Festival. Now the Associated Press reports that concert goers told them they saw muzzle flashes from the upper floors of the hotel across las vegas boulevard. Here is the chaos, as described by witnesses, beginning with the Police Scanner as it unfolded. Its coming from upstairs mandalay bay. Upstairs mandalay bay, halfway up. Shots from mandalay bay. Multiple casualties. Multiple casualties. Repeated, be advised it is automatic fire, fully automatic fire from an elevated position. Take cover. Multiple from the chest, legs, arteries. South of reno. When we were there, jason aldean was performing. He was like ten minutes in. We heard what we thought were fireworks and it looked like smoke from mandalay bay. He kept performing and we heard it again and they cut the music and everyone said drop and everyone dropped and everyone got up and they said run and everyone started stampeding and charging and knocking over grills, jumping over fences, getting out. We ran past tropicana, tried to run to mgm. Then everyone ran out of mgm saying there was shooting. Then we hid in a bush for like an hour. Clip after clip after clip. Bullets flying everywhere. Everybody running. It was really, really bad. And you said there were multiple shots fired . We were the furthest vip stages away from mandalay bay and they were ricochetting everywhere, where we were. They were firing from somewhere high and unloading clip after clip after clip after clip. Las Vegas Metro Police say the suspect is dead. Police breached his hotel room and say he has been identified and is a local resident. Nbcs Pete Williams reporting that he was 62 years old. Here is the moment he was confronted by police as heard on the scanner. Go ahead. On suspects door. I need everybody in that hallway to be aware and get back. Response from this guy to see if hes in here or moved somewhere else. Copy. 32nd floor, explosive breach. Everybody in the hallway needs to move back. All units move back. Breach, breach, breach. Wow police are now searching for a woman for followup. Her name is marilou daley, asian female, 4 11, 110 pounds. Thats the description. Hyundai tuscon registered to the unidentified shooter, who the Police Describe as a local resident license plate number 114b40 as well as a chrisler pacifica, license plate number 79d401. We have lots of video already, but the more the better for investigators. Police say they do not believe there are any more shooters and that no other places on the strip were attacked. Just now, police have identified the suspect to nbc news. Here we go. His name is steven paddock. He had a criminal past. Were working on details. 62yearold steven paddock. Joining us now from las vegas, nbcs Steve Patterson with more on this. Steve . Reporter good morning, mika. We are at the corner of las vegas boulevard and tropicana. About as central a location as you can get on the Las Vegas Strip here. We want to show you where we are. Police staging behind me. Weve seen the operation evolve over time. Originally, it was police in full s. W. A. T. Gear with long guns. Immediately after that concert firing had gone on, police were sweeping every casino and hotel in this area, going from door to door to door to make sure it was cleared. Then they pushed everybody back out of here. They swarmed the scene. This is where theyve been set up for sfeveral hours. Meantime weve been talking to victims, people here along the strip and in that concert location at that venue at the time the shooting occurred. You heard just what a terrible, chaotic situation this was. Youre talking about a guy from an elevated position with an automatic weapon shooting into a crowd. People from that crowd filtered out. We spoke to a few of them. One woman said she had to hide into a bush for a better part of an hour, terrified, not knowing what was going on. Another woman was in the crowd when the firing started. It started, obviously, like fireworks or something that was part of the show. I think a lot of people arent used to the sound of automatic gunfire in this country. A lot of people didnt know what they were hearing. Then to turn around and confirm what it was, to see that horrific scene from above and people to get out as fast as humanly possible, that created a dangerous situation on the ground. Matt lauer talked to somebody in that crowd, said whoever was up there reloaded some three, five, six different times and you have eerie periods where hes reloading. People are panicked. Nobody knows whats going on. And the gunfire starts again. Weve seen buses come through this area, loading bus loads of people and try to take them as far away from this area as possible. I want to give you one last look at the scene. This is what it has looked like for several hours. Just about any time of the day theres revelry, people out, having fun. To be on the scene where this is what youre looking at and hearing almost nothing besides police activity, its incredibly eerie and disturbing here in las vegas, mika. I know theyre saying up to 100 injuries. Any sense if those numbers could change . Reporter absolutely. Just the number and amount of chaos and the amount of bodies and victims that were scattered around, people who made it out alive and made it out unscathed, it sounds like the loss of life and at least the impact to life is trauma tic and is going to b dramatic when its all said and done. It already is when youre looking at 100plus injured, 20plus dead. Those numbers, of course, could change as this goes on, mika. From Pete Williams, who is working sources right now, the suspect is stephen paddock, 64 years old, from mesquite, nevada. Police are searching his house right now. Not heard whether he was known to federal authorities but he was known to local Law Enforcement. Police describe the woman that they are looking for as his companion and they were living together. Her name is Marilou Danley, also a resident there. Well keep you posted on what we know, the suspect, his background and what could have caused this. Retired atf special agent in charge and hostage negotiator. We have a lot of material, jim, of how police broke in to the suspects