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 building.

we have cleared the building and it is with great sadness we have not 20 but 50 casualties. in addition to the shooter, there are another 53 hospitalized. because of the scale of the crime, i've asked the governor to declare a state of emergency. we're 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. the focus is on identifying the victims and the families. >> we are a united community. a what we saw last night does not reflect what we feel in our heart and our souls here in orange county. when evil like this comes to our community, we respond in force. i guarantee you we will do that again. >> again, to reiterate, the sobering numbers you just heard from the orlando mayor.

least 50 dead and 53 injured. the shooter has been identified as omar mateen of port st. lucie, florida. he is married, has a 3-year-old son. he was killed early this morning in a shootout with s.w.a.t. police. we have the latest from the ground there. i know you have been following the story throughout the wee hours of the morning. let's talk about what we learned at the news conference. this was a shocking pause when the number jumped from 20 dead to 50. >> it was horrific. witnesses described what they had seen inside and said there were so many body and so many injured and dead but to hear it put in to this concrete number, 50 lives lost in that nightclub last night making it the worst mass shooting in u.s. history. 53 other people were injured. just after 2:00 a.m., the suspect, who you mentioned, who's been identified as omar

mateen he exchanged gun fire with a uniform police officer who had been working security off duty there. he retreated inside the nightclub taking hostages with him. police made the decision to go inside, to send a s.w.a.t. team to make an explosive entrance. mateen was killed in the gun battle. they believe they saved 30 lives by making that entrance but as we learned the death toll of this tragedy is much worse than we initially realized. >> one location, one shooting one of the worst tragedies we have seen. there were more victims inside than 0 originally thought. once it was safe to go in and we determined there were no devices we were able to discover how many victims were in there. >> they were looking for suspicious devices because they say the suspect had one on his

person when he entered the nightclub. they say he was armed with an assault-style rifle and handgun and has additional ammunition with him. a very scary situation here and a lot of families now making heart-breaking plea for information about their loved ones who they haven't been able to contact since the shooting. >> for those who haven't been able to contact their loved ones they must be resigned to the inevitable and heart breaking tragedy there. with regard to the people with whom you have spoke during the night, what about the time frame? did anyone give you a clear vision of how long this took? when the shooting began, how long it took for what we are told was an off-duty police officer who was doing moon lighting as they call it in the police vernacular. they were outside of regular scheduled hours. there was an exchange of gun

fire. anyone give you an answer as to how long that took? >> that's such a tough question. the reason being everyone realized what was happening in their own time. there is more than one room to this nightclub and we don't know where it initially started and where it led to. it wasn't clear in the beginning what was going on. one witness said he initially thought the gunshots were part of the song. it was to the beat of the music, it almost seemed in the beginning. it wasn't until he saw the flash of the gun barrel he realized what was going on. one gentleman said i'm in such shock i don't know how long i hid before the police came and found me and told me it was okay to run and get out fast as i could. even when the witnesses escaped it was such an active scene. we heard a explosion, controlled later we learned later on and even once eyewitnesses were out

of the building it didn't feel to them they were out of danger. >> can you clear up the part -- the shooter was obviously inside, came outside. is there a legitimate reason why he went back inside? where police on the scene at that point? obviously he realized he was walking out in to something. is that what made him turn around and please explain that? >> this is a tough question. we don't have a blueprint of the building but you are understanding it is not just an indoor club, there's an outdoor patio, as well. we don't know if he exited the patio and then back in. our understanding at this moment is he retreated back inside following this gun fight with the orlando police officer who was working off duty at the club. that he retreated back inside is the word they used and that's when they took the hostages. >> do we have an idea on the number of hostages reported? >> they say they believe they saved 30 people by going inside and they apart of the decision

