suspicious event. gunshot came inside the home in the direction of the police. no officers were hit. we are understanding at that point that a perimeter has been established and the neighbors are being advised. we saw additional police showing up on scene. in the last five minutes or so taking traffic on franconia road, if you're headed to buelah, you have to divert off. they have this section closed off. a large section of the neighborhood where this is all happening. also closed off at this point as well. we are continuing to monitor developments. we will have much more throughout the newscast. stay with abc7 news. back to you. maureen: thank you. the case is now closed on brutal crimes that touch the nation. today, jesse matthew pleaded guilty to the abductio

morgan harrington and hannah graham. as part of the deal he avoids the death penalty and will spend the rest of his life in prison. northern virginia bureau chief jeff goldberg spoke with the victims' families and is live in charlottesville with the latest. jeff? jeff: well, maureen, this was a packed courtroom with family members of hannah graham and morgan harrington and family member of jesse matthew and the members of the law enforcement there to witness jesse matthew plead guilty. development that came as a surprise to many people involved the case. the parents of the victims say they are relieved that everyone will be spared the pain of a long trial. and relieved jesse matthew will never again walk the streets. as jesse matthew arrived in court to plead guilty to the crimes the decision to do so according to the lawyer was entirely his own. >> today's event do not bring hannah back to us of course. we miss her every day and know many others do too. >> matthew pleading guilty to

abducting and killing hannah graham, the sophomore who disappeared after a night out in charlottesville in 2014. matthew admitting to abducting and killing morgan harrington the 20-year-old virginia tech student who disappeared after a concert in charlottesville in 2009. before sentencing parents of the girls reading powerful statement talking of matthew's wicked actions and the great pain they caused. how could he and why would he said dan harrington? susan graham that matthew dumped her body like a bag of trash to be picked over by but saturdays is inhumane. matthew sentenced to four consecutive life sentences in prison and avoided the possibility of the death penalty. >> they say it takes a village to raise a child. i know it takes one to bury a child. >> jesse matthew gave no statement in court but his defense attorney saying how sorry he is for cause something much pain. >> i think it's impo

people who have been affected. jeff: at no point today were any details of the crimes revealed. nothing on actually what happened to morgan harrington or hannah graham. after the hearing we spoke to harrington's father who says one day he will ask prosecutors to find out. live in charlottesville, jeff goldberg, abc7 news. leon: thank you, jeff. the four life stenses are in addition to three life sentences that matthew is serving. the sentence he received in october after entering an allford plea in the sexual assault of fairfax woman in 2005. he entered that plea in the trial. hours after the victim took the stand. d.n.a. evidence collected in the hannah graham investigation is what linked matthew to the cold case. now to new information in the child pornography case involving a prince george's county teacher's aide. parents of one of the alleged victims filed a new lawsuit. this new suit targets the city of glenarden claiming that the leaders there allowed

municipal center. the lawsuit claims 10-year-old boy suffered abuse of the hands of carraway in that building. so far, police say 17 victims have been identified in the case against carraway. maureen? maureen: the prince william county police officer killed the first night on her home is back home. police honor guard in westfield, massachusetts, today received the body of officer ashley guindon. family service is planned for this weekend. she will be buried next to her father on monday in west springfield. thousands from across the region turned out for a police funeral yesterday to honor the 28-year-old officer shot, responding to a domestic dispute in woodbridge. leon: after a dismal performance in yesterday's super tuesday, sources close to the campaign say that dr. ben carson is dropping out of the presidential race. carson finished last or next to last in all of yesterday's contests. but in carson's first tv interview since we broke the news he told chief political correspondent s

is still considering his next move. scott is in baltimore with the interview you will see only here on 7. scott? scott: yeah, leon. dr. carson when asked directly if he was suspending his campaign didn't want to use that word. instead he chose to say he is considering what happens next. he is not going to tomorrow night's debate in detroit. we believe he will make a big announcement from regarding his future. that may very well be when and if he says he is definitively dropping out despite the fact that sources close to the campaign tell us he is suspending. i talked to him about the pressures he has been facing to drop out of the race. here is what he had to say. >> what is the most direct example of someone letting you know you should get out? dr. carson: people calling on the telephone and say get out and support such-and-such. >> party elders? people in the r.n.c.? >> well-known names.

