msnbc world headquarters here in new york city with continuing coverage of the deadliest mass shooting in u.s. history. [ gunshots ] >> what's going on? going upstairs. hand mandalay bay, shots coming from halfway up. >> clip after clip, bullets flying everywhere, everybody running. it was really bad. >> everyone said drop, and everyone dropped. >> we're at the suspect's door. everyone in the hallway needs to be aware and get back. we need to see if we can get a response from the guy. see if he is here or if he moved somewhere else.

>> looking at 50 individuals dead and over 200 individuals injured. >> this is a country of wash and guns. >> the worst mass shooting in u.s. history. >> a few minutes ago, president trump from the white house calling it a, quote, act of pure evil. announcing he is willing -- he will travel to las vegas on wednesday to meet with law enforcement and first responders. here is the very latest. police say at least 50 people were killed, more than 400 others taken to area hospitals. some are reportedly in critical condition. we now have photos of the gunman. identified as 64-year-old stephen paddock. he lives in mesquite, nevada, 80 miles from las vegas. his brother telling reporters this morning that this comes as a complete shock. the gunman erupted at 10:08 p.m. las vegas time. the shooter opening fire an automatic weapon who his 32nd

floor hotel room at the mandalay bay resort. he targeted the crowd across the street on the final night of a three-day country music festival. witnesses say the shooting continued for five to ten minutes before police burst into his hotel room. police say the shooter died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound. here's what it sounded like as it unfolded. we want to warn everyone, you may find this disturbing. [ gunshots ] >> here's the police response as heard on the lay vegas police scanner. >> coming from upstairs. mandalay bay. upstairs mandalay bae, hay, hal up, i see shots coming from the

mandalay bay. multiple casualties. >> be advised, it is automatic fire. fully automatic fire from the elevated position. take cover. >> multiple gsws. medical tents. 4a. south off reno. >> clip after clip after clip. bullets flying everywhere. everybody running. it was really, really bad. >> jason aldean was performing, ten minutes in, and we heard what we thought were fireworks. it looked like smoke from mandalay bay. then he kept performing. we heard it again. they cut the music. everyone said drop, and everyone dropped. then everyone just got up and they said, run. everyone started stampeding and charging. knocking over grills. jumping over fences. >> we were hiding because there was shots going everywhere. there was just dead people everywhere. it was horrible. >> no other way to describe it. horrific attack. we have a team of correspondents standing by with all the latest.

starting with nbc's joe fryer joining us live from a room in the mandalay bay resort, a few floors above where the gunman opened fire. joe, you have a unique vantage point. we're looking at images of the hotel where you can see the smashed through window. you can see the curtain blowing through. it wasn't just one window. it was a second. as we learned from pete williams, the gunman, stephen paddo paddock, was going from window to window to get a different vantage point, as he opened fire on the 22,000 people attending the country music festival. >> reporter: yeah. that's right, stephanie. so we were actually staying here. it is technically where we are, a four seasons hotel, but it is part of the mandalay bay tower. it takes up a few floors. we were on the 38th floor, and were already here, because we were covering o.j. simpson's release. it was 10:00 last night. i was asleep and didn't hear

anything, but inside this room was my producer. she was also asleep. awakened by machine gun sound. thought it sounded like a gun but thought it must have been something to do with the concert that was still going on downstairs. eventually realized what was going on. it is about six floors below where we are right here. 60 feet below that the gunman opened fire on the crowd below. we want to take a closer look now that the run has risen. you can see from the vantage point, this is where the country music festival was taking place. 10:00 last night. this area was filled with 22,000 concertgoers. they were listening to jason aldean, who was the headliner here. imagine about 60 feet below here, this is essentially the vantage point that the shooter had when he decided to open fire on all of those people down below. you can imagine if you're in that situation, at first you don't know where the gunfire is coming from. you may not realize it is gunfire. you're not sure which direction to run. obviously, there are a lot of places where you're not able to

