my heart hurts for the law enforcemt community. >> clark county loses its first deputy in the line of duty, how an eviction turned into a shootout. >> just released video of a man wanted for murder, his strange behavior and where investigators believe he's killed before. >> nearly two crashes a day in colorado involving school buses. tonight 9wants to know looks into why drivers often go unpunished even when they're at fault. >> my dad just has to be memories with my dad. >> a family's pain after passengers applaud a flight crew for removing a boy and his plane. >> and hot pants gets new meaning after a mishap in a customer's trousers. 9news starts now. tonight we're learning more about the man accused of shooting three clark county deputies this morning killing corporal nate carrigan.

moment where the community is corporal. the suspect martin wirth was confrontation when officers came to his home to evict him. wirth was an activist and rallied against police, republicans, banks and foreclosures. corporal nate carrigan is the first officer with the clark county sheriff's office to be killed in the line of duty. master patrol deputy colby martin was shot several times and is currently in critical condition. 9news reporter whitney wild is in clark county where the community is rallying around tonight. >> reporter: kyle, investigators will continue to comb through evidence, continue several days. deputies clearly knew that martin wirth was dangerous. around 9:45 this morning eight deputies including the sheriff himself attempted to serve what eviction. deputies say when they got there, wirth came out on his deck and then went back inside. deputies followed and moments

tonight a community is in pain. in a tight knit town dozens gathered to remember and reflect on their fallen neighbor, deputy, coach and friend corporal nate carrigan. >> because he helped our community as much as he did and he gave his life for this community. >> reporter: a 13 year veteran of the clark county sheriff's office, he was also a football and baseball coach of platte canyon high school. jack schmidt's grandson played for him. >> and we're all very sad about. this. >> reporter: by his side when the suspect martin wirth began shooting when colby martin and captain mark hancock with the sheriff's office for 21 years. martin suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was airlifted to the hospital. a bullet grazed hancock's ear. he was hospitalized and then

>> he was jovial, good spirits, you know. he was a nice person. >> what i do know, that he served his community in a superior way and he made the ultimate sacrifice today in his service to that community. >> he'll be missed, believe me. >> reporter: kyle, the colorado fraternal order of police says that nate carrigan is the 14th officer to be shot in colorado in just three months. we continue to keep a close eye on the condition of deputy colby martin. >> small department, small community, can't imagine there isn't somebody up there who isn't touched in some way by. this thank you. >> martin wirth had been involved in leftist protests in denver for years including occupy denver. he ranted against police online posting on facebook police are an occupying force. it's time to treat them like assassins and if there's a war on cops, where's the recruitment center? 9news reporter jonathan gonzalez looks into his background. >> reporter: in 1994 martin

and killing a man over a chess game in fort collins. wirth said the gun went off in a struggle. he was tried and eventually acquitted after he argued self- defense. in 1996 wirth was convicted of driving under the influence and again in 2004 spending 10 days in jail. court records say a year later wirth began attending alcoholics anonymous meetings in bailey but was eventually kicked out. a worker at the meetings filed a protection or against wirth telling the court he foured for his life because he recalled a time -- feared for his life because he recalled a time when he said wirth was out for blood against the employees. in 2014 wirth filed a lawsuit against fannie mae after the company foreclosed on his home. he spoke about it in a video posted on youtube. wirth eventually lost the lawsuit to fannie mae last september. in the middle of his court battle wirth ran for state senate in 2014 with the green party and local activists involved with occupy denver and other similar causes have

with their protests against the government, capitalism and police. a video on his facebook page called for a so-called rage against police to achieve peace. late last month wirth was also cited by a clark county sheriff for driving without a license and trying to escape police. the jeffco sheriff's department confirms wirth led them on a pursuit last month, but it's unclear if those cases are the same because details were not readily available to us. >> thank you. elbert county deputies say they have video of a killer, yet they're having trouble identifying him. they've been searching for this suspect since last month since ed butler was found on his ranch in agate. investigators are particularly concerned because the suspect seemed like a practiced killer who may be responsible for other deaths. >> he could be anywhere. he appears to be hispanic of nature. maybe he's from mexico. maybe went back. maybe he's an illegal person.

been able to find him in any databases. >> the suspect has a telling characteristic. investigators think he has some kind of psychosis. the video shows him repeating phrases and he's also spinning and doing many of his actions in series of three. if you see the suspect, don't approach him. just call 911. the severe storms that hit the south yesterday are moving up the east coast tonight. four people have died in virginia. thousands of people have lost power in maryland and washington d.c. there are also tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings in effect for 11 million people living in philadelphia, new jersey and new york city. a bus crash in lyons late last year got 9wants to know asking questions about how a bus driver was allowed on the road with kids right and her prescription drug use. that's the only crash we found where injuries were linked to an impaired school bus driver. there are plenty of other crashes. as 9wants to know investigator kevin vaughn explains, oftentimes bush drivers go unpunished even when they're at fault.

