man now being charged. but we begin with janine de la vega. >> reporter: people in this store are sickened by the act. they can't believe that someone would go to sexually assault a 2-year-old girl right in the middle of an aisle. customers told her about the sexual predator that was lurking inside the store yesterday afternoon. police say a 2-year-old girl was inside with her grandmother and aunt when she went to return a ribbon in the next aisle. >> she just literally rounded the corner, and was probably out of the grandmother and aunts presence for 20 seconds to a minute, it was that quick. the grandmother rounded the corner, she saw that a male suspect, unknown to them had pinned the little girl to the

floor. >> reporter: police say 36-year- old eugene ramos sexually assaulted the little girl in the aisle. she jumped up and ran away. patrons inside the store heard the commotion. >> i ran after him. and i chased him about nine stores down. i finally had caught him by the shirt. >> reporter: sammy johnson helped hawkins pin down ramos until police arrived. >> i just talked to him and sat on him. and dialed 911. >> reporter: police arrested ramos for sexual assault, forcible rape and kidnapping. johnson and hawkins were recognized today in city council. >> i've never seen something to heinous, this is as bad as it gets. >> reporter: ramos confessed to assaulting the girl in the store. >> that little girl is destroyed for the rest of her life. not only that but her mother will have to explain to her what happened to her in the long run. that's just devastating.

>> reporter: police know that there are other people who witnessed this crime and they want those people to come forward and to call them. coming up at 6:00, you will hear more from those good samaritans as to what made them chase that man out of the store, reporting live from union city. janine de la vega. now from janine we go to robert handa. he talked today with the mother of the suspect. robert-- >> reporter: frank, the suspect in this case is a familiar person to the people here at the union city police department. his profile is on a list of registered sex offenders. but for the suspect's family it's the name and face of a man who needs help. on the megan's list, he is number 36. with a history of attempted rape and other crimes. but to his family members, they describe a young man with a history of mental depression and anxiety. >> he's a good son.

and he's sad and depressed. he's a sad and depressed man. >> does he take medication? >> not that i know. >> he's supposed to though? >> he's supposed to take it regularly. >> reporter: the family says eugene ramos did not take his medication yesterday when he went to a dollar store and allegedly sexually molested a 2- year-old girl. >> he was arrested for a similar mo. >> reporter: law enforcement agencies don't have the -- to monitor all sex offenders. eugene ramos served his time in prison and in a mental institution a total of five years. >> this suspect was on compliance, was not on

probation or parol. >> reporter: ramos family said they wanted to apologize to the 2-year-old girl and her family. >> i'm really sorry. he didn't do that intentionally, maybe something went wrong in his mind. he didn't know what he was doing. and i'm very, very sorry. >> reporter: detectives here say they are presenting the evidence to the district attorney's office where prosecutors will decide what happens next to eugene ramos. live in union city, robert handa, ktvu news. the california department of justice does maintain a sex offender registry. the site provides the public with access to information to more than 3,600 people who are supposed to be registered to the state as sex offenders. people can use a their map and get detailed information on

each offenders. we have the link to that megan's registry on our website. just click on the bay area news tab on ktvu.com. and right now we've got scattered showers out there just in time for the afternoon commute. just as we talked about last night, it's a mainly north bay event. look at the line here. that's the current redwood line. most of the activity has been in the north bay throughout the afternoon hours. showers will slide south tonight, a little bit tomorrow. so everybody should get a shot at it. right now your commute is a wet one in san rafael. rainfall accumulations we're talking, .10, .2 of an inch right now. it's very light. you see more moderate rain in richmond then out toward the bay bridge you have light rainfalling there as well. we can now go to the live cameraless.

