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in new york. there is breaking news this morning. approximately 20 people dead and dozens more wounded at a nightclub in orlando, florida, overnight. the official court, 42 wounded and a police officer. but we should get more information. police are going to have a news conference in about 15 minutes. it was delayed from 9:30, now at 10:15 eastern. the shooter just in the last half hour or so identified to nbc news by law enforcement sources as omar mateen. he is a man born in 1986 in new york, which would make him either 29 or 30 years old. we don't know his birth date. but police say he is now dead, killed in a shootout. in orlando, many family members are still searching for loved ones who were at that nightclub at the time of the shooting. >> my son was at the nightclub with his boyfriend and other friends. and i know that his boyfriend has been shot multiple times and is in the emergency room.

but i don't know where my son is. no one can tell me where my son is. >> law enforcement searching through that club pulse. it's a gay nightclub, for suspicious devices. police do not yet know the gunman's motive but they are investigating this as an act of terrorism because of the number of casualties. >> approximately 0202 hours this morning we had an officer working at pulse nightclub who responded to shots fired. our officer engaged in a gun battle with that suspect. the suspect at some point went back inside the club where more shots were fired. this did turn into a hostage situation. from there, obviously multiple officers from various agencies responded. s.w.a.t. team responded. at approximately 0500 hours this morning, the decision was made to rescue hostages that were in

there. our s.w.a.t. officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect. the suspect is dead. he appeared to be carrying a rifle, an assault-type rifle and a handgun and had some type of device on him. that's what we're doing right now, checking the area for the devices. >> now, that rescue that was just referenced, police say at least 30 people were saved. nine officers were involved. one officer was injured, but he was saved by his kevlar helmet. once again, the shooter has been identified, according to nbc news, approximately 29 or 30 years old based on his birth date -- birth year, we don't know his birthday. very few other details about him except that he was born in new york. he has a residence, port st.

louis -- port st. louiucilucie. >> we are investigating this from all parties' perspective as an act of terrorism. any time that we have potentially dozens of victims in any of our communities, i think we can qualify that as terrorist activity. whether that's domestic terrorist activity or an international one is certainly something we will get to the bottom of. we're glad to have the partnerships that we've already spoken about, particularly the partnership of the fbi here. >> sarah dallof joins me live from the scene in orlando. sarah, what can you tell us? >> reporter: while all of that was goen ing on, you had 320 pee in the nightclub when this first happened and you had a lot of people who managed to flee, a lot of people who helped others to safety. this is christopher hansen. christopher, you were in the nightclub when the shooting began. when did you realize what was going on? >> after you hear the screaming and i looked over to just jimps

and you see bodies dropping. the fire of the gun just kept going. it was just boom, boom, boom, boom. it was continuous. so it was like a song but it definitely wasn't. >> reporter: how did you get out? >> the gentleman that was shot next to me, after he was shot, i crawled out. i dropped down and i used my elbows and my knees and squirmed my way out. once i felt the cement of the patio, i knew i was outside. i got up and crouching and zigzagging my way just in case bullets were flying. my zigzagging, my dad taught me that trick, you just never know. that's how i got out. >> reporter: it was incredible thinking in what must have been a terrifying moment. describe some of the injuries that you saw. >> there was a guy shot in the back, a bullet hole that big. i took my bandana, tied it and pushed it up there. another one was shot in the arm

and she had heart problems. i sat her in my lap and was telling her to breathe, it's okay. i was trying to keep her calm by getting her name. we happened to move here, both from ohio. we're both tauruses so i got to know a little about her and i was continuing to talk to her to keep her awake until paramedics were able to arrive. pie that time everyone is filling the parking lot with the tagging of the red, the yellow, who was going in what. people were going in the back of trucks. >> reporter: what did you think when you looked around and saw all these injured people and not enough medical personnel to go around? >> like i was in a horror movie. it didn't seem real to me at all until i realized there was blood all over me, a stain on my bracelet, my hands, my nails, my jeans. it's unreal. i don't know how anything can happen like this. >> reporter: and why anyone can do this. now that you've had a few hours to absorb what has happened, are

you in shock, are you coming to terms with what you saw? >> i think i'm still in shock. the blood, i think maybe the sleep or a shower or being able to get our cars because we can't even get our cars because they're stuck in valet because it's all part of the scene. so nobody has cars, wallets, i.d.s, keys, nothing. i'm in shock. i feel like i'm almost like numb. i've been crying. i was speaking to someone earlier telling my story and i lost it. there was an explosion early this morning, probably about 4:00 a.m., and i remember just d dodging next to a van and just quivering because i didn't know if that was the end of it. going through all that shooting and then hearing the bomb or whatever the explosion was, you just never know. but i'm just glad i made it out. i'm just -- because some people aren't going home. i was patient with everybody, trying to -- with the questioning and everything,

because life now, you have to live your day minute by minute and moment by moment and always say i love you and your good-byes to who's important to you because you never know when it's your last at all. >> reporter: appreciate what you have because this was supposed to be a fun night. >> a fun night. and i don't know spanish, i don't know anything and i didn't know it was latin night. so i come out and okay, music is international. it moves you. so i let it move me. and that's what i did. there was a j. lo international performer, and a rue paul drag queen that was performing. there was a bar called babylon and it blew up where cyndi lauper was performing and that was kind of what i was seeing was that episode. i'm like oh, my god, are you kidding me? and that expression and that feeling. you can really see it in the

people. it's just crazy. >> reporter: only instead of tv, instead of a movie, it's real life. >> it is real life. >> reporter: we're so glad you're okay. we appreciate you talking to us. he's really helping us put a better illustration on what it was like for the 320 people inside that club. also family and friends are getting an idea of what their loved ones were going through. we're told right now, we've been repeating these numbers but they bear repeating because at least 20 people or approximately 20 people lost their lives. 42 people injured right now. and authorities now trying to determine more about the shooter's motive. what would have led someone to go into a packed nightclub full of people enjoying the weekend and open fire. back to you. >> thank you. i want to bring in kevin barrand, an msnbc analyst. kevin, let's start with that question that she just asked, what would motivate someone to do this and where do you begin to find out what's in the mind of someone 12 hours ago, 24

hours ago, who's now dead? >> well, i'm kind of stunned at this feed by which we've heard already the shooter's name and officials coming out saying that we believe there's a link to terrorism of some kind. if you think back to the progression of the domestic incidents that have happened, chattanooga, charleston, california, san bernardino, now this one. all that's done is kind of oil the machine of law enforcement of intelligence to know how quickly can they run a name, how quickly can they match it up to different databases from nsa, cia, interpol overseas and find out just how connected, if connected, this person was. this is the new age that we live in and this is the warning this we've been getting -- we've been receiving repeatedly from officials in the administration. here in america, the threat is really from homegrown inspired terrorism. not directed. this is not -- the fear no longer is that terrorists are

going to come from training camps in syria and make their way into the homeland security. a guy from port st. lucie of all places. now the question is why and who led him to do this and why this place. a guy nightclub on latin night, on pride weekend. the washington police have said already that they're going to increase security here in d.c. for the festivals and events going on today. and again combined with the examples of workplace shootings. it's just the era of mass shooting combined with the era of terrorism, so you have a very wide net from local law enforcement to international intelligence services working together to figure out exactly what happened at a place where i was e-mailing with the editor of the local gay newspaper who said this is the least controversial nightclub in the city. again, i grew up two miles from this place. it's in an older area of town, right down the road from the

medical center, from the delaney park area. these are old beautiful homes and brick-lined streets. it's just something you never think would happen there, but here it is. >> one of the things about this, obviously, you have the gay pride weekend and you have a huge number of people, huge relative to the size of this space, people who have been inside that nightclub have written to me to say just how small it is. we've heard just how crowded it is. i do wonder if this person went in and if he had checked the place out, would they potentially have surveillance cameras. how long would they go back. would we be able to see if he had ever been there before? >> i don't know, that's a good question. my memory, like i said earlier, the building used to be a small italian restaurant called lorenzo's where family would say go after soccer games and little league games. it was barely bigger than your

own home kitchen. you waited outside to get your little tiny table. not so long ago it was converted and built out a little bit to become this nightclub pulse. but it's next door to a dunkin' donuts. it's not in a downtown region or industrial area, it's not some big nightclub out at the parks near disney universal. it's right smack in the middle of orlando. >> tracy conner is a senior staff writer at nbc, and she just posted this. she said she spoke with the father of the shooter. he said we are saying we are apologizing for the whole incident. we weren't aware of any action he is taking. we are in shock like the whole country. this had nothing to do with religion. this is according to the father. but he claims his son got very angry when he saw two men kissing in downtown miami a couple of months ago and he thinks that may have caused this.

