nomination. some say why bother with tonight's debates because moody's analyst iks have already declared the winner. but they say it's going to be extremely close and we're so far away, what does that number mean anyway? that my friend is why debates like tonight are what we are going to see and why they are going to matter. the dnc just announced the first democratic debate. it will be october 13th in nevada. we begin with the main event. msnbc political reporter casey hunt is in cleveland. first, describe the atmosphere there as electric, perhaps as the social media environment we live in. i think there's more hype for this debate than the last rnc convention in florida. describe what it will be like for the moderators even using the cleveland cavs shot clock to

keep time. >> reporter: i wouldn't go so far to say that this is as big a party as the convention. obviously, the quicken loans arena behind me is what we're going to use next year. i can't say i remember any primary debate being this electric. we had more than 20 debates. i was at the vast majority of them then. this time, it's just a different kind of atmosphere. you have all of the sort of campaign operatives, aides, have all converged on cleveland. they're all talking to each other in the hallways. a couple interesting things. first of all, they're all commiserating with each other to a certain extent. everybody's focused on trump. to a certain extent, it's a mystifying problem, even for these people who have been in politics for decades. second of all, you're seeing trump being taken more seriously than he was certainly when he

announced in late june and even then in the last couple of weeks. as i've started to talk to people, they're starting to go through the fall as they're looking at how they're going to spend their tv money, who else is going to be a come pet tore for them in iowa and new hampshire. they're starting to say if trump is still a major factor, then x will happen. that's something that's new and different from where we were just a couple of weeks ago. >> it's certainly filling up the room. nothing really can happen until the donald is figured out. casey hunt, thank you so much for your time. take care. let's bring in our debate experts. former speech writer to president george w. bush. and dana mill bank. thanks so much for being on the show. >> thank you. >> i want to start out with you. donald trump, he did an interview with our friends at bloomberg earlier this week. had some liberal positions on big issues. i want to play this clip and get

you to react. >> do you like the rule named after him as part of dodd-frank, the vocal rule? >> i'm not sure if he likes it. if he's happy i'm happy. these pacs, it's a total phony deal. bush raises millions of dollars and then he waits and waits because you're not allowed to talk to the pac. then he puts his best friend in charge and then they never talk. if anybody believes that, it's a joke. >> daid, from there, you have donald trump eventually coming out for something very much something for pro dwres sieves, coming out in favor of campaign finance reform to a degree. this is something that could catch up to him tonight on stage in cleveland, could it not? >> well, i wonder. the cause of -- after the 2012

debate, the debacle i should say, let's the party keep all its economic policies. but move toward a more permissive attitude toward immigration which is an issue that basically benefits people in the upper third of the income distribution, but very hard on people in the bottom third. trump is sort of reversing that. who he's offering, to the extent he's offering policies, but he leans to the left on a lot of the bread and butter issues, while leaning to the right on immigration exactly the opposite of that reform consensus in 2012. they are middle class people. >> indeed. you had an interesting piece out recently. you said, taking a zany position

will help some of these candidates differentiate from each other. chris christie talking about his wish to punch a teacher's union in its collective face. mike huckabee talking about obama marching israelis to the door of the oven or donald trump who still doesn't know whether obama was born in america. they may sound crazy, but they're crazy like a fox. is this a rationale strategy for some of these folks to try and differentiate themselves by going the zany route? >> i think it really is. there's been a lot of talk of saying well, you want to keep above the fray. keeping above the fray is going to keep you suppressed in the polls. when the field is fragmented this way, the only way you really break out is to get the attention. and that is for saying something that appears kind of zany to the

typical american, but not necessarily to the typical republican primary voter which is just a slice of the electorate. when you have scott walker seeming to question the president's -- whether he's a christian or not. the typical american would say that's a bit zany, but the typical republican voter actually a majority of them believe deep down according to polls that the president is a muslim. so it may sound crazy to the average person's ear, but not to the audience they're looking for. >> it's a fine line to walk as we saw in 2012. it can prove problematic for the nominee eventually. david, you touched on an issue in a piece last month that i thought was very rise. that the rise of trump can be directly connected to sort of this idea of immigrants here and they're undocumented involved in crimes. you obviously had the death of the girl out in california which

