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CNN NEWSROOM

Las Vegas Massacre; New Video of Concertgoers Running for Their Lives; U.S. President Meets Las Vegas Survivors and Heroes; Sheriff Releases New Numbers of Vegas Victims; Rock Star Eric Burdon on Security at Public Venues. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired October 5, 2017 - 00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:00:37] DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN TONIGHT. I am Don Lemon. It's just about midnight on the East Coast, 9:00 p.m. here in Las Vegas and we have breaking news.

Stunning new video of the worst mass shooting in modern American history -- it shows the moment when it became very apparent to a crowd of concertgoers that they were under attack and officers began urging them to keep moving, to get out of there. And I have to warn you, it is disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go on. Go on. Those are shots. Run. Don't walk.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Run. Go. Go. Go. Everybody go.

Go. Run. Keep your head down. Go. Keep your head down. Go.

Run. Keep your head down.

Keep your head down. Run. Go. Keep your head down. Run. Go.

Come on. Keep your head down. No. Come on, run. Go. Come on.

Keep your head down. Run. Go.

Keep your head down. Go. You guys go. You have to go. Run. Run. Run. Run.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's go.

(EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's go. Get up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get up. Run. Get up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's go. Get up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get up on your feet. On your feet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On your feet.

(EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

(EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go. Run that way. Go. Go.

Go. Get up. Go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Run that way. Go. Stay down against the wall. Stay down. Go that way against the wall. Stay down. Go that way. Against the wall.

Stay down. Against the wall. Stay down.

Run, run, run. Go. Go. Go.

You need to run that way. It will be a lot safer. Run that way. Go while they're not shooting. Go.

Come on. You need to go this way. Stay down.

(EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, run. Go this way. Go. Go that way.

(EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay down. Run this way. Keep your head down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: This video is just -- listen to that -- just absolutely shocking.

I want to bring in now CNN's Stephanie Elam. The actions of the first responders in that video are really heroic, Stephanie, as you listen to that.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's unbelievable when you watch that footage -- Don. And what strikes me as well is the fact that the first responders knew right away to try to step in and save as many people as they could. But also the people in the crowd who just started to help.

Think about it. A minute before that they're having a good time listening to one of their favorite artists perform and the next second they had to make that decision to help people out and not know where those gunshots were coming from at the time.

There was mass confusion about that and they even thought that -- some people thought there might have been two shooters. And now we know that there were two windows that the shooter was using as well.

So when you hear that, it is very compelling and it strikes you. You feel it sort of in your chest as you listen to it.

It is a little bit jarring to watch, though, for people who haven't seen this. It's worth noting that again.

[00:04:58] LEMON: Yes. It makes me angry that we give someone who is not in uniform and who doesn't have a badge that much power to take that many lives in just second. You know, it's easy to understand why so many people were injured so badly in this attack.

But earlier tonight the Las Vegas sheriff lowered the number of injured and said many people were released. What can you tell us about that -- Steph?

ELAM: Right. Well, the issue here, Don, was the fact that there were some hospitals that were receiving patients -- because remember, Las Vegas was still being Las Vegas. There were still people being hurt. There were still people who needed to get to the hospitals. So not all the hospitals were just shut down for just the trauma of what was coming in here.

So there were some people that were counted twice, it may have been; and some people who may have been counted as part of the concertgoers that were not for some of the area hospitals.

So now that puts the number of injured at 489 -- down from above five hundred that we had heard before and we know that 317 people have been discharged and sadly still that the number of deaths at 58.

Still a very high number if you think about all the people that were out there -- 22,000. It's just still -- the numbers are staggering.

LEMON: It's staggering.

The President visited University Medical Center today, and he talked with some of the injured there. What have you learned about that?

ELAM: That's right. Yes. From what we understand is that he took his time -- him and the first lady -- taking their time to visit with about ten of the patients there, sitting bedside, talking with some of the patients that were there.

From what I understand the President and first lady staying here in the hospital longer than anticipated to give a couple of hugs, talk to the people who had been wounded. And from what we gather, very well received here in the hospital here at the University Medical Center.

