city, congressman. >> it's a sad day for all of us. >> to add to what we've been talking about here. 50 dead. 53 injured. what can you tell us about what's going on now both on the scene and in those trauma centers where they are tending to the injured. >> on the scene there was so much blood and havoc they're still clearing it away. almost done with that. the victims have been taken to the hospital. there were six trauma surgeons working to save lives through the night. that work still continues. family members are gathering at the hospital to try to provide some kind of relief and support for those who made it through. >> the police have said the shooter, omar mateen, came from outside of orlando, drove in from outside of orlando. there was concern that in addition to the assault weapon and handgun he had he might have had explosive devices. that's been ruled out. they've gone into

have they been able to give you more information about the shooter or his motivations? >> listen, he lives two hours away from orlando. he drove two hours to go to a gay nightclub and kill people. that speaks for itself. >> you believe this club was targeted because it's a gay nightclub. >> seems very likely to me. >> congressman, thank you very much for your time. we'll come back. for now, for everyone just joining us, a little after 11:00 here on the east coast. we've been covering this deadly shooting, the worst mass shooting in american history that unfolded overnight in orlando, florida, at the pulse nightclub. shortly after 2:00 a.m., the gunman entered that nightclub and began shooting. we heard from eyewitnesss, you can see it there, took hostages for the next three hours, three hours later police s.w.a.t. teams went in to end the situation. when it was

53 injured. i want to bring in pierre thomas, our senior justice correspondent. pierre, let's go through what we know about the shooter and how this unfolded overnight. omar mateen, 29 years old. >> 29 years old. parents from afghanistan. law enforcement officials said there were initial indications of jihadist leanings, but they emphasize it's early in the investigation. they're looking at the possibility that this could be a hate crime. law enforcement officials looking at his background. i'm told every law enforcement agency and every intelligence agency is being asked to check its data files, find out if they have information about this suspect. top law enforcement officials in the country from the attorney general to the fbi director, homeland security secretary, being briefed about this this morning. they want to get a handle on this. the level of the death, they know the mass shootings are happening on a regular basis. they want to get as

information as they can on this one to put it into perspective to see why this keeps happening. >> the numbers here so devastating. based on the information they have so far, you say they're running through everything right now, based on the information they have right now, they believe he was acting alone. that was the big concern of homeland security officials over the last year or so the self-radicalization of individuals who take matters into their own hands. >> absolutely. they will look to see if he had ties to anyone and was anything else imminent. so far no indication that he had direct support of someone helping him. law enforcement officials deeply concerned about lone wolves, radicalized through social media, particularly through isis. the fbi director calls them troubled souls, people who didn't ever go to syria or iraq but who have been consuming digi

encouraging them to act. that's the concern. we don't know yet if that's definitely what happened here, but that's being aggressively investigated. >> pierre thomas, thank you very much. i want to bring in former fbi special agent brad garrett right now. we're learning more from the eyewitnesss, you got the sense that the gunman came in, strong burst of sustained gunfire for several minutes around 2:00 a.m. takes the hostages and holds them for about three hours. it's hard to know which killing happened when. >> exactly. my sense would be because law enforcement was on the scene in fairly short order. there was an off-duty officer there that engaged the shooter at some point, law enforcement if they continued to hear shots would have gone in long before 5:00. it's a bit of a mystery, based on all these mass shootings we've tke

years as to why he stopped and waited for three hours before this ultimately ended in his death. so, there's a lot to be filled in here. but, you know, we're still not also with any clarity to what motivated him. is this a mixture of radical islamic isis thinking, anti-gay thinking. the two go hand in hand with isis with the brutality that isis has demonstrated against gay individuals in syria and in iraq. you know, what's going on here, i don't know. i think it will not take long to get to the bottom of it. >> it won't take long. we know the police decided to go in with that bearcat, that armored truck around 5:00 a.m. that they were learning more from eyewitnesss coming out and getting text messages from inside. >> correct. by that

with micro cameras were probably inside watching what's going on. they had a sense of who's moving where, where possibly is the shooter. are there other active rounds going on at this point. i assume the answer was no. once they had that intel and believed there was no explosives they were about to walk into, it was time to go in and clear. which is ultimately what they did around 5:00 a.m. >> but we have no indication now that they had direct contact with the shooter, at least we have not heard ofany yet that they had contact with the shooter or communication with the shooter. >> correct. perhaps they tried. typically, george, at hostage barricade situations where you already have demonstrated violence, we clearly try to reach out through bullhorns, through probably -- because they didn't know who he was, they couldn't reach out on a cell phone, try to get him to communicate. obviously this is a guy, i'm going to presume who didn't go there to communicate. he went there to kill a lot of people which unfortat