run to, although there were different places s where you cd try to take shelter. in the grassy areas, you do see a lot of items, lawn chairs, blankets in the grassy areas that people obviously left the items behind as they were running for cover and trying to run for safety. along this area is, of course, las vegas boulevard, the famous strip. typically it is a bustling area. right now, the only cars that are on the streets are police vehicles and any other emergency responder vehicles. we're looking through glass right here. you can see this glass right now, the window does not open. it is a floor to ceiling window. that's basically the way it is in most of the vegas hotels right now. obviously, the window did have to be shot out to have any sort of access to shooting toward the concert down below here. >> put that in perspective. down on the ground, blankets and lawn chairs. that's where people were. 22,000 people came to vegas for

a country music festival. think about how their night ended. joining us by phone is host of the "highway" on sirius xm. he's been on lockdown from tropicana for hours now. you were feet from the stage in the artist area when the shots began. what did you think when you first heard it all? >> i've heard this from a lot of people already, it sounded like fireworks. we'd been there for three days. this was the last act of our three-day festival. we thought it made sense that it was fireworks. but it was the first time, everybody thought that. the second time, people started to wonder what was going on. when we went outside, it was coming from up above, so somebody actually said, maybe they thought it was from the power lines, that something was going on. about the third time, people started to realize, you know, it was gunfire. we were right by the side of the stage. everybody started to dive under

the artists' tour busses that were parked there. we were all underneath the busses for a while. then security at the venue, at route 91, all of a sudden started trying to get everybody up and moving. we had to actually cross right across the stage. that was our easiest route to get away from mandalay bay. directly across the stage. then we kind of merged with all the concertgoers who were trying to escape, as well. it was just chaos. >> how did you know that being under the bus was the safe place to be? could you tell where the shots were coming from? >> no. we knew it was from up high. there was really not a lot there. we were in a tent, so we knew it wasn't safe. the busses were the biggest, heaviest things there. we got underneath. my son had come to visit. he lives in los angeles, goes to school there. i said, i'll be in vegas.

he came. i threw him under the bus and got on top of him. the bullets were pelting the ground and the dirt was coming up. you could feel it in your face, where can bullets were going by. we thought they were safe there. we didn't know if they were moving toward us or not, so that's why security decided to make everybody run. we did. it was -- there were people that couldn't keep up. it was people wounded, as well as people who were not so much getting trampled, but it was chaos. there were bottlenecks. it was hard to get out. it was just -- just trying to get away as fast as you could. >> buzz, set the scene a bit more. because you were in the artist area and you were able to run across the stage and under the bus, there were structures that you could hide under. there were 22,000 people in a completely open area on blankets and lawn chairs. what could they do? how could they run for cover if they were in the middle of the

area? >> there wasn't. there were structures for us. we were around the scaffolding, the stage and the busses. the middle -- my room at mandalay bay was on the 23rd room. when my son got there to visit, we were looking out the window the day before. i said, look, there's the venue right there. we could look down on it from the same vantage point that the gunman had. you saw the stage. you saw some bleachers in the background. you saw some catering. you saw some tents. then you saw a huge area that was basically a parking lot where the 22,000 people were watching the show. i had been on stage just before that with jake owen. i brought him on stage and looked out from the stage. all i saw was a sea of kocountr music fans. i couldn't see the end of it. it was this lull of people and i didn't know where it ended. i couldn't see it. >> you had a large team with you from xm. is everyone accounted for? >> yeah. that was -- we all went in

different directions. i had my son with me. i had another one of my co-workers with me. we got split up. we started a text chain immediately. then we had to reach everybody through e-mail. our team is all safe. we have a lot of people from our national community there. i tried to get in touch with as many people as i could from nashville. luckily, we haven't heard of any of our friends who got hurt yet. but a lot of people did. everybody -- we didn't know where everybody was. the closest place for me to go was tropicana. once we got there, we didn't know what was going on. all of a sudden, people are getting snippets of news from their phones. somebody yells, there's another gunman. he's at mgm. then tropicana. so it turned into chaos again. finally, security there was graet great. they got us into the convention hall and padded down everybody.

