the dead and those wounded in this huge, mass casualty incident. our coverage will continue as we learn more from the mayor of las vegas, the sheriff in las vegas, both expected at that briefing. ari melber will take over the next leg of the live continuing coverage. show you the scene in las vegas right now. awaiting the briefing. brian williams just mentioned. police will give investigative update and we'll bring it to you live. this is a city reeling from the largest mass murder in modern american history. questions at this hour, what motivated this now dead killer stephen paddock? authorities want to know what moved him to do what he did, if he had help and how he pulled off mass murder after decades of

living what his neighborhoods told reporters was a quote, quiet and reclusive life. over 58 dead and over 500 injuries. shooting into crowded concert, able to terrorism thousands of people. pandemonium, contributed to injuries. reports of victims lying wounded on the ground and police tipped off by smoke detectors and able to storm the room of the mandalay bay hotel. investigators hard at work putting together the pieces. turn to the press conference, authorities briefing on the latest. >> other individuals standing behind me going to make comments, reference other issues associated with today's events. so there's two things we're attempting to achieve.

finish processing the scenes. three scenes, actually four at this point we're working on. 32nd floor, the room at mandalay bay, the event location, the house in mesquite and s.w.a.t. standing by to hit the house in northern nevada. last briefing was unable to tell you what we retrieved from house in mesquite, retrieved how many firearms? 18 additional firearms. some explosives, several thousand rounds of ammo. along with electronic devices we're evaluating at this point. s.w.a.t. is about to breach the house in northern nevada and update on the casualty. 527 individuals injured and

individuals that have died or passed away, 59. so what we're doing at this point, several people are calling about personal items located at the stadium. we're not done processing that scene yet. once we're done processing the scene, we'll make arrangements for people that attended the stadium that believe they have personal items there to respond to the area and we'll help you retrieve your items. at this point i want to bring greg castle forward from the county fire department. he will give you an update on the family resource center. prior to that, i think it's important for -- and i appreciate for you to put this out -- for the people, families responding to the las vegas area, some local proprietaries have offered up rooms for the family members at no charge. that is the boyd group, stations casinos, south point with

mr. gon and sea gull suites. boyd group, stations casinos, south point with mr. gone and seagull suites. individuals responding to las vegas area in need of accommodations, those properties will accommodate you. greg. thank you sheriff. greg castle, fire chief. family assistance center. it's set up now, combination of police department, fire department, coroner's office and other entities working together to provide services for families coming into town or are here handling what is happening with the loved ones. providing services. as sheriff said many stepped up to provide flights, housing, food, transportation and other

things. wonderful thing for the community to have done. south hall of the consensation center, s2. taking up entire south hall of the convention center. and set up to facilitate people dropping off nonperishable goods there, off sierra vista, just west of this convention center area command metro building. joe w. brown and sierra vista. thank the men and women of the fire departments. clark county near and dear to my heart and las vegas fire departments that were teamed up doing what we've trained for many years, wish would never have happened but had a plan in place and able to execute it as well as we possibly could. 108 firefighters on scene, hours for the fire department alone

spent handling the scene, teaming up with partners from law enforcement to reach as many people as we could and do as much as we could for the community. recognize community ambulance. there as standby medical at scene. five or six ambulances there, threw critically wounded patients in immediately and transported from the scene and american medical response, amr and medic west ambulance, all hands on deck, brought in all employees, rallied everything they could, pick-up trucks and vans and ambulances to bring medical supplies to staging area for us and make resources available to the community in time of need. shoutout to the private ambulance companies that did a wonderful thing for us last night as responders. i'll take a few questions. >> did you say how many ambulances? >> couldn't quantify that. but worked here 30 years and never seen that many ambulances

last night. >> dozens, hundreds? >> dozens and dozens. >> 108 clark county firefighters? >> combined from the four departments i mentioned. >> what types of injuries were there to people transported to the hospital? moefltly gunshot wounds? >> wide variety of wounds, gunshot wounds, people trying to egress, those types of injuries. >> can you tell us the staging process? some said took a long time to finally get into the venue, rescuers. >> multiple branches and divisions set up to cover that large area. i can't speak to how long it took to get in but had issues right from the start because didn't know where the gun fr

was, didn't know if it was safe to commit people at that time. policies and procedures to make our people as safe as possible. we know they're going to go into dangerous situation but that's why go in format, rescue task force with the police departments. even ten years ago in this valley would have never taken place, never trained or planned on it. >> any firefighters -- >> we had no on-duty injuries of any emergency response personnel last night. >> non? >> from my fire department? no. >> greg, can we give john a chance? notification of the families. >> thank you greg and sheriff. again my name is sean fooudenburg, the coroner of clark county. first ask that everybody keeps

