just over my left shoulder, 22,000 people packed into an area. one shooter up above doing all he can to kill as many people as possible. thousands of fans were enjoying the final night of the route 91 harvest country music festival. country superstar jason aldean was on the stage when suddenly shots started ringing out. within seconds, chaos, terrified people running for their lives. others desperately taking cover as a hail of bullets rained down from above.

>> there's a shooting! >> reporter: cell phone video capturing the horrific sound of gunfire. >> be advised it is automatic fire, fully automatic fire from an elevated position. take cover. >> i remember looking up at the mandalay bay and i saw lights flashing out of a room. >> reporter: police eventually zeroing in on the suspect, firing from inside the tower and hotel. >> we have sight on the suspect's door. i need everybody in the hallway to be aware of it and get back. we need to pop this and see if we get any type of response from this guy, to see if he's in here or moved somewhere else. >> copy that. all units on the 32nd floor, s.w.a.t. is is there. everybody move back. >> we've 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. r

found massive casualties at the scene. several off-duty police officers among the victims. the wounded were transported to local hospitals, so many that some emergency rooms were at full capacity. law enforcement officials tell nbc news the alleged gunman is 64-year-old stephen paddock. our investigations team on the ground here working overtime to get as much position as possible, getting in those first images of the alleged shooter, stephen paddock, 64 years old. and more pertinent to the investigation, the first images of that hotel room that police stormed to find a deceased shooter as they went in. that double-sided window, you can't open the windows up there, shot out as he fired on the crowd below. that will be the focus of the investigation moving forward here in las vegas. back to you, matt and savannah. >> steve patterson, thank you. our orlando affiliate just spoke with the gunman's brother. nbc's pete williams has more on

about this shooter. pete, good morning again. >> reporter: that comes as authorities are now searching the home of stephen paddock and 82 miles away in mesquite, nevada, a retirement community, the sun city retirement community which is a cluster of homes around the golf course. authorities said he's no stranger to las vegas and his family said they had no idea anything like this would happen. here's what his brother eric told our affiliate, wesh, in orlando. >> our condolences to everyone. we just don't understand. like i said, like an asteroid just fell out of the sky. and we have no reason, rhyme, rationa rationale, excuse. there's just nothing. >> when was the last time you had talked to your brother?

mom was okay after the hurricane. we didn't have power for five days. i mean, we're -- there's nothing. i mean, the last time she talked to him, no indication of anything. i mean, nothing. he was in vegas and going on a cruise or something, blah, blah, blah, blah. i mean, he sent her a walker because she's having trouble walking. i mean, it's like i said, find out who sold him the machine gun. there's no -- i'm -- i don't know what else to say. i just -- i mean, it's his fault that he did this. but i'd like to know where he found the machine gun because that's not something that's that easy to come by, i assume. and he's not -- i mean, he has no criminal record, nothing, nothing, no affiliations with anything.

there's nothing. so -- >> can you describe sort of what went through your head when you found out that it was your brother's name that came out. >> i thought it was somebody joking. if all my cell phones and house phones didn't light up at the same time with las vegas pd on them, i would have thought it was some dopey friend of mine making a joke. there's no -- there's just -- i mean, we're working with the cops since the first thing trying to, you know, try to understand or, you know, trying to make it -- do what we could. there's just nothing -- we got nothing to give you. there's nothing. he was just a guy. >> how is your mom coping? >> she's okay. she's 90 years old and she's -- her son just killed a bunch of people and got shot dead. so she's a little rattled,

but she's okay. i mean -- >> did you know the woman that he was -- >> yeah. that's his girlfriend. i mean, that's why we were on the phone with the cops the first thing is to find out what happened to her. there's no -- i mean, she's just a nice lady who was his girlfriend, and we're worried that she was going to get shot up or something because they thought something weird because he's -- i mean, he's definitely only himself. there's no -- there's no affiliations. i mean, once again, that i know of at all. i mean, there's no affiliations. there's no church, there's no religion, there's no politics, there's no anything. >> have you had a >> had he had any issues with mental illness in the past? >> not that i know of. but there's no -- nothing -- n

>> he had some allergies. i mean -- i mean, he was just a guy. i mean, i want to know -- i mean, we want to know what in the world this -- we need to know. i'd like to know how in the world or what -- what happened. like i said, it's just like an asteroid fell out of the sky. there's no -- there was nothing that would say he would do this kind of thing. >> eric, is there anything else that you would like to say? >> once again, our condolences. i mean, you know, it could have been my kids at that show, et cetera, et cetera. i don't know what else to say. >> have you seen any of the videos? have you -- >> we've been watching this stuff all morning. i mean -- >> how does that affect you?