that led them to go inside is not just the hostages but the fact 15 people were in the bathroom reaching out to authorities saying we're trapped in here. 30 people they believe they saved. 15 in the other room, leading us to believe that they think they saved 15 of those hostages. >> i know there are a lot of questions and i appreciate your attempt to answer, particularly the difficult ones. if we don't have a clear perspective on those yet. thank you. joining me on the phone john micah whose district is in the area. your thoughts when you heard the news of this terrible tragedy. >> it is absolutely shocking. you can't imagine the 50 or more families an those wounded to wake up this morning and probably one of the most peaceful communities in our country and find out their loved

ones are dead or wounded. it's just unthinkable. our hearts and prayers go out to all of those families. >> i cannot imagine, sir. talk about that community right there. i understand perhaps one silver lining is that the pulse nightclub is near to that orlando regional medical center. is that true? >> yes, it is right adjacent. you can walk from where the club is to the center. you saw them carrying people. transporting them not too far. but i have many questions this morning. i'm trying to get some answers. in fact, i have been trying to communicate with the attorney general who's in china right now, expecting a call back from her. two things come to mind. at 9:30 approximately during the press conference federal officials announced there had been possible links to terrorist

organizations. they knew five hours after why they didn't know days before, why they didn't connect the dots and how this individual, who somehow the suspect is on their radar scope had made it in to our community fully armed. there's a lot of questions to be answered here. another thing is i have been fighting the last year -- you have seen me and the sheriff fighting the last year to get the feds to put central florida, make central florida eligible for extra resources from the federal government we have been denied them. we're right at the cut off list. we have had appeals and requests to make certain this community, which has a huge tourism industry, and at risk of location. we have been denied by the feds

those resources. i want answers to questions and i think there are many questions to be answered in the coming days. >> there absolutely are, representative. tell me, sir, were you to get the extra resources how would that embolden the community and make the community safer? >> well, it gives -- we have orlando. we have huge tourist population coming in here, not only from the united states and around the world. we are have been denied extra federal resources. we have had a number of these. we have a great police chief. the sheriff is former leader in orlando law enforcement community. two experienced people came to me and asked for more federal resources because they have had a huge responsibility and a soft

target. each time we have been denied, which concerns me. i'm sorry -- i think i have the attorney general on the other line. >> representative, you go and take that call. thank you for your time. let's bring in justice correspondent pete williams. good day to you. you may have heard part of my conversation there with representative mica and the point he brought up, he was wondering if five hours after the fact officials are able to say there was some sort of a link to terrorism he would like to know how it was this person was not on some sort of watch list. that kind of thing. we're not certain that is true, but what do we know about this gunman? >> right. the shooting happened at 2:00 a.m. identified him probably around

5:00 a.m. after the siege was in there, after the s.w.a.t. team moved in. short time after that they were quickly able to identify whether he had an i.d. on them. whether that is through tracing his vehicle, i don't know. by the time they had their initial briefing at 7 a.m. which is when congressman was talking about there, they had some idea there may be an international terrorist or rad k58 islamic terrorism connection. what i'm told, he was in some kind of watch list or database and come to the attention of law enforcement three years ago, but that the initial assessment was he was looked at because he was in the orbit of other people of interest to the fbi, not that they were focusing on him but that he was either a relative of or in touch with or communicating with or meeting with or somehow in the orbit of other people they were interested in. so, that's the first thing.

what we're told is there was no interest in him. they looked at him and quickly decided he was not of interest. this happens all the time where names come to the fbi's attention or someone is arrested and they find out who they are associated with and look at them but they can't look at all of those people forever. that number is in the tens of thousands. you have been reporting, i'm sure, that what his father says is he believes, the father believes this was all precipitated by mateen, the gunman here, according to police, seeing men kissing and touching each other in a way the thought wasn't appropriate in miami a couple of months ago. that mateen had his own son there and was outraged this was happening in front of him and his father believes that led to this. whether it was purely a matter of hate crime or sort of an anti-gay view, fuelled by

