back now to the investigation, we're learning brand-new details about the two additional people police were searching for. justice correspondent pete williams has been on this since it started. pete, what's the latest? >> the question has been one of the many questions has been whether there was more than one gunman involved in the mass shooting today and it's still pointing toward the possibility that it was just one person. there was surveillance video and eyewitness reports of others. d.c. police have said one of people they were looking for, a white male with a tan navy style uniform and beret has been identified and was responding, was not involved in the shooting. so all indications are that it was just a single gunman identified by many law enforcement officials as 34-year-old aaron alexis of ft. worth, texas, his identity is confirmed through fingerprints, there was confusion about his

identity because a badge, a security badge, i.d. badge, was found near his body. he was confirmed dead earlier today and i.d. badge found near his body. it was thought initially that the name on the badge was the name of the gunman. that turned out not to be correct. the badge holder is someone who worked at that facility as a contractor, found at home by d.c. police and questioned, still being questioned and the question was, whether there was any connection between the badge holder and the gunman. the initial impression we get from law enforcement people is there is none. but that begs the question of why did this gunman aaron alexis, have someone else's badge when we're alexis was a contractor and would have had a badge of his own. lots of unanswered questions

about why he had someone else's badge and why he decided to shoot people at this facility, what the motive was. we're a long, long way from knowing the answer to that question. as for the number of people wounded and the number dead, i think we're going to have to wait until later today to get a better idea of that number because of two reasons. police are still going through and clearing the facility and taking a census of who's wounded and shot and missing and accounted for. secondly, with so many agencies having a part of this, there is the possibility of some double counting in these numbers. so i think it's going to be a while before we know precisely how bad this was. >> pete, do officials still think there were two other men involved in this or is that fading away? >> no as to two others because one of the two they've now said they ruled out. i guess the question is was there one other person and they

are still trying to run that to ground. everyone i've talked to all day today has indicated that all of the hard evidence points to just one gunman. you have to understand it's a military facility, a lot of people who are authorized to carry firearms, so many people seen with guns, seen by witnesses, seen in surveillance video and that's why it's hard to get this all deconflicted. >> pete williams, thank you very much for that. tom costello is on the scene. what's the situation like where you are? >> reporter: i'm going to ask my camera man to push right in. it looks like -- we're starting to see some personnel leave the navy yard. john has the zoom lens and believes he has seen people in navy uniforms. we don't know immediately what's happening but the tension down here on the scene has reduced dramatically or progressively over the course of the past few hours and now it looks like we

do have what appears to be some movement with people leaving that general area. keep in mind, it wasn't just the navy yard that was on lockdown nearby. next door the department of transportation's headquarters which is a very big facility, they were also on lockdown. we may start to see those people come out as police say it's clear and perimeter starts to loosen up ever so slightly. we have seen progressively more and more police units starting to leave here. i will tell you however, the navy tweeted about 90 minutes or so, tweeted to navy personnel to continue sheltering in place as chief lanier at this point was saying we still need to figure out who the two other individuals are. and still over at the capitol building, the senate leadership has been told at the sergeant at arms to shelter in place just as a precaution. this has been as you might imagine a very tense five to six hours now in southeastern d.c. it affected air travel at reagan national airport just about two and a half, three miles behind

my cameraman right now. they had to put a ground stop in effect which meant planes couldn't come in and leave. the reason for that was because they had so many tehelicopters looking for a suspect and number two, medevacing out patients. we had so much police activity. they wanted to make sure there wasn't another threat to aviation. reagan airport has been open for several hours and dulles open for business. we're still here in -- in a formal lockdown situation for the schools nearby and for some of the buildings but it does seem they are increasingly starting to ease up ever so slightly. >> nbc's tom costello, thank you for that. for more insides the minds of mass shooters, we turn to jim cavanaugh. we hear the presence seems ton

recriedi receding at the naval yard. what do you read on that? >> i think they are pretty sure they got the one guy they know was shooting. he's deceased. did he commit suicide? did the police kill him? we're yet to find that out. they are starting to sort through the reports of other shooters which is a normal case in these incidents and probably already identified the person in the khaki with a gun, it might a responding officer in plain clothes. if they are down to one guy from ft. worth texas, 34-year-old male who was a contractor, then the investigation will come from there. you hit right on it, the dark mind of these guys and savage and vulgar attack. it's never going to give you the answer or be right. you have to get what you can to stop the next one. >> take us inside the building

