announcer: now, "abc 7 news at noon," on your side. are following the latest developments on the christmas day murder of tricia mccauley. the man accused of her murder, wayne johnson, is set to be a rate -- the man accused of her murder, duane johnson, is set to be arraigned. ne johnson will go before a judge in less than an hour. he was arrested in kobe heights.

heights p never showed up for a court appointment. just after her disappearance, police say he arrived at a cvs and assaulted employees during the robbery in southeast. "the washington post" spoke with his family. his mom had not even heard he had been arrested. the justiceer said system has failed him, adding that he should not have been freed after his past crimes, also stating he believed he had mental illness and telling the post he recently was living on the streets. johnson will be in court at 1:00 this afternoon. that is when we expect to learn more about the case and johnson's past. we still do not know how johnson met tricia mccauley in the first place. jeff goldberg will be inside, and we will have the latest coming up this afternoon. reporting outside the d.c. superior court in northwest washington, i am sam sweeney. jummy: last night about 100 people gathered in northwest d.c. for a candlelight

for46-year-old was praised her kindness and generosity. >> those who were touched by her and got to experience her love and caring will carry that forward on her behalf. jummy: tricia mccauley was also an actress, appearing at the washington stage guild and other theaters. she was also a stand-in for jennifer tatum in "step up." virginia state police are helping in the search for a missing woman and her granddaughter. barbara briely and her granddaughter, five-year-old were last seen last evening in richmond, va. a clerk says she was asking for directions. they were headed to north carolina. barbara briely was seen driving a silver toyota rav4.

prosecutors have arrested a tunisian man in connection with last week's deadly truck attack at a christmas market in berlin that killed 12 people and hurt more than one dozen. the man's identity has not been released, but investigators say the 40-year-old's phone number of an the cell phone assam rate -- of a niece amory. according to turkish media, a cease-fire deal will take effect after midnight tonight. the agency said terror groups, without mentioning which ones, will not be part of the agreement. the civil war in syria, prompted by the 2011 arab spring, has killed 430,000 people. we are days away, three days away from massive new year's celebrations. security preparations a

police in new york city are increasing security from years past in times square there is no specific new threat, just about -- just concerned about the potential for trouble. the police presence will be increased, and there will be barriers similar to the ones that they use during the macy's thanksgiving day parade. what we havef experienced with the attacks overseas, law-enforcement has to take every situation seriously. jummy: those other attacks include lone wolf attacks, using cars as weapons such as in france and boeheim -- as france and last week in berlin. maybe you are heading up there tomorrow, two times square. a live look right here over the capital building. you might know what the weather is going to look like heading into new year's eve. let's go to doug hill for the forecast. doug: a lot of sunshine today but cooler

our average high. the wind is out of the northwest at 6 miles per hour, so expect a very pleasant day. 43 degrees in frederick, 48 in fredericksburg, 45 in baltimore, 48 in culpeper. temperatures will pretty much hold in the middle to upper 40's for the balance of the day. as far as the wind, they will diminish more, only about 5 miles per hour. a pleasant late december day all around the region. another frontal system will head our way, it causing increasing cloudiness later tonight, and through the overnight hours, clouds will thicken. by tomorrow morning, there will be rain. we do not expect freezing or sleep in our area, but it will be chilly -- or sleep in our area, but it will be chilly -- no freezing rain or sleet in our area, but it will be chilly. temperatures in the lower 40's. sunshine tomorrow afteron

areas, and later thursday into friday, keep an i on the winter storm watch, with measurable snow out there. jummy: with a look at the roads, let's head over to traffic reporter -- how traffic reporter at total traffic. dr. good afternoon, jummy. take a look at the roads. we are doing ok. what we are seeing mostly is the getaway traffic we have been seeing the past few days on interstate 95 in virginia. not too bad as we are looking live here to lorton. however, it gets worse as you travel across the occoquan. we have southbound delays into garrisonville, all the way to fredericksburg. off and on slow traffic for you, southbound on 95. northbound from dale city as you cross the occoquan heading up to lorton. you are good to go for the most part on the northbound lane. a quick peak and 95 in maryland. we have residual delays. 95 south downed approaching the capital beltway

