it's hard, the door opens and you expect him to walk in. >> tragic ending. a helicopter crashes in the middle of interstate 70 killing everyone on board. tonight, the investigation into what went wrong, and remembering the victims. >> hello, i'm denise koch. here's what people are talking about tonight. what went wrong. the question remains as the loss of four lives is still fresh in the minds of their family and friends. those four people died when

their helicopter crashed on interstate 70. kelly mcpherson has new information on the moments leading up to the crash. >> reporter: denise, weather has always been a question in this investigation. recently we learned the pilot had been warned about it, and tonight his boss stands behind the decision to fly. these are the last pictures of the helicopter crash victims as they boarded the ill-fated aircraft. george tudor, neil booth, kim felix, and pilot jeff nordaas were all remembered at advance concepts. the chopper crashed on interstate 70 in boonesboro. >> it's hard. the door opens, and you expect him to walk in, and you try to be strong for her, and you sort of cry when you're alone.

it's just been rough, and it doesn't really seem right. it doesn't seem real yet. >> it's hard when you go to four funerals within a couple of days. it really drains you emotionally. >> everyone here at the helicopter school has been shaken by this crash. the general manager tells me that every instructor and student has gone up in the air since. >> i spoke with each flight instructor that we have individually, and just put it to them, if you want to continue working here, you're more than welcome to take as much time aus need. >> the national transportation safety board investigation so far reveals that the pilot, jeff nordaas, had had called another ahc employee about weather conditions twice before deciding the weather was good enough to flien. >> there was some limited visibility due to the moisture and fog. >> reporter: his company is standing behind the decision. the general manager says he may have made the same choice. the ntsb report also reveals that the person who had warned

the pilot about the weather had also offered to drive to hagerstown to pick up the entire group, so they wouldn't have to fly. reporting live, kelly mcpherson, wjz, eyewitness news. >> thank you, kelly. tonight the helicopter company vowed to keep its youth foundation going in honor of its employees volunteering for it just hours before their death. police are searching for the driver who struck and killed a man as he rode his bike. tonight we're learning the accident may have been caught on tape. 67-year-old john yates was hit just before noon tuesday at the intersection of maryland and west la fayette. police are looking at surveillance cameras to see if one caught the incident. yates widow says her husband was just going out to run some errands. >> so he left, and he yelled over his shoulder, he says, if i'm late, i'll be gone an hour. if i'm going to be gone longer than that i'll call. immediately, my world just went -- because i knew.

>> police say the driver may not even know that he hit yates. the trial date is set, and both sides are talking. what happens inside a downtown baltimore courthouse this november could end or save the political career of baltimore mayor sheila dixon. mike hellgren has insight from the mayor's legal team and the state prosecutor after today's battle in court. >> reporter: the prosecutor who mayor dixon once said was on a witch hunt against her left court optimistic that the charges would stand. >> absolutely. that's why i think the grand jury returned the indictments. i don't think there's any problem. >> reporter: the mayor is accused of stealing gift cards meant for the needy. the prosecutor claims her ex- boyfriend, ron lipscomb, took her on expensive trips and gave her lavish gifts which she failed to report on a disclosure form. >> i fully anticipate that the

defense will bring up any motion they can. it's not surprising. >> reporter: the mayor's lawyer say the prosecutor is misusing the grand jury, that he keeps refiling the same charges to fix problems. >> we're going to get a little bit more discovery turned new charges, and once we go through that, we expect that we'll be failing a new motion, at least with respect to the grand jury, as well as some other issues that we're going to be filing. >> reporter: while the trial date is not set until november 9th, her lawyers must make any motions to dismiss it by september 8th. >> we're going to deal with the case within the schedule that's been set. >> reporter: and every step in the case is critical for the mayor. she must win to keep her political career alive. >> we'll just have to wait and see. they have 30 days to come one some creative motions. >> reporter: dixon's attorneys plan to file a waive sore the mayor is not required to show up at all the hearings. mike hellgren, wjz eyewitness news. >> the mayor's lawyers say they

plan to enter a "not guilty" plea at a later date. for the first time in nearly five months tonight two journalists held captive in north korea are back home with their families. the emotional reunion between euna lee and laura ling took place earlier today in southern california. the two were freed after former president bill clinton flew to north korea to plead for their release. >> we saw standing before us president bill clinton. we knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end. >> ling and lee were arrested and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor while reporting for al gore's tv network. the families say they're exhausted, but after some rest will eventually tell their stories. loneliness and a lack of a girlfriend led a man to walk inside a suburban pittsburgh health club and open fire,

killing three women. that is according to police and a web diary the gunman left behind. as wic johnson reports, the man posted his deadly plan on the internet. >> reporter: a suburban gym near pittsburgh is now a place to grieve. police say the 38-year-old fired 40 bullets into an aerobics dance class before turning the gun on himself. >> he just had a lot of hatred and was hell-bent on committing this act. >> reporter: the instructor of the class, mary primus doesn't want her face shown on camera. she's ten weeks pregnant and was shot twice. at first she was confused when the man opened fire. >> i didn't know what the sound was, then i saw people running and screaming and falling to the floor. >> reporter: he left a rambling message complaining about how he never spent a weekend with a girl and how he hadn't been

