inju injur injured. we've been covering for you the breaking news unfolded in laceration vegas over the course of several hours. short time ago briefed by the police department. here's what he's been able to tell us. certainly have extensive coverage from the team on the ground. according to las vegas, shooting began at 10:08 p.m. began on the 32nd floor of the

misunderstand lay bandalay bay. the incident for the better part of several hours has concluded according to the las vegas police department. after that suspect was neutralized. it was a single shooter according to the police, they are now on the lookout for a companion that they have identified as an asian woman. 4'11". that is who they're looking for. in addition to two vehicles registered in the name of the suspect who they say was a local resident of las vegas. perhaps most shocking, the death toll. initially reported at two dead has now jumped to at least 20 people dead. 100 injured. we have been able to speak to e eyewitnesss actually at the scene. one person described for us the scene of chaos that ensued. many accounts saying they first

thought it was part of the show. it was fireworks they were hearing. quickly became obviously it will reality set in and became known it was an active shooter situation. we have also the 911 calls going into the dispatch. hear the voices of those reporting in multiple gunshot wounds coming from an elevated floor at the mandalay bay hotel. >> i want to repeat for people to understand that they are looking for this companion of the shooter. asian female standing 4'11". two cars that they're looking for if you are in the local area to keep you eye out for and want to of course help authorities out as they continue the investigation. hyundai tuscan and chrysler pacifica. also the red cross is taking calls from family members saying the plates on the screen there. make sure to drop that down in the area to help authorities out

there. take all the help that i have can get. if you are looking for members that have i have attended the concert, worried about them, the red cross is taking calls from family members to give them the status and any updates to give to family members obviously and understandably very worried that may have been attending the concert. we don't have the number yet. give it to us we'll put it up on the screen for you. any cell phone video. if you are a concert going, someone attending that scene there and have any cell phone video, submit that to las vegas police department as well and just to reiterate. 100 plus people injured and 20 plus people now confirmed dead. just an unbelievable scene on the las vegas strip there. area partaking in a lot of fun and revelry. tonight a very tragic scene. >> you can imagine there was a lot of confusion as this was unfolding. reports it could have been multiple shooters.

some indication online there were reports of explosion. let's make very clear what we have learned from the sheriff who wanted to make sure that serve aware that this was only one shooter. there were no other shooters involved in the incident tonight. pretty confident of that. more importantly, that there were no explosions as of yet. they described one explosion taking place. that was a control detonation by the police as they were entering the room where they believed the shooter to be on the 32nd floor. police were clear about that. there was a lot of speculation online. wanted to put that to rest. a lot of people concerned with what is now unfolding in las vegas. according to las vegas police department, they are still asking people taking shelter in nearby buildings to remain in place. that has not yet been lifted. they are confident saying the shooting situation is over for now. >> we can understand why people would be curious to see what's going on and walk out on the

strip and watching investigation or hearing sounds outside the hotel room. it's important to listen to authorities and shelter in place until the clear is given. this is ongoing investigation there. i want to go to jim now. ayman bringing up an important point saying there's only one suspect. he is now dead. however, they are seeking out the companion of this suspect. the woman, mary lieu. how confident can they be that she is not a threat? >> i don't think we have the answer to that. we don't know if this shooter checked in with the woman and that's why the detectives may want to question her. if she lives with him. she may have information. or she could be criminally culpable. he hasn't really said. just said she's a person of interest. they want to locate her and question her and decide once they do that what the facts are. that's sort of fuzzy right now.

need the two vehicles. they'll have a lot of video in that casino of this guy checking in. the bags he's carrying. whether he was accompanied by anyone. that will gi answers. the sheriff also said metro squat looeused breaching. put a small linear shape charge in the door. blows the door open. swat operators develop in and engage him right there and killed him. the sound of all that automatic fire, this guy likely had a m 16 rifle or m 4. 223. he's firing those magazines. reloading them. firing them down in the crowd. that's why we got the carnage. we talked earlier. we suspected an elevated position from the early witnesses and that's come out to be confirmed by the sheriff. this is why there's so much carnage here. elevated position on the 32

floor. shooting down into a huge krocr unprotected. no barricades. basically out on an open field. after the first magazine is unloaded on them t people don't know what's happening. unfortunately people wille think it's fireworks and really the concert goers have nowhere to go. th they're in an open field, open parking lot. open venue. run, duck, hide. it's an awful, awful. horrible situation. this killer just reloads his magazine and does it again. and he's probably kept shooting from that room and the swat team was able to get there from witnesses inside mandalay bay as well directing them up there. outside witnesses seeing the flashing and got to him and killed him.

