. from the cbs broadcast center in philadelphia. this is cbs-3 "eyewitness news". good morning, today is monday, december 22nd, i'm erika von tiehl. >> i'm diana rocco in for ukee washington. some of the stories we're following today: two apartment fires in delaware within 24 hours, one of them is fatal a firefighter, a paramedic and a woman are hurt in the other. >> also as neighbors gather to remember two of new york's finest, we learn more about the alleged gunman's final hours, and his motive. >> plus, search teams finds clue in the disappearance of college student shane montgomery. >> those stories and more coming up. first, big week for holiday travel. here is hoping it doesn't get too nasty with the forecast. let's check in with carol. >> this time of the year it could get really bad just because of the temperatures, but it is not going to this

time except the rain. >> okay. >> so we don't have snow to contends with, but you might be finding little bit of freezing rain if you are headed up to the poconos tonight and first thing tomorrow morning. so there is a freezing rain advisory for that. but for the rest of us it, looks like it is just the garden variety of rain showers, and they do continue, even and maybe specially on christmas eve. so we'll talk about that, and how christmas day is likely to shape up at least weather wise. >> flames rip through two delaware apartment complexes, displacing more than 50 people and right before the holidays. >> "eyewitness news" reporter jan carabeo live for just wilmington this morning, where investigators are now searching for what may have started both fires. good morning, jan. >> reporter: diane, erika, good morning, that's right, two serious fires here in new castle county, delaware on sunday, now fire investigators are looking for a cause to both of them. here you can see all of the damage left behind in wilmington, a dozen people here are out of their homes. you can see these units are

completely burned out. and over in claymont, a similar site close to 40 people are homeless there. that fire was also deadly. this was the scene in claymont early sunday morning, the fire breaking out there around 2:30 a.m. by the time fire crews arrived the harbor house amounts were engulfed in flames. we're told the fire started in a apartment on the third floor, quickly spread, took firefighters three hours to contain the flames, they found one person dead inside after apartment, a 72 year old man was also rescued and taken to the hospital. on top of that, 17 apartments were badly damaged leaving 40 people without a home. then, last night, here at this apartment complex, on butter nut court in wilmington, another fire. this one sent three people to the hospital for minor injuries, including a paramedic and a firefighter. here 12 people had been displaced. their homes badly damaged, and just days before christmas. take a listen. >> i was like speechless. i was just looking and crying

right before christmas. it is tough. >> reporter: and again, live out here on scene in wilmington, you can see all of the damage left behind again, both of these fires are now under investigation. the fire marshall will try to determine the cause of both of these fires. both happening on sunday, just miles apart, and just hours apart, as well. and in that deadly fire over in claymont, that autopsy will also be performed today. we're reporting live in wilmington, jan carabeo, cbs-3, "eyewitness news". >> jan, thank you. 4:33, your heart goes out to those folks specially with the cold temperatures, carol? >> really really does. and we do have some cold temperatures this morning, we have moderating trend, though, temperature wise, so if that's any kinds of consolation to anybody, and i doubt that it is, we are looking at skies that are going to be clouding up if they're not already there, they will be there. because that's just the trend, we've been in this entire month. we have a temperature, cold, though, 23 degrees, this is out in redding this morning, as we change our shot

neighborhood netter network. and dark out, there but no wind. and that's pretty much been the case over the last couple of days. we haven't been plagued by a lot of winds. we are going to be plagued by moisture, though, weaver some coming up from the south, another stronger low pressure system that's going to be working its way up through the great lakes, and then over to us. that's going to be on christmas eve. so things will be changing around here, as we go through the next bit of time. we also have a freezing rain advisory, 6:00 to 5:00 tomorrow morning, dangerous travel can be expected, anywhere in the location through the poconos, during that time period. things warp up though, turns to all rain going through the rest of the day tomorrow. twenty-nine in philadelphia right now, 33 trenton, 27 degrees down in wilmington, just about everybody in the 20's, and below the freezing mark. so we have to deal with cold temperatures this morning, and by the end of the day, we get to 4 degrees, that's where we were yesterday. today, though, we do feature

