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 are just

trying to gather their belongings. everybody is still blocked from the strip. nobody can go past that police checkpoint you see behind me so they're just waiting including eyewitnesses, victims, people who were nearly shot or had family members or friends who were shot so still very much an active scene in terms of grief, in terms of picking up the pieces and obviously as brian has mentioned for the past few minutes in terms of the investigation which is going to take hours, there were so many people here that complicates the effort to try to figure out who was where, who knew what, where the shooter was shooting from and whether there was another shooter. right now police think there was only a single shooter. apparently from the videos we've heard and from multiple eyewitnesses, that shooter was firing an automatic into the crowd. bullets popping everywhere, knocking people down, absolute chaos as people tried to get out of the concert area. there were at least 10,000 people there. i'm surprised that more people

weren't hurt. given the reports i've heard about people being trampled in the effort to get out, amazing stories of heroism. folks just kneeling down in the barrages of guntire to try to administer first aid basically in the open. trying to save people's lives and this man i spoke to earlier, mike kronk from alaska here on his birthday weekend, 48 years old, a teacher and right next to him his best buddy took three bullets to the chest and immediately he and other people started to give him first aid trying to literally plug the holes in his chest with their fingers. he took off his shirt. there were military personnel who happened to be at the concert who rendered first aid. amazing stories of heroism but chaos and panic in this crowd and one thing that was most startling and offputting for these folks other than the fact that they were obviously in the middle of this dense barrage of gunfire, they didn't know where

it was coming from and that's because initial reports are it came from higher up above, that's what people are saying and it was shooting down into the crowd. people didn't know where to go or where to seek shelter and that was one of the most disconcerting things for a lot of folks in the crowd. >> hey, matt -- >> the hospital sass weighing at least 25 were husht. go ahead, kendis. >> i don't merrin to interript you while giving that important update but we're getting word from bakersfield police department, bakersfield, of course, located there in southern california, they're mentioning that many -- several of their off-duty police officers were there attending the concert and the important note here from this press release is ha one of the officers was struck by a bullet from the active shooter. >> they say some of the officers witnessed the gunfire but they weren't in a position to return fire. they say one of the officers was hit by the shooter, being treated at a las vegas area hospital, but they are reporting

n nonlife-threatening injuries so soips like that officer is going to be okay but they apparently had several officers in the crowd. >> reporter: i believe it and from the stories i heard it seemed that the response was immediate. the problem was getting the injured out of the concert venue. there was a fence surround it so people literally had to pick up physically haul the victims over a fence to get them out of harm's way, some of them crawled under the stage in order to seek shelter and just try to render first aid. again, that chaotic scene but the fact that those bakersfield officers were there must have been very helpful if they found anybody who was hurt, i'm happy to hear that that officer did survive, obviously people did not survive. we have multiple reports of fatalities and obviously at least two dozen people have been wounded but as we wait for that police press conference coming up we understand that that number is likely to rise and you

may is seen a few seconds ago an ambulance pulling in. i don't know if they're still trying to reach people wounded or if they're just bringing in medics there just to render first aid in case people need it right now, perhaps, suffering from shock or posttraumatic stress but still very much feels like a kinetic and active situation here at least in terms of, you know, gathering information and making sure that everybody is okay. one additional note i'm hearing anecdotally if people in the crowd who work at the hotels that those hotels especially new york new york which you see behind me still on lockdown. there were some reports possibly of gunfire there. that is unclear. what is clear is that people had to seek refuge in the kitchen in storage containers in the freezers just to get out of harm's way and now that hotel apparently was also being evacuated as of about a half hour ago. >> we got an update from the university medical center saying they received 26 patients, this

he's still saying two dead but pointing out 12 of those injured are in critical condition. so that's the latest we have on the numbers but you talked about one of the victims you spoke to talking about having to haul his friend who was shot over a fence and that seems to be a recurring theme from some of the witnesses we've spoken to. one even called it a kill box because they were sort of walled this there. complete chaos. people getting trampled and one was inside a tent and he said we're sitting in this tent and suddenly you see bullet holes flying through and hard to imagine how that unfolded and having massive crowds have to react to that kind of situation. >> reporter: from what i'm hearing a kill box or shooting fish in a barrel is an appropriate way to describe it. you think about it, it's 10,000 people as densely packed as they could possibly be. all of them trying to crowd the stage to get closer to jason aldean as he's performing and i

understand he was probably five or six songs in when the gunfire started. that automatic gunfire spraying into the crowd. hearing multiple reports of people getting shot multiple time, three bullets in one person at least and that's the kind of thing that we're hearing about. again, with automatic gunfire you're not able to aim well but what was going on, these people were so densely maced that apparently aim was not necessary. all you had to do was point in the crowd and start shooting and chances are if you are a lone shooter or a terrorist or whatever this person was, you're going to hit people. again, reports are some people thought it was multiple shooters. we're understanding it's just one shooter but that shooter did have time to fire multiple clips, empty the clip, reload, fire again, reload and fire again. so not exactly clear how many rounds were fired into that crowd. but dozens and dozens of rounds,

