for that. and my apologies, we ran short on time. that does it for this hour. i will be back here at 6:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow. but our continuing coverage continues straight ahead in las vegas. "hardball with chris matthews" starts right now. . >> there was the pulse nightclub in orlando where 49 people were killed. virginia tech where 32 were. sandy hook elementary school where it was 27 people, including 20 children. now it's las vegas with 59 shot and killed. the list of mass shootings as we know is longer. a church meeting in charleston, a community college in roseburg, oregon. a high school in colorado, an office party in san bernardino. at the navy yard here in washington, a movie heater in colorado. at fort hood, texas and even a

congressional baseball practice over in virginia. we catalog each by the name of a city. and now there is las vegas. good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. the casualty numbers are staggering. at least 59 people killed. more than 500 injured out there. it's the deadliest mass shooting in u.s. history. for thousands of concertgoers last night in las vegas, it was a night of horror. [ gunshots ] >> shots fired from mandalay bay. there is many people down stage left. just be advised. >> we have multiple casualties, gsw. multiple casualties. >> there is bullets ricochetting like down by the bottom of our feet, because we all got on the bottom of the floor crawling out, rushing. because everybody is rushing out. >> we hid behind a building and we could hear hundreds of rounds

going off. about ten minutes later the police came and blocked off all the streets. just very overwhelming. and -- and very scary. >> my friend that was standing next to me got shot three times. so he went down. >> once i came out of the event, there were a lot of people just bleeding everywhere. it was -- didn't know where the blood was coming from, didn't know whose blood it was. >> well, the suspect in last night's rampage is 64-year-old retiree stephen paddock. his brother today said he had no mental illness. law enforcement said he was not in their radar prior to last night. well, paddock checked into the mandalay bay hotel in las vegas on the strip last thursday. his hotel room looked out on a music festival that attracted more than 22,000 people. and last night he used a hammer-like device to crack open his windows, and suddenly opened fire. at 10:08 p.m. local time, police responded to the reports of the shooting. by the time they located and stormed his hotel room more than one hour later, paddock had

killed himself. police say they found 16 guns in the room. the question everyone is asking today, why. nbc news senior national correspondent chris jansing who is out in las vegas. chris, thank you. you've been covering it all day. i guess tell us what you can now for the evening viewer about this tragedy that happened just about 24 hours ago. >> well, first of all, the numbers are absolutely staggering when you consider 59 people killed. official says that number could rise. when you have 527 people with a wide range of injuries, many of them gunshot wounds. at least 12 of them in critical condition at the trauma unit at the level 1 trauma hospital here in vegas. the chaos that ensued, people not knowing where the bullets were coming. from and the question as the sun came up why. no better answers. we learned more about the person himself, stephen paddock. his brother said he was someone who was successful. that doesn't fit. he didn't have a terror motive,

as we saw apparently in san bernardino. he didn't have a political motive, which was what we saw most recently, chris, in virginia with the shooting of steve scalise. wasn't an unhappy student as we saw columbine and virginia tech. this is a 64-year-old guy who was in a relationship, living in a retirement community. and he didn't seem to have any mental health history, as we saw in tucson when gabby giffords was shot. in fact, everyone that has been very close to him, like his brother, has said that they're absolutely flabbergasted. just a couple of weeks ago he called and checked on his mom who had lost power during hurricane irma. but he did have an arsenal on the 32nd floor of the mandalay bay, which is right behind where i am standing here. as you said, chris, he broke out those windows and opened fire. the stories of some of the 22,000 people who were in that crowd are absolutely harrowing. talking about running for their lives, talking about not knowing where those bullets were coming

from. hiding under trucks, waiting for moments when he would apparently stop and reload, and they would take off again. one person describing the gunfire as absolutely relentless. and then in a search of his home, which is in mesquite, 18 additional firearms. but also several thousand rounds of ammunition and explosives. we don't know why, but clearly he was ready. he was somebody, chris, who had the financial capability of preparing these arsenals and came here clearly to inflict maximum damage. even though that is clearly the case, what we have also seen is remarkable. the outpouring from the community. people waiting in line, five, six, seven hours to give blood. people donating hundreds of thousands of dollars. and local officials in that press conference that just ended, chris, saying that this is a resilient community, and that is a community that will come together.