this is the afternoon commute. you see a bit of a break out there. one more live camera, we show you the san jose area. the showers, next hour or two we should see a few sprinkles in that area. you can go to ktvu.com any time, we've got live storm tracker two there and you can check it out for yourself. you can check out your neighborhood. when i come back i'm going to show you the latest computer model and what you can expect. there's more showers in the forecast. it looks as though they may visit us this weekend as well. all right, we'll see you then, thank you bill. a two-year-old boy is dead tonight after being shot inside his home with his family's gun. tonight we have new information and late details on what police say happened. ktvu's ken pritchett live in antioch tonight with our report. ken-- >> reporter: frank, we're at police headquarters where antioch police briefs us. a 2-year-old boy suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head from according to police a handgun that has recently been purchased by the boy's mother. first let's take a look at the

child's father. 26-year-old eddy karr. he was arrested along with the 2-year-old's mother for felony child endangerment resulting in death and reckless storage of a firearm. at their home, the 2-year-old and his 4-year-old brother were being watched over by their grandmother. she was in the living room, the boys were in the parent's bedroom. a gunshot was heard by the grandmother. the 4-year-old came running out. when the grandmother went into the bedroom she found the two- year-old boy there with a gunshot wound to the head. the boy was taken to the hospital aunt pronounced dead. the handgun had been in a safe until this morning when the father for some reason loaded the gun and placed it in an unsecured drawer accessible to the children. >> this is something that no parent or family wants to go through. anyone who has a weapon in their house, a handgun they need to make sure that has a trigger lock on it. if it doesn't have a trigger lock, it needs to be put in a

safe away from the reach of kids. >> reporter: what remains under investigation is just exactly what took place in the bedroom. the police are interviewing the 4-year-old brother to determine the circumstances of how that trigger was pulled. in antioch, ken pritchett, ktvu news. proposition eight supporters have ended the push to have a judge recuse himself. today judge reinhardt rejected the idea saying he will be able to judge impartially in the case. judge reinhardt is on the panel to decide prop eight. the house voted to extend the bush era tax cuts but only

to those earning less than $250,000 a year. republicans say they will kill the measure in the senate. democrats and republicans have been trying to work on a bipartisan bill. but today the bipartisan was broken. >> giving $700 billion to wealthy people in america, hikes the deficit by $700 billion. >> treasury secretary tim geithner continues to met with republicans on a compromise plan to extend the tax cuts to all taxpayers. the organization's latest report shows that pending sales of previously owned homes jumped an unexpected 4.4% in october compared to september. that's well ahead of analyst expectation for a gain of 3.5%. it's still off by 20% from a

year ago when a first time home buyers credit was pushing sales up. also the sale of homes in foreclosure is down. this according to the latest report from realty track. the fore closure still made up 1/4 of all home sales. by comparison, fore closures accounted for just 1% of all housing sales in 2005. the very peak of the housing boom. realty track says the -- those housing reports compared with strong retail sales to push the stock market way up today. and in a break from the wall street routine, nba students from stanford business school rang today's business bell from the stanford campus. analysts say if that continues through the holiday season, it could signal stronger consumer confidence. here are the closing numbers, the dow up 106 points.

the nasdaq up nearly 30 points. added to yesterday's 249 point gain, the dow posted it's biggest two day increase since july. a startling announcement from nasa, turning on it's head everything scientists thought they knew about extra terrestrials. it's an emergency landing. we'll show you what happened to the people on board that train.

here's a heroing sight, a passenger suffered injuries after an emergency landing. the pilot says he ran into trouble and was trying to avoid the green and that's how he ended up in the sand trap. today, protesters say they are ready for the result of a bail reading tomorrow for the

former bart police officer convicted of killing an unarmed officer. john sasaki live with more. >> reporter: gasia, this is the fruitvale bart station where there could be a major protest if oscar grant's killer is released on bail. but i talked to several law enforcement officers who says the extremely unlikely that mehserle will be released on bail. >> what happened was pretty clear, what happened was a relatively minor incident that occurred on the train that was winding down was turned into an unnecessary tragedy by the bart police. >> reporter: supporters of 22- year-old oscar grant held a news conference today outside the train station. they argued that the officer who killed grant, mehserle should not be released at tomorrow's bail hearing. >> this is the spot where oscar

grant died, where mehserle realized what he had done. until this day there's still an indentation left in the pavement left from the bullet. >> we were told there would be a public apology which we have not heard yet. >> what i'm saying now, a call for action. i'm not calling for people to break things. i'm calling for people to go business as usual. >> we do not anticipate any problems. >> reporter: the owners at the hat store is hoping for the best. >> we've just been lucky, as a precaution we do board up. >> reporter: and that hearing is set for 1:30 tomorrow