50-plus people. how does that affect me? i'm a little -- yeah, i got this headache right now strangely enough. i mean, we're -- our family is huddling together and trying to hope -- you know, we're trying to make sense of this. i mean, the first thing i did was get ahold of everybody and find out if anybody had been in contact with him or anything. but nothing. i mean, my son had texted him a couple weeks ago to tell him about he's getting married. if he wanted to drop by for the wedding kind of thing. >> when was the last time he lived in florida? was it recent? >> it's been a year or two ago. he lived in melbourne. he had a house there for a little while, decided he didn't like the -- too much -- too much dust from the farms.

i moved him back to vegas to mesquite. i mean, he ate burritos at the del taco. he drove down to vegas and played video poker. >> from what you know, he was just living a normal life? >> exactly. nothing. exactly nothing. >> what did he do for a living? >> he was retired. >> what had he done before? >> it's all on the public record. he did stuff. he went to college. he had a job. we owned some apartments. we sold some apartments. i mean, there's nothing. there was no -- >> no indication at all? >> nothing. that's what's so -- i mean, i can't even make something up. there's just nothing.

i'm -- >> loss for words. >> it's just -- there's just nothing. >> that's eric paddock outside his home in orlando talking to our affiliate, wesh, about why he thinks his brother might have done this. he said it's a complete mystery to the family. he did confirm some details about the suspect, stephen paddock, that he had lived for a time in florida, that they owned some apartments together and that he decided to move back to nevada, to las vegas, where he was living in a retirement community. we believe that he had some -- spent some time as an accountant. he worked for a while for the predecessor company of defense contractor lockheed martin from 1985 to '88, but we're still not sure what he was doing in the years since then, and authorities say they are completely at a loss here about

they hoped that a search of his home will turn up some answers to that question. isis has claimed that he recently converted to islam, but several u.s. officials have said they found absolutely nothing to confirm that. >> well, that was a fascinating interview because there you have a brother who seems completely just absolutely dumbfounded by what's taken place and doesn't seem to have any idea how his brother could be involved. it's not like they lost touch. it sounded like they were in reasonable touch with each other. >> just texted his mom to make sure she was okay after the hurricane. let me go to our two law enforcement guys. have you ever heard anything like that where you ask questions about what might have been behind this and you come up with nothing? >> this is very unusual that they will be looking at if this was an individual on social media. the home certainly is a hope for a break, the idea of finding something there. having no sense of what the motive was is very unusual. >> there's something very

interesting about this whole isis connection and it's certainly, from what we have seen and heard thus far, doesn't appear to be related to that. but in the past when we've seen attacks that ultimately were traced back to isis, it took a couple of days for isis to officially come out and say that it was isis inspired or isis directed. if this is an official isis channel and they're making declare tif statements so early on, that's very unusual to me because i haven't seen that before. >> unusual leading you to what conclusion? >> i'm not really sure. i think that where in the past they've held off, where somebody was inspired by isis and came forward it wasn't until after there was information that came to the public that said, yes, in fact, they were communicating with somebody or they were on some of these isis channels listening and watching so they were inspired and law enforcement came out officially and isis said, yes, this person was connected to isis. it took a few days because i think they want to maintain their credibility. they don't want to make a statement and it turns out not to be accurate.

in this case it's very unusual. if in fact, this is an isis channel authorized or attributed versus just something that we're picking up randomly on social media. >> one of the things we need to talk to the woman who he was associated with, who turns out was out of the country at the time, because if he got somehow persuaded by isis, the abhorrent behavior would be to completely keep it quiet, if he was so driven over the edge that he was going to do what he ended up doing. but i mean, all the sympathy goes out to that brother saying no religion, no politics, nothing, we don't know what was going on. >> no mental illness. he's sitting there trying to rack his brain what could it possibly be. >> my son invited him to a wedding recently. generally in those cases -- you guys know more about this in terms of profile than i do -- there's a little tiny insight at some point into some kind of behavior that they want to share if they've bso

compromised by an outside force, they can't wait to tell somebody about it or they're suspicious of what's going on in this country. nothing to indicate that thus far. >> something clearly is going on. we just haven't found it yet. it's still so early here and there's a lot of people to be spoken to. >> here's a picture from, we understand, a number of years ago where eric paddock and his brother stephen are together. stephen is the one standing on the right of that picture. eric is sitting down on the left. you know, i agree with tom. heart goes out to this guy who all of a sudden has a last name that is associated with the worst mass shooting in this country's history, and he's at a loss for any answers. >> there's no answer at this time. maybe there was something left behind in the room. he was in that room for four days. maybe something left behind at the residence at the development that he was living in. >> and shawn is correct, we haven't heard from all the

people who bumped up against him recently. >> he's living in nevada. they're living in into are flflt strikes you when something like this happens and people say, well, he had this or that problem or it's not all that shocking. here's a guy who said it's like an asteroid fell out of the sky that it's his brother. >> i can't wait to hear from the companion, the woman who was out of the country at the moment. they were fairly close and i think that's going to be key. >> they're going to go over his cell phone and find out who he was in contact with recently. >> they'll be able to assist locals. locals clearly have the lead but the fbi has a lot strategically placed around the world and i wouldn't be surprised if they've already made contact with her. >> our correspondent is in mesquite, nevada.

