Heres whats going on. 54 degrees. Weve dot ooped degree. Weve dropped another one in sunset park to 53. Riverdale 53. Slowly these temperatures drop all day today. Its going to be windy too. Youll need jackets and sweaters, 38 by 6 00. Temperatures going to drop like a rock. Its going to be the coldest day of fall tomorrow. Well talk about that and a big warmup for next week. Heathers looking at your commute. Nice to have you back with us. Lets talk about mass transit. Thats what you want to friday on metro north, Long Island Railroad, new Jersey Transit doing just fine. Subway service is running on or close to schedule. 495 going on to the eastbound side, the ramp to tonnele avenue you have an accident being cleared away. 495 is the road that will lead you into the lincoln tunnel once you get past the accident. We have a minor delay at the tolls. The George Washington bridge, holland doing just fine. Then going on to 78 going east right near exit 7 overturned tractortrailer was carrying some Paper Products. So there are Paper Products all over 78 as a result. You can see that delay as you come out of pennsylvania coming over into new jersey. You also have the l. I. E. Lower level westbound ramp to the bqe south with construction. Two lanes are closed until 8 a. M. Queens boulevard west at queens plaza, accident has been cleared away. We have a gridlock alert day today and street cleaning rules are in effect for today. Rob, lori, over to you. Thank you. We have breaking news in the search for a prisoner who escaped Police Custody in Lower Manhattan. Early this morning he was caught in brooklyn. He was firsthand cuffed for shoplifting in tribeca just before 8 00 last night. Snow he managed to escape, discovered hours later in group home in sunset park brooklyn. Eyewitness News Reporter dray clark is live for us in Lower Manhattan with the latest. Good morning, dray. Good morning rob and lori. Weve learned that suspects name is maxio cruz. He is charged with larceny any and escape from detention. This is not a good look for the time since june that a suspect has escaped nypd custody. Cruz we understand is now here at the first precinct in tribeca where he was initially arrested last night. Cruz was arrested for stealing jeans at a gap store in Lower Manhattan. Nypd officers handcuffed him behind his back and placed him in a Police Cruiser, but somehow he got loose, kicked open the back door and then made a mad dash for the subway at the franklin street station. He kept on running down the cat walk and eventually disappeared inside a dark tunnel. The mta briefly shut down Subway Service as they desperately looked for hours trying to find the suspect. Its really unfortunate that the police cant hang on to people. Youre in handcuffs all of a sudden, you know, youre in custody and you can get away. So its a problem that police have to deal with. I dont think it makes me and, you know, its an incident that happened, could happen. Reporter and that suspect, again, 20yearold maxio cruz arrested this morning just after 1 30 in sunset park brooklyn. This is the sixth time since june that a suspect has escaped nypd custody. In recent Months Police commissioner bratton has said this is an embarrassment for the nypd and a complete failure in basic policing. Certainly those officers involved with the arrest last night will have a lot of questions to answer about this latest mishap. Were live in tribeca, dray clark channel 7 Eyewitness News. Thank you dray. It is 6 04, nypd is now investigating two separate slashing attacks in two boroughs that do not appear to be related. The most recent happened just wednesday night in crown heights. 38yearold victim says that he and the attacker were both getting off the a train at the same time while he was walking felt something brush his neck. It was a blade coming within an inch of an important artery that could have cost him his life. The guy just like ran off, people started screaming, he bleeding. I put my hand on my face like this and just see all this this comes as Police Continue their search for the man who ran up behind a teenage girl in queens and slashed her twice across the face. The 16yearold Exchange Student from china was on her way to school when this happened wednesday morning. Investigators say the two happening today, president obama will be in San Bernardino those who were killed and massacre. The president made a rare trip yesterday to the National CounterTerrorism Center in virginia. Mr. Obama says the government is doing all it can to protect the American Public and he said there are no specific Credible Threats against the u. S. During the holidays. We have the very best intelligence, counter terrorism, homeland security, and Law Enforcement professionals in the world. Our folks are the best. Meanwhile, a friend and neighbor of the shooters is now in the custody of u. S. Marshals. Enrique marquez is now charged with conspiring with syed farook to commit terrorism. Marquez bought the two weapons used in the attack and gave them to syed four years ago. A teenager accused of possibly planning a terror attack and being an isis sympathizer is in federal custody this morning. Authorities say a search of 19 yearold jaleel azizs apartment in harrisburg pennsylvania turned up a backpack with high capacity weapons magazines, also ammunition. Aziz allegedly ran 57 proisis twitter accounts reposting the names and locations of members of the u. S. Military. You can stay with Eyewitness News and abc news for updates on the isis threat. 