here from across the region. a number of federal law enforcement agencies. i'm standing not too far away from a frup group of atf agents one man wearing a hat that says ncis. >> we are getting reports from wrc and one of their reporters says they heard gunfire inside the navy yard building recently, at least one, possibly more shots fired. you have not heard anything like that, correct? >> reporter: we're a little bit too far away possibly to hear something like that. we also have these choppers circling over head, so we weren't able to hear that kind of activity. but the way that law enforcement is postured here hasn't changed at all the last couple of hours so our understanding is that this still is active and it's certainly possible there have been shots fired recently. >> you talk about it still being active and most people heeding that shelter in place order,

there has been some discussion about whether this is a lone gunman or multiple assailants. have you heard anything on the scene about exactly have they been able to define if there's more than one gunman? >> reporter: we've been trying to figure that out here on the scene. it's frankly probably more chaotic where we are than where some of you are making phone calls to try to figure out what's going on inside. we did hear from an mpd spokeswoman who said they were going to come out and provide us with more information. so far they haven't been able to do that other than to tell us it is a very fluid and still active situation. >> as you say still active situation, are you still seeing emergency and first responder vehicles flying by you or have they cordoned off the area right now so no traffic is getting through? >> reporter: yeah. in fact i'm being pushed back further than we were before. the emergency vehicles are still moving back and forth. i mean the whole area is cordoned off so no outside vehicles or outside pedestrian

traffic even are able to come into this area, but there is space for first responders to move back and forth so you are seeing occasionally police cars going up and down with a homeland security vehicle come in. there are still numbers of fire trucks from all of the different engine houses across washington who are also here. and then we have these two helicopters flying over top of the navy yard itself. we saw one of those helicopters earlier medevac one of the victims out of the navy yard. so we started the day with just one helicopter. there are now two of them. so the situation really shows no sign of abating at this point. >> when we talk about the helicopters, they're just circling at this point. one was a medevac helicopter that had landed and then taken off again? >> reporter: both of these helicopters appeared to be from the park police. they have gotten low enough at different points we have been able to read the logos on the side. the initial helicopter that did the medevac actually hovered and we saw it drop a rope or some

sort of device down into the navy yard and come back up again with something in it and that helicopter flew away over a parking lot where we were initially staged right across from the navy yard. since then, you've seen that helicopter sort of dive low down over the navy yard. it's hard to tell or not possible to know if they're looking for someone, if they were looking for victims, if they were trying to identify the location of the shooter but they have clearly been hovering down very low to the point that they're involved in whatever is going on on the ground. a second helicopter has come in and sort of higher up above the navy yard so you have one that's making low passes and another that's making wider circles. >> we'll let you get back to reporting. if you're just joining us resetting here at the top of the hour, since 8:20 this morning we've been covering breaking news where we have ten shot at the navy yard. four have been confirmed dead.

there were earlier reports that the gunman had been cornered. we're waiting on more confirmation about exactly what that means while some people discuss whether this is one person working alone or multiple assailants were a part of this coordinated -- or this effort of an attack there at 8:20 a.m. this morning. a reporter on the scene there, donna, can you add to what kasie is reporting and what you're seeing? >> reporter: sure. i've talked to several people who were in the building at the time of the shooting and they have given varying reports. i apologize for the sirens in the background. there's an incredibly heavy police presence. they have given varying reports about how much they heard. one man said he heard seven shots. he was in the atrium of the building, which is on the first floor. seven shots and then sirens and then a recorded message to evacuate. so he did not go back to his desk. he grabbed a blind colleague and

helped the blind colleague out of the building and escorted him down to the metro. he said it was incredibly hectic. people leaving behind their personal possessions and just getting out of there as soon as possible. the second man i interviewed actually was working outside the building. he's a stone mason. he was rebuilding the historic wall outside the navy yard. he said he heard two shots and he said immediately after the two shots, the sirens began wailing and drowned out anything else. he said in his life, and he's in his 40s, he had never seen such a huge police presence and that included atf, federal protective service, secret service, d.c. police, transit police, the whole gang was here. >> donna, where are you in position right now to the naval yard and where you were first doing those interviews? and can you help confirm any of the reports that wrc is talking about the fact that there was a

gunshot just heard recently? >> reporter: i could not hear a gunshot so, you know, i cannot confirm that. the police certainly have not confirmed that either. so there could be all sorts of things going on now. it's a noisy scene with a lot of sirens and a lot of media presence. i am about two blocks away and i can see all the police and the ambulance of the we have an ambulance come down the street about 20 minutes ago but it did not have its sirens on so i don't know if it was just a support ambulance, which they often have at the scene. and of course we have the helicopters flying around. they have been from varying agencies. i've seen one from park police. there's one flying overhead right now as i'm sure you can hear. >> donna, when you had the opportunity to speak to the one was a stone mason and the other

