>> it's 7:00. and the station that is on your side is on your schedule. 8 at 7:00 begins new. >> good evening. the sheriff describes it as a slaughter. three people killed, another shot in the face in a polk county neighborhood. as newschannel8's rod carter shows us, tonight investigators are trying to figure out who did it. >> reporter: inside this lakeland duplex on east magnolia drive.

>> we know that three people were slaughtered in the house. >> reporter: three people dead. all shot. another fighting for his life tonight shot in the face. the sheriff says blood was everywhere. we know the names of those killed 23-year-old david washington, his girlfriend, 31- year-old eneida stacey branch, and angelica castro. felix campos shot in the face. these killings are all drug related. >> this house was known as the one stop shop for drugs. you could buy marijuana, pills, heroin, cocaine, whatever you needed, they had here. >> reporter: friends and family showed up early this morning obviously distraught. jessica washington's brother among those killed here. >> it hurts so bad. i practically raised him. >> reporter: rod carter, newschannel8.

is accused in a shocking child abuse case. victoria and eugenio erquiaga would often tie up their 12- year-old daughter with zip ties and lock her away in a play house. officials say the parents appreciately used this method as punishment. the girl escaped last week and begged a neighbor for help. >> yeah. three zip ties in total. she had one in the middle connecting the two. so, you couldn't have put that on yourself. >> the couple is charged with aggravated child abuse. they were issued $500,000 bond and ordered to stay away from their children. two incidents in temple terrace of police impersonators. candace mccowan has the warning tonight from the real authorities. >> i would look for a badge. and you know. look for a name. >> reporter: those are all

will look for if an officer knocked at his door asking to come in. that is what two people had on when they knocked on his neighbor's door. the problem is they weren't cops and the first case reported in december, possible personal information was taken after the impersonators were allowed in. >> they show up with uniforms. >> reporter: now, temple credentials. >> it is similar to a drivers license. it has police department on it, it has a badge, a picture. >> reporter: it is also not clear if there could be other possible victims out there who just didn't report having these suspicious people knock on their doors. candace mccowan, newschannel8. an 8 on your side consumer alert now, viewers have been contacting us about skimming devices on gas station pumps that can steal your credit card information. as newschannel8's jeff patterson shows us, one gas station owner claims he is doing everything he can to stop

>> it was his first time using his debit card. two days later we found fraudulent charges on his accounted. i called the bank. >> reporter: lori daley filed a police report after her son's credit card was hacked. >> you don't think it happened here. you are pretty sure. >> it was his first charge. absolutely. this is writ happened. >> reporter: on monday, we reported about a suspected skimming device problem at another 7/11 just down the road. daley has discovered a number of her neighbors complaining about the issue on facebook. >> a lot of people were posting about it saying that they had their cards compromised here at this location. >> reporter: but while we were there, the owner of the franchise came out to confront us. >> you didn't ask me if i want to be on camera. >> reporter: well you walked up to me. >> reporter: he wanted to explain he is doing everything he can to protect his pumps. >> there is a special lock with a special key. >> reporter: the owner promises he will continue to check the

problems here in the future. jeff patterson, newschannel8. it is epiphany day in tarpon springs. a day the greek orthodox church celebrates the baptism of jesus. more than 50 teens jumped into cold waters to retrieve the cross. the teen who retrieves it receives a year of good luck. this year anderson combs managed to scoop up the cross from the murky water. >> i'm happy to be a member of the church. >> this is the 110th year the epiphany has been held in tar on springs. are you feeling lucky? one of the biggest power gal jackpots every is up for grabs tonight and many people are hoping they will have the lucky half billion dollars ticket. lottery tickets are selling out pretty fast though you have

than winning the power ball, that didn't seem to faze some excited lotto players. >> some people think that whatever comes out, if it is destiny, meant to be, they win. >> oh my god. i would have a fit. i would scream, holler. pay my bills. take care of my family and live where i want to lovingly don't know if it is worth going to school if you don't have that much money. >> the state of florida already boasts more than 200 power ball millionaires. and at wfla.com, we have full list of the things that are more likely to happen to you than winning the lottery. would you stay at work if you won or would you leave? >> i think it would be nice to give fair notice you know. so they could find replacement. because you might want to do other things if you have millions and millions of dollars. >> so you would at least admit you would probably quit?

