i want to bring in pete williams now. you heard the news conference, what do you take away from that? okay, we're going to come back to pete in just a moment, obviously continuing to gather more information there. clint van zandt has been standing by. i understand you were also listening to the news conference there from cathy lanier and mayor vince gray, clint, at this point in terms of the investigation, what is law enforcement going to be focusing on right now? what's the first order of business? >> well, to me, one of the first things they have to determine is do we have one, two or three shooters? again, we keep hearing this information about this second and third person. pete williams i think rightfully so suggested earlier there may have been a misidentification or they may have counted the same person twice. but now the police chief one more time comes back and tells us the potential of three. so i think law enforcement has got to work very hard with the known shooter and find out who his known associates are, espe

pete williams -- is pete williams still with us? we're going back to peter alexander at the white house. peter, as pete williams was telling us, again, we have this other unit that's going in and certainly this is a multi effort of different organizations, divisions on the scene. d.c. leading the charge here to fig out exactly what this scene means and if there is more than one shooter but pete wants us to work out of an abundance of caution that there is only one shooter so far that they believe they have cornered. again, peter, you said that the president is not going to be making changes so far as you have heard from your sources to his address later? >> reporter: well, we know it remains very possible that he will say something addressing what obviously is the major headline right in his backyard here in washington, d.c., at the top of his remarks that are scheduled now to take place about ten minutes from now. everybody has been finding their seats. this event was initially scheduled to take place in the rose garden. it's due t

mandy, we've got new reporting from nbc's pete williams.e name of the shooter here in this situation this morning, the shooter was 34-year-old aaron alexis f originally of ft. worth, texas. we're told he began working as a civilian contractor. that might give us a clue of how he was able to get on to the base here and get through that military security perimeter if he was a civilian contractor, he would have had the i.d. and the things you need to get through that security checkpoint. pete williams reporting 34-year-old aaron alexis originally of ft. worth, texas, identified as the shooter here this morning at the washington navy yard, mandy. >> thank you very much for that. we'll keep on keeping up to date with you over there live on the ground as soon as more information becomes available. >> much more on this developing situation in washington after this short break. [ tires screech ] ♪ [ male announcer ] 1.21 gigawatts. today, that's easy. ge is revolutionizing power. supercharging turbines with advanced hardware and innovative software

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams joins me.even dead perhaps as many as 15 shot. as more information comes in we're hearing a much grimmer toll. >> yes, and we've been cautioning all along the number will change. we're still trying to sort out whether all of these victims were inside this building 197 or whether some were shot outside. we've been hearing all morning long, some people saying they thought this all started outside the building and then went inside or started inside and came outside and went back in or what. we're still trying to determine that, whether people who were wounded inside the building came out and then collapsed in the parking lot, what precisely happened there is still not clear to us. so again, this number of casualties and dead and injured is undoubtedly going to change and we don't know. it does appear from the best information we have from this point that the person who fired the shots in the building 197 that you've been talking about, got somebody else's security badge. this is the best scenario

justice correspondent pete williams has been on this since it started. pete, what's the latest? >> the question has been one of the many questions has been whether there was more than one gunman involved in the mass shooting today and it's still pointing toward the possibility that it was just one person. there was surveillance video and eyewitness reports of others. d.c. police have said one of people they were looking for, a white male with a tan navy style uniform and beret has been identified and was responding, was not involved in the shooting. so all indications are that it was just a single gunman identified by many law enforcement officials as 34-year-old aaron alexis of ft. worth, texas, his identity is confirmed through fingerprints, there was confusion about his identity because a badge, a security badge, i.d. badge, was found near his body. he was confirmed dead earlier today and i.d. badge found near his body. it was thought initially that the name on the badge was the name of the gunman. that turned out not to be correct. the badge holder is someone who worked at t

