Nightclub. Frankly weve heard conflicting information on that. I think the main point here to make is weve heard no confirmation that they did in fact find explosives. Some Officials Say that search isnt done yet. Others say no explosives were found. I think the best way to say it is theres no confirmation that there were explosives and it may turn out that there werent. I think there was initial thinking that perhaps he was wearing an explosive vest but it may turn out that that was more of a bulletproof type vest. Were still waiting to hear about that. Secondly, the authorities have said that he had two weapons, a handgun and ar15 assault style weapon. We have now been told that he had high capacity magazines or clips, if you will. These are the devices that you attach to the weapon that hold the rounds. Florida has no law restricting the size of capacity magazines for these weapons and there is no federal restriction on it either, so all the indications we have at this point is that the weapons were legally obtained because we dont know of any disqualifying fact in mateens background. But were also told that the trace of the weapons is either not started yet or just now getting under way. And thats going to take some time to figure out where he where and when he acquired these weapons. Did he buy them himself, did somebody else buy them for him, how were they acquired, and thats going to be something that will be worked out here. Now, i think very importantly, one of our nbc news producers contacted mateens father in florida a couple of hours ago who had quite a lot to say saying, first of all, he wanted everyone to know that the family is shocked by this and that they apologize and they think this is terrible. They have no sign this was coming. But as for motive, he says that he can only speculate and thinks that it goes back a couple of months ago to when he the father, mateen the son, and mateens son, young son, were in miami. According to the father, saw men kissing, touching each other. That outraged mateen. He said to his father they are doing this in front of me and my son. His father thinks that this in other words is what touched this off, that this was some type of antigay hate crime. But the question, of course, is was that all there is, was Something Else in his past that led mateen up to this point. We do know that the fbi looked at him in some way three years ago, that he was on some kind of watch list. What we believe is he was on that watch list or was being looked at because the fbi was introducing other people with whom mateen had been in contact, not so much a focus on him but someone else and he was in their orbit. Thats the information that we have. That is something that were told by investigators here just within the past couple of minutes that they still havent decided whether this is a hate crime, an act of domestic terrorism or what. In talking here, willie, im now told that the president is apparently going to make a statement in about an hour and a half at about 1 30 eastern time. Weve just learned that as well, pete. The president will be in the Briefing Room in about 90 minutes from right now. I think weve got Jim Miklaszewski at the white house. Mik, are you there . Mik, can you hear me, its willie . I dont think we have we dont have Jim Miklaszewski in. Let me go back to pete williams. I think an important distinction you just made, pete, yes, he was in a database, omar mateen, but not the subject of any direct investigation. He may have been peripherally related to someone else they were looking at. Is that fair to say . Well, thats the initial word we had. You may think back, the initial press conference this morning, the initial statement, the first Public Statement by officials was at about 7 00 this morning and they were pretty quick to say that they were looking at possible islamic influences in mateens past. The fact that they were able to say that so quickly is a reflection of the fact that he was in some kind of watch list or some kind of database. But thats all they knew at that point. And of course its going to take a long time now to try to figure out pro sies precisely what motives and movements were, why that place, why orlando, all those questions to be answered. Lets try again with Jim Miklaszewski outside the white house. Mik, good morning. Reporter good morning, willie. It was hours ago now that the white house issued a statement that the president had been briefed early this morning on the mass shooting, that tragic shooting there in orlando. And that he had taken some initial steps, in other words, ordering the fbi and all appropriate agencies to provide whatever assistance they could in terms of the investigation and that process, but also offering some relief, some kind of relief to the community and those families who are so stricken by this mass shooting there in orlando. We have yet to hear from the president himself. Its not certain, we have no indication that he plans to make a Public Statement or even issue a written statement of some kind. One would suspect that perhaps hes waiting until all the details are in, until he has a firm idea of what investigators believe happened here. After all, were hearing a couple of different versions now about this may have been a crime instigated by the shooter, opposition to gays and lesbians, or could it be that he has some foreign ties given his afghanistan heritage. So all of that has yet to be worked out. And im sure that the president doesnt want to get ahead of the investigators, but there are people here who anticipate that since this is the worst mass shooting in u. S. History, that we would in fact hear the president in some manner sometime today. All right. Well be looking for that from the Briefing Room in less than 90 minutes. Mik, thanks so much. Gabe gutierrez has been on the scene in orlando all morning long for us. Gabe, whats the latest down there . Reporter hi there, willie. Authorities have just released part of the scene or at least have allowed the media and bystanders to get just a bit closer to the scene, which is about a block and a half from me. The perimeter had been sealed off throughout the morning. But