that kill box, whatever people are calling it, certainly an appropriate term and hopefully that number doesn't rise hearing that 12 people are severely critically wounded, something that's indeed very disturbing. >> and once again, matt, we're just waiting for that press conference with sheriff lombardo and the clark county sheriff's department there. but the latest numbers that we're getting i should point out are only from one hospital. >> that's right. >> with more than two dozen people injured and two dead, as well. >> looking at 12 people still in critical condition, so that number could rise, still a very active investigation. we're waiting that briefing at any moment. brian,we want to thank you for being with us here and talking about the investigation with us. right now we send it over to george stephanopoulos who is going to take over our breaking news coverage. >> good morning, guys. what a way to start the week. thank you very much. as we've been saying there's been a mass shooting in las vegas at the route 91 harvest

festival around 11:30 last night. at least one shooter. that shooter is down. that was the scene at the route 91 harvest festival near the mandalay bay hotel. ♪ [ gunfire ]. automatic weapo. for several minutes you hear that gunfire. it sounded like fireworks. right now at least two are dead. 26 injured according to local hospitals. awaiting a police briefing. as we do that i want to bring in matt gutman on the scene in las vegas. matt, it appears the gunman now is down according to police but

this was such a terrifying situation. >> reporter: what? >> in front. stay in front. >> matt gutman on the scene. i was just saying -- what a terrifying situation as we see this video of the shooting unfolding just a few hours ago. >> reporter: that's right, george. that shooting, you can hear it's automatic gunfire. it gives you the situation that the person was firing wliepdzly into the crowd. now, when people fire on automatic, it means they're not really taking proper aim but people were so densely packed. we here anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 in that crowd you don't need to aim and hearing from eyewitnesses, one of them mike cronk sitting next to me covered in blood of his friend shot three times in the chest. people were hit multiple times by these rounds.

assault rifle rounds fired right into the crowd and they had nowhere to run. they were so densely packed. everybody trying to get closer to the stage where jason aldean was playing and they tried to scatter. people were trampling each other, trampling the wounded. people tending to the wounded in that spot they called a kill box, george, trying to staunch the wounds to stop the bleeding. incredibly chaotic scene but tremendous heroics. and the problem is it was so densely packed there were so many people that at first medics and first responders couldn't get in there to help. so people had to load the wounded out, carry them over fences to try to get them out of that kill zone. this man mike kronk tried to carry his friend over a fence and then under the stage. they tended to him. there were military personnel, possibly law enforcement on the scene as well who were helping

render first aid. that mansur visited. but they managed to get that injured person into a truck. that was the only way to evacuate, a pickup truck. there was another man shot in the chest there and he died in this man mike kronk's arms seconds later. incredibly harrowing scene for the thousands here and all around the strip people can't get back on the strip. it is still on lockdown. these iconic hotels, george, new york, new york, luxor, excaliber all on lockdown and people being taken out just as a precaution. right now authorities believe that there was a single shooter, he's apparently been neutralized. he or she has been neutralized but not before firing off multiple clips on automatic. first responders saying that there are at least 26 wounded. 12 of them in critical condition and two fatalities.

that is likely to rise with those 12 in critical condition. hopefully they can be stabilized, george, but right now, all the focus here by law enforcement is on securing the scene and on starting the initial phases of the investigation and to that end, the atf, fbi, multiple agencies are on the screen trying to help out, george. >> we are awaiting word from the police. okay, matt gutman, thanks very much. want to bring in michele leonard who was on the scene had this happened, an eyewitness, a vendor at the site. michele, thanks for joining us. i can't even imagine how harrowing those moments were. >> it was very scary. it was frightening. it was confusing. it was -- you just can't even explain what happened to us. >> so, michelle, try to explain to everybody where you were and what you saw as this unfolded. >> okay, i was -- i was -- i was towards the main entrance and i

have a business and i do these country music festivals all the time and so i had a store, and i was on the main drag and jason aldean was on. when he was on, i heard these pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, it was just going nonstop and i turned around and i told the girl working with me, i used some foul language and i said what the and i turned around and i looked and then people just started running. and i couldn't get out of my booth because it was caged in and i ran to the next store and the vendors are breaking the walls down, we're crawling over tables and concrete barriers and i fell, i'm injured and i'm at a friend's house right now. my leg is injured. and i ran for hooters, i was

