extremely busy. but las vegas police seemed to have a handle on the crowds. they have high fences up. we were used to seeing that at festivals. they don't want lookie lous to be able to stand on the sidewalk and see the festival. so they had high fences set up, something that you definitely couldn't avoid off the las vegas strip, because it was a very large festival. it's less than a mile away from that iconic "welcome to las vegas" sign. i was heading down to the sign when i was stopped by police, to let literally what seemed like hundreds of people cross from the lux or hotel. a lot of people were in town for the festival, dressed up, very festive, drinks in hand. >> as

were having a great time. we want to switch over to matt gutman in las vegas. also there originally for o.j. simpson being released. what are you hearing? >> caller: i'm seeing something very strange. there are zero planes in the sky. all planes are being held at their destination. and right now traffic is horrific. it's being chopped up by hundreds of police cars streaming to this area. what seems to be the pervading idea right now is that there is mass chaos. there was tremendous confusion and a lot of fear. police officers are telling us that they don't know what's going on. we're hearing reports of shots fired at multiple different locations. as you guys have heard reported, automatic weapons. i'm seeing an ambulance scream away from the location. i don't know what's inside. but clearly this is a city right

a terrorist assault but certainly under a tremendous amount of fear, not knowing what's going on and what is gripping the city. >> matt, i can imagine it is chaotic, chaotic scene. i'm not sure how far you are from this location on the strip. but tell us a little bit about this particular area. i know it's fairly close to the mccarron airport, which explains the ground stop. but theis is a popular part of the strip. >> caller: it's an important note to make. and it actually overlooks the mccarron airport. you can throw a baseball from the window of the mandalay and have it land inside the airport basically, it is that close. which has always been a concern, which is why sometimes when things go wrong at the airport people at the mandalay film it and use it. so there is extreme proximity to the airport itself. but there are a number of hotels right in that area, which obviously makes it a sensitive location. las vegas is a sensitive location just

in america, tremendous number of people in and out every day. and there is always, you know, a heightened awareness here. but right now i don't think any of us have ever seen something like this in this particular town. and one of my producers was really surprised by the tenor and the tone of one of the police officers saying you've got to take cover, we don't know what's going on here. people are being evacuated from multiple hotels right where she was at the strip. it thin things like this don't happen. and it's hard to stress enough the confusion right now. we've been listening to the scanners, and officials aren't quite sure what is going on, other than there are apparently assailants with automatic weapons, using them on full automatic in multiple locations and people hurt. >> this is

a half after we've gotten the reports. are you hearing that this is still an active shooter situation and they do not have anybody in custody? >> caller: yes, to our knowledge there is no one at this time who is in custody. doesn't mean they haven't secured the location, but they have not reported to the press that there is anybody in custody or that either mandalay or any of the other hotels that they have evacuated at this point are secure. in fact, it seems right now no place is secure, just trying to get around the city is basically impossible because there are some many police checkpoints. >> you mentioned our producer jennifer talking to the reaction of the police officers and the fear in their eyes. we're hearing from one of our colleagues escorted through the kitchen of the mgm, hiding in a room. there are tourists saying they have to stay inside. what's the mood there like. if the police officers are fearful, how are the people

las vegas right now? >> caller: i think the police officers are fearful, because no one is quite sure what is going on. what typically happens in a situation like this, and this is anywhere in the world where there is either an active shooter situation or a terrorist situation is that there, i'm not, they're not copycat instances, but people think that they hear something, they report it to the police, and then the police have to report it on their scanners and to others, just to alert them. it doesn't necessarily mean that there are active shooters in multip multiple locations across the city. there may be, but we don't know that just yet. all we know is there are alerts and evacuations in multiple places and what police and authorities try to do in these situations is just make sure th that everybody is first safe. get them out of harm's way, get people hunkering down in kitchens or storage units or wherever they can find, shelter

and then the police try to go and ascertain where the shooters are and tack teams try to take them down. we are trying to keep everybody safe and figure out how many shooters there are and where they are located. >> you've covered many mass casualty situations. and this is in the early stages, but based on some of the images we're seeing right now, it's got to be, even for people who have seen this sort of stuff happen, it's got to be particularly troubling. you had so many people there at an open area, at a concert, on a busy, busy place in this country, on the vegas strip, and rapid fire gunshots. incredible. >> caller:isten, aga >> caller: this is the most terrifying thing that could happen in a city like this. obviously, you fear for anybody who has

there have been casualties at this point. we don't know their fate, and you fear the fate of the city. it subsists on tourism. and if there's an attack like this here, that is a significant threat to the livelihood of the city. and obviously, right now, everybody's concerned with figuring out what is going on and how to stop it. but this, yes, this is essentially the nightmare scenario that the city could only have dreamed of or had a nightmare of. but their is what authorities have prepared for. i know the atf is sending officials, the fbi has people heading to the scene as well. there are multiple agencies working on this as well. everywhere you look, you see cruisers streaming to the mandalay or in that direction. so there are hundreds and hundreds of police officers. and dozens of ambulances there as well right now. >> we did hear from kenneth moten who was there earlier

festival and was talking about how heavy the police presence was in and on the other haaroun. there's no lack of attention paid to this or no lack of experts on the ground. we're left baffled. >> we want to hear from some eyewitnesses there on the scene as the gunshots started ringing out. if we have that clip, let's play that real quickly. [ sirens ] >> yeah, i was at the tropicana hotel. paging my taxi. i seen a lot of people running in the opposite direction of the harvest festival. they had a worried look on their faces. i tried to stop anyone, try to find out what was going

somebody finally stopped. they told mie, machine gun fire. i could smell the smoke. whether it was gunfire or something else, i don't know, but that's, i did recognize the smoke as gunfire. it was a rapid machine gun sound. brrrrrr. it wasn't the old-style machine gun out of world war ii. i was able to get two people into my cab. i tried to get more people into my cab. i was unable to. they were zoned out. they had, it was as though they had one thing on their mind, get away from the area, as far as possible. but, you know, i have been told by law enforcement that this would happen, it was a matter of when, when a situation like this would happen.

so i had planned ahead of time to evacuate as many people as i could. i was able to help out two people, two passengers in my cab. i'm half deaf, and i could hear the machine gun fire, and i thought, here we go. here we go. you know, a lot of people are going to get hurt, a lot of people are going to die and which i have already seen the video of. it's unfortunate. it really is. but it's survival mode out there. you know, survival instincts kick in. i did not have time to be afraid. i had time to evacuate people in my cab. and that's what i do for a living. >> that man may have saved lives today. >> possibly. >> just to bring people up to speed for anyone just joining us, we're looking at an

shooter situation currently going on in las vegas. we're hearing reports of multiple casualties after somebody opened fire at a country music festival. at least 20 people are reportedly shot and they expect the number to climb. >> that indeed. and these are some of the new images coming in to our studios here. this is when we first got the sense that this is going to be a homosexu horrible situation. you can see those tiny little specks running for cover. most alarming for me, listening to that cabdriver, not too far from the mandalay bay, saying he's half deaf and he could hear all of that rapid fire coming at them, and no doubt a lot of people were injured. >> we're looking into the possibility of automatic weapons, machine guns having been used in the attack.

