reports, may have used a shotgun. went up to that window anded f right into that newsroom. and reloaded at one point according to phil davis, our top witness on the scene there. >> a reporter. >> who has been tweeting out throughout the afternoon. he's being questioned right now by detectives. >> also w want to tell you that the reason that this has takeng so ls because they did have to -- we've seen this before. we've seen this happen unfortunaty throughout the country. this has become kind of a perverse rhythm for us here in ve these that we active shooters. the first call went out at 2:30. by 3:30 we were watching the rhythm of the response starting to calm down because they did have the shooter in custody.y thust were not reporting it. these are live pictures on the e ground. uff we're seeing from our aerials was recorded earlier. they asked us to clear the air space. >> we'v seen so many law

enforcement. we've heard upwards of ten different agencies. wendy, i was, thinking these people in thewsro lnfercikpolit. they know these -- >> of coursemet.e the y. work with them. >> exactly. they are contacts. they have relationships. when the governor walks up f there, heiliar with people in that newsroom as are many leaders inco anne arundel ty, within the police forces as well. >> you've got to remember it's a hometown small newspaper that tellyou about you. it is hyper local. as scott macfarlane pointed everyone else has justice kennedy's retirement on the front page ofheir major newspapers and the capital gazet, most. it i online, the front page today of their paper was about a water rescue. it's something that really speaks to the town of annapolis

and to the county of anne arundel and it does a beautiful job of covering the statehouse which is right there, the capital. this is a small hometown newspaper and when we hear the names as will come out as this unfolds of the five people who we killed today and the names of the people who were gravely injured, i amure governor hogan and the chief of police and so many people in this town are going to know those names. >> you'd mentioned earlier i think at 4:00 that newspapers of course across the country have whrunk. ths a small one to begin ath. 20had family member who worked for them about years ago. now everything is online and this newspaper andheir owner,mo "balti sun," have put up on their website that i think "the baltimore sun" was under lockdown at one point this afternoon, may still be. this has legs all the way up to new york city. the metropolitan police up there has sen out t different news organizations, they've sent out

officers. out of an abundance of caution they're worried about other targets in the media world. >> also you've got to remember that we're a large country. 325 million people. not allre of us a stable. when something like this happens, you don'w if it's going to inspire darkly inspire someone to do something tragic. it's an a bun dns bundance of c. people have different opinions about media and there's a lot of conversation about that and it's not all pleasant. we don't know the motive. at the news conference, we don'e weow someo quoting the acting chief. on't know what occurred, why it occurred, or how it occurred. sis atat y wha the domestic, or was thiat someone wanted to target this one business? which again we have been toldft allnoon by members of the capital gazette that the epicenter was inside this large

building. >> and we've heard that lone gunman, and that's what we believe, it is a lone gunman, they feel secu saying at, there are reports he's in his early 20s, may have used a shotgun, a shotgun that wasre aded in the midst of all this according to reporter for "the gazette" philavis who said he heard that shotgun being reloaded and just the horror of people under their desk. that's what he witnessed. the initial report when it came out over the police radio and again youe looking at some earlier video from chopper 4, as they were evacuating the building. and you as a viewer have to be ed to this. this is how you evacuate the building when there's an active

shooter. they make you come out with your hands up. often tmes thehooter if he hasn't been caught, he can blend in with people as they're being evacuated. one way to protect the first responders is show your hands so we can get you out there and make sure everyone is s vor if the shooter has an accomplice. you don't know if he act alone. you saw earlier they were using dogs to sniff cars in the parking lot. as we we have seen way too often ur country, they can plant bombs. they can leave other explosives and you can't assume once you ot have the s in custody that everything is good. you really have to go around and make sure he hasn't committed mayhem in his wake that is going to hurt peopl in the future. >> we've got f somee dispatch calls. let's take a listen to the calls that came in about 2:34.

>> active shooter. 888ad westgate >> in an offic >> all right. so we hear that in that first report. here's what the people at the scene were telling 911. an active shoot werer with a shotgun. white male. >> they also said first floor. they had clearedr floors. it was an expansive office n building, that tall, but they had to go door-to-door, office by office. they had a lot of businesses they had tr clout. these are liveicres right

now. we saw everybody calmly walking out as is the drill. they said in the press conference just a week ago in thw to deal situations like this. you've got to wonder if the businesses in ther have had similar types of drills, what to do in an emergency. as we've been seeing, this is the state of things to aay. >> here's something else you have to thi of when you think of doctors offices. there might be in this place some surgical centers. i know one of my -- one of my doctors is in this buildi. you don't know if there is a surgical center or if someone id ng like a colonoscopy and you have a patient unanesthesia and you hear gunfire and you hear you have an active shooter, what do you do. ethis is complicatednding on what kind of bu wsiness,hat kind of medical office youe. h