trying to get to hooters and got to hooters and there were mass confusion and in the hallway. i didn't want to be in a hallway and so i went outside and i found my -- i had a key in my truck and i found the key and i took off and i went the opposite way of what was going on and i found some girls that were panicked and running and i picked them up and they came with me. >> so you were able to make it to your car. thank goodness you're safe right now. we hope your leg is okay. could you see where the shots were coming from from where you were or did you have to get out of there too quickly? >> i couldn't see them. all i did is i heard them and i knew that something was wrong. i just knew it because i do these shows all the time and they do not put fireworks in the middle of the show when a

country artist is singing. they don't do it and i knew this was going to happen one of these days. i knew it. >> and, michelle, we're talking tens of thousands of people there, correct? >> yes, people are just running and screaming and falling and nobody knows where to go. you don't know where it's coming from. all you're hearing, it sounded like a thousand shots. i don't know how many there were. my friend found people on the ground in front of hooters that were dead and my other friend was praying over bodies that were dead and it was just -- it was a horrible thing. i was running and i lost my shoes. i lost the ashes of my father that were around my neck. >> michelle, i am so sorry. i know how difficult this is.

i can't imagine being in a situation like this. do you have a sense of how long the shooting went on? are we talking a minute, less than a minute, a little more? >> it was more than a minute. and if you count a minute with shots going off, they went off. it felt like it was like maybe 15 to 20 rounds and then it was again and then it was again and then it was again and you had no idea where it was coming from or where to go. >> so you couldn't see and obviously the shooter was fairly far away so you couldn't tell if the shooter was saying anything. all you heard were the shots. >> it sounded like it was so close. i thought it was in the crowd. because we couldn't see the stage from our vantage point. >> is there any way you could tell from the sounds of the s t shots whether these were different weapons or all the same weapon? did it all sound the same. >> it sounded like the same --

it was the same weapon. it sounded to me like it was the same weapon. it was constant. just pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, and then a second later it was, you know, it would go again. if i had to guess how long it was between a minute to two minutes. >> and from what you could tell although you couldn't tell where the person was from the same location, earlier there had been reports perhaps of other shooters. that doesn't appear to be the case right now although we can't be sure right now but you say your friends saw several dead on the scene? >> my one worker found -- said she witnessed a body in front of the hooters hotel and she's the gal that worked with me and he we got separated when we were running and then my son-in-law's friend from arizona, he was at the show and he called me up to

see if i was okay and as they were running, they were -- they stumbled over bodies and prayed for the body and took off. >> such a sad -- such a sad evening in las vegas right now. michelle, thank you very much for your time and we hope your leg is better and thank you for sharing that story with us. terrifying scene unfolding just hours ago in las vegas. shooting on the sunset -- on the las vegas strip at a route 91 harvest festival. as you see on the screen, two confirmed dead. at least 26 injured. we've gotten audio of the police breeching the room where they found the shooter where the shooter went down. want to play that. >> the suspect's door. i need everybody in the hallway to be aware of that. we need to pop this and see if we can have a response from this guy. see if he moved -- >> the on the 32nd floor.

s.w.a.t. exposed the breech. everybody needs to move back. all units move back. >> breech, breach, breach. >> they went into the room. the shooter is down. we're awaiting a police briefing. let me bring in brad garrett, former fbi special agent. we just heard from that eyewitness michelle leonard said it was one to two minutes long and it all sounded like the same weapon. and it was just dozens and dozens and dozens of rounds. >> you know, george, the whole thing suggests he's maybe 32 floors up shooting down and the sustained number of rounds that are fired almost suggest without knowing, of course, that is this really some sort of belt fed versus changing magazines. it has that sound to it to me which would also suggest that he may be had it on a tripod which

makes them much easier to shoot because the barrel isn't going up and down. so there's a lot of things in play here. as to exactly how he did this. if he had anything that allowed him to shoot multiple rounds, more than 15 or 20 before changing magazines, if that's the case, changing belts, the number of people you could kill in one minute with a weapon like this is just sort of unmentionable. and with them packed so close together and he knew that. that's why he picked that location. he did not have to obviously go through security. i suspect they have them on surveillance coming into the hotel. he obviously checked in or somebody else checked in for him. so planned but with, you know, with little regard for security or that he's going to get caught while he's shooting probably. >> and, brad, when you talk about a belt-fed gun, how many rounds could be fed? >> oh, my goodness, hundreds. i mean it just depends, depends

on his proficiency. depends on a number of things. the other thing, george, if that scenario would be true you're talking really a large capacity bullet which causes also me megadamage much more than a sidearm clearly would. so that's my big concern that the numbers of people injured and dead, unfortunately, could be fairly high. >> we know he was found in this hotel room, the question is how would he have gotten there in the first place? and was he shooting in a different location before he was found? >> well, maybe. but apparently the police must have figured out in fairly short order where the rounds were coming from because as you heard the audio when they breached the door with explosives, that they felt like they were at least in his room or near his room and so, again, how did they figure that out? a number of ways probably.

