Coverage. Lets get right to Miguel Almaguer in california. What is the latest . Reporter well, lester, good evening. Im at the crime scene. But a few miles away is where you are looking at the live picture from ourur local affiliate knbc here in los angeles. We heard from a press conference a short time ago that police did engage in a gun battle with a suspect in the darkcolored suv. The gun battle lasted a couple of seconds, possibly longer as offered responded. Officers tell us it appears the suspect has been hit with gunfire. The polole officer has not been injured. Meantime, we heard police were looking for three suspects. They may have found one suspect as the search for two more suspects continues. Meantime, lester, back here at our location, this is where it all began. Just a few blocks behind us. Police tell us three gunman entered a building and simply started open firing. [ [ rens ]. Reporter a massive Emergency Response just after 11 00 a. M. Chaos and carnage. We have at least 20 victims. Reporter the first early call, an active shooter or shooters moving through the inland regional center, a government building. We d d h he some preliminary numbers of upwards of 14 people that are dead. And upwards of 14 pewple that are injured. Male in black clothing. Hes still firing rounds. Reporter as police moved in to clear the building, room by room, victims poured out. School buses used to evacuate hundreds. One intersection turned into a triage center. S. W. A. T. Teams swarm the our yeah as the walking wounded stagger to safety. Be cautious who is coming to you. Make sure their hands are up. Stretcher after stretcher, wheeling out the most critical. Some victims loaded off the back of pickup trucks and to the hospital. Anxious members arrived on scene waiting to hear aboutut im really scared for my sister. She said she is scared. Shes hiding in a closet with two other people. They locked the door. That is all i know. That is all she told me. And then we stopped talking because i didnt want her to talk any more. Reporter police heard thehe were guam heavy masked with body armor. She saw a guy with a big gun. Reporter they may have fled in an suv and a device may have been left behind. The inland regional center, 60 miles north of los angeles, provides social services to individuals with development didibilities. It is a sprawling threeststy building withth staff of more than 670 servicing thousands. Just yesterday the scene of a holiday party. Tonight the manhunt for the for the gunman is well under way. We dont know if this is a terrorist incident. Reporter as all of Southern California is tonight, again, those numbers, 14 are dead. And were now told 17 are injured. Some injuries are very serious. And lester, again if pictures a few miles away, police were looking for three the building. Officers are telling us late tonight, they just engaged in a gun battle with a suspect in a darkcolored suv. That was the suv folksks were on the lookout here for. Police are telling us the suspect is down. But again, they were looking for three suspects wearing miltstyle gear, body armor and armed with long rifles. They are told they were very dangerous. Lester, this area is still on lockdown tonight. Schools, public buildings, government buildings all shut down. This area on high alert as the search continues for more gunman. Miguel almaguer, police saying the gunmen came prepared as if they were on a mission. And pete, no matter how this plays out, this was not the typical domestic mass shooting weve come to know. Been sounding in washington tonight. Well, first of all, they dont know who the guguen are. And that is a stery. It is an odd situation because in most of the mass shooting situations of 160 or so that the fbi has studied over the past dozen years, all but two involved a single gunman. It is unusual for three people to be involved. Secondly, they got in and out very quickly. So they must have planned this a a must ve been familiar with that building. We are told tonight that one person rolled out of that suv when the police began to engage. That person was arrested. Were told that two other people remained in the suv and opened fire on the police and that one of those was killed. The other was wounded. And is presumably in custody as well. That is the initial reporting from the scene. And well get more informatatn about now were beginning to learn about who these people were. But the assessment here in washington was, although they couldnt be sure what seem to have the hallmarks of an act of terrorism. The witnesses said none of the gunmen said anythingng none the phrases t tt we heard inrance or other shootings inspired by isis or carried out by radical groups. And the Key Information was the description of the dark suv and an all pointed bulletin went out to Law Enforcement in the area to be on the lookout for that vehicle. And the police were pursuing them all over the area. We heard of f hicles like this being pursued and stopped. And clearly, when the police found this one, they found people who were shooting back. But the assumption tonight is that the people in that vehicle were the people who carried out the shooting. Now the long investigation begins. Look at those weapons, do they match the ballistics from the shooting scene and what else could they learn about why in the world theseseeople did it. A remarkable scene playing out there in Southern California. With Armored Vehicles, have that vehicle surrounded. Back to Southern California now. With so much still developing in this mass shooting, it could be sometime before we learn the identity of the victims. All of that uncertainty is excruciating for those who dont know whether their loved onessre among the dead or the wounded. Nbcs