Will the discovery shed light on the mystery as his family clings to hope hell be found alive. And sharethelove. Elton john marries his longtime partner, David Furnish, posting nearly every minute of their big day on social media. The wedding album that will have you feeling the love today, monday, december 22nd, 2014. Announcer from nbc news, this is today, with matt lauer and savannah guthrie. Live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And good morning. Welcome to our show on a monday morning. We should mention that savannah is off for the holiday week and als doing a little Vacation Time as well. Were happy to have dylan and tamron here this morning. Good morning. I want to turn right to our top story this morning. Its a disturbing one. Emotions running high over the shooting deaths of two Police Officers right here in new york city, gunned down in their patrol car. The president offering his support in a phone call with new yorks Police Commissioner, bill bratton. Well talk to him exclusively in a moment. But first, nbcs Stephanie Gosk has the latest. Stephanie, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, matt. Well, today, a police force that was already facing possible threats of a lone wolf terrorist attack is now facing a new possible threat, copy cats. Officials have called the murder of these two policemen right here in brooklyn an assassination and an ambush. The first Police Officers to be killed by gunfire in new york in three years. Overnight, a crowd gathered at the scene of the crime. Not to protest against the nypd, but instead to show support for two of its slain officers. 40yearold rafael ramos and 32yearold wenjian liu. Family members of officer ramos thanked their supporters and made a plea to the country. I hope we can move forward and find a path to a peaceful coexistence. Reporter investigators say 28yearold Ismaaiyl Brinsley was driven at least in part by hatred of the police. Detectives say he shot his exgirlfriend in baltimore. She survived the attack. Brinsley then traveled to new york, arriving at 11 00 a. M. At some point, investigators believe he posted two threatening instagram messages. One hashtags eric garner and mike brown and reads in part, im putting wings on pigs today. They take one of ours, lets take two of theirs. Once in brooklyn, detectives say brinsley had an ominous warning for two strangers. He asked them to follow him on instagram, and then he says, watch what im going to do. Reporter police say brinsley had been arrested 19 times, serving two years for weapons possession. His Mother Told Police he was, quote, often violent, and that he tried to commit suicide just last year. But some believe the recent nationwide protest over Police Tactics ultimately triggered the crime. The new York Police Union laid some of the blame on mayor bill de blasio, turning their backs when he came to visit the victims families. Talking about the problem reporter former mayor giuliani directly criticized president obama. Weve had four months of propaganda, starting with the president , that everybody should hate the police. Reporter and then there are the words of ramos 13yearold son, posted on facebook. Everyone says they hate cops, but they are the people that they call for help. I will always love you and i will never forget you. A spokesman for mayor de blasio responded to the police union, saying in part, its unfortunate that in a time of great tragedy, some would resort to irresponsible, overheated rhetoric. So far, the tension between the force and the mayor does not seem to be calming down. Matt . Stephanie gosk, thank you very much. New York City Police commissioner bill bratton is with us now, exclusively. Commissioner bratton, good morning. Nice to have you here. My condolences to you and your entire force. Its a tragic event. Thank you. Youve met with the families of officer ramos and officer liu, how do you begin to explain to them that their loved ones were, as you put it, assassinated as they simply sat in their patrol car . There are almost no words that can explain what happened. At the hospital with the ramos family, their 13yearold son, a wonderful young man, a wonderful message that he sent out. The liu family is totally devastated. An immigrant chinese family, only son became a Police Officer, a position of great status and prestige in that community and theyre still reeling. Still reeling from it. It seems no doubt that this gunman came to new york city to kill Police Officers. He boasted about it on instagram saying, quote, im putting wings on pigs today. They take one of ours, lets take two of theirs. Hashtag eric garner and hashtag mike brown. He had a street of criminal activity, a history of violent activity. Do you think the cases of eric garner and Michael Brown pushed a disturbed man over the edge . Thats what were looking at. Were attempting to figure out where he actually lives, so we can do a rollback and see if he left behind anything other than what were finding on those two phones that weve recovered. But its quite apparent, quite obvious that it was a direct spinoff of this issue of these demonstrations. This is a difficult time in this city, and you know it all too well. There is an undeniable rift between the mayor of this city and members of the police force. The Police Union Officials are very angry at the mayor, bill de blasio, for the way hes portrayed Police Officers in the wake of the death of eric garner. Has the Police Commissioner, when you saw those officers turn their back on him at the hospital, has the mayor of this city lost the trust and confidence of the police force . I think he has lost it with some officers. I was at the hospital when that event occurred. Do you support