Words with the driver and pulled out his metro handgun and said, im the police. You dont want this. Eric, the victim had to stare facefirst at smiths semiautomatic pistol. The 40yearold said he was afraid for his life but managed to copy down smiths license plate number. Montgomery county officers quickly caught up with the offduty cop fleeing in his ford mustang. They determined that smith was a 15year veteran of the Metro Transit Police department and today he pleaded guilty to seconddegree assault and misconduct in office. He also had to resign from the department plus give up his taxpayer funded pension which would have provided him with thousands of dollars of retirement benefits. He pulls up on the side and he has his pistol pointed. He goes, what now . Im the i said, you better be jesus christ if you are pointing a gun at me. He said, what . Im the [bleep] police. With what is going on today you are a white officer pointing a gun at a black guy in his car for no reason. Kevin a judge will sentence smith in december and he could get off as easy as probation or he may go to jail for a number of years. Kevin lewis, abc7 news. Michelle new developments. After proclaiming his innocence, justin wolfe entered a guilty employee. He admitted to his role in planning daniel petroles murder. We have more coming up at 5 00 including how much of the 41year sentence wolfe is likely to serve. Alison turning now to vote 2016. The third night for the republican tonights speaker includes ted cruz, newt gingrich, marco rubio, Governor Scott walker and Donald Trumps running mate governor mike pence. Some of the biggest name on the g. O. P. Side of maryland politics are not there with the republicans in cleveland. Our Maryland Bureau chief brad bell is live where the annual j. Miller cause clam bake is wrapping up. Brad . Brad you cant hardly blame me for finding this excuse for a story today, right . To get to a crab feast in the beautiful town on the eastern shore. I am not alone here. This is a political event. Frankly, many of the people here are not just for the crabs, they are here because they dont want to be in cleveland. Clams by the ton, people by the thousands. The maryland event of the week. The annual clam bake in tiny, end of the road crab city, usa. To come out to enjoy yourself. Eat crabs and clams. Brad its a 40yearold tradition that seems older thrown by the chamber of commerce this time every year. There is miss crustacean, there is one, says its good for the region. This event is so big, people from all over come around and put us on the map. Its a magnet for politicians, especially for the election years. You get to be out with real people and listen to the concerns and hear about what people are concerned about. Brad this year for maryland republicans like larry hogan seeking distance from republican nominee donald trump its a refuge away from the Republican Convention in cleveland. I dont need to watch balloons fall or listen to boring political speeches. I would rather be here with people in maryland. Thats what they elected me to do. Brad for the senate candidate. I dont think they are eating crabs in cleveland. Brad most of the crowd here are more focused on the cr i dont get involved in politics. Whatever happens, happens. Brad today, you know what . Seems an awfully long way from cleveland. Brad bell, abc7 news. Jonathan fresh crab, political speeches. Tough one. Resignation offer today from the woman who wrote Melania Trumps speech for the first night of Republican National convention but the Campaign Says they do not want to accept the resignation. Not going to happen. Chief Political Correspondent scott thuman joining us live in cleveland. Is this overshadowing the politics there or was this something that blew over as soon as it happened . Scott it matters a lot who the audience you are talking about. Here its a dismissive crowd. They think its drumming up controversy that shouldnt really exist. Republicans so perhaps that is an expected answer. The important thing to note we have had what we thought would be a issue reignite by the fact that the staffer has now admitted to taking part of the 2008 speech from Michelle Obama and inserting it in the speech we heard from Melania Trump monday night and offered her resignation. It was rejected by the Trump Campaign as far as we understand. They hope it puts an end to the controversy. But well see. We thought it might be over last night and it has found new life. Jonathan this is day three. Everything going along as expected. It should be a big night. We expect to see the running mate. What should we expect tonight . What message coming out tonight . Scott interestingly enough, about 15 minutes ago we saw senator ted cruz on stage. You cant be lost on the irony he wanted to be on stage just not in this capacity. He thought it might be his shining moment to be the nominee. What we saw on monday night, that kind of mini rebellion a lot was orchestrated by people who were ted cruz. They still havent signed on to the Trump Campaign. Perhaps never really will. That is what we are waiting to see when he speaks. Kind of like a runnersup for Vice President ial selections or options. Newt gingrich will also be taking the stage. Notably absent of course is john kasich. He never released the delegates in ohio. They never went to trump. There is bad blood there. Jonathan we are talking about ohio, a key swing state that you have to win that to win the presidency. The New York Times now is reporting something you mentioned about a week ago. Trump should reach out to kasich as being Vice President. Now the New York Times reporting that in fact behind the scenes that did happen. What about that . Scott well, that is our understanding. We are still trying to sort some of that ourselves. As far as we know it sounds like perhaps donald trump jr. , by