was a civilian contractor? >> reporter: yes, he was a civilian network like systems guy, works on computers. >> okay. and when you had an opportunity to speak to them, did they talk about seeing anything or they only heard the gunshots? they never saw the shooter? >> reporter: they only heard the gunshots. both of them told me that they heard that the shooter was on the third floor, but they did not see anything. >> what have you heard about whether or not -- if the police and authorities have cornered the suspected gunman in between the third and the fourth floor. have you been able to confirm anything on that? >> reporter: i have not confirmed that. that is the rumor floating around, but i do not have that from any official source that that is true. and there's also reports that there may be a second gunman. one report that i did hear that a gunman was on the roof. i do not find that plausible in washington, d.c. one thing that is usually very secured in a federal building is

a rooftop because of satellites and other equipment that they have up there, so it would be -- it would be very challenging to get past the security to get onto a rooftop. >> all right, donna from "usa today," we'll let you get back to reporting. i've just been told we are expecting to have a d.c. police press conference coming up here shortly as well as an 11:30 briefing from one of the hospitals that has been taking in some of the injured from on scene there. our clint van zandt who was with chris jansing in the last hour is with me right now. clint, as we're hearing and again the possibility as wrc is reporting that there are shots fired just recently, what does that say to you about whether or not they have been able to corner the gunman, as you were reporting, between the third and the fourth floor? >> well, it sounds like there's still obviously some type of activity going on.

now, i've been in situations, thomas, as an fbi agent where a gunman will fire off a few rounds to try to keep law enforcement back away from him. that would also be a sound perhaps misinterpreted and it could have been gas that was being fired into the location where he is. so there's a lot of potential explanations. but what it obviously suggests is that there's still something very active going on that concerns this alleged shooter inside this building and law enforcement. the situation still not over with and it's still very dangerous as far as shots being fired anywhere in that area. >> just to reset for everybody, at least ten people have been shot at the navy yard this morning after 8:20 a.m. nbc news confirming at least four people are dead while reports have come out that they were able to corner the gunman there on the property. our pete williams has been working his sources and joins me now. pete, what new information have

you been able to get? >> reporter: well, we're told now by several officials, thomas, that there is now a second building that police have entered after reports of shots fired. so it would appear from these reports that we're hearing now that we now have two shooting locations. the main building that you've been hearing about, the headquarters of the naval c-systems command and a separate building on the facility in which there were reports of shots fired and now the tactical teams are entering that building as well. we have no information on whether these considered confirmed that there are shootings in the second building, but they're serious enough that they have sent a tactical team into a second building. so if this is borne out, then there's more than one gunman.

you know, we've been flirting with these additional reports. "the washington post" the first to report that there was more than one gunman. nobody else confirmed that to us until just a few minutes ago, saying that there is a second shooting scene there at the washington navy yard in a separate building that the tactical teams are now entering. so this is far from over. as for the building that we've been talking about all morning, the headquarters of the naval c systems command there at the navy yard, that larger building, it would appear that the gunman in that building has been shot. we don't know the extent of the injuries. we don't know what his condition is. and i say his because all the reports we've had is that it was a man, a heavily armed man with at least two, possibly three weapons who was doing the shooting in that main building. so while the attention is focused there, now there's a second front in another building

at that same facility. you know, what's going on here is not at all clear to us. all we're told by officials is they don't think there's any -- this is not a terrorist incident so-called, but what the motive is here, who's doing this, we just don't know, peter -- or thomas, excuse me. >> the tact that this takes is quite different if there is a second confirmed gunman on site whereas before as we've been reporting this could have been a disgruntled work situation. but if there is someone else, it tacts into this more coordinated effort. >> reporter: right. >> so i understand the cautiousness that we all take here while we discuss that. pete, it happened at 8:20 a.m., at least the first reports coming out. explain the naval yard. 8:20 a.m. on a monday morning, that's going to be pretty high traffic of everybody flooding into work but it's a combination

of military and civilians working on site there, correct? >> reporter: yes. just about every military installation here in the washington metropolitan area has both civilians and military. that's true of the pentagon, it's true of just about every military office around here. what you have is this enormous concentration of headquarters of the military services. they can't all fit in the pentagon. so the air force has it, the navy has it, the marines, the army, they all have these off-site buildings. the navy, this specific installation also has the location for obvious reasons because it's the navy on the water, so it's on the river. so in instances somewhat shut off from the rest of the district because of the fact that it's water on one side and because it's a military installation, access is controlled. so you're zooming in there on the right-hand side where the

washington navy yard complex is. yes, it would have civilian and military officials. now, we are told that among the shooting victims in the first building, where we think there could be well over a dozen shooting victims, that several of those they now believe are police officers. that the initial responders here, there was obviously a lot of gunfire exchanged between the shooter and the people who were responding. it's taking some time now to sort out the number of -- the number of victims and what their condition is. we've seen ambulances and helicopters taking people out of the facility here who have injuries, so it's going to be a while before we get the specific numbers on that. the point here, thomas, is that this thing is still unfolding now in a different building. >> when we talk about being in a different building, do you know how close it was to the original building where they believe to have cornered the original