sound that way. but we want to bring over brad garrett, former fbi agent who's helping analyze the situation. what do you make of what you've heard so far in terms of what happened here? >> caller: it may appear that you may have more than one shooter, but despite what it is, multiple shooters, single shooter, when you go to a scene like this, the difficulty is, what do we really have, and how do i keep the officers and emergency service personnel safe while you figure out what you do have. it is just a nightmare. till you get juyour hands aroun exactly what this is. so the police are as much behind the eight ball as the people at the scene, just immediately gathering intelligence. what did you see? what did you hear? like the cabdriver, what information do we have as to what this is? there were comments earlier that there might be

one location. but is he or she the only shooter? so the key is, what do you have and how kickly can you figure out before you have more casualties? >> and right now, the las vegas police department is treating it as an active shooter situation. we were talking to matt gutman on scene, and he was saying this is sort of a nightmare situation for the authorities there in las vegas. you have this open-air concert with thousands of people, a busy, warm night in las vegas on the strip. kind of the scenario for a terrible situation, isn't it? >> caller: there's really no question about it. and also can be very difficult to control. you know, you have other shooters at other locations? are people walking in to harms wa way? you just don't now until you get a better handle on intelligence. how many players

how do you neutralize them and how do you get all of these injured people? this is a scenario where i'll be shocked if you don't have multiple fatalities. >> it certainly looks like it's heading that way. brad, we were talking a little bit about how you respond to something like this after it happens, but how do you prevent something like this from happening to begin with? from what we're hearing it sounds like this festival had a very heavy police presence. our correspondents on the ground are talking about nearly every intersection is blocked. how much more can you do? >> caller: you shop these kinds of shooters because you know about them in advance. but depending on what the motivation was, depending on how much information the shooter or shooters gave to other people or said to other people, whatever it might be, if you don't know that, that is the real dilemma with every

shootings, typically, we don't know about them until they occur. but there's always information out there about them. in other words, somebody said something to someone. they had to acquire the weapons. did they go train? i'm saying we don't know that yet. but the whole idea is, pieces of information that somebody was about to do this. i guarantee you, in some form or fashion, is out there. and that never got to the police. >> and brad, give us a sense of what's -- hold on. listen to this video. do you guys hear that? that is during the concert. we're going to re-rack that and have you listen to it again. it just gives you chills. that is during the concert, what appears to sound like gunfire and hear how rapid it is. listen, folks

>> it's hard to even comprehend that that could be gunfire. >> brad, i'm not sure if you could hear that or if you saw that video, but, as you listened to that, you think, what? >> caller: i think that you could kill literally dozens of people every few seconds, or grave l gravely injure them. that's the other horror. it's probably going to be an assault rifle type weapon which usually carries heavy damage to the people hit, because of the caliber and velocity of the bullets. so as a result, it's going to be a horrific number of people injured and/or killed, yes. >> does the use of this kind of weapon narrow down what kind of

>> caller: not yet. you couldn't really tell from the gunfire if you were listening to the original footage maybe the type. but it doesn't matter to the fact that there are so many assault weapons you can get your hands on. so the idea that somebody would show up at this concert in nevada with an automatic weapon is just unfortunately, easy to do. getting in might be one issue, however, obviously, this shooter or shooters had no problem getting in. >> that indeed. our brad garrett there, former fbi agent and consultant joining us right now to give us his expertise on this multiple mass shooting situation that is playing out in las vegas. we've just got that new video that was absolutely chilling. brad, thank you. we'll get back to you in a few moments. >> we want to head back to matt gutman on the ground i

vegas near the area where this happened. what's the latest you're hearing? >> caller: basically what you guys are. from the hospitals we're hearing that there are at least 20 casualties have been brought in and that number is apparently growing. again, no confirmation yet that the shooter or shooters are down. or that they have been located. it's still an active shooter situation. that doesn't mean that there is an active shooter on the ground, but it does mean batten down. now just listening to that video, i've spent, you know, the better part of a decade in the middle east and i've embedded a lot. i've also met with a lot of terrorists, and anybody who's received any significant amount of training never puts their gun or their automatic weapon on full auto. it is a sound that you rarely hear in combat, unless you are talking about extraordinarily close quarters, in which, forgive me for the phrase, but it's shooting fish in a barrel or this person is

sowing mass terror. i'm talking clinically here. if the purpose is to kill you choose your shots, put it on semi-auto, point, aim, shoot. so this is something that we don't frequently hear in situations like this. first of all, it's very hard to get a gun that is full auto. you can reconfigure a weapon in america to make it automatic. it's difficult to do, there are certain licenses you can get to buy a weapon. but in general, that is a rare sound to hear and very, very disconcerting. >> that, it is. and matt, i do want to point out once again, you have experience. many a war zones, and as you listen to that, that does sound as if, not to get you the sort of predict what you're listening to, but that sounds as if somebody has placed their

>> it sounds like, if that is an automatic rifle and it sounds like one. i'm listening to it right now. it certainly sounds like one. begin, i wasn't there. i'm not hearing it first person but it sounds like automatic fire. i don't know if you can count the number of bullets, but i'm wondering if the person was able to change a clip, how many magazines they had on them. if they are on full auto, it is extremely likely that person brought multiple magazines with them and had a tremendous or significant amount of ammunition, and we seem to be, the casualties seem to bear that out at least now. >> it is possible there was more than one shooter involved in this as well. so that situation is still unfolding, but matt, we're hearing from people hunkered down in their hotels on lockdown mode, hiding in kitchens,

in many roo in rooms, what are you hearing? >> there's a gas station here, dozens of people outside, they look like teenagers, young people on their phone. it doesn't seem to be chaos here at the moment. but people seem to be bewildered. they're in going-out outfits. high heels, short skirts. guys in tee shirts and jeans. people were clearly out revelling tonight, either in the concert or taking in nightlife that vegas has to offer. so the scene here, there's immense amounts of traffic and another police roadblock. it's impossible to get to the strip right now. and basically, i think everybody's trying to figure out what's going on, and frankly, we also. we're going to get you the latest reporting as soon as we get

to get to the strip. because police are encouraging people not to go near the area again. their is happening in the area of the mandalay bay and tropicana. our thank you to matt gutman on the ground. we also want to go to linzie janis. what have you seen so far? >> caller: so i was just landing. i guess my flight landed around 10:30 this evening. and so that was right before they put that ground stop into effect. and so when we came out, there was a long line at the taxi stand, so there were cabdrivers informing people for the first time who were unaware of what happened that you cannot get anywhere near the strip. where are you staying and what hotel are you trying to go to? because there are an um number people shell-shocked and displaced. you can't get anywhere near the strip.