one could be an ophthalmologistu and one be a surgical center where you have anesthesia. what do you do then? hyou can't justk your patient out. i think we're going to find out as we start hearing from people inside just howg terrifyhis was and howw complicated it as. >> this is video from earlier, a big aerial view from the tremendous presence. there is the governor walking on the scene probably about 45 minutes ago. ng have heard from him. his prayers gut to the victims families. as you see on the bottom of the pscreen, fiople are dead. two have been transported to that nearby anne arundel medical center just two blocksy. aw one has been -- we don't know whether it was airliftedthut is a grave situation. anytime you sen someone up to baltimore shock trauma. >> we have someone who lives nearby on the phone. do you hear us and what are you witnessing and what did you see

earlier? >> what i can tell you about this is i live about a mile away from where this occurred i'm a former news guy. i received tip about what was going on. so i popped over and to say -- i'll say this. the lines of police vehicles between the local and the state and the federal just from lining bestgate drive from a good couplelocks before y even got to the mall is just a site that we've seen many times and other places but not necessarily in our own back yard. it's something that makes you want to take the back of it. by the t active.

>> how big is that perimeter? is it fairly large? we saw some town homes from our chop4. >> there are some town homes and stand alone homes. whenever i was coming to the area, there as nevernybody -- the law enforcement was not telling people to stay in her home. i talked to a few witnesses right after i arrived. they were standing watching. it seemed like from my point of view that this was resolvrad er quickly that it did not appear at least at this point op at anynt that there was any sort of lockdown.ed i wa over and never had a problem. i asked the officer i allowed to walk over in the area and they said don't go past the police tape. the police tape basic goes aut a block or two to the east on westgate drive. that's the vantage point where i

was coming from. you haven't seen a lot of residents in the area anyway. there are people at inwork, c back from work. there are a few people watching what was going on. as a news person, when you hear that "the capital gazette" as we heard from first responders and from the people within, reporter phil davis within "the capitalgazette" newsrooms, as a reporter, newsrooms are open. we're all in one g old room, correct? >> correct. >> is that your experience as well? from all the newsrooms i've been in. you're easy targets. >> i can tell you as a newsroom nager in three newsrooms prior to moving back here, security is an issue that we all take for

seriously, but yet at the same time it is one big giant room and you have guest coming in, interviewees coming in. there's only so much money that's been secured. that's not up to me to say whether rights right or wrong. s it are very open and many newsrooms are very vulnerable. we'r constantly having traffic coming in and out of different newsrooms and not everybody works h>>e. what i would manage with a small hometown newspaper, rey're on the first fl you have an open window so that people can look in. you want to be open and you're friendly. you want to be accessi you will, because you are their neighbor reporting on their hometown and on their line. to be that open and thato ed is kind of part of the

relationhip that these small newspapers have with their community. >> mike, we want to thank youo much. thank you for sharing your insights and calling in. we appreciate it. we want to shif annapolis mall where many families are being reunited and tracee wilkins has been gathering information, talking y some witnesses too. tracee, what a hearing now? >>eporter: we were on our way to the scene. we had a conversation with one mother who had a daughter who worked inside. it's more than a newspaper inside of this building. there are other offices, other businesses and folks who were concerned about what was happening with those people, peop who were coming t this building with no information. so now what are the police are working to d to notify those families of the folks who were d killed i this building, as you just said, we now know f he peope died inside this building. several others were injured. we kw about two who were

transported to nearby hospitals. now we're waiting on another press update and hopefully we will have a name of the gunman who according to our sources and informatio we've been able to gather most likely used aot shgun in this shooting. we still are not se of the motive or why this man did what he is accused of doing here. police are saying what they're edoing now is intervng that suspect and asking a number of . also interviewing people still inside keep others to ask additional questions. people who have been injured transported. been police have been gathered mere just over there to the left there right in front of the building talking about what's happened on the scene. sharing information, giving us updates when we can. so far we've only had onewe re expecting another one shortly here. as we can see, this is still a

very active scene. there are sti multiple agencies. during that press concerns they took their time in making sure we saw all of the folks who aren going to blved in the process. that included the state's attorney forun anne al county and also the police department and the acting chief speaking here. people who are going to be a part of this as the investigation continue. the gunman did survive so there are a lot of questions about what that guy was doing here, why he went into the billing. these are all answers they're going to have to getom by objection through the building very carefully, very slowly. > ithey said ittially as you just repeated. it is going to be a very long prousss. we have gotten word, folks, that the two patients transported to anne arundel medical center were not shooting victims. they had some other type of injury. the two tients, again to anne arundel medical center just two blocks away from there, we als

