times has them outgunned. how can we expect any of this to get better when we have put no gun control laws into place or dealt with the people doing this in most cases. >> our breaking news continues now with ali velshi who was the first person to cover this story for our network. you are in very good hands. >> not an accolade anybody wants. thanks for your great coverage. good evening i'm ali velshi in new york. we are covering breaking news in annapolis maryland where there are at least five confirmed fatalities and several others are "grizzlies live" lee injured of a a gunman opened fire at the "capital gazette" newspaper. the shooter is alive, currently being interviewed by police. multiple sources tell nbc news the suspect is believed to be a white male who was armed with a shotgun. police wouldn't comment on a positive motive although they noted they are actively investigating the matter. the maryland governor was asked

if it has anything to to with the recent primary elections that occurred in maryland on tuesday. he said he doesn't think there is any connection. we got harrowing accounts from a reporter at the "capital gazette" who was apparently inside the newsroom under his desk after the shooter opened fire. phil davis is a crime reporter for the paper. he tweet in addition a gunman shot slew the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees. he added there is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you are under your desk, and then hear the gunman reload. police say they expect to brief reporters again shortly. we will of course bring you that. within the last few minutes the president tweeted he has been briefed on the situation and his thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. let's go now to nbc news investigations reporter tom winter, who has been covering this story since it first broke. what's the latest? >> so i'm just looking here at my phone. i want to read a statement from the deputy commissioner for counter-terrorism and intelligence for the n.y.p.d.

john miller. the n.y.p.d. is monitoring reports of ab active shooter at the cc media organization in annapolis maryland. the n.y.p.d. deployed counter-tichl teams to media organizations in and around new york city. these developments are not based on specific threat information but rather out of an abundance of caution. it has become a standard practice to shift resources strategically during active shooter or terrorist events. that's n.y.p.d. deputy commissioner for counter-terrorism and intelligence john miller. so what we know from the shooting scene, we are hearing in from multiple law enforcement officials speaking to my and jonathan dienst that have been briefed on the investigation. the suspect, as soon as he was encountered by first responders proceeded to immediately surrender to them and that the suspect as you mentioned is in fact being questioned. we don't have an identity on that suspect. we know that he used a shotgun based on people that have been

briefed on this investigation. in addition to that, the bomb squad -- this is kind of standard practice a little bit routine -- he had some sort of a package or perhaps a backpack on him. they are going the take a look at that now just to make sure that there is no actual device inside of there that may cause harm as they begin to sweep and go through this scene that happened apparently at the newspaper there in annapolis maryland. based on reports we have gotten from reporters who were there at the time of the shooting. we know the suspect is a white male, believed to be on the younger side, in his 20s or 30s. that's most of the information that we have that we feel that we can bring to you about him at this time. >> sure. i'm going to stretch a piece of that information just to be clear, top. we put something out there. i want to address this a little bit. the police said they are not releasing information about a motive. we don't know if they have got a motive but there is talk about the fact as it would be that this was a media organization that was targeted. we don't know whether that had

anything to do with this attack but it is something list are considering? >> i think it's safe to say any time you have an attack at media company police are going to look into no matter the environment, no matter the rhetoric that may be coming from anybody, police are going to look at is this somebody that wanted to make a statement? is this somebody that had a specific message that they wanted to deliver? in addition, we should mention that we have had an incident in the last three or four years here where a television reporter at a cbs affiliate was shot and killed. but that had to do more with a workplace dispute. that was somebody who can significant issues, it appeared, based on court documents we saw at that time with his workplace environment. and so that was in a situation where any sort of media person was targeted because of any sort of identifiology or anything that that person reported. we want to be cautious to wait until we hear from authorities

what this motive might have been for this shooting. it could have been a domestic incident. although based upon the amount of people injured and killed -- i'm told at least five people have been sent to the hospital. and at least five have been killed. when we look at numbers that here and we see somebody who was based upon witness reports who was just kind of firing with that shotgun it appears this was a bigger shooting. >> it's not even three hours since this first happened. initially as you and i always say these initial reports are inaccurate but we are beginning to piece this together. tom stay with us. this was the "capital gazette." the reporter in that room, phil davis tweeted out earlier, a single shooter shot multiple people at my office some of whom are dead. at the time we saw that tweet we were not able to confirm that information. we now know as tom said at least five people are dead. many more are gravely injured. we don't know what many more

means. we don't know how many others there. terrance smith joins us, a contributor to the "capital gazette." let me ask you what you know about the situation? terrance? >> yes. go ahead. >> what do you know about the situation? >> well, all i can really add to what your good reporters have already said is that there were initially four fatalities in the shooting. and then a fifth died of his or her injuries. i can tell you that it is the most vulnerable setting you could possibly imagine. a modern office building, four stories high, with other businesses. you go into an entrance. completely open. you turn right and left into the capital's offices. you pass through simple glass doors. and there is a receptionist desk that is sometimes manned.