those involved in this incident in their thoughts and prayers as well as first responders, all government agencies, all of us who have come together working on this incident, keep us in your thoughts and prayers and know we're working very hard to make sure we take care of the families with loved ones involved in this incident. talk more about the family assistance center. as chief kasell mentioned, it's set up at convention center, fully operational right now. met with multiple families, continuing to interview the families. goal of the center is provide families information about the identification of their loved ones and as importantly, to collect information from them so we can make the identifications as fast as possible. we're working very hard at making identifications. out of respect for the family, rather not go into details about

the decedents or injuries at this point. i'm available for questions. >> the coroner's office equipped to handle this many bodies? been an issue? >> we're about as equipped as anybody in the country. i don't know that anybody can be fully equipped to handle this but gotten support through grant money and county commission through the years. we've trained and exercised and putting that training and exercising in place right now. our staff along with police departments and fire departments are doing a heck of a good job handling this all things considered. >> do you have enough space at coroner's office for 59 bodies? >> we do. yes. >> removed from the shooting scene itself? >> as of right now, all confirmed fatalities have been recovered and transported to our office, yes. >> of the 59 deceased, does that

include the shooter or not? >> i believe it includes the shooter but that number could be fluid. unfortunately, it may go up. i don't want to give exact number and confirmation at this point. >> it does not include the shooter. >> thank you sheriff. >> how are your handling there, your staff? >> about as good as can be expected. everybody in this room and in the county right now is suffering as result of this tragic incident. i appreciate you asking but think we're handling it very well and staff is doing a darned good job managing it. >> are you able to assess the types of injuries that led to death? all by gunshot? >> as chief cassell mentioned, he spoke to the injuries, i would like to not speak to that. out of respect for families like to give them answers before we

make them public. not going to answer that at this time ken. thank you for your time. sheriff. >> thank you once again for being here and spreading this information to our community. i want to reiterate what i said earlier and special shoutout to the sheriff and chief cassell and men and women, first responders there, as i said previously, when you see one of these men and women in their uniforms, tell them thank you. they went in when everybody was running out. but for their selfless actions would have hundreds more injuries than we're facing. it's horrific. did incredible job, above and beyond. ensure everyone it's under control right now. las vegas is safe place to be and visit. encourage people to continue to

come here. we've been deluged with donations, bringing sandwiches, water, blankets. it's almost to the point we can't handle any more donations at convention center. sheriff and i spoke earlier regarding blood donations of after we brought that out and put out call for blood, six to eight hour wait at all blood centers right now. donations being given. appointments made for thursday and friday, that's how far in advance we are. set up gofundme account because we thought would help the victims with funeral and travel expenses. families coming in from out of town, still over 500 emergency rooms. started that and now almost 15,000 contributions, in excess of $1.2 million donated by generous people around the country that care about what we're doing. the hate this one individual, this lone wolf, rained down on

our community and mgm village park was met by outpouring of love by entire community. we'll get through this together as one community. thank you very much for being here, our thoughts and prayers with all the families. >> thank you very much. i'm deena titus, represent nevada's first district which includes the fabulous las vegas strip and scene of this horrendous act. so many times welcomed people to las vegas conventions or special events, never imagined would be standing here to offer solace and service to those who would be harmed and killed by such an act. my office is serving as clearing house. don't want to get in the way of wonderful law enforcement and first responders who have done such a good job but want to be

there any way we can. gotten lots of phone calls from people around the country trying to find out where their folks are, we're trying to pass that on to the appropriate place. couple of immigration calls we're trying to help with as well. in addition to services already mentioned, thomas and mack opened up as temporary refuge for people put out of their hotel rooms. clark county school district offered counsellors to the public if needed. contacted by air bnb, also offer s facilities to anybody who needs to come into town and see about family members. community is stepping up. heard acts of heroism, off-duty police officers helping people shelter, pointing out where they thought the shots were coming from. friend of one of my staff members was being trampled and

total stranger pulled them into a van to be safe. standing on the corner outside of umc and car slowed down to say where can we go to give blood. that's the community we have here. las vegas is resilient, everybody pulling together, we'll get through this. thank you very much to law enforcement, first responders, fire department, medical personnel taking care of people in the parking lots of hospitals, everybody stepped up. we can't say thank you enough. >> thank you. jackie rosen, i represent nevada's third district just outside the las vegas strip. i reiterate what everyone said here. first responders, hospital staff, hotel staff, firefighters, ambulance, police. i stand before you not just as congress woman but mother, daughter, sister, friend and member of this community.