we were in lockdown there. i finally just got out. of course, not going back to mandalay bay for a while yet. that's where all our stuff is. >> all right. you said two things. it was chaos but security did an extraordinary job. talk us through your experience. i mean, what the las vegas police department had to do last night, all the people that they did protect, and putting themselves in the line of fire when somebody from up above, with an open shot at 22,000 people, and as we learned, a variety of assault weapons were firing down on the thousands of people. talk us through, from your perspective, what the police did last night. >> security on hand was phenomenal. they were -- they were there getting us out. police were on hand for the entire festival because the traffic, just the foot traffic alone, they were there for that. so there were squad cars everywhere. so when this broke out, one of the first things i saw, the road

that runs parallel, the other side of las vegas boulevard, the other side of the venue, we crossed there and there was a squad car. they were crouched behind it with their rifles aimed up toward mandalay bay. unfortunately, i did see an officer who appeared to be down there. a couple of his comrades covered him up. the police officers, sirens immediately. it seemed like the whole thing went on maybe ten minutes. it wasn't long before we heard the sirens. then when we finally got to what we thought was safety, the las vegas police department did everything they could to tray to let us know what was going on. a police officer who spoke to us while we were in the convention center said, you know, please don't let this be -- hold this against our city. we're here for you. they just try to keep us informed. try to let us know what was going on. they did a great job.

>> all right, buzz. we're so relieved to hear that you and your team and your son are safe. thanks so much for joining us and sharing your experience last night. as we are trying to figure out exactly what happened and why. live on the phone now, karen sherman, who was at the concert and witnessed the shooting. karen, we're glad to hear you're safe. everyone who was with you, are they accounted for and safe? >> yes, they are. thank you. >> where exactly were you when it all happened? >> we were towards the back of the crowd. my friend and i, she wanted to move forward to the stage. i said, let's stay here because there were too many people up front. no sooner did she say that, we heard a first shot, which we thought was a firework. we were thinking, oh, jason aldean brought fireworks. this is an awesome concert. the next shot went off. after that, it was this da, da,

da, and we thought it was not gunshots -- i mean, this is not fireworks. this is gunshots. we took off running. we didn't see anybody physically get shot, but we just took off running. we were parked on the side of the venue. it was like vip employee parking. we ran to my car. everybody was pushing each other, trying to get through to a safe area. >> when you say you took off running, how did you know where to go? did you know where the shots were coming from? >> no. i had no idea. it sounded like it was coming from the far right of the stage when you're facing it, but it was just hard to tell. they were getting louder and louder. we just took off running. just followed a lot of other people. but people were running every which way. >> how long did it take before you got to safety? >> how long was it -- i'm sorry? >> how long did it take for you

to get to safety? from the time you heard the gunshots fired till the time it took you to get to your car or whatever you were safe, how long was that? >> oh, gosh, it must have been -- i don't even know. probably, like, ten minutes to get to the car. we got in the car. we started driving off. three people jumped in the backseat of my car, trying to get to safety. i didn't know who they were. i said, just get in the car. we have to get out of here. we drove to the closest exit that we found and then there was a girl standing in the middle of the street and waving her arm. people were passing her up. my friend said, stop the car. the girl put her arm up and blood was pouring out of her arm. she was shot. so we grabbed her, put her in my car and we went to a place called sundance helicopters. it was the only place we could go to get everyone to safety. >> what happened to the girl?

>> we got her inside. they put us into a hangar, helicopter hangar, and we got her inside. we were screaming for, like, anybody that was a nurse or doctor. we need help. an emt came and a nurse came. my friend took off her shirt and wrapped the girl's arm up. then the emt and nurse took over. >> was your friend a nurse? >> she's not, no. she just knew what to do though. >> karen, thank you so much for sharing your story. thank you for your act of heroism last night. you most likely saved that woman's life. >> thank you. >> let's bring back nbc news justice correspondent pete williams, live in washington. pete, i know you've learned more about the shooter. a little while ago, we were sharing more of the statement from his brother, bruce. we should put into perspective that his brother, bruce, has not spoken to stephen paddock in ten years. i do want to share the statement he made, where he said, quote, he's not mentally deranged. he's quite smart. he's not been involved with the police like i have my whole life for minor stuff.