your reaction to what his father said. >> if that's coming from the father and that's the truth, then that instantly shifts or would shift the focus away from, you know, any extremist terrorism or with a man named omar, there's so many leaps of faith to make judgments there to what becomes a hate crime, i suppose. the reported quote is directly from the father of the victim, so, you know, it's an even bigger mystery now. not only is it a mass shooting that's inspired by who knows what, now it's a hate crime mass shooting. again, in one of the most unlikely of places. >> and in what way does that shift the investigation? in what way does that change what individual investigators are doing over the course of the next 24 hours or so? >> well, assume investigators come out and say that that's what this is, then immediately it pulls people off the case who are involved in tracking tric t

terrorism. we're not going to worry about how do we track back to '02 isis and al qaeda which involved a lot more law enforcement agencies focused on that effort, it just becomes a domestic shooting incident. i think the conversation turns away from islamic extremism worries and in my world as a national security reporter covering military, covering extremism and covering terrorism and it becomes a story about gun control and about mass shootings and about legislation. i'm sure we'll hear the presidential candidates, this is what we'll be talking about in the news for the next couple weeks now, but it's a different conversation from those previous shootings that were found to be directly tied to terrorism-inspired or directed events. >> and we don't want to read too much into this statement, again, that nbc news has gotten from the father, i believe, of the shooter who said his son got very angry when he saw two men kissing in downtown miami a couple of months ago and at

least his father's belief that that may have caused this. but obviously this does change the equation. unfortunately, like terrorism, when we talk about hate crimes, when we talk about attacks against gays, there is unfortunately too much experience with that as well. just in may two of five men arrested for beating an african-american back, we remember. when ronald gay killed 43-year-old danny overstreet and injured six more after he opened fire at a gay bar in roanoke, virginia. there have been just -- you can go online and see the long documentation of crimes against gay men, against lesbians, the lgbt community who remains under attack, and this, of course, being pride month. and obviously if this is the latest track of this investigation, it is something

that counterterrorism officials will be keeping the president apprised of. let's go to the white house where jim miklaszewski has been standing by. mik, what do you have for us? >> reporter: the president was briefed early this morning according to the white house press secretary, josh earnest, by lisa monico, the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism. and the president asked that he be kept up to date, receive updated briefings throughout the day on the progress of the investigation. now, according to what we're hearing now, chris, is that perhaps this will not end up being a federal investigation at this point and as of now there's no indication that the president himself is planning to make any kind of public statements today or that the white house is planning any public briefings. the president did ask the fbi and all appropriate agencies to assist the orlando, the florida authorities in their

investigation and to assist too in comforting the community as best it can to help recover from this tragic shooting. but so far here, the white house is pretty much shut down for sunday and we're standing by to see if that changes throughout the day, chris. >> jim miklaszewski, thank you very much. we are waiting for an update from this press conference in orlando, florida. it had been scheduled to start at 9:30. now we are told they are close to getting under way but in the meantime let's get you up to date. there's the press conference, it's started. let's listen in. >> so we're doing our part in my office to make sure that there are no bureaucratic impediments to letting them comfort the injured. [ inaudible question ] i don't know. i don't know. every victim has been removed. >> have you heard anything

about -- [ inaudible ] >> well, let me put it this way. the nationality of family members is indicative, but again police are holding back that information until it's time for that to come out, until they have done a fullback ground check on him. they have gone into his home, found whatever is in his home, computers and writings and so on as well as checking social media. >> do you believe he might have had -- [ inaudible ] >> there's no evidence of that. >> do you have an update on the bomb situation? is there a still a problem with a device? >> the police never said it was a bomb. they said it was a suspicious device. all the killing that was done was with an assault rifle, with a single weapon, an assault rifle. it was done very quickly also. [ inaudible question ] >> it will take many hours. there's an enormous amount of havoc right now. there's blood everywhere. i spoke to somebody who was on

the site and there is an enormous amount of evidence to be collected systematically over the course of many hours at the site. >> do you want to move the podium? oh, you don't want the podium at all? okay. they were wanting it for their remarks but you guys aren't hearing. thank you all for your patience and flexibility on the time, we just wanted to make sure we had the latest information and we were getting some last details during this time. this update will include orlando mayor buddy dyer, orange county mayor teresa jacobs, police chief john mina, sheriff jerry

demings, ron hopper with the fbi, dr. michael cheatam, a trauma surgeon at ormc and musri and -- >> we're going to get to this press conference in just a second. that was congressman alan grayson who represents that district. now let's listen to the police press conference. >> today it was something that we never imagined and is unimaginable. since the last update we have gotten better access to the building. we have cleared the building and it is with great sadness i have to share we have not 20 but 50 casualties. in addition to the shooter. there are another 53 that are hospitalized. because of the scale of the crime, i've asked the governor to declare a state of emergency. we are also issuing a state of emergency for the city of orlando so that we can bring additional resources to bear to deal with the aftermath. our focus is going to be on

identifying the victims and notifying the families. we're setting up a hotline for concerned family members. there's 407-246-4357. the identification process may take some time, so we ask for your patience because we want to be accurate. concerned family members can call the hotline, however, and let them know that you have someone that you are concerned about. i continue to be so proud of our community, the support that is shown, the response that has been made. i'm also thankful to entities from all around the country and all over the state of florida. the governor has made all the resources of the state of florida available. orange county has made all of their resources available. we have assistance from the white house. so every possible asset we have brought to bear. mayor jacobs. >> thank you, mayor dyer.

of course let me start with expressing my sympathy for the families, for the loved ones of those who we have lost in the last 24 hours. we know that this affects a large segment of our community. we know that we have a very close-knit lgbt community who has been dramatically impacted by this. so to everyone who is impacted, i want you to know that our thoughts and prayers are with you and that we are a united community and that what we saw last night does not reflect what we feel in our hearts and our souls here in orange county. and i am calling on every citizen here in orange county to never forget that we stand together in times of adversity. but we don't just stand together as the city of orlando and orange county, we stand together as a country. we have heard from texas, we have heard from states all across the country wanting to know what they can do to help. so when evil like this comes to our community, we respond in

force. i guarantee you, we will do that again and thank you all for everything that you do to make this such a wonderful place to be. we know it's going to take time to be able to answer the questions. there's nothing, nothing more difficult than waiting to find out the status of the people that you love. please be patient, we're doing our best. thank you. >> as mayor dyer said, at this point the nightclub pulse has been cleared and being safe of any devices. we're in the process of clearing the suspect's vehicle, which is a van right outside. and just -- we ask that people be patient. unfortunately there are many victims inside the club. like we said, our priority will be on the identification of the victims, notification of the next of kin. i also want to take this opportunity to thank all the outpouring of law enforcement support from as far away as boston and chicago.

that let us use their resources if needed, and of course great community support from the central florida law enforcement community as well. i also want to commend the heroic and courageous actions of the initial responding officers who exchanged gunfire with the suspect and also the heroic and courageous actions of our s.w.a.t. team who rescued at least 30 victims -- possible victims and brought them to safety. so again at this point, just patience because, unfortunately, this tragedy and the amount of bodies that are in there and amount of victims is going to take some time. thank you. we'll answer questions at the end. >> i'm sheriff jerry demings and i join our entire community in offering our sympathy to these families who have lost loved ones. this has certainly been a tragic day for all of us, and in that

this is a day of worship and most places in america we do call upon the members of the clergy to pray for those families and for this community and this nation for healing. in the last several hours, the men and women here in law enforcement have been working diligently to ensure the overall safety of everyone involved. you all have seen most recently where there were members of our hazardous device team, our bomb units have been working from the orange county sheriff's office with units from the orlando fire department to make certain that we did not have any secondary type devices or what have you that were in the crisis site itself. that process has taken an extended period of time to ensure the safety of everyone and so that's why we have not

been able to remove all of the victims, if you will, from the crisis site at this point. that process is continuing. we likely have another hour or two of operational necessity to ensure the safety before we can begin that process. but we do appreciate the collaborative effort amongst all of the different local governments as well as our state and our federal government. we've all come together in unity to address this issue and on behalf of our entire community, we thank you, the media, for covering these events and this tragedy. thank you very much. >> can you please confirm 5-0 dead? >> we'll take questions after we're finished with the prepared statements. >> hello, the fbi has confirmed the subject involved in this shooting incident.