know that one patient was transported up to baltimore shock trauma in critical condition t no word on latest in their conditions. five fatalities. again we're waiting on a press conference. we don't know the ne of this person. we don't know if police know the name, if he' withholding that or if they're withholding that. >> right. also we werehe curious the new york police department said they were dispatching officers to all theatews organns up there, this came out about two uours after they got the gunman inody. you wonder how quickly they were able fto they were ablook at his i.d. and go to his facebook page and listen to any comments he made. we don't know if he yelled something at the capital ga swret, we don't know if it's a

dire response t something they had down here or if it was an abundance of caution. there's too much copy cat stuff going on and too many people easily triggeredy these kind of events. >> he did in fact hear that gunman he says reload what we assume to be a shotgun at th point. >> you can imagine how terrifying that is and how startling it is because right now we are imagining what it was, you know, we know there was shooter. but day-to-day, and all of these events, it just com out of nowhere. and you are going about your life. yo are going about in a free

society and suddenly someone starts shooting at you. that can -- you cnot imagine what that is like even from people coming and telling you. you can't imagine until it is happening to you. so we have to feel for those people and understand the chaos that was occurring at the time. >> those gunshots were coming through a window. we're hearing a hallway perhaps on that first floor that he was shooting int that newsroom. yo've got toonder what type of warning they. h phil davis saw him coming up and he hid under. you've got to wonder how many others had a chance and how large this newsroom was. was it 20 peoplen there? perhaps 30 or 40. it couldn't have been too large of a newsroom. >> right. it's a small newspaper and people have condensed their staff because of theconomics of running a newspaper. we're going tohow you some video of new york city as i just mentioned earlier.

theypd has dispatched officers to newsrooms up there and this is what it looks like at the y "nk times." that is quite a presence there. that is making quite a statement. we're just going to -- that's the same. you're seeing the same shot. >> you know in new york these buildings are landmarks. people know exactly where "the new york times" is. they know where 30 rock is. they know where other big media headquarters are. this person obviously knew if "the gazette" was targeted, they knew where that tiny newspaper was. >> i've gone into this building numerous times. i don know what i noticed it, but i can imagine "the gazette" is a small newspaper and has its logo on theoo or on the window to say who they are. it's a proud newspaper. this person had to know they were there.y

clearly thre targeted. it wasn't just there happens to be a building, an office here, tt me shoot it. >> we want to go back to scott macfarlane and talk to him about what he's hearing fm his sources. scott, we still don't know a motive. this could be aomestic situation. it could have something to do with the newspaper itself. coverager it could be completely random. what do we think at this point do we have anything to go on? toone of the things you hav get from the suspect is the identity of the suspect. o guarantee the suspect is saying his nam who he is if he's not carrying i.d. we can tell y this. there are three senior law enforcement officials who say the shoote surrendered as soon as he was met by the first responters. they rep this early stage of the investigation. police don't have a motive. police say the shooter surrendered as soon as met by first responders. we krw from the pess conference, local lawrc

enfoent responded within 60co ses. a busy part of town. easy to understand why police would be in close proximity. think about how muchity tght have happened in such a brief period oe. 60 seconds and several fatalities, several injuries. the last press briefing we learned there were five fatalities. we also know another press briefing is coming and we'll learn about theth status o investigation, jim and wendy. more re curious to learn about the person that was taken to baltimore shockraa. if you're taken there, your injuries are grave. we have some new audio from the fire dispatch calls once they got to the scene and were confronted with the number of. victims let's listen to this. >> one person, one in the lobby. >> we've got about four bodies. >> we're bringing people out.w

e need them corralled somewhere. they're doing searches. these people are coming out their hands up. i need them cover. >> that is impressive. o the intensi that because they're worried about the people leaving and if they could become victims too. we heard him say in the lobby and four boes withi that newsroom and bringing people out was the big concern. chopper 4 we've just cleared to goack into the scene area. that has just opened up. we'll get you fresh pictures from there. what i was curious about or wanted to make mention, engaged, the gunman from that press conference, scott just made it clear we had kind of gotten wind of earlier, the gunman did in fact surrender as soon as he was met by those first responders. there was no back and forth. no injuries. know >> right. but what was sochilling, again,

