okay? at that point this subject was contacted by law enforcement. and an exchange of gunfire happened and that subject is deceased at that location. we have law enforcement injured, we have the dps trooper in midland county. one officer and one opd officer that were struck. as far as civilian casualties, we have at least 21 victims, 21 shooting victims, and at least five deceased at this point in time. please understand that this is not just an opd and midland pd thing. both the sheriff's office was involved in the hunt for this guy. our local school district police department, our university of texas permian basin police department was involved.

this was a joint effort by just a multitude of departments to find this animal and bring him to justice. at this point i'll take questions. >> has the suspect been identified? >> right now i'll tell you that he is a white male in his mid-30s. i don't have a positive identification on him yet. i have an idea who he is, so i won't release that information until we're absolutely positive. >> are there any current active shooters going on at this time? >> we've had calls, which is to be expected, because obviously our citizens are a little jumpy after this, which is also to be expected. but once this individual was taken out of the picture, there have been no more victims. >> is there a reason to believe there's a second suspect that is on the loose? >> there have been reports that that's possible, but, again, there have been no kwirmconfirm

that. >> any conditions of the people still alive? >> the big thing thing it's so chaotic still at the local hospitals that it's very difficult to get that information. >> a lot of people on facebook are searching for family members who probably they're not able to get a hold of. what's the idea behind that and how they can keep in contact with the hospital and other law enforcement? >> well, again, once we are able to compile a list of victims' names, we can absolutely put that out. >> also, i'm sorry, the hospital has set up an area for patients' families in the cafeteria -- [ inaudible ] >> we got reports of two vehicles earlier today. what i guess is that not confirmed? >> i think what -- the issue with that was that you had the

original vehicle, and then you had the mail truck. at one point we didn't know that that was the same person, but that is confirmed now, same person. anything else? >> do we know what kind of firearm was used? was it a gun? a shotgun? >> obviously it was a gun. at this point i'm really not sure. >> how did the incident begin? >> again, it started with the trafficker stop, the attempted traffic stop. >> are there precautions for the general public? >> i would tell people to still be cautious, still try to stay in this residents if at all possible. we believe we have the threat contained, but you can't be 100% positive that's the case. >> any motives? >> no. i can't tell you of a motive at this point. >> do you know what the traffic top stop was for?

>> i do not. >> do you know what happened to the postal employee whose truck was hijacked? >> at this point i don't know. i would assume he's part of the victim list, but i'm not sure of his status. >> i saw esd bus going down. are you using the school transportation to help the victims or patients or anything like that? >> not to my knowledge, no. okay. thank you, guys. we have to get back to work. we will update you periodically, okay? >> i just want to make sure -- >> you heard there a very difficult evening for the chief of police there, michael gerke. the chief having to describe what is now five dead, 21 injured. the suspect was shot and killed, also mentioning by my count, if i was writing it down fast enough, three officers that were

injured in this altercation, that it began at 3:17 local time, that is 4:17 eastern, that a trooper pulled over a toyota, and then that's when shots were fired by the driver of that car as they attempted to pull over the driver. that driver believed to be in his 30s. looks like we're now going to have a second speaker in odessa, texas, and they're just mic'ing him up at the moment, this after the chief of police from odessa spoke just moments ago and not very long. let's listen in right now, going straight back to odessa, texas, as another law enforcement official is about to begin briefing the press there locally and us to get more details. let's listen in. >> i'm ready to go. when you're ready. can you start telling us your first and last name.

>> john alvarez, fire chief, odessa fire rescue. >> how many victims can we confirm so far? >> so far we've got 21 victims transported to either medical center or omc. we also had some that were transported to midland memorial hospital. that's the count at this point. >> for families out there that are worried about their loved ones, that is their next step? how can they find out more information about their family member? >> sure. as our public information officer said, once we get that information, once we get the list, we'll be able to put that information out to the public to be able to reach out to the loved ones. >> all those that are wounded, are those gunshot vibctims? >> yes, for the most part. the count right now is five deceased according to the reports that i have received, so that's where we're at at this point.