at this time we are making the notifications to the next of kin, so we will have that name to be officially released to you at the next press conference. what i want to put out right now is that as we all know in many situations, people come and go to nightclubs such as these. so what i'm asking is if anyone out there attended this nightclub and then left before the shooting happened, i would urge you to still call in and come and talk to our investigators because you do not know what you may or may not have seen. so we appreciate everyone coming forward. we are actually setting up a family assistance center at the hampton inn at 43 columbia street. we currently have it now on ormc but we're going to move it down to the hotel in order to accommodate more family members in an attempt to reunite people with either their loved ones or gather information on people who have not yet been located. >> can you just confirm that number again, 50, did you say 50

dead? >> 50. >> in addition to 53 in the hospital. >> you mentioned earlier -- i thought we had -- we have one more. >> we have a couple more people who are going to speak and then we'll answer some questions. >> good morning. as many of you are aware, a little after 2:00 this morning we were notified of many victims, gunshot victims. as central florida's only level one trauma center, we immediately activated our mass casualty plan. we brought in six trauma surgeons to respond, including one pediatric trauma surgeon. we have spent the morning operating on a number of victims. we continue to operate on them. we have found many of them are critically ill as a result of their injuries. and we are in the process of trying to reunite families as we identify the names of these victims. as has been mentioned, this will take some time and we ask for your patience.

but we will reunite the families and the victims just as quickly as we can. >> do you need blood donors? >> blood is a wonderful gift. that can all be arranged through the local blood banks. please don't come to the local hospitals. but you can work through the local blood banks to be able to donate and that would be a tremendous help. >> your first name, doctor. >> michael cheatam. >> good morning. my name is muhammed mosri, i'm the president and senior imam and national president of american islam. i'm here today to stand as a faith leader with our law enforcement community and our city leadership in this hour of horror that was brought upon our city. i have worked with these leaders for over 20 years.

i know their caliber, their strength, and their determination to make sure this city is safe. and i call on everybody in the community, anybody who has any information, to please call the fbi, share what you know. it may help answer many unanswered questions yet. i also call on my fellow faith leaders, jewish, christian, muslim, hindu, whatever faith you follow, please pray for the victims and their families in this hour on this sunday morning. it's supposed to be a beautiful morning, but it is already a very heartbreaking morning. and i want to praise the courageous effort of our opd who

risked their lives, put their life on the line. one of the officers, as we heard, was injured. and that's a risk they take every day to protect us. no one could have predicted this. no one could have prepared for it. this could have happened anywhere. it's like a lightning. so they have done a marvelous job to save as many lives after the shooter began shooting and we are glad that the situation is completely under control. there are no other shooters that this person is not known to be connected with a network or other people, so the city residents and the visitors should feel safe.

the city is as safe as the best city in the world. i want to also caution many in the media from rushing to judgment and from sensationalizing the story, because we do not want this story to be shifted from the focus where it is. it's a horrible tragedy. we are mourning, we are sad, we are heartbroken, and it's not really time for any sensational news, just -- and rushing to judgment. so we should all wait till information, facts come out from the investigators and we will all see what happened, understand it and stay together,

to work together to keep our community strong. i want to thank mayor dyer, mayor jacobs, our city leaders. chief mina and sheriff demings for their leadership, ron from the fbi. i think many times in the past this has been discussed as the worst nightmare and we are sorry to know that it happened to us. we don't wish this on anybody else and we hope this would be the last of the mass shootings that our country has been going through. i think as a nation we need to look at this issue of mass shootings because we just had one too many today. i think we should do something about it to stop the mass shootings that are happening all the time.

thank you. >> question for ron. >> very early on the shooter appeared to have been leading toward a radical islamic terror connection. how is it that you guys were so quickly sure of that track as opposed to this just being a hate crime given that it happened at a gay nightclub? >> early on when we had a possible identification made, we run everything to ground, whether it winds up being the actual individual or not. and so as i mentioned earlier, at this time i can't say exactly who the suspect or the deceased shooter is. once we're able to do that, once the notification is made, then more details will be able to be shared. most likely from our counterterrorism division up at fbi head quarters. >> can you tell us how many rounds you think were fired off? >> right now the weapons recovered from the suspect who is dead was a handgun and a ar-15 type assault rifle.

an unknown number of rounds but there were additional rounds. >> did the suspect make any sort of call prior to the shooting, maybe to 911 or another location, indicating anything? >> we have no indication of that as of yet. >> was there any communication with the suspect in those three hours before you went in? between the arrival -- shots were fired and you finally going in to rescue the hostages? >> there was some communication but we're not going to release that right now. >> why did you wait three hours? >> remember, this is a situation involving hostages. a situation involving things that happened very fast and, you know, i think it was important for them to know exactly what they had. once the initial shots were stopped. they were dealing with a hostage situation. so in that time, we need to set up, re-evaluate, reassess what's happening and make sure all the pieces are in place, we have

enough staffing to take care of any situation. we have armored vehicles that come to the scene and those were crucial in the rescue of those hostages so any time we have a hostage situation, we're definitely going to use extreme measures to make sure that we have enough personnel on the scene. >> how many hostages were executed before you went in? >> i can't speak to that right now. >> early this morning there was a thought that it may be 20 victims inside. that number has risen to 50. is this now one of the top five if not the top mass shooting in the country? >> absolutely, yes, it is. this morning just based on what the initial officers saw without jeopardizing any more safety, you know, they thought there were about at least 20. but now it's up to 50. so definitely one of the worst tragedies. >> is this the worst shooting in

american history? >> yes. >> any indication that the suspect had any help, outside help? >> there's no indication of that right now. but that will all be part of the investigation. >> of all of the 50 that were killed shot during the initial shooting and were there any shots fired after that initial shooting at 2:02. >> there was an initial shooting at 2:02, numerous shots fired. and there were numerous shots exchanged between the s.w.a.t. team and the suspect at 0500 hours. >> so of the 50 fatalities that we have, were they all killed during that initial shooting at 2:02 or were any killed after that. >> that's unknown. >> is this classified as a hate crime or terrorist attack? >> at this point in time we're just conducting a general investigation, period. we'll determine officially whether it's a hate crime or a terrorism incident or even a violent crime once we have all the facts in place. we're at the very early stages. as much as i would like to give

you everything we have, we can't give you things that aren't 100% accurate. >> it does seem like you're saying right now and you guys came back with an imam. >> i'm sorry, a bomb? >> imam. >> okay. >> what has changed in the last three hours that you're giving us less information but now you're calling for calm? >> again, since the suspect has not been positively identified to the next of kin, there's not a whole lot more we can share with you at this time. also bear in mind we do not want to jeopardize the investigation. while we feel confident right now, there are no other threats to the immediate area or the united states of america, we need to be certain of that before we put any other information out. >> is he a u.s. citizen? >> was anyone injured by officers' fire and were any officers injured? >> unknown at this time. there was one officer injured. he was hit in the kevlar helmet with a round from the suspect. the kevlar helmet did stop that round, but the officer does have some injuries to his face from

that gunshot. >> how would you characterize the shooting? >> did he come in shooting or was he able to smuggle these weapons in and then -- >> we're still early in the investigation. unknown how he got inside the club but it appears that he was in there and then shots were fired. >> how bad is this compared to other shootings across the country? >> it's absolutely terrible. i mean 50 victims in one location, one shooting is absolutely one of the worst tragedies we've seen. >> chief -- [ inaudible question ] >> exactly. there were more victims inside than originally thought, so once it was safe for us to go in and we determined there were no devices, that's when we were able to discover how many victims were actually in there. >> was he a u.s. citizen?

[ inaudible question ] >> that's all going to come out in the investigation. right now we're going to focus on obviously the identification of all of the victims and the notification of next of kin. >> how long of a period before you were able to get in there and see -- >> someone said the shooter is from afghanistan and was trained in the use of weapons and knows what he is doing. can you speak to that as well? >> no. >> is he a u.s. citizen? >> here we are, one of the worst mass shootings in the u.s. your thoughts. >> absolutely, it's definitely a tragedy not only for the city but for our entire nation. we believe this is a tragedy that could happen anywhere in the united states of america. and what we need to do is continue to be vigilant and call. if you see, something say

something. call 911, call the fbi. if you see something that's out of place or you see someone that's acting strange, strange behavior. >> we can't confirm that. >> what is the mood of the first responders on the scene? >> absolutely just to look into the eyes of our officers told the whole story. obviously, some of those officers had 20-plus years on. one of the lieutenants who was one of the first on the scene, he's a 23-year member of the police department and almost 20 years on the s.w.a.t. team. you could tell that they were all shaken by this incident by what they saw inside the club. they did an unbelievable job, courageous efforts in rescuing many, many hostages. at least 30 from inside the club. but after it was all said and done, you could tell really this kind of tragedy takes a toll on everyone, even law enforcement officers. >> can you describe what they saw? >> so we're going to brief

