possible accomplice or suspect? >> no, we still consider her a person of interest. we have been in contact with her and we plan to engage her upon her return to the country. >> reporter: do you have any idea how he was able to break through the windows? was he able to open the windows or did he smash the windows? >> we believe he had a device similar to a hammer to smash the windows. >> sheriff, so far i've heard a description of the suspect as a lone wolf has the investigation looking into any potential ties even loose ties to extremist groups? >> obviously, we'll do that. we will run it down to the very end. but right now, at face value, we haven't been able to identify that. >> sheriff, you said he checked in on thursday, the 28th to the hotel. >> i believe that's accurate. >> did he have tickets to the concert? >> i have no idea. >> do you know what he has done

between checking in and last night? >> we're following up on that. there will be hours and hours of video surveillance we'll have to recall with the cooperation of the mgm. >> sheriff, we've seen [ inaudible question ] your center upstairs where you keep. >> the fusion center. >> correct. there are cameras everywhere practically every inch of the city covering the city indoors, outdoors. how could this happen? >> well, i don't understand what you're alluding to, how could it happen. this is an individual that was described as a lone wolf. i don't know how it could have been prevented if we didn't have prior knowledge of this individual. it wasn't evident had he weapons in his room. we have determined there has been employees going to and fro from his room and nothing nefarious was noticed at this point. >> first responders were integral to stopping more deaths. can you describe how strike

teams were able to find the suspect? >> well, yeah. you're absolutely correct. any special event that takes place in the southern nevada region it's required by nrs to supply police officers to insure security. the man delay bay did a great job of hiring police officers. they had sufficient staffing for the concert. and when this individual decided to fire upon the crowd, which was approximately 22,000 individuals, it's very difficult to manage that size crowd. and you have to ensure you have the proper staffing. as described, our officers responded immediately in conjunction with the fire department as soon as the fire department arrived, but they were able to identify where the weapon was being discharged from and proximity, it's hard to tell what floor it is from the outside but once they gain entry into the hotel in conjunction with security and through phone calls from patrons, they were able to call it down to a

possible floor. once they made entry onto the hallway, they immediately knew what room was in question. >> reporter: there's reports about what exactly happened in the room when swat officers entered that maybe there was so much smoke from the shells the smoke alarms were going off. >> i don't know. i haven't been told about any smoke learns. but i know that his -- he had killed himself. and exactly, we'll have to go through our body warrant camera and existing video whether we engaged him at the same approximate time or not. >> reporter: [ inaudible question ]. >> no, ma'am. i can't get into the mind of a psychopath at this point. >> reporter: sheriff, while the investigation is going on right now, how extensive is it and what are you talking about as far as -- while the ballistics

and criminalists do their work? >> i believe we've got most of las vegas boulevard open. and directly adjacent to the mandalay it still remains closed. we will ensure we go out to the proper intersections to limit, the hindrance of traffic. we're looking at a minimum of 12 additional hours for documentation of the crime scene and the removal of the bodies. >> do you know about how long -- do you know if there was never return fire from an officer on the ground anywhere? >> no, i'm not aware of any return fire nor am i aware of the time line. but we did have swat officers discharge weapons at the room location. >> sheriff -- -- legal or illegally converted? >> yes, the federal or the fbi and the atf is helping us with that aspect. >> reporter: deceased come from the hotel? were they all in the concert or

were any in the hotel area? >> i'm not sure because we had people deceased and injured outside the videotape of the concert area. so it would be hard to determine or make that determination at this point. we are obviously going to have to talk to all those injured individuals to make that assessment. >> reporter: how many people injured were shot and how many injured while running away. >> i don't know. the people havedon displaced in five separate hospitals. it's going to require extensive review of that communication with them to determine that. so thank you very much. i appreciate everybody's time and i appreciate everybody here to the back of me and their support of our police department. and we will keep can you regularly updated. i can't give you an exact time line at this point but we will keep you informed as we receive information. have a good day. thank you. >> brian williams with you in new york. remarkable poise and grace on the part of sheriff joe lombardo

considering what has happened in his jurisdiction. he's been up all night. of course, part of his responsibility was reporting the worst possible news and numbers that he admits are still on the move. as of right now, 58 deceased, over 500 wounded from this mass shooting. this happened from a window. perhaps you saw earlier the curtain fluttering from the broken window. 32 stories up at the mandalay bay casino. one of the southern-most casinos, one of the closest to mccarron airport in las vegas. joe fryer has been standing by from a fuel floors up, six floors up from the shooting floor of the hotel. joe, what's going on there right now? >>. >> reporter: we can tell that you lockdown that has been at the hotel for about ten hours has been lifted now. we were actually staying here overnight. technically we're in a four seasons hotel but here the four