as the police chief said during that briefing, they have now been able to go through the scene, process it and detect that there were no explosives found in that scene. However, the processing of the nightclub will continue for a long time to come. It was clear that the magnitude of this is really sinking in, even with investigators, with that death toll climbing from 20 people dead earlier this morning in that first briefing we heard around 7 00 and then the last briefing we heard, that death toll climbing to 50 people. So again, the investigation right now into what the motive is, as you mentioned, pete, reporting that this suspect, his father says that it could have been possible that perhaps some of the motivation may have been that he saw this couple kissing in miami several months ago. But again, authorities have not confirmed whether it could be that, whether this is being investigated as part of a larger threat. So right now here at the scene, its still a very active scene behind me. Witnesses have been telling us that it was extremely chaotic, a lot of confusion among family members. 50 families, again, are waiting for word. There has been a center set up for those families to go to if they need information. As we have seen from previous reports, people are lining up here in orlando to donate blood. Again, at least 53 people injured here. So that suspect found with that assaultstyle rifle, that handgun as well and theres a question of that suspicious device. As pete mentioned, we have had no confirmation from authorities whether that was indeed an explosive device. All authorities have said is it was a suspicious device. Throughout the morning we had been seeing a robot, explosivedetecting robot here on the scene and weve seen that through aerial pictures as well. So again, authorities here have opened up at least part of the perimeter within the last few minutes, but they are still processing this very large complex investigation at this nightclub where at least 50 people have been killed. 53 others have been wounded. The largest mass shooting in u. S. History. Gabe, you mentioned that nbc news did get in touch with omar mateens father who gave his assessment of the situation. You laid it out pretty well and said hed seen two men kissing in miami. Thats the fathers opinion. Thats probably one piece of the puzzle that Law Enforcement is looking at. The other side of this, we have the investigation on one side, but the side were thinking about is the human side of it. You had 300 some people according to police, 320 was the number they put out earlier today that were in that nightclub last night out for a saturday night having a good time when at 2 00 in the morning these shots rang out. Some of them thought it was part of the music. They thought it was a new song with loud volume. It turned out obviously to be something much worse and something much more horrific, but there are many stories like his. Well hear a bouncer apparently, were reading from some eyewitnesses knocked down a partition between the club area and a staffonly, employeeonly area and allowed some people to flee out the back door. There will be stories of survival amidst the 50 deaths weve seen in orlando. Reporter yeah, thats right, willie. A lot of people are point towards that Law Enforcement officer, that uniformed officer working security at the club. He engaged the suspect. During that News Conference, the authorities there said that he could have potentially saved more lives, despite the high death toll here. So certainly stories of survival, stories of heroism. Some of the witnesses that weve spoken to say once they realized that it was gunshots going right gunshots were happening at that nightclub, they just dropped to the floor and had to crawl out. Some of them had to tend to the injured. We spoke with one man, christopher hansen, who took off his bandana and tried to assist this person who had a gunshot wound. To this point he still doesnt know what became of that person, whether he survived. Another mother who was here at the perimeter, she was frantically trying to get ahold of her son who was in that nightclub. She could not get ahold of him. So this is the emotion of the scene. People are still trying to figure out what happens to their loved ones. Again, some of them are streaming to a location thats been set up for family members. And also throughout the morning to give you a sense of the scale of this investigation, a scale of what orlando pd detectives had to go through, they had to bus some of the witnesses to the Police Department to get their information. So certainly this investigation will be going on for quite some time and were all concerned to hear much more from those eyewitnesses at the squheen described a horrifying tragedy. Willie. Gabe, well give you a break. I want to bring in jim cavanaugh, an nbc news Law Enforcement expert. Youve been watching this all morning long with us. Jim, good to have you back in the conversation. Law enforcement talked about the hostage situation that took place inside pulse nightclub from 2 00 a. M. To 5 00 a. M. Before they decided to send s. W. A. T. In. We just learned in that most recent press conference that there was communication between Law Enforcement and omar mateen, the shooter who was inside. What would those conversations have been like based on your experience . Well, usually they start off very simple like whats your name, whats the first name of the negotiator. Lets slow everything down and work this out. If in fact they are talking to mateen. Sometimes theyll only let them talk to other hostages there and then the assailant, mateen, could relay, tell the police to get back, tell the police to get out. If theyre having a direct conversation, willie, direct on the phone, cell phone to cell phone, theyre trying to calm it down and make sure killing is not going on. All the time theyre doing that, theyre trying to get in place so they can apprehend him. So its simple. Im jim, youre omar. Look, weve got to stop. Why are you doing this . Lets slow this thing down. How many people are in there . Whos in there with you . Just kind of a general conversation. Youve got to drop the