said advisers to the president urged him, recommended yesterday that he speak immediately in the aftermath of the shooting, but he's the one who opted not to, waiting until today to speak. i was struck by him saying in those remarks, to americans, children, watching right now. we are here for you. we will do in effect whatever we can to help you to ease your pain. but the real question right now is, how? what capitol. what effort is this administration, this president willing to put behind this right now? prayers and condolences are one thing. symbolic gestures like lowering the flag as they did -- or even visiting that community i think will satisfy some. clearly in the wake of now three of the top ten deadliest shootings now happening since president trump took office, the real question is, what more will happen. remember the conversation we had after the massacre in vegas,

over those bump stocks that allow a rifle to shoot more rapidly, the president said it's too soon to talk about it, months have passed and the conversation ended in effect, they haven't been talking about it since. it's been up to the states to take any action. will the president try? >> and peter, i'm struck by again, it's as if the president didn't watch the press conference that proceeded his remarks. one of his closest political allies, someone who politically would be seen as a friend of the nra, he already introduced the idea that he wants to look into what can we do to the background check system. essentially to prevent mentally disturbed people from being able to purchase a gun. he was introducing that idea -- and this is -- the fact that the president wouldn't even follow that lead, i thought was striking. he barely -- i don't know if he even uttered the word gun. >> i think you're right. what was also striking, let me show you a tweet the president put out earlier this morning. a lot of people raised some

eyebrows for them. so many signs of the florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled for bad and erratic behavior, neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. must always report such instances to authorities again and again. in effect saying the community there could have done more at this time. what more are they doing here? this week they raised the issue, the budget, they put out their new budget, whether it goes anywhere, it doesn't matter, it calls for a 22% cut in medicaid alone provides 25% of the mental health care in this country. the question is, are they going to do something actively as opposed to just the opposite of what they're saying publicly. >> you know how good our team is here, we've already confirmed he did not utter the word gun in those remarks. peter alexander at the white house. thank you very much. let me go down to gabe gutierrez one more time back in florida

down there, at parkland. what's happening at the school today, is it grief counselors, victim's families, obviously there's no classes. describe what you're witnessing? >> a lot of the streets around here are still blocked off. the investigation still underway as i mentioned, the authorities are going through the suspects home, they executed that search warrant overnight. what we have been talking to are students that is all sneaking in for them. some of them just learning this morning, that some of their friends, people they had known for years did not make it, you heard from that news conference, a very emotional remembrance from the sheriff. talking about that football coach, aaron feist, he threw himself in front of these bullets to save some of these children. many parents we spoke to are realizing the children who were able to survive, they're clutching them extra hard today.

the school here is closed for the rest of the week. grief counselors are at other sites nearby. in order to help this community heel. we're starting to learn more on the time line of this. the uber driver who brought this shooter to the school. we're expecting to learn more about that in future briefings. >> tom, i know you're looking at the gunman, we heard the fbi, the lead agent in charge say they looked into this comment but they couldn't really confirm it, they couldn't find the identity. the comment had his name on there, so i guess we're not sure. it's not clear how the fbi goes about looking into these warnings? >> that's right.

let's also be clear, nikolas cruz is a rather common name in america. you can imagine that will be difficult to track down. i will tell you, i've been talking to former police chiefs and fbi profilers who say, when you look at what has happened across the country, very often in the wake of these school shootings, you find that the shooter very often a teenaged boy or 20 something young man, that person has been preoccupied with other school shootings in the past. and almost always something brings them to columbine 19 years ago, that the shooters today, at least in the last 19 years have done online research about columbine, and in some cases tried to emulate columbine. that continues to haunt this country 19 years later. >> wow! tom costello, thank you for that. we're going to be following this story throughout the day, we will kohl back on the air as events warrant.

you can find out more on msnbc, nbc news.com. and you'll get full details tonight on everything happening down there in parkland, florida. on the nbc nightly news with lester lester holt. for now, i'm chuck todd, nbc oms news, washington. it's anything from what you probably heard korean popular music to just very generic news about the world. >> finally, we drive down to the so-called bridge of no return. >> crew members walked in single file across the bridge. >> a sight of prisoner exchanges after the korean war, named so because once people picked a side, there was no going back. the last prisoners that crossed were the sailors from the captured ship, the uss pueblo. tour groups aren't normally allowed off the bus by the bridge, let alone to stand this close, for good reason as it turns out. >> so back in august 2016 we observed the north koreans putting some land mines on the other side. that's why you've got that big

yellow sign there now. if it went off now, we would hear it but it's not going to hurt us. >> but they recently are putting land mines right there. >> right. >> so we don't want to get any closer. >> no, no. >> a stark reminder that this last bastion of the cold war is as hot as ever. >> wow. >> so fascinating and surreal is the word that keeps popping into mind when you're there, because you're so close yet so far. our two countries obviously are literally trading nuclear threats, and yet this dmz, there are public tours. people come to see -- you can buy a dmz button at the souvenir shop. i bought two. sorry, craig, i didn't know you were going to be here. >> that's okay. >> one for al, one for hoda. we'll have to go back. >> we'll go back. >> so tourism is up? >> it's up 20% to 30%. by the way, the north koreans give tours on their side too. mostly it's people from other countries who want -- who come to north korea and want to see the dmz.