6 06. Youre never more than 7 minutes away from weather and traffic and bill evans with your accuweather forecast. Well, well, well, it is quite mild this morning. We were talking about this yesterday that temperatures will be in the 50s to start the day. They keep dropping, and our camera is shaking just a little bit. Thats that wind out of the west here. Weve got a great visibility down to the verrazano narrows bridge. 54 degrees this morning, another death row down from last hour another degree down from last hour. You see that rain down to our south. An inch and a quarter of rain in the park yesterday. High pressure will build in and it will make it windy and make the temperature drop. Noontime temperature 50, 48 this afternoon. By the time we get to sunset were around 40 degrees this evening. Its going to get cold, really cold tomorrow. Kiddos after school is when its going to feel cold. Dress warmly like the huckleberries here where were at 46 after school, it will feel almost like in the 30s. Well talk about that blustery coldest day tomorrow coming up. Heathers looking at your commute, weather then heather. Itst a gridlock alert day so im locking up my griddle. Just a gridlock. Keep that griddle going. Waffles and everybody. As you travel from the l. I. E. Getting on to the bqe we have some late running construction there. Well head to our maps. Its the l. I. E. Going west, that lower level ramp to the bqe construction until 8 a. M. Mass transits doing great. No major problems with the basement 495 east, the ramp to tonnele avenue an accident, and just past that near pleasant avenue you have a day care truck. Street cleaning rules are in effect. You have a disabled truck. Street cleaning rules are in effect. Were gathering information on a developing story in long island. Two armed men bust into a home and rob the family inside. The search is on for the robbers right now. And the legal battles ahead for the family of had that texas woman who died in Police Custody. Also ahead how about this for a stocking stuffer, the for no way. Savor an egg mcmuffin any time you like. A fresh cracked egg, canadian bacon and an english muffin with real butter. Mcdonalds all Day Breakfast menu. Welcome back everybody, new this morning suspects in a terrifying Home Invasion on long island are still on the suffolk county. Two armed men followed a woman into her home in bay shore. They tied up the woman and three other people in the home with zip ties and then robbed the place. At some point shots were fired but no one was hit. The gunman stole the victims car to get away. And youll remember back in july a texas woman was arrested for a simple Traffic Violation but then was found dead in her cell. Now there are two legal battles taking shape over that death. It now appears the civil lawsuit surrounding the in custody death of sandra bland will be delayed for more than a year until january 2017. Meanwhile a grand jury is still working on possible criminal charges, and the delays as you can imagine have been tough on blands mother. Im coming here in front of you to let you know im not okay. All right . Coming out of this hearing today im not okay. I have now celebrated one holiday without her. It is tough. Government attorneys say blands death may be linked to a recent request she had made seeking mental treatment. Blands family said they dont know anything about that. The ceo of a Pharmaceutical Company which caused a lot of controversy after hiking the price of a life saving drug is waking up a free man this morning after pleading not guilty to security fraud. Martin shkreli posted a 5 million bond. Hes charged with losing investors money through bad trades and then took 11 million from his former company to pay disgruntled clients. Essentially, he is accused of running a ponzi scheme. Earlier this year, shkreli was widely criticized for raising by 4,000 percent the price of a drug used by aids and cancer patients. Got a lot of traction on twitter yesterday, a lot of people used hashtag 6 13. Time to get a check on the accuweather forecast. And lets check in with someone with good karma, bill evans. Always, always, always got good karma. Heres what i want to do today. Since its friday, today were having, you know, in the office here at channel 7, the staffs having our ugly christmas sweater day, so if you guys see anybody with a christmas sweater walking by im going to give them a super 7 umbrella for having their christmas sweater on. If you see anybody keep an eye out. Keep an eye out at home and let me know. Good