Morgan Radford is outside of one of the hospitals. What are you hearing there. Reporter good evening, lester. Right now im outside of loma linda hospital where some of the victims are being treated. But just a few moments ago, a code yellow bomb threat was c cled in the hospital right behind me. And all of thth is happening during a chaosic scene whe family members are trickling in right now trying to figure out anything they can about their loved one ones. The emergency situation has shut the community down. 70 schools on lockdown and security surrounding Public Hospitals and courts and public offices closed. For families, the not knowing is agonizing. I cantthink. Reporter fear over the fate of loved ones at or near the inland regional center. Ive been trying to call her and she wont respond. Reporter alex johnson hasnt heard from his daughter who was supposed to be at the center and might still be inside. She helps out with the red cross and disabled with cerebral palsy. It is terrible. Reporter for most, they didnt even know if loved ones were among the victims. We know this is a human incident and this is a tragedy and we have a lot of folks out there very concerned and worried about loved ones that may have been at the that facility today. Repororr but there was s se relief. M m daughter is out of the building and shes safe. She immediately went and hid in a back office somewhere with some other people and they locked themselves in and they hid. Relieved. But sad for the others. Reporter Luis Guiterrez was one of the lucky ones. His wife made it out unharmed. Im just going to hug her. Reporter ster, of the security guards who is guarding the entrance where the families are coming in. She said she spoke to three or four family members, one was a young man waiting to check on his uncle. Right now it is all a waiting game. Thank you. We continue to focus on the scene playing out there in San Bernardino as they continue to position the vehicles, officers still using extreme caution, even though they believe the suspects have been shot. Earlier, i had a chance to speak with a man you just heard from in morgans report, Patrick Simpson. His daughter is an inturn who was inside of the building when the shots began. Here is what patrick told me. Can you characterize what you are hearing from your daughter and is she okay . She seems to be okay. I called her, of course, when i got her text and heard what was going on. I called her and she grabbed the phone and she was whispering and said she was in a room with nine other people all happened and they moved them into a safe room. Can you tell us what she heard . Can she characterize what she saw or heard during all of this. She had just gotten there as this just happened so thankfully she was not right smack in the middle of it. But the minute she walked in, they grabbed everybody and moved them to another room where everything was happening. And i guess she told me three men in masks and they were in the building and they couldnt find them and so that is when is i talked to her and she was whispering and couldnt speak because they hadnt put her in a safe room yet. Now this is important. Three men in masks. Did she see them or that was the word that was being filtered to those in the building . That was the word that she was being filtered i guess from the people in the room that she was in the room with. She interns at that facility but i didnt know it was the actual building. And she texted me. And when i did talk to her for a minute. Im like send me a picture. Take a picture of you so i could see you are okay and send it to me. She goes and she did. Im like, thank god. You could imagine the anguish, Patrick Simpson in a conversation in the height of this all this as s. W. A. T. Teams are going doortodoor in the building looking for further threats. Back to Miguel Almaguer right now. We keep focusing on this picture of the Armored Vehicles surrounding the suspect suv. Explain what we think is happening here. Well, lester, it looks like police are moving into that area. They are certainly going to use caution. There was concern when the suspects came into the building at the crime scene, that they may have had explosives. So police are in the area with Armored Vehicles, taking their time and being cautious as they approach the vehicle. Now, lester, we could tell you that police told us they were engaged in a gun battle with sun suspect one suspect at the scene you are looking at. One suspect. But they told us when witnesses told us there were three suspects. So the investigation is still ongoing and police are fanning out all across the area. But this looks to be the biggest lead. Now a short time ago the Public Information officer told us they could not confirm this was one of of their suspects. But they certainly indicated it was. They said they were looking for a darkcolored suv and multiple suspects inside. Well, as you could see, officers did find a darkcolored suv. They were engaged in a gun battle and now it appears they are trying to look inside that vehicle. But again, they are using caution, taking their time as there is concern there couou be skboesive devices, not only in the vehicle but also at the crime scene. That was one of the cautions earlier, they were worried about secondary devices and if they take position behind shields and Armored Vehicles, they are going slow and cautious. Miguel almaguer, thank you very much. Ill bring in clint van zandt, a former fbi profiler. You may have heard Pete Williams note earmarks as of what we think of as international terrorism. During our coverage earlier, we discussed the possibility of some other relationship between individuals, perhaps a familiar relationship. Any insight based on what weve seen so