he never got into fights. he never did anything violent. he's kind of laid back. never in a hurry. he was always law-abiding. again, a lot can happen in ten years. as the psychological profile is built out from law enforcement, they're going to learn a lot more about this guy. what have you learned? >> clearly. and his brother, eric, has spoke en to our affiliate in orlando and says that he was in very regular and close touch with stephen paddock. he says that paddock texted to find out if everything was all right after the recent hurricanes. checking on the condition of his mother who lived in florida. that eric's -- the brother's son says that the son recently contacted stephen paddock to see if he was coming to his wedding. the brother says that he -- stephen paddock lived for a time in melbourne, florida, and then decided to go back to nevada. we're told that in nevada, he

was a frequent person at the casinos and hotels in las vegas, so was certainly familiar with them. we know that from 1985 to '88 stephen paddock worked for lockheed, we believe as an accountant. lock seed heed says they're cooperating with authorities, providing the information they can. eric, the brother down in orlando, says the two of them own some apartments together for a while. we believe that was in texas, that they owned apartments together. now stephen paddock had been living at this retirement community called the sun city retirement community in mesquite. is isis, terror group, claimed that paddock converted to islam and he was, as they say, a soldier of the caliphate. the federal law enforcement and intelligence people we talked to say they have absolutely no reason to believe that that is

true. they simply don't know. the brother down in orlando says that he didn't believe that there was any religious motivation or any religious conversion or anything else, significant event in his brother's life that would lead him to it. the brother in orlando says he is completely at a loss. totally stunned by this. never saw it coming and didn't think his brother was capable of it. >> but you had said earlier he is a regular in vegas. likes to gamble, likes the shows. >> yes. and had spent, according to law enforcement, stephanie, had recently, in the last couple of weeks, moved a fair amount of money through these casinos. tens of thousands of dollars. we can't tell from the data here whether this was tens of thousands of dollars in losses or tens of thousands of dollars of wins or he just put the money in play and took it back. the point is, he was apparently a frequent gambler and a high roller at that. >> how about any sort of history

with the law? >> well, no criminal connection with the police, according to the police in las vegas, and his brother says he never had any run-ins with the authorities in florida either. there was a civil fine of some kind at some point, but no connection with the police of any kind of criminal matter. >> how about guns registered in his name? >> well, he had -- we have not seen the registration records for weapons. now, to own an automatic weapon like the kind obviously used in the shooting, you have to register it with atf. but we don't know yet whether he had done so. it's more likely that he obtained these weapons through criminal sources and didn't register them. we know he bought a couple of handguns. they're going through his records to see now when he bought these weapons and where because that would give you some indication of, was this something he recently did, or was this something he'd been

planning for months? >> and we -- all right. thanks, pete. we need to remind our viewers, and this source is newsweek. nevada law does not require firearm owners to have licenses. it does not require them to register weapons. it doesn't limit the number of firearms an individual possesses. i want to bring nbc's katie beck in. she joins us from mesquite, nevada, the town 80 miles outside vegas where stephen paddock had been living in a retirement community, sun city. katie, what can you tell us? >> reporter: well, we just heard from the mesquite police department. they are executing a search warrant on his home as we speak. they have been here throughout the night securing the residence before they can make entry. they have to cliear the homes around it, making sure everyone is evacuated, and make sure the explosives to put people in danger. they made entry to the home and are now executing the search

warrant. looking for any evidence, any clues as to what might have motivated this massacre. now, police aren't giving us much detail on what they've recovered from the residence, but what they have told us is that it looks like any other residence inside a retirement community. it is very normal. it is very peaceful. very quiet. there were no alarms that went off immediately when they got inside. the home looks lived in. looks very clean and tidy, they said. they admitted they have recovered firearms from the home but did not give a specific number. they said there was nothing suspicious about the number of firearms inside. not much more than that. they're going to be here throughout the day, trying to gather evidence. trying to figure out exactly what was behind this massacre. they are here on the ground. neighbors here in this neighborhood are sort of wandering around, looking confused and suspicious, wondering what it is all this activity is about and how it is this man could have been in their midst. they simply had no idea. >> had no idea.

i want to emirewind viewers, 80f gunman involved in mass shootings show signs of mental instability, warned friends and neighbors. it is so interesting, as we try to unpack all of this, the things stephen paddock did leading up to this. the people he spoke to. this morning, mr. paddock's brother, eric, spoke to our nbc affiliate in orlando, florida. take a listen. >> our condolences to everyone. we just don't understand. like i said, an asteroid just fell out of the sky. and we have no reason, rhyme, rational, excuse. there's just nothing. >> when was the last -- >> there's nothing. >> -- time you'd talked to your brother? >> he texted me to make sure my 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 gone on a cruise or something, blah, blah, blah, blah. i mean, he sent her a walker because she's having trouble walking. i mean, like i said, find out who sold him the machine gun. there's no -- i don't know what else to say. i just -- >> have you had any -- >> i mean, it is his fault he did this. i mean, i'd like to know where he found the machine gun. that's not something that's that easy to come by, i assume. and he's not -- i mean, he has no criminal record. he has nothing, nothing, nothing. no affiliations with anything. there's nothing.