seasons basically makes up some of the top floors of this mandalay bay tower. we are on the 38th floor. the shooter was six flores below us on the 32nd floor. i was sleeping in a room across the hall. initially i didn't hear any of the noise going on when the gunfire starred but our producer who was in this room, she was sleeping, she was woken up by it. at first she thought it might have had something to do with the concert going across the street which was very loud an noisy. before long, she realized gunfire was happening. testimony people enjoying this concert also thought it was fireworks before they realized what was happening. we want to show you the viewpoint. this is the 38th floor of the mandalay bay tower. across the street over here, this is the concert venue where this route 91 harvest festival was taking place. in this space you're looking at

right now, 22,000 people filled that block area. on the right side is where the stage is, where jason aldean was performing around 10:00 last night when gunfire broke out and the gunfire again was coming about six floors down from this angle you're looking at right now. you can see it is a bird's eye view into that area which was packed shoulder shoulder with people who were enjoying the headline performer during this big country music festival that drew people from all across the country. you can imagine the panic. people didn't know where the gunfire was coming from, in which direction they should run. right now, you're seeing a pretty eerie scene for las vegas. this is the las vegas strip. and right now, the only cars on it are basically police cars, law enforcement, maybe the occasional emergency responder and what we're looking at right now is actually where the airport is. it is nearby by where the shooting took place. apologies the sun is coming at us right now so it makes it hard to look out the window.

the airport is fully operational. but for a period last night did stop functioning out of over abundance of precaution. we're looking outside of a window right now. this window does not open. the windows in this hotel do not open. there are no patios or balconies which means the window had to be broken. as you just heard from authorities they believe that the suspect used a hammer or something like a hammer to break the windows so he would be able to fire out. brian? >> it's a ghoulish business but it bears repeating that shot you are showing us is the shot with a firearm on full automatic. presumably with a sight but that green area, the large black looks like an inflatable area is the main stage. the vendor tents, vip tents off to the side. but you had thousands of people lit up open and exposed from 32 stories up. and what do we figure, close to

a half mile across the street? >> reporter: yeah, we've heard stipulates of about 1700 feet or so from there. i mean, it's basically just kitty corner from this complex. we're sort of on the edge of the hotel here. so it's as close as you can probably get from this level to being near the festival if you were sort of farther off to the right in this hotel. the reach would be even farther to try and get into this area. right now, we've been looking at the scene as daylight comes. there's a few authorities wandering around. it's in the grassy areas where you might see bursts of color. those appear to be lawn chairs or blankets or things where people were sitting in the grassy areas enjoying the concert. obviously those items were left behind as people ran for recover. >> joe fryer, thank you so much. and we get you're fighting sun glare. that illustrates the story as little of the coverage thus far has. we are joined live by telephone

right now from with jolene bennett. she is from las vegas. she was at the concert, helped some of the injured along the way. jolene, when did you realize what was happening? >> when i heard the pops and everybody started running. and we just took off and ran behind a bar. and thought we were trapped for a minute. people were climbing over the chain link fences. then we realized there was an opening, ran around. fortunately we had the car, our car was parked right across the street, the back parking lot from route 91. and we got to our car and as we're driving, people are running, screaming, wanting in the car. we opened up the door. three people jumped in the back. and then as we were trying to take off, we saw a lady ho had been shot and i opened the front seat and she climbed on my lap.

she was bleeding just pouring blood out of her arm. her artery where you get shot or not shots where they draw blood right and i could see the hole. and she's like i need something. i need something to, i knew to wrap the -- wrap her up. so i took my shirt off and i tied it. like a tourniquet and held her arm up and just told her we're going to get there. we're okay, we're okay. we tried to get to -- we wanted to get to the hospital but we got trapped in the traffic and ended up at sundance helicopter. we then got her out of the vehicle, took her inside. i was just blood all over us screaming that i needed a doctor, somebody, an emt, someone. a lady came. we took her into the bathroom,

laid her down. a guy took off the belt, his belt and tied it. we tied it, pulled it really tight around her arm. and the whole entire time this is going on, the popping from the guns never stopped. it was just a constant pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. then after we were in the bathroom for a little while, they transported us all into the warehouse in the back of this place and they kept us there for awhile. the lady's name was jody. i kept asking her, got her husband's number, trying to get ahold of him. they're from canada. he's on his way out here now. then they took us out the back of sundance, loaded us into like a little charter bus and took us over to the signature helicopter

place where they kept us there until they said we could be released and walked down to as long as we headed south towards sunset. we got on a bus. it dropped us off at sunset and luckily i had parked my car at town square, got into our vehicle and we brought another girl with us. she was -- i have a daughter and so there was a young girl there that was probably like 22 and no one with her. and i said i'm not leaving you. you stay with me. here's my phone. you get ahold of your mom. and we took her with us. her mom picked her up from us at town square and then drove us to my car. and made it home. i just hope that jodie's okay. >> what an unbelievable turn of events. so aside from the fact that you're doing triage and advanced

first aid on someone you didn't know until she jumped into your car, you're also reaching the parent of a 22-year-old who must have been beside herself. >> she was -- she was calm. she actually was doing really good. my friend was breaking down. i think i was in fight or flight mode. i didn't -- i was calm the entire time and just said okay. no, we've got to do this. this is what we're doing this. everything's okay. we're going to be okay, we're going to be okay until i reached my home at about 2:30 in the morning and then broke down, looked at myself with blood all over me. and then it hit me. >> yeah, i'm sure. and it's going to -- sadly, it's going to keep coming and probably going to hit everybody at different times and in different waves. am i told correctly you were about halfway back from the

