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 tonight and 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 colombia with his girlfriend. 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 timing of how this unfolded and 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 police trying to take care of the 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 as our 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 police continue to investigate, they're 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 firecrackers. 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. he doesn't know if it was one or 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 of gunfire, and you've heard 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 ground, the eyewitnesses heard. 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 because there was an active 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 is how chaotic the scene was. 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 days. 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 lockdown for a significant point 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 look at the 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 to it. 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 shooting? >> 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 on the ground, the fbi is there, 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 saw that were 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 people and for quite some time 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 somebody else. 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 now, i don't now where the 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 i walk up we hear it go 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 vegas. up by summerland. >> 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 any danger in being trampled? >> 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 pierre 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 rate of 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 willing yes, st to declare this 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 the possibility of injury and death 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 gunfire, get 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 back up in our room. 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 was 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 hearing? >> 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 of putting 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 away from the 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 lineup of 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 there for crowd control, for 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 bottleneck for many, 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 when musicians are on stage, 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 from a witness 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 there's a 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 moment? >> caller: at the moment, we did 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 doing and told us to run 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 indeed. 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 there is any i.d. on this person 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 waiting to hear on it? 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 meantim 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 could crank off 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 this. 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. brad mentioned open air. 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 there's no identification 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 terror 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 horrible as this? >> 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. how quick are authorities to 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 do that. it's amazing. 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 joining us. 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 outside of the mandalay bay where this all happened and, matt, what are you hearing and seeing at this point? >> reporter: people