Transcripts For WRC News4 At 5 20150108 : vimarsana.com

One i think youre going to like at least well be above the freezing mark. Any time of course, youre away from your tv you can always get our app cast thats he was giving you a forecast and taking you hour by hour. Download at itunes or google play. The bitter cold made for a miserable ride for some on metro. They had to contend with cracked rails today. Commuters took to social media, tweeting out pictures from maryland to d. C. And virginia all showing the platforms packed. Others posting about extremely long wait lines between the trains and since it is still cold we are tracking the impact to metro right now for this evening commute. Transportation reporter adam tuss live now at the East Falls Church station. How is it looking . Reporter so far, so good tonight, wendy, the broken rail and cracked rail from earlier today has been fixed. But its still bitterly cold out here tonight. Thats what riders are dealing with. But, yeah this morning you might say that Mother Nature got the best of metro. Chopper 4 above the grovener metro station the red line is frigid. A lot of riders waiting in the cold for a long time. The freezing temperatures causing some older trains to break down. The cold also completely snapped a rail near the East Falls Church station the orange and silver lines. Top it off with a cracked rail on the green and yellow lines at the prince Georges Plaza station, and the frustration palpable. Every minute were only one stop away. We waited about 30 minutes. To get right here. Reporter pictures from up and down the metro system on twitter showed the crowds the delays and the tough trip. Here at metro headquarters here today, plenty of explaining. Metal, heat and cold expand and contract. It seemed not so long ago we had temperatures in the mid 60s but that was only sunday. Last night, temperatures in the Single Digits. That kind of a temperature swing is when you start seeing rails crack or break. Reporter this is an issue in other systems. Just yesterday, bostons rail system warning about the potential for cracked rails, and new york city a broken rail that caused the derailment was cracked for over a year. Still, some riders like audrey say they want metro to do better and be better prepared. I take buses too, so last night i waited over an hour for a bus at 11 00 at night in the cold. Reporter and back here now live when metro has a day like this with such long delays should you get a refund . Coming up at 6 00 we get an answer from the transit agency. Reporting live at the East Falls Church station, adam tuss, news4. Thank you, adam. For the second time this week the Fairfax County School System is under fire for its decision about closing schools or keeping them open. Lets go to news4s Kristin Wright in fairfax with more on the schools there. Kristin . Reporter jim, greenbrier elementary here is one of the many that was closed eventually today in Fairfax County. We went out to talk to parents about what they think about the way this week has gone in terms of the brutal weather this week. We talke parent strong words from her to Fairfax County schools, under fire for how it handled this week of Winter Weather. Today the School System at first called for a delay, but then administrators changed their mind this morning and cancelled school. The backlash started tuesday. Conditions outside, as you remember, were treacherous. Fairfax schools stayed open that day, and after todays decision, there are some questions, among some. The superintendent talked. Take a listen. We had quite a number of bus drivers unable to report to work due to a variety of different circumstances. And we had quite a number of buses that would not start. We were very concerned that that might cause some delayed bus pickups for students and just because of the frigid cold temperatures we decided to close school for today. Reporter its 4 degrees outside. 4 degrees. So you know im glad the School System finally came to its senses and said you know what, its too cold to have children waiting for the bus. The School System says this is all about safety first. And we just learned in the past few minutes there will be a twohour delay in the Fairfax County School District tomorrow. Live in fairfax, Kristin Wright news4. Kristin, thanks. Among those with the coldest commutes the slug line users in Northern Virginia. We found people bundled up in layer upon layer as they waited for a ride at the pickup here. Still some told our crews, they would wait in the frigid temps to avoid having to drive in to work. We showed you the aftermath yesterday. Now youre seeing the moment that a dump truck rammed into two parked police cruisers. Police say the driver did it on purpose. And as Prince Georges County Bureau Reporter Darcy Spencer reports, his mental state may have played a role. Reporter this Surveillance Video shows a dump truck driver ramming two Prince Georges Police cruisers in a Shopping Center parking lot. Before it happened he had an exchange with those two offduty officers. He keeps making reference to his brother was shot in d. C. And he somehow fix ates on our officers. All of this didnt happen. But in his mind, it did. Reporter and those officers asked him to leave. They asked him to move his truck along because the traffic built up behind him and said have a nice day, sir. At which point he says were about to have a nice day. Reporter at which point he allegedly circled back around and slammed into the cruisers in