about that dispatch is jt how desperate they were to start moving those bodies and you've got to remember that just because they have one gunman who sundered, you do not know as he asked for cover for the people beingat eva from the billing with their hands up, you do not know if he has placed explosives in that path that could possibly go off and injure them or if there is another person there, a second atcomplice. uilding has windows all around that's why earlier on we were watching people be evacuated acrosshe parking lot, we figured things you were under control because they were incredibly exposed and the police felt they were safe pough to be exposed. >> they knewtty early on they had their man and this was, in fact, a lone gunman, but thil is st an investigative scene and they are going from office ny office looking for clues

that might piece together any di type of motive. chopper 4 back ovehe scene. so many agencies involved in this. scott macfarlane, we're hearing p wards of ten working together. is that right. >> at least ten. i'm countying more than that he. prince george's county is helping out. aw least ten enforcement agencies responding. remember you're in anne arundel county, you're around so many high profile targets where there arees mutualonse agreements. federal facilities and the epicen let's add this from our news reporting partners. they described the suspect as having worn a black t-shirt, live pants and had a pony ylor long hair. no word on an identif this point. it's becoming increasingly interesting that there's no i.d. on a person who's bepending quality time now with law enforcement in anne arundel county. we have an individual, a young man with a black t-shirt, oliveo

pants, and tail and long hair. now that chopper 4 is back abovh scene, you can see how prnlt ln present law eforcement is. a large number of people on site. we know at leasttine pat has been brought tock baltimore sho trauma. two patients who did not suffer gunshots i think according to our last report and ae arundel medical center. at this point at least five nd fatalitiesvery much waiting on a new press briefing to get updated information on that, jim >>ott, we are now hearing d endy. from the associated press that the suspect is notp cating. i think we have to remind people that he gets read his miranda rights and he doesn't have to say a thing. >> i saw the state's attorney out there. the state's attorney was part of the bing. he's on site readying a prosecution but that doesn't s mean there it going to be

counsel on the other side of a defendant. if the suspect asks for a lawyer, you cut off the police interrogation right there. the police made clear they're still treating this building, the 888 building as an active crime scene. investigators are still inside the building. >> scott, you mentioned what he was wearing. black t-shirt, olive pants, no mention of protective gear li a vest. does that tell you anything? we've seen that in other school ootings where these gunmen will wear a vest or -->> ome in with some type of body armor, right. >> we also heard from anne arund county police the suspect was responded to within a minute. accordi to our other reports, the suspect surrendered upon arrival of the first responders, so the are telling us the suspect surrendered when plolic

arrived. lack t-shirt on a hot summer day. >> also we have to remember from what the first 911 call that wen li to a few minutes ago, it was all happening at the capit gazette newspaper there. it wasn't as if he was targeting others. his first target was that newspaper. and while the police won't confirm that, think from what we're hearing, there's no other conclusion one can draw that he was targeting anything but that news >> anne arundel county police, like every other municipal police department in our aread cross the country, trains for active shooter scenarios. yhey trained just in this neighbor and therain arnually. every police depent is trained for the active shooter situation and a component of so much this training is a quick response,ing there quickly, stopping the shooter. front line people in rst. there was an older mode of law enforcement mode where you wait for the s.w.a.t. teamoarve.

most parts of the country have shifted to respond. get somebody in there as quick as possible. 60 seconds was the response time quoted to zbl. >> scott, we will stay in close contact with you. that's what we know as we awt a briefing again from law enforcement officials. again f, if you're just joining, we have been on the air for the last two hours. >> here is what we knowight now. five people are dead after a shooting at the capital gazte newspaper. several other are gravely injured. one up at baltimore shock police have suspected shooter in dcustody. 't have a name. we're hearing he may have used a shotgun. injured victims are being treated in btimore and the

anne arundel medical center, but those two people transported the, two blocks away were not injured by gunfire. >> what could have also been the case with those two people, me there are cal offices in this building. someone could have been there for a procedure. someone could be there that heard the gunfi and needed to be treated. they were not related to the shooting, but thewere taken t anne arundel. the person we are concerned about is the person at baltimore shock trauea. >> i'mng from our producer mark stevens that number of fatality my be growing. we have five dead. that number may bechanging.

it could have climbed. the baltimore shock trauma may be the first thing that pops into someone's mind. we don't have a name on ts gunman. we believe he was in his early 20s. he was wearin a black t-shirt. had a pony tail. olive pants. we don't kw if police e.ow his nam we are hearing from a.p. that he has not n cooperating, so how do you go about getting someone's identity if they're not telling that identity, or do theknow his nameut they're not sharing that. within minutes we could be hearing from police to get th late oeft th latest on that. > we also saw earlier, the first reports came out at 2:34 this afternoon. we heard the police reports here in our newsroom where there was an active shooter at "the capital gazette" just behind the annapolis mall.e it's a cou blocks from anne arundel medical center. it's like ten minutes down from city dock and from the historic