often not. and you look out, and here is a big newsroom, big, open newsroom with glass windows all around, on three sides, on the ground floor. so it couldn't be more open or vulnerable. there is not a shred of security. nor has there been any sugg of the need for it. >> i think that's interesting point terrance because you call it vulnerable and after we hear of a shooting like this it becomes obvious to us, why wouldn't there have been a more hardened environment? but that's what we think of everything, these cars that ram people and kill people in the streets we then they of hardening it. it vulnerable by all standards or vulnerable in 2018 when people shoot offices up? >> exactly. all i'm trying to say is it is a very open scene and a man

with a shotgun could do a very lot of damage with very little effort. there is an ironry that in terms of preparation the city of annapolis under mayor buckley held an active shooter drill in downtown annapolis just the other day, and the capital put it on page one. you had a picture of the mayor and police people walking up main street as part of the active shooter drill. and that was just a few days ago. was that a suggestion? did that put something in somebody's mind? somebody's twisted mind? >> let me ask you about the publication. you are a long time reporter, a contributing writer to the "capital gazette." is there anything about the "capital gazette" that's unusual? it is a community newspaper? does it focus on, you know, the state house is in annapolis. is it uniquely political or is

it a newspaper like any other? >> it is both, really. it is uniquely political because the editor is very keen on local politics. and it is of keen. >> -- and it is of keen interest because it is the state capital. yes our political climb has coorsened as has everything else in the age of trump. but it is not notably angry. >> uh-huh. >> i don't think there is any evidence to suggest that this is related to the primary that we had just two days ago. >> right. the governor was asked about that and he shares you view on that. >> the newspaper is quite interesting, ali. it's one of the old nest the united states. >> yep. >> and it is profitable. imagine that. and it is the voice of the community. it is -- yeah. it covers the town.

so it's into every dispute, but there are none that are you know, so angry today that might justify anything like this. >> this is not a town, annapolis -- i heard this in sutherland springs texas, i heard it in parkland, florida, when i went there. the response is this is not something we are familiar with, this is not something we were expecting to happen here. annapolis a city with a great deal of history now gets to add another piece to its history in which it is another city in which we are covering a mass shooting. what's the response you have been able to glean from your fellow citizens in annapolis? >> it is extraordinary shock. annapolis was founded in 1649. it is an old system it has about 40,000 residents within the tightly drawn city lines. but i would a1250 to 200,000 in the immediate area around it. so it's not that small. but it is normally a very safe

place. >> yep. >> i think ten or 12 homicides a year is considered -- >> a lot. >> a very large number. >> let me ask you something, just to be clear. the "capital gazette" is owned by the same group that owns the baltimore sun. i think it's the same group that runs the company tal daily, the maryland gazette, the -- the capital daily, the maryland gazette. the capital style, they are all done out of that office area; is that correct? >> yes, there are satellite offices but this is the principle office. i'm told police staked out the baltimore sun offices in baltimore. "the baltimore sun" media group owns the capital and a number of other papers. it, too, is owned by the tribune company out of chicago. >> we know from "the baltimore sun" there is a police presence there now. there is nothing indicating there is a unique threat at the "baltimore sun." as tom winter said in parts of

the country, including new york city police protection is now being deployed to media organizations in the event there is some connection between this shooting and the targeting of journalists. terrance thank you so much -- >> right, i heard my only colleague john miller confirming that. >> he did say it's out of an abundance of caution. there is no unique evidence that that is the case. there is a growing hostility toward the media in this country, there is no question about that. there was a call from a right wing activist yesterday to gun down journalists but we do not know of any connection between those things. but there is protection. to your point about it being a vulnerable newsroom at least tonight there are some newsrooms in america that will be marginally less vulnerable we would hope. thank you for joining us. i want to invite congressman anthony brown who represents the district where this shooting happened. congressman we have had a good amount of information in the past ten or 12 minutes about this. we know that five are dead,

others are gravely injuries. do you have other information on this? >> no, ali, i don't have other information than what's already been reported. i do want to say, like others who have been on your program and have spoken publicly first and foremost, my thoughts and prayers go out to those who have lost loved ones, and those who are recovering or will begin their long recovery from this. it is a very tragic day in naerld and america. -- in maryland and america. >> congressman, what do you know about the response here? we have spoken -- it is a big response. unwlu unusually large. i cuffed a lot of shootings. very quickly after the call came in, 2:43, when ems said the call come in. we had responses from etf, from maryland police, from anne argeds county police department, thely responders and the first responders. we know the fbi is involved now.

this is the kind of experience where when you have a shooting everyone reports to the scene and you determine who is in charge afterwards. >> right. i have spoken with steve shoe. he is pleased with the response not just the fact that first respond prers there within 60 to 90 seconds. but since then, as you stated the response from the maryland police, the fbi, atf, ann argeds county. the transit authority. and as county executive shoe explained to me, currently the anne argeds police are in charge of the scene and as of now of the investigation. just want to bring you up to speed with the information that was relayed to us by the n.y.p.d. thats deployed counter-terrorism teams to media organizations in and around the city stating these deployments are not based on a specific threat but out of an abundance of caution until we