LEMON: Stephanie, what are you hearing about some of these patients, some of the injured? They've got a long road of recovery ahead of them.

ELAM: Right. We've heard varying things. You know, we do know that at this hospital there have been no amputees. We do know that. We do know that there are a lot of gunshot wounds as you would expect, but also graze wounds that they have been dealing with -- multitude. I believe there was one person who was hit by a car.

But at the same time you look at quality of life. There were 12 patients in critical condition for several days. We do know today that went down to six in critical condition, but they still have some 60 patients here in the hospital.

And as far as quality of life leaving here, that's something that the doctors that I've spoken to have said it's just too early to say whether or not -- or what that will be like for them. They're just trying to make sure that they stay alive, they stay improving, and that's the plan here.

LEMON: Absolutely. Stephanie Elam -- thank you for your reporting.

I want to bring in now Dr. Jake Coates, a trauma surgeon and medical director at Lions Burn Care Center at the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada. And he has been treating patients injured in the attack.

Dr. Jay -- thank you so much for joining us.

The victims of this attack were subject to withering gunfire. It makes you realize just how terrible the injuries must be that you're seeing. What can you tell us about the condition of the injured who are still at UMC?

DR. JAY COATES, TRAUMA SURGEON, UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Well, you know, as you were told there, we have a few patients who are still in critical condition. We have been actively discharging a lot of patients though, throughout the last 40 hours, 36 hours. We have a lot of people who are walking wounded who were mildly injured.

So, you know, there are definitely some patients here. It's going to take a while. They're going to have a protracted, longer recovery period, but overall everybody is doing very well.

LEMON: What does the recovery period look like?

COATES: Well, you know, it's going to depend on which patient you're talking about. There are some patients here that it's going to be measured in months, maybe years. And there are some that are going to be days and weeks.

You know, the patients that came through that night that we operated on, all the patients we saw, we saw a full spectrum of injuries. Like I said from some with lethal wounds, some critical wounds and then some walking wounded who were easily treated and discharged later on that day. So, again, it's going to depend on the individual patients.

LEMON: Yes. Some of them will probably need multiple surgeries with these kinds of wounds.

I want to ask you about the family members, though. The families must also be dealing with their own injuries, they're traumatized. Are you able to give them counseling, the counseling that they need?

COATES: Oh, absolutely. We have teams set up in the hospital for both the victims, the family members, and then the hospital employees themselves. As you can imagine, there's a lot of stress, a lot of angst, a lot of things that go along with dealing with an event like this, as catastrophic as it was. And so we have ongoing counseling available to these people 24 hours a day right now.

[00:10:06] LEMON: You know, a lot of people have likened what happened there really to a war zone. How is your staff holding up?

COATES: Well, you know, the staff is actually doing very well. Again, you know, we have counseling available to those who seek and/or would like or need that.

There's no question the night of the incident it was, it was absolutely a war zone. The way we approached surgery, the way we operated on these patients and what we did was very different than a normal night of trauma in this facility.

LEMON: Yes. So listen, there was an emergency plan in place, and how were you -- how was that plan put in place? Were all of these people could go to these hospitals and you'd be so successful as you were in taking care of them and treating them?

COATES: Well, you know -- yes. I would like to say that I'm incredibly proud of my city and my hometown and that everything really seemed to work pretty flawlessly that night. So we do drills several times a year for mass casualty situations. We recognize that we're a potential target.

And so, you know, an incident command is set up pretty quickly at the site. And patients are triaged from there, with the more serious patients going to the level I and level two trauma centers, other patients going out to other outlying hospitals.

The way that night went down, you know, the serious patients came in. We operated from about 11:00 to 4:30 that morning, 5:00 that morning. Right as we were really cleaning up that first wave and getting things under control, like clockwork the outlying hospitals started calling us with patients that came that might be a little bit beyond their ability to take care of and we started transferring those patients in and operating on those patients.