tropicana and southbound. i'm told that roughly four miles of highway has been shut down. initially, when we landed, just a little over an hour ago, it was just mandalay bay, but since then, luxor, tropicana, excalibur among several hotels that have been evacuated. and the way that the airport is positioned, there are an um in -- number of runways that butt up to the mandalay property. so there were reports that when the gunfire initially broke out that people started running to the runway, because it's that close to the airport. so just a lot of chaos. i'm not near the scene, but -- talking about what they've heard and the hospital beds, not being enough at the primary hospital that they're trying to find locations for additional 20 or 30 more people who are injured.

ascertain exactly how much devastation there is here. >> that indeed. is there a, talking to the control room here briefly. we see this new video. is there audio on this video as well, guys? >> for a moment it sounded like you could hear some gunshots there. linzywe lindsey davis had arrived just moments after the shooting. i believe it is gunshots you're hearing. we're going to re-rack that and play it for you. because that is absolutely chilling. you can see people scrambling and jumping to the ground there. >> our thanks to linzie on the ground. we have an eyewitness who is there. quinn, do we have you? >> yeah, i'm here. >> can you tell us a little bit about what you heard and

>> caller: i'm here with my girl friend, we're from canada, from bc. we were toward the back of the festival when this was all happening. we at the main stage, but the way it was situated we were on the bleachers, which were i'd say 400, 500 yards from the main stage. we heard what we thought were firecrackers. and we thought i guess that's nothing. and about two or three seconds later it started again and the gentleman behind us said that's gunfire, everybody get down. at that point, jason aldean was on stage, he ran off. everybody on the bleachers hit the deck. my girlfriend went down. i shielded her. behind me i heard something, equipment dropping or it could have been a ricochet. it was happening at the same time, so i couldn't tell you. the burst ended.

we got up, thayer were was a st, basically. people trying to run underneath the bleachers. we were going the back way behind the vendors and stuff like that. got back on the strip, we kept hearing bursts. just basically kept running. didn't really hide anywhere. we decided to get as far away as we could. and we ended back at the hotel. i'd rather not say which hotel. we're back here and up in our room, and i haven't heard anything else. i've got my brother back home on the police scanner giving me updates. >> so we're talking to quinn there who was visiting las vegas with his girlfriend from british columbia. in the meantime we are looking at images from ktnv, the first images we've seen since two hours ago when all this started playing out.

virtually shut down. quinn, were you on the bleachers, you hear what sounded li like several roiunds of rapid fire. who was targeted? concert-goers? >> it was everywhere, every five, six seconds it would be another ten-second burst. it has to be, i'm thinking machine gun fire or automatic fire, because it was a lot of pops and a lot of bullets really quickly. i'm thinking that's where it was from. at least ten or eleven burst i'd say. >> were you able to hear where it was coming from? did it sound like an elevated position or someone on the ground? >> caller: it sounded like it was coming from the mandalay bay at first when we were at the festival. but we kept running away. whether we we whether we were running

the direction of the tropicana. then we ran the other way. we did a u-turn up the other way. but i don't know if they might have seen another shooter. but it was pretty chaotic. it sounded like it was coming -- >> it sounded like it was coming from everywhere quinn is saying. and this one update from the university medical center. obviously, there are several hospitals in the las vegas area. the this is from one hospital, umc has 26 victims transported there. so far, two people are dead, 24 injured. this has become a fatal mass shooting situation there in las vegas. if we still have quinn with us, i did have one more question i wanted to ask. did you get a sense, quinn, i know everybody kind of ducked for cover, did any of the folks that you saw, did you actually see someone get shot? >> caller: i didn't, no. outside of the ricochet and when we were running

focussed, honestly on our hotel. >> did jason aldean or anybody else say anything? as i assume they were rushing off the concert stage. >> caller: no, he ran off the stage. the stage lights went black. it was pandemonium. >> and watching the video, it actually took a second to realize that that was the gunfire. so many bullets being fired so quickly. how long did it take you guys on the ground, i know you said initially you thought it was firecrackeres. did the crowd all realize at once this was gunfire? >> caller: yeah, after the second burst, like i said, i only got a good view of what was going on around me on the bleachers. everybody got on top of who they co. i g could. i got on top of my girlfriend. and once that burst ended everybody got up.

hotel right now. this thing happened about two hours ago. your girlfriend's there with you. i can imagine that both of you have got to be going through some sort of chills. give me a sense of the emotions, having experienced what you experienced, that you're going through right now? >> caller: we feel reasonably safe where we are now, ever since we've come up here, i've taken sit taken seats at the window. you could hear a pin drop. i looked out at the strip. i don't sigh anyboee anybody ba from where i'm situated. so i mean, we're doing the best we can, i would say. i think i'm okay. i'm worried for her and her emotional well-being but i think we're okay. >> we're glad to hear that. especially in the midst of the injuries we're starting to get reports about. we're glad you and your girlfriend are okay. and we thank you so much for calling in to us

letting us know what happened. >> caller: no problem, guys, thank you. >> it is the top of the hour. we want to remind you, this is abc news, special report of an active shooter situation taking place on the las vegas strip, it happened at a concert, a country music festival. jason aldean on stage as rapid fire gunfire could be heard right there, coming from the mandalay bay area. and the update that we're getting from the las vegas police department, just within the last few moments is that at least one active shooter is no longer. that shooter is down. but they're still warning people to stay awhat from the las vegas strip. >> they had been looking at the possibility that this was multiple shooters. so that is a possibility. also the possibility that automatic weapons were used in this attack. but we've been listening to the video. it sounds like machine gun fire. but we're hearing from the university medical center hospital in the area. they are reporting 26 victims

transported to the hospital. currently, two dead, 24 injured. that's only one hospital in the area. we're looking at multiple casualties, potentially multiple fatalities. two people dead. the whole thing happened during the harevest 91, route 91 festivals. we heard that jason aldean was on stage. we know he and his team are okay. but jake owen, multiple artists have come out with sending their prayers to the victims, jake owens saying praying for everyone here in vegas. i witnessed the most unimaginable event tonight. we are okay. others aren't. please pray. >> a lot of people are feeling the same sentiments, that they experienced something they will never forget, including quinn there from british colombi

we want to bring in steve gomez, we've talked on many occasions after an active shooter situation. this has been the most homosexual situati horrible situation. >> caller: this is something we've always feared. there's an event, a more people than normal, such as this route 91 festival. quite possibly, there were many, many people like super bowl and so on. this is definitely something they were hoping would never happen and it's happened. >> we are awaiting a briefing from the police department. but we have heard one suspect is down. they're confirming that. what do you make of that, the

now they have a suspect down? >> caller: what probably happened, reason why we know at least one suspect is down. when you have a situation like this where you have just multiple shots fired, it sounds like rapid fire. clips were being loaded and unloaded into the weapon. the police, when they responded, they realized they had to take immediate action. they had to form a two-person or four-person team to immediately go toward the shots, where the shots were coming from. because they realized people were down, people were getting killed or at least injured. i think there's at least one person that's died. and they had to take action immediately to prevent further harm. and so when they made that entry, they had confronted the attacker and they probably killed them. >> so at this point, we know that the atf is sending some agents there. they have agents on scene, obviously, the las vegas