and like congress woman titus said, we're a strong community. we know how to fight, be resilient and pull together. that's exactly what we're going to do. today we're going to come together with all our community partners, hotels, air bnb, lyft and uber and taxi drivers. do everything we can to support the victims and their families, move forward, together in strength. appreciate everybody's support that's helped us. again, thank you. >> thank you. not a lot to add to what's already been said here. united states senator dean heller. what i do want to add, we'll never forget october 1st, 2017. think about that, that will be a day to remember here in las vegas. it's a day we'll remember for years to come as we remember and think about how dangerous this world can be. i'm grateful to the sheriff's

department, all the first responders and everything they've done. help and support from people around the country, number of phone calls we've received, condolences flowing into this community are second to none. thank whole congressional delegation working together, linking arms and trying to move this community forward. nevada is strong, will remain strong, we'll get through this, all do it working together. thank you. >> carolyn goodman, mayor of the great city of las vegas. outpouring of attention, love, sympathy and offers of help not only come from around this country from mayors and governors but also from abroad. want to thank for sure all of the law enforcement and first responders come in from other parts of the state as well as los angeles to help us out here. number of people that have come

and gotten in line to give blood has really become an issue we're going to learn from. we haven't been able to keep up with it. people are frustrated, they love this community, love what it represents and they want to do something about it. it's been simply incredible. to learn this wonderful fund that sheriff had set up in over $1 million, you can just feel the heartbeat of the people that call las vegas and nevada home. most especially in talking -- and i spent last night in the hospital at umc and over at valley to talk to some of those less seriously injured, how confused they were about the issue there. as you know, when you go to one of these outdoor entertainments or inner side, arena ones, you're usually given a bracelet, identification. because they were up front and in confined environment, the places to get out were less open

to them. but the sounds and talking to the patients, hearing different sounds because they're thinking it's fireworks or part of the technology of the music that's being played, they could tell me they were thinking it was coming from different areas. fact that our first responders and law enforcement acted so quickly and professionally and attended to the need right then there and there able to get up into the mandalay bay in four minutes is simply an incredible feat. saved thousands of life lives. over 22,000 people there in small area and simply amazing how efficiently law enforcement and first responders worked. you heard those words from our president, he called me on cell phone and spoke with sheriff and attorney general with whom i was speaking and whatever he could provide. and he is coming out here.

the question is, what can be done. people are asking, e-mails are coming. phone calls are coming in. i'm sure everyone that's standing here has received them. this is a remarkable community of people who are involved, who do care. this heinous crime, this maniac, could do such destruction to so many people, we even lost one of our members at city hall, it's a very difficult time. while the sun is shining in las vegas, it is a very dark and black day. as i'm sure was said, october 1st, 2017, will be one of the darkest days ever. and hopefully never again. thank you. thank you sheriff. and thank you law enforcement and first responders. simply unbelievable. tonight at 5:00 at city hall will be the first of i'm sure

several vigils. 5:00 city hall, pastor troy will be leading that and i'm sure will be many others. this is a loving and caring community and i'm proud to be its mayor. >> thank you. mark hutchinson, lieutenant governor of the great state of nevada. governor was here earlier and said this has been our finest hour as a state, as a city. our finest hour i think, among them as americans. if you were taken into umc medical center, trauma center and were alive, you're still alive at this hour. the amount of skill and professionalism that was shown by those doctors and nurses and medical professionals is extraordinary and can be very proud of. same is true of spring valley hospital. if you were alive, you're still

alive. could not be prouder of those men and women who saved so many lives in las vegas today and last night. as i went into those hospital rooms throughout the day, as many friends and colleagues behind me, they are my friends and colleagues and true nevadaens and true americans. heard what i did, stories from ordinary people from all over this country. how personal it is, spring valley hospital, karen was injured, seriously, and was carried away from the scene. she said if i ever had a chance to thank this individual, would i thank him. sean dopper, carried her from the scene. if you get a hold of him, let him know i made it. he was her guardian angel that day.