those officers and the way they protested . I dont support that activity, i dont think its appropriate, particularly in that setting. But its reflective of the anger of some of them. Theres a lot going on in the nypd at the moment. Some 10,000 of our officers are doing a new pension system, where significantly their benefits, this occurred about four years ago, theres a lot of anger about that. Since weve had so many attacks on young Police Officers this past year. So theres a lot of moving currents that are creating the current tension and atmosphere. But in the wake of the eric garner situation, commissioner, do you feel that the mayor of this city, by his actions or his words, has increased the threat against Police Officers . And by that, i mean, violent threats against Police Officers . I do not. I dont believe that at all. Ive spent a lot of time with this mayor. I have received this year, over 400 million outside of my normal budget to improve our training, to improve our facilities, to acquire technology. And an ironry, were going to equip every new York City Police officer with a smartphone. In the event of receiving a notification such as this thats now coming into the city thats a threat to officers, our ability to get that word out to our officers is limited oftentimes to radio transmissions, et cetera. With the smartphones, we can blast out the picture right away. Former new york city mayor rudy giuliani, i think you served under mayor giuliani, suggested that bill de blasio go and give a speech to Police Officers, and in some way, apologize for some of what he said in the wake of the death of their eric garner. Would that be helpful . I dont know that an apology is necessary. One of the things of concern at the moment is this issue is dividing down partisan lines, republican, democrat. You had governor pataki yesterday, former mayor giuliani, going after the president , pataki going after the mayor. And its starting to shape up along partisan lines, which is unfortunate. This is something that should be bringing us all together, not taking us apart. Youve been doing this kind of work for a long time. 44 years. Have you ever seen a time like this of tension and a divide like this in a city . 1970, when i first came into policing, my first ten years were around this type of tension. Who would have ever thought deja vu all over again, that wed be back where we were 40someodd years ago. I think this one is a little different, though, in the sense that social media capabilities to spread the word constantly. We had this is the seventh incident in which two Police Officers have been killed together in new york in the last 40someodd years. 70s, we saw three incidents like this in a short period of time. But were in a change moment, i think is the term, here in the United States. And the idea is to take out of this crisis, find opportunity to move it forward. And i think that can happen. I came back into the department a year ago, and you seized on this tragedy, well seize on all of these issues. And well move forward. Again, our condolences to you and all members of the police force for this loss. Thank you. Thanks for joining us this morning. Lets go over to tamron. Now to the powerful christmas week storms that could cause major problems for millions of holiday travelers. Dylan dreyer is here in for al. Dylan, what are we looking at right now . Well, a busy travel week and the weather map is extremely busy. Lets take a look at it here. There is a lot going on and its only monday. And its only going to get worse. We have snow showers back through the rockies. Weve got some rain in the midwest. And we have some heavier rain down through the southeast right now. This is going to move out and another storm is going to regenerate. Here we are, tuesday at 7 00 a. M. , stronger storms expected down along the gulf coast, thats with heavy rain and perhaps even an isolated tornado. Gusty winds as well. And then its going to start making its way up through the carolinas as we go through the day on tuesday and into early wednesday morning. There will be a couple of lighter snow showers, waintry mix, just south of st. Louis. But the heavier storms will be falling down along the southeast and up into the northeast, by the time we go into Christmas Eve, and then on Christmas Day itself, this whole storm system will start to pull away, with its strongest winds back through the great lakes. We are looking at a lot of rain out of this one. We can see as much as 1 to 2 inches of rain through the northeast, and also that slight risk of stronger storms. Even though this is a rain event, we are still looking at some very strong storms that could cause delays up and down the east coast. And tom costello is at reagan airport. Tom. Reporter yeah, good morning to you. The good news is, as it relates to air travel, friday was actually the busiest travel day for this entire christmas week. But lets take a look at this week. Lets start with tomorrow. The key airports to watch, with that rain, its really going to be isolated, we think, in terms of the key airports to watch. Were going to be watching atlanta, chicago, low clouds and ceiling and fog could be a problem, also d. C. , new york, and snow in minneapolis, but wednesday, Christmas Eve, is really the day that we really have to watch whats happening there. Were expecting major airport delays in the north and in the east, so that means everything from atlanta all the way up to charlotte, washington, baltimore, philly, boston, new york, and spreading, of course, to the west. Chicago, cleveland, detroit, key airports to watch. The good news is Christmas Day should be light in terms of travel and really, were only concerned potentially about snow out