stage and my other question is, was it clear to you what direction this was coming from? >> no, it seemed like all directions. you couldn't tell where anything was coming from. even when we were in the warehouse and there was a point where they told us to be quiet, it hoochbl sounded like the shooter was right outside the warehouse. it just didn't stop. >> and the things you saw on your way out of that crowd, the people around you who had fallen like wounded and dead on a battlefield? >> i have to say that fortunately, i got out faster than the other people because of where we parked. and i didn't see that. but my heart goes out to all of those families.

>> jolene, it's going to be a terrible day for you and a terrible couple of days and what a terrible time for your city. jolene bennett, who was at the concert and like so many other people ended up springing into action and we think, we hope saving a life or two in the process. jolene, thank you very much. our correspondent katie beck is with us from mesquite, nevada. the closest we've come to getting a address on this suspect's home. katie, we've heard from the brother. we've heard that the suspect apparently moved back to nevada after living in florida for a time. and that's about all we know. >> reporter: well, it seems that he was coming here to have a quiet life in retirement. this is a community that a lot of people come to to find peace and quiet. lots of golfers and gamblers

prefer it. it is just one hour from las vegas and it straddles the arizona, nevada line. as you can see behind me, there's a heavy police presence guarding that roadway there. that is the roadway to the suspect's home where a search warrant is currently being executed. police have been here through the night. there was some concern that that house might have had explosives in it. they evacuated the neighbors around that home. they cleared the home for any explosives and they have made entry. we heard from a mesquite police officer awhile ago who said the home appears to be completely normal. this is exactly what you would expect he said for a retirement home. very tidy, neat, lived in. nothing suspicious. he did admit there were firearms recovered from the home but said it was not a remarkable amount given the number of gun owners in this area and that everythinging there seemed to be pretty normal. we just saw a convoy of police cars heading into that area probably still collecting whatever evidence they can whether that be digital

evidence, or physical evidence from that home to try and figure out what the motivation was behind this massacre. they really have very few answers at this point what the motivate this had crime. the neighbors around here are absolutely stunned. we just spoke to one man who said when he heard the news this morning, he and his wife instantly broke into tears just saying you know, this was something they could have never imagined that this person was in mayor midst and could have committed a crime of this magnitude. they couldn't imagine it. so there are a lot of affected neighbors sort of stunned, confused wandering around these corners. wondering about the mystery how this person existed in their community. was he planning it, did they know him? was it somebody they had run into on the sidewalk. so these are the questions that neighbors are wrestling with at this point as police continue to search this home. >> and katie, quick for folks who aren't familiar with las vegas, how many miles, what's the drive time from say the las vegas strip out to

mesquite? >> reporter: it's about 70 miles south. so it's a very quick drive. it doesn't take any time at all. and we were told by his brother that this gunman actually was a pfaff gambling which was part of the reason why he relocated here. in 2015, he purchased a two-story single family home here. a fairly new development here. it's a lot of newer homes. still several under construction in the community. so he hasn't lived here all that long but this was by all means a very quiet area, not somewhere where you would expect anything like this to be brewing. > katie beck in this town. we're going to be hearing so much about it in the coming days. thank you. we want to bring in two of our best law enforcement analysts joining us in new york. brill brat tin, former commissioner of the nypd, a counter-terrorism analyst and the executive chairman of tenao risk. did i get that right?

shawn henry is the former executive assistant director of the fbi. an nbc news contributor and president and chief security officer of crowd strike services. welcome to you both. commissioner, i have so many questions for you. one of the questions at the news conference from a reporter to the sheriff, how could this have happened? and the sheriff i thought correctly answered something like how could we have stopped this from happening. when you check in to a hotel, you could have a trunk, a case, a garment bag. you're allowed to have gun cases. there's a big gun show coming october 7th and 8th in las vegas. how do you stop something like this? >> the reality is you cannot. we've been very fortunate since 9/11 in the area of terrorism by our director from overseas who have stopped many events. but the reality is this could happen anywhere in america at any time. that's weaponry is available.