situation there. how does it play out? who takes charge at this point? what do they do in the immediate hours after this? >> caller: well, vegas metro is definitely going to be in charge right now given where we are at. and not knowing exactly what the motive was of this attack. fbi, atf, all the agencies are going to rally together with the metro pd. >> i'm going to cut you off and go to a briefing taking place right now with las vegas metro. >> partners with multiple agencies have responded to reports of an active shooter situation at the mandalay bay. i can tell you at this time we do have a suspect down. our officers can confirm that for you. but i understand the people of las vegas want to help. i see a lot of people out here coming down wanting to help. please steer clear of the area. we have all the resources from las vegas metropolitan police department as well

partner agencies coming down to bear on this situation. so please, stay away from the area. we have had reports of people coming down trying to help. we got that, so we're good right now. but we have numerous victims right now. i don't have a number for you on that. but please keep their families and them in your thoughts as we work our way through this problem. once i have more information to come back, i will come back and give you that information at this time. but as of now, what i can confirm is we do have one suspect down and we want people to steer clear of the area. >> are there other suspects? >> there you have it. the live and brief briefing i might say from las vegas police there on the situation. confirming, yes, a suspect is down. sadly confirming there are numerous victims, encouraging us to have the victims' family members and friends in our thoughts and prayers after this active shooter situation in vegas. >> and of course as the pol

asking people to stay away from the area. many people in the area want to help. they're coming out to see what they can do. the police are saying the best you can do is stay off the street for now. we have heard from colleagues in the ya the area that are hunkered down in hotels and kitchens and so forth. >> our matt gutman is near the mandalay bay. he joins us now live. what's the situation there? all right, a little problem getting matt's audio up there. he just arrived on the scene there. i would say within the last 40 minutes. took a little benefit difficultdifficult -- bit of difficulty as you might expect. police sealed off the area. they didn't know where the shooting was coming from

initially. >> they had several hotels on lockdown, intersections on lockdown. flights currently into mccarron airport have been grounded. flights have been detained at their points of origin, and police are asking people to stay away from the area. >> we're hearing 26 injuries from the university medical center in las vegas. 26 people, 24 people injured, rather, and two people are dead. and that's from one area hospital. they are expecting that number to climb. but it sounds like we have matt back. let's check back in with hem, matt gutman at mandalay bay. what's the latest on what you're hearing and seeing there? >> reporter: i just heard a harrowing story from an eyewitness who was at the concert, the jason aldean concert. he said they were all at the concert, not far away from the stage when suddenly they thought they heard

it was automatic gunfire. he's from alaska and familiar with weapons. and he knew it was automatic gunfire. it was confirmed to him when the man standing right next to him was shot three times in the chest. the man says i was hit, he goes down, this man, mike, takes off his shirt, they try to plug the wounds and they immediately start moving him to a different location, over a fence and under the stage to take cover. in the meantime, he describes this absolutely chaotic scene, people trampling each other. all the while, nobody is aware where the shooting is coming from. mike now thinks the shooting was coming from the hotel, down at the revelers at the concert. that is full automatic gunfire right at the people down below. that's why you have such high numbers of casualties. mike said they heard this man, he's familiar with weapons.

multiple shooters. but he heard reloading. gunfire would stop and would resume. they tried to evacuate his friend, the man who was shot three times. they finally found a pickup truck. there was a man in the pickup truck who was also shot. and he died in his arms. it was a chaotic scene and police couldn't tend to the wounded. they were just trying to get to the scene to isolate the gunman, to find out who and how many people were shooting and where from. finally, they managed to get the victim that did survive, his friend, to an ambulance, and he was whisked away. so far he has survived. but this man, the look in his eyes is pretty telling about the chaos and this harrowing, horrific experience that so many people experienced tonight. >> wow, and that's just absolutely chilling for him to have to experience that. matt, as you listen to that sort

that sort of stuff before, because oyou've covered war areas. our brad garrett was saying several dozens of people might be getting hit by the second. based on what you've seen already and the folks that you've talked with, the numbers are sadly going to go up as far as casualties, aren't they? >> reporter: the hospital said they expect the number of casualties to grow. right now we have two confirmed dead, 24 wounded. that is likely to grow, not necessarily so, but likely to grow. when you hear that kind of automatic gunfire, what it tells me is that this person is not that well trained. i don't know what kind of weapon they were using, but if it really was automatic gun fire from high up, down into a group of people, your aim is not very good. so i don't exactly know what was happening there. all we know is that eyewitnesses, police and others seem to confirm that there was automatic gunfire. that is what people on the

they're confirming that to us and what we have seen are apparently multiple injuries and wounds from automatic gunfire, ripping through people. it is rifle fire. that is definitely confirmed at this time. how many shooters there were and where they were posted is unclear. let's he let's hear some of the sound from this man i interviewed, mike. >> we were at the concert, jason aldean was playing. sounded like fireworks going off. i think there was the first volley and all of a sudden a second volume eyley, my buddy w like, i got hit. lots of people were getting hit. it took a while to get them out. we had to get them over the fence and hiding under the stage for a while to be safe. finally we had to move, we got four people in the back of a truck. then we got turned around ca

shooter. we couldn't go down the street. we finally got an ambulance right across the street here. got two of the guys in, and basically, the one guy ended up dying in my arms, because he, he was bleeding. and my buddy got in there. three more people in the ambulance. my buddy's going to be okay. >> the guy who got hit three times is going to be okay? >> yeah. >> reporter: perhaps a small silver lining. in the background you may be able to hear ambulances and fire engines moving toward the scene. this is still very much an active scene right now. the police checkpoint behind me. people are condpre gaiting, trying to figure out what's going on. they are being blocked from going to the strip. there's another fire and res kh cue going to the scene. and what you heard from mike

it took a while to evacuate the wounded because the gun tifire seemed to be going on for a significant period of time to make them fear that there may be multiple shooters. many of the officers out here, some have a.r.s. and you can't go up against somebody who's armed with assault rifle when you have a pistol. so the police weren't, it seems, capable of moving that quickly to take this person down. but i'm sure the tactical teams did move in quickly enough. we do have it confirmed that a shooter is down. we don't know how many shooters there were, but at least one of the shooters from tonight's attack appears to be down. that according to the las vegas police department. hopefully this event is over. but clearly the cleanup and investigation is going to go on for many hours, possibly

hopefully there weren't others wounded and taken to other areas and now need immediate assistance. hopefully all those people have been picked up and evacuated to the hospital. >> such a chilling situation. we're looking at more video right now coming in of people running for cover and i can imagine, matt, that it's just a chaotic situation there with people just walking around. many people bloodied. really briefly, what does it look like on the las vegas strip on this early monday morning? >> reporter: i can't even get to the strip right now. >> got it. >> reporter: the strip is probably closed off. my produce ir jenna was at the strip and was told to evacuate, move as quickly as possible. that's what we've seen at these landmark hotels and casinos. caesars, mandalay, new york new york. all these places were under