♪ >> this describes what went through your head when you found out 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 a dopey friend of mine, making a joke. there's no -- there's just -- i mean, we were working with the cops since the first thing, trying to, you know, trying to understand or, you know, trying to make it -- do what we could. there's just nothing -- we've got nothing to give ya. there's just nothing. he was just a guy. >> how is your mom coping? >> she's okay. she's 90 years old. her son just killed a bunch of people and got shot dead. so she's a little rattled. strangely enough. but she's okay.

i mean -- >> did you know the woman he was with? >> yeah, it's his girlfriend. that's why we were on the phone with the cops, to find out what happened to her. there's no -- i mean, she's just a nice lady who was his girlfriend. we're worried she was going to get shot up or something because they thought something weird, but he's -- i mean, he's definitely only himself. 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 lireligion. no politics. no anything. >> has he had issues with mental illness in the past? >> no, no mental illness. i mean, once again, that i know of. but there's no -- nothing -- >> nothing that would have indicated to you -- >> he had some allergies. i mean --

>> yeah. >> he was just a guy. >> yeah. >> this is -- i want to know -- i mean, we want to know how -- what in the world -- we need to know. i'd like to know how in the world -- 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 you would like to say that you'd like people to know? >> once again, our condolences. i mean, you know, could have been my kids at that show. you know, et cetera, et cetera. i don't know what else to say. >> have you seen any of the videos? >> we've been watching this stuff all morning. >> how does that affect you? >> my brother just killed 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. butti nothing. i mean, my son had texted him a couple weeks ago to tell him about -- that he's getting married, you know. if he wanted to drop by for the wedding kind of thing. i mean, there's -- >> when was the last time he lived in florida? was it recent? >> it's been a year or two ago now. i mean, he lived in melbourne. he had a house there a little while. decided he didn't like the -- he had too much -- too much dust from the farms over there. i moved him back to vegas, to

mesquite. i mean, he ate burritos at the del taco. i mean, drove down to vegas and played video poker. >> from what you know, he was living a normal life. >> exactly. exactly nothing. exactly nothing. >> what'd he do for a living? >> he was retired. >> what had he done before? >> just nothing. it's all in the public record. he did stuff. went to college. he had a job. you know, we owned some apartments, sold some apartments. we -- 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. >> we're learning more -- or at least asking a whole lot more questions about exactly what happened in las vegas, that

deadly shooting that took place overnight. let's get you caught up. we are awaiting a live news conference from officials. the police department and the mayor are both expected to speak a few minutes from now. at least 50 people were killed. more than 400 were taken to area hospitals. many still in critical condition. the gunman identified as stephen paddock. 64 years old from mesquite, nevada. joining me now, darren, clint and natalie azar. clint, let's start with you. what do you make of this? >> i just wonder about motive and when the decision was made. you know, usually if you see a connection to a group or an organization, there's some premeditation there. at least so far, we have no evidence of any true motive. i think it was the 25th of september that he checked in. >> 28th, i have actually. >> 28th. this event went on for, sounds like, two or three days. so what if the scenario plays

out that he just saw this event and decided kind of on the spur of the moment to put this together? >> but on the spur of the moment, can you get over ten guns? not just guns, automatic assault rifles? >> i think it's possible. i mean, if you have friends that are in these networks, if you've been, you know, purchasing or owning weapons in the past, i don't think it's impossible to do that. that's -- i don't know what his motive is, but you do wonder if he had this room and he was looking out over this, could there be no real, you know, premeditated plan to this? this was maybe an emotional decision that happened at the last minute. it was a three-day festival. it was the end of the festival. he's been in this room for several days. you don't know his mental state. you're see knot seenot seeing cn a group. there's not much to go on. >> he had been frequenting the casinos a lot in recent weeks. moving tens of thousands of

