Of. May have been working as a security guard. One question obviously will be where did he get the weapons, and were told that that process of tracing the weapons hasnt started yet. I think that thats understandable given that they had a very horrific scene inside that nightclub to clear first. Once they have done their initial forensic look inside, then they will get the weapons out of there, turn them over presumably to the local authorities who will then enlist the help of the bureau o alcohol, tobacco and firearms who is the federal agency that will trace the weapons and see where they were purchased. We dont know anything in omar mir mateens past that would have disqualified him from purchasing them legally and both could have been legally purchased. Thats one question and the bigger question is why . Whats the motive . Thats the open question. There are early indications that mateen had connections with people involved in radical islam. Whether he was directed by that or whether he walked on his own or whether in fact this was something different, whether it was a hate crime. His father has told nbc news that he did not believe that religion played a role. His father said he was shocked by this, and his father also told us that a couple of months ago mateen saw two men kissing own the streets of miami and that it infuriated mateen and his father thinks thats what was behind this, but thats to be determined. That is the subject of an intense federal investigation right now to get more about his past, more about his past movements and try to figure out whether he ever said anything to anyone, left behind any notes, social media postings, emails. Messages, text metages, anything that would give an indication of why he did this. He arrived there heavily armed. There were initial reports that he had an explosive device. Weve heard conflicting information on whether it turned out that there were explosives there or not, so im not quite sure how that worked out. But in any event he clearly targeted this place, but why this place . Why last night . Did it have something to do with the fact that were now in the islamic period of ramadan . What is it utterly unrelated to islamic terrorism . Simply antigay violence . We dont know that yet. Too early to tell and thats what investigators are looking at right now. Pete williams. Thank you so much. If youre just joining us right now 50 dead, 50 dead in a nightclub shooting in orlando. 53 more injured. Many of them critically. Unfortunately, the death toll would rise because of that. Theres a Level One Trauma Center in orlando, the only one in the region that went into its mass casualty incident plan bringing all hands on deck. As patients came in, victims from the shooting, that began at 2 00 in the morning as a uniformed Orlando Police officer was working security at at night club, a very popular gay nightclub in south orlando. He engaged the shooter in an early shootout that spanned then three hours of a hostage situation lasting until just after 5 00 eastern time when police finally went in with a s. W. A. T. Team but, again, not until 50 lives were climbed were claimed by the shooter. Lets turn to Jim Miklaszewski with reaction from the president. Reporter no direct reaction to the news that 50 were killed in that mass shooting in orlando but he was briefed on this Early Morning and were told he would receive periodic updates on the investigation, so one would assume obviously that he has as many details as have been shared with us and probably more. The question is at this point the president has ordered the fbi and all appropriate organizations to throw all efforts into this investigation to local authorities and the fbi and to provide assistance to those families in the community who have been affected by this tragic shooting incident. Were not told that the president is expected to today, but one can only go back to what question he was asked recently about what was his worst day, the most horrific day during his presidency and without hesitation he said it was the day that those dozens of schoolchildren in new town were massacred in that elementally school, so, again, we dont know if the president intends to address this today. He may want to wait until more facts are out before stepping forward, but, of course, you know, he has been a very strong advocate pushing for gun control and has been unable to push through the kind of legislation he would like to see enacted for gun control. So on at least two scores this tragic shooting and the gun control issue, and if it turns out that this was some kind of terrorist event, were not talking about domestic terrorism here, but if there was some connection to a terrorist organization he may want to speak to that or he may want those who are involved in the investigation to address that before he comes forward. But as of now we have no indication that the president himself intends to address this issue before reporters and cameras today. Yeah. The president memorably becoming emoti emotional, talking about the shooting at sandy hook and police in this incident in orlando saying ar15 was oozed, also used at sandy hook. Well be checking back with you. If we get reaction from the president well find you. Jim cavanagh is an nbc news Law Enforcement expert. Jim, good morning. Last time we talked the police estimate was that approximately 20 people were dead in this terrible shooting in orlando. We now know that number has grown to 50. 50 People Killed inside the building. 