back with more of a special report on a mass shooting that's taken place in las vegas, nevada, at an outdoor country music festival. the shooting actually not coming from the concert venue but from a window 32 floors above it. the mandalay bay casino in las vegas. what we know now, more than 20 people have been killed, more than 100 wounded. >> the shooter is dead according to police. his identity is known to the authorities in las vegas. they have not released it publicly this hour. >> and according to police, they are looking for four of course a companion of -- for marilou

danley, a companioni kpacompani shooter. and pete kms said they'williams searching a building an hour and 15 minutes northeast of las vegas. >> this was the ending day of a three-day country music festival. a harvest festival. jason aldean, the country music star, performing live on stage at the time this happened. eyewitnesses heard automatic gunfire that came in spurts. the shooter, 32 floors above, would fire until he was out of bullets in one particular clip. there would be silence for a while. then the shooter would reload and begin firing again. an eyewitness we spoke to said it was like a game of red light, green light. they would try to move. when the gunfire began again, they would get on the ground and

try and stay in place. one eyewitness said he thought it went on for nearly an hour. clearly there were a large -- there was a large number of bullets fired into this crowd that was simply gathered to listen to country music. we have more from joe fryer -- what more can you tell us? [ inaudible ] >> we might have trouble reaching joe. we should say that after the shooting happen going on for a while, police located the room. they realized where this was coming from, 32 floors up from a window at the mandalay bay. according to a press conference we listened in on a while ago, they located the room, went into the hotel, they breached the door. they mentioned some sort of

explosion to breach the door of the room and shooter was neutralized. we do not have reports that there were any other shooters. any other -- no other shooters. >> there was one shooter, and that shooter is dead. we'll go to somebody who was at the concert, alex rasmussen. he traveled to the festival. a three-day festival. good morning, and we're glad you're with us, glad you're safe. can you tell us where you were, what you heard and saw? >> caller: absolutely. thanks for having us on. we were in front of the stage about 50 feet back on the left side of the stage. we were on the farthest side away from the mandalay bay where it turned out the shooter was shooting from. the first thing we heard, it sounded like maybe fireworks or

some type of firecracker even in the crowd. when it first happened -- the shots went off -- >> alex, you still with us? [ inaudible ] i think we may have lost that line, as well. obviously difficult to communicate with people there now. steve patterson is down on the strip, not far from the mandalay bay. can you hear me? >> reporter: i can hear you, matt. >> all right. bring us up to date on what you're seeing. i understand that the scene behind you is quiet now. we're talking four-plus hours since the shooting occurred. the police were pretty quick to isolate the area. what's going on behind you? >> reporter: for four-plus hours, the scene remains very

active. you see the stretchers here, the ambulances that swarmed in, the squad cars that remained here. traffic back open. people trying to filter through the scene. police have had a lock on this for a few hours. what happened initially, police warmed in after they heard reports of gunfire. as we mentioned, multiple reports of gunfire. police dealing with reports coming from all different directions. they swarm in, take over the scene, they go from property to property to property, hotels and scenes. we're in a central location on the strip. i see the mgm, the respect to can athe new york new york. -- the mgm, the tropicana, the new york new york. people with long guns cleared the areas, pushed people out. patrons that were in came out with their hands up. and they basically cleared the

scene. what has to be one of the most eerie parts is the vegas strip, always so populated, revelers out at all times of the night, last night it was completely shut down when police had a lock on the scene. eerie to hear almost nothing on the strip after police swarmed in and set up and made sure that everything was safe. that's where it continues now with police here. we want to make sure everybody's pushed out as we continue their operation with what happened. the tragic event as you heard. as we mentioned earlier, the automatic gunfire from an elevated position, we heard stories of people filtering out from the area on the ground, who had to get out quickly. because they had to get out quickly with that amount of people in that location, there was almost like a stampede of people, not only was it dangerous from above, with so much confusion of what was happening from above, on the

ground people were getting trampled. one woman said there were bodies of people who had been shot and victims laying here scattered every. where in fact she said one body laid on top of hers as the gunfire was going on. another woman i spoke to said she hid in a bush for the better part of an hour, not knowing what's going on, terrified of what's happening on the outside world. we're hearing from accounts of victims. revelers on the street as normal, on the vegas strip, i don't care what day or time of night, there's always people enjoying festivities. they heard the gunfire and saw the stampede, people running. it's obvious to hear why there were so many reports of gunfire at various locations and reports of explosives because there was so much confusion on the ground which police have a good hold of at this point.

>> we heard from an eyewitness, i said how long do you think this went on, he said more than an hour. you think of people trying to huddle in place, not able to run around because they're not sure if the shooter has loaded and will start firing any second, that's a long time to be under the circumstances. in the press conference, the sheriff was putting out a call for anyone who was there in the area who may have taken cell phone video to please review the video to see if it might have any importance to law enforcement in the early stage of the investigation. and please turn that video over police. >> and a sirius x.m. host was near the stage broadcasting the concert. good morning to you want tell us what you experienced.