learn the threat and the motives behind the maryland shooting. steve, they tolds they continue to interview the suspect. it's important to have a suspect to interview in hopes that they can glean motive. really the conversation has shifted in the last several months since the park lds shooting. we understand there are various motives for these things. we understand that our police are getting better at responding to them. we understand we are getting better at covering them. we understand that people have drills. annapolis city had an active shooter drill just the other day. ultimately, the problem does seem to remain too many people with too many guns who are able to do too many bad things with them. >> ali, i would say that, you know, very important for this investigation to unfold and for information to be made available to the public. because you know, while i have been a big proponent of more gun regulations because i think that

is part of addressing the problem, right now we don't know motive. we don't know what type of weapon was used. we don't know the circumstances under which the weapon was acquired by the shooter. so i certainly would caution all of us, let's understand what we have here as we are are all, i'm sure, prepared to continue the conversation, the very important conversation, that need to be followed by action, which are those steps to reduce guns in our community. but i think it's very important to understand what do we have here before we start reaching conclusions or making arguments about what the best approach is. >> and the police have been very cautious about saying we want to be accurate. they have promised us we will have another press conference very, very quickly. but to our point, sir, we do not know anything about a motive or -- we don't have a whole lot of details about the type of weapon. we know it was a shotgun. so the police are promising us a

response. they tend to be generally speaking very good about letting people know it is in their interests to do so. thank you mr. brown. our thoughts are with your constituents tonight. i want to go to jim cavanaugh, former atf who was with me when we broke the news just over a couple of hours ago. jim, in those few hours we have learned a number of things. the police have not -- they specifically didn't want to release the information on the weapon, which i found interesting because clearly they know what the weapon is at this point. they said it is a shotgun. they didn't say more. do you have any clue why they wouldn't say more? >> i think they are just being cautious ali. it's hard to read too much into them telling us it is a shotgun. look, in columbine they used two sawed off shotguns. at the slaughter at the navy yard the killer used a shotgun and skilled 12 "people." in aurora colorado the shooter opened up with a technical shotgun. they are used in two out of

three of these mass killings. nobody should be surprised. i think the salient facts here that are important to realize is one the fast response. we are talking about a couple of minutes. the witness who you interviewed early yeier talking about the kr reloading. so he fired into the window, and he reloaded. that tells me he is likely carrying a shotgun, that's more of a normal style pump shotgun, maybe six to eight rounds. and patrol was so fast arriving this guy is arriving of maybe they caught him between a reload because he would have to manually reload a pump shotgun. there are shotguns that carry 40 rounds, 16, 20 rounds. there are some exotic round. but most of the shotguns are going to carry six to eight round. he was reloading, by a witness and patrol response was fast. so they might have caught him in

a reload. >> remarkably fast. the police didn't confirm exactly but he said it was a minute to a minute and a and a half. this was something you and i talked about earlier. these days in active shooting situations, many of which you and i have been unfortunate to have been on live tv to cover. the first response is a patrol officer, pa local police officer. it's not atf, it's not even a s.w.a.t. team. >> no. it's patrol. i mean you get the call on the radio, man with a gun, shooting, and you know, you are responding. you get time to get your long gun, or your tactical shotgun out of the car. you get another officer and in the active shooting drills you are going in to engage the shooter. i worked with anne arundel police. they are a very good force. they showed it today.

they stopped other killing. the other thing, ali there could be a dead boyd at this guy's house. oftentimes these guys kill a loved one, a spouse a significant other and then go on a rampage. the commander has to set the major lead categories. that's what the ann arundel categories. this guy is being interviewed. they know why he did it, if it's domestic, work-related, if it's revepgs or if it's targeting journalism. they need to tell that if it is. >> i want to talk about that. but i need to put out information. the news that five people were dead is something that came sort of at the end of the press release. it seemed a little unusual the way it was presented. at this point the police have now said the number is not accurate. the number of people dead is not

accurate. we do not know where it is higher or lower. all the police have said is that the number of dead, the five that we have been reporting, is not accurate. it is a number we got from the police. we generally want to be very cautious about this. jim, you and i were on tv earlier. there were all sorts of reports about how many people are dead. you and i have gone through this with parkland. but we now know that that number is not accurate. at the end of the 3:00 show i said, jim -- up remember i said i apologize for any information that we don't have correct. and often the one thing we know with these things is there is information that isn't connect. but this is information we got from the police. it seemed to have come out inadvertently or like it wasn't planned. why is it difficult to find out how many people were killed and why are the police not sure about it or not able to convey that information? >> it's the instantaneous fog of war. when you are at the command desk the stuff is coming in at you

real quick. you might have a sergeant at one location, an algt in charge at another. the hospital is reporting one thing, the fire department another. you are trying to nail it down. you are trying to confirm and reconfirm. journalists know how that works. that's what they are trying the do. there is fog in the beginning. also, shotguns put out lots and lots of pellets. if this guy could reload a couple of times and he is fraging these taufs offices with hundreds had of pelts you could have a lot of woundland people. one pelt can kill you. i have had shotgun murders where one pelt of the dozens in the shell hit the victim and killed them. one pelt. you could have a lot of wounded. they don't look real bad but one of those pelts can be fatal. >> jim stand by. i want to bring in clint watts, former fbi special agent.