53 more sent to area hospitals, some of them critically injured in that shooting. You heard the press conference that we just listened to from multiple Law Enforcement agencies. How has this story changed for you in the last hour or so . Well, when the mayor said 50 people, willie, it just knocks you off your chair because what happens is this guy goes in there, filled with hate. No matter the motive, filled with hate and wants to kill all these people and his objective is mass murder. And he has an ar15 rifle, multiple magazines. We dont know how long or how big the magazines he had. But a standard magazine is 30 rounds and you can shoot that off just as quickly as you can pull the trigger, 30 seconds or left so when he he has an advantage because hes laying in ambush inside a closed crowded building. So he can start shooting into the crowd, and these are high velocity rounds. They are very, very devastating, and he can reload that rifle and keep doing it while the initial overs is trying to get to him, willie, through the crowd and around the room, you know, back from the outside and however the initial officer has to get to him before he can engage him so he can wreak carnage inside with a rifle like that before the officer can even get to him, and thats how it happened so fast. Thats why you wind up with 50 dead and 53 wounded. I mean, think of those numbers. This is one actor. I mean, we have bombings that dont have that many People Killed and injured, so its unbelievable that he could have done that so much. Jim, in the Early Morning hours before this broke up the Orlando Police department conducted a controlled explosion. They tweeted it out. They wanted the public to know it was a controlled explosion. Weve now been watching robots in the parking lot outside the parking lot, working a bag, perhaps working a vehicle we believe belonged to omar mateen. What is that process like . What are they trying to do . What are they looking for . Right, the bomb squad uses various disrupters, we call them. They have a water condition none. They have a shotgun charge. They have a steel slug. They can use explosives to countercharge so they have various ways they can open a package, a suitcase, a pipe bomb, whatever, and the robot can deploy a lot of disrupters and lay it down and shoot the slug with a water jet or shotgun round, however they rig the robot up for that particular task and you have an explosive entry into the nightclub, the chief outline that the s. W. A. T. Used, and they use explosives to breach and run with the bearcatoperated vehicle and then engaged the killer. A big gun bat. Even with nine s. W. A. T. Members entering, this guy with his ar15 rifle loaded for bear, quite a large shootout and a large number of rounds exchanged before he was taken down. We heard from the fbi it was absolutely, using their words, looking at this as an act of terrorism. What is the approach now from the fbi in terms of the language they use . Weve heard from Pete Williams that perhaps theres a past with this guy, that they have looked in and found that hes reached out and touched and perhaps been radicalized. How important is it to the fbi to talk about this case in a certain way publicly . You can almost see them holding back in that more recent press conference a few minutes ago . You know, exactly right. I had agents on half a dozen joint task force and its very difficult for all those on the task force to identify the people and what they were doing and how deep they were into any radicalized movement and you make a great point about terrorism. That word is thrown out all around the country in these events and let me give you a look from the police and the federal Law Enforcement. Theres domestic terrorists. Those are home grown terrorists with political motives from home. And then theres internationally inspired actors, trifrterrorist that are u. S. Citizens or legally live her and inspired by al qaeda or isis and then, of course, there would actual al qaeda or isis actors who infiltrate into the country, thats international terrorism. Internationally inspired, international and domestic. This would not be called domestic terrorism in hour vernacular in the police world. We would call it internationally inspired. If he was inspired by one of the radical jihadist ideology but you have here some genesis which nbc news has uncovered from his father from some good reporting which had genesis that could be of hate because he saw two men kissing in miami and his father said this affected him so this might have launched his hatred. Now, did he then go to the radical website after his hatred cooked because isis, for example, has a horrible record of murdering gay men in the theater, in the war theater over there, throwing them off building, stoning them to death and did he pick up on that and did that build in his consciousness, but so you can have multiple motives. Motives dont have to be one thing. Can you have a hate motive and then go to radical websites and get a little bit radicalized and have a radicalizedinspired motive so it doesnt have to be one thing. It can be a combination of thing. Any way you look at it the an actch terror. Radicalized by the nexus of fairer. His father suggesting he saw two men kissing in miami. If youre just joining us, we reached out and spoke to omar mateen father, was shocked by this and didnt feel that religion was a reason and he might have been reacting to the two men he saw kissing in miami and became enraged by that. Jim, well come back to you. Well go back down to oeshldo where nbcs Gabe Gutierrez is set up for us. Gabe, what more are you hearing there . Reporter hi there, willie this. Scene is very active, but as weve hearing the officials have cleared the nightclub itself. They have gone through the painstaking process of clearing the nightclub, and thats when they got that updated death toll. At least 50 people are dead. 53 are injured. Right now authorities are going through and they have a an explosive detecting robot, perhaps taking care of some of that scene. Again, the suspect was found with that are ar15 Assault Rifle as well as the handgun and that possible explosive device, so this investigation will continue on for quite a bit. Weve been speaking with witnesses here on the ground, and they are just starting to come to terms with a massive scale of this, the worst mass shooting in u. S. History. Some of the witnesses weve been speaking with who were inside the nightclub, they described this utter chaos as it all unfolded. Happened around 2 00 a. M. This morning and some of them shout the first few gunshots were part of the music. It was hundreds of people inside that dance club. They started streaming out, many of them crawling, dropping down on the ground and crawling. More than a dozen people were trapped in the bathroom, and police have said that the officers were able to rescue at least 30 hostages that were inside the building. Again, around 