the parking lot. Those officers had to jump out of the way to avoid getting hit. Its by gods grace that these two officers werent killed. Reporter this is police video of the man who was behind the wheel of the dump truck, identified as gene brandon. Hes 31 years old and lives in the akwosco area of the county. He has a history of traffic citations. Detectives say his mental state played a role in this crime. This individual has a history of mental illness. He was not on miss medication. Reporter the chief says the crime does not appear to be connected to any other incidents including the fatal shootings of two officers in new york and a shooting yesterday in southeast d. C. Its a Mental Health issue that by the grace of god we didnt lose two officers during this episode. Reporter now, if you want to see that entire Surveillance Video, you can check it out at our website, nbcwashington. Com. Coming up on news4 at 6 00 we talk about how these two officers were able to resolve this whole thing peacefully without anyone getting hurt. Reporting live from palmer park Darcy Spencer, news4. Were getting new reaction tonight from nfl commissioner roger goodell, to an investigation that found the league never saw that elevator video of ray rice punching his fiancee before it hit a website. The outside investigation found no evidence anyone at the nfl had received or seen that elevator Surveillance Video before it was relieved by tmz. News4 has chosen not to show the footage any longer. The report did find the league should have taken additional steps to obtain all available information about the incident back in february. Commissioner goodell releasing a statement today, just a short time ago, saying in part we have all learned a great deal in the past months and expect to be judged by how we lead Going Forward on issues of Domestic Violence and sexual assault. Now at 5 00 two parents charged with not reporting a fire that started in their babys crib while their baby was sleeping. How they say that fire actually started. A local man mauled and killed by his adopted pitbull. New tonight, the frantic effort to save the mans life. In the freezing temperatures for four hours, they marched in front of Fairfax County Police Headquarters. Im david culver. Coming up ill explain what they want from officers here in Northern Virginia. Its our news4 flash survey of the day. Do you think its too cold for kids to go to school . Call or text that number on your screen or go to facebook or twitter to vote and were going to share the results with you in a bit. Huh, fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Everybody knows that. Well, did you know you that former pro Football Player ickey woods will celebrate almost anything . Unhuh. Number 44. Whoooo fortyfour, thats me get some cold cuts. Get some cold cuts. Get some cold cuts whooo gimme some geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Whoo fortyfour ladies, thats me whoo. Gonna get some cold cuts today tonight, the trial date is set in the murder of a woman with the d. C. Corrections department. Dewitt seum is accused of killing Carolyn Cross in september. Prosecutors say he was mad at the world when he happened to just run into cross when she was in the laundry room. Police do not believe the murder had anything to do with cross job. The trial is set for april. A Controversial Police shooting brought demonstrators to Police Headquarters in Fairfax County. For four hours, they walked and chanted in this bitter cold protesting the police chief and demanding answers in the shooting death of john gear. Our Northern Virginia Bureau Reporter david culver is in fairfax with that story. Hands up still shot hands up. Reporter they didnt know the man whose name they carry on their signs. John gear. But its how he died that brings them out here. Shot and killed with his hands up unarmed reporter august 2013 you can see in this exclusive video Police Responding to 46yearold john gears springfield home. Called there for a domestic incident. The mother of gears two kids warned there were weapons in the home. For 50 minutes, police negotiated then a single shot by officer adam torres. Gear unarmed at the time bled to death. But for 16 Months Police refused to give details. It wasnt until earlier this week we learned the shooting officers name and that only came after gears family filed suit and a judge demanded Fairfax County police turn over information. Why did it take over a year for information to come out about this are they trying to hide something, i dont know. I wasnt there. But thats definitely very weird. Reporter emily drove in from Montgomery County so passionate she took the day off work unpaid. I dont want to be scared to call then danger i should be able to call the police and not be scared its going to end up that im the one being hurt when i need help you know. I think race has a little bit to it depending on the area. But definitely a human thing. We are out here today to demand justice, to demand more transparency and information. Reporter nathan cox helped organize the protest. Its a joke of an investigation. Very few questions answered. Reporter protests like the one we saw here today not very common in Fairfax County so we wondered what some of those passing by thought of it. Ill share their perspective when i join you again all new at 6 00. In fairfax, im david culver news 4. David reached out to police for comment, they referred him to the county, but the county had nothing more to add. Details on a