karma to start off. You wont need this today. What youre going to need is a coat. We start off with skies that are cloudy and the temperatures are quite mild. We are looking at 50s to start the day. Were like 54 degrees. The temperature is down another degree from last hour. The winds are continuing to crank at 7 miles an hour. A couple of gusts moments ago. To the north monticello is down another degree at 36. Thats the cool air that keeps filtering in all day long on a west to northwest wind. This will be a cooler day. It will feel better and the wind profiles in the clouds, the clouds are going to hang in mostly at the coast today. The wind will get cranking today up to around 20 miles an hour at about 30 Miles Per Hour tomorrow. This afternoon you see the temperature dropping here on our futurecast i. By tonight, by this evening were into the 30s for temperatures tonight. Look at the little snow showers, bursts of snow up to the north and west in the poconos, catskills, maybe even as far north as northern new jersey there might be a few of those where the temperature is dropping. Jackets and sweaters, kiddos, youll need that today. After school its about 46. The wind will make it kind of feel like the 30s. Its going to be a cold weekend, the coldest day is going to be tomorrow. 50 and falling temperatures today. 35 tonight, were going to be in the 20s in the suburbs. Tomorrow weve got sunshine, but its a blustery cold day. 43 is going to feel like the 30s all day, and 20s north and west. Youll see saturday its hardly going to get above the freezing mark for the real feel all day long. Were at 44 degrees on sunday and 54 on monday and some 65 degree temperatures on wednesday and 67 for christmas eve. Speaking of good karma. Yes. My pals are here this morning. Look whos here. This is maximus. Maximus wasnt feeling good yesterday. We had to clean up the sidewalk. And this is joy. Joy is a is one of the dogs that goes to the hospital and visits people who are sick in hospitals, so like, okay, im getting you max. We want to give him a snack. If youll let me open the bag. Joy is hungry. Shes like enough of you talking. Shes like shut up talking about me. Give me snacks. [ barking ] you guys have a great day. All right. They are hungry. Yeah. You should always have those treats in his hand already. Agreed, agreed. Lets go right over to our subway status. I can tell you that our subways are running on or close to schedule. Theyve been great all morning long. No major problems to report, metro north, Long Island Railroad, new Jersey Transit also doing just fine. 495 east the ramp to tonnele avenue an accident cleared. By pleasant avenue we have this disabled truck. That has been cleared. Your ride getting through the tolls for the lincoln tunnel are doing okay. Thank you. Iphone. The major retailer is selling the smartphone for 1. Reena ninan reports. Hey there in todays tech bytes today at best buy, you have to sign up for verizon or sprint for two years to get that price. Best buy will also throw in a 200 gift card for trade ins. Theres a new way to search for windows 10 users can now use cortana voice commands to look for specific movies and tv shows. The new feature is part of the netflix app upgrade for windows pcs and tablets. Heres a drill thats in the holiday spirit. Its german manufacturer mounted led lights on it and program it with the flight plan. Presents being delivered to homes, some of the images took as long as as 10 minutes to shoot. And those are your tech bytes with a holiday kick. Have a great day everyone. 6 18. Still ahead on Eyewitness News this morning, new information overnight on mother theresas path to sainthood. Pope francis. Also ahead, a company in charge of keeping our identities protected must pay a huge settlement after claims. But first, a message from a area who cannot be home for the holidays this year. Hey there north port new to give a shoutout to my mom spend less time chasing sales and more time going the extra mile. Find thoughtful gifts at amazing prices everyday at t. J. Maxx, marshalls and homegoods. Give something special, to those most special to you. Find thoughtful gifts at amazing prices everyday on the money this morning, investors are working to recover from a rough day on wall street. The dow jones starts the day down at 17495. The nasdaq composite and s p 500 also began more than 1 lower. Japans nikkei average fell nearly 2 , hong kongs hang seng also dipped. A major Identity TheftProtection Company is paying big to settle charges that it failed to protect customers personal information. Life lock paid 12 million bucks 5 years ago when the federal trade Commission First accused it of making false claims. Now the ftc is back saying life lock is still making false claims. Life lock is refusing to confirm or deny the allegations but it is paying a new fine of 100 million. Adele fans are feeling like they must have tried a thousand times for tickets to her upcoming tour, and still came up empty handed. The tickets went on sale yesterday morning