roea many of you have visited. what we've heard the 911 calls is we have heard people say an active shooter. we heard from the fire partment first responders asking for help because they have four bodies that needed to be transported and we are also hearing from reporter phil davis who w in "the capital gazette" and witnessed the first and wrote very chillingly on twitter. tweeted out that it terrifying to hear your colleagues being shot and then to hearma the gu reload. one of his first tweets he said there are people seriously injured and it's that bad. so we re getting this sort of narrative, if you will, from one of the gazette reporters in early chapters of this. >> the word has gotten out. he's been the first one to eyeball this gunman and to really give us that first

opinion perspective of wha he heard and what he saw. colleagues. that gunm he heard reload that shotgun. we want to go to our reporter on the scene, shomari stone, you're at a parking garage, is that right, across from the site? >> ah. good evening. i'm in a parking garage across t the stre from where the shooting happened. we're in the westfield mall. there were people in the mall and they evacuated after the shooting happened. you can see it is almost empty. right over here is lord & taylor. many of the people who were in the building whehe shooting happened were evacuated to the rd & taylor. we're bringing you a different e angle, sothing different here on news 4. you see hatbuilding, 888, thatly is exa where the shooting occurred. that is whereth "capital gazette" is located one woman was at a doctor's fice. she had to shelter down. i talked to another woman who was in that builng. she was in a law firm and she

had to be on lockdown as well. they evacuated moments ago. witn the last few min i was able to get their interviews on my twitter feed at shomari stone which was retweeted by nbc washington. there are people who are in this mall and many of them were g, cryhugs. you have to understand there were people in the building. they come over here. they're scared. right now they're trying to .each their family and friends they tell they didn't want to talk to camera, which is understandable ter such a tragic incident. we respected their privacy. right now they are trying to reach their family a friends because many of them are terrified. back to you. >> there were so many there at that mall. g we haten word. we are about four minutes away from the police briefing. we mentioned the number of fatalities may be anging. it could be going down. as we heard from the phone call, one of th emergency calls coming from n frin from fire

officials. they said four bodies during those phone calls it could be in fact four dead. we are just saying at this point several.ho auties had said five earlier. >> i think acting police chief had initially saidt five ae last news conference. again, shomarid was outside l & taylor. the reason that is important is if you have family or friends working at 888 bestgate road building, they have no way of getting home because their cars art of the perimeter and the investigation. this is the reunification center is at lord & taylor right across the street. the mall remained open roughout all of this. many people at the mall had no idea what was going on. they came out and we trying to drive away and saw this police presence. >> you're familiar with this mall. how busy would it be on, say, an thursday afon? >> it's the summertime. kids are out of school. a lot of people are retired in the annapolis area. it wouldn'toue like it on

a weekend. it could be fairly busy. we came on the air shortlyfter 3:00 and people started watching they are not going to be going there i'm wanturprised the garage is empty. that is the place to go if you are trying to reach the person that you love or friend who needs a ride home. >> it looks like a group of l enforcement and local leaders are making their way over to that briefing area where the po we heard from the governor. >> the goveor is still there. >> still there? the center of the screen. enforcement. we have anne arundel county exiccutive, the acting pol chief as well. we have atf on the scene and fbi. scott macfarlane reported we've been seeing well beyond ten different ageies coming together and as the governor ming mentioned and so many others, the response time could have nd made a trems difference. in fact, did. this guy was reloading.n seconds they were able to go into this building.

>> right. but at the same time we were hearing he had a shotgun and it doesn't take long to do a pre tremendous amount of damage with a shotgun. this is all about timing. this could have been much worse. he started ate "apital gazette." we do not know if he was planning on moving, if he was planning to move to another site. that is jackie bensen. >> this is the latest briefing. >> there's governor hogan. let's listen in. >> i'm ryan frazier. i wanted to come out and give you a brief update for som of the information that we've learn lehrned or come to knowgh the investigation. some of the questions you had earlier we'll have some answers for. unfortunately we still have some we can't answer. with that i'll turn it over to county executive.