>> we know nothing about the shooter. keep that in mind when i ask this next question. considering the way these bullets were sprayed and the type of weapon he's using and the vantage point, does this guy need any training. could this have literally been anybody off the street or does it seem like someone that could have had training in using that type of firearm. >> there's no training required at all other than pulling the trigger and holding it down and hitting a release mechanism to stick a magazine in. simple to do. seemed to me slow in reload procedure. a trained shooter could tactically reload the magazines quickly. this guy doesn't seem to shoot the next mag sooeb very quickly. could indicate he's just looking through his rifle scope trying to pick other targets. takes no training, no practice. simple position of the gun and the ammunition and achieving the elevated position and secrecy is

enough. it's lee harvey oz wald scenario mandalay bay. >> walk us through the next steps of the investigation as the police, local authorities trying to piece together the central question of why. why did he do this tonight. >> look to the shooter for the answer. that's how you go to motive. drill down to life and brain. and the way you do that is through the electronic devices.

computer, iphone, cell phone, and papers. you're going drill down in there. then you're going drill down with known associates like this woman they're looking for and any companions or relatives. yourse you're just going to drill back his life and find everything about him and see what the motivation is. motivation is clearly wide open. don't have an invitation. terrorists have struck venues where entertainment is going on. pulse nightclub, vat clan in paris. manchester arena in london. we know they strike those venues. other killers do too. people on revenge or hate can strike a crowd as well. the motive is unclear to us. we don't know. doesn't appear to be any kind of profit or greed motive. it looks like it's a power of hate, political terrorism motive. it's going be somewhere in that

world. they've got to sort that out. computer, he might have left the message in his reasoning and planned to die there. or he may have planned to escape and the woman may have an an accomplice. someone shooting from a far vantage point. it's possible they planned to escape. do the shooting and leave the gun and get out. metro police might have been too fast for him and he wasn't able to achieve that. a lot of questions. when those get answered later today and in the next couple of days, they'll give us a clearer picture of who this guy was. why he did this awful act. who may have supported him. one thing we're always looking for in law enforcement is is there another plot afood. afoot. those accomplices could be nearby or around the world.

or is he a looen lone actor. did he just want to do this on his own. all open for questions. critical for the commanders. right now they've got this guy isolated, but are there any other ten cals out there. that's what they've really got to find. >> jim, let's go with that for a second. if the shooting happened at 10:08 p.m. las vegas time. it's now 2:12. about four hours gone. four hours after the shooting now. are we connetechnically in the . in a zone where the likelihood or something else happening, some other after i coccomplice something, are we out of the woods with that. >> they belove believe so at th they medical leabelief believe

aktdingaktd i -- acting alone at the moment. get in the electronics. we may think it's calm. metro detectives are not going to think that way. they're going to be thinking what else is going on. that's the immediacy of the thing. the suspect is dead. he's not going to be prosecuted by any court. the key thing for the police and agents is is he alone. is there anything else indicating any other attack. any other plan for attack. any other conspirators. any other accomplices. once that's sorted out in the next few hours, then they can look for, you know, was there anybody backing him up. giving him money. logistics. checked in the hotel with him. purchased guns for him. supplied guns and ammo. you know, there's all kinds of things that come into play and why the question we always have.

why and what is the motivation for doing some as honorable and vulgar to just shoot innocent people at a concert. >> jim, i'm going to ask you to standby for a second. we want to cross over to nbc and bring in pete williams. following the federal response to the investigation. what can you tell us at this point. heavy federal response to assist the las vegas police here. figuring out who this person is. why it happened. if anyone else was helping. police have made it clear the person who fired the shots is a man. they know who he is after he was stopped and got identification. looking for two cars. they know they by checking the

vehicle registrations. they're going search his house and car. they're going to look at his e-mail and cell phone skaucalls try to figure out who he was in touch with. whether anyone else was involved. i know you've been talking to jim, former head of region gnat head of atf. long experience in that. i'm wondering if i can impose upon your hospitality here and ask jim if he can still hear us. i had a question for him actually. >> yes. >> so jim, you can hear the sound of the gunshots. obviously that's an automatic weapon that fired those rapid rounds. automatic weapons as you know are illegal in the united states. could you modify a conventional assault type rifle to be able to shoot rounds that fast or would this be some sort of specialized weapon. >> it's absolutely without question a machine gun.