>> i guess, did it start in midland and then travel west? >> that is my understanding. i mean, i'm not law enforcement, but that's the understanding that i have is that it did move from midland to odessa. unfortunately we did have some casualties here. >> is there anything that the residents of the community can do? like giving blood? >> it's too early to say at this point, but i can tell you that right now it's just -- shelter in place right now. i'm sure the police department has sent that message to the community to make sure everyone is aware. >> do we know how many odessa hospitals or how many are midland hospitals? >> that count we're just trying to figure it out at this point. i can tell you we notified medical center hospital and notified odessa regional medical center and midland memorial hospital. we've also notified outlying communities such as andrews crane for assistance. we have a midland fire

department that is assisting us. they have several units that were provided to us to assist us with anything that comes up at this point. >> i want to confirm, this was a traffic gone wrong with dps somewhere in midland. where is it that all 21 people were shot? were they shot at the 191 where the -- >> ma'am, i do not know that. i am not law enforcement, but we've had several casualties that we've transported. >> about how many units responded? >> we had several of our units. to the point where we had a call for midland fire department to assist us with some of our ems runs after. thank you. >> thank you. >> odessa, texas, 6:08 p.m. local team, 7:08 eastern. this, another official appears

to be from the police department or the ems there in odessa, texas, basically giving an overview of those that were injured and the vehicles that were then deployed to assist in moving those who were injured to local hospitals in the area. again, the latest information coming from this press briefing, which just ended about ten minutes long, two speakers. five confirmed dead, 21 injured, and they were clear to say though a suspect has been killed, they are not calling it an active shooter situation, an active shooter scenario at this moment, that they appear -- they believe that since the shooting and the killing of the suspect, that no more victims have been reported and, therefore, their hope is that this active shooter scenario is over. however, they are saying shelter in place.

they are still looking for more information. they are still in the investigative stage of this shooting, active shooter scenario. that is what they believe now at the latter part of the story line, that this began as a traffic stop at 3:00 in the afternoon, 3:17 p.m. is what the chief of police was saying. and then quickly thereafter that this suspect was shot and killed. though along the way, three officers were injured, 21 injured overall, whether it includes the officers or not, that was not clear. but 21 injured is the overall number that was given, and five dead. this coming in to us just now from the chief of police. frank figliuzzi, you listened to the chief of police in odessa, texas. this is a city of 120,000 people, 120,000 not probably

believing they were going to have a situation like this on a holiday weekend on a saturday where there was an individual pulled over by a trooper and then five dead, 21 injured. what stood out to you in what the chief of police said and then after that, the official who was giving us the overview on ems? >> so as someone who carried a badge and a gun for 25 years, what i keyed in on was the three officers who are injured. by that i mean not only because i feel akin to them, but rather, look at what our law enforcement officers are facing every day on the street. look at the fire power that they are up against and the risk they put themselves at every single day. just playing out in my mind the car stop and then that goes bad with a shooting. and then the shooter moved on and another officer engages and a shot. and another and another.

and the question we have to ask ourselves is, is this something that we want to keep accepting? is this something we're fed up with? is this something that we should take action on with regard to the easy access to guns. and with 21 people shot, we've got to really look at the likelihood that this is a rifle. it's very possible that this is going to be a semiautomatic rifle. it's very hard to injure that many people while you're moving shooting with a handgun. so don't be surprised if we hear this involves yet another semiautomatic or automatic weapon. >> six shots in total at least, right frank? 21 injured and five dead, if that is the way they're giving us the numbers. with that number of shots, your statement about where this discussion will follow in the coming days -- and interestingly

enough, today as we were looking at the state of texas, there were -- there was a headline on one of the local papers about eight gun laws that would loosen restrictions on gun ownership, certainly a debate that's happening in the legislature there in texas. andrew blankstein joins us from nbc news investigations. you have been following the story. andrew, what do you know? andrew blankstein, are you there? andrew blankstein from nbc news investigations has been following this story. andrew, are you with us? andrew, are you there? it appears we're having technical difficulties with andrew blankstein. when we get him back, we'll go straight to andrew. joyce vance, these details that