gunman? >> well, candidly we have been told what we think the building is but until we're certain, we don't want to say. we don't want to alarm people who may know people in those buildings. >> and again the order remains in place for those on this campus to shelter in place. >> reporter: absolutely. >> pete, we'll let you get back to work. we have jim miklaszewski who is also working his sources. what do you have for us. >> reporter: military officials do confirm that at least 12 people were shot and at least four are dead, but officials here at the pentagon fear that that death toll could rise. still some questions about the number of gunmen. military officials are now convinced there were more than one, but they're looking at the possibility, still holding out the possibility that there could be as many as three. as we heard pete report a moment ago, those s.w.a.t. teams from washington and the federal government are already entering

a second building. we have had reports that the one gunman that was initially reported was down, but don't know if that means if he was wounded or killed. so we'll be pursuing that. but eyewitnesses reported what could only be a horrifying scene. terrifying at the same time. one eyewitness after hearing initial gunshots ducked under his desk, was on the telephone talking to officials here in the pentagon and described at least one of the gunmen walked up to a base security guard, police officer, and shot him seriously. and that was in the early salvos of this shootout. right now nobody knows for sure whether the gunman or gunmen are military or civilian, but as pete was describing the security around this base, if you don't have an i.d. card to get into

that base, whether you're a civilian or a military officer, you must be stopped, have your car searched, you yourself searched for any kind of weapons or other illegal like explosives or the like, if you were trying to bring those into the base. so one might assume, we don't, of koefcourse, but one might as that this or these individuals were at least able to enter the base with an i.d. card. that still doesn't identify them as military or civilian, thomas. >> i just want to repeat the reporting that you are confirming from your military official sources that 12 have been shot, at least four of those victims, those shooting victims, are confirmed dead, potentially with more to come out of that, those that have been rushed off-site for medical treatment. but most interesting coming out of these military sources of

yours is that there is the likelihood that there are multiple assailants, more than two, potentially three? >> reporter: well, they know that there is more than one, according to military officials we're talking to. but there's always a possibility that there could be more than two. at this point they're relying primarily in terms of their reporting from the district police who have pretty much taken over that operation now along with the fbi and federal authorities. their sources are telling them there are at least two. there's a possibility there could be more. there's a lot of confusion. one can only imagine when the shots go off, that people see and hear things that they believe are true, but in the end don't necessarily prove to be accurate. but that's the thinking right now. one of the gunmen is reported down. again, don't know if he's killed or wounded, but the search goes

on for a possible second gunman, maybe more. >> mik, this certainly changes the dynamic, and again that's why i want for all of us to think about this cautiously. we are working with your great military sources, because if it is multiple assailants going into the naval yard, that certainly changes the dynamic of what their purpose was, what the intent is and whether or not this was classified as any attack. >> reporter: one can speculate about that. i know pete is reporting initially that federal authorities found no, quote, nexus to terrorism. but you're right, i think your question is right on the mark. if you get into more than one shooter, one could suspect, obviously, a conspiracy and then you wonder about the motive. if it's a single shooter, it could still be a terrorist, but there could be other issues that are personal. personal issues, personal problems. but then you begin to wonder if there are two shooters, just

what was the motive, what was behind this. >> jim miklaszewski at the pentagon. mik, i'm let you get back on the phone. our kasie hunt remains on the scene there outside the naval yard. you were being moved back. what can you report from the scene now? >> reporter: hi, thomas. well, we're waiting now the metropolitan police department who said that they're going to come and speak to reporters to give us an update on this situation. since the last time we talked, the presence has gotten heavier yet again, not lighter. we've seen several large-size law enforcement trucks go by, so almost like you could imagine it might be a mobile command center of some kind. we've seen several of those go past us. the ambulance activity has diminished a little bit but the helicopters are still circling aggressively overhead. we've been standing here talking to -- there's still a number of people who fled the scene at the navy yard who are now standing on the sidewalk outside waiting for this to resolve itself. the other piece of information

we have is that there was a catholic priest who stopped by to tell reporters that there's going to be a funeral mass at st. mary's depaul church down here near the navy yards to sort of allow family members and victims to potentially grieve. >> kasie, maybe you can help me with this and i know different work places have different work times for most staff. but 8:20 a.m. on a monday morning is pretty much the height of activity when people are arriving to work. have you heard any differently about what the flow of traffic is for employees who would be on site, be at their desks, be in place for a shooter walking in? >> reporter: sure. one woman we spoke to was in the cafeteria, she was just used the atm on the campus at the navy yard. do remember this is a military installation. they tend to get started a couple hours earlier than a lot of us do. so we have talked to a lot of people who say that their

desks -- there were people at their desks. it was still, yes, the dpbeginng of the work day but there were as many people there as there were still coming in so there were a significant number of employees who had already begun to start their work day. this is sort of -- we talked to one person who sort of explained how the badges work as you talked to jim and peete. this woman said that you absolutely have to have your card if you're going to get onto the base or get onto the navy yard, excuse me, earlier than 6:30 in the morning. after that it becomes a little bit easier to enter. but she said that employees don't have to go through metal detectors to get inside. she said that you do have to have a badge to swipe against the door when you get inside. so she was offering this information by way of assuming or thinking that this person probably had a defense department i.d. card of some sort that allowed him or her to gain access to the premises.