approaching the capital beltway, a collision is causing some problems, major delays but not delays here. southbound i-270 -- this is the way we have been looking for most of the day between the beltway and father hurley boulevard. back to you. jummy: thank you. the world this morning the loss of hollywood legend carrie fisher. her role as princess leia in star wars catapulted her to a pop-culture -- to pop-culture immortality. the 65-year-old passed away on tuesday after suffering a heart attack on a flight on friday. tributes continued to pour in. >> the legendary role of princess leia -- >> you are braver than i thought. >> may have defined her career. but carrie fisher was a star in her own right, starring in dozens of movies and tv shows, writing books, and sharing

the world her struggle with bipolar disorder and addiction. it was her mental illness that fueled her drug abuse. >> i can say that i'm not ashamed of that. i survived that. >> so many people are now coming out about bipolar disorder, and it is a beautiful legacy. the fact that she was so honest about mental illness is just incredible. >> it is a battle she chronicled in her semiotic preferable novel , "parsed code -- "postcards from the edge," which became a movie. >> while the place i have arrived at in my life is not precisely everyone's idea of heaven, i could swear sometimes if i am quiet enough i can hear the angels sing. >> her funeral arrangements are still being finalized. her daughter is

her memorial service to be a celebration of her life. because carrie fisher always liked a good party. in new york, for abc 7 news. jummy: coming up, here was a man killed on christmas day and the interim police chief in d.c. are saying about the conflicting reports about the officer-involved shooting. and we have details about a possible connection to a series of robberies in prince george's county. and the hot holiday toy parents say does not work.

and didn't realize how difficult it was going to be to tie all that space together. with an open floor plan, you need to separate it with furniture. bassett had everything that we needed. fabric combinations marry the rooms together. having someone with bassett has been invaluable. we could've never dreamed up this room without bassett.

jummy: developing right now, there are conflicting reports about a deadly police involved shooting in northwest d.c. officers killed jovan hall sunday after responding to a domestic disturbance call. responded with a knife and refused to drop it when officers told him to. >> there is no way you can spin this and say he had a knife and the police were threatening, -- and the police were threatened, because it is not. we saw it with our own eyes. jummy: a spokesperson says he has seen the video and they clearly show that he had a knife. police say they cannot release the video while the death is being investigated, and they need the mayor's approval to release them. the interim chief

as -- was asked questions. he was asked why a stun gun was not used on him. >> it is one of the more difficult parts of this job, dealing with some of the misinformation that gets circulated in the public. what i would ask sherry and others to do is to be patient, wait until all the facts in the case become available. then she can decide for herself whether or not she thought it was a justified use of force. prejudging the event with all of the facts is a mistake that many make. jummy: the search continues this noon for the driver and the vehicle involved in a deadly hit and run in the district. take a look at this suv we are about to show you. that driver struck and killed a deaf woman in columbia heights tuesday morning. the victim has been identified as jacqueline cole. she was in the crosswalk at the time. investigators believe that dark-colored suv has front in the damage.

county police are looking for this man. they say he is responsible for six robberies, and it may not be the only place he committed crimes. alexandria police believe he is responsible for one robbery in that area, too. john gonzalez has details. john: they have some similarities proved alexandria police investigating two armed robberies a mile and a half away from each other. this is where the most recent one occurred at the 7-eleven on john carlisle just down the road from the federal courthouse in alexandria. the clerk who was working overnight tells us that around 3:30 this morning, a young man, slim build, wearing a mask, came in, walked up to the counter, and down what he described as a -- and pulled out a black pistol. the clerk removed the door from the register, placed it on top of the counter, and the guy took off with the cash. it is

taken >> this seems like a fairly safe neighborhood. the earlier incident occurred on henry street, right in the heart of old town alexandria, that one occurring around 8:30 last night. the suspect in that case pulled out a firearm and took off with a cell phone. fortunately, no one was physically harmed during the incident. they were going to assess some of the surveillance video to see if they could get a better description of the suspect. reporting in alexandria, john gonzalez. back to you inside. the national highway traffic safety administration is looking into possible issues with some ford fusion and mercury vehicles. the brake pedal on the vehicles made between 2007 at 2009 may lose pressure, making it difficult to stop. so far there have been three crashes blamed on the problem, and 141 other complaints. this

christmas wish lists. thousands of parents are reporting problems with the popular hatchimal toys. they are supposed to emerge from after 30from an egg minutes of play time. you will see a lot of these things on the side of the road. a bear is not closely one of them, but that is what drivers on a wisconsin highway saw. and there bear sure was friendly look at that. cars, putting his paws up the window, even took a taste. a veteran bear hunter tried to scare the bear away, but that just true more attention to him. >> they get used to that. they get used to feeding my knee i think he has been hand fed too many times.