have come out from local law enforcement shows that law enforcement were also the victims here as frank was remarking. three law enforcement officials shot and injured. and then we have five dead as well overall from this incident. but these details could change. as you were watching this news briefing loosening with frank and myself, what stood out to you in terms of the details that they were able to provide? i was listening carefully, and one thing that was not clear was when the active shooter was shot and killed, when did this incident end theoretically? how long did it take for them to shoot and kill the suspect? that's the one detail that did not stand out in this news briefing. but what stood out to you, joyce? >> well, i think that's right and it did stand out this began

with a traffic stop, as frank speculated before we went to watch the press coverage. and it sounds like it continues over maybe a driving distance, and that there were one or more locations involved, which means there was a lot of risk to the community. what we know is that law enforcement not just one, but apparently three law enforcement officers have been injured trying to engage the shooter. they were ultimately successful. it does sound like he had a lot of fire power. i think it's unlikely that he had 21 perfect shots. i think we'll see when all the details come to light it would not be surprising if this was some sort of an assault weapon, a semiautomatic rifle that was being used as we've seen in other shootings. you know, we had earlier this week an incident in oregon which has a red flag law where police were able to take away guns from a person who had been identified as being someone who posed a risk. during this press conference, the police didn't identify the

shooter. it wasn't entirely clear they knew his identity, although they indicated he was a white male in his 30s. we don't know if there were any warning signs in advance of this shooting incident, but increasingly these sorts of red flag laws are something that states will need to stop resisting, even states where people hold fiercely to their tradition of owning firearms because we have too many of these incidents, too much risk to the public, and the police are really down to the point now where the best that they can do is these running battles with people who are heavily armed after they had had a triggering event. we need to begin to put laws in place to help law enforcement do its job of keeping communities safe. >> andrew blankstein, i think, is now with us. andrew from nbc investigations. andrew, are you there? >> yes, richard. >> great. andrew, what do we know in terms of what we can report right now around what has happened? we just finished the news briefing and what is ongoing at the moment on the ground in

odessa and midland? >> one of the key things is law enforcement is trying to in addition to process these multiple crime scenes is get some kind of clear-cut time line and movement of the suspect or suspects. as the official said, 21 injured, five dead, multiple law enforcement officers wounded. so there's going to be a number of different things going on, and everything from obviously processing the physical evidence to trying to background the suspect. the suspect is reported dead. what kind of an electronic footprint this person had, trying to establish a motive. the time that these crime scenes take to process is long, but on the other hand, what we know and how information is shared, how quickly that gets out really truncates the amount of

understanding we get in the sharing of this information and getting it out to the public and the press. so unfortunately you and i have spoken frequently this summer about a number of these incidents. this is just the latest in a long line of just horrific shootings. it kind of boggles the mind at this point. >> it boggles the mind, andrew: as we look at the video from earlier, this may be close to the scene of the crime where this pickup was pulled over by a dps trooper a local law enforcement, and then began the shooting. this could be that very crime scene or the lead-up to it. we just got in this picture. it appears to be of also this freeway area that we're watching. if you look very closely, it appears that this individual, the side of the road is law enforcement. it appears there is a badge of some sort on the arm, so this is a situation, another photo here

of another. it could be the same law enforcement official. this is the synergy movie theater we were describing earlier where it was reported by the chief of police where this incident ended and where the suspect was killed. so two photos very close to the scene of the crime here. you can imagine if you're this individual, david wheatly, who took these shots, and you're watching these happen right in front of you on the side of the road of a very simple freeway that connect odessa and midland. i'd like to bring in julian castro. when we look at this, secretary, this is one of those situations from your great state where, again, we are seeing another incident where, unfortunately, at the moment at least five dead and you could marry from thear chief of police, that 21 injured

could go down and the number dying from the situation goes up. >> richard, thank you for having me. can you hear me? >> i can hear you, secretary. what are you hearing from your fellow texans about this situation, about this active shooter scenario that appears now to be over? >> just three weeks after what we saw in el paso is tremendously heartbreaking for the entire nation, but also, of course, especially for those of us in texas and for the panhandle that's happened. it's a powerful reminder that we need to take action to ensure that these types of incidents don't keep happening in our country. just yesterday i visited the mother emanuel church in charleston where four years ago a shooter went in there and he murdered nine people.