some of these showers coming in to the picture, as we take a little time lapse, on this, let's see what the computer models say. we seymour and more in the way of clouds, then we start to see some of the rain showers moving in, as we go after that. soap, looking for high today, jessica, of 40 degrees, with some of the rain showers. >> something to look forward, to i guess, thank you, carol. good morning, everybody, we go outside and check how things are doing on the schuylkill expressway around 202. everything moving along great so far. you can see eastbound into the sit now problems headed toward the king of prussia area of over on 995 at girard, pretty much the same story. it is still relatively early. so headed southbound toward the city everything moving along great. few problems out in new jersey, on the new jersey turnpike southbound, at route 73. an accident pushed over into the shoulder. and some road debris on route 73 southbound at styles avenue. that is out in maple shade. just something to look forward to there. route 724, closed catfish lane in pottstown, alternate to get

around that accident scene for the time being is to take route 422. currently no delays at the philadelphia international airport. and a good alternate for this morning, septa, new jersey transit and dart, all running on time with no reported delays. erika, back over to you. >> jess, thank you. new this morning, a 7-eleven robbed on the main line. it happened after midnight in the 5300 block every city avenue. investigators tell us, two men walked in, and demanded cash. one of those robbers had a gun. we're told they got a which with cash, lottery ticket and cigarettes. a store cashier was taken to the hospital for a back injury after getting pushed against the wall by one of those robbers. >> the gunmen who ambushed two new york city police officers in the patrol car saturday allegedly told two passersby to quote watch what i'm going to do. police say 28 year oldies may he will brinsley then fatally shot officers rafael ramos and wenjian liu before turning the gun on himself. hours before the shooting, brinsley made threats against police on social media.

>> i hope and pray that we can reflect on this tragic loss of lives that have occurred so that we can move forward. >> police say brinsley acted out the killings in revenge for recent deaths of black men during encounters with police. brinsley is also accused of shooting his exgirlfriends in baltimore before traveling to new york. >> president obama calls new york city police commissioner bill brat onto offer his condolances, police commissioner charles ramsey also had this reaction. >> it wasn't like a high risk operation or something when you know that you are really putting your life at risk, i mean, just sitting in the car, maybe just looking out of the window and then all the sudden someone comes up and just murders you, i mean, ya, that's enough to make you angry. it just doesn't make any sense at all. >> and philadelphia mayor michael nutter released a statement on the killings saying in part: we americans must acknowledge that we have a clear problem with violence

in our country. we must all commit to a pathway of non-violence, citizens and police officers alike, as we participate in the civic life of our communities and nation. >> time right now is 4:38. police in florida have arrested a suspect in the murder after officer. authority say officer charles responds today noise call sunday morning at an apartment complex, west of tampa. police say a fugitive tried to evade a warrant, shot the officer, then ran him over. officer previously served in the new york mitt department. investigators do not believe the officer's death had anything to do with the killings of two officers in new york. a planned protest mars through the streets every center city philadelphia. hundreds took part in the black-out philly march. it is in remember response to what organizers call police brutality and racial tension across the country. participant started at 15th and arch, circled around city hall, then continued down the parkway, ending at the art

museum steps. police say that protest was peaceful. >> there is a potential break in the search for shane montgomery. dive teams have recovered his keys in the schuylkill river. they searched the water in manayunk for four and a half hours. that is the only piece of evidence they found. montgomery disappearance thanksgiving morning after leaving kildare's irish pub, surveillance video later showed him walking in the direction of the river. >> police in chester country looking for two suspect they say targeted elderly woman at a home invasion. it happened in a development on iron lake drive in exton. leonard bernard forced his way into the the 76 year old victim's home, tide her up, and stole $10,000 worth of jewelry. the victim called 911 and police issued a search warrant at the home of brianna mitchell. they say mitchell is bernard's girlfriends, and the victim's former in-home caretaker. >> we went in. there was nobody there. we went into the master bedroom, and all laid out on the bed was all of the

victim's jewelry and everything. >> authorities say both suspect will face kidnapping, burglary, other related charges, anyone who knows where they might be is asked to call the west whiteland township police department. >> there is much nor cover here on "eyewitness news", as president obama consideration a response to the sony hacking, north korea issues another warning. >> and, the eagles needed the colts to beat the cowboys, to stay in the playoffs. how did it all end? well we'll have the answer when we're back in two

president obama still trying to decide how to respond on the cyber attack on sony pictures. blames north korea for the attack which forced them to pull the movie the interview. comedy that centers around the assassination of north korean leader kim jong un. in response, north korea warns of strikes against the white house pentagon and the whole us mainland. new jersey governor chris christie has sent a letter to president obama, demands that