and what sort of procedure they would be going through to make sure everyone is safe and they have found any potential additional shooters that may be inside that complex? >> right. you know when you heard the reports from come costello and kate earlier on the scene, the various agencies and tactical teams arriving, they provide a tactical unit and they go in to an area that -- work out with command which area they are working because they don't want to clash into each other and do a method cal search. they have dogs and capabilities of small robots and practice their silent movement. they can go through doors and search with cameras and look in and verify is there anybody here hiding that needs to be evacuated or is there a person here who's armed and might want to shoot. the facility is huge. it's going to take some time to be able to go out from the epicenter of the event, for a

while until everything sort of settles down and they can say, look, all of these buildings are secured and we've identified these reports of other shooters. then we'll move into an investigation fades that you'll see more of and probably see searches in ft. worth today. >> it is still fluid. jim, stick with us. let's also bring in retired u.s. army colonel jack jacobs. jack, there are 3,000 employees at the navy yard. what are officers taught to do in a situation like this? i imagine some are on -- are they taught to respond? >> no, the people who are actually working there who shall not part of security force practice drills for evacuation and for lockdown all the time. but unless they are part of the security force, they are not involved in weapons training, nor do they carry weapons as a general rule. only the security forces do and both military and civilian

contractors security forces there and then there are also quick response teams both from the government, the federal government and local government who do train on site from time to time. most people, most of the 3,000 you're talking about, do not respond and not trained to respond but train only to evacuate, either their building or the post. >> jack, from your experience, can you speak to the mindset of an officer who would be entering this situation as a first responder, knowing that an officer has been shot and perhaps killed in the situation and knowing you have a shooter who is willing to shoot and kill anybody. how does that change the mindset of those rushing to the scene? >> all first responders are trained to assume that in any situation a shooter is going to shoot, especially if he's already done so. it's difficult to envision how your adrenalin can be higher than it is if you're just

responding to a real live situation like this if you're told he's already killed somebody. but i guess it's possible for you to have even more adrenalin pumping. what has to happen and what these people are trained to do all the time is to respond in ways in which they have been trained. don't forget there are plans for both the base and building on file that they practice from time to time to respond to situations like this. they have field training exercises in which they have to respond. they also do live fire training offsite in similar situations. >> and as excited as you are in live fire exercises in practice exercises, of course it becomes much more difficult when you either are under fire or you think you're going to be under fire and for that there's no -- there is no way to prepare for that. >> colonel, what would the security have been like at a facility like the washington

navy yard? would there have been multiple individuals authorized to carry weapons on premises? would we have seen security detectors in place? do you have a sense of what it looks like there? >> as a general rule the only people permitted to carry weapons on post are those part of the security forsz. now, the security force by and large in recent years has been either contracted out or civilians, some of them ex-military, some ex-policemen, part of the force but not uniformed military people. >> colonel, stay with us. i want to go back out to tom costello at the scene at the navy yard. what can you tell us? >> reporter: i wanted to let you now the navy has issued an order to account for all uniformed personnel active duty and reserve and also applies to family members and navy civilian employees as well. a personnel muster through the

navy actability and assessment system. there's a website they are trying to now take hold and account for all navy employees to make sure they know who is where and what everybody's status is. they also it appears continue to maintain the shelter in place order for navy personnel here at the navy yard. back to. >> thanks, tom. stacey, what can you tell us? >> i spoke with, the navy yard has started to let employ barricaded inside over five hours to come outside. we're starting to hear some of the firsthand accounts of people who either witnessed it themselves or in places where it was obvious that the shooting was going on. we talked to one navy captain who heard loud noises and weren't sure exactly what they were. they heard loud noises again and

he and nine colleagues barricaded themselves into a conference room where they were for about an hour. he said during that time a spray of bull lets came through the top of the conference room. they realized of course what was going on. he said aa little while later, police came in and took them to a safer place within the navy yard complex where they were held until now. but he said while he didn't see any casualties on his way out i did speak to somebody who did see somebody who was a friend of his who was killed in today's shooting. >> thank you, casey. i want to turn to former fbi profiler and msnbc analyst, clint van zandt. do you have any response to what we're hearing from the on the ground reports? >> i think the challenge is putting all this together. we have witnessed this thing go from left to right and back to