nbc's pete williams has been working the phones throughout the morning. pete, i guess one of the outstanding questions here, the last we heard from mik was that at least one shooter, believed to be cornered. do you have any new information about that? >> reporter: you know, i am struck by how little we know about this given that it's been going on now for two hours. two hours plus. it still isn't clear to us precisely how it started. we don't know whether it's just one person with a gun. we know at least it's one heavily armed man with a long gun and a handgun. we've heard conflicting reports on precisely what kind of weapon he was using -- >> if i could interrupt you for just a second, pete. clint has been working the phones, clint vanzant, former fbi profiler, nbc analyst, cl t clint, you do have more information? >> i do. my challenge is the same as pete's, that this information as you suggest is changing rapidly. as of about 15 minutes ago, chris, there were two different reports coming in. one indicated the gunman had barricaded himself inside of a ro

joining us now is nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. pete, thanks for being with us. what can you tell us about that second individual who police say they want to question? >> i think that that's pretty well washed out by now. they won't completely write it off yet because they want to try to figure out exactly who this person was that was seen in the surveillance video carrying what we believe to be a long gun, but there are some indications that that picture shows the shooter himself. in any event, there are lots of people authorized to carry weapons on a military facility like this. just about everybody i've talked to scratched -- scratch the just about -- everybody i talked to thinks this is the work of one person. so i think that's all but washed out. >> in terms of the ongoing nature of this, are there people on base, people being kept there by police and law enforcement? >> yes, they still are for a couple of reasons. one is the fbi wants to interview anybody who saw the shooting, wants to talk to hem. so, there's that. secondly, the navy wants to do a careful

pete williams joins us now. sweet, we were talking a few moments ago there was perhaps a consensus there was one shooter, as the police outlined they are looking for two other suspects, one black male, one white male, one in some sort of uniform. this is obviously a fluid situati situation. >> reporter: i'm sorry, i'm not hearing you, someone else is trying to talk to me. i think you're asking about the police saying there's two other shooters. eyewitnesss have told police, one of the descriptions of one of the potential shooters sounds a lot like the person who has been killed, the single shooter. so i think out of an abundance of caution they are checking all this out and they want to make sure they have eyewitness reports that describe them having guns. it's a naval reservation, military facility. a lot of people have guns. obviously it's something they are trying to shake down. what we've been told, d.c. police is in charge of this. this is something they want to check out, something they are investigating b

>> pete williams on this story all day from our d.c. room. thank you, pete. >>> let's not forget three victims survived the shooting and are making progress. including the d.c. police officer scott williams who suffered serious gunshot wounds to both legs. and as we said, we are learning more tonight about the 12 people who lost their lives at the navy yard complex while doing what they do every day, going to work and making a living for their families. nbc's tom costello has more on their stories. >> reporter: taps, at the navy memorial this morning for the 12 men and women who were gunned down at a place supposed to be safe. among them sylvia frasier, a civilian employee. >> my sister was a person who a was really giving, loving, truly give you the shirt off her back. >> reporter: ken proctor, civilian you tilled foreman leaved two teenage boys. his ex-wife said he loved them dearly. martin bodrog was 54. he is survived by his wife of 25 years and three daughters. 59-year-old michael arnold had been married for 30 years with two sons. at the

our justice correspondent pete williams starts us off tonight in our d.c. newsroom. pete, good evening. >> reporter: good evening. investigators say aaron alexis believe he was torment ed by a form of radio waves once use bid the navnavy. cameras inside the navy yard building show alexis carrying the sawed-off shotgun he used to shoot most of his victims. >> mr. alexis was a mentally unstable individual. he was able to obtain a firearm two days before he carried out an attack that was planned to kill as many innocent siecivili as possible. >> reporter: pictures released today show alexis arriving at 7:53 a.m. driving his rental car into a parking deck. at 8:08 he walks in into building 17 carrying a backpack presumably with the gun and ammunition inside. he emerges fro the restroom, holding the shotgun, looking for victims, looking into office doors. another camera catches him coming down a stairway t with the shotgun. fired at victims on at least three floors of the building. the last video shows him in another hallway, hiding behind a corner as people rush away at