for the singers north american tour and were quickly sold to fans eager to see adele live or sell tickets to the show. Right now there are ticketing being sold on craigslist for tens of thousands of dollars. Adele will play Madison Square garden for six nights. Shes had a good few weeks. Yes she has. Boom. Youre never more than 7 minutes away from weather and traffic. We look down the shore to nice visibilities here. Lights are on. Its a morning where we have that wind starts to pick up out of the northwest at 15 miles an hour. Some of these gusts are going to go to 20 today. Theyre going to go higher tomorrow. Well have good ride this morning on the ferries from staten island, jersey city over around the east river to brooklyn back and forth here. Weve got a 9 miles an hour wind here in the harbor now. Later today that wind picks up. Thats heather orourke. We have a big problem if youre trying to get to the lincoln tunnel, lets go right over to our maps. You can see this big delay now coming off of the new jersey turnpike, route 3 taking you into pleasant avenue. This was a disabled truck. It is now an accident. So once you get past the accident coming down that helix getting into the tolls its a 20 minutedly. The lincoln tunnel is really starting to build up now. An accident to top it off, not going to be a good thing for commuters. Subway service is running on or close. Metro north, Long Island Railroad new Jersey Transit and 78 going east overturned tractortrailer exit 7, Paper Products spill as a result of that. Its a gridlock alert day today. Best bet is to use mass transit and street cleaning rules are in effect. Thank you. Its 6 25. New this morning, the vatican says pope francis has certified the miracle immediated to proceed with make miracle needed to proceed with making mother theresa a saint, the nun that cared for the poorest of the poor will be blessed with one of the Catholic Churchs highest honors. It comes two decades after her death. No date has been set for the canonization but italian media says it could take place next september on the anniversary of the death of the Nobel Peace Prize winner it is the most wonderful time of year, of course especially here in new york city. It really is. Sometimes, though you need just a little bit of help figuring out the perfect holiday match for you and your family. Tomorrow night were going to walk you through all the events it includes a look at the various family shows in town with a holiday theme. Were also going to take a look at some of the other winter themed activities you can enjoy this Holiday Season. Im going to try to show you all that. Much more tomorrow night at 7 30 right here on channel 7 and the watch abc app. Let lori stokes be your guide through winter. Were closing in on 6 30. Continuing to follow breaking news in Lower Manhattan, a suspected shoplifter who escaped an nypd Police Cruiser we are live with where police what makes this simple salad the best simple salad ever . Heart healthy california walnuts. The best simple veggie dish ever . Heart healthy california walnuts. The best simple dinner ever . Heart healthy california walnuts. Great tasting, heart healthy california walnuts. So simple. Now new yorks number 1 news, channel 7 Eyewitness News this morning. Breaking news in Lower Manhattan, a suspected shoplifter who managed to escape nypd custody while handcuffed is back under arrest this morning, and were live at the precinct with how Police Caught up with him. And new this morning, a picture police want you to see as they search for the predator behind a frightening Home Invasion in brooklyn. And looking ahead to the weekend and your accuweather forecast, were finally going to see a cooldown that will make you feel a little more like christmas but the cooler temperatures are not going to hang around,. Im lori stokes. For ken rosato. It is friday december 18th. Youre never more than 7 traffic and meteorologist bill evans. Everybody. Today. Get ready for that. Were looking at whats going to be temperatures falling all day long. Our temperature 51 degrees. We started the hour at 53 the now murray hill 51, 53 whitestone. These temperatures are dropping. They are much warmer than where they should be. We should be at 33 degrees. Were 20 degrees warmer than normal in spots and the temperature just keeps falling all day. By noontime 50, 46 this afternoon and 40 tonight. Brisk and cold and blustery tomorrow. Coldest day of the fall is tomorrow, but its for one day. Ill explain coming up. Heathers looking at your commute. Nice to have you come in on a friday even though youve been sick all week, youre dedicated to your job. Whats the matter with you. Whats the matter with me for coming in on a friday. I dont know, im trying to figure that one out. Lets talk about whats going on with metro north, Long Island Railroad, new Jersey Transit, everything is running on or close to schedule. Subway service is also running on or close. 