>> as we reported earlier today there's been a terrible tragedy here in anne arundel county.n there was active shooter incident. five people are dead. several more are wounded and in the care of anne arunl medical center. the shooter is in our custody and being a interrogated we speak. i want to acknowledge theen trus work of our public safety professionals today. particularly the ne arundel county police department, the annapolis city police y partment. thre on the scene in about 60 seconds. butnd be that, they went immediately into that building without a moment's hesition and demonstrated incredible courage. we are so deeply preis their great work. it could have been. >> worse. >> i want to than you all for being here. our hearts go out to the victims and their families. i want to reiterat all three

county agencies, the city police force, the sheriff' department. we have i think ten different other agenciesksing them up. it's a tragic situation but there were very briave people that came in and kept it from being worse. it was incredible. that's all i have to say. >> i promised you guys an update.y dep chief william cramph. the building as we speak is now tactically secured what that means is our s.w.a.t. team and our quick responders have been rough the building. it is secure as far as there are no others in the building that a are a threat to anyone else. we have recovered what we thought ght have been an explosive device that we have taken care of.

we have membead felt bomb s on scene. we don't anticipate having any more explosive devices. what is happenng now that you see behind me is our criminal investigation division, the re now investigators a taking over the scene. we have release to members of the criminal investigation decision so theyhe can start process of ietidentifying what occurred, how it occurred and why it occurred. at this time we had over 170 inuividuals in theing that were escorted out safely. they were taken to a reunification area at the annapolis mall.we rought jill corbin in from our crisis intervention team who will say a few words in a moment to talk with thetn ses, some of the victims and the police officers who respded. at this time we're going to continue the investigation and we'll ha anyo update fo later on this evening skpi

belieand i believe ryan is going to give you a time for that. >> i'm jen corbin with anne arundel county crisis response. welhave been at seve different sites working with th witnesses and police officers following the incident. we will be working continuing hroughout the night bot on a phone line and throughout to assist. we are mental health clinicians that will be working with the witnesses and the officers for the next day or so. that's what we'll be available for throughout. >> i have one more item. this area will be closed for an indefinite amount of time. i can't tell you when it will be reopened. if you receive calls, please le thow what occurred and why we have it shut down. the investigation is going to

continue into the evening hours. at that time when we get more information i will have another update for you. [ inaudible question ] >> i can confirm that we have the susp ct intody. they're currently interviewing him right now. the only other information that i have from questions that were asked earlier is we don't have an identifation on him yet. we do know he is a white adult male and the gun that was used was described as a long gun as we get more information, we will continue to put it out. we're still doing interviews. he was taken into custody by ic ofs. there was no gunfire exchanged between officers and the suspecer since weable to get here very quickly, just something for you guys to know, we have a unified training on how to respondctive shooters and that's what made one of the major things that made this a

huge success. law enforcement agencies around the entire united states train the same way for these active shooters. since we've had critical incidents like this. ion't want to say it's very easy, but it's very easy for offimers to get together f other jurisdictions, link up, now the movements, the terminology thateded to go in and effectively locate a suspect in an active shooter situation and take care of that target inside there during an tiveot s. [ inaudible question ] >> say it again. [inaudible] >> i can't ar that right now. it will be determined from our investigators as we gohrough and process the crime scene. it will be a very long n we anticipate having another update at 8:00. any information that's new i'll give then and give any updeate as we go on we have confirm that five are deceased. we're still working on i for you to get a good number.

we're working on that. it's estimated around three. [ inaudible question ] >> i don't know how many were in the newsroom, but i know approximately 170 we were able to safely evacuate out of that building and escort over to meet with family friends at the annapolis mall. 8:00 will be our next update. don't have any other answers. any other updates we'll get out at 8:00. >> so many questions still unanswered, but two big takeaways, and he said it two times. 170 peole in thatbuilding. we've been talking about how much worse it could have been. they recovered an explosi device in that building. that's how much worse it could have been. they talk about the bravery and the timing, but when you factor thin, the potential for even greater tragedy is enormous. >> the other thing is what we are hearing is that the gunman and what he just said, the gunman is not cooperating.

he is not giving them his. i they cannot identify hi the associated press said he is not cooperating. we are hearing it as a white guy in his -- white man in his early is or around somewhere in 20s who was wearing a black t-shirt. with olive green pants and had a pony tail and that he used a long gun that wasst fir reported on 911 that he had a shotgun. that has not been confirmed but sources are confirming when tpo ce got in and made contact with him within 60 seconds of the first 9 call goingout, he did not -- they did not exchange gunfire. he surrendered without incident. >> jackie bensen is on the scene. she's been talking to witnesses. what are they telling you?u >> reporter: know, i was just listening to wendy rieger talk. she knows this area. we all know this area.