there's no request of what it is from the sound. sub machine guns are not illegal in the united states, but they must be registered with atf through a strict process. have toll submit fingerprints. photograph, have to have the signature of chief law enforcement officer in the county where you live, city where you live and registration is maintained by atf in washington and that law has been in effect since 1934. now many people have tried to repeal those. there's been a change in that in 1986. when machine guns were not as available to the general public, but more for law enforcement, but if you had one of the old registered guns, you know, you could have a registered machine gun. there are registered machine guns. >> the point is in your view, it's a specially made weapon made to fire automatically. it's not a modified weapon. where would you get such weapon. >> it could be either one, pete. it could be just a military m 16

or it could be an m-4 stolen somewhere. fully automatic mode. or it could be modified. could be drilled and modified what we call an auto sere and internal parts that could make it. the clan destine market supplies mod occasions for these weapons. clandestine. knowing who the suspect is is the most important lead of all. nobody has an answer to this question about why. >> thanks pete. >> jim, i want to go back to you a second. talking about the security landscape of las vegas and the weapon this guy had. walking into the mandalay bay.

does this change the security landscape of las vegas going forward considering what happened tonight. >> you can check into any hotel with a weapon. you're carrying luggage. you're not screened for that luggage. break a rifle in half and it will get about this long. most rifles can be broken down. barrel can be taken off. stock. broken down and a short configuration and quickly reassembled. people carry golf bags. golf clubs: could be left in long form and carried into a hotel. it's pretty hard to stop that. any hotel could be a target. any large building, any tall building. snipers and shooters have always gravitated to tall buildings from the texas tower in the 60s to oswald in dallas in 63 who

carried his rifle disguised as curtain rodrigus. you can get a rifle in a building in an elevated position and he did it and did it yesterday. wield it in there. carried it in there. raised no suspicion at all. security situation for a city like las vegas is very difficult. when you have an open venue that is surrounded bial buildings and have pedestrians on the street. hard to change the whole culture of that. even if you don't have the venue there, a lot of pedestrians on the street. unless you're going to search every person that goes in the hotel room, it's going to be hard to stop. >> let me ask you about a point that stuck out to me during the press conference when you heard the sheriff saying they do not know what the motivation is, they don't believe it is terror. how do you read that because a lot of people are going to be

watching this and saying by some definition, this is clearly terrorism. he was not yet -- he made that distinction. we don't know the motivation yet. don't believe it's terror. what do you think he meant by that. >> he might not have any indication that the shooter is connected or inspired by any of the known international qaeda o they don't see any connection to that. they know something about in the guy they're not telling us. they know where he works. they know what he does. they know his local affiliations. you know, sometimes you get in situations with people like workplace shootings where revenge is strong and hate is strong and people go after, you know, who dun them wrong. sometimes they think that's the world or people have a happy life or, you know, strange motivations in people's minds and want to get back at people who have done them wrong.

you have mass shootings. workplace shootings. school and church shootings. could have a concert shooting just like a guy who felt like he couldn't get ahead and take it out on the rest of everybody else who was happy. could be hate. could be hate for some reasons. clear only in the shooters mind. unclear to us when we hear the reasoning it makes no real sense to a reasonable person. in their mind, it might make sense. it makes sense they act that's why we have to look at it. >> it's interesting they're able to make that distinction so quickly. considering they nuch ieutralize suspect. whether they were able to speak to him before they took him down. what i heard from the press conference, didn't seem like much conversation took place before they took the guy out. how is it they make the distinction it's not terror so

quickly is surprising. >> i think what we see is there's no obvious indicator. and i don't think we should necessarily rule that out yet. i don't think any from our vantage point can be totally ruled out. other than maybe greed or just robbery or financial financial motive. it may not be obvious to them there's a terror motive. a lot of terrorist want to promote motive. want to shout it from the rooftop to get the theater of terror. they wear the isis flag. flying it out the window. screaming allahu akbar. they're trying to bring attention to their group and terror and to their political motiv motives. there may be no oftbvious connection there and the sheriff saying we don't see it. i don't know if you can totally

rule it out. maybe they can because they know more than we do at the moment. from what we know, you can't rule it out. doesn't have to be there. it can be revenge. revenge is a very strong motive people discount often. who was shot. all people of a certain type. certain thing a shooter might have seen of something he hated. that has to be explored. the best way to do that is looking right inside of him and his papers and computers and home and his writings. and i think you're exactly right. it was probably very little talk. swat had very little time. did an explosive breach and