saw and heard stories like this all day. sad day for las vegas, my home town. but this is a day when americans helped americans make it through the night. god bless them all. thank you. >> did you tell us that everyone who went to the hospitals, none of them died at hospital? >> at umc today, told by trauma surgeons that everybody who made it in alive were still alive. there were those who arrived who were not alive. that is the information i got. wanted to make the point it was extraordinary skill showed by medical professionals. >> anybody go to hospitals outside of this state? >> i don't have the answer. >> we have one individual to the best of my recollection in california. thank everybody for coming.

one more clarification. besides the vigil at city hall, additional at 5:00 p.m. at guardian angel cathedral adjacent to the encore hotel. i'm happy to answer questions at this point. >> manifesto or anything like that? >> haven't located anything of that description yet. >> how many guns were found in the room? >> 16 in the room. >> can you tell us what he used? >> calibers ranging from .308 to .223. >> any evidence that he videotaped himself or laptop? >> not aware of that at this point. one at a time police. >> surveillance that he set up to protect himself? >> not aware of that. been hearing that but not completely aware to testify to it. >> woman who was person of

interest, determined didn't think had anything to do with it, now that you've found 18 more guns in home they apparently shared, do you revisit that? how could someone not know that all of that was inside their home? >> i didn't say we were discontinuing the investigation into the female. we're continuing the investigation into that female. there are several questions that need to be answered, similar to what you propose. but she's currently out of the country. we're making arrangements to contact her upon her return. >> philippines? >> no i believe tokyo. >> 16 guns in hotel room, 18 in home in mesquite. any other weapons recovered? >> hand gun also in the hotel room. not aware of any other weapons. >> hand gun in addition to the 16 rifles? >> yes, ma'am. >> find anything in the car at

mandalay bay. >> found some i believe fertilizer is that correct todd? ammonia nitrate within the car. didn't have any compounds additional to that. >> you mentioned finding explosives in -- >> correct i believe it was tanarite. >> investigating a gambling debt? >> i also saw that presented on the internet. i believe journalism research produced that but we haven't had opportunity to evaluate it. >> why are you sending a s.w.a.t. team up north? do you know what is in the house? >> no ma'am, part of the s.w.a.t. team is attachment of the armored personnel and bomb squad. want to ensure no booby traps available. >> use that mesquite as well?

>> yes. haven't broken them down, atf not evaluated but i don't know if serial pins filed or converted to fully automatic. >> weapons -- >> slow down please. >> any of the places you've searched, hard drives -- >> yes we have. we haven't evaluated them yet. fbi is giving us resources to evaluate them. >> can the weapons be characterized as assault weapons? >> yes. >> any modified or pfrped automatic? >> not aware of that, one dealer came forward saying he sold weapons to suspect but aware of others. >> in las vegas? >> arizona so far but working further. >> as simple as he had a huge

suitcase? >> no several suitcases. can't give you exact number but excess of ten. from the 28th. >> methodically just kept bringing suitcases back and forth and no one thought the wiser? it's big place, i get it -- >> wish it would have happened ma'am. >> harvest festival? >> don't have evidence of that. >> working motive at this point? >> no. >> one room? >> one large suite with two rooms. >> what led you to 29th instead of the 32nd floor? >> interaction with security, they believed it was between 29th and 32nd floor. had to evaluate each floor moving up. >> did you find room because of the smoke? >> prior to this weekend some talk might have had -- music festival? >> researching that.

had information he may have attended life is beautiful but not confirmed. >> find the room because of the smoke detector? broken window? >> complaints from customers into security. >> s.w.a.t. team break down the door? >> yes. he engaged security, shot through the doorway and struck a security guard. >> ammunition found in the room? >> yes. >> how much? >> i don't know. >> was the security guard killed? >> please slow down. i don't think as fast as you. >> security guard killed? >> no, shot? the leg. >> reports that shooter might have been employed by federal agency, any truth to that? >> can't confirm or deny it, we're still evaluating that. >> are you and some of the casino and property owners starting to think about plans for re-evaluation and enhancement of security?