the mall is here. people love coming he. u know that they've already had a fatal shooting at that mall two years ago. people's reaction is not what ie would have five years ago. we spoke with a lady who works at a heating and air conditionng place. asked her what she made of this r what s , at she makes of thi >> i don't know what the situation is as far as if it was alo disgruntled ee or what not, but it always crosses my mind thats i ridiculous. it's scary, you know. i mean, you can't even go to the movie theater and worry about getting shots. the schools. it's crazy. >> reporter: a lot of roads in e this area closed, blocked coming into the mall area. do not come to annapolis mall

tonight for a nonemergency situation or if you do, be prepared to have to walk a great distance to get in here. obviously don't -- it's not clear whether open or closed. they are open right now. but the police have told us they will have another press briefing at 8:00. can they look at the gun and look at who it's registered toa start looking back from there? >> we know the atf is on the scene. the fbi is in an assist role. they call what they're doing assisting. this is the type of thing the

feds are veryood at assisting at. we heard a reference to the bomb squad being there. wehe know news 4 i-team has spent time with the anne arundel squad.bom we know this to be an elite unit that has been a critical part of federal cases not only findg the evidence, but helping find the people in federal cases. no shortage of law enforcement thte. no doubome of them are in the role of figuring out who this dividual is, if the individual isn't telling police himself. this is the type of billing and you've alluded to it, no shortage of surveillance cameras. i don't just mean the newspaper, t there are other businesses adjaent to it that will have surveillance cameras that will give them some legs up as well. you've got the feds here. the fbi hasd a bug down the road with some agents. i'm told those special agents to help deployed police. >> also i think we need to point out something that caew out of that conference. we were hopinng they were g

to roll back the number of fatalities, the number of people we were told they might be changing that number.at unfortuly, the number is still at five. if it was oneperson, that would still be tragic, but i think we were hopinghen we were initialing getting some inutes tion just a few ago before the briefing that might be lowering that death rate, but unfortunately a tragically they kept it at five. >> and often times the numbe go up which that has not happened. e do have one patient at baltimore shock trauma. two others taken -- we want to go now to tracee wilkins. you are outside the mall there h reunify indica and workers, as many as 170 workers in that building. tell us what you're hearing. >> reporter: 170 workers. as you heard, i asked how many

people were in that newsroom. police are saying they cannot tell us right now. just that there were 170 people in that building. then they had som folks who they brought out and there were people who were afely brought out. all of these people needing to be interviewed. let me show you what is looking like. the mall is that way. behind me is the billing where this all h it's blocked by the trees here. but beyond those trees, about a four-sto building there. we have shown you that building from chopper 4, that's the building where this all happened. you also heard the gunman, is he eingcooperative, asking police to confirm that he is not being cooperative dthat hes not have an i.d. there was another reporting asking how do you ide someone if they won't give you their i.d.? if they doebt tell you who they

are. not confirming on the record he is not being cooperative. they also would not confirm that the long gun is a shotgun. that's what we're hearing from sources close to th investigation, that that long gun was actually a shotgun. we're also hearing that police were here on thecene at about a minute, 60 seconds, and that when they arrived, there was no exchange of gunfire, but the gunman was at least cooperative here on the scene. once e're hearing is tha in custody that cooperation tiff behavior ended. what we're asking is why and's whappening and police are not ready to give us that information right w. of course what happens next, they are going through this building collecting all of the evidence that nthey need, questioning witnesses, talking to everyone involved as they are preparing the case. it is very important especially

for avose that lost five loved ones inside of this best ng that they do the job possible in gathering evidence. that's what they're going to be focused on. i don't kw if you guys realize this or heard it in the press conference, at one point one ow the l enforcement officials say they're going to be closing down streets around here to keep the scene as clean aossible as they go through as much as they need to go through topr are for that cas it's also important we mention folks re people who lost who are involved in this, who know them. other journalists in the area who work with the individuals and want to know that everybody inside is safe. i was talking with one of the local journisalists who is standing with me, if you don't mind, do you mind talking with us? we were talking earlier about your colleague, folks you see inside of this billing every day. i know this is dfficult. i want to clarify they are not my colleages. i work for a different news

organization. >> they're folks you work with iery day. on't know anybody directly with "the capital" but i know several reporters. i got the news moments after it had. i parked my car two miles away because that w i the closes could get. i wanted to be here as well because i knowhat my community counts on m . rry. >> it's fine. you all are community journalists. you're talking about what's happening here in anne arundel county. i want t you speak with folks on facebook who are in that newsroom. briefly tell me what you have heard. >> i don't talk directly with em but i do know of a couple people that are okay whic is -- it's amazing news. i can't even remember their i names, b can get it to you in a second. >> i know these are friends of yours and there was a reporter

that was injur but hearing that she's receiving medical attention. >> i'm hearing very, very little news. i don't want anybody to hold me accountable because i'm hearing stories from all these people that have more connections than i do. to be completely honest , th yo really sucks. i've got to be completely honest with you and i'll say it to the camera. it sucks. when this is your family regardless of whether they wore for the sorganization, just like cnn and fox and you sitting there seing people from cnn and you see people from fox getting shotat, it really sucks. we need to have a stronger community. >> thank you. i know this is difficult for you. we understand what that's like as journalists.e even if youot part of the same news organization, they are friends, they are they are people you care about. this is what he was speaking about just now.ag in, the investigation is ongoing. trying to find out what propel this is gunman here to open fire inside of this billing

