it's friday, april 10th. coming up on "early today," at least one dead as the season's worst tornado outbreak strikes. dozens of buildings destroyed and supercell thunderstorms force residents to seek shelter. a kidnapping and a security guard shot dead, a police chase at the u.s. census board headquarters. dash cam video in the fatal south carolina shooting is released. >> a police pursuit of a man who allegedly fled on a stolen horse. police tase him and get violent with the suspect. actress sandra bullock's frightening 911 call about an intruder and jimmy fallon calls it the best performance yet on "the tonight show." "early today" starts right now. very good morning to you.

i've richard lui. a witness says it looks like a bomb went off. it was a tornado in central illinois last night. one of two that left destruction over a 50-mile-wide area. it started thin then turned into a giant. it was a hulking column of wind and debris. the sky blackened. it's day two of a monster storm system that has peppered a 1,500-mile arc with grapefruit-sized hail and winds up to 80 miles an hour. >> he's over, he's over! >> oh [ bleep ]. >> call 911, call 911. >> go go go! >> fire officials say at least one person was killed a 67-year-old woman found dead in her home. seven people were taken to the hospital. nbc's kurt gregory reports. >> reporter: destructive tornados ripped a path through northern illinois thursday night, leaving behind a trail of destruction. this twister made a direct hit on the town of rochelle 80 miles west of chicago.

the damage extensive. this is what's left of the restaurant in town that was completely demolished. first responders pulled people who were trapped out of the basement. >> when i looked out the window and i saw it it was huge. you know it was -- huge. it was coming right for us. and at that moment eva grabbed me. eva's the owner. and she said you know get to the basement. >> reporter: 12 people in all were pulled to safety. >> it was quite a job. but we got everybody out. appears to be minor injuries. none of our folks were hurt. >> reporter: the same tornado reportedly caused damage and injuries at the kraft food warehouse near ashton illinois. many homes in rochelle and surrounding communities were heavily damaged as the storm system continued to move northeast. the extent of injuries aren't yet known. kurt gregory, nbc news. a wild police chase left a guard from the headquarters of the u.s. census bureau dead. police saying it started with a

domestic dispute. a gunman kidnapped his wife drove to census headquarters in maryland, then tried to ram through the dates. a security guard there approached the gunman's car and was shot in the chest, say police. lawrence buckner died of his injuries. explosions were heard as police searched a parking garage for that suspect. turns out he was already back in washington engage until a series of gun battles with police. the gunman was reportedly shot several times but there's conflicting information on his condition. at least one police officer was injured but expected to be. >> new dash cam video out of south carolina, the minutes before officer michael slager fatally shoots walter scott. he pulled scott over for a broken brake light. scott runs from his own vehicle. the latest video does not show the shooting. also on thursday officer slager's mother karen sharpe coming to the cameras, speaking

to reporters for the first time. >> i just want people to know that michael's a very good person. and i also wanted to mention that -- i understand he's got family going through a lot. this is something that an incident like this happens, it changes everybody's life. >> sharpe says the whole family's taking the situation one day at a time. president obama is in panama city to attend the summit of the americas. he's likely to cross paths with cuban leader raul castro. last night secretary of state john kerry met with his cuban counterpart for the highest level meeting between the two sides in more than half a century. nbc's tracie potts is in washington. good friday morning to you. the big issue front and center right now, will the u.s. strike cuba from the list of sponsored states of terrorism? >> a hill staffer says the state department will recommend that. how quickly will it happen how

much will congress lawmakers try to interfere? that remains to be seen. what we're waiting to see today is how much interaction there will be between president obama and raul castro the president of cuba. will they shake hands, see each other, sit down and talk informally as the white house has said? we know that meeting between secretary of state john kerry and foreign minister rodriguez of cuba is the biggest high-level meeting that we've seen between the u.s. and cuba in 50 years. we're told they sat down for about two hours at a restaurant bar where the summit is happening in panama, with security of course. the state department a state department official describes the meeting as comprehensive, saying that they covered a lot of ground. they made some progress. but again, we're waiting to see if cuba is lifted from that list. that's what they're pushing for. >> a lot of history being made there, thank you so much in washington fare us this morning. now to a 911 call for help made by oscar winner sandra

bullock. the sounds of an intruder in her home woke her up. she had to hide in her closet waiting for police. nbc's joe friar has more for us. >> reporter: an emotional 911 call from sandra bullock was the first piece of evidence presented today during a hearing for the man accused of stalking the actress and breaking into her los angeles home. >> i'm in my closet. i have a safe door in my bedroom and i've locked it and i'm lockeded in the closet. >> reporter: last june police say the sp suspect forced his way through a locked glass door. bullock's son was not home at the time. the academy award winning actress could be heard breathing heavily throughout the real-life drama. >> i hear someone banging on the door. >> in your bedroom? >> reporter: she stayed on the phone with the dispatcher for 15 minutes until police finally arrived. >> someone's knocking. is that them? >> reporter: when corbett was arrested officers say he was carrying a notebook with pictures of bullock and

