high-profile events. i will now have the assistant director of the fib say a word. >> thank you, sheriff. we are here with our partners, including the atf, to assure that all the wounded are extracted, and ultimately public safety is the number one goal at this point. we will work as a community to assure that we have done everything we can in our power to find, locate and apprehend these subjects. at this point, i know one of your question will be, is this a terrorist incident? i will tell you right now we do not know if this is a terrorist incident. we start from the beginning, working with our local parges. we take the presumption that it may or may not be, but we will work hand in hand from the beginning. if things change, we are here from the get-go, and no steps are lost as the investigation

proceeds. >> so very quickly after the initial response we have several hundred people that were in the building who were not injured. they have been taken to a safe location and part of the investigation. in addition to that, we know this is a human incident and this is a tragedy. we know we have a lot of folks out there very concerned and ve, we set up a center at the hernandez center here in the city of san bernardino for families to go for information. we will push the information out as we can. also in the sheriff's department, put out the crime tip hot line number. we would very much like to hear from you if you have any information. with that, i'll take a couple questions. [ inaudible ] >> i don't. i've heard everything that it was a meeting to potential like

lunch type of gathering, maybe for the holidays. that's not confirmed. that is very preliminary. my understanding is that most of the people wounded, most of the victims were all centrally locate indeed one area of the facility. [ inaudible ] >> in terms of the employees my understanding is this facility has both state and county employees as well as other agencies. the center serves a number of organizations that treat mental illness and that type of stuff. i know that state, local and county employees work there. i don't know if any of these are the victims. i do not have any information that any children were involved. >> reporter: what do you have in the way of witness accounts and everything else? what were these men using?

>> preliminary information is these people came prepared, that they were dressed and equipped in a way to indicate that they were prepared, and they were with long guns, not handguns. i do not know what type. >> reporter: have any weapons been recovered at the scene? >> we do not very any weapons recovered at this point. [ inaudible ] >> sorry. >> reporter: chance of clarification upwards of 14 dead? what does "upwards" mean? >> the preliminary number is 14 people who are deceased. our count is another 14 people who have been taken to various hospitals for significant injure writes potential related to gunshots. we have a number of other people who had other injuries, but roughly about 14 we believe are wounded. >> reporter: any security cameras inside the building? >> i would imagine there are, but we're not that far into the

investigation. [ inaudible ] >> the whole thing, i -- >> reporter: is the building still being searched? is there a possibility there are more deceased inside of that regional building? >> i think that could be a possibility. i don't think we're comfortable saying no at this point. >> reporter: have the bomb technicians recovered anything? >> as the teams were going through, searching for the suspects and searching for victims, there were some things in the building that were not immediately identifiable that caused them some concern. as a result of that, we do have bomb techs that are on site checking some of that out. we do not know if they are bombs of any sort, just simply things that teams were moving through thought they needed to be looked at. >> reporter: do you have any video from inside -- [ inaudible ] >> reporter: have you found

any -- >> not that i know of at this point. >> reporter: did the gunmen say anything? >> we don't have anything specific from the witnesses. beer in the early stages of talking to them. this is the only active scene we're working. >> reporter: what security tape might have been inside? >> that's part of the investigation. >> reporter: can you talk about the suspects' vehicle that -- >> that's all we have, very generic, upwards of three suspects, darker suv. that fled. i've never heard camouflaged. [ inaudible ] >> i have repeatedly been told the number is three, but this is flowing in as people are talks to witnesses coming in. some of this may change. these are fluid situations, and some of the information we put out now may change a bit in the future.

as far as people in the area, we're doing everything we can to keep this air safe. we addressing other facilities that we think may be similar, about you we don't have any information or credible threats to any facilities at this point, but we're obviously at a heightened sense of alert. we would also ask the public to be at a heightened sense of alert and contact us if they have anything. >> i put out what they have. >> reporter: were they wearing mask? >> one report is i heard is masks were involved, about you i don't know that to be definitive. >> reporter: any active leads you are pursuing right now? >> yes. not going to talk about it. >> reporter: ought all during the attack, during the shooting? >> no the that i'm aware of. >> any sort of threats made plir to. >> that's part of the investigation. we're not going to talk specifically about that. >> reporter: thank you for