So, you know, it was just the fact that we had the plan in place. We had drilled and we were prepared for this.

LEMON: Dr. Jay Coates, thank you for your time and for your work.

COATES: Thank you. Thank you.

LEMON: When we come back, stories of survival in the midst of the chaos of the worst mass shooting in modern American history.

I'm going to talk to one of the heroes who risked his life to save a stranger.

[00:12:18] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: In the middle of the worst mass shooting in modern American history we are learning the stories of true heroes who put their own lives on the line to help strangers. One of them is Dean McCauley. He is a firefighter EMT at Valley Regional Fire Authority and he joins me now on the phone.

Dean -- we're so glad that you could join us this evening.

This new video that we're getting, it gives us a sense of just how chaotic things were in the immediate moments after the shooting. Listen to a little bit of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on. Those are shots. Run. Those are shots. Run. Don't walk.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Run. Go. Go. Go. Everybody go. Go.

Go. Run. Keep your head down. Go. Keep your head down. Go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, Dean, I have to ask you as a trained EMT and first responder, what do you do in this situation?

DEAN MCCAULEY, EMT, VALLEY REGIONAL FIRE AUTHORITY (via telephone): Well, thanks for having me, first off. And I appreciate talking about this.

You know, you saw it. You're asking what do you do? That's human beings that are at their best right there. They're trying to escape and, you know, you can watch -- I've seen a little bit. It's on the TV right now for the first time.

And, you know, you're seeing police officers standing there, parking their cars, being in the midst of this, not running away. You know, running to this stuff and trying to get people out of there.

And you see a lot of fear and you see -- and there you see people not even knowing what's going on. There's the normalcy of just buses and people on the strip, having no clue what's going on.

So this is very raw --

LEMON: Does this take you back to this? I mean, did you -- what did you do when this was all going on, because I understand you saved a teenager -- a teenage girl?

MCCAULEY: Well, ok. Yes. Thank you.

So I consider -- that footage that you're showing right there, that's the crowd I was in. You showed something a little bit earlier where somebody was saying let me out, let me out. And you know, ultimately that place is designed -- with no way out, people could not get out.

There's basically one way out and, you know, it was really like -- if you're asking what I did, actually in that footage right there, I was down in that crowd and I huddled.

I grabbed my guys and I went to the ground and I said stay put. And I have a little bit of education on this. I knew that if I ran with the crowd, we'd be a target.

So we did not run with the target, run with the crowd. We found shelter. I got a very good friend of mine on the phone and he's FBI- trained with U.S. Marshals as well. He kept very calm. We stayed on the ground.

Next break, which was very obvious to us that he was reloading, we got shelter up by the stage by one of the trucks. We pulled some garbage cans in front of us. We just stayed put.

And the hardest part of this was your instinct as a first responder you want to run into it. You want to go to it. And believe me, it was hard to hear people cry, scream, ask for medic, ask for help and you couldn't help them until the shooting would stop. And then when it finally stopped I think they're saying it's like nine or ten minutes.

[00:20:07] You know, the police were saying that there's three active shooters, you know. And a lot of us just made the decision that we were -- we have to go to work.

And as my friends got out to that tent I grabbed some gloves and a bunch of other first responders, we just went to work.

LEMON: Yes. What kind of injuries -- you say you just went to work -- what kind of injuries did you see, Dean? We heard people had to run over bodies and there are injuries in this video that you're looking at. What did you see?

MCCAULEY: I saw a lot of kids on the ground with cuts to the back, head. It looked like a war zone -- a lot of blood. Just, you know -- and a lot of panic; a lot of kids falling over each other going up fences.

As you're looking at the stage, we ended up on the left side, and they were just trying to climb up those fences and it looked like they were getting picked off by bullets or ricochets. We were trying to tell them to stay down, stay sheltered, don't move, don't move with the crowd, you know. (inaudible)

LEMON: Dean -- can you tell me about the teenage girl you met between bursts of gunfire?