radical islamist propaganda, there's no clear answer to that. that's a big question. that's something the fbi and law enforcement are very actively trying to solve right now. a couple of other things, first of all, we have been hearing all day long that authorities were concerned that when mateen entered the nightclub he had not only two firearms but explosives. we have had no further confirmation there were explosives found. we have one official say they haven't found it. that is one thing they are checking on. the second thing is they are just now beginning to trals these weapons. where did he get them? we don't know anything in his background that would have made him unentitled to buy the weapons. whether how he acquired them that's something they will trace and look in to. florida has one of -- one of the weapons is an ar-15 style assault weapon which can carry a

high-capacity magazine. we have been told by some law enforcement officials that he did have these high-capacity magazines. those are the so-called clips, the devices you attach to the weapon that hold the rounds. florida has no law restricting the capacity of magazines for these weapons and there's no federal restriction either. some states have them, some states don't, but florida doesn't. that's one thing we will look to. according to court reports and this was a bit of confusion early on, his father's last name is different than his. according to florida court records, ten years ago, in august, omar mateen, born omar changed his name, grablted permission in florida to change

his name. he's 29 years old, born in new york. we know the family has been in florida for at least ten years because of the petition for the name change goes back that far. >> one thing i want to ask you, pete, given your familiarity with these type of investigations. we're told that officials are looking at the family there in orlando and as well in london. they know him best and what he has been up to and what the family has been up to. that's a standard thing in the investigations. they will talk to friends, look at his social media, who's he been in touch with, where's he been going, what kind of international travel has he had, every aspect of his life. they will take his life apart an put it back together and try to develop a time line and

chronology and a sense of who he's been in touch with to see if anyone else was involved, how did this come to be. that's how they answer these questions. >> do you find it curious this is someone who was least approached and watched three years ago, cleared but someone who worked in security. that was his job, in security and is likely he carried a gun and had a permit to do a so and had a associate's degree in criminology. do you find someone who was investigated, though cleared, works in security, is that a red flag? >> well, i can't tell you that i know how seriously, how deeply and intensively he was investigated. that maybe too grand of a word to use for the fact he came to their attention three years ago. it wouldn't disqualify him from having a security job. whether his employer was

notified or not, i don't know. sometimes the law restricts the fbi telling people that it was doing these things. so we will have to wait for the answers to that. >> pete williams, thank you for bringing us the latest on the investigation. kevin, i know you have said it but i have to imagine it was shocking for you to hear about the news. i understand you are not too far from the club there in orlando. >> i grew up a short bike ride from there. my high school is about less than a mile away. this is the heart of old school orlando. it could not be more shocking. i'm looking at my facebook page and unwanted high school reunion of people who are stunned at what is hatchening appening, ra the blood banks and trying to make sense of not just another american shooting but in all

places downtown orlando. >> in terms of making sense we were shocked at the number 20, presumed the number dead early in the investigation. we all took a pause and drew in our breath in shock when the number went from 20 to 50. how does that happen? can you talk about the kind of rifle and the speed with which it was able to shoot that many people dead so quickly? >> i'm not an arms expert but the ar-15 is the civilian available equivalent of an m-16 or perhaps an ak. it is basically a machine gun, an automatic weapon. i think perhaps more telling is the proximity of the nightclub. as soon as i heard pulse, i was unfamiliar with since i left orlando but i found out it is the site of the old lohr rrenzo family restaurant. that place is tiny, it is a

small room. imagine watching in to your kitchen or classroom size and spraying the crowd. that's the kind of place we are talking about. this is not a big nightclub. i want to make that point. this is a very small building. >> we are giving a look to our viewers of the exterior, ariel building. it doesn't look that large. 320 people were in there at the height of the club's revelry there earlier. and people were able to get out -- some sitting on back patios, separate v.i.p. areas, hard to know the configuration inside but outside little parking lot. when you have police, fbi, sheriff types converging on this place it will be jam packed. people getting out, would that have been difficult for them. >> the building is so small, you hit the parking lot and off you go to orange avenue.