handwritten letters. according to authorities he said sandy, i'm sorry, please don't press charges. corbett has pleaded not guilty. as for bullock, she's not expected to testify during this pretrial hearing but her 911 call speaks volumes. joe friar, nbc news los angeles. alisa milano is not happy with london's heathrow airport. the actress tweeted thursday "heat row airport just took my pumped breast milk away ten ounces gone. not okay." she went on to say, they said they would let the pumped milk through if i had the baby with me. why would i need to pump if i had the baby with me? heathrow responded saying unfortunately, without a baby present, the government requires all liquids in carry-ons to follow the 100 milliliter rule. milano says she would have spread the mill took different containers to comply and she lost one of her checked bags which contained a hospital-grade breast pump. bill karins joins us now with our top story. boy, that was a huge huge

tornado. >> pictures are incredible. >> and only one death, good thing. >> it could have been so much worse. mostly the 20 to 40-mile path it was mostly over rural areas. it appears there was two pretty good-sized tornados. one near the rockford airport and went this direction. this big one was on the ground for a longer period following that red line roughly. it did take out that one town with 30 residents, every home significantly damaged. in all a little over 300 storm report damages from hail to wind or strong wind gusts. peppered areas from missouri to arkansas all the way through the ohio valley. there's still a few strong storms out there. as is typical this time of the morning things have died out overnight. still a line of possible wind gusts with damaging winds with these storms as they roll into the appalachians and the higher terrain of areas of eastern kentucky and also through west virginia and now the knoxville area's getting storms. eventually this stuff will move through areas of the east.

we have a slight risk of severe weather. areas of south carolina virginia, georgia. that does include areas around augusta, probably sometime around 6:00 p.m. east coast time we expect storms to roll through. possibility of delay in play at the masters. we do not expect too many tornados today. it shouldn't be like yesterday at all. so as far as the forecast goes for today, we will have the severe storms in the midwest. excuse me in the ohio valley early today. all the way down through the southeast. west coast is looking pretty nice once again. clouds in the northwest. that'sjose. and not bad in northern nevada. weekend forecast coming up. should have a lot of smiles compared to what we just got done with. >> smiles and warmth. thank you so much. news on hillary's big announcement for you just ahead.

plus a pursuit of a man on a horse turns ugly as police get plenty aggressive while apprehending this man. that's not all. the rest of that story next.

political watchers it is finally happening. sources close to the clinton campaign telling nbc news hillary clinton will officially announce her candidacy for president as early as sunday. she's expected to announce it on social media with campaign stops next week including to iowa. the weekend seems to be her m.o. in 2007 clinton announced her presidential run on the third saturday in january. san bernardino police captured an alleged horse thief yesterday after the suspect was tased, helicopter footage caught him being punched multiple times by several cops for nearly a minute. police are investigating. >> if our deputy sheriffs did something wrong, they'll be put off work and they'll be dealt with appropriately and all in

accordance with the law as well as department policy. robert durst pled not guilty to two state gun charges in new orleans criminal court. he was arrested on felony weapons and drug charges. durst sent a handwritten letter to the los angeles types earlier this month. he writes about his love of opera and pro football. a new york woman is accused of marrying ten guys. leanna barientos allegedly did this in different towns during the course of 15 years. she did not get a single divorce. today she's being arraigned for felony fraud charges. a newly developed brain scan of autistic babies and toddlers may possibly predict if they will develop normal language skills. the university of california study said if proven true the scans will help guide autism diagnosis and help with appropriate therapy.

landon dowdy, good morning to you. >> people are lining up in apple stores today to try out the apple watch for the first time. but they can't walk out with one. apple's only taking preorders online. the company expects strong demand when the watch goes on sale april 24 all right can't afford an apple watch? you can get a knockoff in china for about 80 bucks. amazon gets the green light to test drone deliveries. the government approved amazon's prototype last month but the company says the process took so long that the device is obsolete. amazon wants to use drones to deliver items within ten miles of its warehouses. california's largest power utility, pg&e says it won't appeal a record $1.6 billion fine from the state dealing with a pipeline explosion in san francisco in 2010. the blast destroyed a neighborhood killing eight. pg&e says it will focus on improving safety. >> thank you so much have a good friday. one of the most intimidating

nfl defensive players of all-time calling it quits. plus a recap of round one at the masters. and a skill shot you have to see to believe. then later -- ♪ >> yeah madonna gets epic on "the tonight show." stay tuned.