but clearly, still waiting for answers, chris. >> thank you so much. nbc's chris jansing in las vegas. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams joins us right now. tell what's you know about stephen paddock. >> well, eknow a fair amount about him. but we don't know the answer to the big question, which is why did he want to come that hotel and commit mass murder. we know that he lived for a time in florida. he lived in texas. he lived in nevada in mesquite, which is about 80 miles away. he had a couple of properties in the state. his brother describes him as a multimillionaire. said that he was an accountant, worked for a while in the 1980s for a predecessor company of lockheed martin as an accountant, as an internal auditor, and then got more and more interested in real estate. managed some properties with his brother in texas. and then got more into real estate development. he liked to gamble. he had spent -- he has been a pretty high roller in these las

vegas casinos. places tens of thousands of dollars worth of bets in recent weeks. but why he did this, they simply have no clue. they know he has been acquiring weapons over the past several months. he has bought at gun stores in nevada, possibly outside the state as well. that part of nevada he is from, mesquite, is right on the border. so he could go to other states to try to buy weapons and have them sent back to the gun dealers in nevada 20 do it legally. but the big question here is how did he acquire automatic weapons. you've heard the sounds on the videos of these rapid shots. machine guns are illegal in the u.s. but it's possible to buy conventional semiautomatic weapons, meaning they fire every time you pull the trigger, but just one round and convert them. but that conversion process can make the weapons illegal. so the authorities are trying to figure out how he managed to get

his hands on these automatic weapons. he had some of those in the room. he had sniper rifles with scopes. so he clearly intended to have a great deal of firepower. they say when he checked into the hotel last thursday, he had all this arsenal with him in ten suitcases. so ten pieces of baggage. so nobody would have seen obviously that he was carrying in weapons to the hotel, chris. and they say that while he was there thursday, friday, saturday, sunday, and then into today, he didn't -- he didn't have them out in plain view that the hotel housekeeping staff had been in and out of his room and never noticed anything out of line. >> well, that's horrific. what about his father being in the ten most wanted list? what do you make of that? i don't believe in sort of inherited psychopathy. but what do you make of it? >> well, it's certainly something that they want to look

at. his father, benjamin hoskins paddock was arrested for robbing banks in phoenix in 1960, and then in 1968, while he was serving a 20-year sentence for the conviction on that, he scaped. that's what you're looking at now is his wanted poster from the fbi back in '68. then they described him on that poster, chris, down there at the bottom wrun it says caution as somebody who is diagnosed as psychopathic and has suicidal tendencies. and whether it means anything or not, after he -- escaped -- rather, after he robbed the bank in phoenix, he was arrested in las vegas. >> wow. >> so the paddocks have some connection to las vegas. they've been in and out of that area. they lived in arizona and nevada. so this is a part of the country that he is comfortable with. but what the father's background has anything to do with his current frame of mind, we just have no way of knowing.

because, chris, none of the usual indicators here, none of the electronic breadcrumbs seem to be in place. no social media. no note left behind. no at this point obvious internet conversations that we know of. none of these little indicators we tend to have found by this many hours after these past shootings. >> wow. great reporting, pete. we're going find out more as the days go on i'm sure. i'm joined right now by mick akers, a report were "the las vegas sun." that must be something of a lead that the father was on the most wanted list and was listed in the most wanted poster as psychopathic. >> definitely. although he has no background, really. it just adds a little something there. >> what do you know right now about this witnesses? what witnesses do we have on the 32nd floor where he was shooting from? >> yeah, i spoke with one gentleman from atlanta. he said he was about five rooms

away. he was asleep. between 10:00 and 10:15, he was awoken by hundreds of rounds of shots. he could smell the gunpowder. he immediately called the front desk. they said they're aware of an active shooter situation and to remain in his room. he said he hit the ground and waited it out. eventually metro police came up and escorteded him out of his room and down the 32 floors. >> let's get down the floors to the concert area. what do you know you can tell us about the casualty in this random 1200 feet away of a machine gunning of the crowd where he is just aiming the gun into the crowd and it's like a horrible lottery for those people. >> yeah. it just seemed like he was kind of playing a game. he would wait for them to get up and then start shooting. and once they would hit the ground, he would stop and then they would get up and he would start shooting again. a sister was 30-year-old and he was 20.