he was with us from the beginning he was supposed to be on the show for something unrelated and this happened. you and i talked about whether or not this might be a targeted killing of journalists. we don't have that information right now. what we do know is that the n.y.p.d. deployed kou counter-terrorism units to media organizations in new york. the president of the united states has said the media is the enemy. asked about the president's criticism now, just on his way back from wisconsin the president and his staff, sarah huckabee sanders, said the president and his staff do not believe violence is acceptable in any situation, and we stand by that. but, clint, let's just call a spade a spade. the press is under some pressure. and for the moment, you can't put out of your mind the fact that this was a shooting at a newspaper. i don't know what i wish it to be. i don't want it to be a domestic situation. i don't want it to be somebody

with a grudge against their boss. but we cannot discount the idea that there may be a target of journalists. >> yeah it is a troubling time in america. we have had media personalities just in the last week in a have essentially advocated they would like to see vigilantes going at journalists. it's really the first time i think we have had to seriously consider this in our own country. we saw with it terrorists. we saw it with the "charlie hebdo" attack in paris france. and comedy central at one point was slened by extremists. this is a whole new era. it has brought in this new aspect to it where we would traditionally look is this workplace violence? a personal grudge. >> added to the mix. >> now we have to consider whether it is something specifically targeting media and media outlets. >> it is an entirely new perspective. >> it is. it's to the one we enjoy having to cover.

senator ben carlin joins us from maryland. our thoughts are with you and your constituents. tell us what you know. >> first of all, this is so tragic. the annapolis gazette is a local paper for annapolis, for the region. there is lot of pride in the community in this paper. it's tragic happening anywhere. i know peep that work there. i'm extremely concerned. we know five people lost their lives. we know others are at risk that are seriously injured. the shooter is in custody. the police interrupted the shooter, as we understand. he was apprehended. he has not been hurt, the shooter. so hopefully we will get more information. we don't know the motive. he used a shotgun. he blasted his way into the office. this is just tragic. under any circumstances. and obviously we are extremely concerned about those who are critically injured and hope we can finds out more information just why this happened.

>> i was speaking with congressman anthony brown a little bit earlier. he cautions until we know what the situation is we have to be careful not to speculate too much and not too move too far ahead. but senator, americans regardless of what the motive is, the motive is always a little bit different. the fact that it is unbelievable the list that was give to me at 3:00 this afternoon of mass shootings this year in america. it reads like a joke. because it can't be serious that there have been that many mass shootings in america. at some point we do have to think about this as a nation. parkland has forced us to do some of it. what else do we do? >> we know that in this country, the united states, we are much more likely to be victims of gun violence than in the other industrial nations of the world. you are absolutely right. we have got to understand this. there is sensible things we can do for gun safety that we should have done long before now, including background checks and getting rid of assault type of

private ownership of weapons. that might not have had any impact on this particular tragedy but we know it would have helped had. we have got to come together as a nation and figure out what's being on here. this is unacceptable under any circumstances and it's heart breaking and tragic. >> senator, thank you for joining us. please less us know if you get more information on this. senator ben cashedin of maryland joiningly from the capital. joining me on the phone, the mayor of annapolis, zbafin buckley. thank you for joining us. i couldn't believe you when i heard you at the press conference discussing that early whier this week, tuesday, you were participating in an active shooter drill? >> that's right. we had a drill at one of the local high schools. it was a coordinated evident. it's not something you actually think you are doing to be implementing. it was shocking.

i was pulled out of a conference. it was an amazing response by all the municipalities. >> what can you tell us. i know you have as many questions, and the people of annapolis have a lot of questions. this is on national tv it is a national scourge that we continue to cover mass shootings, but for annapolis this is even bigger. >> yau. we kind of accept this as the new normal. we have to look at what is motivating people to do this. this is a small town. this newspaper, we know those journalises. they are our friends. so when this stuff happens, it is a shocking turn of events. >> what do you do in annapolis on a night like this? we have discussed the fact that in new york city and other places, the police are deploying protection to media organizations. but we don't -- unless you have more information, we don't really know yet enough about the motivation. are there things going none annapolis to make people feel a little safer tonight.

? >> we have an excellent emergency response team. we have, you know, good resources. sometimes some of this stuff seems like it's impossible to protect against. i don't know the details yesterday. we are still finding out information. but i'm here on the scene. there are over 100 -- over 100 vehicles here of emergency responders here. >> yeah. >> you can see that we couldn't have done more than we did. i feel so grateful that city officers got onto the scene within 60 seconds. it could have been worse than what it was. >> that's kind of remarkable. because the scourge of mass shooters and active shooters in america is first and foremost -- i was talking to senator cardin about it and i can talk to the atf and i can talk to everyone about it, ultimately it is the

first responder, the police patrol officer, the ems and the fire department who have to rush to the scene with no other information except for the fact there is an active shooter and they rush head long into these things. these police did so in under two minutes. we are not sure of the exact time. it might have been a minute or a minute and a half. they rushed head long into this thing. these are people who are in remarkable danger. the rest of us might circumstantially be killed in these instances. these police run towards them. >> it's incredible. they people run towards tanger as we run for safety. i can't speak highly enough of them and the bravery that was shown by these guys. they are going to go home tonight. they are all still in the field here still trying to help with the investigation. i mean, you must go home and just hug your kids and just be grateful that you are still alive, i would say. >> that's a big and important message, mayor.