engaged him quickly and no words out of him. >> jim, actually while you were just talking in the last few minutes, the las vegas police department has now released a picture of the companion they're looking for. put it up on your screen. you can see the police the individual below is being sought by the las vegas police department for questioning into the active shooter incident that took place. if seen, police call 911. they've also released the image of the vehicle, the hyundai tuscan they're looking for as well. the investigation rapidly moving as they try to own in on this particular individual who may be in some way connected to the shooter. >> jim, as we look at this photo. let's bring it on the screen again so everybody can get a good look at it.

interestingly enough, a lot of time when authorities say we are looking for this person of interest who may have some sort of connection was a companion of et cetera, that's what we heard from the sheriff, she's a companion of the shooter. get in the disclaimer of this person is armed and dangerous. none of that happened. all it was is we want to talk to her. question her. she is a companion. of this shooter. there was no other disclaimer given in that regard. that's important to put out there. that was a distinction i made in the press conference. nothing said in regards to her being armed or anything like that. >> right and there's no warrant. no charge being referred here. what the sheriff is saying is this is a person who they know is close to the shooter. a companion.

they might live together or be friends. they've been seen together. maybe she's on the video going in the mandalay bay with the shooter. may they think she knows something. maybe she lived at the residence. there's some connection there. detectives want to find her and find out what she does know. is she just an innocent witness, companion, accomplice, co-conspirator. they've issued no warrant for her arrest. need to locate her. and after the detectives question her, come to conclusion of her role. is it complete innocent, could be. is aide and abetting conspirator. we don't know. >> the concert everybody was attending. tonight has been beyond horrific, he says, i still don't know what to say, but i want

everyone to know me and my crew are safe. hurts my heart this would happen to anyone who came out to enjoy what should have been a fun night. think about the ariane grande concert. pulse nightclub. >> imagine being a performer of someone there. bringing thousand people out to see your concert and something like this happens. something sitting heavy on your heart as well thinking that maybe -- obvious it's not their fault. people are there to see you and they're hurt or dead after a concert they were attending. just unbelievable site there in las vegas. >> i want to ask you about the point pete williams was bringing up earlier about the gun and ammunition. i'm not familiar with las vegas in terms of firearms laws or the state of nevada. what can you tell us about acquiring a weapon of that sort, if ammunitions.

could you buy endless amounts of ammunition for a weapon of that sort, as you mentioned, a sub machine gun. most of the western states have very relaxed fire laws with the exception of california, places like informnevada and ar traditionally firearm laws are not very strict. federal law is stricter on machine guns and sub machine guns and requires registration. illegal to possess if not registered with atf. that was one of the laws we clearly enforced all the time trying to take those sub machine guns away from criminals or gangs or persons trying to acquire them. guns can be converted from semi automatic to fully automatic fire. that's what pete was trying to get to. how difficult is that to do? it's not very difficult at all if you want to criminally do it. it is a federal felony to do it. if we catch you, we're going to

arrest you and carries a he penalty, but people do it all the time. criminals do it. they try to convert weapons. some people try to sell the weapons. if a person was bent on getting one, they could. also, old military weapons like say you know used in wars, surplus weapons, weapons left on a battlefield, weapons stolen, there's m 16 is a fully automatic sub machine gun. fire the full magazine when you hold the trigger down. that's what is going on here.

he's just shooting into a mass of people. with a submachine gun. he's not restricted. he has -- he's up on the 32nd floor just shooting down on them. it's just an awful scene, but no, it's not hard to get the guns. it's not hard to convert the guns. ammunition, ayman, to your question, how much can you buy? how much money do you have? how big is your truck. that's how much you could have. there's no restrictions. >> does a gun that's been converted sound any different. >> no. sounds just like that one right there. once it's converted. >> you wouldn't be able to tell from hearing a video that we've been seeing. >> no the difference is the semi automatic rifle fires one round for each function of the trigger. so each time you pull the trigger, it fires one round. a fully automatic rifle will fi fire, continue to fire as you hold the trigger down. just empty all the rounds in the

magazine as you hold the trigger down. that's how it's defined under the law. firearm that will, you know, fire when the trigger is held down under a constant rate of fire. you know, that's a submachine gun without question no doubt. that's not a person pulling the trigger each time. >> i want to listen to the the police scanner of dispatch as they were getting those initial accounts of the gunshots. let's taken a listen to this. pick up on the back end of it. >> critical information

established early on. multiple gunshot wounds. elevated position. injuries reported. very significant details picked up on that: shapd the early stages of the police response to the shooting. ed the early stages of the police response to the shooting. want to brick everybody up-to-date. understand exactly what's happening. we heard from sheriff joe lombardi of clark county. shooting took place in las vegas in the land lay bay hotel. 10:08 p.m.