>> i got a call from the district that said the bus had been in an accident. >> reporter: that was on a wednesday afternoon in october of 2011. matheson's son was 14. >> i was told the bus driver was pulling up to a light and bumped the car in front of her like a fender bender. >> reporter: a fender bender? here's what happened. a motorist was sitting at the light right behind me, looked in his mirror and saw the grille of a 13-ton school bus coming at him. the violence of the collision was so great it knocked his car all the way to here. that's almost 300 feet, the length of a football field. >> yeah. there's no way it was a bump. >> this is insane. >> reporter: will's split lip and back injuries healed and the man in the car suffered head and neck injuries. a 9 wants to know investigation found school bus crashes in colorado are a daily occurrence. more than 1,500 wrecks since 2011, an average of two a day every day during the school year. more than 700 of the crashes were the fault of the bus drivers.

crash near durango was ticketed after his bus plunged off a road and rolled over. just out of training, he was reaching for a whistle to quiet noisy students when he lost control. >> just seemed like normal until we started swerving. >> reporter: outside lyons in december this bus went off the road and flipped. >> all we saw was corbett's friend flying past me. >> reporter: investigators suspect the driver was under the influence of multiple prescription drugs. now she faces multiple charges. >> i had to talk to the, you know, the school and they insured me that they go through quite a bit of steps to hire bus drivers. so you're kind of at the mercy of the system. >> reporter: 9wants to know zeroed in on the more than 700 crashes that police say were the fault of the bus drivers. 377 people were injured and two pedestrians died. often investigators couldn't

crashes they blame bus drivers who were preoccupied or distracted by their passengers. in 47 they blame driver inexperience. most wrecks were in the metro area. the top three were denver, arapahoe and boulder. >> your kids are at school or on the school bus. you expect that there are people taking care of them. you expect that there are people taking responsibility for them. what is this? i mean how did this happen? >> reporter: her son was on an adams county school district 12 bus driven by sheryl richie. in her 20 years with the district richie has been written up six times for things like speeding, confronting parents in a school busloading zone, failing to perform a pretrip safety check and allowing a wheelchair bound student to crawl up the steps of her bus, but for the 2011 crash that knocked a mitsubishi eclipse the length of a football field? not a mention in her file. >> this driver has any number of periods of time in

years with no policy violations or infractions and consistently does a good job. >> reporter: does it surprise you that there's not a letter, a warning, a reprimand, something on paper about your son's accident? >> absolutely, absolutely. like i said several times now, there should at least be paper, absolutely. i feel like i didn't get the whole story from the district which is obviously a problem. i feel slightly deceived, not slightly. i feel deceived. >> reporter: if a parent believes that she was -- >> if a parent believes that she was misled, that's unfortunate and we certainly wouldn't want that to be a practice. >> reporter: so are district 12 administrators comfortable with this driver behind the wheel of a school bus? >> yes, sir. >> normally we don't get involved with personnel matters in transportation. >> reporter: the colorado department of transportation writes the rules governing school bus safety but it has never suggested a bus driver be fired.

question is the colorado school bus system as safe as it can be? >> i think our goal needs to be no accidents. obviously that is everybody's ideal goal that is there would be no accidents and we continue to tee vault our procedures -- to evaluate our procedures and our policies and our rules and our regulations to make sure that they are the most safe, they provide for the safest transportation. >> when you think about traffic conditions, congestion, road conditions, weather conditions, it's not surprising that there are going to be accidents. >> reporter: while road conditions played a part in some accidents, we found the weather could not be blamed in a majority of crashes. >> our buses are operated by our bus drivers and there's always human error that's going to come into play. >> it's scary. it's never productive to think about what could have happened, but that's my son.