these things remind us of those around us whom we love and whom we care about. mayor, thank you so much for being with us. we will stay chose to you on this topic. i want to go back to nbc news investigative reporter tom winter. this is an interesting development, the associated press is reporting that the suspect, a white male, who is believed to have used a shotgun, is not cooperating with investigators. >> yeah, that's my understanding as well, ali. i have been cautioning folks here, and i think that might be a reason why we don't have an identification for this person yet, that he is not cooperating as we have been reporting for some time now, he is in custody. he has been described to us by multiple law enforcement officials to myself that he is wearing a black t-shirt, olive pants, and had a pony tail or has long hair. so that's what we know about him. we know that he's in his 20s or 30s. i'm getting a little bit of conflicting information as far as what age he might be. i'm going to leave it a little

bit open-ended there. >> sure. >> we know he was taken into custody, the shooting this afternoon happening at 2:34 p.m. is when first responders first got a phone call about this shooting that was occurring. we've been told that he used a shotgun. in addition to that, there is some sort of a package or some sort of a bag that he may have had. a little bit fuzzy as far as the particulars on that, that there is something inside of that that police are a little bit concerned about. we heard at the last press briefing, ali, they were still clearing this scene. so we believe that the bomb squad is going to just take a look at that to make sure there is nothing in there that could further injure law enforcement or anybody at the scene. they will look to clear that. then obviously the evidence recovery technicians and the detectives whether go in to do the crime scene work that they need to do. at this point we don't have an identification on the suspect. a white male in his 20s or 30s. described to us as wearing a

black t-shirt olive pants, having a pony tail or long hair. and used a shotgun at some point. you had erchs are ared it earlier in some of your discussions. the n.y.p.d. coming out and saying tonight that out of an abundance of caution, purely out of an abundance of caution, until we know more about the motive. right now we haven't been told anything about the motive at this point. until they know about a motive, more of what happened here the back beyond of the shooter the n.y.p.d. and deputy commissioner for counter-terrorism and intelligence john miller saying they are going to deploy counter-terrorism units, the crg -- srg -- strategic response group, and crc, critical response command. the crc is designed to show a heavy presence, full, outside of major public buildings here in new york city. they have an ar-15-type weapon that can be fired in semiautomatic or automatic.

they also undergo extensive active shooter trainings. i have been with them through that training. >> you can't mistake them. if you are in new york and you start walking near media buildings if you see concentrations of heavily armed police tonight that's what you are looking at. tom stand by. i need more from you i want to bring you the update on what has happened. we are covering the scene of aed shooing in annapolis maryland, the capital of maryland. this is the "capital gazette" newspaper. it is part of the "baltimore sun" group of newspapers. we do understand that there will be a police briefing just a few minutes from now. we do know that the number that the annapolis -- that the ann arundel county police were reporting the number of dead is not correct. they have walked back that number. we were ol' told it was five. we don't know whether it is fewer than or greater than five but it's not five. hans nichols arrived on the scene in annapolis. we are looking for that press conference in just a couple of

minutes. before then, let's find out what hans has. >> we spoke to one witness that said she heard several loud blasts. i asked her could it come from the a shotgun. she didn't quite know but she said the sheriff and the police were there within two minutes and evacuated everyone and had two groups of 50 or 60 people that were inside that building. the witness we spoke to was just above the building. she described the office space where the newspaper is as holding 20, 25 people. that's the top end of how many people potentially could have been inside here. as you can see, as far as the eye can see we are looking at police presence. it is a not just anne arundel county it's the stipulate of annapolis. there are hundreds of police cars. two helicopters overhead. there is a massive police response here. it's indication of how well this part of the country is prepared for it. it also gives you an indication the speed with which some of the casualties could have been potentially conveyed to a hospital. when we talk about the force,

the blunt force trauma that would have come from a shotgun i think key issues they need to know is what sort of round? you don't have high velocity come out of a shotgun. that minimizes the amount of internal damage you could potentially have. it also minimizes the range. a shotgun has at most five rounds in it. you could take out the plug and get it a little bit higher mostly you have to reload. this isn't something where someone was able to shoot innocent people like ducks in row while he was potentially waiting for law enforcement to come. we are seeing some of the official coming back over here. they said they would brief. i think one of the key things we need to know is the moat vague of the shooter. >> yep. >> and also a tally on both the casualties and fatalities. >> yes. >> the key question is is it above or is it below five. >> you are seeing a large group of people talking toward the micro phones. they will begin a press conference momentarily which we will bring to you live. that's right, hans, we are not

clear on the number of people who have been killed. we will find that out and hop flee motivation. the associated press is reporting the suspect is not cooperating. let's listen in. >> lieutenant ryan frasure. i wanted to give you an update for some of the information we have learned or come to knowthrough investigation. some of the questions you had early whier we will have some answers for. unfortunately we still have some that we can't answer. we have an update for you. with that i'll turn it over to ann arundel county executive steve shoe. >> there has been a terrible tragedy. there was an active shooter incident. five people are dead. several more are wounded and in the care of anne arundel medical center. the shooter is in our custody and being interrogated as we speak. i wanted to acknowledge the tremendous work of our public safety professionals today,

particularly the anne arundel county police department, the annapolis city police department and the anne arundel sheriff's office. they were on scene in about 60 second. beyond that, they went immediately into that building without a moment's hesitation and demonstrated incredible courage. and we are so deeply appreciative of their great work. it could have been a lot worse. governor hogan? >> well, i want to thank you all for being here. obviously, our hearts go out to the victims and their families. and i just want to reiterate, all three county agencies the city police force, all the local police backing him up. state police, federal officers. it is a tragic situation but there were some very brave people that kept it from being worse and the response time was incredible. that's all i have to say. >> chief?