forward today. i think until somebody credible now the fbi has the lead, i'm kind of waiting for their press conference to come forward and say either we've wrapped this up with the one guy or we have identified one or two other people and show us the pictures. this is going to be something like the boston marathon bombing. you either got to show us pictures of who you're looking for on tell us there's only one person involved. >> clint, take us into the mind of the fbi agents trying to take control of the scene. what is going through their mind at this moment? >> well, this is a really joint operation. realize that there are hundreds of agencies contributing to this. i know the fbi has 600 fbi agents in washington, d.c. alone, atf, the marshall service, metropolitan police, you can literally stand up three to five thousand investigators to cover this.

but as pete williams previously reported, the shooter is identified as somebody from ft. worth, texas. that immediately sends investigative resources from the local fbi offices out there scurrying around trying to come up with as much information and realize two things we're looking for, the shooter and his motive and number two, anybody else that was involved that contributed that had anything to do with this situation whatsoever, we've got to identify them and make sure they are not out there planning for part two of this situation. part one of which we terribly had to witness this morning. >> what do you make of the fact the shooter had another identify badge on him? >> this harkens back to the shooting at sandy hook where adam lanza, he was carrying his

brother's i.d. and his brother was initially identified in this. we're told that law enforcement has identified the person who onlies that i.d. badge. and they are interviewing that man right now trying to determine did he give the badge to the shooter. was it stolen or sold? was it part of a greater plot? again, there are so many pieces of this investigation right now and they all need to be done as quickly as possible. we talk about linking the dots. these are dots that have to be linked very quickly before somebody has a chance to strike again. >> clint van zandt. let's go back to tom costello. what do you have for us. >> reporter: i'm going to step out of the shot i want you to see john's zoomed in shot. we have seen groups of individuals now -- this is the first time we've seen this for the last five or six hours leaving the general vicinity.

they look like civilians and we have seen uniformed personnel leaving the general area of the navy yard and also next door we should tell you is the department of transportation headquarters and those people also sheltered in place. you see groups of civilians leaving those areas, the first we've seen this all day. we also, john, can you widen out, take a look, there you see a bunch of buses just brought in a short time ago, see them at the top of the screen, those buses were brought in about five minutes ago into the secured prim. one assumes they are brought in to bring people out. wouldn't run city buses into an active crime scene otherwise. we do believe there's movement down there and this scene is continues to be very much one that seems to be reducing in terms of the intensity. >> thank you for that. i want to back in jim cavanaugh.

tom is reporting outside the scene from the navy yard consistent from we heard from casey hunt who was speaking to employees who were left out of a barricade. what do you make of this kind of process? walk us through what law enforcement does where we're hours out of what we understand to be the shooting event, although there are many precautions still to be taken? >> right, well what the commanders are doing, making an ever widening circle of safety. they are pushing their search out further and further. as they do, they are then evacuating the personnel that are in that evergrowing safer circle. they are pushing it out and then releasing those people inside. that's what's happening. the discussion you just had with clint was a good one about the i.d. that the guy had. he might have thought that the i.d. of this other employee,

retired navy employee might have given him greater access than he had as a contractor. badges in washington, depending on who you are you get more access to more doors. he might have swiped it, stole it, it could have been given to him but he might have thought he could get more access with that i.d. as well. it remains to be seen. >> i want to turn to colonel jack for a moment. you've obviously been in the theater of war when men are shot people who are there expecting to encounter bullets and get shot. what is the mental thing that they have to overcome to come back to be able to work again? >> the first thing you have to overcome is the notion that this isn't happening. there's a sense of unreality, no matter how much training you do or how many times you've been in combat before, each situation is a different one and particularly if you're wounded, there's the

initial sense of unreality. that disperses pretty quickly. and the situation is usually very much different than a combat situation that is in something like this. because everybody lives together and fights together. and you rely on one another. and it's almost like a small enclosed ecosystem. you fight to achieve the mission and most of all fight for each other. there's an enormous amount of cohesion that brings everybody together and despite the fact it's a very difficult situation they work in concert in situation like this, it has a lot of civilians and people who may be military but not ugsed to combat and certainly don't expect this type of thing to happen, probably a great deal of panic. no amount of practice for a situation like this and they do practice from time to time, is