and you have this period that we just discussed about these three hours about what was going on. you know, this is really about him, i guess, fulfilling what was going on in his head. whatever drove him to do this. unfortunately he was deadly successful today. >> echos in this attack of what happened in paris, the bataclan concert center, the initial shooting, a pause, and s.w.a.t. teams go in. >> is it in the training group to do this, to kill and maim as many as you can and then stand by and wait for law enforcement to do their thing? maybe. if you're going to commit an act like this or the acts we've talked about in brussels and paris, the whole key here is going to be i'm going to die. i will either make law enforcement kill me or have some

death of making a statement about what i've just accomplished. is there some of that going on? my guess is yes. >> one thing that seems different so far -- again, we could learn more as we hear from eyewitnesss inside -- apparently nobody heard the gunman make any declarations, did not speak. any kind of communication from the gunman. >> that also may be that if this is sort of an isis sort of motivated event, that they have learned that announcing in advance gives them a disadvantage because people may start to scatter. my guess is that this is a blind shot. you're going into a club, a lot of people drinking, et cetera. music probably loud. the ability to go in and open up and just these numbers, george, 50 plus people dead. it gives you an idea how many people you can kill in probably a few minutes because you

no resistance. nadal hassan would have killed more people, but fortunately law enforcement was there and shot him. this guy didn't have any resistance. that's why we have such big numbers. >> though there was a police officer on the scene and some shots initially before he went in. >> well, yes. but this is what's unclear. was that -- did that occur before he did the majority of shooting or did he come back out and go back in? that's -- for me, that's a point that's not clear yet. >> okay. there's a lot more we'll have to learn about that, brad. thank you very much. i want to bring in ray kelly, former new york city police commissioner, he's on the phone with us right now. i talked to peter king about this, mr. commissioner a little bit. talk through the kind of precautions that we'll see now in new york and other major cities across the country. >> i think you'll see significant uniformed deployment at targets of concern,

targets. some locations where lgbt community might gather will be of particular concern. that's important for police departments at the least to raise a comfort level, as much as they possibly can. this, to me, looks like a classic lone wolf operation. if you remember in september of 2014, muhammad al dini, communications director for isis, urged people to go out and do whatever they can do. this is when we started the bombing campaign against isis. we've seen a series of events not only in this country but many other countries in response to that urging. you know, we don't know an awful lot about this event. it certainly could be just that. what's scary is the simplicity of it. this i

one rifle, one handgun, was able to kill apparently at least 50 people. it's very much of a concern. it's a concern to law enforcement, of course throughout the country. >> just stunning. ray kelly, stand by as well. i want to go back to orlando. christine is joining us from orlando. christine, i understand your son was in the club last night? >> yes, he was. >> have you heard anything? >> i haven't heard anything. i've been here since 4:00 in the morning. i've been waiting. i'm waiting by the emergency room. see if anybody gets called in. >> what is your son's full name? >> my son is christopher linonen. >> christopher linonen. what have police been alto tell you?

of dead bodies in the club. that it's a crime scene. they can't identify anybody so it could be hours and hours before we find out. the hospital said that there are some bodies at the hospital that came in and they died. and they're not identifiable yet either. and then there are a few in critical condition that are not identified yet. >> christine, i'm so sorry. were you able to have any kind of communication with your son last night at all? any text messages? phone calls? >> no, i called him last night at 6:00.

i was just giving him some information that he was going to need to know for my upcoming surgery. and i left him with "i love you, chris." and then i just happened to wake up at 3:00 and i was checking my facebook. i saw one of christopher's friends, brandon, had posted on facebook that there was a shooting at the pulse. and he doesn't know where his friends were. so i texted him. i called him. i came right here to the hospital. we've been waiting since 4:00 this morning. his friend brandon was in the club at

shooting. >> christine, we're praying for you. >> he told me that -- >> go ahead. >> -- he told me he just happened to be in the bathroom, he heard multiple gunshots. he was able to run out the front door. while he was standing by the club door and the ambulances were coming in, he saw that my son's boyfriend had multiple gunshots and was being taken by the ambulance. but he never saw christopher come out. we haven't been able to call him or text him. >> we'll do everything we can to help find him as well, christine. we're praying with you. we feel so badly. our hearts go out to you. thank you for sharing what you