a convicted cop killer be returned to the u.s. before talks with cuba moves forward. joanne was convicted of killing new jersey state trooper forrester in 1973. she escaped prison, then fled to cuba where she was granted asylum. there is a $2 million reward for information lead to go her return. right now 4:43, let's check in with carol. you're saying we are in for some rain this week? >> yes, we will be in for this week, and it is rain. i know a loft people would love a white christmas, but boy that's a real hassle to try to get to someplace. ran is -- rain is bad enough, but at least you're not shoveling rain. let's see what we have out there right now. fine to get away any point at this -- it is dry conditions, looking dry looking at center city philadelphia, all lit up this morning, there are some clouds over the area right now. i think we can probably fairly expect to find even more clouds as gee on through the rest of the day, center city looking nice, it is 29 degrees, out at the

airport, a lot of people, i'm sure, are there this morning. 33 degrees in trenton, 27 degrees in wilmington, 26 in millville, 31 degrees in allentown. the translation on all of this is it is below freezing just about every place. storm scan3, closer in view, notice the clouds that we have, few areas, where there are no clouds, but they'll also be filling in off to the west, and yesterday looked great. it was such a relief to finally see some sunshine. now, today, as far as getting your christmas traveling done, couple of showers later on this afternoon, we can very definitely expect that. tomorrow, there will also be showers around. and then wednesday, the heaviest rain, breezy conditions, as well, on wednesday. but again, this is rain, not snow, though, remember that freezing rain that you might be encountering in the poconos, as we go into first thing from late tonight, to first thing tomorrow morning. now, clouds, come in here, on our computer model. we start to see some rain showers coming in here about 5:00. we start to see them scattered around by tomorrow.

and tomorrow morning they're scattered around, as we go, get little dry slot, then by wednesday, we get some of the bulk of this moisture starting to stream in here. so that's why wednesday is going to be the wettest day, and then by christmas, can we get all of this out of here? well, maybe first thing christmas morning, before 7:00 or so, there might and shower, but otherwise it looks like the rest every christmas quiet down. 40 degrees our temperature today, tonight, 37 degrees, we continue with those shower chances, and then as we go through the next little bit of time, we add 10 degrees or so, just about every single day, which makes it so easy. we have 50 degrees, by the time we get to tuesday, wednesday, 60, with the rain, christmas, 52 degrees, with partly sunny by afternoon, and then should be dry after that. >> thank you, eagles are playing out the string, they face the new york giants next sunday in their final game of the season. no playoffs this year, i guess you can blame it on the cowboys, tony romo through four touchdown passes as

dallas beat the indianapolis colts 42 to seven. clinching the cowboys first nfc east title in four years, just three weeks ago, the birds were nine and three, and were fighting for the top seed in the playoffs. hard to believe. >> now, some good news, game two of the eight game road trip for the flyers in winnipeg. thirty-three year old rod making his nhl debut in a goal for the orange and black, the game went into overtime. claude giroux forced the turn over, and jake bore check scored his second goal of the game. the flyers win back-to-back road games for the first time this season. four-three, the final. >> they travel to minnesota to face the wild tomorrow night. >> and game one of the sixers seven-game road trip started in orlando on the right note. michael carter williams scored 21 points, and handed out six assists, know hell 13 points, as the sixers beat the magic 96 to 88. sixers next stop is miami

where they take on the heat tomorrow night. >> all right, still ahead this morning on "eyewitness "eyewitn, how low can they go? gas prices take another tumble. >> love seeing this trends.s. >> sure do. >> first what's coming up tonight on cbs-3.

>> an apartment fire in wilmington has injured a firefighter, a par met i can and a 79 year old woman. all three are in stable condition. the three alarm err happened last night on butter nut court, the cause that far fire is under investigation. neighbors gathered at a vigil for two new york city police officers, who were shot to death in a ambush over the weekend. big city police departments around the country are warning their rang and file to wear bulletproof vests. >> and a robbery at a 7-eleven in lower merion ends with the clerk in the hospital. police say two men left with cash but not before one of them pushed that clerk against a wall injuring his back.