roughly every two hours. >> three hours actually. >> three hours. we're going to brief in about three hours and we'll give you absolutely as much information as we can disclose. there are guidelines for opd and for the fbi and fdle, but we'll give you everything we can possibly give to you. right now we want to focus on identifying the victims and notifying their families. so i would hope you would lead with the information about how families can call in and check on their loved ones or give information about they might think that their loved one was among those who are missing. >> can you give that hotline number again. >> 407-246-4357. 407-246-4357. people can call, if loved ones want to call and get some information or help us with

information, they can also call the fbi for any tips and that's 1-800-call fbi. they'll just hit option number 2 when prompted. 1-800-call fbi, option number 2 when prompted. one more time our hotline for family members is 407-246-4357. >> so we'll target the next media briefing at 1:30 today. we do understand that governor scott is en route so he may want to do something before that and we'll keep you updated on that. but the next law enforcement briefing will be at 1:30. >> in the words of one of the local officials, something that we never imagined. the death toll inside that gay nightclub in orlando where a gunman opened fire in the early morning hours today has now gone to 50. 53 more are injured. many of them in a local trauma, level one trauma center, and

many of them in apparently very critical condition. it's possible the number of those killed could go up. it is always a horrific, horrific thing to report when we have a mass shooting like this, but to give you some perspective, when you look at the last many years, from dating back to the aurora movie theater shooting through the wisconsin sikh temple shooting, the charleston church shooting, the total number of victims from all of those mass killings is 44. now 50 people killed in orlando. a couple of important things to note. state of emergency has been declared there. the pulse nightclub, which they were concerned might have in some way been booby trapped, that there could have been an explosive device, that there could have been an ongoing threat there, that has now been cleared. it allows them to do the very

difficult, pain-staking job of identifying the victims and notifying their families. it's worth repeating if there is someone in the orlando area who has a family member they believe that might be in there, the number to call, 407-246-4357. we'll put those numbers up. 800-call fbi is also the number for someone who may have information about this. nbc has identified the shooter at omar mateen. omar mateen. let me bring in nbc news and msnbc national security analyst, kevin barrand. kevin, your headline out of that news conference. >> the headline is as the chief said, this is the deadliest shooting in american history now. i can't believe i get to say that it happened in orlando, florida, my hometown and at this club, with so many questions still. that press conference did not

answer. in fact i think it left even more questions. if this shooter was somehow connected to terrorism or not, or is this purely a hate crime or not. they're being very cautious to tell what they know and why. and for good reason usually. there's a reason to keep intelligence sourcing and information as quiet as you can. but we have a case now where the entire country is watching a man with an islamic name from an islamic family but at a gay nightclub with a mass shooting. three different types of concerns, threat concerns all coming together at once in america. and here we are again talking about another mass casualty case, somehow trying to connect it to terrorism, somehow trying to connect it to hate crimes or social norms or gun use. the police saying this was an ar-15 assault rifle. he had a handgun on him. probably had some sort of device on his body.

they're checking his car still. here we are again. >> and one does not necessarily rule out the other when we talk about terrorism, hate crime, although nbc news, having spoken now to his father, meedoes not believe it was moat nativated b religion. he says his son, omar, is married and has a 3-year-old son. in fact he got very angry when he saw two men kissing in downtown miami a couple of months ago and made a comment about his son seeing that. look at that, his father quotes him as saying. in front of my son they are doing that. and then we were in the men's bathroom and men were kissing each other. the father said he didn't care, but omar was very upset and he

told our tracy connor, a senior writer for nbc news, now looking back, maybe that's why he went after a gay club. his father says he has an associate's degree in criminal juch justice from a community college and he was working a security job. he lives in a condo in port st. lucie, was born in new york city. this is an american citizen. whatever his name, omar mateen, this is a man who was born in the united states, was raised in the united states, was living in port st. lucie about 125 miles away from orlando. his father went on to tell tracy connor, he was a number one son. he is the best son a father could expect. he respected his mother, the whole family. he was highly educated. he was such a perfect father. i don't know what went through his mind that he went after a gay bar. i was so proud of him. he was perfect, respectful and helpful. but again, i think as you point

out, kevin, right now what we heard from that very brief and, as you say, often raising more questions press conference is that until we hear from counterterrorism officials, until we hear what else they may know from interviewing people, pa+x-odddaépauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

like you said, the headline of the day is the largest single shooting. >> 50 dead, 53 injured, kevin baron thank you. one of the things investigators will be looking at in the coming hours and days will be what was he doing in orlando. his father said he saw gay men and it upset him, they were kissing in miami. he lived in a condo with his wife and child in port st. lucie. according to his dad, he worked in security. did he know that it was pride week, for example. did he know about this nightclub, any specifics that it was a fairly small place that apparently has a hallway leading to two different bars, that it would be packed on a latin night. all these questions that need to be answered and the shooter is dead. in the meantime, the very pain-staking work, as we said,

of identifying these victims, notifying their families, many of whom don't know what happened so far to their sons. sarah dallof joins me live from the scene in orlando where there have been conversations with both people who were inside that nightclub and the families. sarah, what do you have for us? >> reporter: well, the emergency crews, those vehicles, have begun emptying out of the area as the full horror of this situation becomes apparent this morning. we're hearing more tales of survival, tales of courage and heroism inside that nightclub. people who paused to hold open the door for other people who were fleeing. people who had the wherewithal to unplug the dj's booth so that -- knowing the other club goers would hear the shots better and know that they needed to flee. we talked to one man who was inside and he in isitially thou those gunshots may have been part of the music.

it took him a few moments to realize it wasn't. i want to let you hear what he had to say right now. >> i crawled out. i dropped down and i used my elbows and my knees and i squirmed my way out. once i felt the cement of the patio, i knew i was outside. so i got up and i was crouching and zigzagging my way just in case bullets were fleeing because the zigzag, my dad taught me that trick, sometimes you just never know. so that's how i got out. >> reporter: and that man that we talked to, christopher hansen, he continued to help people who were injured. he used his own clothing to make a tourniquet for one person. he spotted a woman by herself. they had triaged the patients into red zones, yellow zones, green zones. he saw a woman by himself in the yellow zone and thought what if that was my family member. i wouldn't want them to be alone so he sat with her until emergency crews could get her out. they didn't have enough ambulances, they didn't have enough medical personnel to go around, and so you had these

eyewitnesses, you had these club goers stepping in to do what they could. this was a packed nightclub. it was a busy saturday night, turning into sunday morning. 320 people estimated to have been inside at the time of the shooting. it was latin night. people were enjoying three djs and they tell us just in a heart beat, just like that, everything changed. back to you. >> sarah, do we know the physical makeup of exists in that building? one of the people, thomas roberts, an anchor here at msnbc texted me to say that a friend of his is familiar with that nightclub. you go in, there's a small waiting area and a hallway leading to two bars, but then people would have been trapped. was there no direct exit. how do we know -- do we know how people were able to get out or what the exit situation was there, how many doors they were able to leave by? >> reporter: we don't know the exact layout of the building yet nor do we know how many exact doors there were.

we do know some people instead of choosing to flee, they felt it was in their best interests to go and hide. so you had people trying to barricade themselves in offices. a bouncer tore down a temporary barrier that separated the employees area from the club area so the club goers could reach that area and get out a back door. as for how many exits there are, that information we don't have right now. >> the latest number that we were able to learn is at the time the shooting began, about 320 people or so inside that fairly what has been described to me by a number of people who have texted me as a pretty small nightclub, relatively small? >> reporter: about 320 people is what we were told. this is saturday night in orlando. there had been events going on all night long, some free concerts in downtown. this is just a couple of blocks south of downtown proper so the party had continued down here. it was latin night. they had advertised three djs

spinning all night long. it was just about closing time. one club goer said they were taking the final sips of their drinks when this chaos rang out, so you can only imagine the darkness, the crowds of people, all of that leading to confusion as people tried to escape. >> sarah dallof who is on the scene in orlando for us. once again, there will be another update from police and other officials at 1:30 eastern time. it's coming up on 11:00 in the morning in orlando, florida. we'll continue our breaking news of the deadly shooting at an orlando nightclub, now 50 dead, 53 injured. msnbc's live coverage will continue. using 60,000 points from my chase ink card i bought all the fruit... veggies... and herbs needed to create a pop-up pick-your-own juice bar in the middle of the city,