if the case is that there are in fact multiple shooters, that would have to be the case for them as well. >> we'll let you get back to work. i want to go to peter alexander who is live at the white house. as we were preparing for this morning, we expected the president to be giving an address coming up just minutes from now about this being the five-year anniversary of the markets crashing and where we are today. this certainly changes the dynamic and the scope if we are going to hear from the president coming up this morning, what he will be talking about. what are you hearing from white house sources about this? >> reporter: thomas, at this point we are understanding that it is not likely the president is going to say anything about the shooting that took place at the washington navy yard. of course that could change. he could say really whatever he likes at the top of the remarks. the event is scheduled to continue as planned about 15 minutes from now. to give you a sense of where we are at the white house, we're probably three and a half miles away from the washington navy yard. the u.s. secret service tells me that their daily operations are not impacted by what took place today. but just speaking to you sort of

observationally by what we've seen around the premises here at the white house in the district itself, there are clearly -- there is clearly a very large police and secret service presence. pennsylvania avenue remains open in front of the white house right now but we have seen numerous officers, secret service agents on bikes pedaling through this area as well as some roads that were temporarily shut down, we presume, because of vips that were driving through this area as well. the president has been briefed, as we have told you, several times over the course of this day by his homeland security and national counterterrorism adviser, lisa monaco. the president has asked for his team to stay closely in contact with federal partners, the navy and fbi specifically, as well as with local officials. obviously right now the white house, all of these folks recognize that the two situations that are playing outside by side really only

miles apart. their hope was to focus on the economy today. they wanted that to be the message over the course of this week. a message the white house was concerned had been lost in so much of the conversation about syria in recent days. obviously the headlines for so many people that live here in washington, d.c., and frankly people watching across the country right now, is focused on what took place at the navy yard. >> peter alexander, thank you, sir. let me ask you to stand by. pete williams has new information. pete, what have you got? >> reporter: well, so just a little caveat here, thomas. we have been told that the tactical teams had entered a second building which is not adjacent to but virtually adjacent to the main building where the shooting happened this morning in the headquarters of the naval c systems command, that a tactical team was entering a second building, reports of a second shooter. and we've heard this from a number of agencies. however, i think this is as good a place as any, thomas, to say

that we've seen the information on this change significantly as the minutes go by here. there's, boy, well over a dozen law enforcement agencies responding here. they all have their own chains of communication, which we are dipping into as best we can. and there are conflicts, as can be understood with -- this is rapidly unfolding and everybody has a little piece of this and so it's a little hard to get the bird's-eye view of precisely what happened and put this altogether. i guess we have to that i can these reports of a second shooter what tentatively. we know that they're opening building doors that are locked by firing at them, so that could be what has caused these reports of a second shooter. so i think to be candid, just to put it all out there, we've been told the assumption is there may be a second shooter in another

building. they're acting as though that's the case. but it could turn out to be a bit of cross pollenation here for certain. we have heard from a number of sources now that the shooter that started this all this morning about three hours ago was a six foot tall man wearing black, heavily armed, carrying we now believe at least three weapons, a military assault style ar-15 weapon, a shotgun and a handgun who began the shooting. and we believe that he has been cornered or they know where he is in the main building of the c systems command and that he has, we believe, been shot but we don't know what his condition is, thomas. >> all right. so obviously as you're pointing out with your reporting, this tactical team that has entered a second building and all those on site working out of an abundance of caution knowing what we know so far about the confirmed shootings that took place and

the confirmed deaths. as you want to be specific and we talk about the shooter, the description of being six feet tall, armed heavily, we had a witness who spoke in the last hour just moments ago to my colleague chris jansing. take a listen. >> i heard he was. i just kept running. [ inaudible ] >> i'm sorry about that, unfortunately my audio wasn't any better than yours so i can't make out exactly what that witness on the scene there was saying. we'll work on that and hopefully get you more witness testimony, eyewitness reports coming into us. pete williams -- is pete williams still with us? we're going back to peter alexander at the white house.

peter, as pete williams was telling us, again, we have this other unit that's going in and certainly this is a multi effort of different organizations, divisions on the scene. d.c. leading the charge here to fig out exactly what this scene means and if there is more than one shooter but pete wants us to work out of an abundance of caution that there is only one shooter so far that they believe they have cornered. again, peter, you said that the president is not going to be making changes so far as you have heard from your sources to his address later? >> reporter: well, we know it remains very possible that he will say something addressing what obviously is the major headline right in his backyard here in washington, d.c., at the top of his remarks that are scheduled now to take place about ten minutes from now. everybody has been finding their seats. this event was initially scheduled to take place in the rose garden. it's due to weather, not because of any security concern that forced them to move inside over at the eisenhower executive office building.