fueled the phenomenon. what does it mean for the candidates tonight on that stage, you mentioned immigration, but this phenomenon that trump has pushed them further to the right publicly. what do walker, rubio and jeb bush have to do tonight regarding immigration? >> i don't know what they can do. inside the republican party, there's a policy cartel on immigration. all the major candidates leaving aside trump have add one point or another had the same position on immigration as jeb bush has had. some have hardened that in recent times. but the policy is basically the same and it's the same policy as mccain/kennedy back in the bush administration. some kind of very large scale granting of work permits to people in the country illegally, plus some promise of enforcement, plus, an ex-kpangs

of legal immigration. that's a point of view that bears heavily on americans who are not employers of labor. if you're an employee, especially at a time of continuing very slow growth in wages. so and with the -- the media are so strongly in favor of it, that moving toward the pro employer point of view is always described as moderation. it's easy for republicans to say i'm pro employer on taxes and immigration. and the republican rank and file is not there. and that killing of that poor unfortunate woman on the pier in san francisco galvanized a lot of republicans. if you plot trump's rise against that event, that is the central -- that is the moment where he suddenly goes into overdrive and moves into first place and becomes this dominating figure in the race. and you'll remember, all the other republicans had a very hard time finding anything to say about her.

>> it's true. and it also puts jeb bush in a difficult position, marco rubio, and scott walker, he has not gone as far as trump. that's where the energy is coming from, is trump. dana, i want to talk to you about somebody who ordinarily in the past would suck up all the oxygen in terms of being the most conservative person in the race, that is ted cruz. seems that donald trump is taking up a lot of that energy. what do you think cruz has to do tonight? he doesn't want to alien nate those trump voters. he's got to make a mark a little bit here so trump doesn't take all of that energy. >> and cruz is a great debater. this is how he sort of made his mark in college and beyond as a debater. the truth is, as david was saying a moment ago on a different topic, i don't know exactly what they can do because there are so many of them and they're going to have so little

time to differentiate themselves. so, you know, being the most extreme, the most aggressive on foreign policy, the most hostile to the obama administration, against hillary clinton. but of course you're going to have carson and huckabee and the whole bunch of them doing that same thing. so it's very difficult to see how a guy like cruz can break out. and i think that's why he had a rather promising start to the campaign and now he's just sort of stuck there in the middle because even else is saying the same thing he's saying. >> it's remarkable that he's sort of the pace setter. never would have expected that a few months ago. thank you guys so much for your time. coming up, all the angles on tonight's debate. the best strategy to take on trump. how the happy hour crew can make themselves relevant. and how much attention will hillary get. and including new mh-370

developments this hour. we will bring those to you live. two streetlights. the only difference: that little blue thingy. you see it? that's a sensor. using ge software, the light can react to its environment- getting brighter only when it's needed. in a night, it saves a little energy. but, in a year it saves a lot. and the other street? it's been burning energy all night. for frank. frank's a cat. now, two things that are exactly the same, have never been more different. ge software. get connected. get insights. get optimized.

♪ [ female announcer ] everything kids touch at school sticks with them. make sure the germs they bring home don't stick around. use clorox disinfecting products. you handle life; clorox handles the germs. you handle life; no student's ever been the king of the campus on day one. but you're armed with a roomy new jansport backpack, a powerful new dell 2-in-1 laptop, and durable new stellar notebooks, so you're walking the halls with varsity level swagger. that's what we call that new gear feeling. you left this on the bus... get it at the place with the experts to get you the right gear.

office depot officemax. gear up for school. gear up for great. some neighbors are energy saving superstars. how do you become a superstar? with pg&e's free online home energy checkup. in just under 5 minutes you can see how you use energy and get quick and easy tips on how to keep your monthly bill down and your energy savings up. don't let your neighbor enjoy all the savings. take the free home energy checkup. honey, we need a new refrigerator. visit pge.com/checkup and get started today.