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(vo) on the trane test range, you learn what makes our heating and cooling systems so reliable. if there's a breaking point, we'll find it. it's hard to stop a trane. really hard. trane. the most reliable for a reason. just past 11:00 in the morning on the east coast. i'm chris jansing at msnbc headquarters in new york. the mayor of orlando, we just learned, has issued a state of emergency across that city in light of the scale of the mass

shooting this morning at the pulse nightclub in orlando. we know 50 people were killed there this morning. this is the worst mass shooting in the country in the past 30 years. more than 50 people were injured. they're being treated at local hospitals. >> we have gotten better access to the building. we have cleared the building. and it is with great sadness that i share we have not 20, but 50 casualties. in addition to the shooter, there are another 53 that are hospitalized. our focus is going to be on identifying the victims and notifying the families. >> nbc news has learned the identity of the shooter, omar mateen. he was born in 1986 in new york. that would make him 29 or 30 years old. his father in an interview with nbc news made the following statement. we are saying we are apologizing for the whole incident. we weren't aware of any action he is taking. we are in shock, like the whole country. and, he adds, and this is

important, his belief is this had nothing to do with religion. mateen's father also said his son had gotten very angry when he saw two men kissing in downtown miami some months ago. police say the shooting took place at approximately 2:00 a.m. this morning. officers exchanged fire with mateen while trying to rescue people the shooter had taken hostage. mateen was killed in that exchange of gunfire. one officer was also injured during the shootout and we're told was probably saved by wearing his helmet. police were able to evacuate about 30 people during their rescue operation. so here's the bottom line. right now 50 people shot dead this morning. 53 taken to local hospitals. some of them are in critical condition. there were about 320 people in that nightclub when the shooting began. the fbi is leading the ongoing investigation. officers say they were investigating the incident as a possible act of domestic or international terror, but

obviously the statements by his father may lead them in another direction. police are asking anyone with information on the shooting to come forward to aid the investigation. the local community is banding together to support the victims, their families, as well as each other. >> we know that this affects a large segment of our community. we know that we have a very close-knit lgbt community who has been dramatically impacted by this. so to everyone who is impacted, i want you to know that our thoughts and prayers are with you. and that we are a united community and that what we saw last night does not reflect what we feel in our hearts and our souls here in orange county. and i am calling on every citizen here in orange county to never forget that we stand together in times of adversity. but we don't just stand together as the city of orlando and orange county, we stand together as a country. we have heard from texas, we have heard from states all across the country wanting to

know what they can do to help. so when evil like this comes to our community, we respond in force. >> nbc's tom brokaw joins us now on the phone. tom, you and i have covered far too many of these and i went through the litany of just the ones in recent history, the aurora movie theater shooting that happened right before the olympics back in 2012. the wisconsin sikh temple shooting, the boston marathon shooting, obviously, the charleston shooting that so shocked our sensibilities, the newtown shooting, which was obviously the horrific murder of so many children, the san bernardino killing, which was the most recent that happened out in california, really in the very quick aftermath of the horror that we saw in paris. and yet again, this country and its psyche, tom, dealing with the idea that in any place, in

anywhere in america, in orlando, which people associate with theme parks and families and fun, horror can unfold in the blink of an eye. >> you know, i've been an adult now for more than 70 years -- actually not for more than 70 years, for more than 60 years and this is not the america i expected to find myself in with my grandchildren and children and the future that i think they are facing. these kinds of attacks, whatever the motivation, have become far too routine. if it turns out that there was some kind of an islamic connection, that too is a tragedy. but if it is not that, that's another kind of tragedy. the fact is that 50 people are dead this morning as a result of a mass shooting. there's so much in play here. i would hope that the country could find a way to come together and have a rational dialogue about where we are, who we are and how we can get control of these kinds of circumstances. it's going to be very difficult, especially in an extremely

heated political campaign. but i think we owe it to ourselves, to our children and our grandchildren to begin that dialogue right now, because these mass shootings are going on every week somewhere in the country. a mass shooting is identified as more than three people dead. here we have 50 dead. there's a lot that we still have to learn. let's find out what could have motivated this young man. it's interesting to me that so far there are no forensics in terms of him leaving a trail on twitter or social media. that may show up. we may learn what his motivation may be. obviously it was a gay nightclub. was that part of the motivation? let's wait and find out and then begin the discussion that we all conserve and that this country should lead the way for the rest of the world. >> one way, tom, in which america does lead the way is in the face of these horrific attacks. you and i certainly saw it, being new yorkers, at the time of 9/11, the way the community

responded, the way the country responded. what we're seeing in that picture in orlando, florida, are people lining up to give blood. one of the questions a short time ago, what can we do, and people -- and that's the reporter, the local reporter who was standing in front of that long line of people. there is this instantaneous outpouring from the american people, how can i help, what can i do. in many ways after 9/11 so many people showed up that there wasn't enough organizational ability to even deploy them to figure out what to do. but i have to tell you, tom, that when i talked to a lot of the french who were shaken so deeply by what happened there in november and the mass shootings there, one of the things they said was they remember how america responded, not just 9/11 but after, that there is something about the american people that brings them -- requires them to do something

good in the face of evil, tom. >> well, i think this country is always at its very best when it's from the ground up. we saw that not just during 9/11 but during the space tragedies as well about how people turned out. what we have to be on guard against are so-called political leaders who want to exploit what has happened here. already if you read twitter on both sides, both extremes, you're seeing some statements that simply cannot be substantiated, trying to light another kind of a fire. i think we ought to be better than that. we're always going to have the first amendment, freedom of speech, an ability to express yourselves, now more in power than ever before in history because of social media and twitter and all the other opportunities. but that does not relieve us of the obligation that we have to do that in a thoughtful and meaningful fashion. let's wait and find out what the motivation may have been here and then let's begin to have that dialogue and let's think about those families today who are not trying to go on twitter

to assign blame. they're only in mourning because of someone that they lost overnight in a wholly unexpected mass murder committed probably by an ar-15 rifle, which is an assault weapon, built to kill people. but now widely available in this country. >> and many of those people, as you mentioned, tom, not just grieving but there are people who don't know what happened to their loved ones and that process is going on inside that nightclub. let's talk about where we are, tom, as a country, which is we are in the middle of one of the most divisive, one of the most heated, one of the most unexpected political campaigns that we have ever seen for president of the united states. i've already seen at least one statement put out by an anti-gun violence group, a pro gun control group, saying that they're shocked by yet another incident of violence and when are we going to look seriously at this. and this has been a campaign that in many ways has been

dominated not by the issues but by exchanges, by insults, by questions of who is capable of holding the highest office in the country. but this will inevitably spark in the middle of this campaign more conversations about what we do as a country in terms of access to guns, what we do as a country in terms of tracking that, in terms of mental health awareness, all of these conversations are going to come up. but i guess one of the questions in the midst of knowing that these statements will be made as the day goes on and these questions will be asked of the presidential candidates, does there actually come out of this a serious conversation, does there come out of this any action in congress about -- or even, again, serious discussion about what the next step might be. >> it's very hard to guess what

may come out of this or to speculate on it. i do think it will help define who these candidates are, how they do respond to all of this, whatever their positions happen to be. at this moment i'm sure that donald trump and his team, they're talking about it. i'm sure that mrs. clinton and her team are talking about it, because there is the reality that this is a presidential campaign. there is going to be a big, big reaction to what has happened here. how they as people who want to be the nation's leaders respond to it. how they develop a relationship, if you will, with the country with this issue and all the parts of it. and there are many parts of it. we'll wait and see. i don't want to get ahead of them or ahead of congress or ahead of the public inspect terms of what it wants to do. my own hope is, obviously, at this stage that everybody can take a deep breath, be in mourning for the people who are lost and then find a rational way to have that discussion. >> it is true that the president of the united states right now,

barack obama, has said, and i've seen it, i've been in the briefing room with him after these events, and one of the great frustrations of his presidency is that in the wake of newtown and in the wake of the shootings since then, there is not even -- there essentially has been no action that was taken. they thought that there were at least some pieces of legislation that they might be able to get through. none of that has come to pass. and again we're starting to see some of the statements from some of these groups who full time talk about the issue of guns in our country. in the meantime, tom, you point out well that there are other discussions that have to be had and be don't know, again, what happened here. we only know the statement of a father to nbc news. we had seen the latest fbi report tt said that the number of overall hate crimes against gays were down, if this is indeed what this turns out to be, and again it's just a

statement of the father. but that we still live in a country, according to fbi officials, according to lgbt activists, according to human rights organizations that track these kinds of things, that it's still difficult to track. that there's a reluctance in many places in the country to report anything that has to do with hate, that has to do with anti-gay, anti-lgbt activity. you're right, there is a larger conversation that is going to be had here. i think one way or another, whatever his motivation turns out to be, that somebody would go into a gay nightclub and open fire in an enclosed space, a very small space, and kill so many people so quickly. >> well, as you rightly point out, there is a great deal more to learn. one of the things that we do know, according to peace reporting, he is a security guard licensed to carry a weapon. whether that included an ar-15 yet we do not know yet.