the dunkin' donuts or places across the street. it is so close to the regional medical center, the hospital down the road. it is literally right there. hopefully that helped with what's going on. >> there were some questions at the most recent news conference whether law enforcement officials will label it as a hate crime. these officials appeared reticent to do that. is it that are looking -- >> this is similar to san bernardino, you have someone who has inspiration, comes up with a reason and makes a decision to go after it, after a specific target. this isn't somebody who just walked in to a marketplace or a

mall and. they chose a gay nightclub on a saturday night during gay pride week. the father of the individual said the individual was offend by seeing homosexuals or gays in miami a couple of months ago. at the same time, law enforcement came out quickly saying this is someone they were watching. he has ties to groups that they have been watching. i would expect the distance between the original point of contact and to him flatly having some sort of anti-igs lammic extremist inspiration is getting shorter quickly. plenty of signs that the police and investigators have more to say. they will do their due diligence before they come out publicly with those things. officials will take their time to get it right. we will be at the investigation from the forensics on them

ground to international intelligence and law enforcement databases. one quick -- >> very quickly. >> we reported on this before, back in the chattanooga shooting, there's a belief we're in the digital age and why don't they know about the guys like this earlier. >> very good point. i am going to ask you to stand by. we have governor scott who just appeared a the podium. let's take a listen. >> we need to be thankful. there are individuals willing to risk their lives and they clearly saved other lives. for anybody that thinks that they 140u8d do this, i can tell you the state of florida, the local law enforcement, will be switch in their justice. we have great law enforcement in

our state and they will always do the right thing. i declared a state of emergency for orange county. we're going to provide all of the resources that anyone needs. everyone will work together and i want to thank the federal agencies for their support. our hearts go out to anyone affected by this. i cannot imagine a family member waiting to find out what happened to their loved one. it has to be heart wrenching. >> i want to thank the governor for coming to join us. as a father of seven i called on my kids to make sure they are okay. we are doing everything we can. law enforcement is working well together. victim advocates are working to help the families. i encourage everyone to donate blood.

we're going to need a lot of it. a lot of unanswered questions and at that time they will be able to answer the questions. i know there's a later press conference. law enforcement will answer those questions. ie this is clearly an act of terror. you can't imagine this would happen to our community, our state or anywhere in our country. but for somebody to go in there and be an active shooter and take those -- that number -- any

life but injure that many people is clearly an act of terror. [ inaudible ] >> right now, this is the time to find out exactly what happened. it's a time to pray for those that have lost their families, lost their lives. pray for the victims. there's going to be plenty of time how our society comes together. i can tell you, the orlando area, orange county, the state of florida we are very resilient. we will come together and do everything we can to help everybody impacted and also bring the community back together again. i have not talked to him yet. we declared a state of emergency to make sure the resources that would be necessary for the city

and the county would be necessary, anything that would be needed from the state is available immediately. the head of the florida department of law enforcement is the coordinating officer but we worked with the mayor and sheriff and police chief to make sure they have the resources they need. >> do you know how many family of the victims have been contacted at this point? law enforcement will put that out. i have daughter and kbrand children and i can't imagine this happening in my family.

i9 is devastating to happen anywhere. authorities hope this will never happen. and it is devastating when you see, when you see how many people lost their life just the impact on the family. i have kids and grand kids, can't imagine. i will meet with the families at the appropriate time. [ inaudible ] . the way i understand it has been

resolved. [ inaudible ] look. we're dealing with a tragedy right now. our prayers go out to everybody impacted. law enforcement is doing their job. there men will be mthere will b time to work on that. we're a resilient state. bye-bye. >> i will ask you one question real quick. the ceo of the hospital came to me and said they have an issue related to the families that had come to the emergency room because of hip pa regulations they could not give them information. i reached out to the white house to see if we could get the hippa regulations waived. white house responded through appropriate channels to waive those so the hospital could communicate to the families there. i don't know. i think the majority of them have been.