>> about ten years notice. >> wow. all right, this evening looks pretty nice. cooler temperatures. we ended up with 67 for a high temperature. and plenty of clouds around the area. and a few light showers still out in the area. we will leave the light shower chance in there. as a matter of fact, as we look at doppler radar, you can see there are showers moving off of the west coast of florida as well as over on the east coast. an these are fairly active close tore the east coast. but just sprinkles primarily. pinellas, hillsborough, pasco county. in land in polk county and highlands county, they are seeing a few showers. actually some decent rain at this point. there are some good downpours into brevard county. which is south of cocoa beach and generally north of vero beach. watch for those in inland areas. we will have more in the forecast including rain for the weekend coming up.

>> are billions of your tax dollars getting veterans to doctors faster or are they going to their graves waiting for appointments? >> several bay area law enforcement agencies joined the campaign to end straw gun

>> you will soon be hearing and seeing ads on a campaign to bring an end to illegal gun sales. they are called straw purchases and the buyer is being put on notice. >> reporter: when the two killers in the san bernardino rampage went on their rampage, they used guns bought by a friend. >> that is a prime example on the national level that i think

>> reporter: the atf along with the firearm industry have lost the don't lie for the other guy campaign. >> when a criminal knows he cannot pass a background check or a firearms trafficker wants to avoid having their name associated with a transaction, they may recruit and pay somebody to go into a dealer and buy the gun for them. >> they could face up to ten years in prison. >> reporter: during the past two years, prosecutors have brought 124 cases related to straw purchases in tampa alone. in hillsborough county, josh thomas, newschannel8. in addition to facing up to ten years in prison, a straw purchaser could be tine fined up to a quarter of a million dollars for lying on a federal form. well, sick and tired of waiting for appointments. the va set up a program to get veterans the care they need faster. but is it even working?

>> another rough day on wall street. the dow jones dropped 252 points. the s&p dropped 26 and the nasdaq dropped 55 points. the price of air travel just went up.

quietly raised fares $4 a flight including short, medium, and long haul trips and it didn't take long for southwest, american, and united to follow suit. industry insiders call the move surprising since major carriers have been collecting record profits due to lower fuel costs. twitter may be ready to abandon the limit on the length of tweets. they may expand posts from 140 characters to as many as 10,000. twitter's ceo will not confirm the change yet but is dropping some strong hints. many people are bypassing the limit by taking screen shots of text and then tweeting those. as of today, netflix is in nearly every country in the world. the streaming video service is now available in 130 more countries. the company says it is working to open its service in china, but will likely find challenges there as well. media content in china remains heavily censored by the

facebook are blocked there. more on the lumosity brain training scandal. you can get an easy way to scrap your subscription. it was built as a tool to fight disease like dementia but the claims mislead consumers because there is no science to back them up. the california company has to pay a $2 million fine for making false claims about improving brain function. apple is celebrating a big holiday season for its app store. during the weeks of christmas an new year's day, customers spent more than $1 billion open apps and in app purchases. new year's day was the most popular day in app history with customers spending more than $144 million. smarter cars are a major focus of the 2016 consumer electronics show. part of the focus, how new

traffic. microsoft, and iav are working on collective vehicle technology allowing cars to see dangerous spots ahead like cars pulling out or pedestrians all through wi-fi signals. >> do you really think people are going to be wearing smart vans all the time? is that a bit farfetched? >> if your smartphone has the same ability as your band, everybody is carrying a smartphone. >> tampa will be among the first city ins the country to participate in a pilot program testing this technology. very cool. volkswagen is going electric. the german auto maker had two new concept electric vehicles at the consumer electronic show. the bud e is a fully electric vehicle. and the dashboard is made of several screens. the second vehicle, volkswagen's e golf touch is also fully electric with a user interface that relies on voice

for all you tech junkies, the long awaited virtual reality headset oculus rift is available for preorder. they had so many preorders initially, the site crashed. the first shipments are expected to go out at the end of march. and there is a new addition to the world of wearable health devices. this one from underarmour. kit box helps users track their bodies 24/7. it includes a chest strap, a wristband, and a circular scale that all communicate with the brand's app. it retails for $400 and goes on sale january 22. chick-fil-a wants to help you keep your new year's resolution to eat healthier. they will start offering a super food side later this month.

and broccolini in a maple vinegarette dressing an comes with a blend of roasted nuts. now, an 8 on your side investigation. you paid $10 billion to help veterans get easier access to doctors outside the va healthcare system. but a senior reporter found a former marine thinks the money was wasted. >> reporter: lewis served his country as a marine from 1969 of the 1971. now 66 years old he is destroying from liver destroying hepatitis c. >> it will get harder and harder to treat. how much liver am i going to have left? >> reporter: lewis is enrolled in the veteran's choice program. rather than tracking all the way to the james a. hailey va hospital, he can seek treatment closer to home. >> they are supposed to get you an appointment.