>> pete williams with the latest from washington tonight. pete, thanks. >>> the new head of the catholic church, pope francis, has given an interview that contains some comments that seem to a lot of people today to skip the catholic church ahead in time many times over. it's been clear from the start he doesn't act like any of his predecessors and this is now confirmation he sure doesn't talk like any previous pope. for starters he said in the first extended published interview that the church has become, quote, obsessed with preaching about gays and abortion and contraception. he says people want pastors, not clergy acting like bureaucrats or government officials. it goes on from there. we get our report tonight from nbc's anne thompson. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: in his short papacy pope francis has preached loudest with gestures, drawing tens of thousands to his weekly audience in the vatican, and millions in rio, his first overseas trip. today it's the pope's words making headlines as he spells out his vision of the catholic ch

pete williams with the latest on the investigation for us from washington tonight. pete, thanks. >>> tonight the president has ordered flags throughout the district of columbia be flown at half staff. throughout the morning, the number of casualties grew to a startling number. they were taken by air and ambulance to several d.c. area emergency rooms and trauma centers. nbc's tom costello is outside one of them. tom, good evening. >> reporter: hi, brian. we are at washington hospital center. three victims were brought here. they operated on two -- a woman with a shoulder wound and a police officer who had serious leg wounds. they were worried about saving his legs. there is a remarkable story about a woman shot in the head but the bullet didn't penetrate her skull. no surgery. she is expected to recover. the chief medical officer had thoughts about today's incident and gun violence in general. >> there is something evil in our society that we as americans have to work to try and eradicate. there is something wrong here when we have these multiple shootings, multiple i

tracking it all day has been our justice correspondent pete williams. for those who have perhaps just joined the coverage. reset this for us, when did this happen and when did we start to find out that was a mass casualty event? >> this started just before 8:00 a.m. eastern time at the washington navy yard. because of a large confluence of law enforcement agencies, there was a huge response, first to get a perimeter around and then find out where the shooting was happening and get it stopped. now, most of the shots were fired relatively early on in this process. that had wounded and killed people. but, as you heard the police chief say, rather cryptically, reason to believe there were two other shooters. we're told that that evidence is in part surveillance video, that at least one man, a man she described as a white man in a khaki uniform. you see that person leave the frame and that western -- not clear whether the person was shoot inging at the victim or - based on this video, and eyewitness reports, that's why they're looking at the possibility, i g

to report that he was seeking psychiatric treatment. >> that was pete williams reporting. the husband of one of the 12 victims says he now has a hole that will never be filled. nbc's tom costello has more on the lives who were stolen. [ playing taps ] >> reporter: taps at the navy memorial for the 12 men and women who came from all walks of life, gunned down in a place supposed to be safe. among them, 53-year-old sylvia frasier. >> she was very giving, loving, give you truly her shirt off her back. >> reporter: 46-year-old kenneth proctor leaves two teenage boys. his ex-wife says he loved them dearly. martin is survived by his wife of 25 years and three daughters. michael arnold had been married for 30 years with two sons. >> i am so proud of him. he's just been a really wonderful, wonderful son and wonderful father. and a wonderful husband. i'm just proud of him. >> reporter: 62-year-old kathy gaarde was a financial analyst, married for 38 years, her two children are grown. john johnson was 73. he leaves his wife and four grown daughters. >> he's just such a man of joy. e

our justice correspondent pete williams has been following this aspect of the story. he's in our d.c. newsroom tonight. pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening. it's two internet postings that claim to be from al shabab. they name six americans they claim were among the mall attackers, but officials say there is no way to know that is true and that those names don't appear on any terror watch lists. al shabab has pushed hard to get american peoples into its ranks. until he was killed this month he was the face of the terror group al shabaab omar hammami. president of his sophomore class in high school. he went to somalia seven years ago to join up. >> the only reason we are staying here, away from our families, away from the cities, away from, you know, ice, candy bars, other things is because we are waiting to meet with the enemy. >> reporter: reports from somalia say he was killed by a rival al shabaab faction two weeks ago, one of roughly 50 americans, most with somali connections officials say have joined in the past seven years. three died as suicide