your -- dull fire chiefs and everything, for your -- i appreciate that. >> thank you very much. [ inaudible ] >> a few minutes. >> our people in the field go into the field with what they have. we have a number of officers with high-caliber wets. they carry assault weapons, most officers carry handguns. the officers that did the initial work to go into the building went in with what they had. [ inaudible ] >> we do not know where the suspects are. >> reporter: how is the fbi involved in this -- >> we know historically that some of these investigations can turn into potential federal prosecution type of thing. at this point we don't know that to be the case, but it's better

to have them on scene from the beginning so they know what we know and they're an active part of the investigation, in addition to that, they bring to the table tremendous resources to help us in doing or job. we have no information at this point to indicate this is terrorist related in the traditional sense that people may be thinking obviously at the minute we have a domestic type of terrorist incidents here. >> any sense they had training that -- [ inaudible ] >> the only thing i'm comfortable say is the information we have is they came prepared to do what they did as if they were on a mission. >> reporter: how long were they inside shooting? >> i don't know specifically. several minutes. [ inaudible ] >> our police officers have not exchanged gunfire with anybody, but we don't know if they were on scene when we arrived.

>> reporter: i don't know if the covered this or not, but were the vast majority of the dead in one centralized location? inch yes, in the same general area of the facility. >> reporter: we're making an assumption here, chief, that they had tart that had particular room, those particular people? >> i think we're too early in the investigation to make that assumption. we don't know what the motive is at this point. >> reporter: were they held in a room -- >> we don't have any information that they took any hostages. 3wrk9 inaudible ] >> long guns is what i've been told. i think there's people that spec wlat what type they are, but i don't want to put out a specific type of gun. i'm going to say it was a long gun or handgun. >> a rifle or shotgun. >> they came in with a purpose. they came in with the intend to do something. >> reporter: was there any threat to the facility prior to this. >> i don't have specifics.

with that, we're going to cut this off. we will be back every hour on the hour to provide an update, even if we don't have anything specifically, we will come back every how on the hour, to provide an update. at the top of the hour. thank you. you've been listens to san bernardino police chief jared burgeon there. i'm chuck todd in washington. we have continuing coverage of this mass shootic in san bernardino. my colleague kate snow is going to stay with us in new york. kate, i know i've been covering this as it unfolded today. we've already done some preliminary research, kate. 14 dead would put this mats shooting as the sixth worse mass shooting in american history. >> and the worse we have seen since newtown. in december years ago.

chuck, i think several things we just learned from that press conference. number one, there are three suspects. they believe it was three people. the search for those suspects is still ongoing. they were said to have fled in a dark-colored suv. the police chief saying we don't know who they are and don't northeasterly that i motive and don't know where they are. a couple times he said they came dressed prepared to do what they did. we wouldn't go further than that, but said they were prepared. they had weapons that have not yet been recovered. law enforcement who arrived on the scene never engaged with the suspects. either they were gog. , it would sound like they fled long ago. >> no, it is, and clearly

they're worried about it's a mass building, and they seem to be worried about that. >> here's what we know at this hour. police say there are more than 14 people dead, more than 14 are injured in this shooting incident. it's called the inland regional center. this is a resource center for people with disabilities. it has upwards of 600 staff, serving thousands of people. it's a massive complex that they're still concerned that perhaps the gunmen are hiding out there. two local medical centers report they were treating at least ten patients and up to three suspects have likely fled. there's a slew of law enforcement involved. atf and fbi have joined local law enforcement. it's an active searched. this may have been masked. they have no description.

it was asked about cameras in the building, and he said it was part of the investigation. a bolo, be on the lookout has been issued. police say they have no motive, but they were prepared. the chief said there's no terrorism in the international defense, but he described it as a do mostic terrorist situation. at this hour president obama has briefed on the situation by will issa monaco. moments ago, prior to the police press conference, prior to him knowing how many victims they were, he reacted to the shooting during a prescheduled interview with cbs news. here's what he said. >> mr. president, it appears there's been another mass shooting in california. what do you know? >> well, we don't know that much yet. it's still as active situation.