west. In Salt Lake City and in my hometown of denver. For the most part, we expect it to be a clearsailing day on Christmas Day. But getting there could be a little dicey in terms of rain and wind over the next few days. Dylan, back to you. Tom, ill take it from here. Tom, thank you very much. There is new fallout this morning thats tied to that massive cyberattack on Sony Pictures. While the Obama Administration considers its response, north korea is issuing some new threats. Nbcs Halley Jackson has the latest on that. Halley, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, matt. North korea is now threatening these new strikes against the United States, saying it will, quote, blow up targets like the white house and the pentagon. And while this kind of escalated rhetoric is certainly not unusual from north korea, it does underscore the escalated tensions between the two countries. As sony execs plan their next move with the controversial film the interview, u. S. Officials are grappling with how to respond to these cyberattacks. For the u. S. Government, its no joke. No, i dont think it was an act of war, i think it was an act of cybervandalism that was very costly, very expensive. We take it very seriously. Reporter the president s critics say that does not go far enough. Its more than vandalism. Its a new form of warfare. Reporter now, north koreas threatening its own response, accusing the u. S. Government of being deeply involved with making the interview. Sonys comedy featuring a plot to kill north korean leader, kim jongun. I think weve got to recognize that this is not a sony security problem. This is a National Security problem. And the government has got to lead. Reporter the white house is asking china, north koreas biggest trading partner, for its cooperation, and president obama has promised a proportional response to the hack. This attack should be taken seriously as an attack. And that would mean that the country would be added to the statesponsored terrorist list. Reporter but amid calls for serious response also came jokes. Comedian mike myers makes a dramatic entrance on saturday night live this weekend, playing dr. Evil and mocking the cyberattack. But why pick on sony . They havent had a hit since the walkman. But for sony, its no laughing matter. Industry analysts say the hack may cost sony upwards of 100 million after the studio yanked the film before its planned Christmas Day release, since movie theaters refuse to show it. I think they made a mistake. Reporter but sony insists its not giving up without a fight. We have not caved. We have not given in. Reporter still, the biggest movie in the country remains one almost nobody has seen. Sonys top lawyer now says the interview will be released to the public. Sony plans to do it. Its just a matter of time. But the fallout for the studio may not be over. This crisis has renewed some speculation this morning about a possible sale of Sony Pictures, although some analysts say thats probably fairly unlikely. Matt . All right, Halley Jackson, thank you very much. A lot of people talking about, if you release it on a streaming service, does the streaming service then become the target of the hack . Exactly. Make you a little nervous to download it myself. Now here with another tragic story for us out of florida this morning. A horrible story. A suspect in florida is in custody, facing a firstdegree murder charge in the death of a Police Officer there on sunday. Officials say a fugitive trying to evade arrest shot tarpen springs officer charles klondike and then ran him over as he sped away. The 45yearold veteran officer was the father of six. Theres apparently no connection to the ambush killings here in new york. At least seven people are recovering this morning after lightning struck dangerously close to them. And it happened sunday in a Florida Parking lot as fans left a Tampa Bay Buccaneers game. Lightning hit a car and knocked some people to the ground. One man said, it is amazing that nobody was killed. New developments in the search for a missing college student, Shane Montgomery in pennsylvania. On sunday, a voluntary diving Recovery Team found montgomerys keys after searching for more than four hours in the Schuylkill River in philadelphia. Nothing more, though, was found. The 21yearold student was out with friends early on thanksgiving, but never made it home. Florida state quarterback Jameis Winston has been cleared of Sexual Assault allegations made two years ago by a former student. The decision was made after a twoday school code of conduct hearing. The former judge in charge of the hearing said the evidence was insufficient to satisfy the burden of proof in the case. A prosecutor also decided earlier not to charge winston. A temporary setback for skiing great lindsey vonn. On sunday, while trying to tie the record for the most world cup wins, she crashed during a superg race in france. Vonn was not injured and she will try again next month in austria. She recently returned to competition and won her 60th world cup just a few weeks ago. On the comeback trail, wishing her well. Very encouraging news for our nbc colleague, tom brokaw. A year after he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and began treatment, he now says his cancer is in remission. He will soon go on a Drug Treatment Program to keep it there. We are so glad. This is such good news. He is one tough cookie, as my mom would say. Were happy about that. Natalie, thanks very much. Dylan, whats going on . A little bit of everything. Weve got fog, got snow, a wintry mix. Much of the snowier weather is back through the plains. Stronger storms down today through the southeast with heavy rain across northern florida and also a l