new director of the fbi briefed a group of journalists today including our justice correspondent pete williams and he laid out a version of event s that differs from what we were first told and first reported. pete is with us tonight from our d.c. newsroom to start us off. hey, pete. good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening. the fbi director james comi says video and physical evidence show nearly half an hour passed from the time the shooting started to the time officers found aaron alexis and fired back. the fbi director says alexis began firing shortly after 8:00 a.m. in a fourth floor hallway. comey says alexis was wandering the halls, hunting for someone to shoot with no signs of targeting anyone in particular. the first call for help didn't come until 8:21 with units then dispatched. >> we had a report on the fourth floor, a male with a shotgun, multiple shots fired. multiple people down. >> reporter: alexis continued shooting in upper hallways. comey said he fired the shotgun and then switched to the handgun. there is no evidence, the fbi says, that alexis fired from the upper floo

our justice correspondent pete williams starts us off tonight in our d.c. newsroom. pete, good evening. >> reporter: good evening. investigators say aaron alexis believe he was torment ed by a form of radio waves once use bid the navnavy. cameras inside the navy yard building show alexis carrying the sawed-off shotgun he used to shoot most of his victims. >> mr. alexis was a mentally unstable individual. he was able to obtain a firearm two days before he carried out an attack that was planned to kill as many innocent siecivili as possible. >> reporter: pictures released today show alexis arriving at 7:53 a.m. driving his rental car into a parking deck. at 8:08 he walks in into building 17 carrying a backpack presumably with the gun and ammunition inside. he emerges from the restroom, holding the shotgun, looking for victims, looking into office doors. another camera catches him coming down a stairway t with the shotgun. fired at victims on at least three floors of the building. the last video shows him in another hallway, hiding behind a corner as people rush away at

our justice correspondent pete williams is with us from the d.c. newsroom with the latest on the investigation. good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening. more signs tonight the of the troubled mind of aaron alexis. investigators say he scratched two phrases in the shotgun he was carrying. quote, better off this way, and my elf weapon. an abbreviation they cannot explain. add the secretary of defense to the list of those wondering how a contractor like aaron alexis could get and keep a security clearance allowing entry to the navy yard after three run-ins with police and recent struggles with psychiatric problems. >> there were red flags, of course there were. should we have picked them up, why didn't we, how could we? all those questions need to be answered. >> reporter: after examining surveillance video and interviewing survivor uhs officials give this revised account of what happened inside. alexis enters building 197 with a shotgun in a bag and went directly to the 4th floor, ducked into a men's room and came out firing. virtually all of

pete williams is nbc's justice correspondent. this is another story close to where we work. >> it all began at about 8:30 this morning. the suspect aaron alexis, 34, was carrying a shotgun he had when working at the navy yard as a contractor. he had been a naval reservist. he had come with a shotgun, shot some people at least two, we believe, outside. then got inside the building, continued shooting, took the weapons from some of the law enforcement people he shot. then continued shooting. when it was all over, he had his shotgun he came with and a handgun and semiautomatic rifle. he moved to the area from fort worth, texas. he was serving in the naval reserve and then came here to be a contractor. he recently lost his position here and that may be what set him off. they're asking for public help on what his motive may have been. they posted the wanted information on a website. they're asking people for any tips at all. his recent movements, contacts, associates. anybody who knows anything at all about him to call them at 1-800-c

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chuck todd, pete williams and craig melvin live at the washington navy yard. ts talk first, pete, about what do we know. what is the latest how he got the weapons, how he got in, and what he did once he got there. >> the latest in how he got in. it appears he drove a rental car. he had come to the washington area within theas couple of weeks, was staying in a hotel right near the washington navy yard, which is near the washington baseball park. there was a hotel near there he was staying. he drove onto the naval base. had a pass to get into the base, then a pass to get into the building. inside the building then he appears with a shotgun. so apparently was hidden on his person when he walked in. it was not obvious he was carrying it. that's when he began firing. it appears he took weapons, then, from law enforcement officers he wounded. now yesterday we were told by many law enforcement people that he had three weapons at the end of the shooting that were found and recovered. the shotgun, which he bought last week in virginia at a gun store in lorton, virginia.