>> on one hand you hear about the land mines and on the other hand you hear about the k-pop. it's such a mixed bag. >> the whole thing is so strange. there's the propaganda village, which is a fake village, nobody lives there. they have a humongous flag pole, they blair north korean propaganda and our side is authorized to play stuff back, k-pop. >> how was the land mine worry? >> it was real. they don't let people out of that bus. they did let us out but the colonel kept saying don't walk off the road. don't walk off the road because the land mines from the korean war and the north koreans are still up to it, still putting land mines there. >> and see -- eyeballing the people with the binoculars. >> i have to give a shoutout to our camera operator, kyle. he's been to the dmz 15 or 20 times. i didn't see it when we were there. he noticed the north koreans checking it out. >> wow, that was great. coming up, something you have got to see, you're going to

freak when you see this story. keir dives in with south korea's modern day mermaids. >> mermaids? >> yes, there are mermaids. but first, this is "today" on nbc.

and >> that's right. we all have daughters. we're all looking for those examples of proud powerful women to tell our daughters about. how about this? they're known as women of the sea. some of them even are called modern mermaids of korea and the story behind this group of

amazing women is simply inspiring. at the southernmost tip of south korea, a tiny island operated by a powerful female, women of the sea, modern day mermaids without air tanks, holding their breath up to 2 minutes at a time. these women collect seaweed, shellfish and octopus from the seabed. local photographer brought us to the island to meet one extraordinary family who follow a tradition that goes back hundreds of years. at 41, kim jae young is the youngest on the island. she, her mother and aunt dive together in these treacherous waters. how dangerous is it? >> if you're thinking other things, it's really dangerous. >> last year, a woman was swept away.

is there a risk for sharks? >> a lot. >> a lot of sharks. >> yes. >> the handful of seaweed, kim demonstrates how to keep the mask from fogging and the whistling technique to help them control their breathing. few get the chance to dive here. start wasn't very good. with a little help from my friends, i began to get the hang of it. i just got one.

this is a tough living. women have a saying. one breath, one shellfish. >> i want people to know about henu. >> documenting these amazing women. >> she's 94. >> 94? >> this is kim's grandmother. after 80 years, she still dives almost every day. as night falls, it's time to cook up the catch. is this the octopus you caught today? we saw you grabbing it out of the rock. the words of the song are why was i born, the life of a henu is so hard and the water is so cold. to the henu.

but at dawn, another day brings another dive. aspirin to thin the blood, chewing gum in ears to protect against pressure, secrets that may one day be forgotten, their daughters to more modern careers. 4 four and a half thousand left. how long do you hope this tradition goes? >> just keep going, just keep going, she says. >> we're here celebrating olympic athletes, these are olympic level athletes. extraordinary. >> 94? >> she's 94. you see her going down to grab an octopus? they don't have oxygen. if it grabs to something and her, she's stuck. it's dangerous. incredible the way they grab.

the secret, the shellfish i caught, they kind of put him there. >> the sea floor. you still did it. that's impressive. >> you worry about whether you're going to be able to get back up again. you're down, thinking, how high is it? do i have enough breath left? >> wow. brave. >> you have the greatest job in the world. >> brave and honest. >> coming up next, the must-see places to visit some more in south korea that the olympics inspired you to plan a trip here. first, this is todayn nbc. o i am extremely proud of jackie, gaby and stephanie. we worked with pg&e to save energy because we o wanted to help the school. they would put these signs on the door to let the teacher know you didn't cut off the light.

the teachers, they would call us the energy patrol. so they would be like, here they come, turn off your lights! those three young ladies were teaching the whole school about energy efficiency. we actually saved $50,000. and that's just one school, two semesters, three girls. together, we're building a better california.

we are loving our time here in south korea. if the olympics have you dreaming about maybe visiting this place, we do have just the thing. >> that's right. we have just the person, contributing editor at "traveler" with must-sees for visitors.