it does that appear there are casualties, and obviously our hearts go out to the victims and the families. the one thing we know is we have a pattern of matt shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world and there's some steps we could take not to limb nate every one of these mass shootings, but to improved odds that they don't happen as frequently. for those concerned about terrorism some may be aware that we have a no-fly list, but those same people could go into a tore right now in the united states, buy a firearm and there's nothing we can do to stop them. that's a law that needs to be

changed. so, you know, my hope is that we are able to contain this particular shooting and we don't yet know what the motives of the 14509ers are. we should come together as a bipartisan basis, to make these rare, as opposed to normal. we should never think that this is something that just happens. it doesn't happen with the same frequency in other countries. as you heard about how many victims, how many dead and how many treated. i'm going to go to jim calf agnaws, retired afp special

agent in charge and former hostage investigator. walk us through the various ways that the fbi is doing, what your job would have been that atf is doing in this investigation, local there and the highway patrol. walk me through the various suspects. >> right, well, like the sheriff and the fbi assistant director said, i saw the atf standing there behind the sheriff. what they do is a unified command. we saw it a j.o.c., a joint praise center. t -- operations center. the room is full, and detectives, special agents, and they work as one unit investigatively to ferret out, you know, who is responsible,

since now they have fled the scene. that will be set up. it's in the process of being set up. of course, the first thing we set up, which already was set up was the tactical operations command. they do that very fast, sometimes out of the back of the armored vehicle, but the investigative command will be set up, all the tilledbits will come in, and they'll by trying to find out who these shooters are. targeting is very, very critical here to know who three people, chuck, this is not a person with a -- this is not a robbery. this is a criminal conspiracy of someone who's targeting people. it could just be targeting a conference center because it's the public. it could be a domestic terrorism motive against the government, against a certain group in the government or certain group political motivated. it could even be internavl. those are certainly leading major case leads that they'll

have to ferret out. the most dangerous thing is where are they? is it's not to say they're still in the building, waiting for s.w.a.t. to come so they could have a big shootout. >> you know, there were some things that the police chief didn't want to comment on. cameras, didn't want to comment on the type of weapons, didn't want to comment on some things. how much of is they're still gathering. how much is they don't want to let the suspects know who may be watching too, what they know. >> that's a bit of both. the building is not totally cheered, so they want to give you have any strategic is it advantage they have. it's simply a matter of time, any security video has to be

swept out. that's not an instant process. it takes teem. so they'll be doing that. they'll be getting tips from the public, sweeping the intelligence files of all the police, the state fusion center, the atf, fbi, you know, who would do this? who are the groups targeted? can we pick up a link? who has been on the radar? they have to find these guys. when they're loose like that, we could have another event. >> i was just going to say, what does it tell you when you here they were prepared for this, probably masked. we've heard one report of body armor, but obviously that's what they're trying to say, they guys were prepared for this event, which to meal sounded like code for body armor. long guns, but this is -- this tells you what?

>> i think, it tells me there's very few people, groups in the world that will get three people together to go in and mass shoot innocent, unarmed people. it's a really, really hard thing to get people together to do that. so the people that are doing that kind of an act have to be really uncull indicated machinely into their cause, into the reason to do this. that doesn't mean it's international terrorism. we have very deeply held domestic group that want to kill government officials. it doesn't tell us where it comes from, but it tells us what they think is so deeply held and so very well prepared. to just go in and slaughter people in a conference room, that's not the average criminal. that's not even one mentally defective person. this is a very deep-seeded criminal act here. >> jim, i appreciate the fact

i've been staying with us and you'll continue to stay with us. t trymaine, what are you seeing right now? >> reporter: right now, chuck, the scene is kind of calmed a lot over the past hour. good 20 minutes ago we had a sizable crowd of people watching over the scene. that number has thinned a bit. it's an eerie quiet now, especially as the -- becomes evident. 14 people killed, 14 wounded, and you can imagine this community will go through what so many other communities go through seem to go through almost every other say, so even when we have the physical injuries, we have to imagine the psychological trauma of those who witnessed this. i spoke with a woman earlier

whose sister was actually in the building when the shooting happened. she want, you know, it took her a while to reach her and she was scared. they had to call the woman's husband, but she wouldn't feel good until she was back in her arms. are people still coming out of the building? >> the cream scene has expanded. it's kind of which i again has cooled over the last hour or so. i saw two school buses leaving the scene when i first arrived.