every time they would jump, she would jump on him. he had a longer life to live and more aspirations. she would gladly take the bullet for him. >> the shooter had some tripods. he also had a scope. you're telling me that he was a sniper. he could actually shoot personal targets from that distance? >> i'm not sure if he was able to do that. i know he was shooting at will. so i'm sure the 22,000 people there in attendance, it wasn't that hard for him to hit people even from that distance. >> thank you so much, mick akers for joining us. i'm joined now by brian hopkins. sea musician who was at l.a. night's concert. thank you. shortly after the shooting started hopkins and others ran for cover, eventually hiding in a large freeze attorney concert grounds. brian, tell us about your experience last night. >> it was -- it was kind of crazy. because when it happened, i wasn't sure what was going on. and we were right in front near the front of the stage.

and i heard bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. and people started rung. i grabbed a couple of girls right in front of me and my best friend, took off and got trampled. he got up and start eed running. and i took these people around the back side. i was backstage so i knew how to get there. and i ran down a wall, down the wall. and you could just hear bang bang bang bang bang happening. and you could hear it banging off the rooftop behind me and hitting around us. so i -- i don't know how -- i remember there was an opening where the entrance was to the right. and we ran into a fence. and i knew i could get over, but i couldn't get all the people that were screaming over. so i see this cooler. and when i opened it up, one of my friends was inside. and we just started throwing

people inside. it was about five feet off the ground. it was an actual freezer. and we locked ourselves in there. and we could hear -- we could hear the firing. and it was so cold inside. and the two young ladies that i was helping, they were amazing because they were calming down the one person and the guy who was throwing his fingers in front of the camera was banging on the walls. and we were trying to calm him down. and then i got up to open up the door. and there was more firing. so we shut the door. and i looked at my friend across the way. and i said everything is going to be okay. and he shook his head, like it's not. so we waited a couple of minutes. and i thought to myself, we're not going to die in here. and so i opened up -- he got up with me. we opened up the door. and someone had put a ramp up along the fence. and one guy jumped out. another guy jumps. and i asked the guy, the second guy to wait.

and i jumped down and i started helping the ladies get up over the fence until everyone was just trying to get over. and we were helping until the last two. and they were the two that i helped -- they stayed with me. and i couldn't get them over. so i turned to ron. and a police officer runs at me and screams "this way, this way." and i remember he is sweating and was just shaken up. but as soon as i get past him, he starts running to where all the noise is going for, all the bad is happening. he runs to it. and i'll never forget it. because then we were running down, and there was a body and body and another body. and the girls start to panic. and one of them started crying and wanted to call her dad. and i said keep running. and then we see a gentleman with a hole in his belly. and his friends trying to bring him to life.

and i started shaking, but it was keep moving, keep moving. and we run across the street. and there are people barricaded behind a bar. and the guy in the passenger seat was shot. and soy just told everybody run to the dark. just run. and people were following me. and we ran as far as we could run. but it still wasn't out of reach. it was like 50 yards. and two gentlemen on another side pull a gate so we can get me through and i could pull the gate open so everyone could get through this gate with us. and start running to hooters. it was terrifying and i don't -- i remember being calm during the whole thing. and as soon as i got home, i broke down. because i don't -- i should have -- part of me like oh, that fence, i can over that fence and i can get out of here. now and i ended up jumping in a cooler with everybody to try to keep them calm. but i didn't know if there were