dollars. is that a clue in any way to you? >> well, i don't think this was -- i don't think this was a spur of the moment thought process on this individual. i think that this was something that was planned. i think that once he checked in on the 28th, he knew what he was going to do. to amass ten weapons and be in that vantage point and shoot that many people requires a lot of training. a lot of training and a lot of tactical planning. so i just go back to, ai was an army officer and i trained with numerous automatic weapons in my past. just that continuous volley of shots, to exchange weapons, going back and forth, that really takes a precise precision. so he was -- you mentioned that he was gambling in the casino. those may have come into play. once again, i think this was a calculated act that was acted upon by a madman. and i'm interested in seeing what his psychological profile is. his brother is saying one thing,

but i'm hearing other things. that he did have a psychological history. the police are saying that the only interaction they had was a citation. but when we look at someone that's 64 years old, they generally don't have a large social media network. so they're going to really have to focus on who he -- what his digital blueprint was in terms of who he contacted by phone, get into his computecomputer. you need to address the individuals so you can consider his ideology going forward, to commit such an act. >> 50 people already dead. over 400 taken to area hospitals. one hospital we spoke to has over 100 patients. they're the only hospital that's a trauma i, that can handle this. can they actually? >> they can. let's think about the philosophy of triages. you want to save as many lives as you can. you want to do the greatest amount of good to the greatest amount of people with the limited capabilities you have. so you take a level i trauma

center, which is the only one in that area, six miles away. >> what does that mean? >> level i means they have the capacity to do emergency care, orthopedic, neurology. they have imaging, radiology services. basically can handle anything. as opposed to a level ii, level iii, up to a level v. one of the first things they want to do, one of the most important things is preparedness. after 9/11, we saw a lot of hospitals implemented new disaster plans, especially after the orlando shooting, too. there has to be excellent communication from the first responders on the ground to the emt ss to the hospital to get t sickest patient the care they need when they get to the door. they go to the emergency room bay and go straight to the operating room. the other thing they can do is they halt elective admissions. they can transfer less critically ill people, patients, to level ii, level iii, more community hospital sfcenarios, o they have the beds, the availability and the manpower to

handle a trauma like this. >> i want to bring in nbc's steve patterson. he is live on the strip, close to where the shooting took place last night. steve, what's happening there now? >> reporter: police have opened most of the vegas strip now. we see this area pretty much on lockdown since we were here last night, shortly after the shooting. now as you see, things are back open now. there's plenty of pedestrian foot traffic, though it is much more somber than you would expect on the vegas strip. meanwhile, police have caution tape on the scene. police vehicles in place. they're trying to prevent anybody from getting and obscuring their investigation at this point. that's the hard work being done on the ground now. seen a lot more fbi members in the crowd back there, as well as uniformed police who have continued to sort of make sure that nobody goes in and out back there. last night though, this looked different than it does now.

police swarming this area shortly after the shooting started to take place. we started to see some of the victims filter out. horrific stories of survival, what they tried to do to make it out alive. a lot of people saying they had to use the bodies around them to play dead. a lot of people had to hide in different locations. we spoke to the victims. horrific scenes after the shooting. meanwhile, police focused on the investigation. finally getting our first images of the hotel room up pabove, th double sided window shot out as the shooter peered down at the crowd below and started shooting with automatic weapons. something haunting, the initial call for police to take cover in the crowd. now they're getting background investigation. as are the teams on the ground here. that's work that will take place over the next few hours. >> steve, we're going to interrupt. the news conference is starting right now. >> okay.