80% of these incidents are usually committed by people who have significant mental issues. we'll have to see what this gentleman's circumstances were. but the reality is that as much as you focus on trying to prevent, clearly what happened here in las vegas that the incredible training that the las vegas police department has obviously gone through that helped them respond so quickly and as much as the carnage was that we're seeing here, 5 dead, 500 injury fundamental they had not gotten up there as quickly as they had, it might have copied even worse. >> let's talk about the forensics. people who have watched local news or cop shows know those little markers on the ground sometimes one, two, three, four, five, they can i guess mark shell casings, rounds or impacts. we've had in the 5 hundreds now wounded. you can hear the rounds popping off on full automatic. how do you ever account for

everything in a place where there could be ricochets, there could be ricochets into a vehicle that has long gone. how do you ever put this case together? >> well, the reality is the case will never come together with that degree of totality in the sense of being able to account for every round. first thing in the room, it's quite likely most of those rounds are in the room. >> casings are there, yeah. >> even the number of victims it's quite likely these were military type rounds high powered. they could basically go through several people or ricochet. so they will try to reconstruct as much as they can, but they'll never be able to put it together totally. that would be impossible in something of this scale. >> sean, let's presume they made quick entry at his home. what's going on with his electronics. >> this is all about trying to determine what the motivation for this was. they'll be looking at his social

media foot print to the extent he had any, looking to exploit his cell phone, who has he been calling? what type of sites has he been looking at on his phone as well as any computers he may have. a complete examination of any paper documentation that might be laying around in his residence, any propers he previously had, his vehicles. this is about putting together all the pieces to try to get a full picture of who this man was what caused him to lash out and murder 58 people this afternoon or last night. >> what are we to make of this report that a lot of people saw on their devices an hour or two ago that isis is claiming responsibility for this. are they just trolling. > we were just talking about that before we came on air. the first time i've seen in recent past where isis has come out if again if it's a legitimate isis connected channel. there are a lot of chatter online.

they're not official isis communication channels. if in fact it is, they typically in the past where we've seen those hose have been inspired by isis, they've taken a couple of days before they've come out and said yes, had person was with us. in this particular case, if it is authorized we surmise perhaps isis is trying to remain relevant. there's been a lot of disruption in isis overseas and perhaps this is an opportunity for them to seize upon this and while this is on the world stage, the biggest mass shooting in u.s. history and take advantage of that opportunity to keep their name relevant and prominent. >> i just want to bring in one person to our conversation. da nit ta cohen is with university medical center of southern nevada. she's with us on the phone. da nit ta, i'm told you guys caught over 100 patients from this? >> that's correct, brian. we did receive 104 patients after the shooting last night. even for our level 1 trauma

center, that's quite a few patients. >> how much heads-up did you have that that kind of mass casualty event was coming to you? >> we are about three miles away from mandalay bay. it's just a quick drive document las vegas strip or onto the 15 freeway. we were getting calls that there was a mass casualty right after those first few shots were fired. the good news is because we're a level 1 trauma na center, our team was alreadies in house as they are around the clock. we already had a full team ready to start receiving those first patients. >> i imagine by the middle of the night you had people copping in off shift. >> absolutely. we operate on accordian staffing. as we needed more trauma surgeons, more critical care staff, they were coming in around the clock this morning to help out. >> how many arrived doa, how many arrived critical. >> all told we have 12 critical patients now. four patients passed away

unfortunately, still 12 critical which means they're in one of our many icu intensive care units receiving one-on-one nurse to patient medical care. >> these are all manner of gunshot wounds. >> correct. most of them are gunshot wounds. some of them injuries because they were trying to get out of a large and crowded area. because we're a trauma center and receive the most critically injured patients, we received mostly gunshot wound victims. >> thank you very much. it's been a perilous couple of hours for you, all first responders and those attached to them. bill bratton, as you go out with a detective pad and choose to triage or prioritize your interviews putting together the portrait of a now dead gunman, do you start with family doctor, do you start with obviously family but we've watched the

interview with the brother. he seems as genuinely mystified as anybody else. >> multiple going out through this had investigation. that's where the fbi, atf, the other agencies would come in with the sheriff, state police to reach out in as.directions as quickly as possible in a collaborative coordinated way. so that the information is being gathered is being brought back to a central location to be analyzed. but the scope of this, the suspect possibly, the only suspect is dead. simplifies it to some degree they're not seeking him. that helps to compress the investigation. so they have a, if you will, they have locations they're searching, the home anyplace else that he might have rented, storage space, et cetera. so they're fortunate in the sense they have a stationary set of environments to search and to investigate. and the totality in the 21st century of investigation is

expanded greatly by social media, searching every conceivable facebook. you name it, they're going to be scouring those types of sites. >> and we believe he had multiple long barrel weapons? >> reporting is now that there may have been up 0 ten weapons. by every account, everything we've seen thus far and what we've heard from law enforcement in that there was one shooter, but law enforcement is going to be very, very thorough and going to have to look at the totality of the evidence that they found. we keep seeing images of two windows that are shot out. there's speculation if he was going back and forth between two windows. again, nothing to suggest there's more than one shooter but law enforcement will be looking at that, not focused in solely on just one person but they'll be open to evidence that might indicate there could potentially be somebody else involved. >> everyone wants to know motive. everyone always wants to know motive as soon as possible. >> i think that's absolutely right. from a law enforcement perspective, the first thing in an incident like this is to stop