>> caller: we were on stage for the festival, doing intros to the show. jason aldean was performing. we were in the artist's tent area off the stage. no one knew what it was. it was the last day of a three-day festival, last act. we took it was fireworks, took a while for anybody to do anything. we heard a rumor it was possibly power lines. everybody moved out of the tent. and by the time we realized it was gunshots, we were -- we were pretty much -- everybody was hiding under the tour buses, the artist tour buses backstage. we were there for a while. you heard the rounds going and a pause and it would start again. and then i don't know if it was law enforcement or civilians, but somebody started to try to move everyone out. everybody in the back, we had to run across the actual stage and

joined the mass exodus. it was chaos. you know, people were on the ground. you see some were injured. people were running fast and as far away as they could as quickly as they could. >> can you estimate how long from when you first heard the noise -- and i know you didn't know they were gunshots then and there, but how long the shots went on, how long the shooting was going on? >> it's hard to tell. we felt -- it maybe was five minutes or so. we -- we ran, and you start to think where a safe it place is. everybody dispersed. we had a large crew. we separated. a couple of us stayed together. everybody ended up at a different hotel. it seemed like it calmed down. i'm at the respect to cantropic. and they had it on lockdown.

and my co-worker at the mgm, other casinos. we were all staying at the mandalay bay. but we're not going back there any time soon. >> let me take you to the venue. you were on stage for the festival. went to a talent tent. what's the viewing area, the size? 100 yards by 100 yards? something bigger, smaller? and do you know, were you able to see where most of the victims were? were they close to the stage? were they in the back side or -- i know mandalay bay is to the right of the concert stage. do you have any information on tha that? >> caller: here's what's bizarre. our room is in mandalay bay, and i was on the 23rd floor, my room. my view had to be pretty much the same view -- we didn't realize the shots were coming from there. i had on a couple of occasions looked down and could see the entire festival ground. so from where my room is

situated, i believe to where the shots were, you could see everything. you could see where all the patrons were. you could see -- basically a parking lot set up with the stage and tents, and a bunch of country music fans. >> do you have any idea how many people were watching? >> we were on the stage the last three days, you looked out to the sea of people. you couldn't see the end of it from that stage. it was thousands and thousands of people. we -- i mean, you couldn't see the end of the crowds. >> thank you very much for your information. and we're glad you're safe. >> caller: thank you. thank you. >> pete williams has been working the phones this early hour. have you picked up anything more? you reported last hour about the search warrants being executed

in mesquite, nevada. >> reporter: we're told that agents are in the room at the mandalay bay, processing the scene, looking for forensic evidence. they have the weapon that was fired. i don't know the caliber yet. i don't know any information about the weapon. they are conducting an emergency trace. one avenue of inquiry. the second is they know who the gunman is or was, i should say, and that has opened up a second investigative line which led

them looking at the records to two the vehicles. we've heard a report that one may have been found at this point. but the second thing, this led to an address in mesquite. they're searching that person's house. we showed earlier the photograph of marilou danley who the police and sheriff's office said this woman was his roommates or companion, the way they described it. and our search of the data bases indicates that she is 62 years old. we have a name of the suspect that we're not reporting yet until we get triple confirmation. he is also 62 years old. the two of them were seen together at the hotel apparently before the shooting. witnesses have been talking about that. we're waiting to get confirmation. this is an unusual situation here for several reasons. one is that if you just look at

the very sad history of mass shootings, they tend not to be carried out by people in their 60s. the second question is why. what could possibly inspire someone to do this, and that's an open question. the search in mesquite may begin to shed light on that. and of course the other important question here is was this part of some other plot, was there something wider here. there have been a number of -- of small-scale terror attacks around the world in the last few days. one in canada, one in france. the obvious question is are these related, or does this have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism? the initial report, initial assessment from the las vegas county sheriff was that this person was not involved in any terror groups. tell take a while to figure out -- it will take a while to

figure out what was going on in this person's mind in the days leading up to the horrible attack. >> and obviously as we talked about before, this person bringing a weapon or weapons into a hotel. we'll have to find out how long he was registered in the room, how long he may have sat in the room doing this or planning this. was he there for a week, or did he check in just before the particular con short do this? how did he begin? did he simply shoot out a window of the hotel? famously, the hotels in las vegas, those windows don't open generally, although some expensive rooms do have balconies. to simply shoot out the window and then aim the barrel of the weapon toward the crowd. how long he was there. how long he planned something like this, a huge and concern to law enforcement. >> reporter: they're already start ing starting to work the timeline