where's carlos? are we ready? kevin? can you come up? good morning, everyone. for those of you that don't know, i am sheriff lombardo for clark county. i don't have 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 it may be 59, of an individual that may have expired at sunrise hospital. so in normal fashion, i do not want to give you bad information, so please do not press me on that number until we

get further into this investigation. the number of injuries, we are using the number of 515. as you can tell, as the hours go by, that number continue s to increase. we have not received any additional intel jenligence 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. it will take a little while to evaluate that information. we have learned information of additional property in northern nevada. 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. they would like everybody who operated -- to not return to the hotel. now, 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. so you're going to have to ask the public's patience. as we bring 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 or friends. eventually, in the next few

hours, actually, i don't want to give you a skewed timeline, but approximately 1:00 p.m., we will request family members to respond to the convention area. convention center area to utilize a larger space. we could 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 resourgs ice issued associated with the labor medical clinic. i applaud their effort to help but they have resource issues with that. ensure you know where the united blood service locations are so we can get the needed life-saving 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 comment. reference the isis statement. i want to bring that up now so i give the opportunity to special agent rowse to respond to that from the fbi. he will explain what we now know of the reference of isis claiming this individual. thank you. >> good morning. as this event unfolds, we have determined to this point no connection with an international terror group, as this investigation continues. we will continue to work with our partners to ensure this is factually, thoroughly and absolutely investigated. to be able to bring comfort and peace back to this community. thank you. >> good morning.

i am the congressman for the fourth congressional district here in nevada. i want to say thank you to law enforcement and 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. saw firsthand 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 is a very sad day for nevada. it is 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. so 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 da'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 neva nevadans, and i'm proud to be present with the other leaders here because we're working together to get through this. i want to thank sheriff lombardo

for your leadership in leading us through this terrible, terrible day. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you, sheriff. i want to begin by thanking the sheriff. i got down here eight or nine hours ago. there weren't many of us here. just a handful immediately after this incident. but i can tell you that our first responders, the firemen and women of the fire department and metro were on their way in when this all happened. we have 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. no further threat, no immediate threat. i want to ensure everyone that's listening, that las vegas is safe. the men and women of mandalay bay and mgm resorts have been incredible in terms of communicating and working with the sheriff's office, assuring us that everybody can be taken air of, get back to the rooms, and they all understand we are

safe and doing everything humanly possible to protect all our tourists and citizens in clark county. that being said, the sheriff and i set up a gofundme account. we have been unupdated with e-mails, phone calls and texts with people asking what they can do. there will be a lot of family members going through a lot at this particular time. as the sheriff said, we have over 500 in our hospitals being treated. we need to provide them with some sort of support. we have done that. 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 that pulled together. i thank them for that. we pledge full resources of clark county to assist the sheriff and fbi in any way possible. we ask for your prayers. god bless you. >> i want to thank you all. i'm erica goodwin of this good

city. what the mayor had spoken to, about the great response, rapid, thorough, of the 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 and 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 stuff suffering in the hospitals, gone through major surgery.

we have some that were hit quite lightly with shrapnel as they were near the exits. that's been a hugely traumatic time for all of us. for our visitors who love country music, many of whom have come from the northern part of our states here, and just really came here for a wonderful, safe time. we pride ourselves in our law enforcement. they are unequalled. they are so rapid to respond. so thorough in what they do. 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 and it's just been a very, very traumatic time for everybody. the president gave a beautiful message, and he will be visiting us either sometime later today, tomorrow or wednesday.

great concern. we just know that the entire community -- i have so many play yo -- mayors and governors who called me personally to express their support and help. what we ask for is blood. that's the main thing right now. if our people want to do something and they are healthy, 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. madame congresswoman, i'm sorry, i didn't mean to step in front of you. >> you can always go before me, mayor. it is a pleasure to follow you. thank you very much. i'm dina titus, representing district one. it includes the fabulous las vegas strip, including the mandalay bay, where this horrendous act took place. so many times, i welcome people to las vegas, and all the excitement and entertainment and fun it has to offer. never thought i'd be standing here, trying to offer solace and

my office assistance to victims of something like this that would happen. all through the night, we were briefed by law enforcement. i thank you, sheriff, and your team for all that you did and the first responders. mainly we were trying to stay out of the way because you don't want to turn a personal tragedy into a political event. today, my office will be giving blood as the mayor said. they appreciate your thoughts and prayers but what they need is blood. it will be open to do anything we can to assist. but you know, i've just been hearing all these stories of heroism that occurred in the midst of this tragedy. you had off duty police officers who were there just for the concert for an evening of fun who were able to help people get shelter and who were able to identify the location of the shooter. and just random strangers, a friend of some of my staff members who lives in the district said they were running,

being trampled. somebody just opened a van door and butted them inside for shelter and safety. that's the kind of people we have here in las vegas who are willing to reach out and help one another. and so i thank all of our law enforcement. i thank the first responders. those in the hospitals where people are just in the halls in the parking lot trying to take care of so many. and please call on our office if there is any way we can be of assi assistance. >> thank you. >> i'm adam, nevada's attorney general. and i want to echo what a lot of people have said today. i've been here since about 2 okay in the morning. the job that metro and our law enforcement and first responders has done is absolutely remarkable. we've never been hit with such a tough situation in this city. and to see the poise and the pressure that they're able to under was truly astounding.