again, just a few minutes from right now. the president, though, continues we expect over the course of this day to get updates from his counterterrorism and homeland security adviser, lisa monaco. also from his deputy chief of staff. the white house official we spoke to earlier said really what the folks here want people to do is just listen, for citizens to listen to the authorities and follow the directions of the first responders in that area, given the fluid nature of what's taking place right now. in situations like this, the white house is obviously very hesitant to get involved when there's an active situation taking place. as president obama has done on numerous other situations, as he's become all too familiar with his responsibilities as consoler in chief, he is often forced into a position where he needs to say something as americans are waiting to hear from their president. thomas. >> peter alexander, thanks so much. i just want to get to these reports coming into us from wrc, our nbc affiliate in washington, that the shooter has been

neutralized. they're saying that the shooter has been killed at the navy yard right now. again, as our pete williams has reported, that a tactical team had moved into a different building to make sure that it was cleared out. but dozens of people apparently are being triaged at the navy yard gates right there after this shooting this morning that happened at 8:20 a.m., original reports first came in. at least ten people have been shot and wounded, four of those people have lost their lives and there are potentially others that have been taken out, medevaced out. their lives are trying to be saved as we speak right now. again, four people were killed at the navy yard after the shots rang out this morning after 8:20 a.m. our kasie hunt has been on the scene for us this morning. again, i go back to this wrc report that the shooter is dead at the scene. one of the reports that we had earlier this hour was that there was a single gunshot heard within the last half hour and

that might have been from officers neutralizing the gunman. >> reporter: yeah, hi, thomas. we did not hear the gunshots here, but there is a significant escalation in activity. we just saw a half dozen at least law enforcement vehicles come flying down the street on m street, including a black sort of s.w.a.t. van. so suddenly there's a number, we can see law enforcement. i can't even overstate the number of officers who are here on this scene and they are at this point actually moving pretty quickly back and forth to the vehicles. so if in fact the shooter has been neutralized, that would make sense in the context of what we're seeing here. >> kasie, again, as we're saying here, these early reports coming in that the shooter has been neutralized on the scene there at the navy yard, have you been pushed back further? as we spoke before, they were widening the swath, the area that they wanted cordoned off.

are you in the same position as before? >> reporter: they have pushed people back across the street where we were initially. so we're still at the corner of third and m, just on the back side of it, and police are being very sort of aggressive by making sure people don't cross that threshold at this point. as i said, we're still seeing particularly nonmarked or nonuniformed police officers who are speeding away from the scene. there's a number of atf agents who are here standing on the corner and they had a car of other officers who came up from the scene who are now standing and consulting with those agents. it also appears now we're seeing additional cars drive past us. and you may be able to see some of this on the scene if you're watching. so definitely some movement here. this is a significant change in the situation kpartd to what we've been seeing over the course of the last couple hours when we just had sort of cars coming to the scene instead of

leaving. >> again, we're waiting for a press conference from the dsz police department to update us on all the facts of what they have been gart this mornither t and we're also awaiting a press conference from the hospital so they can update us on those that have been brought in to receive treatment for their injuries. they had set up a triage center at the gates of the navy yard to deal with some of those that were injured, but again at least ten people have been shot. four are confirmed dead. five area schools remain on lockdown right now. that's the latest hot note that i was just given right now. kasie, if you're still with me, when we talk about the shelter in place order remains in effect, how many employees or how many people from that campus are you seeing on the streets? because it remains unclear how many people were able to get out and how many people remain sheltered in place. excuse me, let's go to the hospital press conference and listen to the update there. let's take a listen.

>> good morning. i'm dr. janice orlowski, the chief medical officer of washington hospital center. i'm here to give you an update regarding the tragedy in the nation's capital. we are currently have received three gunshot victims and we are in the process right now are caring for them. one is in the operating room already, another will be going to the operating room shortly. we have been in discussion with individuals who are at the scene. we understand that there are still more victims and we are not sure as yet how many individuals will be coming to our hospital. those that have come to the trauma bay are alert. they're responsive. they're able to talk to us. they do have severe injuries. but we've been able to speak with all of them. they have not been able to give us any information regarding what happened to them. obviously they're in pain and in

distress because of what they suffered this morning. we will have more information later, but i chose to come out and talk to you at this time so that you'd have an opportunity to hear what we know as of right now. >> can you confirm that there are two police officers included in those wounded being treated here? >> no, sir. there is one metropolitan police officer who is here. the other two are civilians who are here. we understand that there is potentially a second metropolitan police officer at the scene but we have no confirmation of that. >> would you say that these victims are in critical condition right now? >> they are in critical condition right now. >> can you describe their injuries, please? >> in order to maintain a little bit of privacy, i'm going to be very brief about it. we have a gentleman who is in with multiple gunshot wounds to his legs. his injuries involve bones and the blood vessels of his lower

legs. we have another individual who was shot in the shoulder and we have a third individual who just arrived who had a gunshot wound to the head and to the hand. >> male, female? >> male first one, female, female. >> is it fair to say their chances for survival are very good? >> their chances for survival are very good. >> for all three? >> for all three, yes. and again we have -- as you know, we're pretty darn experienced at this. we've got right now this morning we have a number of teams in the trauma bay. we have actually been able to bring in two of our helicopter crews as well and so we have plenty of folks who are here. we're just in the process, the operating room is ready for these individuals. because of our trauma status, we always have trauma rooms that are available in the operating room, so i have surgeons, i have