backwards. working backwards from the moment of the shooting and going back in time. when did he check into the hotel, when did he get to las vegas from mesquite, when did he get the weapon, when did he buy the ammunition. those are all key investigative steps to try to figure out what went on here. >> and there's a lot of rumors on line about a woman being there. pete, did i hear that they believe this woman, marilou danley, was at the hotel or somewhere near the scene? >> reporter: to be clear about this, savannah, this is -- witnesses have said they thought they saw the two together at the hotel. i've not heard from law enforcement whether in fact she was there. >> okay. >> to be clear, the witnesses said that law enforcement has been now circulating with a photo of marilou danley and that's how they got the information of people say yes, she was spotted at the hotel. >> reporter: yes, there's the

picture of her and the older man who we believe is the shooter. we're not identifying him until we're absolutely certain of the identity. you're right. one led to another. once they showed the picture of marilou danley, people say, aha, i saw her with an older man. we believe that marilou danley is 62 based on, you know, the photo would seem to indicate that. beginning of gray hair. and data bases indicate there is someone in mesquite, nevada, aged 62. she was, we believe, living at the home owned by the suspect who was also 62. if we're correct about the suspect. >> just to go one more time for people who may be joining us and missed our conversation that we had with you earlier, they now have an identity of the suspect d. this person have any history of breaking the law, any sort of -- was he on the radar for

law enforcement in mesquite or las vegas for any other reason in the past? >> reporter: i've not seen anything in the data bases for a court record. i think it will take a while to figure out the answer. i've not heard that he was on anybody's radar. i think it's a little too early that for sure. >> okay. thank you very much. >> we're just starting to get more images and video of the moments after the shooting. if you haven't seen this -- here we are. this is the aftermath. this came into the newsroom. and you see -- our correspondents have described utter chaos as you hear gunfire. you hear people running for their lives. adding to the terror of the moment. people not knowing where the gunfire is coming from. now we know somebody 32 floors up having the vantage point, looking down, seeing the breadth of the concert festival.

people listening. the third day of the festival. we know at least 20 people were killed, more than 100 injured. >> startling video as people get up during the silence between the firing. and as the bullets ring out again, dive to the ground. you don't know whether the people were struck or diving for cover. you also look at the hotel in the backgrounds a and know the shooter was aiming that weapon into a sea of people hoping to hit as many as he could. >> by all accounts, this is an illegal automatic weapon. you hear the firing of it. law enforcement officers saying this is a machine gun. >> nobody can pull the trigger that fast and with that rhythm. that is simply hold the trigger down, the gun does everything else for you and fires until it's empty. >> it's an open-air festival.

obviously precious few places to run and hide or take cover adding to the absolute history or of what we've seen unfold -- horror of what we've seen unfold overnight in las vegas. >> tom costello is also joining us this morning for this report. what else can you add? >> reporter: let's talk about the observation for the machine gun. we're talking about -- it sounds according to experts like we're talking about the machine gun you set up on a tripod. the kickback from that kind of -- those kind of rounds, that many rounds coming off the weapon would make it virtually impossible to hold. it's quite possible this was on a tripod-type of mounted machine gun which makes this, as you can imagine, all the more deadly. the other observation is that as the shooter was firing down into the festival, he was literally in -- taking his pick of targets because everybody in the festival was trapped.

as well were walls surrounding -- there were walls surrounding the festival, there were tickets to get into the concert, and people had nowhere to go. they were trapped inside the ring, if you will, with the shooter firing down. this was the route 91 harvest festival. a livenation event. a three-day concert event. it was, as you know -- we had jason aldean on stage at that moment. what many people describe is a classic soft target. if you're looking for a large number of people to inflict maximum damage. this would be a maximum event. unfortunately for whatever reason, this was the event overnight in las vegas. we don't know of the motivation. the question is going to be is there a political motivation, religious motivation, was this guy having some sort of a personal grudge or vendetta? we don't have the answer at the moment. listen to the weapon firing off. that's like something out of

vietnam or iraq. that is -- that is just a mass slaughter that's underway. >> you have to imagine that the gunman in the room with whatever number of rounds he had, he was trying to get through the rounds as quickly as possible. if you're in that frame of mind and shooting out of a window, a crowd of people, you have to know that it's just a matter of time, you're facing away from the door of that room, it's just a matter of time before the police are going to come through the door. and your time will be up. it sounds like that person was trying to get through whatever rounds he had available. >> reporter: that's right. and we're reading reports from eyewitnesses on the ground who say the officers who were running to the building by and large were the first officers armed only with their handguns. only a few minutes later when the s.w.a.t. teams and tactical teams arrived, more heavily