that shooter, a man is now dead. it was only one shooter. authorities stressing that. only one shooter. and that person is now dead. they are now currently looking for the companion of that shooter. we're going to bring her picture up on screen now as i'm talking about her. you see her picture right there. that companion shooter not knowing if she was with him. not knowing if she lived with him. reports she was a roommate of the shooter. looking to question that woman that you're seeing on your screen right now. hyundai tuscan in that picture or plate 114 b 40. along with a chrysler pacifica. they are looking for those cars as well. want to help authorities as much possible. the red cross currently taking calls from family members in distress and worried about

people attending the jason aldean concert. the red cross taking calls from family members right now. as soon as we get that number, we'll put it up on the screen for you. also, anybody who has cell phone video to get that to authorities as well. this investigation very much ongoing. 100, pretty shocking numbers here. 100 plus people injured and 20 plus people dead and that number constantly changing. bear with us as we get these numbers in every couple of minutes or so from the hospital. we are hearing the local hospitals there maximum capacity. you can imagine that city very much under duress right now. authorities asking people to stay in shelter to shelter a place. i know a lot of people curious to see what's going on. seeing flashing of the ambulances and police car. stay in place. you want to stay safe. continue to watch from your hotel room. watch from your television

screen until people get the all clear there. federal authorities are also on top of this. talk to us about where the investigation is now. where would the authorities be now. do we believe they might be inside the apartment of this suspect. as we have just minentioned and talked about, the likelihood of knowing where he might live is pretty high. they're going to go in there once they get the warrant signed and see what's in there. get his computer, papers, other firearms. is there any other weapons, explosives and see what's going on. got to be careful.

when a guy goes on a mission like this. the house could be booby trapped. this is something we dealt with all the time in law enforcement and atf. bombs and people with guns and bombs. you remember the shooter at the aurora theater in colorado who had bobby trapped his apartment and left the radio on. tried to lure the neighbor in and the police bomb squads and fbi atf had to go in there and take it apart. they're going to have a lot more answers as day breaks. >> going to update with more information as they get it. jim, i wanted to ask you. we've been talking about that moment that they engaged the shooter on the 32nd floor. we now have an audio recording of the moment that door was

breached. play it for the viewers. take a listen to this. >> control room. go ahead. yes, set on the suspect's door. i need for everybody the hallway to be aware of it and get back. we need to see if we get any type of response from this guy. see if he is in here or moved somewhere else. >> got the audience on the 32nd floor. everyone in the hallway needs to move back. all units move back. >> breach, breach. >> that was the moment there. very dramatic. just being able to hear. you can hear the order. >> how often do we hear that. >> hear the order being given to move back away from the door as they endangered the suspect. after that point, we believe the suspect was taken down. not sure if it was as a result of an exchange of gunfire or whether or not he had perhaps killed himself. jim, let's talk a little bit about you know you were saying going to the suspect's house.

he must have had some kind of way of breaking the glass. >> right. so he doesn't need pair of military training. could have went to a firing range. could have it. it's not necessary for these acts. shooting a machine gun into a crowd. no training for that. loading the magazine is simple. person can show you that in two minutes. as far as the window, you're correct. i agree with that. there has to be a hole in the window. that could be as simple as shooting the window out and shooting down into the crowd. could be that. could break the window with a butt of a gun or hard object. throw something through a window

and be as sophisticated to cut the window. it's not a sniper shooting one shot and taking individual specific people. very practiced shots. no. it's not exhibiting that. it's not even the reload is not real fast that you can tell. doesn't tell you everything, but it doesn't indicate he's slamming magazines real fast because he's such a great shooter. he's a loser in the end when