far . That is something were going to find out, obviously within the next few hours. But i think both your observation and those of Pete Williams are correct, that should this have been international terrorism, we would have heard some of the phrases, we would have had organizations this. And we probably would have seen a different type of targeting. And again, as pete suggested in the 150 or so Mass Shootings the fbi has looked at, only two of them had multiple shooters, lester. In sessence, more than in essence, more than one person involved. So this is a true an omology, and it is notwithstanding the that took place, the dead and wounded. But it is also going those behavioralists and those in Law Enforcement that what has taken play in today that allows some time of emotional glue to bond, it appears now three people together, to somehow come together and make a pact that were going to commit an attack, were going to commit an act of mass domestic terror at least, and were going to murder as many people as we can. That is a hard thing to understand, is how three people short of International Terrorists could bond so tightly and so closely to do Something Like that. Let me go back to Pete Williams. You have new information, i understand. It is a possible explanation for why you see the officers approaching this vehicle so gingerly. Still keeping cover behind Armored Vehicles. What they want to make sure of is that there are no explosive devices in that suv. They think there may to wait until they can bomb technicians to look at that. Believe that the one person who was wounded may still be in that vehicle, may still be alive and may still so that is why they are approaching this with such caution and you dont see any of them out in the open exposing themselves to potential fire or explosions. They are all keeping cover. And im not sure exactly what the next step is here but they are worried about two possible threats, explosives a possibility, they dont know that for certain but in this situation you have to assume that could be. And secondly, the possibility that one of the gunman is still alive inside of the vehicle, wounded. But they dont know whether or not he presents a threat. And pete, as we watch this, this is about two miles from where the shooting took place earlier in the day. Ive never really seen a vehicle like this. It is hard to tell if it is robotically officers positioned behind shields. Apparently poised to further approach that vehicle. And as we watch this, pete, i want to clarify here. Is it your understanding that all three suspects are inside of that vehicle . No. It is our understanding that one of them rolled out when the police initially engaged the vehicle. This is our preliminary information, we should caution. And we dont have a definitive word on this yet. But the breaking information that we have is that when the police came upon this vehicle, one of the three rolled out and was arrested. Two of them remained and began firing at police. We know that one of them has been wounded. We think one of them has been killed. And apparently the one that was wounded is still in the vehicle and may present a threat and that is why they are being so cautious here. That is our understanding. The Armored Vehicles, by the way, lots of police have these similar vehicles. And the one on the left is like the one that was used just last week in the Colorado Springs planned Parenthood Police were able to actually push their way into the building with these to get some of the people out of that facility in Colorado Springs. So a lot of Police Departments have Armored Vehicles. And right, and this one with the shield, they brought almost to the door of the vehicle. And you clarified certainly the status of the three. But the bottom line is all three are essentially out of action. They are either dead, wounded or cornered . That is our best understanding from talking to several sources. But, you know, the question is if that was the case, why are they being so careful about this vehicle and we believe that is the answer. And we believe the s. W. A. T. , colton, one of the communities in San Bernardino. This is an all hands on deck call for Law Enforcement mutual aid in this area. This is two miles from the Developmental Disability center where the todays deadly attacks took place. And we could see the s. W. A. T. Team members continue to work their way, keeping behind ballistic Armored Vehicles here, making ready to make their approach on that suspect vehicle. You perhaps from this distance could see the windshield pocked with bullet holes from the gun fight with police. Miguel almaguer, you are near the scene of the shooting today. There was some concern that maybe a Police Officer had been hit in all of this. Any word on that . Lester, there certainly was. We heard reports that a Police Officer may have been injured during the shooting. But we just spoke to a Public Information officer here, a lieutenant who tells us at this hour it does not appear it appears a Police Officer was not injured. So nobody was injured, at least according to Law Enforcement. No officers were injured during the shootout. But this happened about two miles away. I can confirm what Pete Williams is reporting, what we are hearing here on the ground from officials. After this gun battle, police were engaged with one suspect and one suspect may have been hit and may have been injured in the police are now trying to move in, trying to locate or pin down that suspect. As the search continues for two more suspects in this area. Lester, this area is about 65 miles outside of los angeles. It is a sprawling community. So police have much of the area on lockdown. Were told schools, courthouses, many public buildings have b