room and closed in on him. Do you think well be able to find out a lot more in the coming hours, given that they have him in custody, dead . Obviously his partner is on the loose but they have the location where he did this. Tell us what you are hearing in terms of the type of weapon used and how this could have all come down. Its a fully automatic weapon, absolutely. Submachine gun most likely. You can hear it, mika, as he reloads. It sounds like hes shooting 30round magazines. Theres a delay. People jump up. They run. And another magazine unloads. That happens a number of times. Theres a few different videos. It may be three to five times. Magazines are reloaded and fired into the crowd. Theres some single shots heard later on as well. He could have fired semi automatic or another weapon. You know, theyre going to find out a lot in the coming hours and they already know a lot more than we do at the moment. Whats driving this guy to do this . Why is he shooting into a crowd of innocent people at a concert . Its going to be something that theyre going to be pretty aware of, i would say, once they get into his house, his computer. Once they find his companion, mika, if they know shes alive those casinos are full of cameras. If she went in there with him, checked in, they would know that. Of course, she could be found dead in the residence as well, or she could be somewhere else. We dont know. Sometimes these events are preceded by the murder of a significant other, a close person, Family Member and then they go on a rampage. But this seems like there was a little more planning with this guy being in an elevated position with a machine gun. Thats pretty deliberate. You have to come with all your ammo, break that window, shoot down at that concert. Maybe a little more planning than just an impulse event. Gene robinson and sam stein are on the set here in washington, d. C. Sam, it seems like theres no way out for these victims here with the bullets coming from above. You have a question for jim . You touched on it, jim, two seconds ago. How sophisticated was this operation . Thats the major question everyone is asking. Was this some random guy who found an elevated position and started firing or how much planning do we know went into this . What can we take from the limited information that we know to decipher how sophisticated the operation actually was . Great question, sam. Planning a deliberate effort, youre spot on. As far as sophistication, not so much. I mean, he anybody who could get to that elevated position with a machine gun could do this. And their capability would only need to be that they could pull the trigger. He really doesnt even have to aim very well. Hes just shooting into a mass of people below. Theres not a lot of training needed for this. This is a lot of planning. There is a lot of deliberation. There is a lot of real criminal deep seeded purpose here, whether thats hate, terror or revenge, some of the most likely motives. To do this, to act on a crowd like this, that really takes a lot of deep seeded hatred, motivation. Planning, deliberate, specific, deep seeded reason but not so much sophisticated execution. S. W. A. T. Was able to take him out pretty quickly. Gene . Jim, this is gene robinson. The weapon that was used do we think its a semi automatic rifle that was converted to automatic fire . Its not legal, is it, to have a fully automatic or buy a fully automatic weapon. Well, fully automatic weapons are illegally possessed by many citizens, gene, in the united states, from 1934 to 1986 you could legally buy a fully automatic weapon and register it with the atf. Very strict operation. Fingerprints, all the documents would be kept in washington. That process kept most of those guns out of ever being used in crime. It was mostly used by collectors who would follow the law. But there was a great market all those years that i was working, people trying to convert semi automatic guns to fully automatic fire for the clandestine market, the criminal market. That goes on today. Theres no way to tell from listening to the gun if it was originally manufactured as a submachine gun or converted to fully automatic fire clandestineely clandestine ly or illegally. Theres no doubt, without question, fully automatic submachine gun or machine gunfire. Difference is that a machine gun is a much big ger, vehiclemounted, heavier weapon. This is most likely a submachine gun designed to be carried by a soldier. It could have a bipod. It could have a mount. It could be shoulder fired. It sounds like, from what i heard, its magazine fed. 30round magazines, emptied into the crowd. You hear a lull. People are not realizing whats going on. Mika pointed that out. They didnt quite know what it was. And then another 30round magazine. What i found interesting, he never lets up on the trigger. He never lets up on the trigger at all. A real shooter, military soldier, Police Officer, we were always trained, shoot a short burst, short threeround burst to acquire the target. Not let the gun spear off the target and not waste your ammunition. Just to hold the trigger down, thats not the way any trained person shoots. But this guy is not doesnt need any training. Hes just shooting into a crowd at a concert below. So he just holds it down until he completely unloads the 30round magazine and then he goes for the next one. As a former negotiator it shows me determination and hate. In terms of the type of weapon were looking at, its in a range of weapons. Is this something thats easily concealed . And this, i guess, is a question leading to just how planned this was, and thought out. Because you have to get up 32 floors, get into a room, get in position and then what kind of size of a weapon are you talking about here . Its not just something you could walk into the lobby with. Is it . The thing is, its a hotel. You have your luggage. You could take it in pieces. In suitcases. Right. Very easy to get weapons and ammo. You could wheel the ammo in. Its extremely heavy. You could wheel it in. Wheeled luggage. Its very easy to get it in a hotel. Not hard to get a room on an elevated floor. But it