nurses, i have trauma specialists. we've got the blood bank in the operating room all open, all ready. we have been in communication with those individuals at the scene and we're telling them that we can take an additional eight to ten individuals here at med star washington hospital center. we are not sure if we will get that many, but they have told us that they believe that there will be more victims coming. >> have the helicopters moved from the hospital at the scene? >> the helicopters that have brought the victims in so far have been a park police helicopter and a maryland state police helicopter. there are other helicopters at the scene right now. we're aware of that. but we're not sure who will be transporting. there's initial report of individuals who are on the roof. it ends up there was an individual taken from the roof. she is actually here. the others were individuals who were trying to be under cover on the roof and so the original

report of the number of injured on the roof is being maodified right now. it's a very fluid situation and we're just going minute by minute right now. >> are you able to say what kind of gun was used? a semiautomatic weapon? >> i would tell you from the reports of the victims it was -- it had to be a semiautomatic because they're talking about gunshots that they heard in rapid succession. so i have no more information. we, of course, will get bullet fragments and have more information and they will at the scene as well, but i don't have any more information right now. >> is the d.c. police officer male or female and what injuries? >> the d.c. police officer is a male and i can't go into any other information right now regarding him, but he's the gentleman that's in the operating room right now. >> can you tell us the injuries of the women? >> there is a woman who has a gunshot to the shoulder and

there's a woman who has a gunshot wound to the head and her hand. >> have law enforcement tried to interview them at all? >> yes. we have law enforcement in. they always wait until we tell them, but they have had the chance to very briefly talk to the officers. we were able to have them speak with their loved ones and they also were able to speak briefly with law officers before they have gone off to the operating room. >> have they told you guys anything that you can tell us about what happened? >> no. >> and who's the next person, the one that's waiting to go into surgery? >> they're on their way to surgery. >> can you tell us which of the injuries? >> likely -- the young lady with the gunshot wound to the head. we're just assessing right now. obviously we'll make a triage decision once we have more information. >> when's the next time you'll

update us? >> we'll have to see. >> are there any other hospitals where wounded are being taken? >> i'm not aware. we have been in contact with our colleagues in the city. we all are standing up in order to receive individuals who are gunshot victims, but i'm not aware if anyone else has received any. so we have three -- so we have -- as i said, we have three individuals and we are told to expect more. >> how many, do you have any idea? >> no idea. >> is there additional security here at the hospital right now? >> yes, there is additional security at the hospital. whenever we have an incident of this type, we partner with on this campus, the children's hospital and the va hospital and our officers have stood up and we are -- have a much tighter perimeter to our campus right now and that will continue during -- at least for the next day or so. >> we understand you can't give names and we know that the male was a d.c. metropolitan police

officer. can you describe the women? were they employees at the navy yard? >> you know, sir, i'm not sure what their relationship with the navy yard is. so i don't have that information to give. >> can you tell us if they were wounded inside the navy yard? >> they were. >> but all of them are alert and speaking? >> all of them are alert and speaking at this time. >> those who may be just tuning in, can you give us a summary again of the headline? >> so tragedy at the navy yard, multiple individuals have been shot. we have a report of individuals who have died at the scene and we have a transportation of three gunshot victims to our hospital at this time. >> how many died at the scene? you say died at the scene? >> we understand that there are individuals at the scene who will not be transported because they're deceased. >> do you have any idea of the number? >> i don't know the number. i'm not confident on the number in order to say it. >> will you be briefing us

again? >> we will be briefing you again. >> thank you very much. >> sure. >> yes, sir. >> what officer, where was he shot? >> lower extremities. his legs. let's pray for the individuals at the navy yard. we'll be back to talk to you and med star washington hospital center is standing by to receive anyone else who is transported here. i'll be back to talk to you. thank you. >> so that was the press briefing there from the med star washington hospital where we got information on the three victims that came in. one of the gunshot victims who is the metro police officer that was shot multiple times in the legs is in an operation right now. two civilians who were described as females, one receiving injuries to a shoulder, the other receiving a gunshot wound to the head and hand. that woman will be going into an operation very shortly, but they are all suspected to survive as

they were alert and able to talk to medical personnel at the hospital. our pete williams is standing by. pete, what more do you have for us? >> reporter: well, thomas, several officials now tell us that the gunman who entered the washington navy yard this morning heavily armed and began firing shots is dead. the navy had earlier used the term "neutralized" which could have meant either that he was no longer in a medical condition where he could fire any shots, but we're told now that he is dead. we don't know anything about him yet. they're still working to identify him. that will move along very quickly now that this appears to be winding down. they'll try to find out, you know, why he did this. all we know is that he is a man about six feet tall, that he came in this morning all dressed in black, heavily armed with three weapons. a military-style assault rifle, so-called, ar-15 type weapon. that would be a semiautomatic weapon. you heard the woman from the