afternoon in los angeles. live in oakland, i'm john sasaki. ktvu spoke to michael rains he explained why he's arguing for his client to be released from jail during the appeal of mehserle. >> mr. mehserle is not a flight risk, has never been a flight risk and is not one today. he's not a danger to the community if released. >> mehserle was con sreubgtded in july of involuntary manslaughter for killing oscar grant, he was sentenced to two years in prison. bay area researched rocked the scientific world. they record finding a life form it almost seems to be from another planet. john fowler is live tonight with our story. >> reporter: researchers found it in northern california mud.

a tiny microbe that is so fundamentally changes the way people look at it it violates the rules of life on earth. due east of the bay area near yosemite, the volcanic bay where these extraordinary bacteria thrive. turning life science as we know it upside down. >> this is a huge deal. this is a phenomenal finding. we are talking about taking the fundamental building blocks of life and replacing one of them. >> reporter: in the bacteria's bna,phosphorous is replaced with arsenic. it's the only life form to do so. discovered by bay area geomicrobiologis, felisa wolfe-

simon. arsenic is not arsenic to every living thing. >> how is it that this organism cannot be poison by arsenic at these high concentrations. that's major research in bio chemicals is how do organisms cope with toxins. >> maybe we will be able to look -- >> reporter: scientists may check again for arsenic based microbes. a more earthly use is to come up with an arsenic eating bacteria. arsenic is a major problem for water. and scientists say there is almost -- this year is almost certainly going to rank among the hottest years on record. there's a chance that 2010 could be the warmest year on

record over all. they say it's a decade from 2001 through 2010 will be down as the warmest ten year period since recordkeeping began back in 1950. the warmer temperatures are being blamed on manmade pollution. we now go to rain, bill you predicted that it was going to hit the bay area. and that's exactly what's happening. >> i was showing you in the weather center earlier. we got the showers out there. you see the rain line. this is not a typical weather system where a cold front drapes itself through the bay area. it's just sort of this moist flow. the line of rainfall basically north of san francisco, we've had rain out toward oakland and out toward moroga. most of the showers most of the day have been north. up toward vallejo, richmond, napa. we go to santa rosa we see showers. and we back it out a little bit, what's going on everywhere else?

not a lot. but if i clear this out, i'm coming a little closer and put it into motion. let's see where they're going to go. you see where they're lined up. you can see some of this will slide through the belmont area, out toward redwood city. i'm just eyeballing. but i think you will see showers around here. this is not a big deal. i said it last night, i said it the night before. none of this shower active activity is going to amount to much. the timing is brutal. this is not the type of system you want to see. because it's enbedded into the clouds that will allow for some precipitation like we saw today. it's hard to find them because you're looking for rotation and stuff like that. this pattern is bare. we're going to see showers tomorrow. the showers will be focused in the east bay. your morning commute could be a

little wet. as we head into the weekend, ouch, a chance for rain. that changed too. so we'll have the details on all of that. we'll have the details here in just a minute. wildlife officials have cleared a lake tahoe owner of any wrong doing in the shooting of a bear. hunter was found not guilty of shooting the bear inside his restaurant. on the most recent visit, he says the bear became violent. >> i don't regret shooting him because it was necessary. i feel bad about shooting him because he was such a beautiful animal. >> again, hunter says he doesn't regret what happened but does regret the fact that it was such a beautiful animal. he says he had no choice. you've heard the phrase, there's an app for that.

how about an app for saving a life. the bay area company google is ordered to pay a dollar to a homeowner. we'll tell you why,next. remember this scene at the bay bridge a couple of weeks ago. it's come back to haunt a number of bay area drivers. but in the form of tickets. we went looking for answers. plus, more details from shoppers who helped stop the man accused of sexually assaulting a 2-year-old girl in an east bay store. and, there's so much to a christmas tree. find out why it's location is having a big impact in one bay area community. tonight on ktvu channel 2 news at 6:00.