we have not identified the victims that are still in the nightclub. i believe the ones that have been transported to the hospital and are deceased have been identified. thank you. i have spoken to the president and the governor. everyone has lent their support to this. president offered any resources that the federal government could possibly provide. the fbi has just been tremendous. the fdle has been tremendous. so, no complaints about our state partner and federal partners and their help. thank you. the waiving of the hippa laws so the doctors and health care personnel can communicate with family members was probably the most important, but we've got on the ground what we need from the federal government right now which is the fbi and all of

their resources and coordination. so there's not much more i can ask of them. they were here immediately in response. they have done a lot of research in to the shooter. they will be prepared to update you on. the next press conference will be around 2:00. thank you. >> and there we have the mayor buddy dyer of orlando who is preceded by governor scott, who is all too familiar. the voice contestant shot dead yesterday and now unspeakable horror in the pulse nightclub. 50 people are dead. 53 injured. a sense of compassion and tremendous emotion expressed by the florida governor who talked several times about being a father and grandfather and could not imagine the nightmare that the families of the victims are

going through right now. he just wanted to be with his family, understandably so. i can say as a mother of two myself, i have called my kids and said please be home when i get home because i want to see you. that's the kind of emotion wrapping up this coverage here with these 50 dead. it is unspeakable. the worst mass shooting in u.s. history. joining me right now terrorism analyst malcolm. let's talk about the family and the words we heard from the father of the man who was asuzed of this horrible crime omar mateen. he talked about his son being an exemplary son. they are a family of afghanny origin but he said seeing two men in miami a few months ago, gay men kissing in front of his wife and 3-year-old son upset him to a degree this may be the

end of what he decided to carry out. with regard to terrorism, international terrorism, is there any intelligence out there that gay americans are being targeted? >>. >> it's not a question of gay americans being targeted but isis has as part of their core ideology that anyone that panders or involves themselves in what they would view as vice or any deviance whatsoever are victims in their corrupt ideology. they routinely mass murder gays in syria and iraq in brutal, gruesome executions, including not just throwing you from the top of a building but when your body hits the bottom they stone you to death. this is routinely seen overseas.

the fact this incident targeted gays may have been more along these lines, that whatever ideological corruption that happened to this gunman, he may have viewed them as a target set. i don't particularly think it was an incident of seeing two men holding hands. as we know from dealing with people who have been radicalized the family is the last to know. they remove your yourself from your family to the point where your family has no idea what you truly believe. that may have been a seen of radicalization that the father picked up but could have been going on for months or years. at this point, the gunman's actions speak for themselves. he carried out this attack and views gays as a collective body and carry out this murder and we will find out more as the

investigation continues. >> you are joining us from brussels, belgium, a hot bed of activity last year. 89 people killed there at the concert hall and others at the stadium. talk about reverberations. how much is this making news where you are right now? i had just done an assessment of the attack over the last two days and on my way to brussels for a terrorism conference. it hit the news this morning and that's how i learned about the attack and i started to watch my feed from msnbc. terrorism in the united states is seen as an amplification of things that go on here all the time. but they are sensitive here in brussels and paris of any

terrorism on a mass scale which could indicate that you have these ideological players out there, carrying out attacks. the fact it was carried out on what was -- what is now seen as a gay nightclub is just another example. here they are calling it the american le bataclan. they are sensitive to that and of course they too have suffered this same type of tragedy. >> you were inside the le bataclan concert hall this morning. talk about the fact the problems of being in such a closed confined space. i imagine it is not dissimilar to what was going on in the pulse nightclub. we don't know the exact footprint of the building, but we are showing our videos right now, showing and ariel view, not large. formerly known as lorenzo's restaurant. few doors going in and out.