how many of these incidents do we have to see before we understand that we have to take action? one of the most inspiring moments of the last few weeks happened in ohio after the dayton incident as the governor there was speaking giving remarks about what had happened, the crowd that was listening, people i'm sure of different backgrounds, different points of view, began to chant "do something, do something, do something." and that's the message that i think all of us should carry with us tonight, is that we all need to work to do something to strengthen our gun laws. >> as you look at the potential progress, then, that may come from this very horrific incident yet again coming out of texas, what would be your hope as you look at what can happen in texas? we were just remarking that a

headline from today from a local paper read "eight new texas laws loosen gun restrictions starting september 1st. the governor saying we will unite to respond to this tragedy and he thanked the the first responders along the way. action. so what might that action be? >> that action should be in the form of common sense gun safety legislation. look, we don't know all the details about what happened today, and so, you know, we don't want to speculate on that. but we've seen enough incidents in this country, including what happened in dayton and el paso, and what may well have happened today as we find out more information to know that we need to put in place universal background checks, we need a renewed assault weapons ban because this ar15 has been the weapon of choice time after time

for this gunmen. we need to put a better system in place to ensure that anybody who gets their hands on a gun is not a danger to themselves or to somebody else. i support a seven-day waiting period. i also believe we need to limit the capacity of magazines. and i believe that we need to increase the tax on ammunition and on guns and use the revenue that we could garner, $600 million to $700 million a year to invest in community programs that are there to counteract gun violence, to prevent gun violence. on top of that, a number of these incidents, but a number of these incidents have been tied to extremism, specifically white supremacists. we need to give our fbi, our department of homeland security, our department of justice, the

tools they need to root that out and to stop it before it turns into the kind of violence that we saw in charleston or in el paso. we don't know what happened today. we hope that's not the case today. there's no reason for this kind of violence. but we do need to root out extremism wherever it's at. >> former hud secretary and presidential candidate julian castro. sir, thank you for calling in and, of course, our best to your fellow texans as yet it is another bad weekend with bad people doing things, or one bad individual in this case doing things that certainly leaves a heavy heart in your state. thank you, sir so much. >> thank you, richard. >> frank figliuzzi, we were listening from julian castro. that is tough time for texans. they're going to try to put

together solutions along the way. as was stated by you as well as the former hud secretary, we don't have the details of the type of firearm at the moment that was used in this crime, in this shooting of what appears to be 26 people at the moment, five dead, and 21 injured. when you see the three police officers, the three law enforcement in this case that were injured, does that indicate anything here? because one might think that most law enforcement, when they go to work every day, put on a bulletproof vest and they are ready for these unfortunate situations. they are well-armed and well-protected for the most part. does this indicate anything in terms of the type of firearm that this suspect may have been using? >> it's quite possible that it does. but unlike movies and tv shows, body armor is not an absolute

fail-safe thing. you get shot where you get shot. if you get shot in an area that's protected, you might be okay. but high-powered weapons, ammunition that can pierce armor is out there. it's on the street and very often our police officers find themselves outgunned. by the time they can take their rifle from its mounting in their vehicle, by the time they understand that they need to pull their shotgun out of the car, it may be too late and they're at a tactical disadvantage. we want our law enforcement to be in the advantage. we want them to have the tactical advantage. and so when states consider laws, they need to have that in mind. are we putting our law enforcement in a position to win a gunfight or in a position to lose a gunfight? do we want them to have more fire power and the citizens have to justify their need for fire

power? as our congress fails to address this, states are stepping up to the plate. just recently in the news, fbi portland, oregon, had to resort to a state law for state flags. they didn't have a federal one, so in dealing with someone who's an extremist and the ability to take his gun away before he hurts someone after he expressed intent to hurt and kill people, they went to the state statute and used the red flag law there. that's the kind of thing that states need to consider. don't wait for the federal government to do the right thing. they're not doing it. do it at your state level. >> we may see more and more of that happening. i would like to bring in former fbi executive assistant director and msnbc national security analyst sean henry on the phone with us right now. sean, as you have been following the details in odessa, texas, and midland, texas, it appears