hospital talking about semiautomatic weapons. it's one of those rifles that contain a high capacity ammunition clip that fires whenever you pull the trigger. he also had a shotgun and a handgun. now, we don't know what weapons he discharged during the shooting spree this morning. we don't have a good figure yet on the casualty numbers on the dead and injured. we know that some of them were employees in the building and some of them were law enforcement people who responded, both from the washington, d.c., metropolitan police force, our main police department here, and also from the navy, from the navy's own military police who would have been present at the navy yard. so that's the situation at this main building, building 197, the headquarters of the naval c systems command. an annex way down the river and

in the heart of washington. there were reports of shots f e fired in another building, one or two buildings away from this, a much smaller building, and a tactical team responded there. we've been, frankly, trying to resolve all morning long reports that there was more than one gunman, more than one shooter, and we still can't confirm that. the only thing we know is that there was for sure one in this main building who is now dead. whether there is a second one is still being investigated. i think the reason for these conflicting reports is twofold. one, the number of different law enforcement agencies who have been thrown together into this, both federal, state and military, who all have their own little chains of command and are perhaps getting conflicting information, understandable. the second is that we know that the police as they go through and clear the buildings, when they hit a locked door and no

one is answering, they actually open the door with gunfire, so that could have attracted reports that there was a second shooter in this other building. it could have been cross communication. so we're waiting for these various strands of information to be straightened out. so to summarize, we don't have a good number of casualties yet. i think that's still going to take a while until they go through and clear the building. we believe the shooter -- we've been told the shooter from several sources in this main building is dead. we have heard reports that they were investigating. i think that's the way to say it, heard reports that they were investigating reports to the law enforcement people that there was a second shooter, but we don't know whether that's the case or whether that's just a busted signal of somebody thinking there was but really wasn't. so we i think will have this fairly well nailed down here in the next hour or so. >> pete williams reporting for us. pete, thanks so much. richard is on the phone for us right now.

richard, i've been reading some of your reports coming through our hot notes. what more do you have, information about obviously now the confirmation that this shooter is dead but the work that remains to secure the entire area and how other tactical teams are looking at other buildings? >> reporter: as pete just said very clearly, because there's multiple agencies, there are occasionally conflicting reports. >> richard, let me interrupt you real quickly because we've got the d.c. press briefing going on. let's listen. >> any rumors about a situation at bowling. there was no shooting at bowling but i want to give you an update. chief lanier will be here in 20 minutes to give you all the information you need about the incident today. that is all the information that i have at this time but i wanted to give you an update. >> is it over -- >> my name is gwendolyn, crump.

chief lanier, the mayor and deputy mayor will give you an update here in 20 minutes. thank you. >> she was i believe saying if we were hearing that correctly that there was not a situation. someone was asking her about at a local school if i was hearing that correctly, but they're going to have another briefing coming up in 20 minutes. richard espozito, forgive me for interrupting you. sir, go back to what you were saying. >> reporter: well, just as you heard in that press briefing, there's confused information. five schools are locked down, kept closed. the area surrounding the naval base is being locked down. traffic is not being allowed in. but you can just see the number of agencies there. coast guard, protective service, the metropolitan police, the navy, the fbi, which has, i'm told, assumed control of the situation now as the lead

federal agency. so we are still confident about 12 shot and at least four dead. we're waiting to see ifshot, at dead. we're seeing if we can confirm anything more on the shooter. can he can't confirm that yet. we are confirming that a shooter is dead. >> richard esposito, we'll let you get back to work on our investigative uptown. with me bill bratton, nbc analyst, former police chief. great to have you here. as you're watching this situation unfold, as we've been reporting on it over the last three hours, there have been a lot of fluid and moving parts. there is confirmation the shooter is dead. however, out of an abundance of caution tactical teams are moving through campus. explain what motivation is

behind that. >> certainly. it's about confusion houm how many shooters there are. is there one lone shooter or were there possibly others that got out of the location. the abundance of caution is in turn. agencies trying to sort out who had what information when. was it duplicative or new information. that's part of what's going on now. >> as we see everybody on the scene and we're going to hear from the police coming up in 20 minutes, it's been a very fluid situation this morning. a lot of different police hands where we've been getting information from military sources and d.c. police sources. out of an abundance of caution, we're trying to move these forward until we get the confirmation necessary. what will we learn in the next