shooters running around shooting and trying to get people quiet. i had no idea. and i lost my best friend. and i didn't know where he was. so i just stayed with these people. >> sir, i don't know you, but you have a good heart and you have great instincts for saving people. thank you so much, bryan hopkins for that incredible narration of the horror last night. >> thank you. >> joining us right now the nevada congresswoman adena titus. i've been watching. i hear automatic weaponry. i heard a machine gun. and i heard it relentless. it's a lot of clips, a lot of bananas. just kept firing and firing and firing. this guy goes into a hotel room with over a dozen weapons. what does it tell you about the state of las vegas and the law in las vegas? what should it be? what have we got here? >> well, i have to commend law enforcement here in las vegas, along with first responders and with the private security at mandalay bay. i don't know how you could have prevented this. they are looking at now las vegas being more of a hard

target than a soft target to see how we can improve security. but if you look at what all they did, they saved lives. as you heard mr. hopkins saying, running into the area that was full of people who were being harmed. >> well, what do you make of the elements at work here? i don't want to make this into a night of crusade on a night of horror where we should just sort of grieve and accept reality for a while. this guy zbees a hotel with weapons and tripods and scopes, everything with a clear intention to use them. he wasn't going to carry them home with him. is there anything we can do about stopping the act, this kind of act? >> well, you've got to remember, these were all in suitcases. he was staying for several days. he was in a sweet. the housekeeping staff had been in and out and not seen anything out of the way because nothing was visible. what do you do to check people's suitcases when you come in? that's something to look at. but i can tell you, we don't

want to make it political on this day of mourning, as you said. our office is trying to be of service and of solace. but have i stood for one too many times for a moment of silence on the floor of the house. >> i just wonder by picking up at least suitcases with guns in them, i would notice they were extra heavy. anyway, thank you. i like your patience with us tonight and your judgment. we'll get to this debate later. u.s. congresswoman dina titus of las vegas. still ahead, new details about the gunman himself, who he was, and what we know about his motive. boy, that's the question of the night, motive for last night's horror. those people were all alive this time yesterday. in fact, this time they were all alive and never expected this horror. they were going out to a concert. and that guy ended their lives. this one guy did it. we've got to find out why. our coverage continues after this.

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we're learning more about the suspect in last night's mass shooting. 64-year-old stephen craig paddock had been gambling significant amounts of money at las vegas's casinos over the past few weeks. today our nbc station in orlando caught up with the suspect's brother. here is what he said. >> our condolences to everyone. we just don't understand. it's like i said, an asteroid just fell out of the sky, and we have no reason, rhyme, rationale, excuse. there is just nothing. i mean, he has no criminal record. he has nothing, nothing, nothing. >> nbc news correspondent katie bank joins us from mesquite, nevada near the suspect's home. katie, thank you. what can we find out from his house? >> well, chris, we are actually in his community, which is a sleepy retirement community in

the desert. it's about 80 miles from las vegas. this is an upscale neighborhood where people largely come to relax. that's where his brother thought he was come to do when stephen paddock moved in here in 2015. what we have witnessed today is basically police executing a search warrant on his home, looking for any type of evidence, any time of clue that could solve the mystery behind the motive. why did he do it? what was the motivation? and what lies in that house that could potentially solve that for them. they have been in there throughout the day, trying to find anything that would give them those answers. late this afternoon, they finally wrapped up. and when they did come out, we learn they'd had left with 18 firearms, several thousand rounds of ammunition and explosive devices, among other things. they weren't giving us exact details on the other items that were taken out. we imagine they did some forensics on his computers, any type of communication that was on devices in that home. but we are told they have completed the execution of that

search warrant. and now they're going sift through that evidence and see if there is a motive in there somewhere. chris? >> you mean 18 weapons in addition to that almost that amount in the hotel room? is that right? >> correct. and we have also learned independently -- that is correct. we also learned independently that paddock bought several firearms from a gun store just two miles down the road from us here. the store owner told us the background checks were completed when he purchased those firearms, and he didn't see anything in paddock that would strike him as unfit to own a gun. >> well, they are ar-15s. thank you, cattie beck in mesqui mesquite, nevada. a gunman callously opened fire on thousands of people at a country music festival. in the aftermath, the big question is why did this guy do it. >> do you have any kind of motives we're looking at? >> no, ma'am. i can't get into the mind of a psychopath at this point. >> this is a classic wmd.