MCCAULEY: So when I went to the EMS tent, grabbed some gloves, came back out, me and another off duty firefighter started to some bodies and we had brought two -- one of them didn't make it. I was at the EMS tent, about to go back out -- (inaudible) maybe she needed help. I went over and grabbed a tourniquet. We started a line in the other arm.

Then there was a 15-year-old girl, she ended up (inaudible) and she was getting tired and she was having a hard time. And things were kind of going in different directions for us. And she was incredibly strong. She was incredibly, you know -- just an amazing human being, a 15-year-old young lady who could stay calm, stay present.

And you know, we ended up going out of the tent going to where there were supposed to be ambulances in a parking lot, we were told. And there was no ambulances when we got there. So we huddled up behind a -- there's three cars out in the parking lot -- a suburban, a SWAT vehicle that there was no one in it and then an Audi that was away on the parking lot and we huddled.

The shooting had stopped. They were still saying that we have multiple shooters. We had cops running by us with their guns saying just stay low. There are multiple shooters on the loose.

And we ended up -- I asked a guy -- a saw a guy running out to the Audi, a tall gentleman with white hair, and I was screaming at him that I needed his car. And this big gentleman who looked like a cowboy out of a movie came up behind me and said do you want me to get that guy's car. And I said, yes, get that guy's car and he did.

And the guy came over and me and this young lady, her name is Natalia, we got in the back of the car. I kept her IV on her and I told the guy I was a professional firefighter. I said I need you to take (inaudible) and put your hazards on and get in the left lane and he did it. His name was Blaine.

And he was remarkable with it. He was just a solid dude that was able to follow direction really well. And we ended up getting diverted to Sunrise Hospital.

Once we got to Sunrise, we unloaded -- I unloaded Natalia, got her in the trauma room. I knew she had a gunshot to the back with no exit point. I knew she was having a hard time breathing so I was concerned that maybe it punctured something. And she ended up -- ended up surviving.

I texted when we were in the parking lot trying to figure out a car and huddled, I asked her what she wanted to do and she said she wanted to call her parents. She called her parents on my phone and her right arm wasn't working very well, so I called her parents and I talked to her dad real briefly and I said I'll text where we're going and midway through I texted him. He met us -- met her at the hospital.

I had no idea how she ended up or what direction because as soon as I got her to the hospital, dropped her off to the ER doctor, trauma doctor, trauma nurse I went out and started triaging.

[00:25:00] So I finally got a text when I got home to Seattle the next night that she had lived. And I was kind of bewildered by that. Her father had my number from when we called it in. He was very emotional.

LEMON: Yes.

MCCAULEY: Yes.

LEMON: Dean -- talk about when you were with her. What did you say to keep her calm this whole time?

MCCAULEY: You know, we talked about -- we talked about Jason Aldean. We talked about Dee Jay Silver, you know. She's a big fan of both of them. I'm a very big fan of both of them as well.

We talked about their music. We talked about -- you know, I had pictures on my phone and we started -- you know we're going at very high speed to the hospital but I pulled pictures on my phone and showed her, you know, my wife and my son and our (inaudible) just really trying to get her mind off of it.

You know, we were definitely just enjoying the pictures and kind of going in a different direction and just kind of a distraction, you know. She did well, she did. I still am in amazement by this young lady.

LEMON: You know the day before the concert, firefighters on the scene said that they were preparing for an active shooter. How did that conversation come about?

MCCAULEY: I go through the training up in Washington State in my fire department. We do active shooter training. When I saw that ladder truck come in the day before -- and my friends are not first responders, so they were thinking that the guys were just coming in for a good time and, you know, enjoy walking around being firefighters.

And it was very clear with my buddy's comments -- I listened to the comments and I said they're preparing for active shooter. And my other buddy Brad kind of stopped in his shoes and he said do you think something like that could happen?

And I said yes. They're doing their job. They're preparing for it. And it could happen at any time.

And that was really the ironic part was when we had talked about that on the plane ride home. They both said that. They said you called -- you said that when the firefighters -- and they said from the police officer -- firefighters were aware, especially after 9/11, especially after all the violence around the world. We're just always looking at that stuff whether we want to or not.