and they are not big doors usually. what does that do in terms of presenting problems for safety when you have someone deranged enough to bring explosive bombs or a rifle and attack people? >> what we have here is a suicide hostage barricade. the le bataclan theater is on a broad boulevard but a narrow building with a major central hallway there and then elevated other section. as i understand, this building was compartmentmentalized but it doesn't matter what the interior lay out is. the design of the attack is for the shooter to get past security, the front door in to a confined space where they can carry out their mass murder. i mentioned earlier, we had this discussion eight weeks ago during the attacks here in brussels where i was asked what

is the nightmare scenario by the united states for a radicalized terrorist and the scenario for me was a confined space, mass murder using legally acquired weapons. it appears that is where we are. >> the kind of weapon used, what do you know about this ar-15 rifle, the kind of ammunition it would take to effectively kill 50 people inside of this very tight area? how much ammunition will this type of a rifle take? it has a magazine capacity of 30 round and some can carry magazines up to 100 rounds but i'm sure he used 30-round magazines and just four of those is 120 rounds of ammunition.

you can buy ammunition in wal-mart for 25 cents a bullet and they have high capacity and once they are in that confined space, shooting 50 to 100 individuals is just a matter of pulling your trigger 30 times, reloading 30 times, reloading. this weapon is a military-grade ammunition. it is .223 or .56 millimeters. an when the s.w.a.t. team comes in it is the same one they are using. as you can see, if that had hit the officer two inches down he would be dead right now. this is why we have this large body count. when these victims are injured,

they are going to bleed out in about four minutes due to the soft tissue damage carried out by this type of ammunition. it is the most common, one of the most common, if not the most common american long rifle used out there. >> we should talk about the officer's khelmet. it was kevlar and human body is nothing to with stand something like that. talk about 120 round and 30 magazine type things and being able to reload in one second. is it difficult to learn how to use these guns? do you have to have training? we see this all the time. it takes virtually nothing to learn to manipulate these. just a few minutes of practice.

getting proficient at it, reloading quickly, things like that, you see people who are, who actually do competition shooting doing these all the time. but it doesn't take a genius. these are weapons which are used all over the world by ill it will rate people in militias and armies and terrorist groups and it's just a question of manipulating the, putting the magazine in to the weapon itself. making the magazine release and the bullet fall forward and the weapon is loaded and pulling the trigger. in that closed, confined space, he could have taken all the time he wanted. this could have happened in ten minutes rather than three hours. >> malcolm joining us from brussels, belgium, about to attend a conference on terrorism. thank you very much. appreciate that. let's turn to jim miklaszewski reporting from the white house. i understand the president is set to deliver a statement on the shooting 45 minutes from

now. what should be expected from him? >> it is difficult to say right now. the investigation is just barely underway. the fbi, local authorities and other federal authorities are trying to figure out what happened here. they know that at least 50 people have been killed, of course. but it is not clear yet in listening to some of the statements from authorities down there in florida, in orlando, whether they are sure as to the motive behind all of this. i think what we will hear from the president is something along the lines of of course how tragic this is, not only for the community, for the families and the nation. i expect that he will reengage congress, at least, if not the american people, of his desire to epiact meaningful arms control, weapons, gun control in the united states. after all it is not clear --

this was said to be an ar-15. he was said to have a license for the weapon. under the kind of gun control limits that the president wants to enact, weapons like this would be banned from public possession. so, that's what i think we will hear today from the president. after all, when we talked about it earlier, asked what the worst day, the darkest day of his presidency was when those dozens of elementary school children were shot and killed in sandy hook in new town. them obviously would have a huge impact on the president himself. i think that's why he is coming out a little early, i thought. because not everything is cemented yet. but it is clear that he feels he has to address the nation now. >> absolutely. you know, there will be a level of emotion we can expect. you talk about the president describing the sandy hook shootings in connecticut as the worst day of his presidency, the

darkest day. we saw governor scott a short while ago being a composed governor to choking up a bit when talking about being a father and grandfather and the unspeakable tragedy these families are feeling. i also will not be surprised, and i will ask you if you will too if we see right, indignation from the president. he's frustrated that his attempts have been rejected. that could well be. i am not sure that indignation is the right word. i don't think he's going to lecture the american people about this. i think he's going to state the

cold hold facts. >> jim miklaszewski at the white house. we will be joining you in 45 minutes and watching the president's statement to the nation. we do have a picture to show you. that's the flag atop the white house. we know it will be lowered to half staff at some point fairly soon this to honor those killed and to show solidarity with those across the country and around the world mourning the loss of these lives in orlando. we are getting a bit clearer idea of what it was like for those that managed to escape. and we are joined with some of the survivors' stories which are remarkable. >> we are hearing from the raw emotion, people who witnessed the gun fire that started just before closing time at 2:00 a.m. this morning. many patrons dropped to the ground and managed to escape to the back of the club. others got out of the building. i want you to listen to one witness describe how he escaped. he did not want his face shown.