since then there hasn't been much movement. all right. trymaine, i appreciate it. joining me on the phone is eric harden, atf special agent in charge in the l.a. field division. agent harden, what -- we heard, what is the role that atf is playing in this investigation? >> our role will be to provide whatever assistance is necessary, number one to aid in the recover of all fire arms, including casings that may have been left at the scene. we have our canine inspectors -- excuse me. canine dogs on the scene being run through the parking lot to

facilitate any recovery of casings that may have been left by the againmen, and what importance is they can be -- input into the system. if there's any hits that might have leads that will take us to identification of the gunman or gunmen involved in this tragic event. >> how quickly can you get -- if you get some casings, how quickly can you make an identification of the bep and possibly go from there? they have a machine and we will expedite it, take it to their lab. i appreciate it. i know there's a limited amount of stuff you can say and you're

very busy, so thank you for taking some time. >> thank you. we go back to jim cavanaugh. so, jim, tell me more about this system of identifying weapons via the casings. >> right. chuck, the way it works, atf runs the things called a national interesting grated ballistic network. we have these machines, they've been given to major police departments, sheriff's departments, like the special agent in charge -- i specially no eric there. he's a great guy. they have a machine right there at the sheriff's department. they can take the casings and bullets that they recover and pull them in the machine sources if they match any other crimes. of course, this is not the typical criminal act. in crimes where people are involved in a lot of crimes, those machines are very helpful.

we can target criminals who are active shooting on the streets. thee great in gang investigations, people who are active criminals, but if you get a group here that's acting on some sort of political motive, they may not have ever done this before, so you can put a lot into that. it's something we have to do. the bomb-significant dogs will find those cartridges just from the exploded powder. what they will find from the casings is how many guns were shooting. so is there three? there's a handgun fired as well? how many rounds were expended? so they'll get more of a picture, and of course they could match those guns, but people involved in those crimes -- >> you seem pretty convinced that this is going to be something -- something -- something obviously nick like this is bad, but a political motivation or something like

that, you feel as in this is much different i hate to say, than we're northerlially used to? >> when you look at workplace shootings, and those kinds of things where someone is bent on revenge with an employer, you know, somebody was wronged, something goes into a business or it's domestic. and random people are killed, you know, we can understand the revenge motive, we don't like it, but we understand it, also the mental health issue, we can understand robberies, but when you move out, you get into hate motives, like the charleston church shooting, that's not a motive of revenge or mental health. that's a motive of hate. so when you get into a shooting like this, the motives that remain, because this is not a greed motive it could be a revenge motive, but it's hard to get three people to help you on

a revenge. that's why i don't think so. you get into a hate, a hate group that could be targeting a certain group. you get into power, terrorists who want to intimidate through fear. those are the things that come up in a conspiracy to get three people to do this completely vulgar act, chuck. this is such a vulgar act to get people to do, you've got to realize these at least shooters all the agree in their minds that these innocent people should be killed. that's a huge thing in criminology to have people do that. >> and they're killing people -- what about -- they went and killed people whose job is to help people in special services and government, in this case people that had their own disability issues, things like that. what does it tell you -- what would you be focusing on given the location and what this building does, and what the people inside this building do? >> yeah, i think what we would want to know, if we're at the

command post, who are the people in the conference center? who was there? if it was rented, what's the group? what were they doing there? should keep be attacking the government at large and just went in to kill what they see as government people? or is it a specific group? or was it people with disabilities? that seems the most unlikely one at the moment. >> i'm going to pause you there. we want to dip into knbc's coverage. they're talking to somebody who has family members still in the building. >> she said he had a black mask on, and it was a big gun. she said he had a lot of stuff on his chest. i'm assuming tactical stuff. >> did she say if he said anything? >> no, she saw it from the window. he was shooting at the first floor. >> and what did she do? >> everyone's in a panic. i just heard chaos in the background. everyone just dropped. i told her to stay calm, to call

911, and the rest is unfolding right now. >> el guess. >> reporter: while you were talking to her, you could hear screams in the background? >> her co-workers were all screaming. i told her just stay calm, everything is going to be okay. i didn't know what to say. i was just trying to drive. >> reporter: what have you heard since? >> she called my five minutes ago, she said she's okay, that she's still trying to locate two of her friends, she said she just got escorted with her hands up and got separated from the group, into two groups, people for sure saw the shooters, people that kind of saw them, so i guess right now the police is interviewing them. >> reporter: does she know anyone when got shot? >> she doesn't know. >> reporter: when she saw him, she was inside and he was outside? >> she was on the third floor and he was downstair. >> reporter: saw him in a bail con? >> no, the desk at the window. >> was there a christmas party

