on our broadcast tonight, moment of crisis, new revelations about what happened inside that school. a search for a motive with a knife attack on students and tonight the emotional reunion for a pair of best friends who helped save each other. hitting home, the series on the heroin epidemic in this country and one brave mom who saw our report on the very day she had saved her own son from an overdose. and night moves. another big surprise in late night television. "nightly news" begins now. from nbc world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with brian williams. good evening, police and educators are very anxious to learn the motive behind a knife attack on fellow students in a

pittsburgh suburb. the young man being held is 16, he is being charged as an adult. it was a violent frenzy. two of his victims are critical, yet another school community in america is drawing together after an awful tragedy. we begin there again tonight with peter alexander at franklin regional high school, good evening. >> reporter: good evening to you. police say they are still interviewing witnesses and sources close to the investigation tell nbc news at this time there is no evidence to suggest that the suspect had any specific target, that the victims were likely selected at random. this evening a window into the horrifying moments as first responders learning about the vicious attack at franklin region high school. >> i don't know what i've got going down here at school but i need units asap. we're going to have call reporting, one individual had a knife. >> reporter: the severity of the

situation quickly became clear. >> we got multiple victims here. we need ambulances as soon as possible. the suspect is in custody but we need help. we have victims all over the ground. >> reporter: the suspect, 16-year-old alex hribal remains behind bars charged as an adult for attempted homicide and aggravated assault. his attorney and parents today. >> they were involved with the son. they didn't see this coming at all. >> reporter: investigators are still trying to figure out what sparked the rampage. >> as you can imagine, the crime scene was quite bloody with clothing and personal belongings. we're continuing the investigation, conducting interviews of the victim and witnesses. >> reporter: under investigation, the possibility of an angry phone call between the suspect and another student the night before the attack that injured 21 students and a security guard. a member of the local ski patrol underwent a second surgery overnight. >> he's still in critical condition.

he still will require a few more operations. >> reporter: sophomore jeff is requiring at home. >> they said the knife entered right around here. >> reporter: at first this lacrosse player didn't even realize he was stabbed before a teacher and student pulled him into a classroom. >> i was thinking like, you know, how long are we going to be in here? i'm losing a lot of blood fast. i was scared i would bleed to death. >> reporter: amanda's son brett was stabbed in the back. >> when my daughter called me at work yesterday freaking out and told me my son was on the list of victims, i dropped. >> reporter: he was trying to protect his best friend gracie evans who stayed with him until paramedics arrived. >> i hugged her and kissed her and told her thank you and there is nothing i can do for that girl to thank her for what she has done. >> reporter: we were invited to the hospital today when gracie visited. he saved your life. >> he did. he's my hero for it. >> she saved my life in return. kept me from bleeding out.

>> reporter: a friendship now strengthened by tragedy. >> i got your back always. you know that. >> reporter: and good news this afternoon, brian, brett went home from the hospital. he says his main goal is to get back on his feet so he can dance at next month's prom. >> what a turn of events in pennsylvania. peter alexander starting us off. out to the pacific northwest. the death hole has been slowly rising in the almost three weeks since the mudslide that levelled an entire town in washington state. 36 people are now confirmed dead and searchers are still looking for ten others and tonight, for the first time we're hearing from a young mother, a survivor who was pulled from the debris along with her young baby and we get her story tonight from miguel. >> i saw my neighbor's house and turned and screamed to god to save us. >> reporter: for her, time will heal her damaged eye socket and broken arm but the painful

memories will always hunt her. >> i looked out the front door and it was like the movies. houses were exploding and the next thing i remember is our neighbor's chimney coming into our front door, and i turned and i held duke and i did not let him go. >> reporter: duke, her six month old baby boy was in her arms when the wave of mud smashed their home. >> i was not letting that baby go. i was not letting him go. he was dirty and a little blue and i thought i was losing him, so i would give him little rubs and pat on his chest and say stay with me god and ask god to not take him in front of me. >> reporter: in this vast debris field, remarkably amanda's cries

for help were heard. she was cut from the rubble, duke carried out clinging to life by a group of strangers amanda has not yet met. >> i will pay it forward for the rest of my life. >> reporter: a mother that lost so much, grateful for what she still has. miguel almeguer, nbc news. search teams off australia say there is more encouraging progress tonight in the effort to find the malaysia airlines flight 370. an australian search plane picked up new pings they think are likely to the black boxes up to three miles beneath the ocean surface. an update from nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: on board the australian ship "ocean shield" what may be proof of 370 lies below. a constant pinging that search

coordinators say is likely coming from the plane's black boxes. the newest pings picked up from a listening device from a floating buoy 1,000 feet below the ocean surface and transmitted to a plane overhead. now the race to capture as many pings as possible before the batteries die. >> they found a ping here. they found a ping there. they found a ping there. they are just trying to get basically all the little dots to line up to say, yeah, this is the area we want to search. once they start searching, it will take weeks to do the survey. >> reporter: search teams must use the data from the known ping locations to hone in on the wreckage below but with just a few sets of pings, the bottom is 500 square miles. it would take weeks for an unmanned submarine to scan the ocean floor. the more pings now, the smaller the search zone. of course, finding the black boxes will be critical to solving the mystery of why this plane lost contact with controllers and fly so far off course taking the lives of 239