what is quite striking to me is that nothing has turned up on social media that he may have activated in some way, some communication he may have had with a friend or twitter that he may have put out there, some kind of forensic evidence of what his motivation for this all may be. this will unfold, we hope, in the next several hours. i must say it's been very impressive this morning to watch the municipal, the state and the federal authorities as they have conducted the investigation and then relied on all of us to carry the message to the country and especially the families. so it appears that everything is in good hands there. it behooves us all to wait and see what more we need to know before we fin fibegin firing ou strong opinions in the wrong direction. >> tom brokaw, thank you so much. we appreciate your time. to tom's point, anyone with information has been asked at that news conference just a

short time ago to call 800-call fbi. anyone who might have any information that might be useful in this investigation. joining me now, msnbc analyst and former fbi agent clint van zandt who is on the phone. clint, what's your take with this new information that came out of the news conference? >> well, chris, it just gets worse and worse. we look at the numbers, and it's a terrible thing to reduce these tragedies to numbers. orlando 50, virginia tech 32, sandy hook 27, san bernardino 14. so far this year, chris, in 2016 we've had 134 mass shooting incidents in this country. so this is a terrible, localized incident. it's a terrible incident for the gay community, for the muslim community, but it's also terrible for the united states. i mean this is who we are

becoming. 300 plus million americans and yet to have this many shootings. as much as the president and you and i and everybody else cry out against weapons, we have to realize that there's over 300 million guns in this country, so it has to be a change in attitude. it can't be just a restriction on weapons. you and i could say, okay, as of today no more private gun ownership, we're not going to sell another gun in this country. 500 years from now people will have guns. so until we're able to affect people and their motives for doing something like this, chris, you're going to be there reporting this and i'm going to be trying to splexplain the unexplainable, how someone can commit a terrible act of mass murder like that. >> as a former fbi profiler, where do you start with that, clint? you're always trying to get in the mind of somebody and this is someone who was shot in an exchange of gunfire with

officials. we have heard from his father as we have found out and you know better than i, but i have covered most of these mass shootings over the course of the last 15 years. the people closest to these individuals often don't have a clue. if not that there's something wrong or show signs of violence. while on occasion there's been concern about that on occasion you don't always see it and people close to them may often not have a clue or not the depth of understanding of what's going on. so where do you go, what do you do, who do you talk to to get to that answer? >> well, we've yet, chris, to see a parent or spouse or significant other after a shooting like this say, oh, yeah, i knew he was going to go out and kill all these people tomorrow. by and large, thank god, people, if they get information like that, do something about it. or realize this individual like most of us is probably motivated

by, for a number of reasons. number one, it may or may not be religion or faith. number two, it may or may not be this anti-gay philosophy that his father suggested was espoused by the statement he made about two men kissing in miami. so could it be a combination of the religion and just by witnessing that it went so against him, it went so against his religion. we're going to see i would say today, tomorrow, as the fbi gets into his e-mails, his telephone messages, chris, you and i have seen what we know is psychological leakage, where someone like this, when they're planning this, when they're putting this together, very seldom does a lone wolf, rarely does that term actually apply. they tell somebody they're thinking about doing something. they may not say i'm going to kill 50 people tomorrow, but they may say i really dislike a

certain community, or there's this place in the city that i would like to see something done. realize this guy drove two hours, it appears, he drove two hours to get to this particular bar. whether he identified it on the internet, whether someone told him that saturday nights were a busy night there, these are all things to learn. but one more time america is going to be wringing its hands and saying what a terrible thing. and yet if we cannot impact on people hating other people for just reasons that they make up, we're going to see these numbers increase. the new high number on the board, of course, is now 50. there are those today, chris, that are contemplating raising that number one more time and realize that shooter went into a closed environment where we realize that one of every three people -- if you think of any bar or restaurant or place of worship that you go in, if you

look at the person to the left of you, to the right of you and yourself, one of you three, had you been in that bar, would be either shot or dead, one of the two. that's statistically 100 of 300 people died. with that caliber of weapon and that closed environment and that level of hatred, that's a combination that only spells new numbers of mass murders, something that obviously can increase that number and could raise this year. we're only in june and we're looking at 134 mass murders already in america. >> clint, stand by. you have most immediately the families of the 50 people who were killed, the 53 who were injured, their friends as well. i can also tell you from experience that for the families of the victims, the friends of the victims in many of these previous mass shootings, something like this happens and they relive their own experience

once again. a very poignant moment i had at the aurora movie theater shooting was with the father of a victim of the columbine shooting came to the location and talked to me about what this meant to him. and so we understand that there are so many people who are hurting in orlando at this hour, who are dealing with this tragedy and those who are reliving their own. i want to go by phone to terror expert malcolm nance. malcolm, it's unfortunate because we, as americans, and in cooperation with the international community frankly have learned so much in recent years about how to conduct these kinds of investigations. >> yes. it's a terrible tragedy that we have to relearn these lessons over and over again. right now i'm sitting in brussels. just this morning i was in paris

at the bataclan theater. almost 90% of the deaths were carried out by gunfire. just on this channel eight weeks ago i was asked what is our nightmare scenario for the united states. and that would be a single lone gunman or small group of gunmen locking themselves in a theater or locking themselves in a club and carrying out a mass shooting with legally purchased weapons. this, as clint said just a little earlier, this is now the bar that's been set for the united states, 50 dead, which is the largest mass shooting in the united states. and there are going to be other people of an ideological bent who will want to see that bar pushed higher. >> so where do we go from here? what do we do in terms of, first of all, coming to some sort of understanding of what happened here, but more than that, and again, as you rightfully point out, this is the nightmare that everyone who works in these

areas in washington that i talk to and when i've gone on these international cases that i've talked to say you simply can't track every single person who may be at home, who may for whatever reason have this hatred inside of them. you can't even track as a country, as a law enforcement community, all the people who have been suspected at one point or another of either being related to terrorism or posing some sort of threat. >> well, you're absolutely right. and we can't track everybody. we use as much intelligence as we can possibly muster within the limits of our law and within the capacity of law enforcement intelligence. but when you have a single incident like this, whether it's a lone wolf or another phrase we use is a known wolf, which is somebody who we had indications had some form of radicalization, you cannot necessarily stop them

from legally purchasing a weapon in the united states, even if they're on the terrorist watch list. you know, they have the right to go out and purchase an ar-15 rifle and handgun. at that point if you are not literally watching that individual or have surveillance on that individual, they can go out and perform a mass act of murder. now, if we find out that the ideological motivation of this shooter was not just, you know, a hate crime but an act of religious ideological terrorism, that's a completely different discussion, because at that point we're talking a strategic campaign of trying to decouple what they want to do by groups that are inspired like isis and al qaeda from their actual religion, because their religion does not condone this, it does not support mass murder, even though some people try to claim that. all of these things are factors that federal, international and state and local law enforcement

and their intelligence organizations have to deal with. >> and one of the questions, obviously, that they'll be looking at, where did he travel to. did he at any time leave the country. did he have any kind of contact with people out of the country. all of those things that will bow pabe part of this ongoing investigation. malcolm, i know we'll continue to talk to you but we want to show you a dramatic photograph that we have. in this exchange of gunfire with the shooter, there was a police officer who was hit. look at that. that's his kevlar helmet that saved the life of that officer. you see on twitter it says pulse shooting. in hail of gunfire in which suspect was killed, opd officer was hit. kevlar helmet saved his life. nbc's sarah dallof joins me live from the scene in orlando. what can you tell us from there, sarah? >> reporter: hi, chris. the emergency crews that we've seen here all morning, they have

slowly been emptying out. as we really begin to understand the full horror of what happened here overnight. the nightclub is about a block and a half down the street from me. this was as far as the media was allowed in while this was all developing out of concern because of those suspicious devices here. witnesses have been since we got here around 3:00 a.m., witnesses who managed to get out of the nightclub were coming this way and now they're slowly coming back to see the scene and take stock and absorb what has happened in the last few hours. the things that witnesses are describing are absolutely horrific. one man saying he actually had to climb over bodies to get out of the club. another describing how he became separated from the group he was with. he ended up in a bathroom trying to barricade himself in with a group of people. he said when the music in the club stopped, all you could hear was screaming. bursts of gunfire and then