going to prepare you for this kind of thing. >> colonel, what we're hearing from you, we're looking at the live images of the u.s. navy yard where we're seeing both officials trying to lockdown and continue to control the area at the same time we've been reporting we're seeing some individuals including some uniformed individuals leaving there and yet kelley o'donnell from nbc news reports officially the senate will continue to be closed on a type of lockdown for two hours according to the announcement. what can you give us into those kind of precautions which are obviously away from the scene of the shooting but relevant to a place that has been a target and concern obviously before in washington, d.c.? >> the worst of all possible situations is that there are no precautions taken and something bad happens elsewhere. there's -- the best way to prepare for a situation like that, no matter how remote is to go ahead and lockdown and then you search the area and make

sure everybody is okay, even though nothing has happened there and then you release people over time. there's nothing worse than assuming it's going to be okay that there was only one shooter and he's down and that nothing bad is going to happen anymore and it does happen. officials are mindful of the fact that it's the least likely event that something bad is going to happen in the house, senate and any of the office buildings, that's the least likely event but the worst possible situation is one possibility that it's going to happen actually happens. they've taken their time and releasing people at will. i want to add one more thing, i forgotten to mention, military people have weapons and they are fighting back. these people are unarmed by and large and that adds to the chaos. >> colonel jacobs, you're going to stick with us. we're going to back to tom costello on the ground at the

naval yard. >> i >> reporter: i'm going to stay out of the shot. we have a very good zoom here and you can see quite a few individuals are leaving. we've seen plenty of those in uniform and not in uniform leaving the navy yard and we believe also the nearby department of transportation. a couple of other pieces of news developing out of here in southeast d.c., the d.c. public schools will release at the normal time. that would be about now or probably within the last hour and now, releasing at the normal time. there you see navy personnel in uniform leaving here. d.c. schools getting out at the normal time. the lockdown it would appear is lifted for d.c. schools. afternoon activities we're told in the nearby middle school and high schools are suspended today. the nationals baseball game, which is right here, literally four blocks away from the navy yard, we're told that has been postponed and will not occur today. they will do a doubleheader tomorrow.

so the nationals baseball game understand by postponed about you have police in d.c. working this incident it would be difficult to run a major league baseball game this evening. that's going to be postponed for this evening as well. >> indeed, that's true. focus on things more important. let's go back to clint van zandt. i want to ask the same question i asked of the colonel, after somebody is on the job and been shot, what is the mental road back for them? >> well, we hope there's a road back for all of them. but, you know, many times people just either cannot return to work or at least they cannot return to the same place where they were shot. now, some of these were military personnel and you know, you get paid for going to war and get paid to get shot at. not in an office building in washington, d.c. though, and that's the big difference. so that's going to be a challenge. there are going to be counselors available but realize when we

talk about post-traumatic stress reaction, you don't have to get shot just to experience that. you can know someone who got shot or know someone who worked down the hall. there are 3,000 people in -- who work in that area and i would suggest a lot of them may have a hard time coming back again when you've got crews that are going to be in there overnight literally cleaning up the carnage from the events of today. >> clint, we've been trying to ascertain whether this was the work of one shooter or potentially two or multiple shooters. how does it change in your mind the profile of this individual if it was one lone shooter versus several, two or more acting in concert? >> it changes it drastically for me. if it's one shooter we have the terrible example of workplace violence in america. our other places around the world where someone out of anger

frustration, talks themselves up and beats themselves into a frenzy where they make a plan to act out against others. and will contrast that to somebody who recruits one or two other people, they've now become part of a plot. they have to get the weapons and they have to get the identification. and they are going in there perhaps to make a statement far different than a violence in the workplace, i don't like my boss so the people i work with. this could be something entirely different, statement that would be made. to me we're looking at two potential entirely different motives, whether it be one shooter acted alone or two or three people acting in a conspiracy that may have been developed over weeks and months. >> clint, please stay with us, we're going to look more on the investigation itself with bill bratton who ran the lapd and