get your popcorn ready. debate night is here. as boxing fans know, often it's the fights on the undercard better than the featured bought. these seven gop candidates will step in the ring tonight as fight night in cleveland begins. rick perry won't be able to take his swings at donald trump in person, but will he look to sting him enough to be a contender in future fights?

expect fiorina to counter punch to really bruise the other professional politicians on stage. as far as the rest, they are looking for a puncher's chance for an early hay maker. let's get to the senior congressional correspondent at the washington examiner. thanks so much for being on the show. >> great to be here, luke, thank you. >> so this is the kid's table debate we're talking about. aside from trying to get on the national review cruise ship to sell some books and perhaps get some twitter traffic, what can these folks really accomplish here? it seems to me they have to go all out with some zingers here to get noticed. >> the two candidates i'm watching are rick perry and bobby jindal. perry, he famously named out in

2012. has he learned, has he gotten better, can he play into the top tier in september? bobby jindal, he's known for his one-liner zingers, but really as a second term governor, he may be more accomplished than anybody else running for president at this time. can he gain attention for that and use that to rise in the polls? obviously he's not just in the second tier. right now, he's way, way down. >> yeah, that's a good point especially because this format does help jindal. he's a very fast talker. he is very good in terms of mini stump speeches he can give off the cuff. rick perry, would you argue this is probably the most important for him? somebody who was the frontrunner at some point. what do you think is his pathway to get away from the kid's table? >> rick perry's whole strategy

is to shine in the debates. he prepared for three years and has been waiting for this moment. he can't afford any mistakes because of how he named out in 2012. so he's got to do well or it's going to be like oops all over again and it's going to kill off any chance he has to boost his fund raising and grass roots support. >> another guy in here who fascinates me is lindsey graham. he kind of ran to go against rand paul. basically a strong national security candidate. was going to call out rand paul. someone who is dangerous to the world with his libertarian policies. but now he's not even on the same stage. what does lindsey graham do here when there's no one to fire off regarding national security which is his issue? >> right. so he'll probably spend a lot of time criticizing hillary clinton and barack obama. talk as much about national security as he can. he's not going to go anywhere, i

don't care if he's on the big stage or the small stage. he's had as much influence over the party right now in terms of national security giving the iran deal and other national security issues with isis. on the one hand, he won't win. on the other hand, what he says tends to trickle up to the top candidates. he was one of the first candidates to come out and say this iran deal should be junked on day one. everybody else followed suit. >> another guy here in the undercard is rick santorum. nobody gave him a shot back in 2012. he pulled off an incredible upset in the iowa caucuses. stayed around as a pain in the side to mitt romney much longer than a lot of the party brass wanted to see. a lot of the guys on the main stage are basically stealing santorum's economic populism that he had at one point. is there any way he can move forward or is 2016 not his time?

>> it's not his time. sick santorum did an amazing job in 2012 surprising all of us. if he couldn't build on the support and notarity to become a top tier contender at the beginning of 2016, it's just not happening. lightning doesn't strike twice. in other words, he was an unknown quantity. it was a really weird republican field. there were simply too many voices for the voters to go to this time. if he's not starting at the top, he's not going to get there. >> you like me, we happy admit that we watch the spire cspan voters forum two days ago. one person who jumped out to me was carly fiorina. very strong in the bits and pieces she was able to talk about her private sector experience. is there any chance for her to gain some transaction here? you know the party brass would

like to see a woman on stage. >> i think where the republican party is really hurting tonight despite the candidates they have in prime time is the fact that carly fiorina is the only woman running. but i'm not sure yet if she's going to be able to turn all of these rave reviews she's had in iowa, new hampshire and south carolina and from people like us into transaction. she hasn't yet, but it's still early. she definitely has shown the chops to do it. >> without doubt. much improved candidates than in california a few years back. thank you so much for the time. still ahead, the strategy for taking on trump. but next, new details about the mental state of the man who attacked unsuspecting moviegoers at a tennessee theater yesterday. and james holmes, he's about to