going on? >> a holiday celebration. >> reporter: do you think they haus possibly targeting the celebration? did it -- >> i know that the conference thing was downstairs and she said he was just shooting downstairs, so i don't know who he was targeting. >> your wife saw the shooting? >> yeah. >> reporter: did she call or text you? >> she had already bare indicated herself and co-workers inside the building, put the desk on the door, and that's when she call me a bit before 11:00. >> did she get out okay? >> yes, she's in the parking lot and right now they're being questioned by police. >> did she barricade herself in a room, or did she just -- put desks around -- >> they have individual cubicles inside. >> reporter: did she see -- >> she just saw him from outside

the window, heavier-set guy, big gun. she told me he had a mask on with a bunch of things on his chest, so maybe a vest or something. >> reporter: was he alone? >> she saw just one guy. >> did she tell you how long the shooting hug on? >> reporter: how long did you talk before the phone hung up? >> did you lose her on the phone? >> i hanged up, because it was just chaos. i don't know exactly how long i talked to her then you just started driving over here. so did my dad. >> have you been able to get much information from the authorities? >> no, no one is saying anything. she's still over there in front of the parking lot in front of her actual offices over there, by the parking lot s she's right there, because they separated both of them into two different groups. >> how long has she worked there? >> a year and a half. >> did she ever express any concern about the safety of that office? >> never. she loves this office. i asked her, she said there is

security guards downstairs as well that patrol the area. i haven't heard anything as far as any cars being stolen or anything like that. >> you mean like a sorb worker? >> coordinator. >> what are you going to do when you see your wife? >> i'm going to hug her. >> thanks for talking. >> reporter: god bless. good luck. >> luis, jeanette. >> thanks for talking to you. >> god bless you, buddy. thank you for talking with us. luis gutierrez who was talking to his wife after she bare indicated herself in. kate snow, i have to say i i couldn't help be be moved. he was calm, he was describing everything and one reporter asked him, what are you going to do when you see your wife? boy, i was right there with him. >> i'm just going to hug her, is what he said. i'm right there with you, chuck.

i'm glad you can't see me right now. tears in the eyes. i think the most startling thing is we still don't know where these three people are. >> we had three, we have a witness who says one. we may still be in that one to three situation. >> to reset for people, this all started around 11:00 a.m. out west with initial reports of shots fired, and chuck, initially we heard reports that maybe there was one shooter, maybe two, maybe three. witnesses started describing on social media seeing three shooters, and what we just learned moments ago from that press conference from the bernadina county sheriff and police chief, they do think -- it's possible this isn't right, but they think there are three people involved, looking for three suspects carrying long guns. none of them left their weapons

behind. he used the words, we think they fled. they're looking for a dark-colored suv, and they don't know what the motive was or who these people are. the fbi saying we do not know if this is a terrorist incident. >> and we've heard from jim cavanaugh by him saying if it's multiple people, you would assume at some point someone might want to take credit. i want to get a little more of an understanding of what happens at this building, what goes on there. judy marcus with the autism society of los angeles, and she is familiar with what goes on here at this inland facility. judy, what more can you tell me about what these folks do on a day-to-day basis in san bernardino. >> so there are 21 regional centers in the state of california. each of them serving thousands and thousands of individuals with developmental disabilities.

there's 300,000 in the state of california. inland regional center is one of the largest if not the largest regional centers in the state, serving over 20,000 both children and adults with autism. cerebral palsy, down's syndrome, intellectual disabilities and epilepsy. they on a regular basis have individuals with disabilities coming in and out of their facility to meet with sovl workers who are called as much as coordinators. and it's an active place where there's just a lot of activity. >> basquely if you are the parent of a special needs child or you have a family member who needs service, this is where you would go? is area. >> this is the place that you would go to get services funded.

as to live with their families and their community. they're an incredibly important part. and it is -- it is like taking a piece of our heart out that anybody would try to target a place like this. >> these are social workers, people who are -- i'm just sitting here going what could possibly be the motive against people who are doing nothing but helping? >> these are people who are doctors, dentists for people specializing in special-needs kids? these are social workers, case managers. these are people who are not becoming rich to take care of this population. but in addition, you have family resource centers this these buildings who have children, who bring their children in to learn more, how to be good family members, good parents.