>> i heard those gunshots in my ear. i was on the floor and i grabbed the covered my body and a lot of people were in there. inside the bathroom right now. >> while first responders arrive and begin to help the wounded, family members showed up and many of them mothers completely in tears, distraught. they heard what happened and wanted to know were their sons okay. >> nightclub with his boyfriend and other friends. i know that his boyfriend has been shot multiple times and this is in the emergency room. i don't know where my son is. no one can tell me where my son is. if he's been shot, if he's dead. no one knows. but they have all of these

fatalities. >> you haven't heard. >> no -- i have texted and called him and he's not answering the phone but he was sitting right next to his boyfriend and his boyfriend definitely was shot with multiple gunshots and taken in to ambulance. another friend who was in the bathroom at the same said he heard over 100 shot. and it was still active. they weren't taking any bodies out of the club. because they have potential bomb in there. so i don't know if he's still in the club, if he's incapacitated, dead or being worked on here at the hospital. >> those are the types of questions mothers are facing this morning. it didn't stop there. another place where fear struck the hearts of many orlando regional medical center. one man who saw the wounded arrive described what he saw when people came to the hospital. >> what they called a code

silver, active shooter they thought was in the hospital. they had us locked in different rooms. i was able to come outside and go to my car and now my car is in the perimeter zone so i can't move my car. and the cops say i won't be able to all day. >> what were you thinking when you were inside. >> i was wondering what was going on. i heard over the thing they had massive, massive trauma coming in but i had no idea what to to expect. they started to bring people in it was really ugly. >> you heard alex, massive trauma. those are the thoughts of people trying to piece together what happened. 46 parents were taken to that hospital. a doctor said the majority of them are in critical condition. he said he thinks the death toll will rise from 50 reported.

we have one heartening picture to show you. a long line of people waiting to donate blood for the shooting victims. these are blood centers in central florida. and they are calling for type o, ab donor and people are lining up to help. >> people who want to help can do so. there are three blood donation centers as well as two churches. the metro churmg will have a blood mobile on location as well. you can find information from "the orlando sentinel" and i'm sure people who want to help will get out and do the best they can and donate. thank you very much for that. a short time ago we heard from another local leader, and she was talking an the need for change and gun control following this shooting which happened less than 12 hours ago in orlando. >> i just had an opportunity to speak to the governor about the

state of emergency that he has declared and to thank him for making sure that the resources that are needed come in to this community. we know they are donating blood and making that sacrifice. we call on the community to support them by providing water, food and the governor and i are going to have a serious discussion about reform. the families not only lost members of their family to tragedy but a feeling of safety. when we talk about safety, we have to talk about how guns come in to the hands of violent and unstable people. joining me is a former police chief of the orlando police department after serving the department for 27 years. first of all, thank you for joining me. your reaction when you hear this news? it has to have you feel something emotionally and professionally given your line

of work? >> well, i spent 27 years at the orlando police department and i've got to tell you, this is the darkest day in the history of our city. no words can really describe what the feeling is like here on the ground in orlando. our hearts an our prayers go out to the victims, the families, their friends and really the entire community. >> how fortunate was it there was an off duty police officer moon lighting, working as a security guard and he was able to react quickly and i presume make a call for help. >> you know, many of the establishments in our area will hire off-duty police officers. they are usually there just for that show of security to help with traffic concerns, to really be more pro active and presence,