nypd. thank you for being here. give us a view on how you do policing and an investigation in real time when you have initial reports of a potential suspect in uniform? before you answer i want to emphasize, right now nbc news has the report of just one shooter. there were earlier reports of multiple shooters and we're not looking at that now. a question of many people's minds, what are the plising protocols when you have a report of suspect in uniform? >> an additional factor in this incident today, the fact it was on a military base in the nation's capital. it had unique features separate from many incidents we have seen in the recent past. but going forward, there's always the initial confusion if you will as we've been attempting to do over the last seven or eight hours. but initially what police attempt to do when they respond is particularly when there's a multiagency response in going out into a military site to

quickly setup some form of unity of command. who actually is in charge and what agency has the lead role. you're seeing that during tcoure of the day, chief lanier indicated that the fbi will now move into the leading elements of what is now an investigation. if i understand it correctly, just reported they are no longer looking for an additional shooter. it is now basically an after the fact investigation other than an incident when they are conducting an investigation compounded by the fact they were looking for suspects in the incident. >> the fbi released a phone number for people to call in. pete williams was mentioning earlier this hour there might even be other ways the public would be asked to help as we saw dramatically in the boston marathon bombing. what is your sense of the role if any that the public can play as we turn to more of an investigative stage? >> reality of policing or any

investigation, no matter how good the investigators are, the public still plays an extraordinary role in providing information, tips and leads and corroboration. and that's what's going on here, this idea of reaching out to the general public, reaching out to people who are specifically involved, trying to identify anybody that has any information relative to the investigation. certainly compounded in this day and age by the ways that you can reach out to people, twitter, blogs, websites, but that's the good news side. it does give you a lot of quick access to people who might take days and weeks through traditional investigative procedures before we had all of these tools available. >> we're glad to have you here to get the police pointd of view. we'll with have more of that in the 4:00 hour and live police presser. while we have you, sir, you were the head of the police department in l.a., in new york, on the beat in boston.

when officers are in an active shooting situation, you had officers today endering a building where they had somebody who had a gun who had already shot an officer, don't know what the person is going to to next, what are they feeling? what are they supposed to be doing when they enter that situation? >> first off, they are going towards the danger and that's what they are paid to do and committed to do and by all accounts that's what quite a few of them did. and moved into the incident trying to ascertain what's happening, confusing, frightening but the training kicks in at this stage where the idea is to get in and try to save lives and protect your own life certainly. and we had a very vivid account in one of the shows today of a witness to a shooting of a law enforcement officer during this situation. and a very graphic description of that situation. so echoing chief lanier's

comments at her press conference that the efforts of the law enforcement personnel certainly to be commended for their bravery but the response for the people in the building. the training drills they had really worked in the sense of some of them did seek to flee and others did lock themselves in their offices, the drills they've gone through. that's helpful to the police also. it reduces the potential of encountering something in the hallways and elsewhere who might be taken, who is the suspect versus an innocent? >> bill bratton sticks with us. let's get back to the scene with craig. what do you have for us? >> let's reset for our viewers just joining us. we found out the gunman at this point, they believe him a name named aaron alexis. from ft. worth, texas. that is about all we know right now according to our justice

correspondent pete williams, at last check he was a contract worker at the navy yard where the shooting happened this morning shortly about 8:30. you've been showing pictures of folks who are roughly a block or two behind me as they start to leave the navy yard. you've been showing those pictures. we have seen those uniformed military personnel walk past our cameras here as you might imagine. not eager to talk about what they have seen and heard this morning. but again, we can tell you they continue to leave. we can also tell you public transportation here in the d.c. melt trow area is open. the metro is open and buses are running. there are a number of streets closed and also found out that the washington nationals baseball game is going to be canceled tonight. they are going to play a doubleheader tomorrow afternoon against the braves. when i first arrived, about two hours ago, there were helicopters flying above, giving the impression that there was in

fact an active search going on. no choppers to speak of right now. law enforcement presence along this particular area at least, note what it was, even just an hour and a half ago. as you recall, cathy lanier said they are actively looking and actively searching for two men, a white man in the 40 to 50-year-old range, wearing military gear and wearing a beret of some sort and black guy about the same age also in military gear. the police chief pointing out just because they were wearing the military garb does not mean they are in the military or active duty. but police chief captain lanier saying they are actively searching for those two men to find out what they may know. she was careful not to say they were directly connected to the shooting. we are expecting, again, expecting being the opera tif word, another update at the top