let's go now to nbc's pete williams who has been following this for us. pete, what can you add? >> reporter: okay. so we have a little more information here about what's going on. there are initial unconfirmed reports, and i think this is what everyone is concerned about at this point. it does sound like this is winding down here. there is a report of a location where the person with the gun, i guess we can say confidently now it's a man with a gun, was. they were responding to that scene. we've heard conflicting reports on whether they had gotten to him or not. but it does sound like this is in the last phases here, at least of the active shooter part. there are conflicting reports that the shooter is wounded, but it does sound like that's what most of these reports are beginning to indicate now and that they're responding to see precisely whether he's still alive, what his condition is, whether he's still a danger or not. in any event, he was heavily armed when he came into the navy yard building this morning. he was carrying at least one kind of long gun, either an assault ri

nbc justice correspondent pete williams joins us from washington with more. ie, good morning. this is video taken inside the building where the shooting happened. it shows any alexis emerging from a 4th floor restroom, holding the gun low, looking into office doors n. another view, he comes down a stairway. investigators say he shot at victims on three floors. in a final video, he is shown hiding behind a corner as people scramble. he had scratched into the barrel of the gun end to the torment. not what you all say, better off this way my elf. the fbi says he was mentally disturbed, thinking he was controlled by extremely low radio waves. >> pete williams, thanks, so much. >>> the estranged wife of george zimmerman, matt asked if she had doubts when he shot unarmed teenager trayvon martin even though he was acquitted. here's what she had to say. >> i think anyone would doubt that innocence because i don't know the person that i have been married to. >> shelly zimmerman filed her divorce less than two months after her husband's acquittal t. private dispute spil

joining me now, pete williams and former fbi profiler clint van zandt. pete, i want to start with you. a few questions that i know that law enforcement are still looking for and that is this idea how did he get into building 197? i know we had one report that said he did have access to that building, but we see a hot note just now from our pentagon team that says his common access card only allowed him onto the grounds but not into building 197. >> reporter: well, i think that you're right, that's a big question. it does seem that basically he used the i.d. card to get onto the base and then in essence shot his way into building 197. it's our belief from what we understand from law enforcement that he came there with only a single firearm, a shotgun that he bought just last week at a gun store in nearby lorton, virginia, about 20 miles from here, takes about an hour to drive because of the traffic. but that would indicate that if he was thinking about this, thinking about this in advance, he only planned it within the last week or so or at least started t

joining us now is nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. pete, thank you for being here. >> sure. >> do we have any indication of a motive or a goal in why this information was leaked? >> no, i think it was the reason that a lot of people pass along information. they want to tell reporters about things that they know. the court documents say that the reporters from the "ap" had actually struck up something of an e-mail relationship with this fbi agent three years before, and working on some other unrelated stories. in april of last year, another news organization just sort of coincidentally did a story about how al qaeda was planning to hide bombs inside people's bodies. now, the bomb that this whole plot is about, that you've talked about, did not involve that kind of device, but the "ap" reporter saw that and sent an e-mail to the agent and said, hey, what's up with that? and then according to the court documents, a couple of days later, the agent goes to quantico where the bomb was sent at the fbi bomb lab there, and according to the cour

no sign of that at all. >> all right, pete williams. ible new details on how that all played out on that very sad day. thank you very much, pete. >>> still ahead, a possible connection between the mother of the rescue georgia kidnapping victim and one of the suspects in the case. more on this new information. what was revealed in court documents. >>> plus, jaden smith, son of will smith, causing quite a stir with tweets that critics say send a pretty bad message to young fans. in one tweet, jaden writes, if everybody in the world dropped out of school, we would have much more intelligent society. the criticism, that's our "gut check" and why he's now being praised by rush limbaugh. >>> elaine housal, tammy wily and brian spec are a few of the small business owners in downtown bedford parks pa, working with main street manager, these entrepreneurs are trying to fill empty storefronts and bing in new customers. moundy find out how he revived downtown at 7:30 on "your business" on msnbc. has it's ups and downs. seasonal... doesn't begin to

nbc news' pete williams has those details for pups good evening -- for us. evening, pete. >> reporter: good evening, larry. the man came to washington three weeks ago after seeking treatment from a v.a. hospital where he complained of hearing voices and about worrying for his safety. just last month investigators say aaron alexis checked into this hotel in newport, rhode island while working as a military contractor. he called police to complain that people were following him and he was hearing voices. he said they were using a microwave machine to send vibrations preventing hmm frim sleeping. he worried they were going to harm him. a short time later he sought help from a v.a. hospital. >> oh, my gosh, i'm so tired of dealing with our american government because they are not -- they're giving me the run around and they're shorting me my benefit. >> reporter: alexis drove on to the site on monday, and carrying a bag with a shotgun like this one. >> mr. alexis had legitimate access to the navy yard as a result of his work as a contractor and utilized a valid