swat reaching that door, listen to what he says there. trying to do it to locate the shooter. when they put the charge on the door, trying to elicit response from him. likely they got a gunshot or more. that would tell him he's in there. then they when they do that. once they knew he was in there, flash banged him and made a quick entry and engaged him and killed him. the operator doesn't know if he's in there. doesn't know if he's in there. going to put breaching charge on the door. they're trying to see if there's a reaction from him. and likely they got one. told him he was there and then they executed their move. you can't say enough about metro police here what they've done. those calls from the patrolman that you just played, i mean, think about that information that patrol gave to their commanders to their swat team

and to the dispatchers. first thing they did was located the shooter. he's halfway up mandalay bay. i can see the muzzle flash. this is critical information the swat commander has to have is location. they tell it's automatic fire. they tell it's an elevated position. they tell about the gunshot victims. they ask for emergency. those patrol officers were just operating in a complete professional a plus mode. and as was swat. swat came in there. quickly got up there. you heard what you just played. breached it. engaged. they took him out. they stopped the killing. the patrolman on the ground. so they get las vegas metro did a tremendous job here. going to be a lot of citizen heros as well as the reporting goes through the day i'm sure. saving people on the ground. >> think about how quickly they responded as you mentioned. imagine how many buildings are

there and having to locate where the shooter was. running up floors and identifying room. want to go to jill friar standing with us. covering this. on the 38th floor of the mandalay bay resort. shooter being identified on the 32nd floor. not necessarily the same building. couple of floors below. joe, from those people just joining us right now. give us a van teenage point. >> we had called down to the front desk and told the hotel was under lock down. stay put. what you're looking at right now. you can see the van teenage point where we're at. 38th floor. technically four seasons hotel. that is in the mandalay bay tower. we were in the mandalay bay tower. of course police have informed us the sheriff says the shooter was on the 32nd floor. about six floors below here. not sure if it was to the left

or right of where we were. six flows below here. gives you an idea of the vantage point the shooter had. where the concert was taking place. right part of your screen is the stage in the middle of the area is where all of the people were. we're starting to see a little bit better now. put on more lightins. see a lot of debris all over the place. a lot of police on the scene here. this gives you an idea of what is the shooter was looking at. we can't speak for every hotel. the one we're in. we can't open the windows. no way to do that at all. no patio or thing like that.

he was killed here and still trying to find out a little more about someone acquaintance with the shooter. no idea if that person has anything to do with the shooting. we are looking for that person. there were reports sort of after we know the shooter was taken out. people on social media saying whether it was bomb scares or other shootings happening at other hotels. sheriff came out and said none of that is true. none of that happened. one shooter at the scene here at mandalay bay. that situation has been taken care of. looking a little bit to the right here. not far from where the scene is. we saw an airplane take off from here. normally this would not be the time of day you see flights. it's possible that was a delayed

flight that just took off out of here. perhaps starting to see things get back to normal now the situation is under control here. looking back as we peer back to the left. see sort of this crime scene. route 91 harvest festival. very popular country music festival. people come from all over to attend this. i've been hearing from one or two friends who came into town to attend the festival. they're doing okay. heard from baker'sville police department. they're located five hours from here. police department put out a news relief some of the officers offduty was here. one officer was shot. injuries are nonlife threatening. >> just to give people perspective. if they're looking at screens and flashing tower is to right of screen, where exactly did the shooting take place? everybody has some perspective.

>> let's see here. if you're looking at the screen right now. oh you're talking about from the mandalay bay. >> exactly. >> we don't know at this point. we can tell you we were talking about this earlier. the mandalay bay has three wings. sort of three prongs that come out of it. we don't know where on this side of the hotel that the shooter was. whether it was right of us, left of us. directly below us. we're not sure at this point. it's hard for us to see. we don't see police activity. we know it was six floors down from here. we can tell you pretty much this side of the hotel, almost every single room has a pretty good perspective. they're all pointed directly at where the concert was taking place. certainly a number of possibilities. >> joe friar, stay with us a little bit. we want to cross over and get a street level view of what's unfolding now.