>> reporter: it was passed when congress learned veterans died waiting for medical appointments and they were falsifying reports to show the system was seeing parent faster than it was. the government poured ten million of your tax dollars into the program last year. health net administers the program in this part of the country. >> it took longer than just going to the va. the va gets you an appointment paster than them. >> reporter: he has waited since november to get an appointment. he shows up to appointments only to learn they have not been approved resulting in time consuming unproductive phone calls. >> they put you on hold. they have to look it up in the computer. we don't know what happened. that somebody dropped the ball. and then you start all over again. >> the va just seems to have in their genes this incapability of streamlining the system. >> reporter: since is va rolled

the number of veterans waiting for than 30 days for an appointment has grown up to 500,000. >> that is what they were funded for. it is their job to get you in there and they are not doing it. >> reporter: steve andrews, newschannel8. >> steve reached out to health net, the company put him on hole several minutes. told him et would get back to him and has yet to do that. well, in california, families backyard getting the kind of makeover no family wants. this week, a mud flow from storms that hit southern california flowed the backyard as the homeowners watched helplessly. in the past, mud flows have been successfully diverted down a side alley but not this time. more rain on the way. also saw a severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings in southern california which is extremely rare and this is

possibly more severe weather the next couple of months. 30% chance of rain on friday. 50% chance for us later in the day on saturday. with an approaching cold front for friday, it is an area of low pressure moving from the west. look at this picture. the love boats usually pop up this time of year toward the spring. tina scott got this shot today. 63 degrees at 9:00 p.m. temperatures in the 60s this evening. mostly cloudy skies. temperatures starting the day will be a bit warmer. 57 degrees for a forecast. normal low of about 51. 61 degrees tamp international. is winds strong into downtown saint petersburg though they will likely be lighter tomorrow. they were windy and gusty around the bay area in places today. this area of low pressure to the south will continue to track to our southeast moving

showers a you can see continue to roll into the east coast. radar a couple of minutes ago. mostly cloudy skies. but there are some clearer patches you can see. hardy de soto counties. the low pressure moves away from us as we get through the the rest of thursday. a bit more sunshine in the afternoon. a break of systems here. area of low pressure back to our west. that is our rain chance for friday. as we get beyond that, into saturday, we watch for the approach of this area of low pressure that will be attached to a cold front. that will give us later rain chance as we get into saturday night. that is our rain chance in behind that front. we will see cooler temperatures as we roll on into next week. 77 degrees for friday. same for saturday. the rain chance up to 50% for that day. 73 degrees on sunday. monday, tuesday, wednesday, high temperatures upper 60s back down to the cool stuff for a couple of days keeps us in a nice range of temperatures.

>> it is kind of a bummer, this saturday rain thing. >> bad timing for those. >> yeah. we'll be right back. stay wases. >> plus, here is what you will see tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. >> the circus is in town. i'm lindsey mastis and i will show you what makes this year's

>> most of us have probably photo bombed someone before but i guess you didn't do et as well as this. this guy wasn't horsing around when he pulled off this bomb on a little girl. and she has no clue. but she has a picture she will remember forever. how funny is that? that is a full tooth smile. like what?

>> i like it. >> he will post it on his facebook page no doubt. >> i bet our weather cat follows that guy. >> we will be back at 11:00. join us then and have a great night. donald trump takes on the elephant in the room. >> melania out to prove she's smart much to be the next first lady. flow on "extra." extra, extra melania trump posing in her pent house opening up about her marriage, why she's miss understood and whose idea it was for donald to run for president. >> and the one question she refused to answer. plus, trump versus samuel l. jackson. >> i'm sure he'll lie about that also.

single amy schumer off the market. who's her new man and why are they instagraming about a pregnancy? janet jackson's health scare. why the pop star was forced to postpone her big comeback tour. "ncis" shocker, why michael l weatherly is suddenly leaving his role as agent dinozo. plus the beginning of the end for "american idol." the top secret plans for the final season. >> maybe i'll flip a light something. plus bradley, jake and charlize reveal their favorite sex scenes. >> that was a very hot scene. and live with a.j., kirstie alley spills her super celebrity crush on j-law. >> jen, i'd start crying. now on "extra" from universal studios hollywood, the entertainment capital of l.a. extra, extra hey, everyone, welcome to ex-e "extra," i'm mario lopez.

coming up, j.lo's age-defying