495 going east, just east of pleasant avenue you have an accident. Check out this long line of volume as you come off the new jersey turnpike and head on to the eastbound side. Once you get past the accident youre going to find a 30 minute delay at the lincoln. The George Washington bridge is 5. The holland is a 20 minute delay. We have an accident on the belt parkway east at eric skin street. A handcuffed prisoner who managed to escape from nypd officers and was on the run for this is a tweet that was sent out showing the nypds search underground in the franklin street subway station that led service. Eyewitness News Reporter dray clark is live in Lower Manhattan with more for us. Good morning, lori. It was quite a search last night, and it came to a morning. Police cuss i did. He was arrested in a group home in sunset park brooklyn. He was brought back here to the first precinct in tribeca. This is him being ushered out of the precinct a few minutes ago with a very brief walk. Hes going to be processed charged with larceny and escape from detention. The 20yearold was initially arrested for stealing jeans from a gap store in lower nypd officers handcuffed him with his hands behind his back, Police Cruiser. Somehow he got loose, kicked the back door out, and then there at the franklin street station. He kept on running down the cat walk and then eventually disappeared inside a tunnel. Meanwhile the mta briefly completely shut down Subway Service while they searched to find that 20yearold suspect. Its really unfortunate that the police cant hang on to people. I mean youre in handcuffs, all of a sudden, you know, youre in custody and you can get away. Thats a problem that police have deal with. I dont think that it makes me feel that anything is less safe. Its an incident that happened, could happen. Reporter again, that suspect 20yearold maxio cruz now in Police Custody after escaping from officers last night here in tribeca. This is not a good look at all for the nypd because its the sixth time since june that a suspect has escaped nypd custody in recent months. Police commissioner bratton has said this is a complete embarrassment for the department and a complete failure in basic policing. Certainly those officers involved in the arrest last night will have to answer to someone about this most recent mishap. Live in tribeca dray clark channel 7 Eyewitness News. All right, thank you, dray. New this morning, police in brooklyn want your help catching a burglar who was scared off when his victim woke up. Heres a picture of the man detectives are now looking for. Hes been on the run since last month. Police say he snuck into an apartment on herkmeyer street in bedstuy while the woman was inside sleeping. She woke up, started screaming and thats when he ran off. Also in brooklyn, and police are searching for a man who violently attacked a woman on board an a train. Police released surveillance images of a man theyre looking for. It happened in brooklyn heights. They say that he punched the woman on her head, then took off. 29yearold woman was not seriously hurt. Friends and family are remembering a new jersey state duty while responding to an emergency call. Trooper eli mccarson was killed in quinton township when his crashed and a utility pole. Mccarson was just 30 years old married. He was assigned to the woodstown station and graduated from the academy in february. 6 35 as we count down the vote 2016 and russian president Vladimir Putin is praising republican front runner donald trump. Putin called the president ial candidate bright and talented. Trump says that he was honored by the comments. The real estate billionaire also says if he is voted president he wants to improve relations with russia. Some state lawmakers are pushing to remove trumps name, meanwhile, from a park in westchester county. Trump donated the land for the undeveloped state park in yorktown back in 06. The lawmakers who were upset about trumps proposal to ban muslim immigrants listened to introduce the anything but trump act that would remove signs bearing his name from the 440acre site. Meantime, democratic president ial hopeful Bernie Sanders now has a major union in his corner. The Communications Workers association announced its endorsement of the vermont senator yesterday in the nations capitol. Cwa is the countrys largest communications and media labor union. Sanders picked up the backing of the liberal group democracy for america. And you can stay with Eyewitness News and abc news for our free news updates about the upcoming president ial election. Gma will have a live report from New Hampshire coming up at 7 00. Youre never more than 7 minutes away from weather and traffic and bill evans with your accuweather sevenday forecast. Here we go, we take a look outside from our camera on the roof looking across 5th avenue, across the park, looking at a beautiful morning here. Its going to be a day where we have a beautiful sunrise. Weve got clouds, most of the clouds are going to hang in at the coast. As the sun gets up this morning, were looking at a pretty good day. The temperature falling all day down now to 51 degrees. When i arrived here at 3 00 this morning it was 56 degrees. Its been dropping all morning long. It will drop all day long into the High Pressure from the west will keep clouds in here. The temperature with the is going to feel chilly by lunchtime with temperatures in the upper 40s to mid40s and down into the 30s tonight. The winds going to make it feel like the 20s. At the bus stop, theres the huckleberries, breezy cold after school. 