sarah palin visits the bay area. the reason the former alaska governor is speaking at the strawberry festival tonight. fallen deputy. his family is telling us about

his love to serve and why he chose the bay area. >> but first we begin with breaking news. police in pinellas county searching for answers after finding a woman dead. >> officers in largo say someone was going for a walk when they spotted the body in some bushes at 145th street and star board lane. they are calling this suspicious. >> she is between 20 and 50 years old. reddish blond hair with tattoos of a butterfly and the letter t. if you know who she is, you are urged to call police. officer is critically wounded and an active shooter is at large. you are looking at the twitter page. police right thousand are warning people to stay indoors there. funeral arrangements are being made far hillsborough county deputy killed in the line of duty. >> he died yesterday when a wrongway driver slammed into his patrol car.

family about how he will be remembered. >> reporter: there has been a huge amount of support for deputy kotfila. and here at e bore city, the flags are flying at half staff. i spoke to deputy kotfila's sister katelyn who lives in massachusetts. she says her brother picked -- he loved this area because he used to come visit his uncle who was a pinellas county deputy. he says he really loved his career and coworkers here at the department. they are the ones who responded to the crash yesterday morning. when investigators say eric selma expressway. the two cars collided and both men were killed. you can hear the emotion in his voice. >> these men and women are --

the men and women are out there trying to protect everybody and these guys are very concerned about the drivers at night. this deputy had hoped to become a traffic investigator at some point. >> reporter: kotfila's parents are flying to florida right now. his sister tells me there will be a remembrance ceremony on friday. reporting in hillsborough news. tampa police have caught a man they say hit a pipeline and drove away. officers say joseph struck the victim early saturday at 30th street east and 50th street north. that victim is fighting for his life tonight in the hospital. police say a tip led them to ragsdale and damaged pickup truck. he is charged with leaving the crash of a scene. we are just two days away primary.

>> and republican front runner donald trump getting help on the campaign trail right here in tampa bay from sarah palin. kara is joining us live from the port of strawberry fest where they met with hundreds of supporters. kara. >> reporter: you can smell funnel cakes in the air. there is a huge line for strawberry short cake. right where we are standing. just not that long ago. huge crowd tons of people packing in to get a glimpse of sarah palin. she did not of aeroformal speech but talked about donald trump at every chance she got. several supporters taking the ability to have a picture with her and asking a few questions about her support for the gop front runner. palin thinks trump has an excellent chance of winning. >> if we keep going with the way we are going and the

it's not going to get any better. people i'm speaking with yeah, i'm ready. somebody with a track record of proof. they know how to create a job, they know how to balance a budget. >> reporter: and palin also did campaign at arcadia for donald trump today. gettingdonald trump is rallying over in boca are tone and it will be right here in tampa bay at the convention center. reporting live in plant city. >> donald trump is taking heat on the campaign trail because of more violent protests. >> take a look at this video out of kansas city showing demonstrators being arrested and sprayed in the face of pepper spray. gloria shows us the call for changes. >> get them out of here please. get them out of here. get them out of here.

>> reporter: calmer crowds but still plenty of protests against donald trump. the gop front runner continuing to take heat after recent violence. >> it's not beneficial when you have a candidate like donald trump who is telling his protesters punch that guy in the space. >> reporter: this video went viral. punching a protester as he was escorted out. now the billionaire is considering paying the man's legal fees. >> the man got carried away. he was 78 years old. he obviously loves this country. >> reporter: even after canceling an appearance in chicago, trump keeps taunting demonstrators. accusing them of being from the bernie sanders campaign. >> send them back to bernie. >> reporter: sanders fighting back. >> he's lying again. first of all he calls me a communist, that is a lie. and this campaign is organizing

disruptions. that is a lie. >> reporter: hillary clinton in the battleground state of ohio sunday. not calling out trump by name. >> thank you. >> reporter: but his own republican rivals are. some even waiverring on their pledge to back the nominee is trump. >> it's getting harder every day. it really is. if donald trump is our nominee, he will lose. is donald trump fit to be president? >> you're not going to get me to answer a yes or no question. >> reporter: so far no sign of that. just two days ahead of the next set of primaries. abc news washington. >> donald trump holding a two door lead in florida with just two days left before primary day. of course we'll have complete coverage of tuesday's results right here on abc action news and on our website. here's the time when we recap our day. was it a half full day?

half empty day? we did have sun around but right now we're watching the showers move on shore. if you are waiting for some rain to get rid of that pollen and water the lawn, well it's a good thing. showers moving over toward wesley chapel and up along i-75 toward dade city and zephyrhills. all of this tracking from the west to the east. a cold front that is not going to make much difference in our temperatures as this continues to move through. we did get that 40% chance of showers today. not everyone covered but the places where it did rain a little cooler. 72 in hudson. tampa has 75. 81 still in lakeland. as this moves through, we could see some lingering showers toward the morning. we'll take a look at exactly

where the rain drop will fall coming up in 12 minutes. six people are recovering tonight including four children after being shot at a florida gun range. deputies say the shooting in marion county yesterday was accidental. a 21-year-old man was loading an antique shotgun when he fired it by mistake. even though he wasn't pointing it at anyone, the bullet hit the concrete floor and bounced hitting the group. detectives say it's a reminder to be extra cautious with weapons. thankfully everyone is expected to survive. easter tradition that connects your children with special needs can get involved. the touching changes by the local mall to make sure the

new decision could come down in the sex tape trial. >> the judge is weighing why bubba will be called to testify. he talked about case on the show. . saying he wants to move on from the controversy. covering pasco county tonight where a mall is making sure children with special needs can join in on easter fun. it's an easter bunny that is meant for kids with autism and other disorders. families were invited to private organizations. hay say the parents are grateful to take part be this tradition. still to come, change in culture at the gas by rail la

the sound of roaring engines filled downtown st. petersburg today.