>> target hardening? absolutely. continuing conversation. everyone is aware of the baller project, the attempt to prevent any harm associated with that. target hardening and evaluating customers on continual basis. >> can you expand on the relationship between the man and roommate? >> my understanding, boyfriend and girlfriend. >> relationship by the room to where the shots -- >> excesses of 500 yards is my estimate from hunting background. >> scope? >> on some of the rifles. >> and did he use multiple rifles during the assault? >> yes he did. i don't know whether he used them all. don't know that yet. we have to break them down and evaluate them. >> coming from the airport, witness said an officer shielded them. want you to expand on the role of your officers during this emergency.

let us know how they're doing too. >> that's difficult question. it's not difficult, it's hard question for me to answer because of what they did, heroic acts. often we're the ones that go in when everyone is running other way. case in point, this event, that's exactly what occurred. asked officers who are well trained to address active shooter events but this is different because the active shooter was unreachable. so intent is life safety. first priority in law enforcement and very proud of what our officers did. >> four minutes? >> i don't even want to guess on time. you'd probably do better time than me with evaluation of that. >> time line on when the traces can be done? >> i believe in short order. hoping to get that -- any time line? i would anticipate the next day

or two. >> isis still claiming responsibility for this? >> good for them. we have no evidence of that. >> sheriff, when he was engaging with your officers, was anything said? yell anything? >> not aware of anything. we do standard announcements before entry. >> you mentioned -- >> not in vehicle but home. >> what is it used for? explosive for exploding targets? >> exactly. buy it at any gun store. don't know the regulations on the amount but commercially available. >> how much was there? >> i don't recall. i was told but i can't recall. several pounds. >> do you have information that he frequented las vegas often, scouting out locations in weeks leading up to it?

>> no ma'am, other than what is possibly presented, life is beautiful and lives in close vicinity, with access. >> club card found in there give any indication he was familiar with that specific hotel? >> no because the club card did not belong to him. >> [ inaudible ]. >> not aware of it. >> some of the folks in mesquite seem not to know who he was, maybe not primary residence. do you know where he lived? >> i believe mesquite. i think i saw posting. depending on the accuracy of the internet. neighbors familiar with the individual but he was reclusive. >> can you walk us through from the minute the shots rang out to you got to the room? >> no, this will be the last question. all the officers were assigned to the event. we do have officers assigned for

other events inside the mandalay bay as matter of weekly practice, specifically the night clubs. but i'm sure they were not aware of what was taking place, similar to the officers at event. officers took it upon themselves to help the customers exit the grounds and some officers took it upon themselves to immediately go to the mandalay bay. team of six officers that approached security. they went up the elevators after discussing the situation with security and obtaining intelligence. and they checked each floor by floor until they located where they believed to be the room. subsequently approached the room, received gunfire, backed off and s.w.a.t. responded. >> smoke alarm. >> >> i can't recall. thank you very much. appreciate your time and patience. we'll update you later this evening. todd do you have a time?

7:00 p.m. tonight for updates of any new information. >> back here? >> yes. thank you. >> we've been listening to sheriff joe lombardo and host of federal and local officials and members of congress speaking on the tragedy, the mass murder in las vegas, nevada. some of the updates we heard, death toll now at 59 victims, that's death toll of 59 not counting the shooter. they discussed the 18 firearms recovered, including a range of types of weapons. assault weapons that had been modified. 527 wounded is last count. heard from several politicians but as you can see on the scene,

debate continuing in congress, chris murphy speaking on gun control on the floor of the senate, in this hour in about 15 minutes, u.s. house of representatives will weigh in with moment of silence on the house floor. watching the scenes unfold throughout the day, s.w.a.t. teams we're told, preparing to storm a breach on north nevada home. not adding detail of what or why, declining when asked. other important take-away from the briefing, quote, no working motive on exactly why stephen paddock did this mass murder, highest death toll of any mass shooting in modern american history. i want to turn to some of our experts who continue to follow this. chris jansing has been live from the ground outside mandalay bay and mcdonald, former nypd

officer and retired chief deputy u.s. marshall matthew fogg. chris your response, analysis and updates. anything that comes to mind for you coming out of the briefing or what else you're seeing in your reporting. >> this is a community that remains in shock. state of emergency remains in clark county and numbers are mind-boggling. 59 dead and upped people injured to 527. at umc, the only level one trauma hospital in this area, 104 people were admitted. 12 of them as of earlier today in critical condition, which is why officials are saying the numbers are fluid. fear the death count could go even higher. additional information. behind me, mandalay bay, that is where police say stephen paddock

took a hammer or some sort of tool, knocked out a couple of windows, set up his guns there, some of them we heard had scopes on them. 16 in all on those rifles but in addition to that location, the area where there were 22,000 people who literally, many of them, ran for their lives, not knowing where the gunfire was coming from last night. they went to his home in mesquite and found 18 additional firearms, several thousand rounds of ammunition and explosives. what strikes me so much as someone who has covered these stories dating back almost 20 years to columbine ari, this doesn't fit any kind of pattern that we have seen. this is a 64-year-old man, according to his brother, a multimillionaire, not somebody who necessarily seen from the outside to be unhappy with his life. in a relationship, in a nice