say who he would like his supporters to turn to, if he is done. he said he just wants this tome back whoever the nominee is and to make smart decisions based on who will best represent their personal values and interests. we have much more of the interview we will show later tonight. at the moment dr. carson not saying he is suspending but saying he is considering all options and will not attend the debate. for all intents and purposes it looks like he is no longer aboutively part of the cam -- actively part of the campaign. maureen: carson's decision to bow out of the race came hours after senator ted cruz urged republicans to unite against donald trump. >> for the candidates who have not yet won a state and not racked up significant delegates i ask you to prayerfully consider our coming together. maureen: at the moment cruz is second to trump in the delegate camp. marco rubio is third. on the

sanders is vowing to fight on. despite hillary clinton's big night in which she won seven out of 11 states including virginia. tomorrow the race could take another turn. 2012 republican nominee mitt romney is expected to give a speech on the state of the presidential race. coming up at "abc7 news at 6:00" -- a woman who spent a decade in prison for a deadly drunk driving crash heads back to prison. what she did the day she got her license back that is reigniting the debate over maryland drunk driving laws. doug: sunshine today. we are not finished with the winter weather. coming up, the type, the timing and the impact of the wintery precipitation. coming up next on "abc7 news at 6:00".

leon: a year after three men stole $5 million in gold, the f.b.i. has a suspect in custody. it happened last march 1 in north carolina, if you remember the story. three suspects intercepted a truck that was carrying the gold shipment and they fled off in a van. today, agents arrested 46-year-old alberto perez at his home near miami. so far the feds haven't said what role they think that he played in the heist. maureen: police hope memorable image will help catch a burglary suggest. this is the picture police say the yo

with his hands full is behind the burglaries of the university of maryland students offcampus apartments. they happened late monday night in apartments near the corner of route 1 and college park of college avenue in college park. in all the cases the apartments were unlocked. leon: the pentagon is looking for a few good people to hack its computers. the military plans to hire specialists to breach the public internet pages. it's part of the pilot program to find and to fix cyber security vulnerabilities. defense secretary ash carter says he want what is he calls responsible hackers for this program. it begins next month. maureen: still ahead at 6:00 -- the new case spurring maryland's debate over drunk driving laws. why one woman being released from prison has her headed back behind bars. leon: doug hill breaks down the timing of snow heading o

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road closed at this point. look from mobiletrak7. you can see the next of buehlah street and franconia road. police shut down the intersection. many of the streets around the area where they were first called around 5:00 this afternoon. we understand that they were called to larkspur drive for what was called suspicious event. no other details given at this point. officers got on scene they made contact with someone inside a home, that is when they stay gunshots came from inside the house in direction of the police officers. at this point no officers were hit in the interchange between the two. no officers were hit. they set up a perimeter and the neighbors were advised to remain indoors, stay inside the home. they expanded the primmer if from where this happened. number of the neighborhood streets are now closed. the streets around the area in the area of the franconia elementary school closed as

very large police presence. tactical teams and the k9 units on the scene as well. tactical team was requested and now on the scene. we'll follow this throughout the night. leon: keep us posted. a woman who earlier had been sentenced to ten years in prison for deadly drunk driving crash is headed back to prison. her new crime trying to drive drunk despite having an interlock device in the car. brad bell reports it's raising the stakes in the fight over the maryland drunk driving laws. brad: the wreck soldier so mangled it is difficult to see in the police scene photos from june 2009. the red pickup truck in which two men died, rear ended and sent flying off the beltway by drunk driver in her silver jeep. kelly lohse sent to prison for ten years and released early in 2014. tonight sent back to jail for repeatedly trying to foil her booze-sniffing ignition

>> she seems to have no conscience in this matter. brad: she walked in court to face a judge today. prosecutors claiming on the day she got her driver's license back after prison her court-ordered interlock sensed alcohol. she first lied and claimed the breath mints set it off but today admitted she tried to drive drunk on multiple occasions. >> her own behavior and decision-making prove that she needs to be behind bars. brad: this comes a it a time when law enforcement leaders and survivors of the drunk driving victims are pushing legislators to pass a big to require ignition interlocks for everyone convicted of drunk driving not just extreme cases. >> you can't start the car, you can't drive away. brad: the bill named noah's law for officer noah leotta killed by drunk driving in november. they cite it as proof it's a good idea. >> the interlock works. and but for the interlock, she would have been driving more.

brad: in court today the judge repeatedly called her a liar. and a danger to the community. he said a final sentencing date for june. she could face 20 more years in prison. in rockville, brad bell, abc7 news. maureen: this is a sure sign that spring is just about here. the national park service making cherry blossom predictions. the service predicts the blossoms to reach the peak between march 31 and april 3. that is a week earlier than the past couple of years. as for how long the blossoms will stay at the peak, that depends on the weather. stay with abc7 and newschannel8 for coverage of the cherry blossom festival from march 20 through april 17 and abc7 is a proud sponsor of the festival. leon: the enemy of the trees is not the temperature but the wind. right?