. >> joining me live now, nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. pete, i know we continue to learn more about how he got into the navy yard behind me. we know now that he actually did not have access to building 197. what more do we know about how it was precisely that he was able to get into the building? >> reporter: well, he drove onto the base, we're told, or had access to the base. he had a pass for that because he was working as a military contractor. precisely how he got into the building is a bit unclear, but it does appear that he shot his way in. he shot a guard. he came with a shotgun he bought last week. then after he gets into the building, then he gets the other weapons. he gets the assault rifle and then takes a handgun from an officer that he wounded. so that appears how he got the three weapons that he used, even though he came in with just the single weapon. so it would appear that he shot his way in is the best way to put it, craig. >> pete, what more do we know about aaron alexis' mental health history? >> reporter: well, we know

pete williams joins me from washington. you look through this, more importantly as the fbi looks through this video, what have they learned about the shoot are and about the incident? brf the video we only see a tiny bit of it. the fbi removes any doubt there was more than one shooter, any doubt victims were killed with the shotgun he was carrying. most of what we learned came from other materials fbi found in search warrants. the things that were on the gun itself, that he had scratched into the gun over the weekend after he bought it on saturday, these phrases he wrote, better off this way. not what y'all say, end to the torment he wrote on the barrel. my elf. we heard about that last week. they found other documents that answer the question of what that was. he was obviously mentally disturbed and thought his thoughts were concerned by elf transmissions. they quote something he wrote in one of the electronic media he found. here is what he wrote. he said ultralow frequency attack is what i've been subject to for the last

pete williams of nbc news is saying as many as seven victims now.inally we heard three, now we're hearing seven. two of them could be officers or security guards. d.c. city police confirm one of their officers has been shot. we have no word of fatalities, again this is a shooting a lone gunman we understand, shooting at 8:20 eastern time. so about an hour and a half ago. at the naval shipyard. a lot of the news crews have been moved away from the scene because authorities not sure where this shooter is. schools in the area in lock down, active scene as you see, fire trucks as well. this is really, jon and marla, a big facility. it has a huge brick wall. we heard of some fleeing over the wall. 3,000 work there. they call at shipyard. it used to be. it's military offices in the southeast corner of washington near the department of transportation, several schools in the area as well as well as naval command. we continue to monitor this, again the numbers are fuzzy. but we know there are victims, at least one of them is a police officer and the gunman i

. >> nbc's justice correspondent pete williams joins me now.es this suit sit, go from here. >> just filed in federal court so the state will respond. what the government is claiming, not only voter ids but requirements enacted when it was signed into effect in august. it cuts seven days off early voting. the government contends that especially affects minority voters since they are the heaviest users of minority voting. it stops same day registration and says if you accidentally cast your ballot in the wrong precinct unlike in the past where it would be set aside and count if it was determined to be cast by an honest mistake, now it won't count at all. you put that together, it's very telling. they believe this will have the effect of discouraging minority voters. they claim that's why the state passed it. it was intentionally done to do that. so they are going to ask this be set aside, this rule be stopped. they are also going to ask a judge to say from now on north carolina has to get federal permission when it wants to make any changes at al

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams joins us with the latest. derstand there was a letter also from the attorney general regarding this. >> right. the reason we say this is the most aggressive move by the administration is because all of the steps beforehand, including the one from the irs last week saying that same-sex couples could be considered married depending on not where they live but where they were married, all those depend on interpreting the regulations. but there was a federal law, actually two provisions of federal law that defined who is eligible for veterans' benefits as a marriage between a man and a woman. so what the attorney general said in this letter you referred to to congress yesterday is, we're basically not going to enforce that law. we're going to ignore it and we're going to go ahead and direct -- what he said is the president has directed the federal government to have the veterans administration make same-sex couples legally married eligible for veterans' benefits. here are the reasons the attorney general gives in hi