of the night. i don't know if they've opened up. a lot of people standing behind my. maybe javier can move the camera. folks are waiting to hear, that's mike by the way, still sitting by us. i don't now if you are able to see that, you about he is covered with blood, having tried to stanch the wounds of his friend and try to keep that pressure on. but there's still lots of people here waiting to get into their hotel. so the scene is, it's a chaotic one. one in which people don't know what's going on. they don't know when they'll be going back to their hotels. and that entirely depends on the investigation and at what point the police are able to clear the scene and what point they're able to determine that there were no other shooters and that there's nobody else out in this town possibly with a long gun or any other type of weapon aiming to do harm. >> our matt gutman near the mandalay bay and the las vegas strip as we take a

layout of the route 91 harvest, where many were running for cover and many victims were hit. our brian ross is with us on this very early morning hour. you hear that gunfire and the atf is on the scene. this is a massive investigation. >> absolutely. the weapons experts we've been talking to indicate from the sound of the gunfire that this clearly is an automatic weapon, which is extremely difficult, even on the black market, to obtain. so one key question will be how did this person get that kind of weapon? often described as semi-automatic. but automatic, you can hear the sound thayeere, again and againd again. that is an automatic weapon. very difficult to obtain legally. if you have one legally, it takes years to get a license for a machine gun. that is a key question. at some point when they realize whoever the suspect is. >> absolutely chilling listening

let alone hearing those stories attached to it all. when you're looking at, this whole thing becomes a puzzle in trying to figure out how to prevent this from happening again. the weapon is clearly going to be part of this. we now have a suspect down. what are some of the keys to putting this together? >> the next step will be with the suspect down to see if that person has any identification, track that person back. does he have a phone? is there a computer at heis hom or wherever he was last residing? are there others? that will be the first question authorities will want to know. >> and that's a question i want to ask you. there were earlier reports that this was somebody, a sniperesque fire from one of the nearby buildings. you've been on the phone for much of the past hour with your sources. is there any indication that this was a high perch

>> there was police activity in a high floor, in the 30s, indicating something was happening in that altitude, high up shooting down. many perches there, you've been in hoteles in ls in las vegas. lot of perches. that will be key, to see if he has a phone, ties to somebody else and to track back the weapon which they seem to have obtained. >> we've had mass casualties situations before, it's in the early stages of this, but this is really different and disturbing how this one played out. >> this is stunning. and the fact, again of the automatic weapon. the death toll will be high because of the ability to shoot so many bullets in a minute. >> and we do know the atf is o

las vegas metro police, of course heading up the investigation in the early stages. we saw s.w.a.t. members there. this is a multiple agency investigation. >> all hands on deck. we'll learn at some point whether the fbi becomes involved, indicating that perhaps it was a terrorist case. if it was a different situation then the las vegas authorities will likely take the lead. if the fbi takes the lead, it will indicate to people in law enforcement this is some connection to terrorism. >> we're hearing from the governor, the governor is in contact with local law enforcement and the mayor of las vegas asking people to pray for las vegas. we have a witness with us who shot some of the video we've been looking at over the course of the morning. we don't have them. we'll check back in a moment. >> you see the video and realize what a horrifying situation. these are some of the first images that we s

alarming to us. this was from a shot from the mandalay bay hotel. an eyewitness who was staying there, looking down on the concert venue, and you see those people running for cover. at first many thought it was a firecracker and then the realization, this was a nightmare scenario. >> there have been attacks like this around the world. in india, there was a major attack several years ago with a gunman using automatic weapons which exponentially increases the toll of those injured or killed. >> we are hearing a lot of witnesses describing the same idea. they first think it's firecrackers. we hear that so frequently in shootings. in one case it was that quick succession of shots that triggered that realization. in another case the man had his friend get shot right in front of him. how do you manage a swraituatio like this when there are so many

many were unaware this was a shooting. >> first, find the gunman, two, treat those who have been injured, depending on the severity of their injuries. triage takes place, all hands on deck with law enforcement. and shooters at other locations, oftentimes, you'll get false reports, people hear thing or think they see things. they see people running and make assumptions. at this point, based on what the las vegas police department is saying, one suspect is down, and by down i assume that means he's dead. >> there was a very, very different sort of captioning of what this situation is right now. they went from active shooter to an active investigation. so it does appear as if that suspect might have been it. >> and the training has always been, go for the shooter at first. even if you have to run by people who are injured. officers are taught go for the shooter. >> you want to prevent them from injuring

and we do have that witness back. we've seen so. video you've shot today. can you tell us what it was like to actually be there? >> caller: oh, my gosh. there's no way to describe it. you see these things on tv, but to be in it, there's nothing like it. it's terrifying. and what you see on the video, we're watching jason aldean finish his set. and all of a sudden we hear something that sounds like firecrackers. and it sounds like an a.r. >> where were you at the moment? i assume at the moment you started capturing the sounds it wasn't because that was the first time you had heard those sounds. this was after several rounds i assume. >> caller: it crackled a little bit and i continued to shoot video. where we were, there was some kind of neon tent, a vip tent. and that faced directly where mandalay was. and that's where the sounds were coming from. even

shooter was. everybody bottlenecked. you could hear bullets coming throughout tent, going off bleachers, ricochetting. people with wheelchairs getting knocked over. and family members screaming they're in a wheelchair. there's nothing you can do to help people. the worst thing, all the walls in the location were about ten to 15 feet high. you just couldn't climb them. so everybody's in a bottleneck. we were just penned in. it was a kill box. >> wow, just a kill box. pretty strong words. what was it like when you heard, when you finally realized these were gunshots. it seems like it took a littwhio register. >> caller: jason aldean continued to play, so it was like, oh, that was feedback or something. right as

off again. and honestly, it's a blur. everything happened so fast. we just got out of there fast. i got separated from my fiance. i luckily found her. the scariest part is when we got out and ran across the street and to the tropicana hotel through side door, security was very, very nice, allowing everybody to take cover inside. but as we got in the hallway, we heard another pop pop, and it sounded like somebody was at the tropicana, the whole crowd started coming back toward us. we went, a glass door was cracked open. and we hid in the bushes for a while until we could get to my car which had my firearm in it at hooter's. my fiance and i hopped into the car, we ran to our house here in north

>> did it seem to you that this shooting was targeted? or did this seem completely random? >> caller: no, it was 100% random. the number of people in that crowd, you could have spiralled around in that crowd and hit multiple people off one round. think knew what think were doing. i have a lot of friends in the military, things they tell me, the way it went about. how long. we couldn't see any officers, but we knew it was a high-caliber weapon. the cops obviously ran toward the scene, but no one knew where to go, what to do. it was just, i've never seen, this is, i've never seen chaos like that before. you see it on tv. you never think it will happen to you. and all of a sudden you get caught up in the situation. with no escape. it's terrifying. >> did it seem like there was