46 will feel like the 30s. Dress warmly. Your weekend is going to be cold. We talk about that next. Weather then heather every 7 minutes. Lets take a look at a webcam and show you your ride as you travel to the lincoln tunnel trying to get inbound. You can see that traffic off to the lower left corner of your screen. Thats the traffic getting on to 495. Ill tell you whats going on. 495 going east heading towards the lincoln tunnel near pleasant avenue. Accident cleared away. Still 30 minutes at the lincoln, 5 at the George Washington bridge. Gridlock alert today, leave the car at home. Alternate side of the Street Parking rules are in effect. Still ahead on Eyewitness News this morning, mayor de blasio introduces a new initiative aimed at cutting the citys response to complaints about homeless people. Also ahead, it is finally here, star wars the force Awakens Released in theaters nationwide. We are live in midtown where one theater is showing it continuously, 24 7 throughout this entire weekend. And we want it see the spectacular Christmas Lights in your neighborhood. This is a look now at just some of the photos already being sent in to us. You can send us your photos layover. 24 hours. Hello, reykjavik. Oh, so thats how you spell it. What are you looking at . Oh, cool. Hungry. Fish, anyone . Hello, seventh waterfall of the day. Hello, duck boat. Hello, sheep . Oh right itchy icelandic sweaters and no foreign transaction fees. Sweet. One last look. Ahh. Triple points. And were off. Whats next . Wherever the journey takes you, carry American Express gold. Its more than a card. This is the best block of all. Its like candy cane lane. I know. Oohhh. Oh, holiday ferris wheel. I kind of love it. Look at those reindeer. Jeffrey, youre awfully quiet back there. I was just thinking. Maybe its time we finish this test drive and head back to the dealership . That is so jeffrey. Soooo jeffrey. So jeffrey. Oh. Elves. Its practically yours. But we still need your signature. Zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first months payment on a new passat 6 41 and we are learning about a Major Overhaul in the way new york city deals with the homeless. Mayor bill de blasio announced a new Program Including daily canvassing throughout most of manhattan. After accepting the resignation of the commissioner and reorganizing the department, the mayors promising a one hour Response Time to complaints about the homeless. For all this to work, though, the city of new york has to own this problem. We have to own it more assertively than we ever have. We have to reach the street homeless literally every single day. Nearly 200 Staff Members and Police Officers will concentrate on homeless outreach. And the moment has finally arrived. The wait is over for the public showing of star wars, the force awakens. Here we go, and big fans now finally able to see the film, able to get back on the internet and social media now where they dont have to worry about spoilers. Theyve seen it. Eyewitness News Reporter toni yates a huge obsessed star wars fan we found out herself, she is live in midtown to share an early take of the movie this morning. Hey toni. Reporter hey, rob, you know what im on vacation after today. Im going to spend one day seeing it at least three times. Fans saying it was really really good. 100million worth of tickets presold in this country and over in france, oneday showing more than 5 billion dollars and as we expected people are keeping ungodly hours to see the force awakens. Now people came out of the 2 a. M. Showing here at the zigfield theater on west 54th street. They were on cloud 9 saying the movie was beyond what they expected, edge of your seat stuff from start to finish, of course good because we waited seven years for the force awakens. At this point a whole lot of people were not waiting for prime time hours to see this movie. Seeing it again twice on sunday. Im seeing it on the weekend again with my family. Yes. Is it really worth it . Absolutely. We had other plans but we didnt want them spoiled so we came so that we didnt have to wait another day. Still smiling this early in the morning. Ive been up for at least 18 hours and im still on the edge of m seat. Thats what we do, star wars fans. We havent seen anybody out here this morning in costumes but many theaters are saying go ahead, wear your star wars costume. Just leave the face paint, the mask and lightsabers at home. Were live in midtown, toni yates channel 7 Eyewitness News. Thank you. On long island things didnt go quite as planned at the regal theater in deer park. Long