this is a weapon in a man of mass destruction. >> this is a crazed lunatic full of hate. we don't know much about his background. >> well, statistics we're told show the vegas gunman is 64 years old, was twice the age of the average mass shooter, whatever good that tells us. in interviews with his brother eric said that his brother was not a normal guy and frequently played high stakes video poker. we're getting kind of a disconnect there. not a normal guy and never been in any trouble. we'll see how that fixes together. i'm joined by clint van zandt, former fbi agent and msnbc contributor. clint and candice, what do you make of the combined accounts from the brother? one, sea law-abiding guy and never broke any rules, but he is not quite normal. what? how does that sound to you? >> well, to me, this guy is really an anomaly. so far we don't have any of the

indicators that we see in the past. we don't see money. we don't see health issues. we don't know about girlfriends. we know he is older than the average age. we know he lived in a retirement where he should have been drinking beer and watching baseball instead of accumulating 35 weapons. and ammonium nitrate, all you have to do is mix fuel oil and you have oklahoma city. whether this is two personalities, the one he showed his family and the rest of the world and one he kept hidden, that's still something we have to learn. >> candice, what do you make of the father? the father being on the most wanted list and described in the wanted posters as psychotic? >> well, he was described as psychopathic, which is different. basically, it's a personality disorder where someone just lax empathy. they never feel guilt or remorse for anything they do, which makes it easy for them to commit crimes and become a criminal. it's my understanding the father tried to run down a cop, which

is why he was on the ten most wanted list. >> i see. >> it does make me wonder. that happened in 1968. and offender, the shooter in las vegas was i think born in 1954-'55, what his home life was like. he is being raised by a criminal. we don't know all that much yet. in regards to the brother's contrary statements, chris, it's rare for families to come forward after something like this and say i knew something like this was going to happen. even if they did. >> boy, that's intelligent. let me get back to clint on that. what do you think? it sounds right to me. you don't want to incriminate yourself by saying i knew the guy was heading for trouble. >> well, you know, ted kaczynski's brother raised his hand and said i think there is a problem with my brother. when i was an fbi agent, i sought his father. his father was top ten most wanted fugitive.

and we were looking for guy in the 70s. when i heard that name, there was a distant bell. but again, i don't know that -- you made the comment earlier. i don't know if there is a connection there. we don't know how much influence the father had over him there is a lot of things, chris there is so much we don't know and so much we need to know. we got three things. we got a deal with the psychology of shooters, how to understand their motivation and get in front of them instead of behind them. we have to limit their access to guns. and we have to develop technology that's going help law enforcement react faster. it took an hour and five minutes. and the cops did the very best job the world can do. it still took them an hour and five minutes. what, for example, if they had a remote controlled plane, a little hand-held robol that you throw up in the air. it goes up to the 32nd floor and it says gee, there the guy is. we need to get ahead of these guys. >> yeah. >> in technology, in thinking and psychology. we can't be behind them all this

time. >> candice, what do you make of the -- i'm not calling this guy mcgyver or anything like that to make light of it. but he did have the capacity to go out and get the magazines. he had all the firepower. heed that scope. he had the tripod. he knew how to break open a window. he knew hotels don't have open windows anymore. office buildings don't either. he seemed to have the whole thing scoped out intelligently. and if he wanted to commit mass mayhem, he did it. so in terms of his effectiveness, does that tell you anything about his psychology, that he has a competence that is frightening to go with his bad psychology? >> well, it tells me something about his state of mind. for example, let's compare him to james holmes, the young colorado -- university of colorado student that went into the heater in aurore rachet. >> right. >> it turns out he was seriously mentally ill, as bad as it gets, psychotic, hearing voices,

delusional. and he did a lot of planning as well. but it certainly wasn't on the level that the las vegas shooter's planning was. one of the things that strikes me about what happened in las vegas is that this person, for 72 hours at least was able to plan things out, not apparently jump ahead. maybe he was waiting for sunday night because that was the big event. that was the end of the concert. the headliner was playing. that tells me he probably was not hearing voices, was not delusional. >> yeah. >> there is a famous or a notorious shooting back the '60s at the university of texas. charles whitman went up to the clock tower, and one by one killed 13 people before he was killed bay cop. and it turns out the autopsy revealed that he had an undiagnosed brain tumor. things like to, brain tumor, we know what chronic encephalopathy