from the chief of police they believe they are closer to the end of the active shooter scenario as they are saying one suspect was killed. they do not believe at the moment that there is another suspect, but they are not confirming it as the chief of police said. he's not 1000% sure of all the details he gave us right now, basically saying we have to be very careful about what this situation -- the details that they are gathering right now, what they are. sean, what's your takeaway? >> i think that's exactly right. i think that law enforcement in this case, their number one priority is to make sure the citizens are safe, and you do that by ensuring the threat has been mitigated. in this case we have a shooter that appears to be dead, but police, until they can determine the actual motivation, they are absolutely going to be on the lookout and alert to any signs there might be somebody else involved, whether it be a coconspirator, somebody else,

any potential copycats, perhaps. through this investigation, law enforcement officers are going to use every tool at their your policy to try to uncover any information, intelligence that will help them to identify what that motivation is. so you heard others talking about the exploitation of electronic data. that would be telephones and other types of digital devices. law enforcement will be searching his car and they'll look for his home, any other residences he may have stayed at, unemployment, they'll interview coworkers and family members, et cetera. i'm sure by now they have an identification on him, and the investigation is going to be very active. but the idea is really to determine two things, what that motivation is, and if, in fact, there's another threat out there, somebody else who might have assisted him or somebody else who may have been planning with him. one other thing i'll add, richard. it wasn't clear to me in hearing

the original reporting of what the actual impetus was for the start of this. was he actually pulled over by law enforcement due to a traffic violation and the shooting occurred then? or was he on the radar of police, that there was some indication that he was a threat, and they pulled him over to try to stop that? to see that shooting the way it started as it moved over such a widely dispersed area and the type of weapon that he had at his disposal, likely lots of ammunition with the number of shots that were fired, how well this had been planned in advance or just purely as a result of that original traffic stop, richard. >> shawn, that's a very good point made. was this suspect a known individual that they somehow identified and they were pulling him over, or was this a random traffic stop and then it went awry? we'll explore that question

after a short break. again, we are following the breaking news coming out of west texas. five dead, 21 injured. the suspect, killed. an additional suspect they do not believe is on the loose. we'll explore more of this story right after this here on msnbc. flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. most pills only block one. flonase.

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click, call or visit a store today. still following the breaking news coming out of west texas. an update from the hospital

where 21 injured, some of them are located there. let's listen. >> nobody is guaranteed tomorrow. if you are here, you can hear my voice, please take a minute to stop and give your thoughts and prayers to all the families and the victims of this tragic incident, okay? first of all, that's the first thing we need to do first, is do that. i'm going to give you some information about what we have going on here at the medical center. what we know is right now we have 14 victims in the hospital. okay? we have 14 victims inside. i'm not ready to discuss ages or anything like that, but we have 14 people on site. the hospital has staged an area for the families. we have counselors, grief counselors, everybody, social workers with the families right now trying to provide them support of the we have an executive nurse, and the nursing team assigned to that area to

take families and update them on their family members or friend that are here. and so we have somebody assigned to that to work with the families, okay? the hospital and all the locations are locked down, and that's only for the safety of our staff and for everybody in the hospitals, okay? once we feel it's safe to open it back up, we will. but everything is locked down for safety purposes. our nurses, doctors, everybody, lab teches, housekeeping, everybody is doing a fantastic job. we have good blood sources and good simplifies righupplies rig. everything is good at this point. as far as we know. we're hearing it like y'all are. we got a lot of updates and information. but right now the hospital is stable, secure. everybody that was in the hospital we've secured them. we're taking care of them while taking care of all these people at the same time, okay? we have 14 victims here. their conditions vary, but we're

not ready to speak on that, but we do have 14 here, all right? i don't think i need to do any questions or comments other than that right now. i just wanted to update y'all on what's going on, and then we will give you more information as we have it, okay? all right. thank y'all very much. we'll be back. >> all right. again, the hospital official in odessa, texas, said at the beginning of his statement, take a moment to think of the families, think of the injured, pray for them. he is clearly concerned, as many americans are, of the 14 victims in that hospital. 21 injured overall in a mass shooting. suspect, killed. it started at 3:17 local time. it appeared it happened in a location close to this. the suspect was pulled over for a reason that is not known at the moment. and then the shooting began. 26 shots at least. joyce vance still with us, former u.s. attorney, also has