google will now pay the borings one dollar in damages. both sides say they are satisfied with that agreed upon verdict. one of the lead law enforcement officials walked a different beat today. chief bats walked the hall ways of washington for children. >> however as we show them our program, they go wow. >> chief anthony bats put aside his day job, flew to washington, d.c. and talked to congress about children

programs. it will begin in oakland middle schools. >> make the campus safe, make sure that we have strong mentoring programs for the children. strong mentoring programs for the families that are tied together. restore justice as the police department pushes forward and redevelopment around those communities at the center of the schools. >> chief bats says that while he received no promises, he did open a number odoors and hearts to the oakland program. he may not get any new federal dollars but that he will work with the school district to find another source of funds. a school basketball coach in southern california is crediting an application on his iphone fosaving the life of one of his players. the app has life saving procedures. cooper says that he downloaded

the app the night before one of his students had a heart attack. san francisco police make a surprising discovery at a bay area neighborhood. we never failed to deliver ordnance in target. >> the battle over don't ask don't tell gets personal. ocooer feoel cort eeit t totr r

last place for a meth lab is laurel village. laurel heights. >> he's talking about what police found in that neighborhood. the raid happened because of something police noticed as they were patrolling the area. police were so worried about what would happen inside of the building that they sorted all of the evidence outside on the street. >> reporter: the house in question is the one just behind me. neighbors here say they are more accustomed to parents pushing strollers down the sidewalk than police raiding alleged drug labs on this block. >> it boggled my mind that it's in this neighborhood. >> reporter: residents in san francisco's laurel heights neighborhood stood in shock this morning as agents sorted material investigators say was used to brew meth. >> the last place you would

look for a meth lab is laurel village, and laurel heights. >> reporter: police patrolling the area yesterday afternoon spotted what they describe as two suspicious men outside the two story flat. that led to a search of the building and the seizure of dozens of items in one apartment including beakers, paint thinner, and other chemicals. they sorted the items in the open air to avoid an explosion. >> you have beakers on the stove top using heat and open sources of flame to cook the material. >> reporter: investigators arrested five people including 37-year-old john prado. he's believed to be the son of san francisco attorney nelo prado who owns the building and lives in the top apartment. >> i met with the folks that own the building who live upstairs, they were surprised by this activity. >> reporter: the suspects face narcotics charges along with

receiving stolen property, conspiracy and drug charge. the operation may have been running for several months but couldn't tell us how many drugs were allegedly made here. neighbors say they had little clues of what may have been going on in the building. >> this is really concerning, i have young kids who live right next door. >> reporter: the health department sealed the apartment that was allegedly used as a meth lab. marijuana grow houses are much more common in the city and tell us they've busted as few as three meth labs in san francisco over the last 20 years. reporting live in san francisco, david stevenson, ktvu channel 2 news. police say a gunshot victim hospitalized in oakland has now confessed to a string of robberies. 21-year-old walter selis called 911 yesterday morning after being wounded during a shoot out. when investigators later

interviewed him in the hospital, they noticed he met the description of the suspect in several robberies. tomorrow police say witnesses to the robberies will be called in to see if they identify selis as the robbery suspect. the controversial don't ask don't tell policy governing gays in the military came under fire in capitol hill today. congress is holding meetings on that policy and whether gays and lesbians should be able to serve in the military. >> i'm not saying this law shouldn't change. i'm simply saying it may be premature to make such a change at this time. >> reporter: senator mccain told the senate on services committee that a recent survey

of the armed service showed that troops were split on the bill. >> everyone this survey has found that such a significant member of our service members the members feel it would impact the military negatively. >> reporter: and admiral mullen said that the military is ready. >> team work and focus on our combat mission. >> reporter: robert gates told

the committee that he supports the bill. with 58% of marines at 48% of the army saying repealing don't ask don't tell would have negative consequences. >> these findings do lead me to conclude that an abundance of care and preparation is required if we are to avoid a disruptive and potentially dangerous impact on the performance of those who are serving at the tip of the spear in america's wars. >> reporter: the president obama and democratic leaders are pushing for repeal of don't ask don't tell, the house has already -- they say the lame duck congress faces more pressing issues such as tax cuts. members in oakland got tied up today in the set of a railroad crossing arm. the problem crossing arms were coming down and staying down, everyone though there was no