the way i have an extensive conversation with that we will play for you that donald trump jr. Supposedly reached out to one of the staffers on kasichs campaign and said you could be Vice President and offering up he would be in charge of most things that the typically would. There are some denials of that this everything. But john kasich has been very clear from the beginning. He wasnt interested in taking part in a donald trump candidacy at all. And if this is true, well, that would be proof of it. Jonathan endorsement from kasich would be helpful in this case. Join us tonight at 7 00 for a special on the third day here of the Republican National convention. Your voice, your future it airs at 7 00 on the sister station newschannel8 or watch it streaming live at wjla. Com without any commercials or interruptions. Alison hopefully you made it outside a little bit today. It pretty much is the gem of more than a weeks worth of heat and humidity. Chief meteorologist doug hill is here with a look at how much more time we have before it gets doug today is it. The heat and the humidity is going to add on. Capital wheel, National Harbor , a few clouds. Some areas in the middle 80s. That is good news. 82 in annapolis and 83 in abaltimore. Its comfortable. Good stuff. What will change in the next several days, the heat will rise and the dew point temperatures will rise. It will be awful. This evening will be fine. Tomorrow, the sunshine. We start to warm up. The humidity is still under control. 90 in the afternoon. The next heatwave will make headlines. We will tell you about that coming up. Michelle thank you. Covering metro today. And some bumps on the first day of the fifth safetrack surge. Transportation reporter Brianne Carter is live at the ballston station as we hit the brianne well, so far so good. Some reporters are riding stop and go. But take a look here at ballston station. We have shuttle buses and the local buses that are showing up at this hour. The work now underway along the track after we learn that the work here was delayed this morning during rush hour after a power issue. While crews executed a power plan last night on the track, this morning the crews discovered power cables that needed to be disconnected to keep the workers shafe. Shutting them down would interrupt the section of track where trains were single tracking in rush hour so the crews waited until after rush hour to minimize the impact but ultimately delaying track work. Metro said the priority was safety over service. Service was further disrupted for many, even longer than the expected wait of trains every 18 minutes. Riders tonight confused and frustrate have attempted to this is the first time i attempted to take metro since june. Im not sold on it yet. Ill be back in the car and make another effort. Brianne back live you can see the shuttle buses. Not many getting on and using them at this point but we have also learned ridership today, this morning west of east ballston church, the station is a 30 dip of ridership. Similar to what we saw on the same stretch of track in surge one. Jonathan breaking news. Southwest airlines is having issues with the Computer System nationwide and as a result all the flights are grounded. The airline says they are aware of the issue. They are investigating what its calling a problem right now. Clearly. Well keep you updated as the information trickles in especially if the clutch is somehow affecting flights. All southwest Airline Flights grounded because of a glitch 234 the Computer System. When things change ell get back to you and let you know what coming up next at abc7 news at 4 00 forget park and ride. What about park and sell . We investigate what is going on in local lots. Michelle later with the negative stories about the police and the communities they serve a part of our area is serving something up a little different. Michelle then the districts first delegate to Congress Heads to court after disappearing from the u. S. For years. Michelle we want to check on the roads for you this afternoon. Lets check in with Angela Foster with traffic details. How is it looking out there . Angela a big difference from this morning. We cleared up the mess from last nights storm. No flood organize trees down but we have a trouble spot. A serious accident in great falls, maryland. Newschopper7 is live over the scene. There are a lot of folks turned around as a result of the accident and the closure in great falls. River bend road shut down north of georgetown pike. We are looking at the capital beltway. An unusual outer loop delay that starts in bethesdad continues to the springfield interchange. That is the latest on the roads. Well send it back to you. Michelle a gorgeous day outside. To do anything. Jonathan it is fantastic what is coming in a matter of hours. Yikes a real treat for folks to the citi open. Michelle Cheryl Conner is live at the Rock Creek Tennis Center. Alison some kids paired up professionals today. What a thrill for them. Cheryl would you love to be a reporter . I would love to be a reporter. Cheryl she is already f fence here from three years ago . Yes. Cheryl you are a senior in high school. The Washington Tennis Education Foundation brought students here for the professional Development Day. Chris green is paired up with the citi open tournament director and this is a behind the scenes for what it takes to get the players in front of a live audience. Get new skills. Business manager. Like my partner. Its professional Development Day so the students with the Washington Tennis Education Foundation followed the pros off the court. Wtef is the nonprofit benefiting from the tournament. Get a sense of what you want to do early on its a competitive world. They put in advantage with network and knowledge. They e checking out the Rock Creek Tennis Center before it opens