5 00 this morning. The authorities decided to go in with an Armored Vehicle and plow into the night club and then use some sort explosive device, perhaps a flash bang, to distract the gunman who was then killed in a fire fight with officials. Again, the death toll now climbing to at least 50 dead here in orlando, 53 injured and rushed to local hospitals and some of them in critical condition. Again, that death toll could rise. People are coming to terms with the magnitude of all of this. Thank you, gabe. As we talk about a Law Enforcement investigation which is obviously critically important to this, lets not forget the human element. Gabe was referencing some of the witnesses, some of the people inside that club telling stories of just simple horror. One man in an interview earlier in hour show said he saw a man with a gunshot on his back on the ground. Took the bandana off his head and plugged the gunshot wound. He says he hoped that man made it but didnt know. Lets go back down to orlando. Want to bring in matt grant from our affiliate there. Matt, where are you, outside the hospital in the what are you seeing . Reporter well, were in front of a blood bank on west michigan avenue. You know, officials have said that theres an urgent need for blood and the Orlando Community has really stepped up in a big way and in an inspiring way. Take a look behind me. You can see here at the blood bank the line literally wraps around the building and volunteers are out here passing out water and cookies for people in line. People are being told that mobile advance are going to be coming in to help alleviate some of this demand, but people are not going anywhere. Those in line that we talked to say they want to help in any way they can and i want to talk to someone over here right now. When did you get here . I got here bfabout 45 minute ago. What brought you out here . Everyone knows there was an attack on our community and our city and i wanted to do what i could to help and im opositive blood type and they needed opositive blood type so im out here to to give my support and do what i can. And what did you think when you heard about just the devastation . Just absolute shock. You never think that its going to happen in your city until it does and and you kind of immediately start thinking about everyone and check caning with them and making sure they are okay. Your friend is missing, right . Yes he is. What brings you out here . To donate blood. Im 0 negative, if i could help out, i would. My boyfriend also came with me. So we are here to donate blood and hope that we can bring some relief to the blood centers, but also to the families, and the victims. Thank you for doing that. And again, as you can see, just the line just wraps completely around the building, again volunteers are out here with food and water. Any small way, people from the Community Want to come out here, do their part and help. For live in orlando. Thank you so much the position that we saw from the press conference. Calling for blood to come in. Chuck todd has been standing by in washington. Chuck, obviously there are many elements to this story. We dont want to play the politics too much. We still have 50 families waiting to hear about their loved ones here. But this will play into the president ial election. Weve seen it on social media where people have gotten into their political corners already. And almost refusing to hear the other side. The two president ial candidates have been reserved this morning so far. I think early on donald trump saying suspected terrorism. Learning his lesson from a previous incident where he appeared to jump to concludes very quickly. Hillary clinton more cautious than that. Its one thing for, i think, civilians to think to sort of tweet before they think sometimes and before we have all the information. I am stunned, quite frankly at the number of elected officials in some high elected offices just already drawing conclusions and thats dangerous because these people are elected officials, they are thought of many people may assume they must know something more than perhaps that they do. And that part of it is really concerning to me because this is, of course, what i think creates a polarizing response and a polarizing atmosphere following this. When i think that there is going to be there is a lot of people that is exhausted from what feels as if we are just insecure. We are somehow living in this new normal. And this can be it shouldnt matter whether we classify this as the worst mass casualty, the worst hate crime. That shouldnt matter. We have this tragedy where a lot of people feel insecure in regular places. We have to solve that problem. And in a larger context, in a conversation that you are going to have political reaction and thats obviously politics plays a part in it. But can it be done with less rigidness. And again, i employ the elected officials out there that im watching tweet and draw a conclusion before we know anything. They can have so much influence on the tone of civilians in social media. That is something concerning to me. The way our culture is you run to your corner and you fight to your side regardless whether you have the facts yet. Politicians should be held to a different standard. You mentioned donald trump, i want to read his tweet. Three hours ago, he tweeted really bad shooting in orlando. Police investigating possible terrorism. Many people dead and wounded. Hillary clinton has september hseptember sent her thoughts out as well. We are going to be hearing about this not just today but as this Campaign Goes forward. Its under the surface, and weve watched it throughout this campaign. It bubbles up at moments and then it recedes. So it is you hate to assume that that is whats going to happen here. Im just 50 people, this is, you know, and by the way, this is pride week in the Gay Community and its happening. You just this is this is just you cant sometimes put it into words when you 50 people, one person, its mind numbering. I remember being at the white house for newtown and you just thought you couldnt believe things could get worse. This one feels its just tragic. You know, its interesting you bring the president into the conversation.