we have your returning champ speeding right through the checkered flag. more than 150,000 racing fans came out over the past three days. the biggest race of the weekend the rise to indy car series opener hit the rack this afternoon. penske driver pablo was the winner for the second year in a row. the gasparilla music fest invaded tampa today. organizers have started a brand new latin stage featuring an entire lineup of latin musicians. dozens attended the concerts with five stages in all. they say fans have been showing recent interest on latin music

so they wanted these fans in one place. >> we really wanted to have it all together here. so we can get synergy off all the latin dance. >> organizers plan to bring an even more latin band next year. a lot going on across the bay this weekend. especially today. it looks like the rain just held on enough. >> we were keeping our fingers crossed. we have seen the rain come through but it's not as side spread as we were hearing. we were able to get in most of those outdoor activities. we were able to get some rain and still get our fun in. here's a look from circles at apollo beach. you can see the clouds out there as you look out past the piers. do you notice folks the light is later. we will stay lighter later

because of daylight savings time. this morning a little darker as you got up if you remember to get your clocks forward. quick time check. yep, it's just about 17 minutes after 6:00. that is when we see the rain roll through. not completely wide spread front. but as that front comes through, we are still maintaining the mild temperatures. as we just saw, things nice and speedy this weekend out at the st. pete grand mix. and we got up to 79-degrees in tampa. at the airport three degrees warmer than normal. no rain in the bucket out there at tia. over night low very much warmer. 11 degrees warmer than normal. it's stayed very warm and juicy with this massive moisture in the air. 75 in st. petersburg. winds from the southwest at 10. south, southwest winds at 13 in clearwater where it's 73 degrees. and we look into tampa. 75 right now. the the clouds around. winds out of the south at 11.

conditions and continue to see the warmth. most everyone in the upper 70s to low 80s across the state of florida and very warm into the rest of the united states as well. including all the way up into st. louis where it's 64. huge sloth of warm air up to the canadian border. and right through here is where we see a severe weather threat. as another area of low pressure moves through the mississippi and tennessee valley. most of the energy associated with this has moved north. we are getting the tail end of it moving through the region right now. we'll show you where those rain drops are falling. moving through 7:00 here comes a very thin line. and then we will start to see by morning another ramping up of rain chances as we continue to get that southwest flow bringing the moisture across. by 5:00 into the evening commute, another chance of scattered showers. so all and all we will put it at 30% chance of rain on monday. over night, we'll look for temperatures to dip down to around 70.

upper 60s in some areas. further off to the north we will see the readings into the upper 60s and low 10:s. it will be a warm night. warmer than normal for this time of year. taking a look at florida's most accurate evening planner. we'll take those temperatures down and through the 70s. and remember tomorrow it will be dark still at 7:00. and the rains could be around. 70 on the water. we'll expect those winds to stay out of the south, southwest at 15 knots. 1-2-foot seas. uv index despite the clouds remains in the high category. uv doesn't come through with the sunshine. it comes through as ultraviolet light. high tide at 8:11. low tide at 11:47. here's a look at florida's most accurate forecast. shows the small chances of rain in the morning and maybe into the evening on monday but

through the workweek ahead. a manager at a pga tournament chances of making the cut beyond slim. if you make the cut, the chances of winning that pga tournament beyond low. of that today. to become the first to win a pga tournament since mickelson did it in 91. mccoy was three years old when lefty did that. in the final round he started the day birdieing his first two holes. before ultimately finishing with a four under 69. the tournament is still going on right now. bill haas and charles schwartz are in a playoff tied at seven under. coming up tonight at 11:00 we will break down the final results as well as mccoys memorable round and hear from that tampa native. entering today only two drivers won the fire stone grand prix multiple times in the races 12 year history.

race number 13 this afternoon would provide us with another repeat winner but not before captain jerald mccoy said the most famous words in all of motor sports. >> drivers start your engines. getting the grand prix started. before they were started will power was pulled from the race after being diagnosed with a mild concussion suffered in the crash on friday. he raced on saturday and won the poll but didn't practice. there. he finished in 1st place. once the race started we had our first major crash. carlos hits the wheel. lap. look at his reaction here. not too pleased. however the race would belong to pablo montoya. the number two car that lead the second most laps on the day. 44 total but he led the most important lap.

the last one. he defends his title and takes the checkered flag. held off his own teammate to win the first race of the indy car season. >> it's great we race teammates. we race each other hard but we give each other room. everybody at this team and all of our supporters have done an amazing job. can't thank them enough. >> to the ice we go. starting a four-game roady. both have dropped three game straight. no score in columbus as we head to the second period. the puck will be loose on the boards and guess what, he finds it and feeds to steven stamkos. top shelf. lightning up 1-0. they win 4-0 against the blue jackets in columbus.

we've been seeing the sunset about this time for weeks but it's not going to come until 7:30. and then it's going to get warm again tomorrow. >> thank you for sharing those gorgeous pictures. you always have great pictures.

welcome to world news tonight. critics calling donald trump the fire starter. protests, punches, and now finger pointing. >> send them back to bernie.