pete williams of nbc news. joining me now is ron reagan and brian levin.on, thank you for coming on. by the way, the press conference today dr. janis orlowski, chief operator of medstar had moving words about the type of violence here. this is something to remember. >> there is something evil in our society that we as americans have to work on to try and eradicate. there's something wrong here when we have these multiple shootings, these multiple injuries, there's something wrong. the only thing i can say is we have to work together to get rid of it. i'd like you to put my trauma center out of business. >> dr. orlowski was asked about that statement on the "today" program. let's watch. this is "today" today. >> i just spoke from the heart. i am sick of this. and i must have touched a chord in america. i've had a number of people who've called, who've e-mailed, who've twittered. and they're sick like i am of this senseless violence. >> ron, this country -- you know, i don't know whether we talk about gun control like we go to the battle stations either pro

i want to bring in nbc's justice correspondent pete williams. pete, good morning. what more have we learned about the shooter? >> reporter: i think you've laid it out pretty well, chris. he was -- it turns out now, despite what the navy said last night, they now say he was in essence honorably discharged from the naval reserve. he worked as an electronics technician for the navy in ft. worth. that was his specialty. that's the work he was doing for a contractor when he came up to the washington, d.c., area, checked into a hotel, a residence inn near the navy yard and had been working at the navy yard for the past week or so. so he had a legitimate reason for being there. it's still not 100% certain how he got the gun through all the levels of security, but it appears that when he got to the building itself, he just sort of shot his way in and during the process of that, picked up the o other weapons. there's sort of questions about why he was able to get a security clearance that allowed him to work as a navy contractor, but it's not obvious that there were any thi

nbc justice correspondent pete williams joins us now from fbi headquarters where he's just met with theew director. pete. >> right, chris. we've gotten a revised account of how the shooting happened with many new details in it. let me just walk through the way the new fbi director has described what happened on monday. he said aaron alexis drove into the washington navy yard around 8:00 that morning, parked his car, used his badge to go inside. went up to the fourth floor carrying a black bag, came out without the bag and the shotgun and started firing shots a few minutes after 8:00. the people he shot initially were on the third and fourth floors of the building. he said he shot people with no particular pattern. he seemed to be hunting for victims is the way he put it, that the people who were shot showed no pattern. he wasn't going after specific people. they were working in various parts of the building. they had different kinds of jobs. he hasn't found anyone was targeted. he said nothing, alexis, according to fbi, he said nothing during the shooting. there's no evidence, this was

pete williams has more on what has gone on here. we heard reports of multiple injuries. pete, good morning to you. what can you tell us? >> it does sound there are reports of fatalities. we heard there are probably nine or ten shooting victims. the number of fatalities, we're not quite sure of it, it could be four or five. it is still rapidly unfolding. there have been reports that police have known where the person firing the shots was and was responding to them. we're told this is still not over. that they have not declared this all clear by any means. we still don't have an hour and a half after this happened, or began, a clear idea of precisely where it started, how many people were involved initially. we heard conflicting reports of one shooter or more than one. that is yet to be nailed down. whether this person is civilian or military. all we know it is a man who was heavily armed with at least one long gun or shotgun and a handgun. it is still not over. it is sounding like there will be fatalities as four or as many as ten shooting victims, wounded and killed. stil

and hours. >> which he had in common with the newtown shooter. >> here with us from washington, pete williams tell us more about aaron alexis if you would. do we know anything more about motives or anything? >> motive is going very difficult question to answer but the picture that i think is emerging from the people i talked to is of a man with a navy past, who was deteriorating mentally remarks paidl lly rapi. he sought treatment from veteran hospitals for mental problems. he had a violent streak. he shot out the tires of the car of some workers who parked near his house when he lived in seattle nine years ago. he told the police at the time that he did it in a blackout fueled by anger. police investigator in seattle at the time talked to his father and he said well he's had anger management issues since helping rescue people from the twin towers on 9/11 in new york. he's from new york. his family lived in queens and then in brooklyn. then three years ago when he was living in fort worth he fired a round that went through an apartment above him. it was occupied by a woman that he thought was