train in sight. sometimes the arms were actually down for 20 minutes or more with traffic backed up in both directions. either amtrak nor union pacific which owns the track have commented on the problem. bart employees gave away free b.a.r.t. tickets to holiday shoppers. they can be used for one way trips during the next three weekends. b.a.r.t. officials say the idea is to get more people using b.a.r.t. on the weekend to do their holiday shopping. ridership was up slightly this year, some 62,200 riders took bart to san francisco international airport from last wednesday to monday. that is slightly more than a 1% increase from 2009. workers in one bay area amusement park could get word of cuts in the next few days. we're learning more of how

major elect gene quan plans to take over as major of oakland. this man, now no surprise that he will face charges for making threatening threatening phone calls to nancy pelosi.

a judge sentenced gregory

guisti guilty for making threatening phone calls to nancy pelosi. he admitted to making more than 30 calls to pelosi's office in washington and her home. the formation of a transition team has been announced by mayor elect quan. among them police chief an tony bats as well as other community leaders. mayor elect quan outlined some of her immediate goals after she takes office. >> we're going work really hard toe have a townhome every council district within the first three our four month months so that we can get feed back from the community on what they want in their particular neighborhoods. >> the transition team will meet next month to talk about the priorities for quan's first

year in officer. uc berkeley -- university officials say that's about the same number that was enrolled during this same period last year. scientists might be on the verge of a new technique to diagnose autism. that's the latest word from researchers. they were able to detect autism with a 98% accuracy rate. early diagnosis could help them treat children with autism more effectively. women who have gone through repeated miscarriages have higher risk of death. the researchers said they still are not sure what's behind the link but they suggest women who

have had multiple miscarriages should be diagnosed. and a live storm tracker 2 right now is lit up. education pearly especially in the north bay. i'm going to let you know if those showers are going to head south topbd. remember that scene in the bay bridge a couple of weeks ago, it's come back to haunt a number of bay area drivers. but in the form of tickets. we went looking for answers. more details for shoppers who helped stop the man accused of sexually assaulting a 2-year- old girl in an east bay store. and, there's so much to a christmas tree. but find out why it's location is having an impact in one bay area community. tonight on ktvu channel 2 news at 6:00. wrap

most of us probably take for granted having a super market with fresh food near by. but in some neighbors like west oakland if they want fresh

vegetables or fresh fruit they have to travel for miles. but times are changing now and ktvu's consumer editor tom vacar has our report. >> reporter: where produce projust opened here in west oakland. and it's helping transform this neighborhood which is called a food desert a place that has lots of liquor stores but no grocery stores into something quite different. >> there's only sugary food or fast food or fatty food. sometimes this fresh food is a little expensive. >> reporter: ed hemet is new to groceries. >> people need healthy food and healthy produce. so we had the building and i thought this would be a good cause. to be able to help the community. >> reporter: produce proserves a diverse asian, black and latino population who need

fresh produce. >> it's convenient and they can just walk to the store and the prices are good. >> reporter: hemet says he buys direct from farmers. >> i was talking to another lady and we were like, can you believe the prices here for fresh fruit and veggies, we need it. >> reporter: and to maintain the environment, no liquor. >> this is amazing, we haven't had anything like this, ever. this is pretty important. and we need this stuff. >> grapes at pack and save is $1.88. so to come here and get 3 pounds for $1. oh my god and my kids love grape. they are wonderful. >> reporter: for the holidays, healthy food gift baskets. >> i think it would be perfect and i've even thought about doing vegetable baskets and everything for a soup basket. >> reporter: experts say while this is great for certain

neighborhoods, few the folks here it's going to take some getting used to. >> if you think of local burger king offering a jr. whopper for a buck, and if you're really hungry that's a really good way to get filled up really cheaply. >> it's all education and knowing the difference. >> reporter: in other underserved neighborhoods, a company known foods co and fresh and easy will be setting up other stores. but for now, this is pretty great. president obama is expected to sign a child nutrition bill. the legislation expands the school lunch program and sets new standards by adding more fruits and vegetables. about half of the bill will come from a cut in food stamp benefits over the next 10 years. some democrats oppose the bill saying it was wrong to pay for the bill by cutting money for the poor.