prosecuted many an atf case, and understands these unfortunate situations right now. before we got the update from the hospital, one of the items in the questions that we were discussing -- you saw me intimate this question, joyce -- was this driver that was pulled over. a known quantity or an unknown quantity. what was a car being pulled over by a trooper turning into 21 injured and five dead, joyce. >> that's one of the details we'll be looking to hear more about in the next few hours, richard. we don't know if there was something that happened beforehand. was there an incident? maybe family domestic violence or an altercation that led the officer to pull the shooter over and began this tragic chain of events. it has happened in the past that law enforcement makes what looks like a routine stop, and everything goes bottom up.

in west memphis, arkansas, in 2010 during a routine police pullover, two officers were killed by a shooter they had no idea that that would be the result of what appeared to be a routine stop. so we're still waiting to learn the details of precisely what the time line looks here -- looks like here. how many different sites were involved, were all the victims harmed in one location, were there multiple locations? that will in many ways magnify law enforcement's task as they try to make sure that this was, in fact, only one shooter, that there are no locations still containing firearms or ammunition that could be dangerous to the public and generally looking to secure the entire situation. >> joyce vance, thank you so much for being with us for the better part of two hours this saturday afternoon, and now evening on this breaking story. can't thank you enough for sticking around with us.

i know that you now have to leave us, but i appreciate your expertise over the last two hours as we were covering this unfortunate, and in the words of the chief of police, this horrific incident in odessa and midland, texas. i appreciate your time. we'll take a short break. we'll be right back. great riches will find you when liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. wow. thanks, zoltar. how can i ever repay you? maybe you could free zoltar? thanks, lady. taxi! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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as we continue to monitor the shooting? west texas, we're tracking another breaking story today. that's hurricane dorian. today florida's head of emergency management said the only thing consistent about this storm has been its inconsistency, and that remains true this hour. it's currently a powerful category 4 hurricane. it has sustained winds of 150 miles an hour, just shy of that all-powerful category 5 level storm. it's on track to move across the northwestern bahamas by sunday with tropical storm winds beginning tonight. meanwhile florida was expected to take a direct hit, but the path has shifted. let's go straight to nbc meteorologist bill karins. you have new data that just came out. >> we were wondering if they jumped to a category 5. they have not. they have left it at 150 miles

per hour and still moving to the west at 8. that hasn't changed. there's actually two hurricane right now that are chris crossing going through center and eye. one of them just went through the western eye wall. and it dropped in there and measured 139 knot winds, that's about 160 miles per hour. if that's true and they find other readings similar, easily jumping to a category 5 in the next hour or two, before the big advisory comes out with the forecast at 11:00 p.m. let's give you the latest forecast in case you were out and you were just joining us. the storm is going to stall very slowly tomorrow over areas of the northern bahamas and linger there until about tuesday morning. then begin to creep up parallel to the florida coastline, possibly along the southeast coast or just off shore. so the thing that changed in the last 24 hours was more off shore

that happened this morning. it's going to be a close shave from the florida coast, georgia, south carolina, and north carolina. we expect the storm to weaken. the most intense it's going to be will be in the next day or two. further north it will be weaker. we do have tropical storm watches. even though we're not expecting a direct hit unlike the west palm beach, jupiter area, we expect the possibility of at least tropical storm gusts. we will have problems with not just the wind but definitely the waves and the beach erosion there too and the rough surf. the worst as far as extreme damage, that would be from grand alabama island. these are our computer models that continue to portray a close call, right along the coast. wave couple squiggly lines that still make a landfall in south carolina a couple in northeast florida. so we're not set in stone. we still have two days to go, richard, before it gets close to

florida. it keeps shifting here and there. and this is one of those storms that 20, 30 miles could make a big difference, especially on the east coast of florida. >> south carolina, the governor there declaring a state of emergency, clear concern, bill. you were mentioning the speed, 160 plus miles an hour, right? >> right now it's 150, strong category 4. if we go above 155 to 160, it becomes a rare category 5. we just had one measurement that did confirm that, but they may wait for a second or two we knew days ago this was heading over very warm water. we knew this would become very intense. it didn't bother anyone, but now we know it's going to head for the northern bahamas. two days ago we thought it would be a category 4 haegeading for south central florida. that's going to be the key time. it's going to be nervous times having a category 4 only 70 to