sexually intimate in years. he started an on-line diary last year first planning the rampage for january, but then he changed his mind, writing, i chickened out, i brought the loaded guns, everything. his final entry was on monday when he wrote, tomorrow is the big day. last time i tried this in january, i chickened out. let's see how this new approach works. >> there was nobody that could have physically stopped that last night. >> reporter: he was a member of the health club but had no known relationship with anyone in the all-female class. he didn't say anything when he entered the room. he just put down a duffle bag packed with four handguns, turned out the lights, and started shooting. in collier township, pennsylvania, wjz eyewitness news. >> police say he had practice runs before tuesday's fatal shootings. someone at that time gym had even shown him how to turn off the lights without realizing what his plans were. some much needed federal stimulus money he is making its way to a local general motors

plant. our media partner the baltimore sun reports the alison plant in white marsh could receive up to $105 million out of a pool of more than $2 billion. but there are strings attached. the money must go towards electric car projects. part of the obama administration's initiative to encourage more fuel efficient cars. $700 million that is the size of the hole in the state budget. the only solution could be cutting programs, or worse, cutting jobs. eyewitness news is live in mount vernon. kai jackson explains, the problem has opened the floodgates from the public as marylanders give the governor a piece of their mind. kai. >> reporter: that's right, denise. there are no easy answers to maryland's budget shortfall, but if you would like to throw your two cents into the debate, you had better speak up now. it seems like there's no budging maryland's budget deficit, despite deep cuts, it's still not enough. >>'s all going to be painful. none of it is going to be easy. >> reporter: maryland has

already made $280 million in cuts, and there's still adds 700 million shortfall. state leaders admit they need a helping hand to solve the problem, so they're lending listening ears to citizen suggestions. lavor wood doesn't want children programs cut. >> i'm definitely afraid of some of the programs that they have for the children, because the more children that are out with nothing productive to do, the more trouble that they'll get in. >> reporter: some are concerned that if things don't get better, or get worse that there could be layoffs of state workers. timothy has friends who work for the state. >> anybody in any industry is a little worried about if they're going to have a job at this point in time, but i know a couple of them are also concerned. >> reporter: neither shoppers nor retailers will be happy with the fact that this year maryland will not have tax-free day. >> this is actually decided in 2007, during the special session. so, you know, i'm sure that they had had looked at projections and made forecasts, and that had something to do

with it. however, doesn't have anything to do with what we're dealing with now. >> reporter: so the deadline for public comment on the budget shortfall is monday, august 10th. denise, speak up now or for are hold your peace. >> i will hold my peace, thank you, kai. >> reporter: okay. >> thank you. well, the water main break creating traffic hanks north baltimore will likely take the rest of the week to fix. the break first happened tuesday afternoon. crews put a clamp on the leak but it failed this morning. drivers are urged to avoid the area. imagine driving, and a horse is galloping toward your car. it happened to one driver, and the cameras were rolling as the horse galloped onto the car. police make arrests in the torching of an expensive high school field. how team rivalry played a role in the crime. i know everybody has their faults, but they had no reason to beat my father to death. they had no reason.

>> a local woman emotionally distraught just hours after her father passes away. an exclusive report on why the death is now the subject of an investigation. rain and thunderheaded our way. the complete first warning forecast coming up next.

it is 76 degrees with cloudy skies in central maryland. the complete first warning

forecast is coming up. but first, a tourist captures these three horses running down a highway in israel. receiving fine until one of the horses decides to jump over an oncoming car, but it lands on top of the car's windshield with the tourist inside. the driver, the horse were not seriously hurt. three students are charged with setting a rival school's football field on fire in frederick county. this artificial turf field at middletown high school was set on fire over the weekend. three 17-year-olds from brunswick high are now charged with malicious destruction of property. the fire caused an estimated $20,000 worth of damage. we have new information on a wjz exclusive into a drug investigation that left a suspect brain dead. tonight that man's daughter spoke for the first time telling wjz her father was taken off life support just hours ago. >> i sit with him every day and

every night, until today at 6:55 p.m. i held his hand as he left this earth. my father was a very good man. >> baltimore city police have launched an internal affairs investigation into the death. >> reporter: only eyewitness news cameras are rolling when crime scene technicians arrive gathering evidence and investigators question witnesses to the death of deion snipes. the baltimore man ended up in a coma following a drug investigation. >> when they were chasing him, he literally said he threw the stuff, but apparently they found the stuff, stuffed it down his throat after they had tased him, and kicked him and beat him like crazy. >> reporter: snipes' sister was at his side when he was taken off life support.