>> caller: my fiance has bruises. she fell. i witnessed multiple people in wheelchairs getting flipped over, trampled. if you were climbing over people, there, i don't know how to compare it. there's nothing i had ever seen on tv or anything, even in a movie that compares the situation that we just saw. >> that's russell black who shot some of the early videos we've seen. he was there in the vip tent of the concert that was taking place near the mandalay bay. and the shots you could hear coming from a higher elevation, somewhere nearby the las vegas strip. russell, we appreciate your time and that you are safe and you and ruyour fiance are doing as well as possible. let's check in with

thomas. i know you've been checking with your sources. >> caller: they're telling us similar information that the las vegas police have put out. at least 20 people have been injured. they're expecting more. they are telling the local police that any assistance that they need, fbi, atf are available to provide. this is being treated as an extraordinary lay serious situation, obviously. and one source said that the local airports have been told to stop, you know, some of the traffic until they can figure out exactly what they have. in a situation like this, they would pursue the shooter at all costs to make sure they can contain it. they do not wait. police go in as quickly as possible and run toward the gunfire. that is what the training has been for mass shooting incidents like this across the country. law enforcement officials have been concerned about the

mass shootings in this country and what has been happening abroad. it is too early to say exactly what this is. because in this country we have all kinds of shootings that take place. but the federal government is very much engaged and gearing up and trying to get a sense of what this is and what this isn't. because it's critical to do so. >> do you know if they've been tracking anybody in particular that might do something like this? >> caller: there are always ongoing investigations, looking at situations like this. but as far as i can tell, there was no mass attack coming. and often as you now, sometimes these are lone wolf situations. we don't know exactly what this is. and they often happen without warning. >> and pierre, what do you make of this change in the investigation status now, going from an active shooter to an active investigation. what does that tell you? >> caller: well, look, that tells us that they have a sense of what's happening, but the fact that it's still considered active means that they're not

over. >> and pierre, you see some of this video and people running for cover everywhere. and you've covered many, many mass shooting situations. this, as we were talking with brian ross moments ago is a different, different situation. it almost seems like a war zone there on the las vegas strip. >> caller: well, the horror of these situations, you have an open society, a mass gathering, a concert, a hotel. these, this is the worst-case scenario that people in law enforcement worry about in terms of mass shooters. and a situation like this, there's nowhere for the victims to hide. nowhere for them to go. and they're completely vulnerable. that's why they put so much effort in trying to be proactive and investigate these kind of cases beforehand, because once they start to unfold

is so, so high. >> we heard one witness already call it a kill box. he felt like he was in a kill box. because once he figured out what was happening, the walls around them prevented them from running off like you might. sounds like kplee chaos. i want you to hang out for a second. we want to go over to the eyewitness that we spoke to earlier. he described what it was like when he heard the shots as he was standing next to his fiance. >> we were toward the back of the festival. the way it was situated we were on the bleachers which were with i would say 400,500 yards from the main stage. we heard what we thought it sounded like firecrackers, and everybody startled for a second and it went away and we like, okay, i guess that's nothing. h and two, three seconds again it started and a gentleman behind us said that's

down. jason aldean was on stage, he ran off, everybody hit the deck. my girlfriend went down, i went over top of her. i shielded her. and behind me i heard something, it could have been a ricochet. i couldn't tell you. the burst ended. again, we got up. there was like a stampede of people trying to run out the back, underneath the bleachers. we did that. basically followed the crowd out, through the back way, i guess, behind the vendors and stuff like that. got back on the strip. we kept hearing bursts, just basically kept running. didn't really hide anywhere. we decided to run and get as far away as we could. we ended up back at our hotel now. i'd rather not say which hotel it is. >> that's understandblinable. >> we're

i have my brother back home on the police scanner. >> we're talking to quinn there who was visiting las vegas with his girlfriend from british columbia. in the meantime, we looking at images from our afifiliate, ktn, the first images we've seen since two hours ago, and you can see the strip was virtually shut down. quinn, i want to get back to you. you were on the bleachers. you hear what sounded like several rounds of rapid fire gunfire shots. did it seem as if any particular part or area was being targeted? concert-goers who were there? >> caller: it was everywhere. we ran back the other direction from the festival. every five, six seconds it would be another ten-second burst. it has to be machine gun fire. there were a lot of pops quickly. i'm thinking that's where it

from. at least ten or eleven burst i'd say. >> he heard at least ten, eleven bursts. right there from quinn who was visiting from british columbia in bleachers. >> and i's nhe's not saying 12 shots. two dead, 24 people injured. >> at one hospital. there's several in the las vegas area. so >> that number absolutely could climb. we are awaiting a briefing from the las vegas police department that should be coming in the next ten minutes or so. we want to bring in brian ross here. you've heard him describing the shots. and we're talking about, you know, he's saying anywhere up to a dozen bursts of what sounds like automatic gunfire. by listening to the video and the eyewitness accounts, what are you

>> automatic weapons fire off as many as 600 a minute. if a person was shooting with this kind of frequency, it would suggest they had several magazines. were able to shoot, empty the magazine, reload, do it again. that's an incredibly powerful and dangerous weapon. in this country, it is illegal and even on the black market difficult to obtain. and they're difficult to convert. people have tried it, drug gangs that had access to them. there are some of course in the military stores. military warehouses, but not available to the public at all. >> we know there was security for the concert venue itself. as far as metal detectors, getting into that area. that's become the norm. as far as hotels and buildings in the las vegas strip area, how easy would it be to get an automatic weapon through security without anybody noticing? >> no one has thought o

a defense from an attack from the 32nd floor of a concert and people can bring all the luggage they want into a hotel. i've never seen anybody go through a metal scanner in a hotel and bring their luggage to a room. the difficult part would be obtaining a went like that and figuring out how to get enough ammunition. but listening to the sounds, which authorities have already started to do, try to figure out what kind of a weapon was this. and if they have the gunman down they likely have access to the weapon. >> how do you go about figuring out a motive for this? >> this is somebody who has an allegiance to an overseas terror group? somebody who has a beef with the hotel? a personal beef of some sort? you start to figure out what would be the possible motive. and it can be a wide range. doesn't necessarily have to be terrorism at all. it can be somebody who has some sort of an issue with, it could

be a hundred different reasons and motivations. >> i want to do the lay of the land for you and what las vegas was like over the weekend. our kenneth moten was just in las vegas, just a few hours ago and landed in los angeles. and kenneth, over the weekend there, as you very well know, even though this is early october, late-september weekend. it was fairly, fairly busy beyond the concert. >> caller: it was extremely busy in las vegas. and i'm actually en route back to las vegas to help support our coverage there after this mass shooting. what we do know, i can tell you this, to give you a little perspective. as you heard linsey davis, our colleague, about the ground stop at the airport. that's because mandalay bay, the back of it touches the airport. for those of you unfamiliar with the airport in the las vegas strip, the airport literally is almost in the center of town. and the las vegas strip is just a stone's throw

airport. and so mandalay bay is just a, maybe a half-mile away from the iconic "welcome to las vegas" sign. i saw people earlier today, i was doing live shots for world news tonight, when i saw people walking into that concert. and forgive me, guys if i take a moment to say all i remember at this point is the faces of those concert-goers who were obviously in good spirits. they were in their cowboy gear, cowboy hats. they were walking into that, what seemed like a very secure area with those high fences. you heard that witness talking about those 15-foot high fences. they were walking in there, getting ready for this concert, and they were happy about it. i can't help but think about the looks on their faces as they were walking in there. obviously, there was the opposite look of terror as they ran out of there to duck for cover. >> what can you tell us about the event itself? >> caller: the event itself, there was a long