but in the end, democrats decided it was better to pass the bill as is instead of gambling their chances with a new congress. the company that owns sea world and other theme parks announced today that it is planning to lay off hundreds of workers. about 350 jobs will be cut at parks around the country. that makes up about 2% of the company's work force. lay offs are part of a larger restructures plan. the laid off workers will be notified over the next two days and that will receive severance packages. the white house council of economic advisors said today that if congress fails to act, about 700 million people will lose a temporary help. more than a million people will stop getting checked over the next year. the council said the loss of those checks will make it difficult for familys to keep food on the table and make ends meet during the holidays. coming up next, talk about a sign of the times. the evidence of a popular

website that is being used now in 2/3 of all divorce cases. julie haener is in the newsroom with a look at other stories we have coming up for you. >> what we're learning about the suspect accused of sexually assaulting a 2-year-old girl. and how the determination of several bistandard is what led to his arrest. also ahead, remember this massive traffic jam on the bay bridge caused by a distraught man. the surprise hundreds of drivers received in the mail as a result. how the lone time of christmas is bringing hope to those who lost everything a pipeline explosion. and some places got to 60 degrees. three days ago we were doing mid-40s, upper 40s for daytime highs in the cool spots.

i'm looking at live storm tracker 2. the showers have shifted a little bit south. you're getting rain in twin peaks, up in north portal. you're getting rain in the outer richmond, inner richmond too. you have light showers showing up. you get the idea, widely scattered showers. there's a little bit of action coming in, i'm sure some enhancement here. there's going to be a heavier rain cell. watch the motion of this as it slides north. here it goes, kind of like this. it's still maintaining it's line. now as we go into the weekend, showers there as well. that looks like sunday is going to be wet. tomorrow is very similar to today. today wasn't really a rainy

day, till the last half. if you're in san jose, you don't know what we're talking about. it's not raining at all. it brings a few scattered showers tonight, a chance of a shower tomorrow. i'm not changing my plans tomorrow. i think you can get out and do stuff. sunday is the big change. looks like we're going to get rain. so forecast overnight lows, warmer. 40s, daytime highs tomorrow, 50s, i don't think we'll see any 60s. tomorrow we'll see lots of upper 50s. clouds and showers in san jose. 57 in lunchtime, 61 in san jose, i don't see any 60s but i have san jose at 61. that's the far end of the viewing area. 61 in san jose, 60 in hayward. a nice day tomorrow, but cloudy and maybe a sprinkle or two. this pattern, not my favorite. like i said earlier because you can't time anything out. on top of that you're not

getting a big dose of rain with this. let's put some rain in the reservoirs, let's put some rain in the mountains. sunday is a new development. we're going to talk about that at:00 and at 10:00 we're going to look at the new models. lawmakers have spoken at the rule to bring down the volume on commercials. more on the mavericks, the movie.

the house today gave final approval on a bill to quiet blaring tv commercials. they go into effect in about two years. bay area congresswoman eshu sponsored the bill. she says there will be a noticeable difference in commercial noise levels. the congressional house will throw a party to celebrate

surfing. especially a movie depicting the san mateo mavericks. there will be a demonstration of tarp surfing which involves driving a skateboard through a blue tarp. the california sea urchin commission has won a legal battle now with federal regulators over environmental protections. the california commission says the agreement recognizing the importance of protecting the entire population, not just one species. ktvu channel 2 news at 6:00 is next. you've likely seen bigger christmas displays like this, but coming up, how this one is having a big impact.

i just talked with him and sat on him. and dialed 911. good samaritans fast thinking helps lead to the arrest of a man accused of sexually assaulting a toddler right in the middle of busy store. why the suspect is no stranger to union city police. a sign of hope, one christmas tree is bringing a lot of hope to the victims of the san bruno pipeline explosion. we'll talk to one family trying to pick up the pieces this holiday season. good evening i'm julie haener. >> and i'm frank somerville. we begin in union city, where a suspect sexually assaulted a 2- year-old right in the middle