100 miles off the florida east coast. everything is telling us it's going to stall, but until that happens, there will be a lot of nervous people in south florida. >> bill karins, thank you so much. >> dorian on track to move across the northwestern bahamas by sunday as bill was showing us. tropical storm winds beginning tonight. the prime minister urged people to get out. morgan chesky in the bahamas for us. >> reporter: good evening from nassau, where people are keeping a close eye on the hurricane's path as it moves towards this chain of islands. we know people took care of of the sunny day to stock up final supplies they could get ahead of the arrival of dorian tomorrow. more than 70,000 people stand to be affected by this storm. many of them clearing out grocery stores and filling up on fuel. in some cases, draining gas stations of over drop they have.

we're talking about storm surges ranging anywhere from 12 to 15 feet and sustained winds of more than 120 miles an hour. earlier today i had a chance to speak to the commander of a local volunteer search and rescue unit who says they have prepositioned supplies on portions of the islands where they think they could get hit the hardest by dorian. he says it never gets easier. >> morgan, thank you for that. morgan chesky in the bahamas. when we return, more on our other breaking news story today, and that is west texas where a mass shooting appears to have just end. five dead, 21 injured in a shooting. police say the suspect has been killed, but there's more after this. the paperwork, the searching for id cards... that's why esurance makes it simple with an app, so you're not stuck in the 90s. wow, that tiny tv is the bomb. when insurance is simple, it's surprisingly painless.

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we are still following the breaking news story coming out of west texas, that moosz shooting where five people are dead -- mass shooting where five people are dead, 21 injured, and the suspect was killed. the president did tweet this in reaction to this. just briefed by attorney general barr about the shootings in texas. fbi and law enforcement is fully engaged. more to follow. let's go straight to kelly o'donnell, our who's correspondent with more on that. what are we hearing, kelly? >> reporter: vice president mike pence who is on his way to europe taking the place of president trump for an event in poland, of course the president

staying back in the united states because of the approaching hurricane, and the vice president will be in his stead for a commemoration of world war ii, and then to take on some other visits in europe, just spoke to reporters a short time ago as he and the second lady are going to begin that journey, and he talked about both the hurricane and this violence in texas and what is notable is the vice president talked about being briefed on both of these situations, said he had just spoken to the president. here's a brief bit of what the vice president said to reporters in just the last few minutes. >> i just spoke to the president, and he's at camp david, and he's closely monitoring the developments and the investigation in the mass shooting in odessa, our hearts go out to all the victims' families who had loved ones lose their lives. we commend the law enforcement in odessa for their swift and

courageous response, but at the president's direction, we deployed the full resources of the federal government, they're on site. the president spoke to the attorney general, the fbi is already assisting local law enforcement in the investigation going forward, but we'll continue to monitor those events, but the president is fully engaged. >> reporter: and then as the vice president continued to speak there, he also said that he and the president are committed to working with leaders in both parties to try to deal with this issue of gun violence. of course following el paso and dayton, those mass shootings there in recent weeks, and of course congress remains on it, kind of the end of its summer break. there are real questions about what is the administration going to do with gun violence, and so it is notable that the vice president said that president trump and this administration are committed to working with leaders in both parties to deal

with the situations. what form that will take, what will happen, of course remains to be seen. we know that the administration is also been in regular contact with the national rifle association that has concerns about any changes to background checks or other reforms, but it is notable that the vice president said that as well as he was departing on air force 2 this evening. richard. >> white house correspondent kelly o'donnell with the very latest from the president and vice president on today's incidents and breaking stories. thank you so much, kelly. appreciate that. speaking of which, we are keeping an eye right here on msnbc of the two breaking stories on this saturday evening, one, hurricane dorian, is it getting stronger, will it hit category 5, and then two, that which happened in west texas, the mass shooting, the eyes now on the 21 injured and how they are faring.

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