i believe that they're always going to be able to get us out of these situations. our law enforcement will be able to step up to the plate when we need them most. >> we're going to take you right now to nbc's today where matt lauer and savannah guthrie are talking with musician luke combs who performed at the concert last night in vegas. let's listen. >> yeah, i actually performed on the other stage at the other end of the fairgrounds at about 7:20. so 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 vip bar area. i went up on the bus, with jay cohen. they were like hey it, let's go watch aldean. we were actually on the stage when it happened. i was standing there with my manager and we heard the first four shots kind of ring out. and it, you know, you do music for a living, you deal with

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

so yeah, it was definitely -- it was definitely a scary situation. i'm obviously 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? >> well, originally, everyone was sort of panicking and me and my manager were pretty calm because you know, i i've been around fire arms many times and it didn't sound like gunfire to me. i was actually in the catering tent with a fan hon had kind of wandered back in the back. we were both talking about how it definitely wasn't gunfire for a second and then we heard a next burst. 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. i had to make a bee line back towards the stage to get out. my bus was parked across the street. so reran out, ran across the street and got on the bus and luckily, we were able to locate the rest of our band and crew within the next ten minutes or so. >> luke, i mean, i can only imagine the scene there, pandemonium. did you see, were there people injured that you saw? >> you know, luckily for me, i didn't see anyone injured personally. and the guys in my band and crew that couldn't make it back to the bus absolutely did. so 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. so for me, at the beginning i thought maybe this isn't

something that ached us because i haven't seen anyone injured, i haven't felt any bullets hitting around me or anything like that. so i was relatively calm in that situation because it felt like to me it was far away. but unbeknown thes to me it was very close. >> i don't know. you say you've been up all night watching coverage. we know that this shooter, steven pat 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. 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? >> well, matt, you know, it's obviously disturbing to know that he was just up there kind of waiting for his opportunity. but at the same time, you know, i don't want to be scared or you

know, or put any shows of mine on hold or 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 a place for us to all be sad and grieve together and help each other out. 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 has ruined a lot of people's lives. >> luke, thank you very much for talking to us. happy you're okay and hope to sue you in the coming days. >> of course, thank you guys so much. >> thank you. let's go back to the news conference. >> that, of course, were my colleagues savannah guthrie and matt lauer speaking to one of the other performers last night. we are reviewing the last 14 hours, what took place in las vegas last night. the largest mass shooting in u.s. history. the suspect stephen paddock died

before police entered his hotel room but before he died, he shot at 22,000 people at that concert and there are now 58 people confirmed dead. 515 being treated in area hospitals. and we're going to take you back to the las vegas news conference being held by local law enforcement. >> probably will not be able to answer at this time. >> reporter: sheriff lombardo, the search -- [ inaudible question ]. in the wave of shooter information or anything which gives anything toward motive? you mentioned a second location in northern nevada. >> no, 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. >> reporter: people were hit with shrapnel at the exit. that's what the mayor said. what's your follow-up on that? also, how did he get these weapons into the hotel room at 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. at an original briefing, we believed 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 here in clarke county or las vegas, 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 of the woman who was involved with this man as a person of interest or 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. >> reporter: do you have any idea how he was able to break through the windows? was he able to open the windows or did he smash the windows? >> we believe he had a device similar to a hammer to smash the windows. >> sheriff, so far i've heard a description of the suspect as a lone wolf has the investigation looking into any potential ties even loose ties to extremist groups? >> obviously, we'll do that. we will run it down to the very end. but right now, at face value, we haven't been able to identify that. >> sheriff, you said he checked in on thursday, the 28th to the hotel. >> i believe that's accurate. >> did he have tickets to the concert? >> i have no idea. >> do you know what he has done