learn whether he will live or die for his crimes in 2012. we'll go live to colorado for that report. away. i just had to adopt him. he's older so he needs my help all day. when my back pain flared up we both felt it i took tylenol at first but i had to take 6 pills to get through the day. then my friend said "try aleve". just two pills, all day. and now, i'm back for my best bud! aleve. all day strong and try aleve pm, now with an easy open cap. or building the best houses in town. or becoming the next highly-unlikely dotcom superstar. and us, we'll be right there with you, helping with the questions you need answered to get your brand new business started. we're legalzoom and we've already partnered with over a million new business owners to do just that. check us out today to see how you can become one of them.

legalzoom. legal help is here. everyone loves the picture i posted of you.

at&t reminds you it can wait.

welcome back. if malaysia airline officials thought finding a piece of mh-370 would bring closure, they were wrong on a number of fronts. french officials say it's too soon to know whether that piece is conclusively from the airplane. family members of the passengers say one piece of debris doesn't change a thing. >> reporter: what does such a tiny piece of debris mean, she asks. why are they trying to fool us, to make us take the compensation money. >> but there may be another piece of this puzzle emerging as another piece of wreckage. we are outside the french lab where that first wing flap was tested.

>> reporter: two big announcements today by malaysia. first that they believed conclusively that the wing fragment was from mh-370 and then that other debris has turned up on reunion. appear to take other countries in this investigation somewhat by surprise. officials here in france certainly agree it's highly probable the wing fragment is linked to mh-370. they're going to wait as long as it takes to find the necessary evidence. now, all of those differences have left families questioning the integrity of the process. especially in china where there's been mistrust of the malaysian investigation from day one. in beijing, families swarmed the malaysian airline office. one of the family representatives accused malaysia of jumping to conclusions. on reunion island, officials say on monday they'll begin a full sweep of the stowny coastline where the wing fragment was

found. that could yield a lot more ocean trash, but it could also provide the next vital clue in what has already been a 16-month mystery. >> thanks so much. movie goers in tennessee describe running for their lives after an attacker armed with pepper spray, a hatchet and what turned out to be a pellet gun wednesday. >> he walkedthooter. he took out a hatchet and started attacking this family. >> police were on the scene within minutes. they shot and killed the accused attacker after he tried to escape through a back door. adam reece is right outside of nashville where this all happened. what more do we know about the attacker and his possible motive? >> reporter: we know that he had a history of mental health issues.

he had some run-ins with the law. still no motive as to why this attack occurred. he entered the theater, bought a ticket. he was armed with an axe, an air gun, and pupper spray. he entered the theater and sprayed the pepper spray, hitting a man, his wife, and young daughter. another man ran out for help. there happened to be some police officers dealing with a traffic accident. officer jonathan firth raced into the theater. he was able to confront montano in the theater. he backed out of the theater and they kill him in a hail of gunfire. one of the victims of the pepper spray came out and spoke afterwards. >> i'm eternally grateful, excuse me, for their fast response. we were not looking for any of this. we did nothing to bring this upon ourselves and i'm very,

very grateful that no one else got injured here today other than the person who perpetrated this. >> reporter: now montano had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. he had been committed to an institution four times over the yearsment just this past monday, he had been seen at a local homeless shelter here in nashville. >> thank goodness that police officer was on the scene so quickly. thank you. the tedious and often gut-wrempbling process of determining whether the aurora movie theater shooter should live or die is nearing an end. scott, what's happening in the courtroom right now? >> reporter: well, luke, the judge is instructing the jury on what he has called the most important decision that they may ever make, that is the life or death of james holmes. he's telling them that it should be based on their individual reasoned moral judgment and that they must come to a unanimous

verdict if he's to be put to death by lethal injection. after that, we will get roughly two hours of closing arguments from the defense and prosecution. and then the jury will get the case. one person that the jurors will not hear from is james holmes himself, passing up his last chance to testify or even give a statement in his own defense yesterday. so jurors will be left with the often just raw testimony from family members including a woman who lost her 24-year-old son in the attack. she suffers from parkinson's disease. yesterday she described for the jury her greatest fear. >> the first thing i do in the morning is replay that laugh in my mind. and he -- we never left each other either on the phone or in person without saying i love you. so i play his voice in my mind every day so i never forget it