five of them. >> five amazing places. >> are they in any particular order? >> we can take them in an order. >> okay. how about seoul, obviously big city, lots to see. >> the place really the thing you want to see in seoul is like the forbidden city for beijing or versailles for paris, it's the palace. you can go inside. there's amazing history. 143-acre gardens, beautiful secret garden out back you have to book a tour of. >> how far is that from the actual city of seoul? >> it's right in the city so it's very accessible. >> let's talk about if we want some traditional old school korean culture, you say there's something we should visit called bookchong hanok village. >> that's pretty good. that was good. >> well done. >> it's basically a bit like the west village in new york. imagine an old neighborhood, very historic, near the palace

built initially as imperial housing for wealthy people. fell into a little disrepair and has boomed with lovely boutiques, restaurants. people still live there so it's a living part of seoul but history as well. >> and do you have to know the language? because we've been walking around and sometimes i wonder, we have people who are helping us with that, but do you think a tourist could warned arounder a enjoy? >> instead of saying do you speak english, you can say i'm sorry, i don't speak korean and that's a really good open. >> what about the marketplaces, the oldest marketplace in seoul? >> i love that you asked this. you read my mind. this is guangjung. if you want to try all those delicious korean tidbits, which is like a fritatta or maybe live squid, which will still be

squirming -- >> keir tasted it, right? >> you have to chew really carefully to make sure that it goes down. but it's very fresh. >> have you done that? >> i would. >> let's go outside the city for a second. the island that a lot of people call south korea's hawaii. >> we were just there with the mermaids. but if you're not going to go free diving, if that's a little too much, it's like a honeymoon destination. it's a volcanic island like hawaii, 360 volcanos, but it is idyllic. you can't fail. >> it looks buceautiful. >> there is a place for foodies if you're into the gourmet. >> jeongju. >> if you've ever tried bibimbop which is basically the world's best leftovers, it's where it was invented. you've got to have it. you've got to have the version which is like a guacamole pot

but it's cooked in a stone pot and crisps up like paella and it's basically like the best kind of foods all in a single bowl. >> i love it. >> thank you for this tour. >> yes. exactly. thank you so much, mark, glad to have you with us here. we're back in a moment. this is "today" on nbc. at stanford health care, we can now repair complex aortic aneurysms without invasive surgery. if we can do that, imagine what we can do for varicose veins. and if we can precisely treat eye cancer with minimal damage to the rest of the eye, imagine what we can do for glaucoma, even cataracts. if we can use dna to diagnose the rarest of diseases, imagine what we can do

for the conditions that affect us all. imagine what we can do for you. at the marine mammal center, the environment is everything. we want to do our very best for each and every animal, and we want to operate a sustainable facility. and pg&e has been a partner helping us to achieve that. we've helped the marine mammal center go solar, install electric vehicle charging stations, and become more energy efficient. pg&e has allowed us to be the most sustainable organization we can be. any time you help a customer, it's a really good feeling. it's especially so when it's a customer that's doing

such good and important work for the environment. together, we're building a better california. we are back with a look at the olympic cauldron, the olympic flame burning brightly on day eight of these games. we have a lot of great events coming up this evening. >> big night in primetime. we have the men's figure skating, so nathan chen, the quad king. and mikaela shiffrin. >>kaela shiffrin will be here. megyn kelly is coming up next. before that let's take a look at these images.

- when you wake up, it's where you turn... - welcome to "today." and it's the start of a big and busy day. - to find understanding... [child yells] ...hope, a smile. [woman laughs] welcome to all the possibilities the morning can bring. welcome to "today." the man and woman accused of killing a tracy woman and good morning. it's 8:56. i'm marcus washington. a map and woman accused of killing a tracy woman and leaving her for dead on a rural road near livermore are back in court. today's hearing is a continuation of the arraignment that got under way yesterday for daniel gross and melissa leonardo. police say the pair stab and dumped a 19-year-old on the side of tesla road early monday. investigators say the victim

managed to flag down for help and tell authorities who her a tackers were moments before she died. that's where authorities arrested the two suspects. happening now, we are moner itting today's hearing. you can go to our twitter feed any time where we will post updates as soon as we get them. president trump a short time ago wrapped up an address on the latest school shooting ram page. we do now know that 17 people are dead. the shooting happened early, happened only about 30 miles or so from his mar-a-lago resort in florida. we're learning more this morning about some of the people who died. go to our homepage for latest developments. on a lighter note, more bay area olympians are getting ready to make their debut in korea. tonight, that includes figure skater vincent cho.

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good morning, everyone. i'm megyn kelly. we begin today with yet another mass shooting in america. yet again at a school where children showed up to learn and grow and instead wound up terrified, barricading their classroom doors or running for their lives. 17 students and educators were killed yesterday at marjory stoneman douglas high school in florida, and that number may yet rise. the latest in a shameful string of school shootings in our country. nbc's gabe gutierrez is here with the very latest from parkland, florida. gabe? >> reporter: megyn, just a heart-breaking scene. the school superintendent tells me that the gunman showed up here by taking an uber car, shot three people outside the school, then went inside t