>> i just wanted to say that this is a club that nobody wants to be in and please, can we do something with the assault weapons so that we can stop this club from ever getting any new member members. please. i wanted to let you know about my son when he was in high school, he started the gay straight alliance. and he won the anna frank humanitarian award to bring gays and straights together. i've been so proud of him for that thing.

please let's all just get along. we're all on this earth for such a short time. let's try to get rid of the hatred and the violence. plea please. >> christine, your words are so powerful. it's so clear your heart is breaking. we're thinking of you. we're with you. know that your words have been heard. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> a remarkable young man. let's move back now. i want to go to brad garrett. we just heard those words from the mom who was dealing with this. no word from her son. it's so hard to sort through these scenes after the fact. >> and the problem, george, sadly so, as time goes on, and

one dark place. i'm sure that's what she's feeling. i sensed it in her voice. you know, that you got 50 plus people that have not been identified, maybe some have at this point. it is, i will tell you for emergency services and local law enforcement, it's one of the worst things but necessary to do. which is to go through the mass casualties, look at these h horribly maimed bodies and figure out identities of people so they can then go to relatives, to aunts, uncles, to loved ones and give them the facts. when you have this many -- it's one thing to have four, five, six that we typically talk about at a school shooting. now you have 50 plus this will take, i think, most of today to probably sort that out. >> brad garrett, thank you. i'm here with dr. jen ashton,

all the hospitals train for this but you can't really be prepared for this kind of devastation. >> absolutely. i want to take everyone back to the scene. you have to understand and appreciate from the perspective of the ems system and the first responders the primary principle guiding them as they arrive on this scene, is the scene safe? and they cannot actually go on to that scene unless it is secured because they don't want to add to the number of victims and casualties there. it's also very important for people to understand in a hospital setting we have every possible instrument at our disposal. we have a sterile, organized scenario and situation even in a mass casualty trauma like this. those paramedics and emts who responded to that scene and likely did save a lot of lives had none of those things at their disposal. for them to do the work they did, in some cases in what we call load and

immediately to the hospital, in other cases, stabilize them, stable intravenous access and airway, that's incredibly difficult. >> we heard from the eyewitness earlier, these wounds significant. the ammunition, very heavy am natio ammunition, severing off arms. >> this is information and experience that we've gotten from military war casualties. when those patients arrive at the door of a level one trauma center like orlando regional medical center, it's the only level one trauma center in central florida, one of six in the state, they're prepared to get a patient from the door to the o.r. table in minutes. people talk about surgeons and nurses here. make no mistake, every person at that medical center is called in in what is called a disaster code or mass casualty code. we are trained for this. they are all doing an

job. those o.r.s need to be cleaned promptly, housekeeping, blood bank resources mobilized, and we cannot forget the skill and role of mental health professionals here. we've seen with some of the eyewitnesss and first responders significant emotional wounds, not just physical wounds in a case like this. >> i want to go back to brian ross right now. i know you've been working your sources since this went on. so far no claims of responsibility from an overseas group. >> that's right. no claims at all. the u.s. scouring the normal sites looking for claims or communications from the person identified as the shooter or an overseas group. they know isis has been kochb conducting a war on

their propaganda and material. they have regularly stoned gays found in iraq and syria, thrown them off rooftops, they say that is a legal action because of the sins they say the gays committed under sharia law. >> the scene there, so much c n carnage in such a short period of time. not much the police could do in those initial minutes. >> no, george, it's not. it's a horrible tragedy when police have to confront a situation like this that's ongoing. there's been recent moves to train police and emergency medical techniques, so that as they are clearing and securing a location, they can provide emergency care. when you have this many casualties and an unstable situation like this, it's difficult to provide that care even if you train for it. >> you worked in the federal government, counterterroism center as well.

that will be done after the fact now. not only in orlando but across the country. >> well, first investigators will want to get the details of what happened here. was this an individual who was recruited and trained? was this somebody who became self-radicalized and inspired by what he saw on social media or learned off the internet. you will see an increase in security at soft targets. as brian was saying, isis has in their propaganda called for attacks on the homosexual community, called for attacks on nightclubs, restaurants and hotels. we've seen these attacks in other parts of the world and europe. so while the idea of a home-grown attack is not anything new, you will see calls for increased security at these soft targets. police will be wrestling with that if not immediately but within the