can do. there may be something turn up in his physical and mental health that will help explain this madness. >> back then it was rarity, candice. now it's not anymore. thank you. mass shooting. clint van zandt, as always, thank you, sir, candice delong. coming up, law enforcement is being credited with saving many lives last night. we're going look at the police work that went into finding the shooter. our coverage continues after this. [bullfighting music] [burke] billy-goat ruffians. seen it. covered it. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

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welcome back to "hardball." our coverage of the deadly shooting in las vegas last night. with the las vegas metropolitan police were quick to mobilize amid reports of the shoot iing last night. the challenge was determining exactly where the shots were coming from. a police scanner captured the response among law enforcement officials as they tried to locate the shooter. >> coming from upstairs in the mandalay bay. upstairs in the mandalay bay, halfway up. i've seen the shots coming from mandalay bay. halfway up. >> we have an active shooter. we have an active shooter inside. >> i'm going to form a strike team. mandalay bay and the boulevard. i need five officers on me. >> be advised. it is automatic fire, fully automatic fire from an elevated position. take cover. >> fully automatic fire. everyone is saying that now. law enforcement made their way to the 32nd floor of the mandalay bay resort, closing in on the room where gunman stephen

paddock had massacred his victims from over a thousand feet away. let's listen to the moment they breached the door with explosives. >> we're going to sit on the suspect's door. i need everybody in the hallway to be aware of it and to get back. we need to pop this and see if we get any type of response from this guy. >> on the 32nd floor, explosive breach. all units move back. >> breach, breach, breach. >> that was the explosion opening the door on the 32nd floor to where the shooter was shooting from. according to sheriff joseph lombardo, they believe he killed himself before the room was breached. he said 15 guns were found inside and chemicals commonly used in explosives were found in his car. 18 additional firearms were also found at his home in mesquite. i'm joined by shawn henry, former executive assistant of the fbi, and david shepherd, served 24 years in the fbi. he is the former executive director of security for the

venetian resort hotel and casino. darrin, you start. i want to talk about the problem with these very high-rise hotels and the difficult in this case of locating the shooterment your thoughts. >> well, of course it's a difficult and arduous task when you have a high-rise. but one of the things that alerted law enforcement to the position of the suspect was the smoke detector. he shot -- he fired so many rounds while he was in the room on the 32nd floor, the smoke detectors ignited. and that's what triggered the response to the 32nd floor. but whenever you're trying to pursue a suspect in the high-rise, and take into consideration a place like new york city, it's always a very arduous task. oftentimes you may not want to use the elevators. you may want to use the stairs to go up. but once again, you need to be in great shape to get up 32 flights of stairs to encounter that assailant in that room. >> why wouldn't you want to use the elevator? >> because a host of things. the assailant can actually stop the elevator himself.

and you don't want something like that to occur. take into consideration when ever there is a fire, you never use the elevator. fear of a malfunction with that elevator. and the same premise holds true with law enforcement responding to an assailant in a place like this. >> shawn henry, i want to ask you about this use of the fact that a smoke alarm was the indicator. which was the shooter's room. and that means it seems to me, if you want to follow that out, if they didn't have the smoke alarm, he would have kept shooting because they wouldn't have known where to find the guy for a while. >> i think they eventually would have found him. >> eventually. >> there were some reports from some of the neighboring guests about loud noises that were coming out. the officers that were out in the venue who were looking up and were reporting where they were seeing bright lights. and then from there, you count up and you count over. and you can start to triangulate on what the shooter's position was. i mean law enforcement in this case, chris, were very, very active in saving people, getting them off to a safe place, as

