this is wjz tv, wjz hd, and wjz.com, baltimore. >> from the city, to the counties, to your neighbor, now it is complete coverage, it is wjz, maryland's news station. >> the end of a wild ride. a man is dead after police say he stole a police car and ended

up being shot by officers. how in all unfolded and who else is uncustody. good afternoon, here is what people are certainly talking about today, the huge response overnight from state police and troopers and the man authorities say was at the center of it all is now dead. wjz and mike hellgren are live with new information following a briefing. good afternoon. >> reporter: good afternoon. at this point authorities have not identified this person but say he did threaten an officer after an initial crash on the beltway. a violent morning ended here at the shopping center, where police shot and killed a man who they say repeatedly tried to get away from them and threatened to kill an officer. police tell wjz it started around 2:00 a.m. when county officers tried to pull over a car on the beltway. the driver refused to stop and crashed at the beltway and i- 95. at this point the suspect was

crone confronted by officers. he began to fight. the suspect told an officer he has a gun and will shoot the officer. >> reporter: that suspect then took off in the police cruiser. they tracked him to a motel where they saw a car speeding out of the parking lot. he was inside with two others. >> it was stopped by police and as the officers were in the process of removing three individuals a passenger drove into the driver's seat and flees. >> reporter: he headed there and encountered police again. >> at that point officers discharged their service weapons and fired multiple shots, streaking the suspect. >> reporter: he died at shock trauma. police did take the others into custody. baltimore city police homicide is the primary investigating agency and getting help from

the county. there are a lot of questions that police are unable to answer at this point as the investigation is still ongoing. reporting live, mike hellgren, wjz eyewitness news. >> state police are revealing more about their role in this morning, saying troopers helped secure several of the crime scenes. the search is still on for four thieves involved in a fatal accident in cecil county. sky chopper 13 was over the scene last night. police say a group of men stole a lawn mauer from a home improvement store, then their truck hit a car while they were trying to get away. a man in the bed of their truck was thrown out of it and died. the 4 others left him behind and took off. anyone with information should contact police. another fatal accident is still under investigation, this one near haggerstown. a tractor-trailer crossed the median yesterday and slammed into three cars. the fatality came from one of those cars. the crash shut down the interstate for hours. it re-open ends just before dawn today. a maryland senate committee

is to hold a hearing today on a bill to legalize same sex marriage in this state. that has both supporters and opponents clamoring to be heard. >> reporter: they gathered for a meeting this morning after they gathered in front of the state house calling on lawmakers to define marriage as between one man and one woman. today religious supporters held a press conference saying it is not an assault on traditional marriage. >> my wife and i have been married 10 years this june. but there are people hundreds of thousands of people in the state, 10s of millions in this country who will not, cannot find their soulmate in the on sight sex, according to the bible the first chapter of genesis, they too were created in the image of god. >> governor o'malley, a

supporter of same sex marriage, introduced the bill earlier this month. he is scheduled to testify before the senate committee in less than one hour. don, back to you. >> thank you very much, ron. the governor maintains this year's bill offers additional protection for religious institutions that do not support same sex unions. florida voters get their chance to pick their kind date for the republican presidential race today. the biggest primary contest so far and it is a winner take all affair. mitt romney had a strong lead. here is susan mcginness with the latest for wjz. >> reporter: florida voters are casting ballots for the republican they want to see challenge president obama. >> i am a mitt romney fan. >> why is that? >> i like what he stands for. >> hey you guys, hi villages, how are you? >> mitt romney has a big lead in most polls. and newt gingrich is trying to prevent a landslide.

he keeps telling voters his rival is too liberal. >> we nominated a 1996 and he lost, we nominated a moderate in 2008 and he lost. mitt romney is more liberal than either of those candidates. >> romney sounds more confident by the day, even poking fun at his rival. >> i know speaker gingrich is not happy. he is not feeling excited. i know it is sad. >> republican party leaders expect a record turnout. more than 2 million voters early and absentee voters have already cast more than 600,000 ballots. >> this has been an exciting time and i think it is going to be an historic election. >> after florida romney is expected to do well in the next five contests, nevada, maine, colorado, and minnesota, all have caucuses coming up and they are states where romney is more organized. missouri holds a primary next week and gingrich is not even on the ballot. gingrich is pointing to national polls, where it is still a close contest with romney.