because i'm afraid, i'm prettirified i'm going to forget what his voice sounds like. >> reporter: there are nine women, three men on this jury. they have been very quick in their deliberations at every step of this trial. now they face the ultimate decision, shoulds james holmes live or die. today marks a milestone of military might. 70 years ago today, they gave the green light for the u.s. to drop the world's first atomic bomb on japan. it struck at 8:15 in the morning. most of hiroshima was instantly incinerated in a blinding white hot flash. 80,000 people died. the a-bomb and the one dropped on nagasaki three days later led to the end of world war ii. but this marked the start of the nuclear war era. today, tens of thousands gathered for a moment of silence. the mayor of hiroshima using the

occasion to call leaders to rid the world of nukes calling them the absolute evil and ultimate in humanity. the united states is the only country to use nuclear weapons against a foe in war. [music] do you like cougars? terry will you shut up! you are adorable. thank you. ladies your belts all snugged up? why do we have to buckle up? the pick up stinks with diesel. [ding] you've got to be kidding! oh please! ah! this is the end! oh my god!

[brakes screech] we need resuscitation. mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. hurry up! [laughing] i built my business with passion. but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy for my studio. ♪ and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... that's huge for my bottom line. what's in your wallet? so what i'm saying is, people like options. when you take geico, you can call them anytime you feel like saving money. it don't matter, day or night. use your computer, your smartphone, your tablet, whatever. the point is, you have options. oh, how convenient.

hey. crab cakes, what are you looking at? geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. when a moment spontaneously turns romantic, why pause to take a pill? and why stop what you're doing to find a bathroom? with cialis for daily use, you don't have to plan around either. it's the only daily tablet approved to treat erectile dysfunction so you can be ready anytime the moment is right. plus cialis treats the frustrating urinary symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently, day or night. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or any symptoms of an allergic reaction,

stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. why pause the moment? ask your doctor about cialis for daily use. for a free 30-tablet trial go to cialis.com we're back. and here's what's going on. governor jerry brown is heading to the scene of those massive wildfires raging in northern california. 3,000 firefighters right now are battling the largest blaze nope as the rocky fire. it's just 40%coained. >> this hour, u.s. officials are confirming russia recently law firmed a sophisticated cyber attack on u.s. computer systems. officials stress no classified information was compromised. and tonight marks the end of an era in late night tv as jon stewart says good-bye to "the

daily show." you're looking live at pictures from the outside of the studio. we'll take a look at the very best of jon stewart coming up later in the broadcast. let's go back to the top story. that's the gop debate tonight. stewart's finale will air just after the debate wraps up. and donald trump will take center stage in prime time. the strategy in dealing with him, that could be the key to victory tonight. will he be in attack mode? >> i don't know how you can rehearse from -- for a debate. >> there will be some candidates there who come to the stage looking to tear down other candidates. that is not going to be my approach. my approach has been to take the high road. >> certainly, i don't want to attack. if i'm attacked i have to do something back. >> i'm going to go in there to have fun. >> i'm not looking to hurt

anybody. i'm not looking to embarrass anybody. certainly, i'm not looking to -- >> joining us now for a strategy session, political reporter for time and national political reporter for real clear politics. welcome both of you. thanks so much for coming on the show. >> thank you, luke. >> obviously we have this information of donald trump getting phones calls from bill clinton. you had a great line from rick santorum in one of your pieces that said, quote, all the candidates know that giving any kind of substantive answer is a mistake, santorum said, and all you have to do is have zingers. is that the way to deal with donald trump? perhaps zingers on his liberal positions? >> that's the way you deal with donald trump and that's really the way you deal with this debate overall. in this format, there isn't a lot of time to get into the deep policy that some of these