the shooter. the second thing is to determine if there's another threat out there. and by determining motive, you'll look to see if there were accomplices if there were others and by looking at motive, what's very important here is to determine what signs might have been seen. commissioner and i were talking earlier, as well, what do you learn from something like this and were there signs or indicators that people should be alert for in other situations that might indicate that somebody is moving from what appears to be a retired guy living a normal life to a mass murderer killing dozens and dozens of people. >> meantime all we seem to have is shocked friends and neighbors and a shocked brother who remembers that his brother had allergy problems in florida. wanted to move back to nevada and so he helped had his brother move backing to mesquite. our great thanks to shawn henry, erroll southers is going to join our conversation. the director of homegrown

violent extremism studies at the university of southern california. also happens to be a former fbi agent. member of the s.w.a.t. team there. erroll, you can free associate, tell us what came to mind when you first heard the facts of this case. >> well, brian, the first thing i thought about was the fact that he was alone in an elevated position. so it certainly suggested some degree of planning here. he went into the hotel as everyone knows. he moved at least ten rifles in there, several handguns which, of course he could have done over a period of time, several trips. i'm wondering whether or not he planned this and how far ahead and doing so selected that room or actually asked for it. the other thing that came to mind was the companion and the fact that she was out of the country. we want to know, did she leave the country at his will or was this a trip preplanned and how much does she know. as your previous guest mentioned we want to make sure most importantly this was a lone

attack, it wasn't a coordinated attack and that there isn't some other threat possibly out there. >> i heard an earlier report he had somehow used his girlfriend and the fact she was out of the country. how would that work? would he have used maybe her credit card i.d. to book the room, leave of a trail behind him. >> absolutely. he would have taken her identity, used her information in order to gain access 0 keep the possibility of people following him off of his trail. it does help. but what we want to know now is did she actually know this was going to happen? was she a conspirator in this plot or was she unknowing and did he take her id and use it as his own. it helped him cover his tracks. >> you think it's a pretty safe bet he requested the room he did. >> it's a pretty safe bet he was at an elevated position some 1700 feet away from the location of the concert. a weapon of that caliber, scope or not, when it's automatic, had

he free reinton spray those people down there innocently and he did. so it would seem there's a degree of planning that went in here and he knew what he was going to be doing. >> let's say he checked in with a bunch of gun cases as part of his luggage. would that raise eyebrows in las vegas? >> possibly not, brian. we have a gun show coming up here october 7th andth in las vegas. he could have walked those cases in individually over a period of time. it's not something that anybody's going to pay attention to even a bellman because those kinds of cases go in and out. they could anything in them, camera equipment or other kinds of equipment. not necessarily would have drawn suspicion but do i often wonder, what's the threshold for a bellhop when someone checking in that would suggest perhaps we should find out what this person is up to. >> we've been hearing a lot, i've been talking a lot about this interview with the brother.

you get to see in realtime the brother explaining the extent of the family's surprise. this interview now is with eric paddock outside his home in florida. >> it's like i said, find out who sold him the machine gun. there's no -- i'm -- i don't know what else to say. i just i mean it's his fault that he did this but i'd like to know where he found the machine gun because that's not something ha that's that easy to come by i assume. and he's not. he has no criminal record. he has nothing, nothing, nothing no affiliations with anything. there's nothing. so -- >> describe sort of what went through your head? >> i thought it was somebody joking. i mean, if all my cell phones and house phones didn't light up

at the same time with las vegas pd on them, i would have thought it was some dopey friend of mine making a joke. >> yeah. >> there's no -- there's just -- i mean we're working with the cops since the first thing trying to you know, trying to understand or you know, trying to make it do what we could. there's just nothing -- we've gotting in to give you. he was just a guy. >> again, the brother of the shooter in las vegas. bill brat tin, you've been a cop for a long time. what you make of his face, his demeanor, his reaction? >> the comment he was just a guy. that's almost going to be the headline tomorrow in the newspapers. he was just a guy. there's nothing out of the ordinary of this individual. you know moves to las vegas because he likes to gamble. he has allergies. my sister and her partner just moved in last year because of

her allergies and they like to gamble. the guy measurement door. so the motive here is going to be critically important to understand how there are lessons to be learned going forward. this is somebody that snapped for some reason, lived a normal life and something going on in his life recently. hopefully, the sheriff has been extraordinarily forthcoming, my sense is understanding that's the big question now. as soon as -- i can guarantee they'll be out there letting the rest of us know. that's the big question now to put people's minds at ease. some of the other characters will come out of the woodwork. the faster we know what motivated this individual, that will be the next stage to calm people down. >> can i ask you to make one more point. and that is about sounds. sonically, no matter where you

are at that concert, it could alltel a different story. it could present as if the gunman is over here or behind you or across the way. i think it took someone with some experience to realize to look up to see perhaps muzzle flashes and smoke and that broken window with such a reflective facade, any broken window breaks the visual plane but i am guessing at the height of it with hundreds of rounds being fired on full automatic, the sound of it was overwhelming. >> it would be overwhelming. but also disconcerting in the sense the woman you were talking to earlier, her comment that she thought that the gunman was right outside the warehouse they were standing at. fear does such incredible things. i'm intrigued by the fact that what is helping with this is this understanding that was equipped with a fully automatic weapon, the shots being fired.