in that building you could have at any given time 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds getting diagnosed. you could have adults working there, because they hire adults with developmental disabilities to be there. at any given day it could be filled with people who are vulnerable in any day, and then to put them in this situation where they may not understand what is going on, and you have sirens going, and people screaming, and many of them have incredibly sensory issues, and don't understand how to follow directions, and, you know, this becomes an extreme crisis with this population. >> this is going to be a traumatic situation. oh, judy mark with the autism center in los angeles, thanks for giving us a sense of who these people are in this building, the work that they do. it's tragic enough, and it just gets more heart wrenching, judy,

thank you. house speaker paul ryan spoke just moments ago, during the christmas tree lighting on capitol hill. here's what speaker ryan said. >> before i begin, i just want to say that we are all thinking about the current and ongoing tragedy in california today. and i would like to have a brief moment of silence now for those who are affected. please keep the victims and their families in your prayers right now. >> that was a knew minutes ago during the christmas tree lighting ceremony. >> kate snow, i know you've been following more developments. share with us. >> chuck, just one small thing that the associated presses reporting. they say that san bernardino

county's department of public health was having a banquet at the time of the shooting. we've been reporting all aismgs that this probably happened in a conference center, and a part of that inland regional center that was a conference center. as you've noted, chuck, could have been rented out our used by another group. the associated press now saying it was the san bernardino department of public health having a banquet at the time, which would confirm what that gentleman was saying, luis was talking about a few minutes ago, he wife looking down and seeing a party sort of happening. it sounds like it was a banquet for the department of public health. >> thanks for that. kate, i just want your reaction. i don't know if you heard judy mark of the autism center in los angeles talking about who could have been in that building at any given day. >> yeah. >> there are people -- i have people in my family who have autism, chuck, so i know very very well, believe me, what work is down by people who coordinate

services. my sister is a social worker as well. these are folks who work so hard every single day, for very little. >> for very little, and they work to help people. for them to be a target is so unimaginable. i guess perhaps -- perhaps touch random. perhaps the department of public health might be a clue, but it's very, very difficult to process and understand any of this at this point. >> kate snow, thanks very much. we'll keep bringing the updates in there. back to jim cavanaugh, retired atf special agent in charge and msnbc contributor on these events. jim, look, we've had our -- this feels like the second mass shooting in a week, and the second one that i've noticed where there are more and more officials say we should be calling this -- everybody says this is a terrorism incidents and the police chief is is a ig

it's a domestic terrorism incident. people are terrorized. you're a former law enforcement guy. what should we be calling these inciden incidents? >> i think it would turn out to be terrorism in some form, because the motivation will likely be politically motivated. it's not going to be greed or revenge. it's more likely to be -- and we don't have the answer right now, but it's more likely to be politically motivated. it could be just that it's a government building. it could be they're targeting someone at public health or someone they think is there. it could also be they have the wrong building. you know, we've had people with bombs that put the bombs at the wrong place. and we've spent a lo the investigative effort trying to find out who would target that place when in effect they got the place wrong. so you have to always keep those

in mind when you're a commander, so who is starting this place? that's a big piece of information. >> jim, i'm going to interrupt you again. we have another public officials. the mayor of san bernardino with our knbc affiliate. >> to keep their facility safe and security. i've been in touch with the superintendent of schools, cal state president, as well as community college, and they are all monitoring the situation, making sure they take whatever protocols are net. >> reporter: what do you want the final people of san bernardino to know about what's happening with the response and to find these people. >> i can't say too much more about that. that information needs to stay secure. as long as it's an open situation, we have to rely on p.d., and the fbi is here to also give us their support.

our community comes together at these times, they have in the past, and i'm very grateful and expect they will do the same thing. we want them to stay away from the area. we want them to to be cautious and look out for any suspicious activity and report that to the tip lines so the police will have the numbs to move as quickly as possible in apprehending is the suspects. i know this has been hard on you, being the mayor and trying to resurrect a city that's seen so much other violence and firefighters and police officers asking for help because of the economy. how is it, in your eyes, now that you'll have to deal with this human tragedy up on that -- so much is on your shoulders now. >> well, i do believe our council, together with the staff we have will come together and will make the necessary changes to be sure that the community continues on that rise that we

have been on. the bankruptcy certainly is -- we are making problem. that will help to bring the city back to a more viable economic community. this adds a dimension to something we have to deal with. san bernardino is resilient, we will recover from this and do the best we can to make sure our community staying safe. >> reporter: you're probably going to have to leave the scene and face a very difficult scene. i'm sure you'll be visiting victims' family members. how are you preparing for that? >> well, as any tragedy like this, we rely upon the higher source that gives us that comfort. i would just encourage those who are going through this to draw upon that faith that they have that we'll be able to comfort them during this tragic time. their families will be impacted, something they'll be dealing with for the rest of their