candidates might want to. to stand out especially on a stage of ten candidates, including donald trump who just steals the spotlight, you really have to have a moment. you have to have a point in the debate where you stand out. that's why you're going to see a lot of the candidates come prepared with a lot of one-liners and attacks on these candidates that they're not expecting. >> you had some great stats this morning on your page. you talked about the number of times these guys have debated. scott walker, 65. ted cruz, 24. huckabee, 19. rand paul, eight. marco rubio, seven. ben carson, zero. scott walker is the experienced guy on this stage. 65 debates to his credit. donald trump zero. how does that play out tonight? >> there's certainly a very big difference between a campaign for being governor and running

for president or being a county executive and running for president. but also ted cruz with that smaller stat, he was a champion college debater. that's still a different ball game. donald trump on the other hand, he spent a lot of time on television, he knows how to do this, he does a lot of tv interviews. so he's well-polished. ready to handle himself well on stage. the question is, which version of himself does he want to put on stage. that's the challenge. they have to prepare for a or b, which drurp shows up. the nice one or the mean one. >> does the tv experience translate to a solid debate performance. one guy who's been polling decently well is mike huckabee. he was on fox news for some time. he's been very outspoken about the recent supreme court decision regarding gay marriage. you had an article about how some in the party, they killed a

referendum or amendment to the platform that would have been against gay marriage in a very forceful way. do you think party officials are worried about huckabee tonight and how does he make a stand tonight? >> mike huckabee has to go out there and sort of drive those issues, same way ted cruz does, drive the social conservative agenda of things like opposition to gay marriage. he's going to do that and that's his way to sort of go from where he is, four or five in the polls, maybe to go back up to where he was when he won in iowa in 2008. party officials aren't too worried about it. they have to disagree with mike huk bewhen it comes to these things if they want to win the general election next november. a lot of the rapid response is taking place right on stage right next to mike buck hee. >> rebecca, you had a great piece about the koch brothers

out west. still, there was a sense among some attendees that rubio came up short. he came in and did what he needed to do, said one person in the summit. there are a lot of people who think this just isn't his time quite yet. i saw him at that candidate forum on tuesday. i thought he was you'llful and polished and came across quite well. how important is tonight for marco rubio? >> hugely important. his team stresses that they think it's early, that rubio has plenty of time to establish himself. his fund mentals are very strong. he has the had a breakout moment yet in this election cycle. with so many candidates out there that are likable. he does really need to have a moment where he breaks out where people start to pay attention to him and start to support him. this is a great opportunity for

him to not only introduce himself to more americans but to sort of establish his niche in the republican field. >> he also needs to break out, i would argue, jeb bush's shadow a little bit. he has to be the more conservative alternative to scott walker. let's talk about jeb bush a little bit here. here is somebody that has not gained the transaction that a lot of the establishment thought he would. he had that big money grab. over $100 million. donald trump seems to have sucked a lot of oxygen. let's go through his last month. saying that medicare possibly had to be phased out. this comment about whether or not women's health needs to be funded at the same level as it was. he has stepped in it a few times. does jeb bush have to have a sort of perfect night tonight and not give anymore foder to hillary clinton who's more than happy to attack him every chance she gets? >> that's exactly right.

first do no harm. he's sitting on that $120 million cash pile. but there's a lot of unease within the republican party. is he disciplined enough. he's the candidate who wants to go out and take every interview. at the end of the day, though, there's a reason why politicians act the way they do, they don't want to make mistakes. he needs to get up here and have a pretty flawless performance. >> thank you so much for your time today. great to see you guys, take care. >> and let's dump in right now to a press conference going on just outside of nashville, tennessee. of course this is about that incident that happened in a theater yesterday. a gunman entered armed with a hatchet and a pellet gun. definitely scared a lot of people. was ultimately killed by police. let's listen and then we're going to hear from a first