of the hour. the fbi, now the point agency on this investigation, so that's the very latest from on the ground. we'll continue to work to gather more information and pass that along as it becomes available. >> craig, thanks so much for that. pete williams at the top of the hour said the white male that the police chief had originally spoken of being on the lookout for, they had identified still potentially looking for another black male still trying to ascertain these things are very fluid. about 3,000 people were inside the navy yard and until just moments ago ordered to shelter in place. dramatic for bravest military members and civilians. as we're thinking through this sequence of events, for this mass shooter, would there have

like by be any psychological red flags that family, friends, co-workers may have noted in advance of this event? >> that's a difficult question to ascertain, my friend, but it certainly is the obvious question that one needs to ask. were there obvious signs that this individual or these individuals, perhaps, were showing before this horrible event occurred. >> doctor, obvious sli 3,000 employees not expecting what they walked into this morning. what advice do you have for them moving forward and moving back to reality and back to a normal life from this? >> well, you know, most of us would want to just not go into work tomorrow or run away. but i would not encourage these great americans to do that. the right thing for them to do, surround themselves with loved

ones and family, perhaps seek, you know, the church and get back to work in their normal activities as soon as possible. >> doctor, we don't know what the motive here is at all, no idea if we'll find that out ever, but there are some -- it does seem somewhat consistent with some of the things we've seen before in terms of workplace violence. let's talk about workplace violence in general. what are the commonalties that you tend to see in those incidents where people return with a firearm? >> yeah, when you see someone coming to work with a firearm, that's obvious right there. but the impulsive behavior, emotional outbursts at work that are uncharacteristic for an individual, you know, last but certainly not least when you have a employee or colleague

that just really seems to have gone off the edge with the slightest of, you know very small incidents to the average person who seem insignificant or not very important and a person like that just cannot get themselves together. >> all right -- >> couple that with other types of things where the person may appear disshelved or something like that. >> thank you very much for your time. peter alexander is at the white house. the president spoke briefly about the shooting in what was supposed to be an economic speech. what updates is he getting? >> he was getting updatsz this morning through the counter terrorism adviser lisa monaco. we expect the continue will continget more updates. we posed that question to jay carney a little while ago and i

asked whether there was any consideration given to the idea of canceling today's economic address given the events taking place at the same time, frankly an active manhunt as the police chief had said at the time, two other shooters out there. and what ultimately we learned were the losses of 11 lives as well as the shooter today. here's what the president had to say condemning the action as being a cowardly act. >> we're confronting yet another mass shooting. and today it happened on a military installation in our nation's capital. it's a shooting that targeted our military and civilian personnel these are men and women going to work, doing their job, protecting all of us. they are patriots. >> the president's team note the that there was at no time did they consider canceling today's

events, as he referred to this as another mass shooting, is the number of these this president has presided ultimately over, fort hood, binghamton, tucson, aurora, oak creek, newtown and now the navy yard. i asked a white house official whether the president has plans to travel, at this time it's too early for them to make decisions about that. but obviously this is something that strikes a cord not with this president but the vice president was almost simultaneously making remarks on this topic as well. joe biden was the one the president put in charge of the white house task force who had the sole effort, entire mission was to try to create new laws to avoid events like that. obviously that failed as the senate didn't support the president's plan. >> seven mass shootings since 2009 for president obama.

and many people were wondering why he went forward with the speech talking about syria, most importantly about the economy. many people wondering, why did he do that? we're dealing with this shooting. any thoughts to not give the speech? >> the answer from jay carney, did the white house or officials consider can sling today's speech, one simple word the answer was no. the economy is an important issue and at that time it wasn't clear how many fatalities there were and to use his language, he said it was entirely appropriate to have this conversation today. >> peter alexander, thank you as always. we're waiting on an update from the victims from washington hospital center. we'll bring it to you when it happens. keep it here. clay.