well as identifying where the shooter was. so that tactical team could get up, make that explosive breach, get into that room, and to eliminate or neutralize the threat. >> what do you make of a guy -- he obviously modified his semiautomatic. he turned into it a machine gun, by all the reports you. ucan hear the rat-tat-tat. he knew he could shoot four football fields away. four football fields away with some accuracy. was that the elevation that he wanted? he got the right room he wanted on the corner, which was the closest to the concert area. so much thought and calculation went into this thing, it seems to me. your thoughts. >> he absolutely had a strategic position. and the elevation provided him with that distinct advantage. i don't think there is anything to him in terms of marksmanship. i think he was trying to put as many rounds possible down range to try and inflict as much harm

as he could. those .223 rounds travel at a high velocity, and they do travel for a very long distance. i think he was trying to put as much lead down into that space to try and kill as many people as possible. and he certainly did that, chris. >> david, tell us about vegas and how this fits with your experience throughout with security for these hotels. because here you got protect people from somebody in the hotel. this isn't the usual guy stealing somebody's diamonds. this is a guy throughout with automatic weapon effectively shooting out the window. and knowing that he could break the window with a hammer, with whatever he used, a hammer-like object, whatever he had. this guy had it figured. >> he planned well from the beginning. this is something that a lot of the active shooters do. and what you're looking at is a person that wanted to do that. he planned. he looked for closest area. he planned it all out as much as he could. the security chiefs, we deal really close with the metropolitan police. we do a lot of training with them. we discuss different scenarios. we do the same thing for the

southern nevada counterterrorism fusion center to look at different type of events. and it's constantly going on. >> is there a lot of despondency about there? i'm sure there. vegas was built on people losing, not winning. everybody keeps talking back east here about how tens of thousands of dollars he lost in the last several days. my hunch is he brought those guns with him to do something with those guns. he didn't just somehow conjure up guns after he lost a few days at the gaming table. thinking wasn't -- this was a planned attack. he checked in on the 28th. so he had some time to coordinate his assault or his offensive against these individuals. but just going back to what you mentioned in terms of the aim, it was like shooting ducks in a barrel. we have 22,000 people right in front of him. it's the equivalent of throwing a bowl into the ocean. unfortunately, when you look at the weaponry that he used in this, it kind of remind me. i'm an ex-army officer. and it reminded me of my

training on the firing line. it was either a belt fed or a weapon that had a drum magazine. because there were numerous rounds that came in continuous succession. we only had three breaks. we had hundreds of rounds that were fired at these individuals. so there was no marksmanship deployed here. >> darrin, what do you make of this testimony we got from a live witness, bryan hopkins, that this guy was picking them off. they would get up. he would shout shoot them when they got up. they would get down, he would stop. he said he was shooting, he was sniepg. >> the witness or the person that shot is in the state of fear. so i can understand them looking at it from that perspective. but the truth of the matter is we just have a person firing aimlessly. he is destined to hit hundreds of people. >> okay. >> we look at three football fields. that's nothing when we look at a .223 or a .30-06 rifle. >> thank you so much. david shepherd, darrin porcher i just spoke with and shawn henry.

coming up, harrowing witness accounts continue following last night's shooting. we speak to one man who was just a few feet from the stage when the gunfire rang out. our coverage continues after this. it's called broccoli of cheddar soup.ve? i loved it, but it was like, "honey, i am way too decadent for you!" so i came up with o, that's good! a new line of comfort soups with a nutritious twist. we replaced a hunk of this... with velvety butternut squash. if i hadn't told you, you wouldn't know. comfort food that loves you back. o... mmm ...that's good!

as you mentioned earlier, the death toll from last night's mass shooting now stands at 59 dead. 527 injured. do you believe it? 527 people injured in addition to the deaths. let's good the steve patterson is in las vegas. steve, give us the latest we have missed so far that we haven't done yet. >> yeah, chris, well, look. it's nearly 20 hours since that fatal shooting, which is just in the scene behind the police blockade that is behind me. what i can tell you is we were here almost immediately after that shooting started ringing