silence. bursts of gunfire and then silence. he waited in that room, he doesn't even know for how long, until police came and said it was safe to go. keep in mind this was a crowded nightclub. getting near last call here. 320 people estimated inside that nightclub at the time. it was latin night, they were advertising three djs spinning in various rooms. one man saying they were taking final sips of their drinks when the gunfire broke out. understandably people didn't realize what was going on at first. one person told me they thought the gunfire was part of the beat of the music, it seemed so perfectly matched at first, and then they saw the flash of the gun barrel and they realized something absolutely horrific was happening. we also encountered this morning a number of people who were trying to get ahold of their friends. they had been in the nightclub, they had been separated and so they were calling their friends over and over again, waiting for them to pick up, tell them they were okay, and, chris, some of

those people, they weren't getting any answers. back to you. >> sarah dallof, thank you so much for that. now i want to bring in orlando district 4 commissioner patty sheehan who joins us on the phone. first of all, our sincerest sympathies to you, to all the members in the orlando community who are now dealing with this horrific tragedy. tell us what you've been hearing. >> thank you so much and thank you for everyone who's been concerned about the victims. i am the first openly gay elected official in the south of florida. this really hits home for me because for the grace of god there goes i. it's owned by a friend of mine and it's a horrific situation. for me it's one of those heart versus head things. when trying to concentrate as a city commissioner in dealing with this but on the other hand some of these victims i'm sure are friends of mine and i'm just very sad and horrified. i needed to concentrate on, you know, getting the word out to

people the most appropriate way. people want to have vigils in the community an things like that, but right now we're asking people to please give blood if you can. i understand the blood banks are accepting blood from everyone. i think that's appropriate right now because there has been a ban on gay men donating blood. i think it's appropriate you can screen the blood and maybe this tragedy is the one thing that took that ban away. right now we're asking people to do that. when it comes to the point in time that it's appropriate, we'll have a vigil but right now law enforcement is really stretched. they haven't even made notifications to next of kin. you know, they have got to do that first. we want to allow law enforcement to do their job. very difficult job, of course. >> and i just want to point out and i think that this is a real tribute to your community that we have seen lines already, people getting in long lines to give blood. and so that community obviously responding. as you just reported, people

wanting to organize vigils to do what they can. what would you say to the community of orlando? what are you saying to your constituents who call and obviously this is a community both in mourning and on edge. >> yes. what i'm telling people is my community is no stranger to discrimination and unfortunately really awful things happening to us. we've been victims of hate crimes before. and i'm telling people in my community, you know, pray for the victims. give blood if you can. and we'll show -- we will show america what a loving community we are. we understand what it's like to be discriminated against and treated badly. unfortunately, the largest mass shooting in american history is in my community. >> i know this is a shocking event for everyone, first of all, across america, around the world, but particularly to those

of you who call orlando home. but you say you are familiar with this nightclub and i was saying earlier that thomas roberts, who is an anchor here at msnbc and has a friend who is familiar with that nightclub said that as he described it, you walk in, there is an entrance and a small hallway that goes into two different bar areas. what can you tell bus this club? >> well, that's the thing, it's very secure. there is an opd officer at the door every night. they have off duty at this club so it wasn't a matter of it not being safe. but, you know, i don't know -- it's an active investigation. i don't know the particulars of how -- i do know that that officer that was on scene behaved heroically trying to keep the victims down to a minimum and put himself in great danger, so i just -- i can't say enough wonderful things about

the orlando police department. people get angry and upset about law enforcement, but the bottom line is they're out there putting their lives on the line every day. this is an example of their dedication to this community. there are officers with pickup trucks taking the victims out. i'm sorry, i'm a little emotional right now. but it just speaks to what they do day in, day out and people just take that so for granted but i don't. >> and obviously we don't know, and i want to emphasize this, in spite of a statement by the father of the shooter, that he was made angry by two men he saw kissing in miami recently. we have no, no information that will tell us what the motive is. we do not know why he went into that nightclub, so i want to emphasize this. but you do have a situation where you have -- and you said you probably know people who were in that nightclub. >> yes. >> can you tell us about the gay

community in orlando, what kind of support there will be within that community, which is particularly in mourning for what happened and so many of your friends and so many in that community will have known someone who was inside that nightclub? >> oh, thank you so much for that because it is really important. right now at the center at 942 mills avenue, it's our gay community center, lgbt -- sorry, i'm a little upset right now, our community center is on mills avenue, 942 mills avenue. you can go there. there are grief counselors on staff right now if you need to talk to someone. i'm headed to the scene right now so if you hear sirens or anything like that, i just wanted to get over there. so if anybody needs help, assistance, dealing with grieving, i'm sure there's going to be many people in our community affected by this because of the sheer number of victims. if you need help, please reach

out and go to the center and we can provide you with grief counseling. i want to thank terry decarlo and everybody from the center for mobilizing so quickly to do that. the main thing is that the families right now are just waiting word and i can't imagine how absolutely horrifying and sad that must be for them because if they haven't heard from their loved ones yet, chances are the news is not good. >> unfathomable grief that is going through that city and that community. commissioner patty sheehan, thank you so much. if there's other information you would like to get out or anything else you want to report, please keep us in mind. but thank you, as you head over to that scene. we really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. >> thank you so much. >> many of the eyewitnesses of the orlando nightclub shooting said they couldn't determine if the sounds of gunshots were even part of the music or not before really coming to grips with what was happening in that nightclub. joing me now with more, my

colleague, nbc's morgan radford. morgan, what are we hearing from survivors? >> we're hearing harrowing tales of people who had to hide in closets and bathrooms all to escape this gunman who we now know killed 50 people and injured 53. one witness posted on twitter, i jumped out. there's still people hiding inside the closets that the shooters don't know they're in there. these are the types of things we're hearing this morning. i also want to bring your attention to one mother who simply broke down sobbing, unsure of what had happened to her son. take a listen. >> my son was at the nightclub with his boyfriend and other friends. and i know that his boyfriend has been shot multiple times and is in the emergency room. but i don't know where my son is. no one can tell me where my son is. >> i heard everything and then i hit the ground and i just crawled out because i was right by the -- i was near the exit by the couches. there's a vip section they make

with couches and there's a bathroom right there. so i crawled by way out through the bathroom area. >> the guy went crazy shooting like at least 40 shots. there was more than one in there. more than one. [ bleep ] went crazy there. >> my son, shawn, was at the club. he was sitting out on the patio. and he heard several pop, pop, pops and he heard people say "run" so he jumped over the wall across the street, so he didn't get injured. but the friend that brought him, he's been shot three times. we don't know what his condition is. there was another one of their friends, we haven't found him yet. and my son is just -- he's just devastated. >> the first gentleman you heard there, christopher hansen, he spoke to us earlier today and said, look, you don't go to a bar expecting to end your life that night. you go to a bar specifically to relieve stress. so you can imagine, chris, the

level of shock that is reverberating throughout this community and beyond. in fact i want to show you some of the social media reaction that we've heard today. first, i want to point you in the direction of marco rubio who said our prayers are with those injured and killed early this morning in a horrifying act of terror in orlando. we also heard from presidential nominee hillary clinton, who said i woke up to hear the devastating news from florida as we wait for more information, my thoughts are with those affected by this horrific attack. we've heard also from donald trump who said really bad shooting in orlando. police investigating possible terrorism. many people dead and wounded. we're also hearing from people who are speaking out in the lgbt community and a lot of people in that community now, chris, are calling this an act of terror, one that was directed towards them. we have one local leader who came out this morning and she said in orlando, she said what we saw last night does not reflect what we feel in our hearts. as you saw there, we also heard senator rubio asking for people to donate blood today. that's something that a lot of

lgbt activists are also point at saying a gay man who has been celibate since 1978 in this country still cannot donate blood. so we're hearing lots of mixed emotions, lots of people who are activists within the lgbt community coming out and a lot of people really responding to the shock that's happening in orlando and right now beyond, chris. >> morgan radford, thank you so much. we just want to remind folks that after that briefing in which we got the news that 50 people had been killed, the worst mass shooting in modern american history, 50 people dead, 53 injured in an update as well from the hospital that many of those injured are very seriously injured. we do expect perhaps before the next news conference a couple of hours from now, 1:30 east coast time, that governor rick scott may come to the microphones as well. so we have our cameras standing by for that. he also tweeted out that his prayers were with the victims'

families and those affected by the shooting and will devote every resource available to assist. let me go back to nbc news and msnbc national security analyst kevin baron. part of what's happening right now is mobilizing people. we just heard from the local commissioner and she's saying there are so many people waiting for identification. part of that was securing the scene, part of it was making sure there was still nothing inside that nightclub that might pose a threat, but it's just getting people in, getting folks from other parts of the country who have this kind of expertise to the scene, getting folks who have, unfortunately, forensic capabilities to help with some of this identification, right? this is not a process that happens with the blink of an eye or snap of the fingers. >> that's right. beyond the physical gathering, though, is the digital gathering. don't forget that does happen within the blink of an eye in a lot of cases these days as a result of the last 15 years that we've been through with

terrorism and the wars overseas. so the law enforcement and intelligence officials are going to be looking very hard at whether or not this man was directly inspired by terrorism, whether he had fundamentalist beliefs and if that led to a targeted attack on this gay nightclub because, as we have reported, the father saying months ago he made reference an anti-homophobic reference to that site. so there's a big digital trail to be had that will bring in international law enforcement, military intelligence, i'm sure all the way up to cia at these levels. it's just something that that's the reality of a shooting. it reaches all the way up to the highest levels of intelligence to find out why, is there anything more, is there anyone else to worry about beyond what we're seeing now. but it's an unbelievable situation for me to see. i'm from orlando, florida.