this moneying on "today," a

new report will make you think twice about ignore is white safety demonstrations. breaking news overnight to tell you in sports. eight-time pro bowl safety troy polamalu tells the steelers he's retiring after 12 seasons. known as one of the best safeties, known for the best hair polamalu was drafted in 2003 and went on to win two super bowls with the steelers. round one of the masters, tiger woods improves. he's not last. that's not bad, right? he's tied for 41st out of 97 players. jordan spieth sits at number one. the 21-year-old impresses with 8 under par 64 one shot off the course record. round two continues today. tigers set the modern a.l. record for the longest shutout streak to start the season. with the help of pitcher shane green they had thrown 22 scoreless innings before the twins scored in the seventh. detroit wins 7-1. the indians came within two outs of their first no-hitter in almost 34 years. three pitchers combined to no-hit the astros.

jed lawrie homers a solo shot with one out in the ninth. the indians win it 5-1. security for the kentucky derby, banned items include selfie sticks and remote-controlled aircraft including drones. say good-bye to jalil okafor. coach k. saying he's entering the nba draft in june along with some of the university of kentucky players. >> if you've decided to put your name in the draft, why don't you stand up? really? all right, there you go. >> count them. one, two, three, four five six, seven players going pro. he as pro in many ways. all net. barcelona soccer player martin montoya was bored with goals and went for a three-pointer at the training grounds basketball hoop instead, boom. did he even hit the rim? a first look at jared lito

as the joker. what jimmy fallon's calling the best "tonight show" performance ever. you're watching "early today."

welcome back. the weekend forecast is going to bring smiles to millions. only a couple of exceptions. as we go into saturday looks like we'll see, especially afternoon and evening storms san antonio to houston. corpus christi to the new orleans area. fine on the east coast.

midwest looks nice after cleaning up from the severe weather outbreak. much of the west coast is okay. we'll see a slight chance of showers boise and seattle. it's not an impressive system moving through. into sunday that system that was in the northernwest will drift towards the north-central plains. thunderstorm threat in minneapolis. stormy from oklahoma texas. not too severe. california arizona, nevada oregon should be looking at a decent two-day stretch. >> i'm liking honolulu 82. >> they have a reputation for better weather than most. >> i hear about that. all right, thanks bill karins. our first look at jared leto as the new joker. david ayers, director of "suicide squad," tweeted this photo, where is jared? could be a reference to the d.c. comics cover. eddie murphy will awarded the 2015 mark 29 prize for humor. he'll receive the 18thal wall prize at the kennedy center.

madonna on "the tonight show" last night. boy, she left the halls of 30 rock ringing. >> very impressive. >> jimmy fallon said it was the best performance ever on the show. ♪ ♪ i just want to go out tonight ♪ ♪ let me go out tonight. >> she's what 56 57? she's still going strong. >> i mean the hallway's bland. they made it look -- it was entertaining, it was choreographed, the shooting was beautiful. >> it was awesome. i'm richard lui. this is "early today." we hope it's just your first stop of the day here on nbc.

to our top story today. those two tornados that tore a path through central illinois so far we know at least one person is dead seven others were taken to the hospital, about 50 homes destroyed. a county coroner says the hard-hit town of fairdale was not equipped with tornado sirens. those tornados were part of massive weather systems described by forecasters as the biggest severe weather event so far this spring. arizona senator john mccain was on the hugh hewitt radio show, harsh words for president obama. hewitt played a clip of the president on sunday saying that the u.s. and iran are both complicated countries, to which mccain reacted in part here. >> only an insane person would compare the united states of america with a country that is governed by the ayatollahs, who

regularly hang people. >> vice president joe biden spent quality time with michael bloomberg's grandson. bloomberg bloomberg's daughter georgeina shared the pic on facebook what's a boy to do when the vice president steals your pacifier? taylor swift revealed on tumblr the results came in and i'm saddened to tell you that my mom has been diagnosed with cancer. i'd like to keep the details of her condition private but she wanted you to know. oh, baby. what a surprise. a mother in north carolina already had six boys. so she decided to have a gender reveal cake made to find out the sex of baby number seven. how about that oh man, i'm having a daughter! >> and the grandmother wants the little girl too. >> you know what it's like.

i've got two brothers and one sister, you get the last one, it's like wow. >> the gender reveal. >> great idea. >> who needs a cake? >> yeah the person who knew the doctor, obviously. a look ahead, the national rifle association's annual meeting begins in nashville. many top-ranking republicans will be in attendance including senator ted cruz, governor scott walker, former governor jeb bush. according to reports chris christie and rand paul not invited. happy birthday to mandy moore, 31. john madden 79. omar sharif going strong he's 83 still looking good. >> better than us. >> they are. keep it here for more news, weather and sports. i'm richard lui. thanks for watching "early today" along with bill karins. have a great friday and week ahead.

devastation in the midwest. two massive tornadoes hit illinois and now one person is dead but many more are missing. and an internal investigation under way after southern california deputies caught on camera punching and kicking a suspect. we'll tell you what the sheriff says. plus terrified and trapped in her own home. surveillance video shows a harrowing ordeal for a south bay woman. let's go outside this morning, what a beautiful picture, the sparkling bay bridge. it's friday, april 10th. this is "today in the bay." well good morning, everyone. it's