>> good afternoon. i promised you guys an update. deputy chief william wramf. the building as we speak is tactically secured. what that means is our s.w.a.t. team and our quick responders have secured the building. it is secure as far as there are no more persons in the building that are a threat to anyone else. we did recover what we thought may have been an explosive device. that has been taken care of. we have members of the bomb squad on scene. we don't anticipate having any more explosive devices. what is happening now that you see behind me is that our criminal investigation division, the actual investigators, are now taking over the scene. we have released it to our members of the criminal investigation division so they can stasht the process of identifying what occurred, and how -- start the process of

identifying what occurred, how it occurred, and why it occurred. at this time, we had 17 individuals in the building that were escorted out safely. they were taken to a reunification area over at the annapolis mall. we brought jen corbin in from our crisis intervention team who is going to say a few words in a moment to talk with the witnesses, some of the victims, and the police officers who responded. at this time, we are going to continue the investigation, and we will have an update four later on this evening. i believe ryan is going to give you a time for that. jen? >> give us the numbers, please. sorry. >> go ahead, jen. >> hi, i'm jen corbin with anne arundel county crisis response. we have been at several different sites working with both witnesses and police officers following the incident. we will be working continuous throughout the night, both on a phone line and throughout to

assist. we are mental health clinics that will be working both with the witnesses and the officers for the next day or so. so that's what we'll be available for throughout. >> thank you, jen. i have one more item. this area, the area of the mall, the area of bestgate road, is going to be closed for an indefinite amount of time i can't tell you when it's going the reopen at this point. so if you receive calls, please let them know what occurred, and why we have it shut down. the investigation is going to continue into the evening hours. at that time when we get more information i will have another update for you. >> motive at all? >> cooperative. >> can you or the state's attorney address that, is the suspect being cooperative? answering your questions? >> i can confirm we have the suspect in custody. they are currently interviewing him right now. the only other information i

have is we don't have identification on him. he is a white male. and the describe used is described as a long gun. i don't have specifics on that. i do know it was long gun. as we continue to get information. >> motive? >> we have no information on motive. we are still doing interviews. >> how did they catch him. >> he was taken into custody by officers. there was no gunfire exchanged between officers and the suspect. since we were able to get here very quickly. just something for you guys to know, you know, we have a unified training on how to respond to active shooters. that's what made -- one of the major things that made this a huge success. law enforcement agencies around the entire united states train the same way for these active shooters since we have had critical incidents like this. so -- i don't want the say it's very easy. but it's very easy for officers to get together from other jurisdictions, link up, know the movements, the terminology that's needed to go and effectively locate a suspect in an active shooter situation and

take care of that target inside there during an active shooting. >>. [ overlapping speakers ] >> say it again? >> did he shoot through windows or doors? >> i can't answer that right now. that's something gaes going to be determined by our investigators as they go through and process that crime scene. it's going to be a very long night. we anticipate another update at 8:00. any information that's new i will give out then and make sure you have all that information and any updates awe go along. >> how many victims are in the hospital? >> we can confirm that five have been -- are deceased. we are still working on injuries for you guys to get a good number. so we are working on that. but it's estimated around three. >> tell us home people were in the newsroom when this happened. >> i don't know how many. but i know we have approximately 170 that we were able to safely evacuate out of that building and transport to meet safely with family and friend at the annapolis mall. 8:00 will be our next update. i don't have any other answers

for you. any other updates get we will get atc8:00. >> a number of updates. we are back to the confirmation from the police that five people were killed. that is the number we heard at the end of the last press conference about an hour ago. for some reason, the ann arundel police said that number was incorrect. they have now confirmed it is correct. he said an estimated number of three injured. 170, approximately, were evacuated to the lord and taylor across the road at annapolis mall. the police responded in approximately one minute. the suspect is alive. he's a white male. we don't have an age. we content have an identification on him. but there are reports he is not cooperating with police. that is not a police that the police were able to confirm for us. but they do not have an id. and they are unclear about a motive -- at least they will not tell us about a motive. and they did say that he used a long gun. earlier we had heard the term shot fun.