20 minutes. the confirmed deaths and number of injuries? >> what will occur at the conference, certainly the city officials are going to hold a press conference. my speculation, they were the lead agency going into this. my assumption as richard esposito reported, the navy, ncis has taken this over because this occurred on military property, u.s. navy property. fbi would come in to assist. but if it's deemed to not be a terrorism incident, fbi would normally take the lead on that. other than that, ncis is certainly an extraordinary investigative agency. >> let me ask you to stand by. pete williams has new information, i understand, on the suspect. >> a couple of things, thomas. first of all, talking to several officials now, i think the best way to say this, there is no hard evidence at this point there was more than one shooter here. despite all we've heard today

and all the confusing information. this is tentative information at this point of everyone i've been talking to cautions this is yet to be nailed down 100%. it does appear there was just one gunman all along. first of all, why do we say that? number one, no reports of shots being fired, a possible fire, for the last two hours. secondly, nobody has yet seen a gunman. there were reports of shots fired in another building. you have to remember this is a navy reservation, a lot of people are armed. the police were opening doors at one point if they couldn't get an answer inside. they basically try to shoot the window open or shoot the lock off to get the door open so it could be cross-communication. the best we have at this point from several officials, they now believe it's just one single gunman, one man in his 50s who

h has, we're told, some kind of connection to the navy facility. it doesn't appear to be an act of terrorism. it's sounding very early this morning like a workplace shooting, a disgruntled person who comes back either because he has a personal connection of someone who works there or has his own connection to the facility and has a grudge and came back with some sort of score to settle. it's sounding more and more like it's going to come out to be that. you'll see in the next hour or so, a lot of activity to confirm the identity of this person. we're told he's dead. it should be only a matter of time before we can confirm his identity, go back, semple his house, do all those things mr. bratton knows so well, better than i, what the next investigative steps will be. >> pete, real quick, d.c., gwyn crump, i believe was her name, said they were going to have the

police briefing in 20 minutes. she mentioned bowling. kelly o'donnell sent me a note bowling is a military base. >> bolling. air force base, pentagon, down the river. there had been reports of shots fired there but that's not the case. >> jim cavanaugh standing by for us, nbc analyst and retired atf special agent. we heard there were affirm tf agents on the scene there. now comes the big work of figuring out exactly the motivation behind this suspect they say is dead. >> right. exactly right. just building on what the chief said and pete, i've responded to a number of active shooting situations, police involved shootings. you usually get reports of

multiple gunmen. that comes from different eyewitnesses, see the shooter, if there's one shooter, different places. see him when he's coming in, in a hallway, different room, an officer is down a person is woupded. reports initially as you all know and you've been reporting on it accurately are sometimes blurry in the beginning. it took very well be one shooter. which doesn't answer the motivation question. with multiple shooters, you usually don't get workplace violence. hard to get someone else enlisted being mad at the boss or the government. if it's just one shooter, that still leaves all the motives open. one thing we can certainly tell is we've got a guy dressed all in black, who comes with at least a long gun and maybe a handgun or maybe takes a handgun as the chief mentioned from one of the police officers there. that's pretty purposeful. he comes with a long gun. he's coming in there stalking and killing people. there's a lot of planning and

thought in that, at least for carrying out his shooting event. >> one thing we're hearing, jim, certainly from the medical staff. reporting one of the weapons was a semiautomatic. pete williams saying he was heavily armed with a semiautomatic, shotgun, handgun. as you point out, that could have been a weapon he grabbed off a police officer or military on site there once he took them down. >> i agree with the chief. the naval criminal investigative service ncis will be deep in this with fbi and police and federal partners. the metropolitan police probably were able to get their s.w.a.t. there quickly. the reports of gunfire in the other building, i would say like likely are shotgun breaching by a tactical team. they have to get in the door quickly and use techniques to

knock the down down. one was a shotgun breach. they could have done that for access to search. i wouldn't read too much into that. what's going to happen today, a search and complete investigation from this team of police and agents about who this guy is and what motivated him and is there anybody else involved with suppliers of the gun, criminal co-conspirators as terrorists is the motive. fast moving today. >> at least four people killed. jim cavanaugh, thanks so much. from the medstar washington hospital, three people were taken there. a police officer was in surgery while we were getting briefs. two other people, females were going to get operations, they suffered gunshots to the shoulder, one to her head as well as her hand. i'm going to pass this to alex wagner who will pick up breaking news for the next hour. alex. >> thanks, thomas.

we are following breaking news out of the nation's capital where four people shot and one confirmed dead after a gunman opened fire at the washington naval yard around 8:20 this morning. the shooting took place inside naval systems command center where 3,000 people go to work every day. nbc is confirming the suspect is dead. three victims arrived at washington center, one of whom is a police officer. at a press conference moments ago a washington hospital officials said the three victims all have a very good chance of survival. the victims are all alert and have been able to communicate. at present five d.c. schools are put on lockdown and we're waiting for a press conference from d.c. police as well as remarks from president obama. nbc's pete williams joins me now. pete, there has been back and forth about whether or not there's one shooter, possibly two shooters, maybe even three shooters. do you have any updates on that.

>> the best information we have is there's only one. it's understandable why these other reports are out there. the best information we have is one man, one man in his 50s, all dressed in black, entered the washington navy yard this morning. the shooting started inside or moving inside, heavily armed carrying three weapons, handgun, shotgun, military-style assault rifle, ar-15-type rifle. he is now dead. we don't know the precise number of casualties. that figure has been difficult to get a handle on, as multiple agencies are reporting. we'll have to wait before we can use figures definitively. there have been reports of more than one shooting scene. that's what gave rise to this report of more than one gun