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and suddenly, the most important person in my life is someone i haven't even met yet. who matters most to you says the most about you. at massmutual we're owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. as you plan your next step, we'll help you get there. welcome back to msnbc's continuing coverage of the naval yard shooting. three victims are currently being treated at washington hospital center. we're minutes away from an update from doctors. and luke russert is there. luke, what is the latest. >> reporter: the latest abby is all three victims brought here are in critical but stable condition and are expected to survive. one of the victims is a police officer, the d.c. pd, two other victims are females who are shot at the navy yard earlier today. we can report just developing now is that secretary of the

navy ray mavis is on hand talking to victims and paying respects and saying hello. we're also told in just about 20 to 30 minutes, admiral greenert, highest ranking naval official actually at the naval yard, chief of naval operations will be addressing the police. he was brought to a secure location and not believed to be in any harm. there's been a huge police presence at the hospital behind me in d.c., much like other major cities whenever an officer is down, everybody shows up in full force. we saw that earlier today. but the good news is these victims are going to be okay. one other interesting detail we learned from the doctor, the victims came in and were very much alert. when they were in pain they were able to talk to investigators, they said from the conversations they had with victims, they believe the weapon used had to have been semiautomatic because each victim heard a quick

success of fire, pow pow, pow pow. one other thing i'll talk about, for folks who aren't familiar with d.c., it is not a far away base like other military installations, it is very much in the heart of this revitalized downtown area of washington, d.c., a lot of pedestrian foot traffic and elementary schools. for this to happen at this magnitude, the one thing from hospital officials here from cops on ground, man, it feels like 9/11. to the outside folks, 9/11, that's a huge analogy. but for folks in d.c., this amount of police presence and not knowing what's going on, that is what has come to everyone's mind. >> luke russert on the scene. thank you for that reporting. there are reports of multiple dead in the naval yard itself. we know for certain one man in his 60s has died after he sustained a gunshot wound to the

head. the hospital triage teams in the area are still treating patients at the u.s. navy yard and today president obama praised their efforts. >> we offer our gratitude to the navy and local law enforcement, federal authorities, and the doctors who have responded with skill and bravery. i've made it clear to my team i want the investigation to be seamless so federal and local authorities are working together. as this investigation moves forward we'll do everything in our power to make sure whoever carried out this cowardly act is held responsible. >> the navy vet did his residency in emergency medicine at the u.s. naval medical center, walk us through the emergency and medical response is to a horrific incident like this. >> first of all, my prayers go

out to everyone involved. to answer your question, a hospital will receive notification, like in this event, the first notifications might not be accurate. the first thing you do, you and the event and acty vat what you call your incident command center. and i think dr. eric grounic said it back, you train like awe fight and fight like you train. our hospital has the capacity to basically bring into one room all of the focus and expertise we know that we need to identify beds, call in extra personnel, not only that but we also have a police presence. you lockdown the hospital and secure the area. you know you're going to receive victims -- you could have people that walk in or come in by ambulance. both could be presentations you have to anticipate. and the personnel in the hospital, fortunately we have also been through a active shooter training here because as

you know the hospitals themselves are not immune to these kind of events. >> doctor, we've seen a lot of patients being air lifted to hospitals. what does that suggest to you? why are we seeing so much helicopter work in this one? >> i think that's a good question. that's a great capacity to bring -- especially when you have multiple casualties and you're going to be addressing that by taking -- identifying your level one trauma center and a lot of casualties will go there and other hospitals like ours in the area will be supporting those. so that's a quick way to get these victims to the proper care. they are going to be triaged and most of them sound like with penetrating injuries like this, they likely will need to go in the o.r. >> doctor, we heard reporting that the doctors there at the washington hospital center had said that they were able to ascertain or predict the type of weapon that was used by on the injuries that had been sustained

and reports from victims. is that something doctors are typically capable of doing, figuring out what type of weapon was used based on the injuries? >> that is something that we fo training, especially the emergency medicine, you can identify, and it brings the kind of weapon used and you are looking at entrance and exit wounds, and making some kind of an assessment. you bring up a good point. every one of these patients that goes to the o.r., where they're going to retrieve a bullet or shrapnel, has to be very carefully collected as evidence. >> all right, doctor, thank you very much for that. we will have much more on this horrific tragedy today at the washington naval center after this. with the spark cash card from capital one... boris earns unlimited rewards for his small business. can i get the smith contract, please? thank you. that's three new paper shredders. [ boris ] put 'em on my spark card. [ garth ] boris' small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase every day. great businesses deserve unlimited rewards.