people, brian. >> tom costello tonight, tom, thanks. today, president obama paid tribute to the legacy of one of his predecessors saying he himself lived out the promise of the civil rights act passed by lyndon johnson half a century ago. our chief white house correspondent chuck todd was there at the lbj presidential library in texas. >> reporter: he came to power in the wake of a tragedy, and three days after becoming president, lyndon johnson made a promise about civil rights in a phone call to martin luther king. >> i think one of the great tributes that we can pay in memory of president kennedy is to try to enact some of the great progress sieve policies that he sought to initiate. >> well, i'm going to support them all and you can count on that and i'm going to do my best to get other men to do likewise

and have your help. >> reporter: a half century later, a celebration to a promise kept. >> he understood what it meant to be on the outside, and he believed that theirs was his, too. >> reporter: with the presidential legacy haunted by vietnam, it eyed the civil rights act as an opportunity to paint a picture. daughter, linda johnson rob. >> he would be proud of what we've done and say we have further to go and we all need to keep the eye on the prize. >> reporter: the three-day celebration brought together presidents, past and present and civil rights heroes including congressman john louis who bears the scars. >> president obama wouldn't be president if lyndon johnson didn't pass the act of '64 and the voting right of '65. he created the climate and made it possible for a man of color to be elected president.

>> reporter: it's that legacy that lbj's family and friends hope some day trumps vietnam. chuck todd, nbc news, austin, texas. and there is breaking political news tonight out of washington. nbc news has confirmed health and human services kathleen sebelius is resigning after five years on the job and following the rocky rollout of president obama's health care law. she was the president's point person to implement that law and come under fire numerous times from republicans especially. there were calls for her job back when the website debuted as a giant debacle. she was allowed to stay on through the deadline. a painful day amid concerns about another possible tech bubble on the rise. the nasdaq saw the biggest one-day fall in two years, dow and s&p fell sharply as well. still ahead, the steering

impact of the current heroin epidemic on american families, including one of our viewers who came forward the other night after seeing our report opening up about her fight to save her son. and later, a man who came to represent boston strong. the amazing changes and his life now one year later.

all this week we've been reporting on the heroin epidemic in this country and at the heart of this, the families battling to help loved ones overcome asdik addictions and overcome overdoses.addictions and overco overdoses.addictions and overco overdoses.ddictions and overcom overdoses.addictions and overco overdoses. we heard from a lot of families including one mother outside most who reached out to kate snow who joins us in the studio, kate. >> so many messages start my son, my bother, my daughter, one about a man that overdosed and revived with a drug called narcan. son was almost taken to icu tonight after three doses of narcan. thank god paramedics had it when we found her. >> reporter: the family has been to hell and back this week. danny is the second oldest of six kids.

last week he overdosed on heroin and this monday morning he signed himself up for outpatient rehab but wanted one last high. mom debbie says most of the family was home when his older brother found him slumped over. >> i just kept yelling is he alive? and they kept yelling yes. >> reporter: samantha was trying to shield her nine-year-old sister from seeing her brother like this. >> i seen my dad holding him, and that's when she looked at me and said is he going to live? and she just broke down crying. >> reporter: danny's disease is affecting everyone in this family says his father david. >> you don't sleep. i watch my teenagers, you know, stress out about it. >> it's hard to try to explain to a 9-year-old what drug abuse is. >> reporter: in the corner of her son's hospital room, debbie was calling residential facilities. >> it's the second time in a week he's overdosed. >> reporter: it's a struggle

many families face. there is no guide book for rehab and insurance doesn't often cover lengthy residential treatments. >> you have to be on the phone. it's a full-time job. i have six kids. managing an addiction is a full-time job. >> reporter: she can't wait for a bed to open in a state-run facility, so she found a spot at a private rehab in tennessee. family members are loaning them the $20,000 for a 30-day stay. >> i'm just praying that it works, it really works. >> reporter: looking through photos yesterday, debbie came across a birth day card david wrote in. >> you value time with me and everyone in the family. >> reporter: telling his mom how much she means to him. >> i haven't read it in a long time. i needed to hear that from him. and i know he's going to say it again. >> reporter: tonight, danny is on his way to tennessee to start treatment. >> i'm not ashamed of my son. i'm proud of my son, and i love him with every fiber of my being and there is nothing i won't do

to make sure that i give him every shot at recovery. >> the drug that saved danny monday is narcan, an update from last week about that. the governor of maine says he opposed allowing parents to have narcam, but this week he changed course. he supports making it available to immediate family members under certain conditions. >> opening a lot of eyes with your work for us. kate snow, thanks. we're back in a moment with the forecast just released that has millions paying close attention.