island reporter Kristin Thorne tweeted out video from inside the theater as people were told that they would not be able to see the rest of the movie. It stopped playing after about 90 minutes. Workers were not able to get it going again, so people were given two free tickets to come back and they were also given their money back for the film, but it didnt do too much to calm their anger. You know those folks were mad. If you dont have tickets to see the film, you can still take part in star wars history. Fans are working to break the guinness book of World Records for the largest lightsaber battles. Battles are planned for tonight in several cities including here in new york in Washington Square park. The battle in our hood kicks off at 8 00 tonight. Get your sabers ready. All right. 6 45. Time to get a check on the accuweather forecast. Back out to bill. Good morning, everybody here we go. On this friday looking at wind, cooler temperatures, temperatures dropping like a rock during the day today. This morning we look from our cameras here at 4 times square looking south. Weve got some clouds, looking at a temperature of 51 degrees. We started the morning at 56. Temperature will keep falling. The barometer will keep rising. The barometer is unstable as far as the atmosphere goes. That means its going to get we are seeing a front push through. The winds are going to pick up today. Coldest day is going to be tomorrow. We warm back up to record high temperatures next week. 52 across long island. Were looking at 51, 52 degrees around bridgeport connecticut over toward white plains. These temperatures have been slowly dropping. Clouds are going to hang to the coast. Long island, long island, jersey shore here. Well have breaks of sun coming through these clouds. High pressure to our west coming in is what makes it so windy today. You see on our futurecast overnight tonight and tomorrow with this cold air crashing down, there could actually be some snow showers, see that up to the north and west, particularly the catskills, the poconos, look saturday morning, maybe some flurries in northern new jersey. There comes a batch in the afternoon saturday. That makes it all the way to passaic, bergen and maybe to the bronx before it dries out. You cant rule out flurries in this blustery very cold air mass tomorrow. Youll see by 2 00 today the temperatures down into the 40s. Tonight were down into the 30s. Tomorrow we start the day in the 30s. With the wind it feels like the 20s. Tomorrow afternoon its only around 41 degrees. Were going to be looking at real feels in the 30s all day long on saturday. Grab a jacket or sweater kiddos, after school its about 46. Will feel like the 30s with the wind. Saturday the coldest day weve had all fall. Winter begins next week. The coldest day on saturday. We may not see another cold temperature like that, 40 degrees, feels like the 30s, we may not see that for the rest of december. Were at 50 with the temperature falling today down to a low of 35. 25 in the suburbs. Corm were looking at a tomorrow were looking at a very cold day, 43s going to feel like 33 tomorrow with the wind and there might be some flurries around particularly north and west. Then we warm back up next week. Were into the 50s quickly by monday. Mid60s wednesday. Thursday is christmas eve. It will be 67 degrees. Going to be a warm christmas this year. All right. Really quiet here opt west side this morning. I wonder why. Did everybody leave town . I guess so, you know, thursday is the new get away day i think. I think youre right. Okay bill, thank you. All right. Lets check in now with heather for a look at the morning commute, heather. We chased them away. It as gridlock alert day. They dealt with it yesterday and the day before and today once again and then another one on wednesday. Now we are going to take a look at our mass transit times, metro north, Long Island Railroad, new Jersey Transit all doing okay. Subway service on or close to schedule. Belt parkway going eastbound nearer skin street, you have an accident. Verrazano bridge inbound the upper level we have a disabled vehicle heading into brooklyn, and then 495 east at pleasant avenue an accident cleared away. Lets take a look at a webcam and show you 440 or routes 1 and 9 northbound getting into 440 a disabled truck being cleared away. Our street cleaning rules are in effect, and again, it it a gridlock alert day. Thank you. Actor martin sheen is recovering from quadruple bypass surgery this morning. Sheens son emelio estevesz tweeting this picture. The 78yearold star of the west wing and apocalypse now is out of intensive care. Sheen did have a heart attack many years ago on the set of apocalypse now back in 1979. Wow. Yeah. 6 49. And a new jersey family celebrating the holidays in a big way after one small act of kindness led to a chain reaction. It all started with liz woodward, a waitress at a New Brunswick diner who paid for two firefighters breakfasts after they spent 12 hours fighting a warehouse fire. They shared her kindness