retirement community. loved to come here to vegas, a place he enjoyed. so successful, no outward ideology and at least according to his brother just a couple of weeks ago made a phone call like any of us might make to check on his mom who had lost power in one of the hurricanes. question remains here, why. >> exactly. chris, stay with me, go to matthew on the question of why. put in context what the authorities just said, it's early yet. but for the very reasons that chris just outlined. lack of pattern or profile, no working motive here. >> that's the difficulty oftentimes with these events. condolences to family and friends of those affected by this maniac. that's the problem. you don't know sometimes when people might change. my thought is, when you have outside events that have often -- so many people in one

particular area, think law enforcement, what we're going to start finding is countersnipers or even helicopters surveying the area, making certain you don't have these type of things. it appears to me as we move into the future, we're going to have more of these type incidents so we have somebody to stop it in advance. >> that's such a concern. stay with me. pause this to go to capitol hill. democrat from connecticut standing by. congress woman i know you have to move for the moment of silence i mentioned. your thoughts today. >> certainly look, this is horrific. scale of the violence, loss of life, 59 people, over 500 people injured, it really is a stunning in terms of the violence and

blood shed. hearts to the families of those who have lost a loved one but to those injured, we cannot continue this way. we say each and every time there is an event -- and can go back to columbine, we say never again, never again in aurora, charleston, sandy hook, orlando, now in las vegas. and yes, on the floor of the house of representatives tonight we will have a moment of silence and we will pray for the families who have been so hurt. but the families who have been hurt and american people need to know that we are going to do more, that we are going to undertake action on their behalf so that we can keep them safe from this gun violence. it has to stop. it has to stop now. >> congress woman, that goes to

what we're hearing, i mentioned earlier in the hour, senator chris murphy on the floor making a direct argument for gun control. he spoke out after sandy hook as know. white house today said you can't have policy response to the incident if you don't have sufficient facts yet. do you disagree with that? do you think you know enough to -- go ahead. >> we need a policy response because this is not a one time incident. yes it is the largest mass murder that we have seen from gun violence in the united states but we've had several examples. i can recall sandy hook, my heart breaks every day for sandy hook, 20 babies, slaughter of the innocents. five adults. what we need to do now is bring to the floor of the house of representatives votes on banning assault weapons, banning high capacity magazines, having background checks, allowing us

to do research on gun violence and what we ought to do and what speaker ryan ought to do immediately is take off the floor of this house a bill coming up for a vote this week to put silencers on guns so you could have even more people killed and won't know about it until after the fact. we have to act. this is not just one time. we have enough data and evidence to know what we have to do. we have a moral responsibility to do something, otherwise we're failing the people of this country whose lives are at stake and we are sitting here doing nothing about it. >> strong words congress woman delauro. thanks for making time before the moment of silence on the house floor. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> turn to nbc's jo lynn kim at a blood drive in las vegas.

what are you seeing there? >> reporter: lines are epic. call for blood donations and public in las vegas turned out in massive way. show this line, talking to people who came after work and found would be waiting five so seven hours and donations in action right now. folks bringing in water, food, burritos, corn dogs to sustain everyone as they wait in the hot sun and sun goes down in las vegas. what we see is extraordinary outpouring of support, families, people taking day off because they heard what happened last night and this morning and decided they had to do something. reason blood donation is so important is because blood donations expire as many of you know. can you come through. donate one pint here and one pint every eight weeks. other people standing in lin for hours donating platelets and plasma as well.

huge need not just here in las vegas but if they get anything extra, sharing the wealth around the country. what we've got, show all the different donations that have come in, hundreds of people, maybe upwards of 1,000 people waiting here all day. this is a blood center that usually closed by this hour. instead they're here, going to stay hoopen as long as they cano take in donations but what you see here is one word, all about unity here in las vegas. back to you guys. >> thank you for that report and uplifting side to horrific day for the community. go back to two guests we were speaking to before the congress woman. matthew fogg and chris jansing out of mandalay bay. matthew, pardon my interruption earlier, speaking to someone in the building behind you who wanted to make her message known before going in for the moment

of silence on the house floor we're awaiting. you were speaking before about security measures. as well as i wanted your views on the patterning, profile issue. so often hear about law enforcement looking at these cases, and this one doesn't match up. seems to be a late in life act without any discernible public predicate in behavior by this individual. >> right. it's true. problem is, as we see over and over, these things are happening even greater, each incident happening further. talk about lone wolf, situation like this, we have to have some way to determine when these things happen, if they do, how can we respond so effectively to where this person doesn't have opportunity to kill as many people. that round he was shooting travels 100 yards, talking about