emotional level to try to get some reasoning into the persons mind. But its very difficult. Imagine a person who has just killed 50 people. So its very, very difficult to have a negotiation and it probably broke down or did not prove very fruitful. They might have got a little time to get their s. W. A. T. Operators in place, but probably not much and they had to make a move. Police at the News Conference were not able to make a distinction of how many people had already been killed before the hostage standoff took place. Were all 50 already dead during the hostage situation . They didnt quite know or didnt want to say yet. What is i know how difficult this call is, but what is the distinction . What is the point at which Law Enforcement says this guy has already killed a bunch of people, hes likely to kill more, we need to go in and take him out . Its the essential element of the onscene commander who has to read the escalation and deescalation of the event. Issues like the assailant will not communicate directly with the negotiator is not a sign of deescalation. If he will talk with the negotiator, if they can establish a rapport, if they can call each other by name, if they can if he can say what he wants, if we can slow things down, theres a little bit of deescalation there and also is he shooting his gun in there, is he saying im going to kill a hostage in five minutes, is he acting completely erratically, all these Little Things and tips that the onscene commander think of the onscene commander and the way this works sits there as a triad. Across from you is the chief negotiator and the tactical supervisor. And its like a triangle. And the chief negotiator and tactical supervisor are giving intelligence. You have an Intelligence Officer as well. What are the long rifle teams seeing, what are the s. W. A. T. Operators seeing, whats the negotiators hearing, what are the people calling and telling us, and were making a decision right here at a table or on the street and were running the thing from this Tactical Command post on scene. Were making those decisions right there. Thats the right place where theyre made. They dont go up to the chief and they dont go up to the sheriff or to washington, theyre made right there by the onscene commander. When they read that theres escalation and time is ticking against peoples lives, they make a decision to go. Youve anticipated my next question. I know you dont have firsthand knowledge of what those conversations were like between Law Enforcement and the team last night, but what is the kind of thing that would trigger the order to send s. W. A. T. In after three hours . His erratic actions, his failure to engage with the negotiators, no good signs of deescalation, maybe some signs of escalation. He could be appearing at windows with a rifle pointed out and acting erratically and also the calls from the 15 people inside in the bathroom who were calling the police and saying were trapped in the bathroom. That weighs heavily on the Tactical Commanders decision because if this guy starts shooting, even everybody who he has in a room. He could make it across and shoot all those other 15 people too. So they have to decide, weve got to make a move here. And of course it turned out to be the right decision. But unfortunately, he already had 103 people shot. You know, how that happened, if anybody gets shot after negotiations began, we dont know. We dont know when and where and thats what the investigation will find out. Jim cavanaugh, were lucky to have your perspective today. Stick with us. We want to bring in now joshua mcgil, a witness to the shooting and helped rescue people last night. Josh, we appreciate you taking some time on this horrible day for you. Tell me where you were when the shooting started. My two roommates and i were in the very corner of the main bar near the patio exit. So its like basically theres an outdoor bar and we were kind of next to the door leading out. When the shooter happened, we didnt see anything and we didnt really think it was a shooting at first because we didnt see no one seemed to really be frantic. But then we still all kind of ducked because of the loud noise. But we went outside to the back patio area, gathered our thoughts and then we heard a couple more gunshots and thats when we saw people running saying, you know, theres a gun, theres a shooter, and then people are hopping over the back patio fence to run away. At this time theres police already setting up perimeters for like safe zones, et cetera. My roommates and i actually originally ran into the pulse employee area, which was like a back door, and we were kind of hiding out in there and then we heard shooting get closer from inside, so we ran back out and thats when we hopped the fence. When we hopped the fence, my two roommates bolted. I was still a little staggering because it was a high fence for me to jump over. During my run across the parking lot, i did hear more shooting and it kind of frightened me, so my first instinct was to jump behind a car and duck. During that process is when i just decided to crawl under the car and i just waited it out. Once the shooting got further from what it sounded like, i kind of gave a peek around and crawled out. Thats when i noticed, i guess, another club goer. He was kind of staggering. I noticed he was covered in blood. I kind of like crept over to him and said, hey, im here to help you, whats going on . We crept back, hid behind the car. He was like i think i got shot. And it did turn out he got shot once, once in one arm and once again in the other arm. My first instinct was weve got to stop the bleeding, man, and get you to the hospital or get you to the nearest police officer. And so i took my shirt off and then tied it around his first arm to stop the bleeding. Then i asked if i could have his shirt so i could tie it around his other arm. Then he went ahead to complain of pain on his back and it turned out he got shot again on his back. So i was like weve got to get you to a safe zone and then to the hospital to control this bleeding, et cetera. So we did that and then we kind of like dodged and weaved through the parking lot. An officer told us to