them away if they come into your area. now he is confused about what he is supposed to do. jummy: the bear is now being held at a wildlife rehab center. even the bears in wisconsin, doug. doug: the wildlife center is better than hanging on that guy's family room wall. jummy: that is true. stay in the rehab center. here is our story today. plenty of sunshine. we hit 68, not a record, but a nice taste of spring. plan on rain tomorrow. the rain should end by the afternoon. everything is lining up well for new year's eve weather. thes get you busy with numbers. we will crank them out, in the 40's this afternoon with auntie of sunshine. clear skies for a while. we will drop to near 40. late tonight they will start increasing across the area. the futurecast shows

some rain, not that far to the north and west of the metro area. we will see that moving into the region. the rain will fall during the early morning rush hour and be with us. the timing is consistent in taking a majority of the rain out of the area around 10:00 or 11:00. we will see some sunshine developing by midafternoon. at the same time, the strong wind out of the west will cause some snow. that is good news for ski resorts, too, with some fresh power to go along with machine made snow. we will be in good shape with today persunshine turning windy and cold or friday. there is a winter storm watch that is in effect. this goes from thursday afternoon and friday afternoon -- there is west of frostburg and allegheny county, garrett county, and the higher elevations, out here it is rain. late tomorrowut morning. about .4 inches of rain. it will come and go.

sunshine in the afternoon. 48 today. 50 tomorrow. the wind will make it feel like it is colder. good news about an update to the weekend forecast -- i think will be mostly sunny, clouds increasing after meeting highs of 44. there could be a brief sprinkle. sunday it looks like the rain is until but will hold off sunday evening. most of sunday will be dry at 46. rain will become lightly -- rain will become likely here in the region. it will start to warm up tuesday and wednesday, then another strong cold front headed through the area by thursday and friday of next week with highs only in the middle 30's. that is below average. we will be on to january by then. we expect things like that. jummy: we will see what happens. >> we don't say that word. jummy:

thank you. coming up, we will take a look at the top five high schools in virginia. according to a new survey. and also tell you about what an angry parent did after united airlines lost her child.

jummy: we are back with a look at this hour -- not too good. dow after opening, down 60 points. we will keep you updated. closer to home, a new list is out on the best public high schools in virginia. they are all right here in our area. compiledstics website the ra

science and technology in alexandria is topping the list. washington-lee high school in arlington is second, followed by yorktown. langley high school in mclean comes in at number four. stone ridge high school in ashburn's fifth. congratulations. a woman in iowa is upset with united airlines, saying her 12-year-old daughter was left unattended during a flight to houston. the child flew from des moines to houston to visit her grandparents. she paid $300 to make sure her daughter would be accompanied at all times. a united airlines employee was supposed to be with her daughter but just walked off. >> they were calling customer service to see if we could find her. i said i know where she is but you guys do not. that is a problem. 12-year-old was later located by her grandmother, sitting alone in a hallway. united airlines is apologizing and looking into what exactly happened. coming back after the

doug will have a final look at the foreca

jummy: after a year of many big-name celebrity deaths, an online fundraising campaign is underway to keep betty white safe. a man in south carolina has launched a gofundme page to help text betty white from 2016. he is offering to -- to help text betty white

her. if she does not want his protection, the proceeds will go to the spartanburg little theater. it has passed the goal by nearly $500. wife's know what my 95-year-old aunt would say. she is still driving -- what? what? i'm fine. good for them. weather-wise, no big problems. it is going to rain tomorrow, but the rain should be out my lunch time sunshine, 48 today, 47 tomorrow with morning rain that will affect the rush. as we get to the new year's weekend, we will be fine. partly cloudy, in the 40's. the rain sunday should hold off until sunday evening. it does not get any better than that. jummy: thank you for

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life looks good. >> you know, there's a famous saying. "it's not what you know. it's who you know." but whoever said that clearly never watched this show. this is "who wants to be a millionaire." [dramatic music] ♪ hey, everybody. welcome to the show. you guys ready to play "millionaire"? all right. our first contestant approaches life with a "go with your gut" mentality. well, that should help her on this show. from baltimore, maryland, please welcome melissa loftus. hey, melissa. how you doing? >> good, thank you. >> welcome. >> thank you. >> come on over. welcome to "millionaire." >> thank you. >> miss "go with your gut." >> yes. >> give me an example. >> uh, so, this year, i made a huge career change. i was a te