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let's go back now to msnbc's craig melvin at the scene of today's navy yard shooting with someone who was in the building. craig? >> good day to you. i want to bring in brian cheney here. again, one of the folks we have seen come out of the navy yard. we have seen folks start to pour out over the past hour or so. first of all, how are you? >> i'm okay now. i've been taken care of with the security there, pretty much comforted. anything we needed as far as contacting family members. any kind of transportation needs. the navy has taken care of most everything we needed. wh what. >> reporter: what did you see and hear shortly before 8:30 this morning? >> typical morning, monday. running a little late with traffic, and a little late not

getting out of bed early. and i showed up for work right after 8:00. 8:00 they have revely, standard on any military installation. and roughly i would say 8:10, 8:15 or so, i made it into the entrance at the building 197 where i work. there you have to badge in to get through security there. and what i mean, badge in, your common access card, you badge in through there and that gives you the authority to go on through. i work on the second floor. the second floor, there's a stairwell that leads up to that floor where you can take the elevator. i chose to take the stairs versus the elevator. and as i was walking up the steps, i heard a -- what i thought was a locker door slamming. but, you know, i didn't know if it was a printer. it didn't sound like a gunshot

to me. but i looked through the double doors that i was almost ready to go through and i saw a couple labor workers there and they were kind of spooked. so i thought well just normal reaction, you hear something loud, whatever. so i went on through the double doors and at that point i heard another round of what now i know is gunshots. maybe four to five. and then i heard someone running in the building i work in, pretty audible and you can hear when people were walking, the floors typically move around. >> reporter: screaming, as well? >> no, i never heard screaming. that was surprising. i never heard any screaming, never heard oh, my god, nothing. i didn't hear that. so i heard the shots, and i exited the building, you know, not knowing what it was. >> reporter: are there metal detectors to get into that part of the building, do you know? >> yes. well, i don't know if you call them metal detector. you have to come through -- like i say, badge in.

there is no -- i don't believe there is a metal detector like an airport. >> reporter: okay. brian chaney. >> but to get on to the yard here, we go through the security here. then there's three barriers. >> reporter: yeah. >> to get on security here, come through the gate and then to operate any kind of equipment, you have to have a secret clearance and then, of course, a common access card with credentials that allows you to do so. >> reporter: glad you're okay. >> thank you. >> reporter: brian chaney inside the facility. we'll try to talk to additional folks as they're being released it at the navy yard. back to you guys. >> thank melvin, thank you very much for that. the press conference at the washington hospital center where three victims have been taken has started. let's go there now. >> it is a crime scene. to -- i have made every victim a secretary of the navy designee, so that if they need any additional or specialized care, they can go to walter reed

bethes bethesda. i'm absolutely confident they won't need it because of excellent care here, but just in case, we have some specializeded care not available anywhere else that can go as my designee. third is to arrange for counseling, grief counselors available now, and counseling as we go forward to make sure that -- that the trauma associated with this will be dealt with appropriately. and finally, if you have a loved one that was at the navy yard, there are two phone numbers that you can call for navy. 202-433-6151. or 202-433-9713. now, when you call, we will not be able to give you a status report. we'll have to check and call

back. we have taken a muster as you do in these situations. but because people are scattered, because they're scattered one, from the event, but two, just in normal day to day business, there are some that are scattered, it normally takes between 24 and 36 hours to make a complete muster and to find out the status of everyone. so, again, to the doctors, to all the medical and personnel, to all our first responders, thank you so much. >> can you tell us anything about the -- about the situation, about the gunman? >> i'm dr. janice, chief medical officer, here to give an update

of the three individuals brought to the hospital center. the first individual, as you know, is a hospital police officer, that gentleman is currently in surgery. he has been in surgery for several hours. we expect that surgery to continue. he is the gentleman who has gunshot wounds to his lower extremitie extremities. so he is in surgery right now. he's doing well. he is expected to make a good recovery. the two other individuals, first one i'll tell you about is an individual who has a shoulder wound. she is in surgery right now, expected to be in surgery for a couple hours. we actually spoke with her beforehand. she is in very, very good spirits. she actually was ordering the doctors and nurses around. we told her we were in charge here.