fire in Fairfax County. Lets go back to Chris Lawrence at the live desk. Were getting new information now. This is in the alexandria section of Fairfax County. Lets take you out live for a live look from chopper 4. We have now learned that the one man who was inside that main townhouse there, he suffered Second Degree burns, and hes now being medevaced to an area burn unit. Firefighters had 75 firefighters on the scene, one of them also suffered some minor injuries. In fact with all the assets they brought in to control this fire it turned into basically what would be a threealarm fire. One townhome completely destroyed, the damage spread to two other townhomes. They are not having any major problems with freezing hydrants but the firefighters say all that water that is being used on that fire is causing some icing issues in the surrounding streets. So tpw is being brought in to try to salt down some of the streets, so that has now become a big problem as well. But again, one firefighter with slight injuries. Another man was in that townhouse with Second Degree burns. At the live desk im Chris Lawrence. Now to a Great Program in maryland for schools there. A Technology Giant is now teaming up with the public School System. Today, microsoft give all students and teachers free access to office 365. They can use it at school or at now, the announcement was made at High Point High School here in Prince Georges County. That school has seen a big jump in math and science scores. Microsoft is also helping to launch 25 new i. T. Academy programs for schools across the state of maryland. The goal is to get students ready for tech jobs when they graduate. Technology is just a basic skill. Like reading and writing used to be. Technology is now a basic skill. So it will open up all kinds of opportunities to have this kind of access and experience throughout their k12 experience. Maryland education leaders say they want to make sure a familys income doesnt keep a child from getting ahead. According to the department of labor, in ten years more than 75 of jobs will require technology skills. Battling flames in subzero temperatures sent two firefighters in southern virginia to the hospital. They were trying to put out a fire in portsmouth this morning. But the arctic weather caused the water to freeze. One firefighter slipped and fell on the ice. The firefighters also said their coats had frozen to their bodies. Well weve got an amazing story coming up in just a few minutes. Were going to show you some video. A van hits a truck, and drags a person for several miles. In their car. It was a whole family in this car, and they had to call 911 to say were attached to a truck that doesnt know were attached to it. So that story is coming up in just a minute. But were going to listen to that 911 call. Very cool. Kind of fascinating. Kind of fascinating this morning, whereall the strange sounds our vehicles were making to deal with the cold. Its like what . Yeah but we just have to get to the other side of tomorrow morning and then youre going to notice a difference improvements in our favor, not huge but, you know with air this cold well take anything you can get. Evening planner forecast 23 degrees now. Not a big drop in temperatures but we ease down to 20 degrees, and yes, that is a flurry chance were talking about late around 11 00 p. M. To midnight. Just some flurries not any big accumulating snow. Lets show whats going on here. Satellite and radar. You can see weve got cloud cover across the area. Right now clouds moving in and its to our north and west that were tracking this little system that will mainly move to the north of our area. And as it does so it will put down just a few little snow flurries early part of the day tomorrow. I can show you that on future weather. Here it is. Cold conditions for your afternoon, yes, and into the evening. There are the clouds coming in. And as i step to the side there are the flurries for early on between midnight and 5 00 6 00 7 00 a. M. Tomorrow morning, around hagerstown leonardtown, leesburg, because the winds start to pick up again. They have settled down this evening to 5 to 10. But a southerly wind overnight that will allow our temperatures to also hold pretty steady. And tomorrow that southerly wind takes us into the upper 30s with some sunshine still no wind but feels, i think, better by the afternoon. Youre going to notice it. 26 early on at 7 00 a. M. We hit the freezing mark now tomorrow at 11 00 a. M. Again, cold and gusty for the morning, so for sure youll want to bundle up. Look at the highs for tomorrow. While we get into the mid and upper 30s around here its 32 frederick, 31 hagerstown 31 around martinsburg. And those wind chill readings for tomorrow as we talked about yesterday, this morning they dropped down below zero. A little better tomorrow morning. 10 to 15. 15 to 20 by lunch time. And 25 to 30 what it will feel like by 4 00 tomorrow. As cold as it is here its pretty mild out on the west coast. Theyre just waiting for the cold to move in. And thats where we find meteorologist Doug Kammerer all the way on the west coast. Good afternoon, veronica. Here at lake tahoe for a weather conference as a matter of fact. Its actually called operation sierra storm in south lake tahoe. Youre right. They are asking for the snow. They need the snow they also need the colder temperatures. They have not seen that much in the way of colder temperatures here. Temperatures today around 50 degrees. And thats even at about 7, 8, 10,000