ten football fields. enough power and equipment from different houses, it seems like somebody would have known something, known some motive he had or doing something. but fact is saying right now, haven't found any links to this man. if we had these guns registered or knew where these weapons were, to me would be a great start in maybe trying to stop this type of unknown element of people doing these types of things. >> matthew fogg, thank you. chris jansing, a quick final word from you. the unity side, the support side, the community side, we just heard from elected officials in that briefing, really talking about the overwhelming support within and outside of the community in response to what one congress woman described as horrific acts

of one person being met by generosity of huns of thousands. what are you seeing on that score out there? >> reporter: you can't help but be heartened in worst possible circumstance by the response of people. people now after waiting hours in line to give blood, signing up to give on thursday and friday. by the donations that have been pouring in and by the sense of community that is felt here. if there is one, i guess, thing that people here in las vegas can know, it's that we saw this in orlando, questions were raised, what will happen in that community that is so dependent on tourism, where people come to have a good time. what they found in orlando in the theme parks, people not only came, many came just to say we will not let this stop us. obviously tourism is key driver here. last year $43 million -- 43 million people came to this part of nevada. billions of dollars, tens of

thousands of jobs. i travel a lot around the country and world. one thing i hear repeatedly from people is, nobody quite responds like americans do to tragedy. i think that is is a community shock. but at the same time, a community coming together. >> and thank goodness for that. chris jansing sharing those thoughts and that context from the ground there. my thanks to matthew fogg, a former chief deputy marshall as well. this shooting happened as country music star jason aldean was performing during the three-day route 91 fest. there are hundreds of country music fans, and many of them sadly became victims caught in the aftermath. in the hours following the chaos, some stars expressing their shock at the tragedy and expressing the way forward. we are now joined by the members of big and rich, big kenny and john rich. and gentlemen, i understand you had played a short time before this all broke out. walk us through what you saw,

what happened, and where we go from here when we think about music, something that unites so many people on most days. >> first thing we got to say our hearts just pour out to all of -- our fans and our family, our great family out there. these are the people that mean so much to us. and the loss that has been suffered since last night is just -- it's more than you comprehend even at one time. and we just pour out our hearts to these people and hope in some way we're going make it through this one way or the other. and we just hoping so much that these people are still wounded in hospitals and stuff right now make it through it. and we're praying for all the families. >> and john, what happened? walk us through your experience there. >> you know, you brought up a point leading into this about this town unifying around this

incident. during our concert, there was a point in the show where we had brought military veterans and active duty up on stage. and we had all 22,000 people out there singing "god bless america" at the top of their lungs. they all had their eiphones up n the air. it was this incredible moment of unity going on. and a couple hours later, you get this incredible carnage, you know. we started getting phone calls from some of our friends that were there on the ground. we had just left the venue and headed over to a little country nightclub that i own in las vegas. and we had to lock that whole place down. big kenny here actually stepped off the tour bus as s.w.a.t. teams were coming down through the streets. we watched the lapd and fire and first responders activate so fast. it was unbelievable. they were sweeping literally

every street and every building almost instantaneously after this happened. the calls we got, some of the guys backstage said they had been thrown in pickup trucks. they were screeching out of the particular. and as they looked up over the edge of the truck bed they were laying in, they saw nothing but bodies everywhere, just carnage everywhere you looked. and the families were getting split up. where we were back at my place in las vegas, all those people had come from the big concert. and the panic and the wailing and crying that hit that room as those folks were trying to locate their loved ones and family back at the concert. it was like nothing i'd ever seen. >> it was panic in the streets everywhere. and people just not knowing, you know. i guess that's the way that fear can work. and lo and behold, the same rooms that we had been sitting in the hotel that day, the shooter's rooms were just a couple floors right above us. >> say that again? >> terrible. >> you were staying at the

mandalay bay then? you were saying you were a couple floors down? >> yes. >> we were staying right there. we were in the hotel room that afternoon. we were watching people come into the venue there. it was a beautiful venue, a great place, a great celebration. i was sitting there and watching it. then as we started seeing the reports about last night, we're looking at these things where they were saying the shooter was coming from, just right over the top of our heads where we had been sitting in a hotel room all day long. >> because he was on 32. what floors were you guys on? >> 28. >> wow. >> you know, we look at these. we've seen attacks on other music site, concerts, places where people gather and gather to be together and to give tribute to america. so i wonder, what do you plan to do? do you plan to keep playing just like you did? what do you want to say to people who would attack these kind of gatherings? >> you know, they attack these kind of gatherings as we all know to try to strike such fear