responder who came into that theater. take a listen. >> our close examination of that canister of propane shows it was gashed probably by the axe/hatchet. he also had lighter fluid and a lighter. there is a great possibility that he intended on using this propane canister as some type of an explosive. however, when he gashed it with the cutting instrument, with the hatchet, all the propane escaped essentially rendering that propane tank useless as far as an explosive is concerned. the swat team members continued to try to bring him into custody. again, he refused all of their commands. ultimately, he decided -- montano decided to go to the rear door of the theater. before he actually exited, he threw the gun he was carrying. it is possible that gunfire from swat team members damaged that

gun. as you have seen the photograph of it, it looks like it's in some state of disrepair. it's possible that the gunfire from the swat team members as they were shooting back at his arm actually damaged the gun. when montano came out of the theater, out the rear door, he had a hand up underneath the duffle bag that he was wearing over his chest. the officers at that point perceived that he could have an explosive in that duffle bag. he was also carrying his hatchet or axe in the other hand. the officers deemed him to be an imminent threat. and at that point opened fire on montano. he was fatally wounded. this investigation is continuing. the officers who fired on wednesday remain on routine administrationtive assignment as is the practice in this police department while the investigation continues.

throughout this matter, we have talked to a number of people, a number of witnesses. we have yet to find anyone who had any dialogue with montano other than the simple purchase of the movie ticket and the request for a cup of water when he entered the theater. we have yet to find anyone who engaged him in any dialogue. his motive for all this is yet to be determined. although we know and you all know that he is -- has mental issues, he has been diagnosed apparently as a paranoid schizophrenic in the past. my understanding is he was committed at least three times and i understand he has a committal in another state. our check of montano's history shows that he has visited or been in a number of states in the eastern u.s. over the past several years. at this point, i'm going to ask officer frith to explain to you

his arrival, what he encountered, what he saw and what he did. i want to remind you that the police department's making an exception to our policy. officers involved in critical incidents are not subjected to media interaction and voechlt while the investigation's taking place. we're going to make an exception today. but questions, if any, will be very limited. >> good morning. yesterday, i was working in the area of the hickory hollow mall around 1:13. i heard over our radio that officer arnette was flagged down by a citizen stating there was an armed suspect in the theater. i was in close proximity with another officer and we immediately responded. myself and three other officers responded. we arrived pretty much the exact

same time. at that point, i noticed there was two citizens that were possibly wounded. immediately called for an ambulance. and knowing that -- gaining the information that the suspect was still inside, immediately proceeded into the theater to actively engage him. we were directed to the theater where he was at which was theater four. we -- i directed two officers to hold security on those two doors on the outside of there and myself and another officer went upstairs in the projection booth where we aat the same timed to visually clear the theater as much as we could. we were unable to identify any suspects from that vantage point. at that point, we went back down to the entrance of the theater. and just by pure chance, i went to the left. and immediately upon entering

the theater, i was engaged with what i perceived to be small arms fire from a small caliber handgun. i heard three audible pops from what i can recall and i felt what felt like a discharge from a weapon, the pressure hit me on the right side of my face. at that point, i turned to my right and immediately engaged the silhouette of a figure. the movie was still playing and all i could see was the silhouette of a figure. i engaged that figure with one shot with my patrol rifle and immediately backed out and declared that we had a barricaded suspect situation. and waited for the extra officers to come and sergeant -- >> yeah. >> -- take it from there. >> i had worked the accident just down the street and had just left that scene when i heard officer arnette call for a

man with a hatchet and a gun at the theater. when i arrived within minutes, i encountered the two females and a male, the same victims that officer frith had encountered on the front sidewalk. the females were covered in a dye that covered their shirts down. it was a red-colored dye. that's common in some sprays. and the male told me he had been hit with a hatchet. i said where. and he showed me the gash. from that point, within seconds of talking to them, i heard a gunshot inside. i knew they were inside clearing the building. i moved to the front door and could see them up a hallway. moved into the front door and encountered officer frith with his patrol rifle covering a doorway. i had ask him what happened. he said the guy came to the door, he pointed a pistol at me