i want to bring jim cough gnaw in formerly of the atf. jim, does the distinction mean anything to you? >> not really. i don't think the lieutenant gave us much. the detectives are still interviewing this guy. it's going to remain to be seen if he is going to say anything. the lieutenant wouldn't tell us if they have id'd him. certainly if he was an employee of the building, the newspaper, they would know that already. and i don't think they would necessarily keep that from us, ali. so it may be that he is not employed there or known to those people. also, that would probably leak out from other workers, that you know, this is joe, this is the guy we fired. this is susie's exmust. >> we have see that on social media even though it wouldn't be confirmable but we would see that. >> sure. >> clint watts, the lieutenant said something there. he said police forces across america now train in a unified

fashion to respond to an active shooter. so they know the terminology they use in order to close in on someone and neutralize the situation. i thought that was an interesting point. you and i talked earlier about the fact that ten years ago we had different ways of looking at these thing. if a phone call came in to say there was a shooter, there were phone calls discussing whether you were negotiating, waiting it out or waiting for a deescalation now police move in. there has been some degree of success in the specialized training that police have once they arrive on a scene. >> absolutely correct. the new methodologies of the last five to six years is close with the threat as quickly as possible and eliminate it, bring them into detention or if you have to, use deadly force. that's exactly what law enforcement did today. if this individual had more ammunition, it eliminated the possible he could reload and continue to shoot. that was the old methodology of law nfrtment, stand off, make a

perimeter and determine what's going on in this situation. with active shooters it changed. and the coordination between agencies has also changed. today whether it was the tactical response on the ground or the media response. local media taking charge putting out the statements, issuing press conferences in timely fashion. that is evidence of quality training and the way those responses come together. what is somewhat sad in all of that, though, is we have to do this so frequently. >> unfortunately. >> that the training is used so often. it is an automatic response for law enforcement. even for schools. there are playbooks now for what schools should do in these situations. that's the biggest tragedy for our country today. >> tom winter, you are helpful to have in these situations. you don't speculate. you work off of the facts. we had facts that five were deceased. we then said that wasn't true. now we know that five are deceased again. we also don't know whether this

suspect is cooperating with police or not. there have been some reports that he has not been cooperating. lieutenant frasure was not able to tell us one way or the other whether or not that's the case. >> i can tell you with good certainty at this point he doesn't appear to be cooperating with investigators. i think that may be a reason behind why we don't have an identification for this person yet. he has been described to us as being in his 20s or 30s. he's wearing a black t-shirt, and olive colored pants. he's got long hair. and a type of length that you might be able to put into a tony tail. that's what's been described to us, ali. inthe 60 seconds to 1:30 response time that we have heard is outstanding. >> remarkable. >> typically -- it is remarkable. i think it would not be dramatic to say that it's a response time and an engage men with the

suspect that may have saved some lives today. >> you have spent time with police and thought about their responses. >> uh-huh. >> one of the things that jim cavanaugh and clint watts have been emphasizing is it is now the job -- because we don't think about these thing as potential hostage situations or deescalations now because you have to go in and engage the shooter it now falls to the first patrol or radio officer who gets to the scene to take this sort of action. in other words, this isn't a hey this is bigger than i thought it was, let's call in the troops. these folks go in and engage. >> yeah, that's absolutely the training. i think when you have an expand situation when you look at what happened at the bataclan nightclub in pairs france not that we are suggesting this is terrorism in any way. when you have multiple suspects, when you have had explosives used, when you do have a hostage situation as you saw there, there are different tactics that go into play. you call in the troops so to speak and bring in the critical

response command like we see in new york city, you bring in those type of folks to engage, to engage in that type of an incident. in a situation like this, as soon as you know you have to at least engage them, get them to stop shooting at innocent people. as an officer it's very dangerous, very scary, but you've got to go in, engage that be person. find a way to stop the threat. that's what i hear on training with a number of law enforcement agencies is identify that threat and stop it. and you have to meet it right away, try to end the shooting. that's apparently what happened here. we have been told by four senior law enforcement officials that as soon as first responders engaged the shooter, he surrendered to them. that's a good sign. want to talk about the deputy chief mentioned a device they were looking at. i reported that for the last hour or so. there was some sort of a device in a package, in a backpack.

>> yep. >> that they were concerned about. they've rendered that now safe. i don't know, it is unclear whether or not that was an actual explosive device or hoax device. we see that sometimes in these situations. basically bomb squads have the ability to render the device safe. there's a way to -- they use a way to fire water at a high rate of speed off using a shotgun shell to be able to essentially slice up whatever they think may be dangerous. that's what they've done in this circumstance to be able to make sure whatever they were looking at, whether it was a real device or not, they could destroy it without it going off. that's a good thing for the law enforcement that's there, make sure that nobody else gets hurt as they start to go into the detective and evidence recovery phase of this as they were just talking about. >> all right. jim cavanaugh, want to go back

to something we talked about at the top of the show. we spoke to former cbs news journalist that's a contributing writer for this newspaper. i don't know if you heard this, he was talking about the fact in hindsight, looking at it from the perspective after it was attacked, it was vulnerable. walk into the ground floor, make a left turn, sometimes through glass doors, sometimes there's a receptionist, sometimes there isn't. we have not thought of smaller organizations as being vulnerable to attack. we vice president historically thought of them as being platce people would attack. every time you say this happened in a public plaza, we have to harden the place, is that how we think about news organizations or offices now? >> leaders of all organizations when they have people that spend a lot of time in a building or place, they can do minimal things that secure. you can lock the door and buzz people in to start with, if a person is walking across the