in us that we will stop doing what we're doing. we will stop, you know, being free americans and life loving, fun-loving americans. and we're not going to do that. the country music fan base and the country singer, we have a really unique relationship. we know these people. we know a lot of them by their first names. we talk to them on social media. we meet them at the meet and greets. a lot of them come to multiple shows over the years. we know these people. our meet and greet before the show consisted of there was four school teachers that came through. there was a vietnam veteran. there was offduty police, offduty fire. there were college students. there were people from southern california, all the way to canada that had come to this show. it was a very diverse group of people. when this man attacked this crowd, he didn't attack country music. he attacked america. he attacked all of us when he attacked us. and like i said, two hours prior to this attack, all 22,000 of

those people were sing "god bless america" at the top of their lungs. it was just a powerful moment. and then an absolute 180 when this maniac started raining down like he did. >> did you ask us what we're going to do this. is a battle that's been going on forever. and that's the battle of good and evil. as john was saying, evil's desire to put fear in people's hearts. we refuse to let that fear take any place in our hearts or stop us from doing what we do, which is going out and bringing the joy to people with music. and as long as we keep that going, then we'll always have just a little advantage over that dark side. we continue to shine the light, the great light of love in some way, and we shall overcome and keep the music coming. >> big kenny and john rich, we thank you for sharing some time with us on what is a difficult day. we're thinking of you. we're thinking of your fans. thank you so much.

>> thank you, sir. >> god bless. >> god bless. we have the update we wanted to give you we mentioned earlier about where we stand on this fatality count. 59 people now dead. that's according to the briefing we brought you earlier in the hour from the authorities. more than 527 counted as wounded. many face s crippling or life threatening injuries. >> i was over at umc in the trauma unit. and it's been a very, very difficult time for us. >> we've got first responders that are literally covered in blood. >> i also saw a lot of nurses and doctors that were working tirelessly to save lives. >> more than 100 patients were raced to university medical center, which is the only level 1 trauma center in all of nevada. >> all through the night we had operating rooms and icus going. most of the patients at this point have been stabilized and are being worked on. several will go back to the operating room again tonight. we've actually had other mass

casualties here, but nothing as big as this. this is the biggest one we've had in 20 years. >> and today a plea from las vegas's mayor to those looking for help, to help. >> what we ask for is blood. that's the main thing right now. is that if our people want to do something and they are healthy, then please donate blood. >> meanwhile, the governor of the state said today more help is on the way. >> my next step to sign an evacuation order that provides a waiver for out of state health care provider, doctors, nurses, other licensed personnel to be able to give these guys a break. >> any out of state doctor, physician or nurse will be able to practice here? >> pretty much, yes. >> dr. cory herbert is a practicing physician and professor at tulane. thank you for joining us here. with over 500 gentlemen, how do you prioritize that? >> the key words are triage and triage and triage.

basically, when you this type of situation, you really must be able to delineate who is the most injured and who has life threatening injuries. that's where the front lines come in. down in new orleans we've had lots of mass casualties from hurricane katrina to lots of other things that we've had to prepare for. and hospitals like university medical center in las vegas, they are level 1, which means that they do these types of trains to make sure that they are astute in the practice of mass casualty triage. i know several of the doctors that are actually practicing there now and have spoken to several of them. this is what they trained for. this is what we train for. and they have done a great job in making sure that the patients that needed the surgery and the repeat surgeries have actually gotten them. and then the governor has actually done a great thing as well by allowing other doctors to have the immediate granting of privileges and licensure to come and help with this mass

tragedy. >> dr. cory hebert, thank you for that. and my apologies, we ran short on time. that does it for this hour. i will be back here at 6:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow. but our continuing coverage continues straight ahead in las vegas. "hardball with chris matthews" starts right now. . >> there was the pulse nightclub in orlando where 49 people were killed. virginia tech where 32 were. sandy hook elementary school where it was 27 people, including 20 children. now it's las vegas with 59 shot and killed. the list of mass shootings as we know is longer. a church meeting in charleston, a community college in roseburg, oregon. a high school in colorado, an office party in san bernardino. at the navy yard here in washington, a movie heater in colorado. at ft