concerts, country music artists. we heard that jason aldean was the headline irtonighr tonight. some big, some small names there performing. this was an all-day festival. this is a festival i literally saw just a number of people walking from luxor hotel. and that's another point i want to make. remember that a lot of the hotels, in that area, and remember, this happened on the south end of the las vegas strip. that many of these hotels are connected. they've got walkways, trams that connect these hotels. so many of them are buried in close proximity to each other. we know the excalibur, luxor, also mandalay bay your all of this apparently took place, they're all right there next to each other. so there were thousands of people who were literally either parking or staying at these hotels, and they were walking over. so there was, there were an um in of police officers who were

traffic control, making sure that people got across the street very safely there. so it was a very lively situation. >> hey, kenneth, i'm curious, though, obviously, a lot of people were there, at this hour, i know you're trying to make your way back to las vegas. is the airport still shut down? are you forced to do the drive? >> caller: we are forced to do the drive. there are not that many flights at this hour. even if we had a flight that we could get on, we're at a ground stop at that las vegas airport. >> a lot of people in essence sort of trapped at the las vegas area. even after they got out of this situation there. they are not able to make it back to their hotels in many cases because the las vegas strip is closed down. they can't fly out of town. and if las vegas does have some early morning flights to some parts of the country and the world, they're not able to get to the airport right now or fly out. and if you've ever been to las vegas and tried to do the drive on the 15 there, between los angeles and las vegas, it is an often a

many folks. so a lot of people are trapped in vegas, but at least they may have survived what seems to have been a horrible situation there. >> and kenneth, we did hear from jason aldean's people. it was reported he was the one on stage when the shooting actually took place. we know he's okay. we know his team is okay. and we've also started hearing from some other performers of the concert, who, you know, performed at some point. it's a three-day festival. so other performers at any point in the festival, sharing their condolences and reporting their own accounts of hearing the gunshots. because some of them were still there either backstage or in the audience listening to jason aldean when this happened. >> caller: very reminiscent when we've seen an attack at a concert. remember ariana grande was on the scene in london when that attack happened. we hear those types of stories

people think it's fireworks or firecrackers when gunshots ring out. and something like this happens. so we expect to hear more from the country music stars participating in the multi-day festival as we hear hair/irrowi stories from the witnesses. >> we expect a news conference any moment now from las vegas police to give us the very latest. about an hour ago when they met there on the strip in front of reporters, the police officer was the one that said it is now an active investigation and there is a suspect down. he said there were numerous victims. he did not get into the specifics. and did not say what sort of casualties we might have right now, but we do know from at least hospital there in slalas vegas, the university medical center, which is a major, major hospital in las vegas. you have two people dead, some 24 others with gunshot wounds and injuries. >> we did hear

earlier, russell black who provided some of the video that was shown. he was saying that he called it a kill box, because it was so difficult to get out of the area because of the security measures. they had a really difficult time getting out of there. that may also have contributed. we have another eyewitness we want to bring in right now. jake are you with us? >> caller: yeah, i'm here. >> can you tell us a little bit about what you saw? we understand you were here for all of this. >> caller: sure thing. it started out in my hotel room. and my friend left to come outside and head out. there was a phone call telling me there was machine gun fire downstairs. so my friend told me to not leave. i didn't feel comfortable not knowing what was going on. so i thought it would be a good idea to get to the top of the hotel where i was staying. i'm at the delano, and

sky fall lounge that overlooks the strip. so i went to the 64th floor to go to the sky fall lounge. nobody had any idea what was going on. and i had a bird's-eye view of the route 91 music festival across the street. my friend and i personally saw crowds of people running out of the festival. bodies hitting the ground. we actually watched these people getting gunned down from the shooter on the 32nd floor of the mandalay bay. >> were you able to see the shooter? >> caller: we didn't see, we couldn't see the mandalay bay at all from where we were. the mandalay bay was behind us. we could only see the music festival and people running away. >> and so you were there high up on top of this building right now. and you're seeing people dropping down. did you get a sense that maybe they were just, did you really realize what was happening at the moment? that they were being trampled or people being shot at that

realize they were being shot. we could hear the gunshots. we knew it was an active situation. at that point, we actually went to go downstairs to the lobby to see if we could find out more, and when the elevator got to the lobby and the doors opened, the air wreaked of gunpowder. and crowds of people were running to the elevators, trying to escape. and i guess at that moment, there was also shooting going on inside of the mandalay bay. so a little bit later i got on periscope and started broadcasting. i have a little over 10,000 viewers watching. there was nobody, nobody out there. it was like a ghost town. and we actually met up with the other guys who were also looking trying to find information. and we met up with these security guards and police officers who asked us what we were doingnd

away. and we heard gunshots from around the corner. we were in the delano right next to a walkway that connects the mandalay bay to the delano. and we heard gunshots in that hallway. so we think the police were dealing with the shooter right then. >> what's going through your head in all these different moments? it sounds like maybe by accident you got to witness quite a bit of everything that unfolded there tonight? >> caller: the only thing that's really gone through my mind is, one, what a coincidence that i happened to be here while this was happening at the exact resort, the exact property where this was taking place. i can only think of the consequences. nothing comes to mind, no mass shooting recently that has amounted to this kind of impact. really, all i'm thinking about is what's the political repercussions of this, and what's going to happen in the next few days. >> that

what a horrible situation. he our thanks to jake freeman who witnessed it all. describing people drop to the ground. and we are getting word from metro police in las vegas that they do not believe that there are any more shooters involved. the one suspect has been taken down. we have that update right now as we bring in our pierre thomas. i assume many of your sources are confirming that info. >> correct. horrific situation unfolding. you have law enforcement at the federal level trying to get a sense of what took place there. they want to figure out if this was a mass shooting that involved terrorism or not. they do not know yet. law enforcement officials are cautions they don't quite know what this is. now that they have the suspect down they will attempt to see if

and attempt to do an intensive background check to see if this is terrorism or a mass shooter. we've had all sorts of scenarios, people with mental health issues, people with work grievances. so there are so many different scenarios. they don't know what it is. but the great relief now is it appears it is over. >> and a big one at that. one of the big things that seems to stick out is the type of weapon that at least sounds like was used in this attack. what kind of information can you gre glean from that at this point? >> it's too early to know for certain. machine gun fire has a different cadence than you would hear from a semi-automatic weapon. but all of them can fire very, very quick bulletes. but this sounds like a continuous know

continuous flow of bullets. until authorities can get control of the weapon and analyze it, they won't know for sure. if it was machine gun fire, those people face an incredibly difficult situation. >> we are waiting for the latest press conference which should happen at any moment. we'll bring it to you then. the fbi has not taken the lead on this investigation. which would be an important d distinction, correct? >> correct. as far as we now. the federal law enforcement will offer their support but allow local enforcement to take control. they are the first responders, the first people there. you would expect the fbi would have some kind of tactical capability they could offer. but until they have a better sense of what exactly this is, the local authorities would be running point on the situation like this. >> pierre, is there any kind of key piece of information you're