congress is about to debate whether or not to authorize. >> silencers. >> silencers. amazing. almost guaranteed that congress also probably authorize that. can you imagine this going on last night if people were dying all around you and there was no sound? >> the reason silencers are illegal. >> we now have technology that allows you to detect where shots are coming from. new york has almost 80 square miles of the city covered with shot detectors. as you develop a skill, they want to take that skill away from law enforcement. insanity is the term used by one of your commentators and insanity it is. >> nbc news correspondent steve patterson has been working covering this. he is with us from las vegas. steve, from your vantage point which i've been watching all morning, what can you add what you see? >> reporter: well, brian, it is almost now 12 hours later since that hooting. the vegas strip is basically

back open. you can see traffic now flowing if you go into the casinos, the sloch machines are buzzing. pedestrians are roaming around. it seems like business as usual here but you'd be very wrong if you saw the look on people's faces if you talk to people in the crowd. to my left shoulder flags at half-staff above that new york new york casino with the famous statue of liberty mock-up right bob me. behind me though, police still holding that scene. they are deep into now this investigation, scouring the scene from where that horrific incident took place. we've been talking to people who have been leaving that scene obviously to survive that. it took something terrible. we spoke to a lot of people who had to use bodies scattered around them to sort of deflect what would be gunfire heading towards their direction, playing dead in some cases. other people running as fast as they could out of there. a lot of people had to make the split decision between hitting the deck and running out of

there. for those people, very dramatic. a lot of people hid in bushes and took cover in nearby hotel rooms and tried to wait it out without any information of when the shooting was starting or stopping or starting again. so a horrific scene fur a lot of people back there. police now again have pared down the operation here. now public safety is no longer an issue. they can focus now fully on the investigation with the great reporting we've been hearing this morning. brian? >> we should add something else. las vegas has been very crafty and very successful in its marketing campaigns over the years. they put a good deal of effort into trying to attract families and then the what happens in vegas stays in vegas ad campaign which everyone has committed to memory was to remind everybody that it's also a place where adults can have a lot of fun. upshot of that is, events like the concert last night. it has been a family resort with

a big difference obviously. and that's gambling and everything ha cops along with it. but this is the las vegas of modern times. >> reporter: it is the las vegas of modern times. so do you see that blend. we've seen a lot of families particularly in this area just this morning. but obviously, last night, you know, there were adults in largely we can identify frankly people coming from that scene because they had cowboy boots on. that's how we knew they were coming from that concert location. you're talking about 22,000 people in a very compacted space along the vegas strip not to mention the people that are always out rebelaling all all times of the night any day of the week here in las vegas. it is quite a blend of people here. what was eerie and what was awful is to see that rush of people as we were just arriving on scene shortly after 10:00 last night to see those people

colliding with the foot traffic that was already in place here causing even more panic leading to more false reporting and more rumors about shooters in different locations around the city. that led to a massive police presence. police robing in full riot gear with long rifles, clearing room to room to room up in these massive hotel complexes and ca is knows. making sure everybody was safe. thankfully they have identified what the problem was. and also the misreporting in this situation that those other scenes weren't anything but with so much panic and chaos on the ground, it's easy to see why that happened and why there was so much confusion here last night. >> steve patterson, thank you so much. i know you've been up for hours covering this already. steve patterson, one of our first forces on the ground. let's just recap what is known here. you see the horrible numbers at the box your screen. and if you've been with us, if

you've been watching for anytime at all, you've seen them creep up with every briefing. right now, 58 confirmed dead. over 500 people injured in this las vegas shooting. last night, around the time that it first happened, these horrible ghoulish videos started being posted on social media. and civilians could hear the sound. you could hear the sound that sounded like the sound track of the new ken burns series on vietnam. it sounded like a battlefield. the unmistakable sound of an automatic weapon. and then the awful pause as either a weapon was changed out or a clip of new ammunition was changed out. and then it would begin again. could you also just see and feel the fact that realization swept

over that crowd like a wave. people looking around at the dead and dying. people looking around at bits of pavement getting blown up with the incoming rounds. realizing they had to get out hoping to stay low, most of them not realizing exactly where this was coming from. some probably ran into danger as a result of that. and then as we've heard today, virtually every vehicle that was able and on the road commandeers to help the wound, the dying, the scared to get out of that region. jim cab gnaw is someone we always turn to during stories like this and sadly, way too much these days. retired atf special agent in charge, former hostage negotiator. these days he is an nbc news law enforcement analyst. good to see you, my friend.

horrible circumstances. what has been recurring in your mind given all your training and what we usually talk to you about, weapons, tactics, ammunition, forensics? >> yeah, all of those things coming into play, brian. absolutely a heartbreaking case. just disgusting really from every aspect. a lot of things come to mind. that's a lot of topics there. shooting down into this basically a box canyon the people are trapped in there and he's up on a high elevated position. there's mo doubt that in my mind that he planned that way being there three days before. bringing ten rifles in there and lots of ammunition. you know, we have 5 dead and a few hundred shot. and the witness that you had talked with earlier, people talking about the number of rounds and magazines, i mean, this guy might have fired a dozen magazines at 30 rounds each. you can do the math.