we learn today the third and final component of a complete change in late night is out of place. steven colbert was nameed to succeed david letterman. he's part of the graduating class behind dave and jimmy kimmel and jimmy fallon, it will be close to a generational shift after your late local news. colbert said he will host as himself and drop the persona.

he's 49 years old and signed a five-year deal and since cbs and comedy central it's not stealing as much as it is a permanent loan. sometimes they are right, sometimes not so much, but for what it's worth, this year's long-term hurricane forecast is out. the forecasters at colorado state predict a quiet atlantic hurricane season, mostly because they say el nino will raise the warmth in the pacific while the atlantic waters have been cooling on a trend. we will see you in september. muscle car fans look away, here are the pictures of the last of the corvettes that fell into a muddy tomb when the sinkhole opened up beneath the corvette museum. this mangled wreckage used to be a beautiful rocket sled, a 2001 zo 6. all cars out. some better than others.

this one a total loss. a big fire at boston that went to eight alarms and when they rolled up on it boston firefighters knew they needed a lot of water. and this is why you don't park in front of a hydrant. that's a four-inch hose running through the busted out windows of someone's bmw, not uncommon when firefighters are in a hurry and someone is inconsiderate. the driver was fined $100 and will need a new window. the car was driven away this morning. as one firefighter said, it's like parking in a handicapped spot. you just don't do that. last night we showed you her spectacular cover, wearing the u.s. constitution on her back. the john hancock signed the decoloration, of independence and not the constitution. we pointed out the problem that john hancock signed the declaration of independence and not the constitution. she said john hancock is not a

part of the tattoo, it's a birth take. and there is proof. when we come back, the remarkable comeback of a young man living up to the idea of boston strong.

finally tonight, in the year

since the besten marathon bombing, we have gotten to know jeff bowman and while he has since gently corrected us that his family known is pronounced bowman, the jeff we've come to know back then has changed a lot. we got to know him from the picture that's hard to look out, the blood and life draining from his body. while he lost both legs, jeff bowman survive that day with help. he's written about his life and struggles and victories in a new book called "stronger" and we went back to boston to check in on him as the anniversary approaches. >> reporter: jeff bowman knows the exact moment his life changed. >> i remember this kid standing next to me. he just seemed out of place, and he was just standing there with a backpack and just looked really odd. so i looked at him and stared at him and ignored him. >> reporter: in the next instant, tsarnaev was gone.

and then he remembers a flash and a pop. what do you remember after that? >> chaos. i remember it being really hot. smelt really bad. there was smoke everywhere. people were going crazy. there was debris all over us. >> reporter: in the chaos with bowman bleeding badly, there was a man in a cowboy hat saves his life. >> it takes courage to run through something like that not knowing if there was another bomb. what if there was another one? what if it didn't go off yet? >> does it feel like a year? >> it feels like a month. everything has been so quick, and i've been doing so much. you're kind of fighting, fighting yourself to move forward. >> reporter: the pain was unimaginable, the physical therapy has been grueling but he quickly became part of that boston strong rallying cry, and in the year since carlos aradondo, the man in the cowboy hat, has been by his side.

and so have many sports hero psthe bruins, sox, celtics, everyone dear in boston sports. >> yeah, i can't ask for much more. it's great to go to a ball game. it brings you back to, you know, before the tragedy. it kind of takes your mind away from everything. >> reporter: his family and friends kept up the steady encouragement and his girlfriend erin running in the race that day never left his side. within four months of losing both legs, jeff bowman took his first steps. >> reporter: watching you get around today, you got a new set of kicks. you're doing it. >> yeah. >> reporter: you're doing it. that's a big deal. >> yeah, it is. it's hard. it's hard work, but it's worth it. >> reporter: big news, you're going to be a dad and husband, so you got that going for you. >> i never thought i would say that. i'm very nervous, but i know it's going to be great, and everyone i talk to says, once you hold your child, it's a whole different life. and, you know, i'm kind of excited to get that new aspect

of life. i thought i was going to die. >> reporter: yeah. >> and now i'm walking around. trucking through a tragic event and coming out kind of way better than before. >> how about that? jeff bowman one year later. that conversation and others and new revelations from the investigation, all part of an hour-long special report we're airing tomorrow night on this very station. it tracks the 108 hours from the start of the marathon to the capture of that second suspect. that is tomorrow night at 8:00, 7:00 central. for now, for us, that's our broadcast on a thursday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. as we go off the air, let's finish at something beautiful. cherry blossoms in washington judged to be at the peak right now. good night.

this is what it looked like doouring our last big storm. morewet ere like this may actually be on the way. chief meteorologist breaks down

the numbers for us live with more on what experts have to say. >> jessica, experts warn it will not help during the summer months. >> this big, red area is much warmer-than-normal water that is moving east ward. >> it's the red that's determining whether we can expect an el nino weather pattern. >> it's a warming of tropical waeters. it affects the jet stream patterns over the united states and then that follows on with the rainfall patterns that we often see. >> reporter: weather experts say there's no guarantee. mother nature can change course at any moment.