lets start with the cherry blossoms. we put together a graphic to show when peak bloom was achieverred in the past few years. last year was april 10. follow it down. april 10 in 2014. as early as recent years as the 20th of march in 2012. so park service says end of march and early april, sounds good to me. hopefully the weather will cooperate. show you the almanac page. if you were outside today and shivering and you think 60 the high, really? yeah, 20 minutes after midnight. that is when it occurred. cold front came through and the temperatures dropped to 30's and 40's all day. 51 and 34 the average values. we are chilly now with the sun down and the clear skies. we will drop quickly tonight from the mid-30's where we are right now to the 30-degree range in the city. 20's in suburban areas. the winds ranging between 18 and 24 miles per hour. putting a bite in the wind. later tonight the winds will diminish. with the clear skies 22 to 30

by morning. we have sun in the morning and the clouds increase during the day because the approach of this storm system will track from rapid city, memphis and to the coast. swing south and off the coast of the outer banks. it will get stronger. with this track and compact system and the cold air in place overhead, we will get snow out of this. how much, when will it start and what impact will it have? patches of light snow overnight. 1:00 a.m. friday morning. out will continue light snow. heavier amounts off southeast. quickly turns to rain and then rapidly moves out by 9:00 in the morning. that's it. the storm intensifies. we are expecting generally the snowfall potential one to two inches over most of the area. most of this is over the grassy areas. there is a strip in southern maryland across the eastern

the storm center. check out the next seven days. it will end differently than it begins. why? 42 tomorrow. 43 on friday. cold. clearing skies. 47 on saturday. quick system to give us the sunday morning snowshowers. clearing late in the day. warmer and 49. check the warming trend. 70 degrees on tuesday. lower 70's on thursday. leon, maureen and erin, back to you. leon: all right. back from spring training. erin: that is right. good to see you again. baseball is also back. the nationals play the first grapefruit league game today. and brooks laich, he's back, too. oh, but he is rocking a different color. so how do his former teammates feel about it?

i can't imagine wearing something other than this jersey. strange to see. hard on the ice. looking forward to it, not looking forward to it. erin: it will be weird. just three days after brooks laich was traded to toronto he has to come back to washington and face his former team. laich spent 13 seasons with the caps. even he was surprised w

capitals traded him to the maple leafs on sunday. but they believe that it will give him a chance to end the season strong. we caught up with him this morning and talk about the emotional whirlwind. >> i know the fabric in the locker room. they won't take it easy on me. i know the players and how they play. they won't take it easy on me tonight. i think they know who i am and they know i won't take it easy on them either. it will be a hockey game. they have a player on this side traded from this team, too. they will be excited to play this team, too. erin: a standup, classy guy. leon: absolutely. erin: baseball is back. today was the first game of the grapefruit league action. nationals took on the tampa bay rays. most of the regulars skipped the trip. but the guys that are trying to make the club had time to impress. veteran scott sizemore. look at that. he made the most of his opportunity collecting a pair of h

homer. the nats come away with a 6-2 win over the rays. to the pitch, d.c. united was eliminated from the concacaf tournament last night but the rookie is pretty good. they can hope to see more of that when united opens up the mls season in l.a. on sunday. the suddenly hot wizards are in minnesota where they hope to get the fourth win in a row. happy to say that finally. leon: they need it. erin: they do. leon: to get in eighth spot of the playoffs, they need it. maureen: quick update from you. doug: clear and cold. clouds increase. tomorrow and friday snow. how it will impact the friday morning rush and how much and all of that jazz and warming trend, steve has at 11:00. maureen: thank you. "world news tonight" with david muir up next. leon: we will follow the franconia breaking news after someone opened fire at

custody. join us at 11:00.

breaking news tonight. is one of the candidates about to drop out? after donald trump's string of victories, tonight, trump's promise. >> i'm a unifier. i know people are going to find that a little bit hard to believe. >> ted cruz and marco rubio taking aim. but is it even possible for any other republican candidate to get the delegates they need? tonight here, we do the math. and the smile's gone. will it be clinton versus trump? draekt hit. the tornadoes touching down. tonight, we're on the scene. homes destroyed. and the new system bringing snow and bitter cold. it is moving east. breaking news. armed and dangerous. and the reworld at this hour. nearly a dozen men making off with several ar-15-style rifles. that manhunt, right now. the zika outbreak. tonight, the new headline. in the northeast, as