LEMON: Yes.

Dean -- thank you so much. We appreciate it.

MCCAULEY: It's just remarkable -- thank you. Thank you, sir.

LEMON: Thank you.

We're learning much more tonight about some of the 58 people who lost their lives in Sunday's massacre.

Christiana Duarte had just started working for the Los Angeles Kings hockey team. She graduated in May from the University of Arizona.

Laura Shipp was a single mom and a Las Vegas native who was at the concert with her son Cory Shipp.

Carly Kreibaum was a mother of two from Sutherland, Iowa who was also one of those killed on Sunday.

[00:28:17] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

LEMON: The president was here in Las Vegas today, calling America "a nation in mourning." Sitting in the front row as the president spoke, Stephanie Melanson. Her mother was wounded in the shooting and the president mentioned her today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When the word and the worst of humanity strikes, and strike it did, the best of humanity responds. Parents and spouses use their own bodies as shields to protect their loved ones.

Americans dashed into a hail of bullets to rescue total strangers. Among the wounded was the mother of Aaron's girlfriend. She is still in the hospital and we are all pulling for her.

To every hero we helped, every hero saved so many lives. And, believe me, a grateful nation thanks you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Did it help that the president was here?

Because you were standing right next to him.

STEPHANIE MELANSON, SURVIVOR: To be honest, you know, it didn't feel like the president. And it didn't feel like the first lady. It felt just like normal human beings, somebody who actually cared, somebody who had a heart, somebody who sympathized.

It was hard to tell the story. The first lady couldn't get up fast enough to come hug us and show her support towards our family and, not only our family, but all the other victims and the first responders that were down there.

LEMON: It's important to be the comforter in chief and I think it kind of helps.

MELANSON: It does. It's hard to talk about it but it helps. It was an experience this morning. I know people -- we got calls and texts about how exciting it must have been to meet the president but, you know, maybe if it was under different terms.

LEMON: I met your boyfriend, Aaron, and he didn't talk about what he did. He's very modest. He's a veteran.

MELANSON: He is.

LEMON: The president called him out.

What did the president talk about?

MELANSON: He thanked the first responders. He thanked -- there were officers that were brand-new into it. It was their, I think, second day with the police. And then we were shocked to hear that he called my boyfriend out and thanked him for what he had done. He had gone down and was in search of myself, my sister, his sister, my friend, my mom.

LEMON: He wasn't even at the concert.

MELANSON: No.

LEMON: He just jumped in his truck.

MELANSON: Yes.

LEMON: And started looking for you guys.

MELANSON: Yes.

LEMON: And then what happened?

MELANSON: He couldn't find us. And then he searched and searched. My mom couldn't find her. And before he even came to find us, because he was right there where everything happened, he just started putting people on the barricades and anything that he could find to --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: He made them -- so people understand, he made the barricades into gurneys to help transport them to whatever area could help them or to a hospital or to an ambulance or --

(CROSSTALK)

MELANSON: Yes. I know it's not one or two but I couldn't tell you how many.

LEMON: And then he was making tourniquets and all that stuff.

MELANSON: Yes.

LEMON: Did he learn this stuff how?

MELANSON: From the Army. Yes. His words were, it's funny how much you remember even if it was a 10-minute training. So you know, I know he came into my life for a reason three years ago and I thank God every day for him. And he has been my hero since the day I met him.

LEMON: You know you're going into a combat zone when you sign up and you go to Iraq or Afghanistan or wherever it is but you don't expect it at a concert.

MELANSON: No.

LEMON: No.

MELANSON: I can only imagine the phone call that he got from me, how he felt, being he was here. He had just gotten home from the hockey game and he wasn't home more than an hour before he got the phone call.

LEMON: Do you think you'll ever go back to an event like this, a concert or a big event?

I know that you don't want it to change or alter who you are or your life but...