at's the information we don't have. i'm tracee wilkins. back to you all. >> also the other thing that we learned from that news , conferenhe gunman had placed an explosive devile there as w he went there to create a tremendous amount of mayhem. >> that's been taken care of and the building is clear. >> let's go tot shomarie across the street. outside the lord & taylor which is the reunification center. are you seeing people come the to meet their loved ones? >> right now we're on the second floor. you can see this parking lot is empty. there are people who are leaving the mall.i just talked to a woman moments a agnd she said they told me to out of here. off and glad toet you look across the street. that is where the shooting occurred, where "the capital gazette" is located. people who were in there,after

they were evacuated, they waed across the street. you can see all the d lights with the police cruisers. you have investigators over there. you can also s fire trucks that are going up and down the mall area right now. heae they were some of first responders. they were peopl trying reunite with their family and friends. back down here in the parking garage moments ago we talked to people who we told you about on my twitter feed at shomari stone and nbc washington, there were r two women who in that building. one was at a doctor's office. one worked for a law firm. let's hear what they have to say about what happened. >> i just heard the panic as they were coming we were on lockdown to get away ayom the window and to just st clear and stay safe. >> you were actually in the same buiing as "the capital gazette" in a different

location. >>loes i was on the same down the hallway. >> what was going through your mind at the time? >> i immediatelyted crying and contacting all of my family members. >> all i knew is there was an ho activeoter and we should stay in our office. we locked ouroors and we all kind of hid and waited to hear what to do. i didn't hear gunshots. i heard. nothing it's amazing i didn't hear anything. after about an hour or so the police came, armed guards lining the hallways, broken glass everywhere, and they escorted us out with our arms up down the four flights of stairs out into the treet and across street to a billing whe we were questioned and then we were escorted across the street to the mall. >> back out here at the parking garage we're continuing to bring you updates as they welcome available. you find the latest updates at nbc washington on twitter and facebooknd ony twter feed. shomari, the thing i'm curious, we've been talking

about how fast this unfolded and how fast it was over. that woman ight there say thad ha --d they had to stay in place and couldn't leave. >> you don't kw what's going on. just because the police confront a 'tgunman, they d know if there's another ones there and th don't know about explosives. they found one explosive, but they don't know what thiinman has laiis path as he's gone there to create this attack. >> we want to go back to scott macfarlane on the live desk. that was the briefing a few moments ago was the first we heard abt anxplosive device. do we know anything more about that or this long gun, scot>> no. that's what the briefing is at this point is likely to include some information about what kind oftartillery, w kind of weapon and information about a suspect. according to our reporting partners, the nbc seen outside

"the capital gazette" was wearing a black shirt and had long hair or a pony tail.po ice believed to be in his 20s. being interrogated rightow. e update came from the county executive a few minutes ago. he caed thi a terrible tragedy and confirmed five dead and some number injured. again, reiterated the interrogation, the gunman going on right now. we do not know how wel it's going. we don't have an identity of this gun we know police went into the building immediately. the first report came just before 2:30 in afternoon. about and a half hours ago. police responded within 60 seconds.yi police are s the building itself is secure now. there are no more people around who are a.thre they also referenced a possible explosive device. the bomb squad w on the scene. they have a well resourced bomb squad and they've made that explosive device no longer a threat. criminal investigations under

way. criminal investigators are the ones running the scene now that the threat is over. 170 people exvacated from this building, reunited at lord & taylor at theth o side of bestgate and bestgate itself is closed indefinitely. 170 people evacuated. five fatalities. some nmbernjured. an 8:00 briefing our next report at theive desk. i'm scott macfarlane. news 4 at 6 starts now. > chaos inside an office building in maryland. five people are dead. several othe greatly injured and the gunman is in custody. all of this unfolded at the offices of "the capital gazette" newspaper in annapolis. the moti still a mystery. as police questioned the suspect and sweeped the buiing, we're getting some firsthand accounts

i what happened from a journalist who waide hiding under a desk as those shots rang out. these dramatic images were captured from the air. it's still unfolding as we come on the air. >> a reporter for "the capital gazette" newspaper says it was like a war zone. haring that on twitter all afternoon. he says the gunman opened fire through the glass door of th newsroom striking several employees, then reloading that shotgun or long gun. we have a team of reporters on the scene as we work the to give