parking lot with a shotgun, may not want to let that guy in. we don't know how he smuggled it in, but had a lot of mass shooters that walked across the parking lot with a long gun and walked into a building and started to kill people. you can do minimal things. you can't harden up every place like the pentagon. but you have to think any business, any organization, certainly journalists, you have to think about it. we have to have public discourse for not denigrating journalists. what's being done in anne arundel on the ground, one is for domestic, former revenge, one major category, could he be attacking journalists because they're journalists or because of something they have written. and that will be a major league category. they're going to discover who this guy is, even if he is not talking a lot, they're going to find his identity pretty quick,

try to assess that. the only motive they need to put out quickly is if it is a motive like that, if it is a motive where he targeted journalists because they're journalists, if i was in that command group and i have been up there on the sniper command groups, i would be saying we can't hold that. i would be saying to the chiefs and assemble special agents in charge, if that's the motive, we can't hold that. we need to put that out because other journalists could be in danger. if it is local domestic violence or specific revenge or paper cheated me out of money or wrote a bad story about me, you can hold that a little longer. if it is the motive we are discussing, we don't know, but if it is, it needs to be put out. >> the police to their credit had a press conference an hour ago, had another one, said they're coming out at 8:00. i think it is not their intention to hold information back.

but clint watts, new york, john miller deputy chief said out of abundance of caution, they are hardening some news organizations in new york. tonight that can be over in a matter of hours, if as jim says that's not what this is. it is unfortunate that in 2018 that's where our mind goes. in fairness, part of it goes there because the president declared the media is the enemy of the people. have i lost clint? >> i think the biggest challenge now is if this person is not cooperating but has taken the life, how do you connect with anything else. that's the primary function in an investigation like this, make sure there are no leads or other people in the network that are facilitators or part of a larger scale attack. beyond that it will be motive. what i think jim pointed out and several others, we have not heard from anybody at the site that seemed to recognize them. there's no real leaks about who the individual was.

you don't really hear that in the case of school shootings. often times we know right away who the individual is or have some idea of it. it has been quiet so far. i think this is an interesting case, one that will take time to get the details out to have any idea of motive moving forward. >> hans nichols is at the scene, i'm sorry, i lost him. i think he is interviewing people to figure out exactly what it is that has gone on. what we know right now is that the police have not identified a motive for the shooter. they have said they've got him in custody, he was taken down without gunfire. it is unclear what happened. police encountered him at a certain point and were able to take him into custody. hans is back. hans, we are still trying to figure out who the shooter is and why he did this. >> that's right. we know what he wasn't willing to do, i wasn't willing to die at the end. that's one bit of crucial

information we received in the briefing now, there's no gun force involved in taking him down. no gun exchange between him and the law enforcement that met him within 60 seconds. that gives you indication this might not have been death by cop, suicide by cop. the other thing we need to figure out is if that explosive device was indeed an explosive device. >> talk about that. we heard the police talk about it. tell me what that what. >> reporter: the police say they recovered a device they thought in the past tense, that they thought was an explosive device and rendered that no longer a threat. that's not a confirmation that that was indeed an explosive device. it is really clear the amount of law enforcement that's here, annapolis is a capital, this is impressive. we talk about militarization of the police force. when you look at the number of

marked and unmarked cars, four helicopters in the sky, some may be news helicopters, but this is an impressive show of force for what is a state capital, but basically a small community, a very wealthy community, anne arundel has a lot of expensive homes. this is a well funded police department. they showed that their training today paid off, and police spokespers spokespeople are saying it is routine training they prepared for, work towards this, and were ready when it happened. on the crucial question of how many, and confirmation it was indeed five deceased, they seem to be embracing that number and say three are injured. i sense from the tone the way they're saying it, they don't have a lot of fidelity on that number. still need to know how many were inside the newsroom. when we talked to someone above, one floor above, she said typically there are 20 to 25 people inside that space. i think we need confirmation on those. we're getting another update at

8:00, in about two hours. >> they said about 170 people were relocated from the building to lord and taylor at the mall across the road. in a situation like that when people try to get out of a building, it is hard to get numbers. i have to emphasize this, having done it so many times, the information we'll know by tomorrow or same time tomorrow will be different than what we have now. they have said at 8:00 they're coming back. the piece of information when we went into the last press conference was how many were killed and who is the shooter, what was his motive. we only know how many people were killed yet. we don't know who the shooter is or what his motive was. >> reporter: yes. and crucial part is letting law enforcement do the job, continue with investigations, interviewing witnesses, bystanders, trying to get information out of the suspect. >> hans nichols on the scene. that's our coverage of this event. we know five people were killed. we will continue to try to find

out why that happened. thank you for your time with me. breaking news coverage continues with ari melber. >> that's right, thank you. we have a lot to cover on this big news day, including this unfolding set of events. i want you to know senator cory booker is my guest tonight, discussing his view of what should be done in the supreme court fight. also, there's news breaking about the trump, putin summit as well as ties to the mueller probe. all of that in tonight's show. we begin with the tragic story in maryland. a suspect in custody after bursting into this newspaper office, killing at least five people. several others injured. a shotgun used to blast through a glass door. jim cavanaugh, retired atf special agent in charge. we are following this story and our msnbc reporters in the field as well. jim, what do you see as important here? >> i think a couple of