that's close to 400 rounds just there. he was firing for a long time. five or ten minutes. he was probably pumping four or 500 or more rounds into a box canyon where the people had no cover. they couldn't escape. and they didn't know where the rounds were coming from. that's part of the tragedy you have this whoa thing is how it unfurled. i don't think you can make any blame to anybody for that. certainly not the casino, not the venue, not the entertainers. nobody can be blamed for any of that. but those things have to be rethought in the future. the same mistake can't be made again. people can't be put in that position again. did he break out two windows it looks like for two shooting positions. he was probably moving between those because he was likely trapped in that room where he probably planned to die there. it was a suicide mass murder/suicide try in my view. and something changed in this guy's life. you know, we look for these big

reasons. sometimes those big reasons aren't there. the sniper that went on the holiday inn in wichita, kansas in '76. i used to be agent in charge of the wichita office in the early '80s and i remember going there a few years after that event had taken place and it was still fresh on law enforcement's mind. and that shooter you know, got up on the tallest building in kansas to murder people because he broke up with his girlfriend. and if it wasn't you know for wichita police who went up there and shot him with a shotgun, it probably would have been a carnage, as well. so sometimes the reason is not as big as we think. pete williams has reported op this guy's gambling debt today. a large or at least large transactions. we don't know if it's wings or losing. but large transactions in the casinos. those things can sometimes you know destroy people's lives financially. and they don't see a way out. and the issue does not have to

be that be big for people to do something as vulgar and horrible as this. >> that's what i'm always, i want to say, fascinated by when we cover stories like this, the difference between just a guy as he's being described by his brother and the man who perpetrated the largest mass killing, mass shooting in american history apparently. could have been a tweak, a sleight. a piece of mail, a piece of news he saw, something that brought him over the line to what our friends at the nypd call an edp. an emotionally deraked person or disturbed into right, there's things in life that change. you know, i don't think we put resilience in people like we used to years ago. this guy is 64. he should have some built in you would think. we think about our grandparents, our parents who had built-in resilience to the depression,

the world war. i mean they were tough. if they got knocked down, they got back up. if they got fired from a job, they got another job. they didn't go to the workplace and kill everyone. we have people that any setback is the end for them. and results in some kind of vicious attack sometimes. and i would be -- wouldn't be surprised if we see a large gambling loss here. and gambling cities sometimes do see suicides. if you don't look at mass shootings but look at suicides where there's gambling losses and gambling venues, that sometimes happens. people jump off the bridge in bill lox why i, mississippi when they lose everything or sometimes kill themselves in a casino. and they don't kill everybody else but they kill themselves. suicide is a part of this event. we have to see how that is tied in to the mass murder. maybe his love for guns the suicidal ideation and plan, the

execution of mass murder, his ability to get at an elevated platform with a box canyon below to people who are experiencing happiness in their lives and he is not. he has total advantage for ten minutes. he doesn't even have to be that accurate. he's just shooting into the field. and because he has so many rounds, the people have no cover or concealment, he is just, you know, wreaking havoc on them. just an awful, awful case. we need to find out if there was a trigger or something we could have done to stop it. >> no different in terms of motivation or desire to cause a mass casualty event as the people who strap bombs to their bodies or in their cars and either drive into a mass event or walk into one outside a stadium, inside a stadium. these are the times we're living in. these the iconic sign, welcome to fabulous las vegas, never neff.

we're going to assume so many millions of americans have been to las vegas. that's the southern end of the strip there. so, that means mccarran airport would be over on your right facing north. this was the route 91 harvest festival. widely advertised. great slate of entertainers. you see the pyramid, luxor casino, directly across from there. there is mandalay bay. the other distinction about mandalay bay, it's only hotel partly named mandalay bay. some well-healed visitors to las vegas stay at the four seasons. four seasons is part of the mandalay bay building. you just take a separate elevator bank to get there. i want to bring you up to date on something out of washington.

the white house has allowed members of the press pool still print reporters and television cameras, into record a handshake between the president and the prime minister of thailand. i'm told they answered questions on two different topics -- puerto rico and las vegas. here it is. >> tomorrow morning early i'll be leaving for puerto rico with the first lady. we are going to be seeing all of the first responders, the military, fema and, frankly, most importantly we'll see the people of puerto rico. we've been very -- mean, i think it's been amazing what's been done in a very short period of time in puerto rico. there's never been a piece of land that we've known that was so devastated. the bridges are down, the telecommunications was nonexistence. the electrical grid was totally