online and the world responded. Donations poured in to help pay for a van that would accommodate lizs father who uses a wheelchair. Steve woodward also spent more than a year and a half in treatment for a brain aneurysm. The familys challenges didnt end there. Our house was being foreclosed on and we lost our home, and weve since moved, and like i said regardless of whatever challenges my familys faced weve remained together. After so many people pitched in, the company that makes the Wheelchair Accessible van also wanted to do its part. The van was donated free of charge to a family who understands the importance of kindness. Thats awesome all the way around. Yeah, wow. 6 50, and breaking news in queens, we are just getting information in on a deadly crash involving a parked school bus. Children were not on board at the time. Well tell you what we know coming up after the break. Also lebron james plows into the crowd during a game woman sitting court side. And fighting flames while surrounded by reptiles, the unique task for a group of firefighters the caught on patients across the country have spoken. They recently rated their Care Experience at over 3,500 hospitals nationwide in a survey conducted for the centers for medicare and medicaid services. Fewer than 6 received 5 stars. Among them was Cancer Treatment centers of america in philadelphia. Learn more at cancercenter. Com slash eastern. Cancer Treatment Centers of america. Care that never quits. Children. Have you seen rosderlot . Abc7 and your Tristate Ford dealers thank you for helping protect our children. And some breaking news to report right now, a woman is dead after a crash involving a porsche and a parked school bus in queens. No one was on that school bus at the time. Thats the good news. Investigators say the driver of the porsche lost control crashing spot bus parked outside of an Elementary School on sanford avenue in flushing. The passenger of the porsche was killed in this. The 29yearold driver is being treated for nonlifethreatening injuries. And new this morning, this is definitely not the way youd like a loved one to meet lebron james. Night in cleveland. James is chasing a ball into the crowd and steam rolls wife of she is the wife of the number 2 golfer in the world, jason 2. Ellie day who just gave birth to her second child about a month ago had to be removed on a stretcher after all this. She is okay. She was released from the hospital overnight. In the meantime king james did tweet an apology, but all 6 foot 5, 280 of him, boom, right into that woman. Ouch. Firefighters rescue a group of coldblooded victims from a burning building. The fire started at a Reptile Store near anaheim, california. Some were even given lizard sized oxygen masks to recover from the smoke. Robs just saying what. The fire was under control in about 30 minutes but crews spent hours recovering the 700 plus reptiles. Most of them survived. The fire is being blamed on an electrical malfunction. I didnt know they made i didnt know that either. You learn something every day. 6 55. Another update on breaking news in Lower Manhattan, the new video of the suspected shoplifter who escaped Police Custody last night. Police caught up with him this morning, and now Holiday Seasons just like football season. You got your big games. And regular games. Get it all at a great price. And the Holiday Season is won. Everything in one place. Holiday seasons just like football season. You got your big games. And regular games. Get it all at a great price. And the Holiday Season is won. Everything in one place. My stop shop. Police are recaptured the suspect who got away from nypd officers while in handcuffs. Dray clark live in tribeca. Dray. Reporter good morning guys, 20yearold marcio cruz was found in sunset park brooklyn. Heres video of him. Last night he was arrested for stealing jeans at a gap store in Lower Manhattan after he was handcuffed and placed into the back of a cruiser he somehow managed to escape, run to a subway station and then disappear into a tunnel. Again, just after 1 30 this morning he was arrested at a group home in brooklyn. Live in tribeca, dray clark channel 7 Eyewitness News. Thank you. Heather. Yeah, so we have delays if youre going to the verrazano bridge if thats the way you normally commute you can see that we have this inbound upper level disabled vehicle being cleared away doing just fine as far as mass transit. Thats certainly the way to go. It is another gridlock alert day today, plus being a friday night you just dont want the headache. Amen. I get it [ laughter ] leave the car at home. Cold then hot again. Grab a coat. Its going to be windy this afternoon, a little on the chilly side. Were at 50 now. Thats your 7 00 temperature. 53 around cambria heights. We will be looking at temperatures falling all afternoon town into the 30s this evening and tonight. Blustery and cold tomorrow. Maybe some flurries. Tomorrows going to feel like freezing all day long, warms back up to a record high by christmas eve. Thank you bill