of the morning searching his home and they're being very delicate about it of course. katie, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, savannah. we just heard from an officer who told us they have been here throughout the night at the home of stephen paddock that they say he shared with his girlfriend. they say they've been securing this property, making sure there were no explosives inside, evacuating neighbors to make sure everyone was safe and is that they have made entry into that home. he wouldn't share a lot of details about what they're finding other than to say this looks like any other typical home in a retirement community, well kept, lived in, nothing unusual or suspicious. he did say they found firearms inside the home and some ammunition but would not elaborate on the amount or that it was in any way suspicious. at this point they are still searching through that home, still executing a search warrant to try and garner any information to try and find out what the motivation could have been for this massacre. at this point they have very

the motivation might be. they're hoping that somewhere inside that home there are some answers. whether that lies on a computer, a text message, anything that they could give. i asked the officer, were there numbers in the driveway and coffee cups in the sink. they said absolutely, this house was lived in. this is a quiet community. in fact, our officers had never responded to this residence. we've never had contact with this couple before, and he admitted that given the scope of this crime, the magnitude of this crime, that is very unusual, the fact that this couple is not even on their radar. they've never been here before. neighbors have been sort of out and about wondering what to think at this point, wondering who this man was, how he was in their midst, and no one knew it. >> it's getting to be more and more mysterious. katie, thank you. we know that 50 lives were lost in this tragedy. other lives hang in the balance based on the severity of the wounds they received at the hands of this shoote

da neat ta cohn is with the university medical center in las vegas where some of those wounded, many of them are being treated. good morning again. can you give us some updates in terms of the conditions of patients, numbers of patients being treated. >> good morning again, matt and savannah. as you were saying earlier, yes, we did receive 104 patients here at umc overnight. those patients were both treated in our emergency department as well as our trauma center. our trauma 3center is a stand-alone trauma center so we have everything that's necessary to take care of any life threatening injury imaginable, from our cat scan and blood bank as well as an ability to call in any type of specialist. our trauma certasurgeons are he house but if we need any specialist, they're minutes away. we have 12 patients who are critical.

nursing care in our icu units. we have discharged, released some patients, so that's good news this morning, and still taking care of those at the bedside. >> can you tell me how many people are in surgery at this moment and how many are waited to be operated on? >> we have 8 who originally went into surgery. oftentimes we do surgery to stabilize an injury and once a patient is stable they'll go back into surgery. oftentimes our trauma patients can have multiple surgeries. we just need to wait for them to be well enough to go back into surgery. so they will be returning to surgery later on today. >> obviously you're dealing with gunshot wounds. how severe are we talking? >> we still have those 12 patients critically injured. those are life threatening injuries so they have an entire trauma intensive care unit team around the bedside. when i say that, yoi don't just mean there's a nurse watching one monitor as we might see on tv but a full team of trauma

surgeons and residents and fellows because we're also a teaching facility here and our full team with critical care nurses there at the bedside with the patient. >> just to be certain here, we spoke earlier, but i was listening to sheriff lombardo speak not long ago and he did talk about this idea that people could donate blood. is there a critical shortage of blood now or do you have what you need and is that more preventative? >> there is not a critical shortage. we are very well stocked with our blood supply. however, we understand that people want to do anything to help and if that help comes in the form of blood donations, we are willing to take them and so we are holding a hospital blood drive starting at 9:00 pacific time here so in just about 40 minutes or so just to make sure that we do keep our sheclves fully stocked. traumas will continue today just as any other day here at the trauma center from car crashes

to our typical traumas, people falling off of buildings and falling while hiking and getting into water ski accidents. those will continue and we want to be prepared for them. >> you talk about that hospital blood drive. i would imagine you're going to have an incredible turnout this morning. thanks for the hard work that all you folks do and thanks for the information. >> thank you very much for your support. we appreciate it. obviously this is one of those things, shawn, that people have drilled for, including these trauma centers. in fact, i think they were telling us earlier that they had received training from somebody who had responded to the orlando shooting and fortunately that expertise has been brought to bear. people coming in with these grievous wounds. >> when you talk about a traumatic incident like this type of catastrophe, the first responders there on the scene, the police officers and the emts are part of it but you have what she just described and how you coordinate with the hospital, communicate how many victims are ng

you've got this process by which you take people off of this field and bring them to a place where they can have life-sustaining procedures performed. they've got to train together. it's very choreographed. relationships are built. people talk to each other and get to know each other and it really helps when there's a time of crises for people to have those relationships in advance. >> in a similar subject, as a guy who was a police commissioner not only here in new york but in los angeles, every tragedy is also a learning experience, and so when you look at the circumstances that we've been talking about this morning, what can law enforcement agencies learn about what happened here to try to prevent something like this in the future? >> they'll learn a lot and you're correct. after every one of these events, whether it's the hospitals, police, fire, you try to learn. shortly there will be the international association chiefs of police conference just down the line here inla