destroyed. we've gotten tremendous amounts of food and water and lots of other things. supplies, generally speaking, on the island. so, we're going to be going tomorrow morning first thing very early. we're also going to be meeting with governor of the u.s. virgin islands. he's going to probably because of the difficulty in getting into the virgin islands, he's probably going to meet us in puerto rico. and then very importantly also on wednesday morning we'll be leaving for las vegas, where we're going to be seeing the governor, who i just spoke to, the mayor, governor of the state, the mayor of las vegas, who i just spoke to, the sheriff who has done such a great job. the police department has done such a fantastic job in terms of the speed and we all very much appreciate it. we'll be going to puerto rico tomorrow. on wednesday we'll be going to, as you know, as i just said, we'll be going to las vegas on a

very, very sad -- it's a very sad moment for me, for everybody. for everyone, no matter where you are. no matter your thought process, this is a very, very sad day. we'll be doing that on wednesday. and we'll be spending the full day there and maybe longer than that. so, thank you very much, everybody. appreciate it. >> let's run a question by kristen welker, if we k our white house correspondent, who i believe is standing by to talk to us. let's be candid about this. this is a kind of moment of national emergency and it comes after a weekend where the man we just heard of was trolling, criticizing, demeaning people in puerto rico, the leadership in puerto rico, the people, who let's be clear, are the victims of a hurricane and looking to the mainland u.s., their fellow americans, for more aid. >> reporter: that's right,

brian. president trump heavily criticized, frankly, by a number of officials in puerto rico who say the response from the federal government to the aftermath of the hurricane hasn't been strong enough. this weekend, as you point out, was tweeting at the mayor of san juan saying effectively she wasn't doing a good enough job. he is going to try to turn the page to some extent on that by visiting puerto rico tomorrow. there was some speculation he would cancel the trip, given the horrific events in las vegas today, but as you just heard him say, he is still going to puerto rico and will, i would anticipate, try to strike a note of unity when he goes there and again on wednesday when he goes to las vegas. it was striking to me, sometimes as you know, this president in making comments after tragedies, has not struck a unified tone. today he did that. he was very restrained in terms of what he did.

he didn't get ahead of local law enforcement, officials on the ground in terms of the investigation unfoeltding. instead, he called for unity. he called this an act of pure evil. now, we've gotten some additions to the scheduling. there will be a press briefing by sarah huckabee sanders. we'll have a chance to ask her about all of this, not only his trip to puerto rico but the federal response to the shooting in las vegas. there's going to be a moment of silence. the president and first lady will be holding that at about 2:45 this afternoon. now, when the president was first greeting the prime minister of thailand, i can tell you that some reporters did shout out questions to him. peter alexander asking if this was a domestic act of terrorism. he didn't answer that. another reporter if this underscores the need for stiffer gun control measures. he didn't answer that either, brian. those are among the questions i anticipate we'll hear in the briefing and that the white

house is going to have to answer over the coming hours and days. the administration has been focused on what is happening in las vegas since the early morning hours. they have been in meetings. briefed the president about the ongoing developments. i anticipate that will continue throughout the day and evening. brian? >> thank you very much, kristen welker. fblg, bill bratton, former fndy commissioner reminded us in the last hour that some of the legislation being pushed is to legalize the use of silencers across our country. imagine the effect, the impact that would have had on the number, the list of dead and wounded in an attack like this where at least hearing the sound, being able to determine where it's coming from did help. cal perry has been looking for us at the aftermath of what was,

after all, a big, joyous and live event in the world of country music. a widely promoted, widely advertised concert. cal? >> this is a very large community within the united states. this is the route 91 harvest festival. this was the fourth year that this festival had been taking place. it's a three-day, three-night festival. there are two stages that are as a part of this festival. you have anywhere between 8 and 12 acts going on at any given time. two of the stars that i want to talk about, one of them you see there, jason aldean. he is a massive star within the country music community. i spoke to a singer/songwriter friend of mine in nashville on the phone a few minutes ago. she said, quote, he's the classic sweet spot of country music. it gives you an idea there of who would be drawn to this event. 22,000 people drawn to this

event. the majority of them on this third night. jason aldean was the headliner there. as you mentioned, of course, it's 2017. this is the digital age. we're getting instant video up. see some on your screen. i want you to listen to this video as jason aldean was playing at 9:00 p.m. at this festival. take a listen. the -- we don't have that audio. jason aldean putting his instagram a few minutes ago a message to his fan. the overwhelming reaction, of course, from the community being one of shock, being one of dismay. i mentioned the second star, luke combs, a younger country music star. he has two of the top 100 hits right now off his new album "hurricane." it's a very, very popular

country music album right now. it's a mainstream album in the united states. he spoke earlier on msnbc. he was actually on one of the side stages when the shooting happened. it gives you an idea, brian, so many of us are drawn to these music festivals because of the sounds, because of the sights. that then becomes a disadvantage when you have a horrible event like this gunfire because it's so difficult to determine the different sounds. take a listen to what luke combs said. ♪ >> so, you had performed earlier. you were not on the stage when this happened. where were you? >> i was on the stage. i was -- i had just walked up on the stage with a couple friends of mine, one being luke combs, another artist that played earlier. we were literally standing 50 feet away from where jason was on stage. all of of a sudden you heard what sounded -- you know, it was kind of the thing where it's like, is that gunfire? and it just