and pulled the trigger. he said, i stepped back and shot. i ask officer frith did you hit him. he said, i don't know. i shot center from that point i directed him into a hallway of cover. other officers into a hallway of cover. other officers were arriving, we didn't know if there were still folks in other theaters. so we took up positions to cover them, both sides of the hallway, tactically, cleared that made it safe. went into the theaters, two people had had come out and tried to get out. we held them in place. and then we pulled them out and took them under the cover of officers. when we had that secured, we held what we had and checked on an eta from our srt or s.w.a.t. team. when s.w.a.t. arrived they immediately came in with their

patrol rifles and the decision was made to enter the theater. this theater is set up, i don't know if you have them on maps or have you. it's set up with doors that fate each other and open out. a brief plan was made to use a flashing when they entered that. when they opened that door, the flashing was deployed, the s.w.a.t. officers went in and got behind the right most outer seats, rear seat and took up a position there. within seconds they encountered the subject at the far end of the theater and shots were fired. i would be afraid to say how many shots were fired, several. there were two or three s.w.a.t. officers behind the seats and one standing. what we also encountered was

tear gas that was so dense that he had put into the air with the canisters and it made it nearly impossible to breathe. when you encountered it was real heavy too. when that happened. i had taken up a position in the doorway where i could see what was going on with s.w.a.t. we radioed for gas masks, we didn't realize it was going to be that heavy. they brought us masks. i saw the officers coming with masks, ran to him, got them, brought them back to the s.w.a.t. officers engaged with the suspect. when i say engaged, there were multiple engagements, one stop sigh what he's doing, he shoots at them some more and engages them again.

>> i don't know, you may be able to tell me how many times that occurred. gave the gas mask to the s.w.a.t. members, they suited up with those, and were better equipped to deal with the problem. from that point that continued. i backed out and watched the outer perimeter, until the suspect exited out the door where the officers on the outside dealt with the threat. >> guys, thank you. >> it's important to note that during montano's interaction with the s.w.a.t. team members he had multiple opportunities to end the situation, he chose not to. he chose to continue to engage our officers. ultimately coming up with his hand up under the backpack, the

hatchet in another hand and the officers believing they were in imminent danger, they fired on him, resulting in his death. >> can you talk about his moveme movements in murfreesboro, nashville -- what do we know about -- >> our perception is that he's a transient. how he was getting from place to place, we don't know, where he was last week and the week before, we don't know at this point, there may be citizens in this area who have seen him in the past month. if that's the case, please contact this police department to help with our time line, his mother apparently just arrived in murfreesboro to be with another family member, and it -- in the past few days, when she arrived back in murfreesboro, she's been working with other

law enforcement agencies out of state, they were able to indicate to her he had this identification only card in nashville, tennessee. and that is what prompted her to contact the police department to do a well check. >> there are a lot of people today saying that -- [ inaudible ] >> i have to give the credit to where the credit's due, that you's to our training department. we've had, like the chief said

yesterday, we've had extensive training in what you would call active shooter, active killer situations, that training helped us to be able to react in a timely manner without having to -- we knew what the plan was, we didn't have to formulate a plan on the run, we knew what everyone had had to do. i had my job, the other three officers had their job. >> you've been listening to officials outside nashville tennessee describe what happened in that movie theater yesterday when a man armed with a pellet gun, a hatchet, some tear gas caused great terror inside that theater. >> you hear from p the officer who engaged that individual directly. stay with us here on msnbc, more on this story and more regarding the gop debate in cleveland, steve kornacki picks up our

coverage live as we countdown to the debate. zwroo

esurance was born online. they have smart online tools,

which saves money. they settle claims quickly, which saves money. they drive an all-hybrid claims fleet, which saves money. they were born online, and built to save money, which means when they save, you save. click or call. i will take beauty into my own hands...where it belongs. olay regenerist. it regenerates surface cells. new skin is revealed in only 5 days. without drastic measures. stunningly youthful. award-winning skin. never settle for anything less. the regenerist collection. from the world's #1. olay, your best beautiful

good afternoon from cleveland, ohio, where the anticipation is building. five hours from now, the top 10 republican presidential candidates will take the stage. this may be the most anticipated presidential primary debate in history. i'm steve kornackli