i can guarantee that joe lombardo will be at those conferences giving speeches about lessons learned. just watching some of the videos here, lessons learned. the idea that they had firefighters, emt with ballistic vests, we have learned that. there will be a phenomenal amount of learning material coming out of this. we have the issue that we spoke about earlier that the emotional aftermath of this, 22,000 people who over the next several days are going to start realizing i'm alive and so many others are not, and so we haven't had anything like that since 9/11 dealing with that many traumatized individuals. >> i think you'll see grief counseling, to the commission commissioner's point. people coming together to try and address that emotional side. you talk about ptsd and people who just suffered through a

injured, they watched people die before them and they're going to require the need to sit and speak to counsellors who are trained specifically for these types of events. >> the investigation of course goes on as well. we want to go to halle jackson, our chief white house correspondent who's at the white house. we learned this morning that the president intends to travel to las vegas this week. halle, what else can you tell us? >> reporter: the white house confirmed that president trump has spoken with the governor of nevada, also the mayor of las vegas as well as the sheriff there, so the president inside the west wing here making these phone calls to people on the ground. you mentioned he will visit vegas on wednesday. that is the plan. and he will still travel to puerto rico tomorrow. that had been previously scheduled. this visit to the island to look at the damage from hurricane maria and the ongoing crises that is happening in the u.s. territory. e

trip still i am told by a white house official. he'll presumably return back to washington before heading out west on wednesday to meet likely with first responders and others who were involved in the response and perhaps some of the victims of the vegas shooting. you heard the president speak from the diplomatic room in what was a very somber speech to try to unite the country, combi. he made references to scripture. he talked about unity, about trying to find those moments of hope and selflessness in what appears to so many to be this senseless tragedy, but he did not mention, for example, terror or terrorism. he did not mention guns or gun control. i will tell you from my vantage point inside the beltway, that's where the conversation is headed over on capitol hill among lawmakers who are coming out. as we've seen incidents similar to this one, of course there hasn't been one like this in the trump administration to this

appears to be headed and as tom brokaw 25utalked about earlier, you're seeing the people on the sides of this topic retreating to their corners. the president is still set to meet with the prime minister of thaila thailand. they'll be able to bring cameras and video cameras in to see that meeting. it looks as though these remarks will stand alone from president trump today here at the white house. >> halle, there's nothing political about a morning like this in that i believe we also said that the morning after the n newtown school shooting and it didn't take long for the subject to turn to politics. >> >> reporter: both senators from connecticut bringing up gun control and talking about what congress might be able to do. >> halle jackson at the white house this morning where the president spoke a little bit earlier on talking about the

sadness, shock and grief, and talking about his upcoming trip to nevada this coming wednesday breaking news coverage on a monday morning, but first, a check of these messages. good morning, everyone. it's 11:28 on this monday, october 2nd. i'm molette green. local officials are reacting to that breaking news in las vegas of the deadliest mass shooting in american history. d.c. mayor muriel bowser tweeted with great sorrow and grief, we send our thoughts and prayers to the victims of last night's shooting in las vegas. at least 50 people are dead and 200 hurt. officials say at least 400 people were taken to the hospital after the shooting. the "today" show will have more on the tragedy in a moment. we'll get a look at your forecast with sheena. >> hey, molette, a quick check of your weather for today. currently we're at 66 degrees and we have plenty of sun and expect a light

the 60s and 64 leesburg, 68 clinton and 66 degrees in gaithersburg. as we go through the afternoon, really, a sunny, perfect day and that's right around normal for this time of year. the average high is 73, but we slowly start to climb each day this week. thursday we'll be back in the 80s and 83 for a high there and we are going to see a very slow warming trend as we get closer to the weekend. as far as the weekend forecast is concerned, so far pretty good. we have the temperatures closer to 80 degrees and we do stay dry for a while and the next chance of rain looks like early next week and we'll be watching that as we get closer. as for the rest of this week, i think you'll enjoy it with those temperatures getting slowly back into the 80s, but mostly the low 80s. so not too bad. molette? >> sheena, thanks so much. now let's go back to nbc's special coverage of the deadliest mass shooting in u.s. history out in las vegas.

he brutally murdered more than 50 people and wounded hundreds more. it was an act of pure evil. >> president trump speaking from the white house just a moment ago on this breaking news. the deadliest mass shooting in u.s. history, more than 50 people lost their lives last night on the las vegas strip. 400 more sent to the hospital with their wounds. >> the president also announcing he's ordering flags at half staff and he'll head to las vegas on wednesday. >> we think that officials in las vegas are about to hold a news conference and we will bring it to you live, give us an update on this investigation. first let's go to nbc's joe fryer. he's with us on the phone.