declined to talk to us. district 12 officials tell us their driver was subjected to additional trining and monitoring after this crash, that -- training and monitoring after this crash, that after the district paid out $75,000 to file the claim filed by the driver of that mitsubishi. >> kevin, we look at these instances, accidents and crashes and you look broadly sneaking and say are the buses safe -- speaking and say are the buses safe? >> 365,000 kids in colorado ride school buses every day. statistically they're safe, but we're asking these questions because we want to know if two accidents a day is acceptable, that's just sort of the cost of doing business? shoo sure. it didn't seem like anybody -- >> sure. it didn't seem like anybody told you there's no room for improvement. >> if you think about air travel, the chances of any of us dying in a plan crash are really small, but when there's an accident, there's an investigation and an attempt to prevent it in the future. still ahead at 10:00 what exploded in a man's possibility

pocket and set his pants on fire. >> a young boy on a plane with his terminally ill father is removed from the flight, the reaction that really upset his family. >> kathy sabine is noticing a change with our weather just in time for the weekend. nothing gets by sabine. her forecast is next. >> and the broncos finally reach out to peyton manning,

this next story isn't funny, so don't laugh, okay? a man in kentucky went to the hospital after the battery in his e cigarette exploded in his pants. the poor guy was just going about his business at a gas station when his trousers started sparking. a gas station employee grabbed

him outside and extinguished the fire. a 7-year-old boy on a trip with his terminally ill father is asking people to have a little more compassion and courtesy after what happened on a trip to washington. giovanni alvarado, his mother and father were headed home to phoenix after a trip to the northwest after what is likely the last time giovanni's dad with see his family. he has throat cancer. as they boarded the plane, giovanni had an allergic reaction to dogs on board. it created a delay. the family was told they would have to take another plane. some passengers began to applaud once they heard the family was leaving and they the way. >> people that do not have family, they don't understand what it feels like when you have family. >> you don't know how much time people have or why they're hurting. just be nice. be kind. >> allegiant airlines contacted

after being forced off the flight last night new arrangements were made to get them home today. a meteor with the power of a nuclear bomb dropped on hiroshima dropped last month about 600 miles off the coast of brazil. the meteor is believed to be 28 feet wide and picked up on the ocean's surface thought to be the largest meteor to enter the earth's atmosphere since the one over russia three years ago this month. that meteor had 40 times more energy than this recent one. nasa estimates about 30 small space rocks explode over the earth each year since our planet is 70% water, most of that going unnoticed. kyle, a lot of people think meteorology is the study of meteors and while it is the study of the atmosphere, i find that fascinating. i'm meteorologist kathy sabine outside in the 9news backyard where it is clear, cool and about to get cold tonight. we have just beautiful color

and sunsets lately and the pictures coming in on the digital network have been amazing. tomorrow morning no weather issues for the morning drive. temperatures will range between 19 and 28 degrees with fair skies and light winds. currently dia is 27 degrees, winds southeast at 7, calm winds in the 9news backyard with rising air pressure and really lovely conditions. 25 degrees, mid-teens tonight and temperatures rebound tomorrow. today not too bad, 50 at the airport, a little above the seasonal average of 47, 60 on the plains this afternoon and you know what? the trend for the next few months about average readings expected. the west, midwest, great lakes, these numbers are expected to soar above average the next few days as high pressure becomes our dominant weather feature. with the jet stream to the north it's carrying our most recent storm system off to the east of us. snow, wind, rain, a threat for severe weather continues to increase tonight across the

northeast. winter weather and travel advisories out for the midwest and thankfully the tornado watch for the northeast has been canceled, but severe weather threat will continue overnight from raleigh through washington, new york and boston while colorado enjoying high pressure, storm track to our north, a warm dry weather trend coming in and you'll notice all the heavy weather, the cold wet weather will stay well to the north and east of us. that's a trend that will take us right into the weekend. notice the jet stream located where it is, cold air will move through bismarck, omaha and minneapolis. high temperatures tomorrow there will be in the 30s as compared to our high here in denver of 51. other than a few high clouds around the area a really beautiful weather pattern and this warm weather trend, quiet weather continues right through the end of the week into the weekend, but with clear skies, light winds, 12 in aspen, 11 in frisco, notice the high temperatures tomorrow, mid-50s