MELANSON: I've always been one to stay positive and try to look on the bright side. It's very hard right now. Right now, sometime soon, no. In the future, it's possible but only time will tell.

LEMON: Yes. You seem that you're better.

Is it because your mom is better?

MELANSON: I think that has a little bit to do with it.

LEMON: How is she doing?

MELANSON: She's doing better. Her second surgery is done. The doctors were very happy with how it was. I visited her last night and I held her hand the whole time I was there. At one point she did squeeze it. She did pull it closer to her.

Her eyes -- I mean, she's still very sedated but her eyes flutter when she hears us. She understands that we're there. She can hear our voices. So she knows. But it's still -- it's very hard to see her like that.

LEMON: You finally got the chance -- you figured out who the hero was who helped your mother. Tell me about him, retired firefighter.

MELANSON: Yes. He was in the -- L.A. firefighter. He was in there for 34 years. His name is Don Matthews. He was at the event with his girlfriend and her daughter.

And, you know, I thought I knew what I was going to say to him. I thought I knew how it was going to may out but the second we Facetimed him, I just bawled. I just bawled and bawled and bawled. I'm so grateful it was Facetime, because I wish it was face-to-face, because all I wanted to do was just hug him.

I said it before and I'll say it again, he truly is the guardian angel that saved our lives that night and saved my mother's life.

LEMON: What did you say to him?

MELANSON: All I could do was just cry. I said thank you, thank you. We're here, you're alive. My mom is alive. She'll be OK.

And he said "Well, I guess it's going to be a good Thanksgiving this year."

So you know, I'm hoping that we'll meet him sooner than later and he will forever always be a part of our family.

LEMON: I'm glad you're doing better.

MELANSON: Thank you.

LEMON: And good luck with your mom.

MELANSON: Thank you.

LEMON: And tell Aaron to stop pretending he's not a hero.

MELANSON: I will.

LEMON: Thanks.

MELANSON: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: One major question for security officials in the aftermath of the Las Vegas massacre, are there ways -- is it even feasible to protect large numbers of people at public venues?

Here is CNN's Jason Carroll.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As investigators continue to work on finding a motive for the massacre that took the lives of at least 58, victims, families and survivors try to cope with what happened.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When the bullets started flying, I -- it took a second because it sounded like fireworks at first.

CARROLL (voice-over): In the initial moments, some confusing the sounds of is gunfire with fireworks. Security experts already analyzing this tragedy and others like it to find better ways to protect people.

CHRIS ROBINETTE, FORMER GREEN BERET: It's very difficult to stop every possible attack and every possible scenario.

CARROLL (voice-over): Chris Robinette is a former Army Green Beret and now president of a security firm, which consults with some of the largest venues in the United States.

ROBINETTE: We've heard a lot from the industry of those interested in helping understand more of the risks at large, helping understand how to secure wider perimeters, everything from parking lots to relationships to mass transportation.

CARROLL (voice-over): Just last May an explosion at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, killed 22 people. More than 200 injured at the large indoor arena.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have five employees that are in the dressing room, hiding.

CARROLL (voice-over): June 12, 2016, a night filled with terror at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, when a shooter walked in and opened fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Loud, banging noise like gunshots going off.

CARROLL (voice-over): 49 people killed and dozens injured before police took out the shooter. At the time it was the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in modern U.S. history.

That was before Las Vegas.

November 13th, 2015, Paris: a series of coordinated terrorist attacks. Suicide bombers target a football stadium, cafes and restaurants.

Then a mass shooting at the Bataclan theater with the band The Eagles of Death Metal were playing. The attackers killed 130 people, including 89 at the theater, 413 injured, the deadliest attack in France since World War II.

What do all these events have in common?

All occurred at venues security experts call soft targets, vulnerable public places like concerts, clubs or theaters.

RUSS SIMONS, SECURITY CONSULTANT: We are not really expecting this kind of outcome. That's changed.

CARROLL (voice-over): Russ Simons is a security consultant who works with the Department of Homeland Security.