complex. joe, as i understand it, you just happened to be there covering a different story when all of this unfolded last night. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, savannah. we came obviously to las vegas because o.j. simpson was released over the weekend, so we were actually staying in the four seasons hotel which is really part of the mandalay bay tower. it basically takes up a few floors on the upper level. so what you're looking at right now is the viewpoint from our room. we're on the 38th floor of the mandalay bay tower. it was 6 floors below where we are where the gunman opened fire. you're looking at where this country music festival was taking place last night around 10:00. that area was filled with 22,000 people. so it was jam-packed as jason aldean took the stage. that's when the man opened fire. so i was actually in a different room across the hallway and was sleeping and i have to admit i didn't hear anything until my producer called me.

but this room we're in right now, my producer sosie was in here. she was sleeping, but she woke up when she heard the gunfire. at first thought it sounded like gunfire but figured it must have been fireworks or something to do with the concert because it was so loud at the concert down below. a number of people who were at the concert thought it was fireworks, but then eventually everyone started to realize that it was gunfire and that it was actually coming from here, mandalay bay. with the sun rising we get a better look at the view down below. in the grassy area you can see where blankets and lawn chairs and other items were left behind. clearly people had sort of laid out in those areas as they were enjoying the concert. all of those items left behind as people scrambled to freedom. this area is basically blocked off right now. no one's able to get here. even though the lockdown here where we are has been lifted and we're free to come and go from our rooms and the hotel, this strip here, las vegas strip, this area, is not accessible to the public right now. we're only seeing official

vehicles, police vehicles, maybe a few fire trucks and other things in this area and obviously where this shooting scene took place is going to be the subject of a major investigation in the coming hours and days. >> joe quickly, before you go, when this happened and this lockdown went into effect, how were you informed of that? was there some sort of a loud speaker announcement? did police come to the floors? what happened? >> we did not hear any sort of loud speaker announcement at all. one of our producers called down to the front desk to ask about what was going on. we were told the hotel is in a lockdown, stay inside your rooms. quite a few hours passed before finally -- and we would occasionally look outside our window. there were a couple times where we could hear noise outside in the hallway. we would look through the peep hole and see fully armed police officers in tactical gear with guns going through so we knew we had to stay inside at that time and we didn't want to report much about that when it was happening because of the

situation unfolding, but that is something that we saw and then eventually a few hours later police went door to door knocking on the doors to make sure everyone was okay to see if anyone needed help and then the hotel was calling each of the rooms to say we want you to stay away from the windows. police just want to make sure that they've secured the entire area. then it was basically just a tweet from mandalay bay that informed us that the lockdown is through and then we called down to the front desk and had that confirmed. >> a long night for folks there for sure. joe fryer, thank you very much. >> as always, pete williams is working his sources and learning more about the gunman. pete, good morning again. >> reporter: matt, good morning. we're getting a somewhat fuller picture of the gunman but i must say that the pieces that we're getting don't point us toward any kind of answer about why this happened, why did he go to this hotel last thursday which is when the police say he checked in. the police suggested that he did

that he use the name or perhaps this woman that he was living with, marilou danley actually booked the room. the police earlier today described her as a person of interest but then said that they were confident that she was out of the country when the shooting happened and that she wasn't involved. she has apparently told the police that she has no idea why this happened, and his brother eric who lives in orlando talked to our affiliate wesh and says he doesn't have any idea either. >> i mean, our condolences to everyone. we just don't understand. it's like i said, an asteroid just fell out of the sky. and we have no reason, rhyme, rationale, excuse. there's just nothing. >> reporter: we believe also that he was an accountant, that

he worked for a while for lockheed corporation before it merge to form lockheed martin. that was 1985 to '88. the brother said they owned some apartment buildings together which we believe were in texas. then he lived for a while in melbourne, florida and then moved to nevada where he lived in a retirement community clustered around a golf course. and authorities and family members have said that he often spent a lot of time in las vegas at casinos and hotels. we've seen -- we've been told rather of financial transactions that say within the past couple of weeks he had spent a fair amount of money at the tables in the tens of thousands of dollars. some transactions as much as $30,000. but we can't tell from those records whether these were winnings or losses. but in any event, he was comfortable spending or wagering large amounts of money. the police say they believe that he fired from two separate windows that he broke out from s

the mandalay bay hotel. they believed that he fired from the one that you see the curtain blowing from there and then you see the second curtain just coming into the picture now just around the corner and this is a different angle looking head on at the bend in the hotel tower. they say these were connecting rooms or part of a large suite that stephen paddock had and that he fired from one location and then the other, and the police have said that he had at least ten rifles with him and an enormous amount of ammunition. there has been some question about how they finally found this room. there had been some reporting indicating that perhaps they keyed off the smoke detectors in the hotel, but the police have also said that they kind of had to work their way up to the 32nd floor, that they began clearing floors out. i guess we're going to hear more from them here shortly at a news conference in las vegas.