out in this area. this was, if you can believe it, this was the staging area for police, emts, for fire crews, for everybody that was a first responder on that scene. it was completely littered with squad cars, mostly with units and guys in full riot gear and long guns going from hotel to hotel to hotel doing sweeps. as we arrived onscene, there was a crowd of people rushing our way because of the gunfire that was ensuing behind them. as we went in, we heard victim stories. as we've been hearing all day. we've been hearing about a woman that used the bodies around her to play dead, to escape the fire. we heard about a woman who hid in a bush to escape that gunfire. and people who were shepherding those folks from the scene in their cars away from the scene to safety. so tremendous stories of survival here on scene, chris. >> you're there for the scene. thank you, steve patterson with that great report in las vegas. one of the witnesses to last night's mayhem joins us by phone. buzz brainard is host of "the

highway" on xm radio. buzz, tell me about what you saw, what you felt, what you went through. >> well, we were in the artist tent, which is right off the stage. and it was our last -- our last performance of the three-day festival. and we'd been here for three days, and everybody was in a good mood celebrating. and we heard the bam bam bam bam bam. i think everybody just thought it was fireworks. and i heard that from everybody. and it happened again. people stepped out of the tent. and somebody said it might be some of the power lines above us. and then the third time we realized it was gunfire. and so we were lucky because we were in the backstage area where there was a lot of equipment and there was some tour buses. we immediately dove under the tour buses for cover. and the bullets were coming down you. could see them hitting the dirt in front of you. and the dirt would shoot up in your face. we stayed there for a while. and then security decide it was time for us all to leave. so we all got to run, everybody

backstage. and our quickest exit was right over the stage, running straight away from mandalay bay. and we joined -- we joined the masses of people that were

president trump called last night's shooting in las vegas an act of pure evil. in the past the president has said that mass shootings would be less deadly if more people carried guns to protect themselves. the white house lowered its flag to half-mast today and held a moment of silence on the south lawn there is the flag flying there. president trump is planning on going to las vegas on wednesday after traveling as planned to

puerto rico tomorrow. i'm joined right now by nbc's hallie jackson at the white house. so what are the president's plans in terms of reacting to this horror? >> so i think you've seen some of it already, chris. you've seen the moment of silence. you've seen the president scramble the morning plans that he had. he was supposed to hold a deregulation event. instead he came out and delivered that speech. as you noted, calling what happened in las vegas an act of pure evil. this speech was more spiritual in tone than what we've heard from the president before. he used language about scripture, language about faith that he hasn't always talked about after moments like these. we then saw the president add to his schedule what we're watching right now, which is that moment of silence with the first lady, the vice president and the vice president's wife as well. and then sarah huckabee sanders said now is not the time to be talking about gun control, which here in washington some lawmakers, particularly democrats do want to have the conversation about. >> well, we have to wonder when we do have a conversation about it, if not now. anyway, nbc's hallie jackson at

the white house. incredible numbers injured in las vegas. officials are calling for blood donations. i'm joined now by nbc's jo ling kent who is at a blood drive in las vegas. jo ling? >> this line stretches about 150 yards. people have been standing here five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten hours. what they want to do is donate blood because the city has called for it. obviously there are 500 folks in the hospital injured who need that but what you see here is an outpouring of community support. it's a really remarkable feeling. even though this tragedy has hit las vegas so hard you, have you the public coming together in a way that a lot of people here say they've never seen before. and so as a result, you have families bringing groceries, donating food. big companies, small bake risks all coming out to make sure everyone is hydrated, that they're eating, that they're able to wait in line. and all the way around here, you see there are folks lined up, and they are all here to donate blood, chris. and they're not going to close down until they can't take

anymore. >> it's so great to see that. thank you, jo ling kent bring us something to feel good about in this horror. you can don't nate blood with united blood services. that's united blood services at 6930 west charleston in l. it's 601 whitney ranch drive in henderson. that's another place. that's "hardball" right now. thanks for being with us. our coverage continues right now from las vegas with "all in with chris hayes." >> good evening from las vegas. i'm chris hayes. and behind me is the mandalay bay hotel and casino where less than 24 hours ago, a gunman rained down bullets on a crowd of 22,000 people attending a country music festival. the massacre carried out from the 32nd floor of a vegas hotel is now the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in american history, leaving at least 59 people dead and over 500 wounded. in