to the you dont know what they have eaten or if theyve slept the night before. It brings a lot of things that you need when taking a test like focus. This is the first day. We hope to make it something the kids can continue on. Green knows working on the backhand is just one play in the game of life. They took me in. Took me under their wing and made me a better person. Cheryl they get a 50,000 check for the end of the program. Jonathan she has a future. Thank you. You can watch the citi open on the sister station the tennis channel. Here is a list of where you can find it through the local satellite and find a complete list because we put it on website at wjla. Com. Michelle im glad they are getting a break when it comes to the weather. They had extreme heat and the rain that rolled through. Jonathan huge storm. Michelle today is perfect. Alison the weekend will be super hot. Doug extremely hot. One reason is so pleasant is the line of storms that came in along the front. Wild. Jonathan some storm michelle incredible. Doug people have been talking about it all day long. A lot of you shared pictures with us today. Meteorologist josh knight put together a nice summary of what we saw and experienced last night. Here is the story. Josh a quiet evening captured by debra in d. C. Wasnt quiet for long. This is the sound of hail hitting the window. A ton of the hail was collected on the streets below. Laura sent us these pictures from the same area. Hailstones northeast d. C. Meteorologist steve rudin was on air when the severe thunderstorms pushed through downtown. You can see all the lightning. Rich took this picture from across the tidal basin. Another point of view from gaithersburg. These from leila. This is from brian in olney. Check this out taken by one of our own, ben rice at the owa jima memorial. Now the cleanup. John saunderman showed us trees toppled around the white house. Montgomery county fire showed several trees crushing houses near silver spring. You can see where lightning struck a house in bethesda. Meteorologist josh knight, abc7 news. Doug all right, josh. Like a lot of the photographs we shared with you, we like to show them on tv as well. If we have any news, see it and sen it to pics wjla. Com. Get it onair and online. Shift going through the next few days with the excessive heat and the humidity. If you dine outside at a restaurant, cafe or on your backyard or patio. Its gorgeous tonight. Temperatures will slowly drop in the lower 80s with low humidity and sunshine. The big story is the big surge of heat that is building and heading our direction. The warmth starts on the ground and the level of the warm air rises in the atmosphere it will be just, be a solid four to fiveday period of excessive heat and building humidity. We have the winds out of the east and the northeast. That will ramp up the temperatures and the humidity levels and the discomfort. Tonight is mostly tomorrow is hot but the humidity is under control. But by friday is 95. It will feel like 100 degrees. That is just the begining of the heatwave. The weekend forecast for the citi open the final day is 98 air temperature on saturday. 99 on sunday. Heat index values 105110 degrees. In the next seven days the high heat continues to monday and possibly on tuesday. When it cools off, we are talking about the lower 90s by wednesday. Eventually showers and storms. Use the information as you make weekend plans. The heat and the humid is a big story. Michelle thank you. We want to get back to breaking news. More on the Southwest Airlines nationwide computer problem. Head down to the newsroom with leon. What are you hearing . Leon what we are seeing and hearing is Southwest Airlines problem is now having an impact here on the regional airports. We are seeing now, reports out of Reagan National long lines and we are hearing words. Picture from baltimore right now. You can see the long lines are tracking up behind the ticket counters. The word we are getting is the problem that southwest has is not allowing anybody to print out any boarding passes or any tickets anywhere. There but word that boarding passes were being written up manually at reagan airport. Sam ford is on his way. Well get word from him after he sees what is going on there. But this is happening nationwide. We tried to check with southwest directly. Here is what the website showing now. They are acknowledging there is a problem and they will try to keep people informed on what is going on. Right now they are only communicating by way of twitter and they will let everybody know where they are and where they stand as the process plays out. But right now planes for southwest are not taking off. The ones that are landing are probably not going to take off for some time. We will keep an eye on the situation and watch the local is happening there if you have a flight that is supposed to take off this evening. Well keep you posted on abc7. Back upstairs to you. Michelle thank you. Bad timing for that. Everyone trying to make Summer Travel moves. Come up for us at 4 00 remembering the man behind some of the most memorable shows and movies in the last 50 years. Kellye im kellye lynn in silver spring. I will tell you about a Summer Program helping to close the achievement gap. That stor michelle while most students are taking a break from school. Classrooms are bustling with activity in montgomery county. In todays spotlight on education kellye lynn shows us how a Summer Program at eight schools in the county is ed helping to close the achievement gap. Kellye school is in session even though its july. Im here because i want get more education. She has come to the right place. She is helping her improve her reading and math and it stands for building educated leaders for life. We come in to help close the achieveme kellye many students have academic activity at th