adding up to potential smoke. again with the obvious caveat that these eyewitnesss were terrified and running out of the crowded bar at the moment. let s hear from the eyewitnesss. james will discuss what he is hearing. i was to the front door. i was talking to my step dad. i just started hearing these big pops. pop, pop, pop. there were probably three or fo four. i hit the ground. i look up. the security guard is dead. i don t want to say dead. he was shot and was down. the gunman was throwing smoke grenades all over the place. i saw him point to the back of the cash register and he just kept firing. i ran out the front door. i hear chairs thrown out the window. people were trying to get out the window. and the gunman went behind the cash register. there were probably 12 shots before i got out the front door.
festival in las vegas in october of 2017. the largest mass shooting in u.s. history. 57 were killed. witness reports say some students were in las vegas at the country music festival when that happened and at this bar last night. a far too common occurrence for students in elementary, high school and college in this situation. james, let s talk about the investigation and where it goes into the morning. where does it turn once have the shooter contained? these things happen. crisis resolution. stop the shooter. stop the people trying to hurt people. then consequence management. make sure there are no devices left to hurt people. then the investigation. that is keying in on did anyone help this person or provide material support and are there any other pending threats out there that law enforcemen inter.
federal response, on the federal side of the investigation. fred? all right, sara westwood, thank you so much. quite the outpouring of sentiments from the vice president. the president, the president s daughter even. my panel with me. james galiano and shimon prokupecz and selena zito and cnn legal analyst michael zelden. good to see all of you. shimon, in addition to the people i just mentioned, we are also hearing from the mayor of pittsburgh, who says this is not normal. mayor jim kenny saying philly stands with pittsburgh and all of those affected by the horrific shooting at the tree of life synagogue. this is not normal. this is not who we are as a nation and we cannot accept continued violence as a way of life. we stand to help pittsburgh in any way from. the philadelphia mayor jim kenny. we also heard from benjamin netanyahu as well.
because in the vast majority of violent crime that occurs in this country, alex, it s generally speaking people close by. people always take the path of least resistance. they re like water. obviously doing something closer to home is easier, dependent upon what their motives are. also, there s a better familiarity with the terrain and the people that live there. their comings and goings and things like that. bad guys want patterns. they want simplicity. they want, like i said, the path of least resistance. it doesn t surprise me that the police are kind of focusing on somebody that s familiar with the area. all right. a real murder mystery in chicago. james, thanks very much. thanks for having me. all right. well, a washington post contributor from saudi arabia disappears after visiting his home country s consulate innist t in istanbul, turkey. that story next. making my dreams a reality takes more than just investment advice.
reporter: police have dozens of leads but still no suspects. little comfort for a neighborhood praying he s caught before he kills again. scott mclean, cnn, chicago. our thanks to scott mclean. joining me now to dig deeper is cnn law enforcement analyst james galiano. so this is what we know. 40 detectives in chicago working on this, fbi agents, atf agents. all they have to really go on is that piece of surveillance video. what do you see in this video? where do they start looking for this guy? well, from the video, alex, clearly it looks like a man with a slight build. i think the detectives have determined that he is probably an african-american. he s got an interesting gait, if you will, and his feet point outward. that s kind of what they re going on right now. they re trying to get that video out there. if anybody s seen something they could possibly call in on, that would help. from a homicide perspective,