my facebook feed is blowing up with people saying they are safe. i'm a national security rotor and i expect this from istanbul or paris or even from brussels. nobody could expect this from orlando, florida. >> and i think you also point out that in this kind of situation, social media can be very helpful because it's a way for people to find out that folks are safe, that we are able now in this day and age with the kind of communication that we have to establish fairly quickly at least in some circumstances that people are either fine or even if they're in the hospital where they are, so there is a notification that's able to go on that in some ways back in the beginning of this when you even go back to columbine didn't exist, that kind of sharing of information didn't exist. but in the meantime, was there anything from the news conference that you heard that was a red flag for you or opens

up a new line of inquiry for you? >> yes. what i heard from them was a big wait, wait and see. the reporters had the right questions and the officials were being very careful not to say what we want to know. we want to know is this terrorism or not? is this a hate crime or not? was this man connected or not? what we were hearing was wait. what i heard between the lines was there was enough evidence for officials to immediately come out saying that they were -- they suspected this to be terrorism related. they would not make that claim if there wasn't some obvious and up front evidence. now they're going to look into how much information they can find that would show how far back this individual was preparing to make this attack. are there communications, did he leave anything behind. those are the kind of information i'm hoping we'll get in the next press conference. i'm hoping we'll get it sooner because of how much has come out already. this isn't new to us. that's the good and the bad

here, this isn't new. so you're seeing law enforcement coming out pretty quickly with indications of who he is. we know the shooter's name because of our sourcing has been able to confirm it before they'll say it on the microphone but that's just semantics of reporting. the way the community is responding and the way the social media is responding, a cousin of mine is in line with her high school son at the blood donor site at michigan avenue already. people there are bawling, the line is around the block. they need type ab, they need type o blood. this is the era we live in. a shooting happens, we're stunned. the intelligence community rushes to action. a place like orlando's hospital has a mass casualty plan and social media is just head straight to the blood banks. >> i want to show this picture again as you stand by because it is extraordinary the number of people who have come out in a very short period of time who dropped whatever they were doing on a sunday morning in orlando.

this community is responding, as you said. this line that is wrapping around the block, people want to help. they don't know what to do. and they are there. and we have seen this time and time and time again when there has been a disaster or a tragedy in the united states. people respond, it's who we are, it's what we do. >> that's right. >> there's the proof right there. >> that's right. i've said rlier, this is old orlando. i grewp there, my father grew up there from the 1950s. this is a lot different than what most people probably know of orlando, if they fly to the airport and head out to the disney parks and universal and have a good time that way. the city is a small city. those of us who have been there for a while, it's a really -- it's a hometown where everybody knows everybody's name. they have watched the city expand and they have watched it redevelop and go through waves of redevelopment. this club is just a couple miles from downtown. it's less than a mile from boone high school where i went, one of the original two high schools of

orlando, florida, where the families that have been there the longest. that high school gym didn't have air conditioning when i went there. this is the real orlando that most people don't get to see and it's no surprise to me to see everybody coming together, stunned, but also helpful and hopefully effective in rallying around and i hope we'll get to see more of that orlando in the coming days as this community shows the heart that they have. >> kevin baron, thanks to you. we will be talking to you throughout the day. as we see those lines of folks lining up to give blood, it's also worth mentioning that every day, all across america, police officers go to work, not knowing what the day is going to bring for them. most of them will never have to fire their weapon, but they stay trained for it. in this instance the orlando police department, other law enforcement responded quickly, heroically. one of them shot in the head and it was a kevlar helmet, as you

see in this posting from orlando police, that saved him. take a listen to this piece of sound right now about the heroes of law enforcement. >> went on what we call a code silver. they thought an active shooter was inside the hospital. they had us locked in different rooms. it was really crazy. and i'm still not discharged yet. you know, but i was able to come outside and go to my car but now my car is inside what they call the perimeter zone so i can't move my car. the guys say i probably won't be able to move my car all day. >> what were you thinking when you were inside? >> ma'am, i was wondering what was going on. i was wondering -- i heard over the thing that they had massive, massive trauma victims coming in, but i had no idea what to expect. but i've got to say i was in the hallway when they started bringing people in and it was really ugly. >> that's just a little taste of the horror that unfolded there in orlando. but i do want to play that sound

from the mayor of orlando about the people who responded, the heroes really of law enforcement. take a listen. >> all of our police officers as well as sheriff's deputies who also responded are true heroes today. as bad as the total is, it could have been worse. you can worry about them. you can even choose a car for them. (mom) honey, are you ok? (child) i'm ok. (announcer vo) love. (mom) we're ok. (announcer vo) it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

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547 have been killed. some in critical condition. it was a festive night. it was people dancing, having a good time inside of this gay nightclub in orlando, florida. then someone opened fire. an american citizen born in new

york, living in port st. lucie. his father says and we have no confirmation of anything related to a motive. it has been called an act of terror by police. but his father said he reacted negatively to two gay men kissing in miami. what was he doing in orlando? where did he get the weapon? we're told he worked in security. joining me security analyst and former fbi agent on the phone clint van zandt. tell us where they are looking right now, where this investigation is going. >> one of the things they want to know long term is going to be motive. what motivate this individual? as you suggest, we have one motive possibly offered by his father. although many times we find out those closest to the shooters don't really understand. we may have shooters over the

years and they don't understand their actual motive. so how can we expect them to express it to other people? could it be a hate crime? could it have something to do with the men's religious background or a combination? so far in the united states this year, counting this incident we have had 5,950 firearms-related deaths. 50 of those are the result of this individual. we have another 5900 we are trying to identify motivation. why does someone do this? and how in america have we come to the point where conflict resolution normally involves violence using a firearm. that's what we are dealing. 134 mass shootings. >> this is senator nelson. listen in. >> shot down two nights ago and then this horrific act. what is happening to our

country? we are going to have to dig down deep and ask ourselves who we are as a people we have to the of ourselves as the common denominator of americans, not off on some cause. that's what we have got to explore deep inside at this point. that's the information that i haver you. i'll share more with you as i get it. i will get that information for you once i confirmed it all but i'm just passing along to you the information that i have from the credible sources, as well as directly -- that information is not from the fbi. let me make that distinction. that is from intelligence

committee staff. but the fbi information for senator stein and myself is directly from mike finebach, the assistant director of the counter terrorism center in washington. thank you. we will get some information from the scene. we were not able to hear what information he was rempbing. let's go to kelly o'connell who has covered capitol hill for a long time. if this were not happening today, we would be talking politics, you can't remove the fact this is happening in the middle of a heated political time right now with the presidential election, kelly? >> kelly, are you there? can you hear us?

we don't have any communication with kelly o'donnell. i can tell you there have been a series of tweets, statements that have gone out from many members of congress, including marco rubio, from hillary clinton, who wrote, woke up to hear the devastating news from florida. as we wait for more information my thoughts are with those affected by this horrific act. marco rubio who's the other u.s. senator from florida. our prayers are with those injured an killed this morning in a horrifying act of terror in orlando. and governor scott, who we're told is on the way to the scene and who we may hear from as we await a 1:30 eastern time press conference that is scheduled. also the president was briefed earlier today by his counterterrorism adviser, lisa monaco. he's continuing to be updated, as well.

the latest information from that police briefing. 50 people are dead, 53 injured. they have cleared the stain but beginning the pain staking work of identifying them. we continue the shooting of the orlando nightclub that has left 50 people dead. we'll be right back. the call just came in. she's about to arrive. and with her, a flood of potential patients. a deluge of digital records. x-rays, mris. all on account...of penelope. but with the help of at&t, and a network that scales up and down on-demand, this hospital can be ready. giving them the agility to be flexible & reliable. because no one knows & like at&t.

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good day to all of you. following this breaking news, unspeakable tragedy out of orlando. the death toll has more than doubled, cementing its place as the worst mass shooting in u.s. history. >> today we are dealing with something we never imagined and is unimaginable. since the last update, we have gotten better access to the