speak and address reporters and bring everybody up to date. let's listen in. >> are we ready? kevin, can you come up? good morning, everyone. for those of you that don't know, i'm sheriff lombardo from clark county. i don't have very much more to update you with from our previous briefings. one thing in particular that has changed in the negative is our body count -- that's the wrong way to say it. the number of people that have died associated with this event has increased. right now we're using the number of 58. i just was informed that it may be 59 of an individual that may have expired at sunrise hospital. in normal fashion, i do not want to give you bad information, so please do not press me on that mb

the number of injured, we are using the number of 515. as you can tell as the hours go by, that number continues to increase. we have not received any additional intelligence associated with the suspect. we have completed the search warrant in mesquite. i am not aware of any derogatory information that we can utilize in furtherance of this investigation at this point, but we have just recovered items and it will take a little while to evaluate that information. we have learned information of additional property in northern nevada and the fbi has responded to the location and will be serving a search warrant here shortly. we have completed the investigation at the room. we have collected all the items associated with the suspect and we are in the recovery phase of that. the mandalay bay itself has gone

back to service minus the 32nd floor, and they would like everybody advised. the location in question, the concert hall, we will be in a long process of body recovery out there and evidence recovery and evidence documentation. we're going to have to ask the public's patience as we bring the information forward. it's a long, laborious process to identify the victims and reunite them with the family members to advise them of their situation. so, we still have the families responding to the las vegas metropolitan police department headquarters in order to conduct a reunification of their family and friends. eventually in the next few hour a

to give you a skewed timeline, but approximately 1:00 p.m. we will request the family members to respond to the convention area, convention center area to utilize a larger space, and we can bring in victim advocates to assist with the family members in the long term. right now it's just a temporary phase associated with the reunification. additionally, we are asking to solely utilize united blood service for blood donation and umc as the only places to donate blood. we had some resource issues associated with their laborer's medical clinic. i applaud their effort to help us in that effort but we have some resource issues associated with that. so better utilize lvmpd.com so you know where those united blood service locations are so

we can get the needed blood for the victims associated with this. at this point, as you can tell, i have several individuals to my rear that would like to make comme comment, reference the isis statement. i want to bring that up now so i can give the opportunity to special agent rouse to respond to that from the fbi and he will explain what we know now in referencing the isis claim and this individual. thank you. good morning. as this event unfolds, we have determined to this point no connection with an international terrorist group. as this investigation continues, we will continue to work with our partners to ensure that this is factually, thoroughly and absolutely investigated to be able to bring comfort and peace back to this community. thank you. good morning. my name is ruben keywin, the congressman for the fourth congressional dict

i just want to say thank you to law enforcement and to all the first responders who are now fighting tirelessly to protect and save lives. i had the opportunity to stop by sunrise hospital earlier this morning. i saw first hand a lot of the victims, a lot of the family members, but i also saw a lot of nurses and doctors that were working tirelessly to save lives. today it's a very sad day for nevada. it's a very sad day for las vegas. but if anything good came out of this, i saw humanity. i saw our community come together. i saw strangers helping strangers and saving lives. i do want to say thank you to the sheriff and to metro police, to firefighters, the doctors, the nurses and everybody who is working tirelessly to save lives at this precise moment. i know we're going to get through this and our city will be stronger. thank you so much.

i'm clark county district attorney steve wolfson. on behalf of the clark county d.a.'s office, our thoughts and prayers go out to everybody associated with this event. two of my prosecutors, two of my young female prosecutors were actually at this concert close to the stage. i've spoken to both of them this morning and they're pretty rattled. they're pretty shaken up. this was a horrific event to say the least. this is a classic wmd. this is a weapon and a man of mass destruction. what i'm pleased so much about is how this doesn't involve politics in the sense of republican or democrat. we are here, all of us are nevad nevadasens and we're working together to get through this. i want to thsh

for your leadership in leading us through this terrible, terrible day. thank you. >> thank you, sheriff. i want to first off begin by thanking the sheriff. i got down here 8 or 9 hours ago. there weren't many of us here 8 or 9 hours ago, just a handful immediately after this incident. i can tell you our first responders, both the men and women of the fire department and metro were on their way in when this all happened. we've got first responders that are literally covered in blood as a result of this. there's a lot of victims that have not been identified as of this point. but they have stepped up. it was a sole shooter. there's no further threat that we're aware of, no immediate threat. i want to assure everyone that's listening that las vegas is safe. the men and women at mandalay bay and mgm have been incredible in terms of communicating and working with the sheriff's office in order to ensure that everybody can be taken care of, get back in the rooms and they understand we are safe and we're doing everything humanly

tourists and our citizens in clark county. that being said, the sheriff and i have set up a go fund me account that some of you might have seen. we have been inundated with phone calls and e-mails and text messages of people asking what they can do. there's going to be a lot of family members going through an awful lot at this particular time. as the sheriff said we have over 500 in our hospitals being treated and we need to provide them with some sort of support. so we have done that and i just can't say enough about the fine men and women that are our first responders here in clark county and all of the cities and jurisdictions have pulled together. i thank them all for that. we pledge our full resources so assist the sheriff and fbi. we ask for your prayers. god bless you. i want to thank you all. i'm mayor carolyn goodman of this great city.