>> they kicked him and stomped him so bad, his lungs are just damaged. >> reporter: but police have a different account. they say snipes swallowed the drugs and officers were trying to give him a heimlich maneuver. >> we have nothing documented of a taser, but we're hoping witnesses will cooperate, because they're trying to put these pieces together. >> reporter: you're sure you saw a taser. >> yeah. you can hear. it was like -- >> reporter: and what happened to deion at that time? >> he started going into, like, you know, like you've been electrocuted. >> you could see blood, stuff was coming out of this man's nose. >> any allegation of professional impropriety is taken seriously so we have some allegations that police officers did something wrong, and we're going investigate those incidents. >> reporter: snipes has been arrested two dozen times,

mostly drug charges and assault. his family admits he wasn't a model citizen. >> they could have locked him up but to kill him was totally unfair. >> reporter: now that deion snipes has been taken off life support the medical examiner will try and determine the cause of his death. adam may, wjz, eyewitness news. >> and police say they could have some results from their investigation sometime next week. well, the woman who tried to assassinate former president gerald ford will soon walk free. lynette squeaky fromm served 34 years for the assassination attempt. fromm, a follower of charles manson pointed a gun at president ford. turned out the gun wasn't even loaded. she's set to be released from a federal center in texas as early as august 16th. screw well, they're lining up for the free chicken, this time in middle river. tomorrow a new chick-fil-a will

open. die hard fans are camping out to be among the first to walk in the door. that's because the first 100 adults in line get a year's supply of chick-fil-a meals free. but you have to stay here long enough to do the weather. you sit right down. you have time to make it. >> you folks out there, you may get wet by about 2:00. >> that's a year's free supply of chicken, bob. >> let's take a look at radar real quick. three areas of rain moving generally toward our region, and the first one out here in northern virginia, that's who is probably going to get the baltimore area west, another one toward southern maryland, that might clip us, but this one is going to miss us. but we do have chances of showers and embedded thunder overnight into the morning hours before things can clear later in the day. take a look at temperatures. 85, pretty normal. 87 is your average high.

68 last night, 65 is the normal low. it's gone down a little bit. 104 and 52. one of the hottest temperatures ever recorded in august, back in 1930. currently 66 oakland, we're at 76. pretty warm. d.c. 79. ocean city was 94 today, and the heat index was 100 with a west wind. it got really hot down there. the dew point is up. yes, there's moisture headed is in our general direction. low to mid-70s, upper 70s annapolis and kent island and rock hall. light winds not a major factor, but tomorrow they come back in out of the east-northeast, bringing in cooler air off the ocean. all this rain coming because of low pressure developing along the virginia-north carolina border. it's starting to head up to the east-northeast. we're going to be on the northern edge of it. the bulk of the rain south and east of baltimore, lower eastern shore virginia. this whole batch is going to

slide just to our south and east overnight. we may get some thunder out of it. north and west looks great. in fact, we'll clear up later in the day tomorrow. it looks like tomorrow nightly keeler and less humid. and on friday, high pressure building in, a really nice day. saturday, on the back of that high, heat builds, warm front goes through, scattered showers and thundershowers saturday night, then it gets generally i'll call it hot for sunday, monday, and maybe even tuesday. temperatures up around 90 or even a little better. northeast winds 5 to 10 knots on the bay tomorrow, bay temperature nice and warm at 82 degrees. so tonight, clouding up, some showers, maybe thunder possible. then tomorrow lots of clouds early with showers, then some clearing late in the day. north of the city the clearing may come as early as 3:00. tomorrow's high only around 78, 84 on friday, 85, thundershowers likely late saturday as the warm air comes

in, surge up to 92, maybe low, even some mid-90s some spots here on monday. so we've got a little mini heat wave. denise, just in time for you. >> oh, thank you, bob. coming up, adam jones and the o's go for a second straight win in detroit. it won't be easy.

let's spin the wheel, see who's pitching tonight. >> the overhaul of the orioles pitching rotation leaves jeremy guthrie as the only one with any experience. the veteran got a chance to follow up on the rookie who pitched well last night. guthrie was good. he was working on a shutout in the 5th inning. it was a scoreless game into magglio ordonez came up to the

plate. adam jones off edwin jackson who had add shutout through eight. 19 homers for jones. greg sahn on. game over, 4-2 tigers. series finale tomorrow at 1:00. screw the new york mets won a game today but lost another player 20 in jury. pitcher joe niece stretches, felt pain, so with the trainer watching, niece threw a practice pitch to make sure he was okay, but he collapsed. the hamstring was torn. this comes a day after luis castillo suffered a sprained left ankle. castillo is day to day. to football now, the ravens are dealing with injuries just a week into training camp workouts. adam terry's season is over, mark clayton sidelined by pain in his hamstring. the ravens conduct one of the more hard-hitting camps in the

nfl. coach harbaugh says his players go at game speed more than any team in the league. >> our philosophy is the harder you work, the healthier you stay, except for the fluke injury. i think our guys are in much better shape and are doing a good job of take care of each over. >> harbaugh says his players are in better shape than last year when many came in unprepared because of a lack of off-season conditioning. depending on how you do the math, giants quarterback eli manning is about to become the nfl's highest paid player. reports are he has agreed to a six-year deal worth more than $97 million, 35 million guaranteed. his current contract expires after next season. new deal has been in the works, this one would exceed even the mega millions currently earned by eli's brother peyton who plays for the companies. needless to stay, manning family is rolling in it pretty well.

a popular san diego zoo panda is a new mommy. she gave birth to her fifth cub today. it weighed in at four owrngsz the size of a stick of butter. the cub becomes only the 13th