but we are all thanking god that the officer was there on the scene. >> take me through the check points before the s.w.a.t. team decided to go in at 5:00 a.m. and try to rescue the group of people, 20 or 30 hostages. what are the things that have to be considered and when do you green light an action like that? >> when the first responders, those patrol officers get there they will do a quick assessment and we all realize it is chaotic and breaking before their eyes an they will do a quick assessment and try to talk to any witnesses who are either currently on the scene or in the area and then they will secure the perimeter to make sure there's no one else who has an opportunity to come in to that very dangerous situation. the s.w.a.t. team, the call was made to the s.w.a.t. team and the incident commander and some, i understand crisis negotiator

was also called to make contact with the shooter. not sure if that happened and then the decision was made to make entry and put a stop to this very horrific tranl di that occurred in our city. >> how often, given your experience, although we should say there are few people who have been able to experience something like this, given this is the worst mass shooting in husist u.s. history. but a crisis negotiator how often is someone like that able to talk a person intent on killing out of conducting this heinous crime? >> i have spent 12 years as a member of the hostage negotiations team. you know, the officers, hostage negotiations all over the country at all levels have very successful outcomes. but we know if a person is intent to do harm, like it appears the shooter was last night it does not always work in every situation and apparently

certainly did not in this one. >> do you find it disconcerting this man, omar mateen, worked in security and we're told he had a legal firearm permit and the gun, at least one he was carrying was deemed to be legal. also we believe he bought legally the ak assault rifle. how much does that disturb you? >> very disturbing. it leads us to another conversation that we have had all too often in this country. when the words "mass shooting" become common place and now it is orlando's turn in the barrel, i guess. if we don't get serious about assault rifles -- this was a military-style assault rifle that was used with a high capacity magazine. it can hold up to 30 rounds, which means he could kill 30 individuals before he had to reload. this country has got to get

serious about getting guns like this one off the streets and guns out of the hands of people terrorists and others who want to do harm in our community. >> you mention someone who has an intent to kill and obviously the knowledge on using this kind of a gun. i asked a terrorism analyst, it is difficult to operate a gun like that and there's some level of training. you don't just pick it up and start shooting. we have been given news that omar mateen in his ability to get a firearm license and work as a security officer, he was told -- ve within told he had eight hours of gun range training and had to fire 144 rounds on the range as part of that training and testing. you may have heard he was part of an investigation. the extent to which we are not certain, but three years ago, he was least looked at by federal investigative authorities for his ties, friendly ties, perhaps

familial ties, it's not clear yet for those expected of terrorism ties. he was cleared but in your mind, should that have been a red flag? >> i'm not sure of all of the circumstances that occurred. i know there are federal, state and local law enforcement who will be spending every minute of the day working on this case, working backwards now from the horrific shooting that occurred this morning to find out to try to retrack and, you know track the steps of the shooter in the minutes, hours, weeks, days, months leading up to the shooting they will be talking to his family members, neighbors, look at his travel and prior investigations to see if they went far enough. we will know more in the days ahead.

>> thank you so much for your time and insights. at the top of the hour, the latest on the investigation in to this deadly sniet club shooting in orlando. we are awaiting a statement from the president on the worst mass shooting in u.s. history. ♪ 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, so now everyone knows... we have some of the freshest juice in town. see what the power of points can do for your business. learn more at chase.com/ink 80% try to eat healthy, see what the power of points can do for your business. yet up to 90% fall short in getting key nutrients from food alone. let's do more. add one a day men's gummies. complete with key nutrients plus b vitamins to help convert food into fuel. one a day. and i quit smoking with chantix.

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hello, everyone. we are following the unspeakable horror which unfolded inside of an orlando nightclub early this morning. dramatic video shows the moment the gun fire erupted. >> oh, my god, people are getting shot. oh my god god, dude. >> 50 people are confirmed dead in what is now the worst mass shooting in u.s. history. that number could continue to rise as doctors are fighting to save the lives of the dozens more who were rushed to