well, the time now is 4:49. it is time to check in on business news. >> money watch's jill wagner joins us now from the new york stock exchange, i can't believe christmas is what in what three days? could set record for shipping companies, a lot of packages arriving, i bet? >> hard to believe. good morning, diana, erika, it is going to be very long day for ups workers. the shipping giant expects to deliver 34 million packages today. that's the most in its history. it happened to be a test for the company's new automated sorting system. it will be helping re-route packages, in the case of bad weather. this was put in place to prevent repeat of last year, if you remember, millions of packages did not arrive in time for christmas. so, nobody want that again. >> no, no. >> hard to believe that it has been a year since that happened. >> no kidding. >> there is a gift that keeps on giving, those low gas prices, a lot of people like that. will they stick around, jill? >> reporter: yes, well, the national average is now 2.47 a

gallon for regular, according to new survey, the lowest in five years. and analysts do say that those prices should keep falling, and it is all because oil supply is way off, specially, from producers here in the united state. and then this weekend, saudi arabia said it will not be cutting production, to stop the prices from falling even more. consumers will take it. right now 24 state have prices below $2 a gallon, but the most expensive, of course, here in new york, on long island. >> hey, still cheaper though, right? it is all relative, still below $3 a gallon, no complaints. >> we'll take that. anything you can get. thank you, jill. >> coming up after the

>> 4:53, time for traffic and weather together. good morning, jessica. >> good morning, everyone, pretty much really quiet start to the morning on the

boulevard at fox street. no problems on most of our majors, but we can see right here, northbound lanes, southbound lanes toward the schuylkill expressway, everything moving along just fine so far. now, over on the vine street expressway near 95, westbound into the city currently no problems. eastbound lanes looking great there, as well. but few problems out in new jersey, an accident on the new jersey turnpike southbound at route 73 pushed over into the shoulder. out in maple shade on route 73 southbound at styles avenue there is some road debris blocking out the right-hand lane. out in pottstown, small crash there, route 724 closed at catfish lane. take route 422 to get around that for the time being. now, we send it over to carol over in the weather center. good morning. >> good morning, sounds like active morning on the roads. it will be getting more active in the weather department. we had a quiet day yesterday. today, we will start quiet, but then we end up with some precipitation. let's take a look, see what we have going on right now, you can see these temperatures, they're below freezing every single one every them, 29 out at the airport in philadelphia, well, not every single one, i notice now

trenton is 33. but forget that one, every other one is below freezing, 30 in allentown, 24 in reading, 26 in millville, 27 degrees in wildwood. storm scan3, showing, the clouds that are over us, not everybody with as thick a cloud cover as other people, but i think as we go through the day, we will be finding more and more clouds rolling in here, also some chances of some showers. we have freezing rain advisory, and that's in the poconos, for dangerous travel, that would be from 6:00 tonight, until 4:00 tomorrow morning. so, if you are going to be headed to the poconos, just know that you could be picking up a trace of ice out of that situation up there. otherwise, we are going to be watching for the clouds rolling in here, and the shower chances, as well, our temperatures this afternoon, getting to the ever balmy 40 degrees. diana, erika? >> not bad. thanks, carol. >> now, let's get a check of some of the stories our sister station "kyw news radio" 1060 is following this morning. did the eagles lost get you down for a sports fans

depression after a big lost it can be an issue a loft information about the holidays, but what facts and what's fiction? and how much work does it take for the philadelphia boys choir to hit all of the right notes? check in two, three, four times a day, "kyw news radio 1060" on your a.m. dial. coming up in the next hour of "eyewitness news", we ' live in new york with the missed warning that could have prevented the murder of two police officers. >> plus, it is a christmas surprise. see how some police officers gave back to make sure the holidays are happy for one special family. >> and a scare outside an nfl stadium. the dangerous situation that sent several people to the hospital after a football game. details coming up. we're back at the top of the hour.

a 7-eleven robbed on the main line. >> two bill fires rip through two delaware apartment complexes in less than 24 hours. we have new information about the people hurt in those fires as investigators now search for what started them. >> good morning, it is monday, december 22, i'm erika von tiehl. >> i'm diana rocco in this morning for ukee. >> also this morning, an outpouring of support for two new york city police officers, killed in cold blood. the safety changes being made after those officers were ambushed on the job. carol?

>> we are looking at a weather pattern that will be getting increasingly warm, but increasingly rainy, as well. so we'll talk about the timing on all of that coming up. jessica? >> currently no problems out on the ben franklin bridge from the jersey side westbound into the city. having no problems there, few problems out in new jersey, and i'll tell you all about where they are in just a minute. erika, diana, back over to you. >> jess, thank you. new this morning, lower merion police search for two suspects who held up a 7-eleven, that robbery happened after midnight in the 5300 block of city avenue. investigators tell us that two men walked in and demanded cash. one of them had a gun. the suspects got away with cash, lottery tickets and cigarettes. a store cashier was taken to the hospital for a back injury, after getting pushed against a wall by one of those robbers. >> fire investigators in wilmington, they're work to go finds out the cause every two apartment fires that left dozen of people homeless. "eyewitness news"