any kind of big moment that you look at to help you put this together? >> the key will be whether they can find identification on this shooter. that will give them a gateway for additional information. in terms of talking to associates, going to do a search of the person's home, getting to see if there's any kind of smartphone or computer that this person used, because in a situation like this, from the federal government's standpoint, they want to know if this person has any links to anyone else, and to get a sense of whether anything else is coming. but unfortunately, in this country, we have a lot of lone wolf situations, where a lot of people for whatever reason people access to weapons and go on shooting sprees. >> this one stands out. the use of an automatic weapon. stand by for us. we want to bring in brad garrett notice

notice, in the meantime. you said this set up for a nightmare scenario for las vegas authorities because it appears as if they were targeting a busy area, the las vegas strip and also this concert. those folks, sitting ducks there. >> and the added element to this which makes it even worse obviously, is open air. so it's one of those things, difficult for law enforcement to cover. brian ross mentioned earlier that obviously, we're not checked as we go into hotels. it's my understanding that the shooter was up sort of above the concert in a hotel room, probably on a balcony. there's one part of the video that you have of the machine gun that also has the sound of like a large stationary machine gun that could even be belt-fed, which means you

more rounds. so we'll have to see. but obviously, the shooter could, would have the luxury of doing that, because if he's in a hotel room, on a balcony, he's going to be able to shoot for multiple minutes before anybody figures out that he's there. >> it's chilling. when we talk about the security. you're saying it's an open-air arena, in this case, especially in the case of an elevated shooter makes people vulnerable. but at the same time, we're hearing from witnesses who are talking about the chaos that unfolds after the fact and people getting trampled trying to get out and they're gated in for their security. how do you reconcile those two things? >> you don't. for example, when secure people go into open-air areas, literally, the secret service have to put shooters up in and around and on top of buildings to cover situations like

the reality is that you're not going to be able to do that day in and day out. a hotel couldn't function if they had that level ever security checking guests in and out. it takes away the atmosphere of being on vacation our being in las vegas. so these shootings are absolutely difficult, if not impossible to defense against. the other idea that he used an automatic weapon also sheds light on that he's probably not like a military-trained person, because they tend not to shoot an automatic, but we don't know if there's a mental health component, and obviously, we don't know motive at this point. >> it is very early, early stages of the investigation. the shooting took place i'd say about three or four hours ago in las vegas. our brian ross is still hanging out with us.

there was one major distinction with the ariana grande concert. the attacker in that case tried to get into the building, could not and then blew up his explosive nearby. this situation, yes, there was security getting people in and out of that concert, but it still was open-air. >> absolutely. and of course perched high above. those people are defenseless. there's no defense against that sort of thing. in this case, the fact that it appears to be, according to the clark county sheriff's office, one shooter contained, is down, as they say. with the possibility that they have identification of who it is, they will ferret out very quickly. at this point they'll be getting search warrants, going to the last-known address, as pierre was talking about search of computers, communications devices will be very important. and within hours they'll have that information. and if

on him, they can take a body and a finger. there's a machine the fbi has, within 12 seconds, he'll be able to run that fingerprint and see if the person's been printed before, been arrested before or been in the military. all aspects of that are under way now. >> there's limited flight activity has resumed at the airport there. in terms of that, how do you go about trying to keep the area secure to preserve the investigation but letting people get out? >> that's important in terms of crowd control. they try to stop everything, freeze it. get people to safety. that's why they shut down the airport. they don't want anybody else going in or coming out, or a follow-up attack on aviation. las vegas police and the clark county sheriff's department have trained. they've always thought that las vegas was a potential

attack site. they focussed a lot on the casinos. this is a scenario perhaps they've not drilled for. >> it always feels like we're playing catch-up. every time we put up new security measures, somehow the attackers find ways around them. you pointed out ariana grande. now we're liking at the possibility of a shooter shooting from the hotel because they can't get into the concert arena. how do you stop that from happening? is there an answer? >> probably not. there are limits on how much security you can impose, in a place like las vegas where people want to come and go. you can't shut down the treat. you can't have people go through a metal detector as they enter the strip itself. very, very difficult. >> you mentioned in a lot of terrorist videos they often feature times square, las vegas as possible targets. do we know if there has been chatter of another pending attack or something as hor

>> not that i have seen or heard about in the last two or three weeks. and we were paying close attention on the anniversary of 9/11 to see if there was something connected to that anniversary. at that time, no. but we do know isis, even though it's been defeated on the battlefield in syria has been urging its followers around the world to do what they can to attack. at this point there's no indication what's the motivation of this shooting, whether there's any connection to terrorism at all. it's not known at this point. but soon, they'll have a sense, by identifying who the shooter was and what was his background. >> so frequently, in the immediate aftermath, you want to know, is everybody okay? what happened, do they have the shooter? and then the big question becomes motive, why did this person do it? not only do the authorities want to know, but people at home want to know. how much of a red flag is that? we keep hearing isis over and over again and so many of these attacks.

want to rule that out. >> they're very quick. they'll learn that by a background check on this person and as brad and pierre were indicating, getting ahold of phones and computers to see if there's any kind of connection at all. they know exactly what to do and that's what they're doing at this hour right now. >> there's no doubt at this point, there are officials, perhaps, from the fbi, atf who may be heading to homes somewhere here in america right now, to try to track down this person's background. >> they have several names they're check out already. they have several names. don't know if they're connected. many times people end up with identification not their own. they're checking out and they'll use any i.d.s found on the person, if think can look at a car he drove in, perhaps he got there, somehow. and phones and computers. there are a number of different ways to check it out. and if they're left with just finger prints, they can d

they used it in the boston marathon case. when they identified the bomber after the shootout in watertown, by running his fingerprint, they put the body, the finger right on the machine and they can tell within five or six seconds. >> that's incredible. >> and it's very needy at this point. >> that's the key of course right now. they've contained the situation. they've stopped the shooting. now let's figure out who is responsible. >> you are getting a lot of information in and you're filtering it for us. in situations like this where it's a developing story, it becomes difficult sometimes to filter through what we can and cannot confirm. so we're trying not to give you any information that we cannot confirm. and brian, we so appreciate. >> the early reports, as we've learned from experience, early reports are often wrong. and the reports of multiple shooters now appears to be one shooter. >> our brian ross

as we're nearing the top of the hour. want to just recap right now. a mass shooting event taking place at a country music festival there in las vegas, right there on the las vegas strip. early reports which would seem to indicate the shooter may have been shooting an automatic weapon from high above just targeting many people who were there at that concert and on the las vegas strip. >> yeah, right now we're hearing two people dead. at least 24 injured. that number could climb. those are coming from one area hospital, but this happened at the route 91 harvest festival, a three-day country music festival and hear jason aldean was performing at the time and witnesses there are describing multiple rounds of what sounds like automatic gunfire and just a completely chaotic scene in the aftermath. the potential for people to have been trampled looking at multiple injuries but our matt gutman is on the ground there