jay gray joints us from the scene. police have not given the all clear. they've opened up some through traffic in the area. also announced the suspect is dead. they were dismissing any of the reports on social media there were multiple shooters. walk us through what you were able to see. >> i want to give you a realtime look. now four plus hours outside of when the shooting took place. see the strip in this area locked down. we've been pushed back a couple of blocks. as have so many people who were participa part of the concert. people trying to reunite with others who were there. trying to get information about others. they are worried about. continue to see people stream through this area. also people who weren't a part of the concert just trying to get back to their hotels and right now just can't do that. everything is locked down. you see people on the streets here with suitcases, and, again,

just trying to make their way through. what we do know from police at this point, i'm rehashing. it's worthy here. one shooter down. killed by police. stormed his room at the mandalay b bay. 32nd floor. more than 20 dead. more than 100 injured. many of those in critical condition. and most taken to university medical center level one trauma facility here in las vegas. huge police presence on the ground here. again, trying to just bring some order to the chaos that continues right now. i'm hearing a jet take off from mckaren international. it was shutdown earlier. they have resumed at this point. limited service. you've also i'm sure talked about the person of interest here. police looking for mary lee danly. companion of the shooter. wasn't involved in the process of the attack. want to get more information from this person.

again, mary lieu da resident of they are looking for. jason aldean was on stage at the time of the shooting. he and everyone on stage is fine and trying to work through it and trying to understand what happened here. like so many. every street corner that runs parallel to the strip right now packed with people. either trying to find a loved win. trying to get back to hotel room. trying to understand what's happened. >> how are people feeling on the ground there. have you had an opportunity to talk to anybody in the streets. seems like some people out and about despite the fact authorities are asking people to stay indoors until they get all clear. have you spoken to anybody there? how are they feeling? >> stunned. i think when you talk to anybody who was a part of this concert, still in shock. very concerned. people streaming through here trying to help people wounded on

the ground. we've seen in the last ten minutes ambulances moving in and out of the area. leaving with lights and sirens on. still transporting people injured. this is still really injured. this is unfolding here. there is still a need for help for people inside. so you see these first responders continuing to pour in. police on the ground here a couple of blocks away from the strip don't really have a lot of information to share with the people who have scrambled as a result of the attack here. and so you see a little bit of frustration here. again, i think most people just stunned, like so many right now, frankly, at what's happened. >> jay gray live for us there on the ground in las vegas. let's cross back over to correspondent joe fryer in one of the mandalay bay towers of the four seasons hotel. joe, let me ask you about when you arrived at that hotel. obviously this will be a central part of the question into his arrival at the hotel.

whether he arrived alone. can you talk to us about the security measures or any observations you made? is it easy to get into the hotel? was there any security there? did you have your bags searched when you arrived? what was the scene like? >> reporter: no to all of those things, ayman. we check into hotels all the time. typically you go, you check in, they give you the key and you go to your room. that's exactly the situation we had here. that's simply the way most hotels function. there's no reason for extra security. country music festival brings in people all around the country. we checked in our hotel, had our luggage, brought it up like anyone else would do. we talk about soft targets and this is certainly one of those soft target situations. we're at a point in society where we're not going to set up metal detectors for people to get inside hotels that the point. in vegas you have these tall hotels that overlook here. if you look at the shot we have,

we're on the 38th floor, in the four seasons, part of the mandalay bay tower. the shooter was on the 32nd floor, overlooking the scene where the concert was taking place. to give you perspective, i'm going to zoom in a little bit here. this is where jason aldean was performing. that's where the stage was. as we pan to the left that's where all the people in the audience were. from this perspective, 38 floors up, you can see quite a bit of the crowd from this area. and, again, as we said, you know, these windows were, at least in the room where we're at, they don't open. certainly you have a bird's-eye view of this concert that was taking place last night. >> how far would you say you are from that venue right now? the shooter was obviously in one of the buildings, your building or one of the buildings next to you, as you just mentioned. how far are you from that stage you just zoomed in on? >> reporter: it's hard to say distance. if i pan down here this is the

intersection this is abutting the property here for mandalay bay and the four seasons and boom, right there, there you see that is where this is taking place. it's the block that's kit kitty corner to where we are. you can see this is sort of the mandalay bay, one wing of the hotel. we know that the shooter was on the 32nd floor, we don't know if it's to the right of where i am, left of where i am or directly below. on this side of the hotel, every single room, especially this high up, has a pretty good vantage point of what you see right there, which is where this route 91 harvest festival was taking place. it was packed. jason aldean is one of the most popular country music performers out there. it was filled with people. it was 10:00 at night. this is las vegas. everyone is still going to be out at 10:00 at night on a sunday night because they're out