SIMONS: There are a great deal of security procedures that are under way today that just weren't in place even five years ago. We are going to be moving forward and learning from what happens, not only here but around the world, and making the changes that are necessary.

CARROLL (voice-over): The question, what can be done in the wake of yet another mass shooting? SIMONS: All of us who are already in the business cannot afford to be complacent, not one minute, not one day.

CARROLL: Don, experts we spoke to say venues should work more closely with security firms. They also say to expect more security in the future. That could take the form of expanding a security perimeter beyond the actual event site to include things like parking lots and buildings. They also say the public may have to accept some inconvenience in the future in exchange for more safety -- Don.

LEMON: Thank you, Jason.

When we come back, how the concert business will change in the wake of the Las Vegas attack. I'm going to talk to a rock and roll legend.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

LEMON: The Las Vegas massacre will have a huge impact on the music industry and the staging of concerts and music festivals. Earlier I spoke with Eric Burdon, Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Famer and singer- songwriter for The Animals.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: And join me now is Eric Burdon.

Eric, thank you so much for joining us. You reached out to me about this because you feel so passionate after this happened.

What did you want to speak about?

ERIC BURDON, SINGER-SONGWRITER: I was wondering if my point of view as a performer and the things that I see leading up to a performance and other people in performance, like friends of mine who were at the Bataclan club in Paris and came under heavy assault, and the bass player or the guitar player, who was singing lead, had no idea that the -- there was incoming lead, coming towards him.

I mean, we could almost see it on camera but he had no idea. And he kept playing for just a few seconds. Well, that made me realize that, lots of times, when they're setting up a stage and they use special effects like smoke and firecrackers or something similar, that there's a lot of confusion. That adds to the confusion.

Nobody knows what's going on. Especially --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Do you think that -- I've spoken to a lot of people, Eric -- I've spoken to a lot of people who say they won't let them be deterred but -- from going to events like this -- but one has to wonder, do you think this will affect the music world? People actually going to concerts?

BURDON: Well, it's certainly affected many, since my last gig in Paris, when I was backstage and confronted by a troop of military in flak jackets and machine guns, plus 20 gendarmes, police.

And then later on, after the show, I was talking to the promoter and he said, I love you and I love doing this, music is my life but I can't keep on doing this because I have to pay for all this security. And that amount of security doesn't come cheap.

So, obviously, I have to look at that and think, wow. It's just going to be the last this happens, no, it's not. It's going to happen again. And I just thought that if I could bring it -- attention to the fact that we'd be much better off without the smoke, which actually could cover an assailant, loud noises, which can spook people and make them think that they're under attack when they're not, it doesn't make sense and it doesn't help the music any.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Do you have concern --

BURDON: Yes.

LEMON: -- about these high powered weapons being available and people having access?

Is that a concern of yours?

BURDON: Look, I grew up in a country where the police didn't have guns and they did their job. Now it's spread all over the world where -- the same police force is the same all over the world, flak jackets, helmets and armed with machine guns.

We've just become used to it. We've let -- we've let it become the norm. And it's not the norm. We have to get -- we have to back up and realize that this is not normal.

LEMON: Eric, music heals.

How do we move forward?

How can music help with this?

BURDON: Well, first of all, open-air concerts, you're asking for trouble. Any guy who has ill feelings in his heart towards gatherings of people, the open-air concert is just handing him a shooter's gallery on a platter. And a lot of damage can be done, as we saw happen so tragically in Las Vegas.

And I feel like my hands are tied and I feel tongue-tied and I want to express myself. It's so difficult. I realize this is a really difficult problem that we face. We can't stop, though. We can't let fear stop music. We need music. People need music. That's why they go out there in the thousands, to get away from the

day-to-day problems in their life. We can't stop. But the big problem, we all know, is firearms in this country. There's too many firearms and too easy to get your hands on them. So the sooner we face up to that, the better.

LEMON: Eric Burdon, I appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us here on CNN.

BURDON: Thanks, Don, good luck.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: That's it for us tonight. Thanks for watching. I'll see you right back here tomorrow.