commissioner had spoken to about the great response, rapid, thorou thorough, of our first responders and law enforcement. i spent part of last night and was late this morning with you all because i was over at umc in the trauma unit. it's been a very, very difficult time for us. as we look forward to continuing what our great city does, we offer a safe place. this is a crazed lunatic full of hate. we don't know much about his background, but it certainly is not an extension of what we believe in, what everybody who lives here and works here and those who visit here want to see. this is something that was simply outrageous, uncalled for, and so many innocent people, young people, children, parents who have lost loved ones and so many still suffering in the hospitals, gone through major surgery.

we have some that were hit quite lightly with shrapnel as they were near the exits. it's been a hugely traumatic time for all of us, and for our visitors who live country music, many of whom have come from the northern part of our state here and just really came here for a wonderful, safe time, we pride ourselves and our law enforcement. they are so rapid to respond, so thorough in what they do, and our first responders have been simply phenomenal. it is a city and a community that has pulled together. everybody is working so hard to make sure that we are taking care of the needs of the families and those who have lost loved ones. it's just been a very, very traumatic time for everybody. the president gave a beautiful message, and he will be visiting us either some time later today, tomorrow or wednesday.

and we just know that the entire community -- i have so many mayors that have called, governors who have called me personally to express their support, help, and what we ask for is blood. that's the main thing right now, is that if our people want to do something and they are healthy, then please donate blood. we'll have plenty of banks available. always call a hospital if you're unsure where to go. so thank you very much. madam congresswoman, i'm sorry, i didn't mean to step in front of you. >> it's a pleasure to follow you. thank you very much -- >> listening to a press conference taking place regarding this tragic shooting in las vegas. a couple of pertinent pieces of information that came out. the death toll now stands at 58, possibly higher. it was addressed by the fbi special agent at that press conference that at the moment

claims by the media wing of isis that in some ways stephen paddock was affiliated with them and they had found no credibility to that claim. >> that's right. let's go to pete williams on that point because we've been reporting that there's some affiliate of isis claiming that this was one of its soldiers to use the words that the statement used, and it sounds like so far the fbi is saying there's just nothing to verify that at all. no connection. >> reporter: that's right. we have been told something similar by law enforcement and intelligence officials that they didn't believe that statement, nothing to corroborate it. i think one of the -- several things that were disappointing in this news conference. one is the sheer number of people injured, 515. the mayor said some were just in essence grazed by shrapnel but others were seriously wounded. that's just an astonishing number. the second thing that's disappointing is that the authorities say they've finished their search now oep

paddock's home in mesquite, nevada 80 miles away. they were hoping that going through that house might shed some light on this, that they might find some notes, some literature, maps or plans. but he said -- the way he described it is we found nothing derogatory, which is sort of law enforcement talk for nothing that would be connected to this event. however, that's the physical search that's under way. he did say they collected a number of items, and these days people leave behind a lot of footprints and electronic media, cell phones, ipads, laptop computers, desktop computers. all of those will be exploited to see if they can find whether he was in touch with anyone, whether he was writing notes to anybody or to himself. >> pete, stick with us. we'll be back with you in just a couple of minutes. appreciate it. >> the sheriff also t

northern nevada that they'll check out so we'll keep tabs on that. let's turn to luke combs, one of the big names in country music who was part of this three-day festival. he's with us by phone. luke, as i understand it, you performed in the afternoon but you were near the stage when this happened. what did you see and hear? >> absolutely, savannah. yeah. i actually performed on the other stage at the other end of the fairgrounds at about 7:20. my set was done around 8:30. i came over to the other side of the stage which is where there was kind of a v.i.p. bar area. i went up on the bus with jason like when it happened i was standing with my manager and we heard the first four shots ring out. doing music for a living you deal with pyrotechnics a lot on

stage and so nobody on the stage really even batted on eye at the first four shots because it just seemed like it was part of the show and nobody on stage was concerned. at that point we were standing there and the first burst happened and still at that point i was kind of under the impression that maybe something was going wrong with the pyrotechnics or there was some kind of electrical failure. at that point it just seems to me like they were clearing everyone off the stage because there was some sort of danger to the people directly on the stage. it wasn't for a few minutes after that that pandemonium set in when the bursts kept happening. i know that i've been watching the news pretty much been up all night watching stuff. they said maybe it was four or five clips is what i heard. it had to be upwards of 10 to 12, at least, from what i heard personally.