who was checked into the room. had they already figured out who was in there? did people on each side, let's say, in the rooms adjacent to him, did they say there's a guy with a weapon on the balcony shooting? all those type of things? eyewitness, you know, information is the absolute key in both stopping these things and also making sure you don't have any other shooters which it appears we don't at this 39. >> that's what we think. brad garrett, thanks very much. let's bring in brian ross as well and, brian, no positive identification yet of the shooter, no sign yet of what the motive might be. >> no indication at all at this point, george. tracking down potential names of the shooter. they have a name they're working on. they're not certain if it's the actual name but they are checking that out. they will also attempt to get a hold of any phones or computers that the shooter had to determine if he had connections with anyone overseas or what was his background, what may have

led him to take this action today. george, you were talking to brad. an ak-47 holds 30 rounds in it and sounds to weapons experts who heard these chilling audios overnight, the tapes, that sh a person who reloaded several times with magazines and was able to do that locked in a hotel room with nobody to stop him. >> so far no claims of responsibility on the internet. >> nothing like that at all, george. we're checking, so far nothing at this point. las vegas police, clark county sheriff have trained for potential terror attacks and always thought that las vegas could be a target. al qaeda and isis have claimed they'll attack las vegas at some point but at this point we have no claims of responsibility and this scenario shooting at a crowd from high above on the 32nd floor was not one they had trained for. >> not one we had heard about before. brian ross, thanks search. want to bring inn pierre thomas

as well and, pierre, federal authorities already on the scene. atf? >> atf, fbi offering their assistance and this is the worst case scenario they've been concerned about for quite some time, george. a group of people kong get grated en masse at a hotel, at a concert with a shooter with direct access. this is the scenario they've been concerned about for quite some time as has been previously reported, no clear indication yet on what type of incident this was. unfortunately, in this country we have mass shootings that involve terrorism. we have mass shootings that involve people with mental health issues and have mass shootings that involve people with grievances with the places that they work. so law enforcement officials say too early to know. the key will be the name that was used to check into that hotel, they'll need to see if that is actually the person. they'll check to see if that person had any identification on them. because the critical thing is to find out what type of

associations, what can they learn, what can they glean in early hours to make sure this incident is completely over, george. >> and how confident are they right now, pierre, that this was the only shooter? >> they seemed pretty confident, george. the law enforcement officials i'm speaking to in washington said they were trying to get additional information from the scene in las vegas so that they could use all the databases they have, checking fingerprints obviously as well to, again, lock down on exactly who we're talking about. >> i know you'll continue to work your sources, pierre thomas, thanks very much. on the scene to matt gutman in las vegas. we heard from that eyewitness, michelle leonard talking about people, her friends walking by multiple dead on the ground. so far only two confirmed dead although 26 injured. 12 critically right now and you were speaking also with an eyewitness right on the scene helping save some of the victims. >> reporter: we're hearing what

caliber rifle rounds do is ricochet inside the body. they're not initially meant to kill someone. they're meant to cause maximum damage inside to rattle around inside someone's body making

harder to stabilize and to save them once medical personnel get to them. that's why some of the stuff is so damaging. we don't know how many rounds were fired. but clearly multiple eyewitnesses are telling us that the shooter had a time to fire full clips, reload, fire again, reload and fire again. so you think about 30 rounds a clip at least 3 reload, that's at least 90 rounds possibly 100 rounds. we're not exactly sure but obviously dozens of dozens of rounds fired into a crowd of people densely packed. thousands of them crowding the stage and you can imagine what kind of chaos and carnage that could have created, george. >> matt, trying to describe what the setting was like, we see the hotels there surrounding where the concert was, lay out where the people were, how many were in that concert and what they were surrounded by. >> reporter: the concert venue itself is in the shadow of the

mandalay bay hotel which you see behind me. mandalay overlooks the airport which is why we heard reports of people scattering into the runways and some chaos at the airport and beneath it is a giant squared off place fenced off and within that was the concert stage and those tens of thousands of people at this venue. this is a country music festival. tens of thousands here attending it. from all over the country, from canada, from alaska, and thousands of people, but, george, let's go to that briefing right now which can about to start. we've been waiting to hear word from las vegas. police and we believe it's coming right now. >> okay, thanks, matt gutman. we will tune in and listen. >> good evening. obviously -- county and i'm hear to talk about the tragic event that's taken place and currently taking place at the mandalay bay out on . manned lay bay y bay

. shots being fired from the direction of the mandalay bay towards the route 91 concert that was taking place on the east side of las vegas boulevard. through investigation and response we determined there was a shooter on the 32nd floor of the mandalay bay. officers responded to that location and engaged the suspect at that location. he is dead currently. has been identified. he is a local resident. i will not release his name at the time but we are interested in a companion that is traveling with him and her name is, and i will provide you the name so please be accurate on this. is marilou dany.