enjoying the music. >> you were showing us the vantage point from -- we had the split screen of earlier footage of the very same angle and the same position you're looking at now. i know that you spoke earlier to the hotel that told you to shelter in place. i'm curious, have you gotten any updates, you or crews from your hotel, as to whether they're in an all-clear situation? >> i can tell you within the first hour when the shooting happened -- i'll be quite honest, i was on the other side of this hotel. i was sleeping. i obviously didn't hear anything t wasn't until i was woken up by my producer, who was on this side, that knew something was going on. she had called down to the four seasons here, asked what was going on. you're in a lockdown. stay put. we hadn't received any updates since then. we can tell you, we know, during the heart of this thing, there was a very strong police presence here in this hotel. and so we needed to stay in our rooms. we needed to not be out in the hallway. quickly i had gone basically

across the hall to join my producers in this room here. but we did not want to be out in the hallway. it was not a safe situation. at this point we're basically staying put. the sheriff, you know, obviously the situation is clear but he told people during that news conference if you were to shelter in place stay put maybe a little bit right now. as we start to see, more lights are popping up. they're shining on the scene here. you may recall when you talked to us an hour or two ago, it was pitch black. we're pointing you into darkness. debris is strewn all about but we are starting to get a little bit of a better look at this concert -- outdoor concert venue. >> all right. joe, stand by for us. we're going to go to pete williams now, nbc justice correspondent, who is joining us via phone. actually, i think we just lost pete. he is talking to some sources to get an update on the suspect there. we want to go to jim.

jim, when you're look at that vantage point, which i think is interesting -- and i want you to talk about this. talk about the number of casualties. 20-plus people are dead, that number obviously changing by the minute. and seeing the distance there, from the mandalay bay to the concert venue, are you surprised by that number, considering how far -- and, by the way, maybe i'm wrong. maybe it's not as far as it looks. i'm not there. i can't necessarily see. are you surprised at all by the distance and the casualty numbers? >> i was actually surprised early when they were saying there was only two dead. i was watching the video of somebody firing a machine gun, submachine gun or machine gun from an elevated position. those two things didn't match. but when the sheriff came out and told us the real story of the horror, the carnage that was reaped on the people that, matches the sound that we heard. the submachine gun is carried by

a person and fired from the shoulder. that's a submachine gun. a machine gun is a heavier weapon mounted on a tri dpod or vehicle and not usually carried by a soldier. it's more of a vehicle mounted, fires a heavier caliber round this is more likely a submachine gun. sometimes they can be mounted on a stand or have a bipod front or tripod. they're capable of being carried by a soldier. that's what they're designed for. they're designed for war. submachine gunfire into the crowd is absolutely indicative of the numbers the sheriff gave us, 20-plus dead and 100-plus injured. it's horrible to watch these things unfold in a peaceful city and someone is going to come up and wreak havoc on them. we've got to get to the bottom of this guy and see if there is

a way this could be stopped from the beginning. >> how do you walk into the mandalay bay hotel in las vegas with a submachine gun, something you're describing that is used in war, with a stand. you have all this equipment. that's unbelievable. >> certainly from your travels in the middle east a very different landscape there. i guess that's why i was asking this question. you travel to these luxury hotels in these tourist destinations, which las vegas is, you do have the metal detectors and airport baggage screeners or scanners you usually put your luggage through. we constantly have this, whether it's exterior of airports. but certainly this will reignite the debate of what, if any, new security measures we need to start taking in these soft target venues.

>> you're exactly right, ayman. you have these large venues where people come together and they're known venues that could be targets, we're able to secure places like the super bowl or big supporting events. you know, they spread out to softer and softer targets where there's big crowds. you're exactly right. if you go to the airport in tel aviv, there's three levels of security or more and everybody is watching what you do. you're not going to get in there so easy. of course, the israelis have practiced that. other countries as well, that have been victims of so much terror, have practiced and done different things. we're such a huge country, 320 or so million people. it becomes a great challenge to secure every place where there's a crowd. >> it certainly does. obviously, as we can see from what's been going on that this is a different world we live in right now and certainly a very scary morning for people waking up in las vegas today.

mika, we'll hand it over to you as our coverage in the shooting in las vegas continues. mika? >> yasmin and ayman, thank you. we continue with msnbc's continuing coverage of the breaking news on the las vegas strip. police say over 20 people are dead and more than 100 are injured after gunfire rained down on to an outdoor concert and transformed it into a mass casualty scene. videos posted on social media captured the music interrupted by the gunfire, followed by confusion and screams. some ran. others dropped to the gun amid a hail of whistling bullets. it all happened about 10:08 p.m. las vegas local time, the conclusion of a country music festival,