takes some planning. Exactly. And thats absolutely true. Thats my point. Leads to how much planning was going on here. Ayman mohyeldin and yasmin voosoughian have been covering this. Weve been showing Jason Aldeans video all night. Lets take a listen to our interview with him. I thought, honestly, im a local. I thought honestly from the smell it smelled like a pyrotech knick. I thought they messed up, that they were going to shoot fireworks and it was misfiring. Then it stopped and went again and then it started getting louder and you saw people start screaming. You see jason aldean run off the stage and from the front of the stage where we were at, where the shooter was, you saw people running, bodies on the floor. And people started running. What was going through your head at that point when you saw that body on the floor, going from listening to jason aldean to seeing a body on the floor in your hometown of las vegas, a place you likely feel safe walking every single day. Well, i mean, its a complete mind freak on you. You think youre safe. Youre at an amazing country concert with amazing artists, having a great time. How somebody can do this is just mind blowing. Lets go to nbcs Pete Williams who has more on the suspect. And also his companion, who is still at large. Pete . Mika, weve been told by a number of Law Enforcement officials that the man responsible for the shooting, their initial belief based on their identification of him is stephen paddock, 64 years old, born april 9th, 1953. Property records and the police tell us that he was living with the woman that they talked about earlier, Marilou Danley. Shes, we believe, 62 years old. This is the woman clark county authorities said earlier today that they were looking for. Theyre still looking for her. We dont know what role, if any, she played in the shooting. It may have been none at all. We dont know whether she was in the hotel room at the time the shooting happened. We dont know if she was with him in the hotel. Some people have said that they thought they saw the two of them together. Some witnesses, i should say, some people who have been staying at the hotel said they thought they saw the two of them together in the hotel before the shooting, down in the public areas of the hotel. Whether she was in the room at the time, whether she left earlier, we dont know. Big important question about whether she had any idea this was going to happen. In terms of a couple of other details here, weve been trying to figure out what kind of weapon this was. Youve been talking to jim carve gn cavanaugh about it. We know now that he had several weapons in the hotel room. We dont know whether he used more than one weapon in the shooting, whether he had several weapons loaded and ready to go so he could put one down and pick the next one up or whether he had to reload. Thats an important question. We dont know. Its our understanding initial understanding that he was shot by the police, who breached the room, blew the door of his hotel room open. Were waiting for confirmation on that. Finally on stephen paddock, were told by some Law Enforcement officials that he had what they call a criminal past. That he was known to local Law Enforcement. In what capacity, we dont know. Apparently he had had some runins with the police before. I dont know what those are. I dont know if they resulted in convictions. Were trying to find that out. But the important basic question here is why, and authorities just have absolutely no idea at this early stage. Theyve been searching his house in mesquite, nevada. We havent heard of anything found there yet that would shed light on this. Theyre trying to find his two cars that were registered to him acres Hyundai Tuscon and Chrysler Pacifica touring. The police have put out the license number locally for people to keep an eye out for. This is what a Hyundai Tucson looks like with nevada place 114b40. And the other vehicle is this Chrysler Pacifica touring vehicle, which has a different pla plate. Thats the license plate of the other one. So, theyre asking people to help find those two vehicles that are registered to him. We dont know where they were. We dont know if one of them was at the hotel, if they drove to the hotel. This is part of the investigation now. Atf will be doing an urgency trace of the weapons, trying to figure out where they came from, where they were acquired, trying to figure out where the ammunition came from. And then try to develop, working backwardslooking timeline. When did he check into the hotel, when did he get to las vegas . When did he buy the weapons . Was he in contact with anyone else . Those will be important things that will play out over the next several hours. And the local authorities who are in charge of this investigation are getting a lot of help now from atf, from the fbi. Perhaps the u. S. Marshal service. I dont know what their role yet will be. All the federal authorities will be available to them. I think its fair to say, mika, as the day goes by that this number of people that were killed is, unfortunately, going to go up. Going to rise. Theres some indication it will be higher than that. A number of people who were injured and, remember, the authorities said 100plus people were injured. A number of those injuries were critical. So, pete, just go through what we do know. Stop me if i have if im taking it a step too far. Suspect 64yearold stephen paddock, known to local Law Enforcement as a potential issue, it looks like he went from mesquite to vegas, which appears to be about an hour or two hours away, looking at this map, straight down route 15. Got a room at this hotel. And as far as you have heard, brought several weapons up into a room. We dont know whether its with his partner, Marilou Danley. She, too, lived in mesquite with him. And opened fire on the crowd at this concert below, 32 floors up. Theyre searching his house. Any word as to whether or not she was seen near the scene or is she a complete question mark right now in terms of whether or not she was involved with this . The latter is certainly true. Shes a complete question mark, as far as i know,