southeastern colorado. we'll be close to the numbers we recorded today in denver, arvada and greeley and jump 5 to 10 degrees the end of the week and close to 70 by saturday afternoon. tonight in the city it's cold and about to get colder. 19 degrees with light winds, sunset tomorrow at 6:40, temperatures jumping to the mid- 40s by lunchtime, low 50s in the afternoon. that's a smidge above average, but check it out. by the time we hit friday we're close to 60, saturday way above average in record territory and you know what? we do have a little cooling trend next week, but i took the rain and snow out sunday adding that back into the tuesday forecast. we say good-bye to february with mild conditions and hello to march, march not exactly coming in like a lion and oh, yes, there's a hockey game on the baseball field this weekend with temperatures very comfortable at game time, 62 degrees when the guys take the rink. high country. if you're thinking about skiing, travel conditions up

stay with us. a quick break and then drew is

from colorado sports leader here's drew soicher. >> hi, everybody. for a guy who likes to shout hurry, hurry every time he approaches the line of scrimmage, peyton manning sure likes to take his sweet time. manning has been contemplating retirement since winning the super bowl. nobody bothered him for the first couple of weeks, but now in the kindest most respectful way possible the broncos want an answer already. >> we made a discussion how we're going about it and -- decision how we're going about it and once again it's about him taking his time to work through things, think through things. there's no hurry here, want him to enjoy what just took place and then we'll go from there. so nothing has changed from that standpoint. that plan continues to be in place.

i had a brief one with him yesterday. we will be talking probably today, but i know this week, but we want him to take his time and we'll work from there. >> 9 news broncos insider mike concession stands. just between the jumbo pretzels and the popcorn boxes at lucas oil stadium in indianapolis he's eavesdropping for information to include on the pages of his notebook. >> reporter: from everything i've been hearing here at the combine i would expect some kind of clarity in peyton manning's decision by tuesday or wednesday next week. that's about a week ahead of his official deadline. manning essentially has three options, one, he retires, two, he needs more time to think about things and he gives his blessing to the broncos to carry-on without him, three, he tells the team to hang in there, he just needs more time. that doesn't mean manning will play next year. it just means he's not ready to

absolutely need to know by march 8th. manning well knows the broncos want to bring back his heir apparent brock osweiler. free agency opens three weeks from today. the broncos have to get negotiating on a new deal with brock. time is ticking, but the expectation remains osweiler will be the broncos quarterback and it would still be a pretty big upset if manning is back with the team. from the nfl scouting combine in indianapolis, mike klis, 9news. hey, colorado may have clenched a spot in the ncaa basketball tournament tonight. the buffalo beat no. 9 arizona snapping a streak of 11 straight losses against ranked opponents. josh scott was terrific. he scored a season high 26. wildcats had a chance to send it to overtime, but that's what i'm talking about! storm the court. cu wins 75-72.

state nearly had a school record winning streak snapped, but new mexico missed at the buzzer and the rams make it 22 straight with a 49-48 victory. nuggets have the late game in los angeles. they're playing great defense. danilo gallinari steals the inbound pass. nuggies lead 77-65 now with about eight minutes left. shawn mathias making his avalanche debut tonight scored a goal in the 1st period against san jose. avalanche lead the sharks 3-2 now in the 3rd period. i have in my possession a fresh updated list of the players who will be participating, former players in the avalanche/red wings alumni game friday night. who's your favorite avalanche player? >> easily i want roy fighting somebody. >> he'll be there and he might not just play goal. he might skate and try and

>> i want joe skacik. we'll check you if you come too close there. >> careful, careful. >> could have knocked his block off. >> they'll be sore enough as it is. will weather be a factor if it's mild or it won't matter? >> she's trying to ruin it asking me a weather question? you're trying to ruin the game with an 85-degree hockey game. >> will it matter?

back to hockey, red wings are in town. they dropped a puck near second base. we looked at the overlay on the field. it's between the pitcher's mound and second base. for those of you who can't make it to coors field, we'll have the game on channel 9 at 5:30 saturday, a half hour special before the game.

special afterwards. how's this? is it just as good or better? >> if kathy melts the ice as she's trying to, the night will >> i'm not trying to. >> the morning show will be live from coors field friday. we'll get a look behind the scenes of what goes into making hockey happen on the baseball field, no small feat. >> after the game it's a postgame special, so we don't good, right?