yeah, it was definitely a scary situation. i'm thankful to be here. my thoughts are out with everybody else, you know. >> luke, when you finally did realize this was gunfire and not a problem with pyrotechnics, how did you get out of that area? where did you go? >> originally everyone was sort of panicking and me and my manager were pretty calm. i've been around firearms many times and it didn't sound like gunfire to me. i was actually in the tent with a fan who had wandered back in the back. we were both talking about how it definitely wasn't gunfire for a second and then we heard the next burst and to me it sounded like maybe he had put a weapon out of the window which completely changed the sound of what i was hearing and at that point we go, okay, this is 100% gunfire. obviously we didn't know it was coming from the hotel so we just

knew that we were at least a decent ways away from it so i actually had to make a bee line back towards the stage to get out. my bus was parked across the street so we ran out, ran across the street and got on the bus. luckily we were able to locate the rest of our band and crew within the next ten minutes or so. >> luke, i can only imagine the scene there, pandemonium, but did you see -- were there people injured that you saw? >> you know, luckily for me, i didn't see anyone injured personally. for me it was kind of you didn't really know what was going on, whether it was an attack that was targeted at the festival or there was some kind of violence going on that just happened to be close to the festival. for me, at the beginning i thought i haven't seen anyone

i haven't, you know, felt any bullets hitting around me or anything like that. so i was relatively calm in that situation. it felt like to me it was far away. but unbeknownst to me it was very close. >> you say you've been up all night watching the coverage and we know that this shooter, stephen paddock, was in that hotel since last thursday and had a room where he was looking right down over this venue for the last four days. i know the concert has only been going on for three. what's it do to you emotionally to know that this guy was basically overlooking that entire area and was waiting for what seems to be the culmination of this to carry this out? >> it's obviously disturbing to know that he was up there kind of waiting for his opportunity. but at the same time i don't want to be scared or put any shows of m

anything like that because i feel like that's what this person wants to happen. i feel like he wants everybody to be scared and be afraid and i feel like, you know, obviously we need to be strong in times like this and there's a place for us to all be sad and grieve together and help each other out, but at the same time i think we need to be able to move forward and not let something like this affect our daily lives, even though it's ruined a lot of peoples lives. >> luke, i want to say thank you very much for talking to us. happy you're okay. hope to see you in the coming days. >> of course, thank you guys so much. >> thank you. let's go back to that news conference. the sheriff has taken the mic again. we want to hear what he's saying. >> greg castle, he's just very humble. he's obviously the clark county fire chief. he likes to stand in the back, but where we are different in our jurisdiction as through my

travels in comparison to other jurisdictions, we work very well with the fire department. they did not hesitate to pair up with an officer and enter the fray. i want to thank him for that. thank you, greg. i'm happy to answer some questions. as you know, the investigation is continuing, so please do not get too detailed on your questions because i probably will not be able to answer at this time. >> sheriff lombardo? >> yes, sir. >> is there any computer information or anything that this man might have? and you mentioned a second location in northern nevada. >> the second location is just based off assessor's records of ownership. we discovered that he owned another piece of property in northern nevada. as far as electronic evaluation, we haven't had the opportunity to do that yet. the only thing we are immediately aware in our position is additional firearms and ammunition.

>> people were hit with shrapnel, that's what the mayor said. i want you to follow up on that. also, how did he get these weapons into the hotel room at the mandalay bay? >> like i said, we're doing an investigation. i don't want to give you any inaccurate information, but we do know that he brought the weapons in on his own. in an original briefing, we believe that he was in partnership or companionship of a female and we have determined the female is out of the country. so he brought these weapons in on his own. as far as method, i don't have the ability to give you an accurate picture. >> was the shooter known to local law enforcement, any prior charges? >> no, not at all. we've checked all the federal databases and local databases and state databases and we had no knowledge of this individual. >> sheriff, are we going to change the designation on the woman who was involved with this man from a person of interest to a possible accomplice or suspect? >> no.

we still consider her a person of interest. we have been in contact with her, and we plan to engage her upon her return to the country. >> do you have any idea how he was able to breakthrough the windows? was able to open the windows? did he smash them? >> it's 12:00 in the east coast. 9:00 out west. we're covering this tragic event that took place in las vegas last night. the worst mass shooting in u.s. history. we're listening in right now to sheriff joe lombardo who is the clark county sheriff with jurisdiction in las vegas. want to go back to hear what he's saying. >> well, obviously, we'll run it down to the very end. but right now at face value, we haven't been able to identify that. >> checked in on thursday, the 28th at the hotel? >> i believe that's accurate. >> did he have tickets to the concert? >> i have no idea. >> do you know what he's done