armed units, the kevlar vests and high-caliber weapons, only then were the officers able to truly run toward and storm the hotel. the first officers clearly were outgunned. it's horrific that we're already talking about this in the scope of the worst mass casualty incidents in american history. the pulse nub in orlando, virginia tech, shook, the movie cafeteria in texas shooting, this is going to go down among those already. we still don't know the accurate number of people who may have been killed. >> and think of the challenges for law enforcement as you're entering the mandalay bay hotel as the shooting is done, and you're trying to apprehend or take down a shooter. there must be hundreds fleeing that building trying to get away or get out of harm's way. and you as a police officer don't know if one of those people is involved in this shooting -- you're trying to get

in the elevator to the 32nd floor. they had triangle languaated an trying to get to the shooter, and there's chaos in the building. >> reporter: that's absolutely right. anybody who's ever been in one of the las vegas casino hotel resorts knows that they are often absolutely packed with people. on a typical day it seems like organized chaos. image ginn event, trying to weed through all of the people and get to the suspect. and you're looking at the scenes of the fire department, the paramedics working on these victims. absolutely -- we understand the vast majority were young 20 to 30-somethings there for a night of great country music. >> this bears repeating, this is the las vegas strip.

the national airport close. i know flights in and out were stopped. and it can only imagine how difficult it was in these first moments trying to figure out where the gun was coming from, which hotel, which floor, which room. you can understands why we've had so many witnesses say to us this morning on the phone that it felt like the shooting went on for some time. it took some time to figure out where it was coming from. >> people say you look up in a fairly dark background and you do see the flash of the muzzle when shots were fired. i'm sure people on the ground were helpful to law enforcement to locate that -- we've been -- we've all covered large events where there are large numbers of people in an area surrounded by buildings. and there's one example i can think of that we've been involved with in new york, oftentimes when you have large crowds like that surrounded by buildings, the police in advance

will actually mark certain floors of a building with a large number so that if something were to happen, they'd be able to identify a floor quickly to get help to people or to get to a suspect on that floor. >> reporter: i think that's a huge challenge. we know what it's like to look up and guesstimate which floor is that. and you can't get a very good, accurate picture of that. you count the floors, try to figure it out by landmarks. in the case of the situation in las vegas, we know this is a place where there are strobe lights flashing, concert lights flashing, people's cameras flashing, there's an awful lot of distractions trying to, as you try to make that assessment. >> yeah. all right. tom, thank you very much. >> we'll continue our coverage. a terrible mass shooting that took place in las vegas at a country music festival. the final night of a three-day festival. a gunman on the 32nd floor of the nearby hotel opening fire on the crowds below.

inflicting massive carnage. we'll continue in a moment. carnage. we'll continue our special report in just a moment. stay w you have been watching nbc news breaking conk of the mass shooting on the -- coverage of the mass shooting on the las vegas strip. i spoke with a philadelphia attorney who is in las vegas right now. he tells us he was in the middle of the crowd as shots rang out. he had to run to keep from being trampled. he is billy changelini. he spoke to me moments ago from his hotel room located along the strip, not far from the shooting scene. he tells me when the gunfire started, he was on the street about three blocks away walking. he heard rapid gunfire, turned and saw a large mass of people running, as he describes, full steam toward him. he said he had to run with the crowd or risked getting trampled. some people were trampled. he says people were so panicked

they ran into the streets. cars hit a few of them. other cars crashed. he described a panic and chaotic scene. he made it to his hotel and rode the elevator with people who were at the country music festival that was sprayed by gunfire. he says they couldn't even speak they were so shaken. >> we're working to talk to more people from philadelphia who are there. i spoke with a retired las vegas police officer who lives in burlington county. he just found out that he knows one of the off-duty officers killed. we'll have his perspective coming up in a half hour. >> we want to check weather with meteorologist krystal klei. i want to give a quick update on the headlines of the workweek. rising temperatures. a chilly morning, around the 50s. moving to the mid 70s this afternoon. as we get to mid workweek, we'll see 80s returning to the forecast. we are under a dry spell. plenty of sunshine in the forecast. >> you can use the nbc app to the nbc10 app to check the latest weather and traffic all morning long. >> we'll send it now back to

continuing network coverage. matt lauer and savannah guthrie with the latest on the shooting. and good morning, everyone. i'm matt lauer alongside savannah guthrie in new york. we are on the air early to bring you the latest on breaking news coming from las vegas, and it is terrible and tragic news. there's been a deadly mass shooting in an outdoor country music harvest festival. >> this happened just after 1:00 eastern time, about 10:00 p.m. local time in las vegas near the mandalay bay resort and casino on the strip. jason aldean was performing. this was the finale of a three-day outdoor country music festival when the found of automatic gunfire erupted. [ sound of gunfire ] >> you can hear it on that tape. a lot of people at the concert have already told us they sort it was some sort ofot