days. >> we are joined as well by commissioner ray kelly. picking up on that point, commissioner kelly, it's impossible to guard every single soft target. i know you had experience in new york of increasing police presence in places like times square, but you can't guard every con sooeceivable target. >> you're right. that's why you need to tap all your sources. we need the fbi and cia overseas to continue to do what they've been doing to get any bit of information that can tip us off or give us an indication where another event may be happening. it's extremely difficult. as we said before, individuals have been motivated to act on their own. it doesn't mean they're communicating with anyone else. communication is the key to

if there's encryption used or if people are not communicating with other folks, it's very, very difficult to do. even so, i think law enforcement has to do what it can do to at least give the feeling of security at locations that are sensitive. i think certainly the lgbt community, i think, there are locations in most cities that would require some increased police attention. now, i think we'll see that in the short-term. >> so if you were on point in new york city today, what kinds of things would you do right off? >> first of all, you talk to your commanders, see what issues they may have on a local on the ground level. you also talk to leaders of various communities in the city, nypd, muslim advisory council, plus into those folks.

as well. you want to get their feedback but also give them a sense that law enforcement will be focusing on their specific issues. so -- you recovcover as many locations as you can with increased uniform presence. >> ray kelly, thank you very much. >> i want to bring in richard clark. this appears to be the worst terror attack here in the united states since 9/11. since that time, now 15 years ago, you're seeing a real evolution. you have the direct top-down orders from al qaeda to try to take out the twin towers, moving on to coordinated attacks in europe, now this proliferation of lone wolves here in the united states. we had san bernardino back in december, as well. which had always been the nightmare scenario for counterterroism experts, people taking guns

unprotected areas and carrying off large scale killings. >> it's a nightmare scenario. there's almost nothing you can do to stop it. if the shooter is self-motivated, the only tie the shooter has to al qaeda and isis is that they go on radical websites, there's virtually no way for the fbi or law enforcement intelligence in general to identify these people in advance. now, he did buy an automatic weapon apparently, which is illegal, but happens all the time in this country. therefore you have to ask what could the fbi -- what could anybody have done to catch this in advance? the answer may be -- it's too early to tell -- but the answer may be when the investigation is done that there is nothing we could have done to stop this. that's a contrast to

in europe, we see terrorist cells, people coming in from syria, outside the countries. this man apparently was born here in the united states. in europe we see cells organizing, communicating with each other. there are ways that people can detect that. people in their own mosques can detect it. when you have one guy like this, if he was -- even if he was going to a mosque -- we don't know that yet, it's possible no one could have detected his intention to did this in advance. >> there was one hint from peter king several minutes ago, all they could say is that they had indication that he had some training with these weapons. that can be monitored to some degree as well. >> can be. but i live in rural virginia, people are always out shooting guns. what's training?

what's hunting? it's too early for us to make judgments. i think when all of the investigation is done here, it will take days for them to do his entire personal history and contact everyone he ever met, look at the internet, telephone, credit card activity, when the investigation is over, i would not be surprised if this guy was just self-activated. you know, that can happen. it's actually surprising how little it happens. >> that is really the point right there. we know officials like you have served inside the federal government and have been wondering for years why this wasn't happening more often and earlier. >> yeah. our fear has always been shopping malls, people coming out of sporting events, places that you just can't guard. this club apparently did have an off-duty policeman guarding it.

in the way of security in a place like this. we can't have metal detectors, large numbers of armed people protecting every place where a couple hundred people will get together. it's a terrible challenge. the only way we ultimately, over the long-term deal with this, is changing the ideology. getting through to these people who may be persuaded by isis and da'esh ideology and giving them the counter narrative. telling them that islam really doesn't want them to do this. getting imams to explain to them that this is entirely against their religion. the people who are telling them that this is what islam is about are lying to them about the real and historic nature of islam. that's the only way at the end of the day we can stop this sort of thing. >> thank you, richard clark. pierre thomas, we know u.s. officials have been doing everything they can to identify these individuals who might be out there, might be

to that kind of radicalization. >> exactly. i just spoke with a senior official, there's a great amount of resolve to get to the bottom of this, but also i sensed great sadness as well. i'm being told that homeland security secretary jay johnson is in the office right now as we speak trying to get information. you can expect in the coming days as they get more information for this to be expanded out throughout law enforcement and the country to give them a sense of how this went down. how this suspect attacked these people. so that best practices can be learned. again, we don't know the specific intent here. terrorism is being looked at. the social media angle is being looked at. but this notion that isis has been using social media to inspire people on a daily basis to do something, troubled souls as the fbi director calls them, has been a simmering concern. now with san bernardino and if this turns out to be somehow inspired through social