lives. our thoughts and prayers go out to them. we certainly are mourning with them at this particular time. >> thank you mayor davis. thank you for your time. that was the mayor of san bernardino, california, there, carey davis. we're going to bring in pete williams, or dheef justice correspondent, but before we get to pete, let me replay a bit what we few a here minutes away from the police chief about what they think they know about the suspects. >> preliminary information is that these people came prepared. they were dressed and equipped in a way, and they were armed with long guns. i do not know what type. i don't know. i. >> reporter: have any of those weapons been recovered? >> we do not have any weapons recovered. pete, obviously in so many of these situation, early

information a lot of it proves to be wrong. how confident are they that -- >> reasonably confident, from the consistent description of the witnesses. they've heard from several that they thought there were three. very often in these active shooter situations there's confusion, because people may see a single gunman in more than one place, and then the law enforcement people arrive, they've got weapons and so they think that's the shooter. i knotts uncommon to get reports there are multiple gunmen. the other reason there's always caution about that is it's exceedingly rare for an active shooter situation to involve more than one person of something like 160 active shooter situations, all but two were committed by a sing the gunman, so this is very unusual. the fact that more than one

person was involved. the fact that they got in and got out quickly, most of the time the active shooter is either ends up committing suicide or the police get there in time and confront them, and either arrest or kill them. they get in and out quickly. that's unusual. there's just so many things about this that are off the charts. having said all this, and emphasizing the police don't know who did this. at the same time, the logical question arise could it be terrorism? yes, it could be, but none of the indicators, the people i've been talking to say are there that would be a terrorist attack. there was nothing like the kind of things that the gunman yelled in paris before their attack. they didn't say anything, they didn't -- there's no claims of credit. the target is an unusual target, in you were a terrorist. it's not the kind of thing they

usually try to hit. so all these things, you know, the whole thing is very confusing. now, in terms of what is being done right now. obviously the goal is to find these people before they can do anything else and bring them to justice. the most important piece of information is this indication that they all fled in a black suv. so law enforcement is scouring that information, liking for surveillance video that may show that vehicle -- >> let me pauses there. this is southern california. this is as well cameraed, i would assume, of an area as you're going to get. >> well, maybe. >> how much video do they thif they have. >> they'll have to go door to door. surveillance cameras are usually from businesses. >> being this is a government building. the assumption is most of them

now do have some are the of surveillance. >> they want to try to building if they can a time line of vehicles leaving. so that's one thing, to try to get surveillance. to look at different cameras. that's one thing, to get surveillance video. important information will come from the witnesses themselves, their own physical description of what the gunmen looked like, did they look like anyone they saw in the facility earlier in the day, a couple of days before. if in fact they got in and out so quickly, one possibility is they were familiar with the facility. maybe they were in it before, maybe they were in there earlier, maybe they had business there in the past. that's something they'll look at, try to get a physical description. they'll want to know whether they said anything. i indications from the news conference was they didn't. they'll look through social media. they'll see whether there were

threats against people at this facility beautiful, complaint and gripes. thi they've obviously got an all-points bulletin out, people in the area looking for that vehicle. you can bet anybody driving in a dark suv in that area in california in the past couple of hours is going to be pulled over and questions. >> it's got to be somewhat alarming that there hasn't even about a report yet of a potential sighting of potential suspects. >> i'm not so sure about that. nothing that can be confirmed. we hear lots of things. we're waiting to see whether there in fact has been. that's obviously the main focus right now. >> almost everything is probably focused on finding the suspects. >> absolutely. >> pete williams, i know you're

a busy man. we'll let you go. >> our nbc news correspondent morgan ratford, what can you tell me. morgan, what can you tell me? >> i'm standing outside of loma lima health hospital. we talked to a woman who was guarding the separate entrance where the victims' families are coming in as we speak. she said only three or four members have arrived, doesn't exactly remember what they looked like. she said one was an hispanic man going in to visit his uncle. as many as 14 could be dead and three gunmen, possibly four, could be at large. those are unconfirmed numbers. but this place is pretty much

locked down. they are letting fewer and fewer people without badges in. filtering in are families who are playing the waiting game, chuck. these are families of people who worked with the mentally disabled, families of patients who were there. we spoke to one man who hasn't heard from his daughter. nor was waiting because their sister was enside. right now we're catching things as they're unfolding, people waiting to really hear about the victims. >> thank you very much. kate snow, let me go back to you. we heard there's certainly -- there's nothing definitive out there but pete seemed to hint at that obviously there are plenty of unconfirmed reports as they're looking for the suspects. >> and if you remember the press conference a short time ago, about an hour ago, chuck, they were very careful to not reveal exactly what they're doing to

try to find these three suspects. all they would say is that they're searching for a black or dark colored suv. the all points bulletin seays potentially a uukon. i did want to share one other thing, a former nfl player, nick lawry, spoke with one of our people here at nbc news and said his sister-in-law works in that building, is the ceo of a group that's housed in that building and had four clients who were shot inside the inland center and what struck me is that they were all adults with developmental disabilities, according to nick lawry, former nfl player speaking to one of our producers. >> the more we hear about what

happens in this building, the harder and harder, as if this want hard enough. jim cavanaugh, one of the things we were emphasizing early is what you -- what we report early is often miss it and reports. and how concerned would you be at this time that what we know now will end up being corrected in six hours, eight hours, as we learn more? >> yeah, i think some things are always subject to change, but the chief seemed pretty solid, chuck, that there were multiple shooters. that's a seminal fact in there's multiple shooters. we talked about the targeting, how is that going to develop during the night. i agree with pete.

this doesn't seem to be any reason why some international group would target a place like this. it just doesn't seem to fit. international terrorist organizations go after malls and places where people gather. like in paris. why go after this place? it's a government facility, though, and that's a different look when you're talking about domestic inspired events. >> i assume you would start with anybody that has a connection to this facility first when you start your investigation, right? >> absolutely. anybody who has been fired, anybody who has threatened the place. but it's hard to get people to get in that with you. when you talk about anti-government zealots, they talk about fema and look at --

if they think that's a government facility that some crazy thing is going on in there, that would not be unusual to have a group like that, of course they're very militant. >> let me bring in someone you're familiar with. clint van zandt. i know you've been listening in on this conversation. where would you begin? >> well, you know, obviously jim's got years of experience investigating and you've got years of experience reporting so let me try to fill in the middle. you know, when we look at some of forensics evidence, anywhere from what pete williams had suggested earlier, that they'll be looking at any type of surveillance cameras, both in the buildings and on the street, trying to pick up these individuals, if they were seen getting in a vehicle, trying to pick up a license plate. at the scene itself something as little as a spent casing from a

bullet, realize with 27 people shot, upwards of three shooters, you could easily have 75, 150 bullet casings, shell casings around, any one of those could have just a fingerprint on it when that magazine was loaded. so there will be a rush forensically to try to see if they can develop any information like that that would lead to the identity. and lastly, when we start to profile, chuck, we're used to seeing the proverbial lone white nut male who goes out and commits some act like was in colorado this last week. three people together, should it actually be three, you have to say what is the emotional glue that could bind three people together to go out and commit a mass murder? even if it's related to that conference room in a building, fits related to the people who were there for a luncheon, if

it's someone hypothetically who had been fired from a job or his ex-spouse was there or something look that, we can understand the rationalization, as crazy as it is for one person but how do you get two other people to commit an act of mass murder with you. this is something that we see seldom. and we sure don't want this to start being what copy cats look look when they carry out these type of actions. >> when you call it emotional glue, you know, and some sort of conspiracy, are you going to -- where do you begin? do you begin with connections to the facility and work your way outward? >> yeah. there's got to be one primary person in this, chuck. if this facility, if someone within that group was targeted,

then investigation will come up rather quickly with who had a terrible reason to dislike someone so much and then you start to build out. it's just like a target on a bulls eye. once you find that center of that target, then you can start to build out again and those concentric circles around there more than lickly will contain the other shooter or shooters that are involved in this. so this is something that law enforcement, if it was directed at that facility and somebody there, they'll be able to identify the primary shooter, the primary leader in this. the question is how quickly can we find them? hopefully before they commit another act or before some lone police officer makes a traffic stop and doesn't know what he's running up against. >> clint van zandt, i hope you stick around. msnbc's coverage will continue next with erika hill. the local police inforus