he vows to be back in tampa for the republican national convention as the party's nominee. in tampa, susan mcginness, wjz eyewitness news. >> rick san tore santorum and ron paul will be watching from nevada. back here it appears former prince george's county executive jack johnson won't have to report to prison. he will turn himself in on the 18th. turning to the weather and a day we have been anticipating for a while. a live look outside where it is warming up and looks pretty good as well. we have got marty bass looking comfortable in the outback and meteorologist bernadette woods over in the first warning weather center. good afternoon. >> good afternoon. what a fantastic day it is shaping up to be. it is so hard to believe it is

the end of january, 51 in baltimore, 61 cumberland, 60 ocean city. compared to yesterday 10 or 20 degrees warmer, cumberland warmer. so the warm up is underway, for more we send it out to marty who has the nice job. >> yeah i do. let's look at a couple of graphics. number 1, even with the wind shift moving our way tomorrow and gray sighs and showers, we are still looking for temperatures to be balmy, mid- 60s, 20 plus degrees above normal. take a look direct west. san francisco 9:00 in the morning almost 50 degrees. the bulk of this country is up seasonably mild for this date, the last day of january, again the weather is coming from memphis and new orleans and atlanta coming our way tomorrow so we are going to stay quite

nice. okay, so we got this wind shift coming, behind it showers, how it is going to exact our forecast? meteorologist bernadette with those details shortly. now back inside. >> they want the area cleaned up and are planning to lobby representatives today. they will ask the lawmakers to increase the bay restoration fund, used to upgrade sewage plants and septic and stormwater systems, those are key sources of chesapeake bay pollution of course. stay with eyewitness news here at noontime for welfare fallout. lawmakers in kentucky try to tackle and issue some call a political land mine. a growing problem, more about an unsettles situation in the florida everglades and who is being blamed for it. take another live look outside at a great day here and stick around your complete first warning weather forecast is still coming up.

>> complete coverage continues, with don scott, jessica kartalija, and first warning weather with marty bass, and meteorologist bernadette woods, it is wjz, maryland's news station. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

a costa concordia wreck in italy has a lot fewer people booking cruises. in fact the company says it is

forecasting a nearly 400 million dollar loss for this year. 17 people have been found dead since that ship ran aground two weeks ago. carnival, the parent company, is still trying to determine whether the concordia can be repaired and ever used again. crews are still working to get ready to pump out thousands of gallons of fuel oil before it leaks into the water. lawmakers and voters in kentucky are picking sides over a controversial bill there. if passed it would require drug testing for people living on welfare. the proposed legislation has picked up support from both sides both sides of the aisle who say it makes sense that taxpayer funds are not used to fuel illegal drug addicts but its critics say it says a whole lot more than that. >> people down on their luck and have to ask the government for help, for food stamps do not necessarily take drugs, you know, it doesn't necessarily go hand in hand. >> if someone would test

positive they would be placed on probation but still get benefits, two other states have passed similar legislation. a big problem for wildlife officials in florida, where they have seen several animal populations take a nosedive and this is what say say is responsible. a new study finds python and a naconda species have been effecting them. pet owners have been releasing them interest the wild for years. starbuck's is going to open more stores, and some in india. the country is known as a tea drink in nation but has embraced the coffeehouse culture. they hope to open a storen new

delhi by november. your forecast is coming up. but first let's take a ,,,,,,,,,

now your complete forecast and the first warning of severe weather. >> welcome back, everybody. well, we showed this shot a lot

but today is the kind of day you want to go outside and enjoy how beautiful it is out there. it is always beautiful to look at the water about today it feels nice to be out there too. tbip is where we sit right now of the look at all of these temperatures, 60s cumberland and we are about 10 to 20 degrees warmer than yesterday. 20 degrees warmer in cumberland. 19 in baltimore. the winds have turned around from the southwest. this will continue tomorrow. marty showed you these numbers earlier in the show but i want to point out a few. chicago is 54 degrees on the last day of january. just incredible. 58 in kansas city. all of this is still moving our direction. even though a front is moving in our direction. so we will see clouds increase and a few showers. we will continue to see temperatures running about 20 degrees above normal. so heres our next one we are going to deal with. not a whole lot to it right now but it will pick up moisture as it moves eaved ward. it is going to pick up moisture from the gulf and move that in

our direction. the clouds start to come in tonight. tomorrow more clouds and a couple of showers. still temperatures in the 60s. however, thursday as that storm starts to wrap up and move away temperatures will back off. wait until you see the five-day- forecast. we are still above average heading into the weekend. so it comes together like this. today just absolutely gorgeous outside. 65 degrees. partly to mostly sunny. you do not get many of these in the middle of winter. tonight 40 degrees, then tomorrow still in the 60s but we will have the clouds coming in and the chance for a couple of showers. we will start to cool down after that. still nothing harsh coming our way in the next couple of days. we will have that 5 day coming up shortly. >> i am loving it. >> what is your plan? >> i am helping my son but we will be outside. >> okay. okay. outside. go got to be outside. >> still to come could some early tlc from your mom affect how smart you are later in life?

don't forget we are always on for you. here are some of the stories we are following for you. for constant updates ,,,,,,,,,,,

in today's wjz health watch the government has approved a new drug to treat an advanced

form of skin cancer. it will treat people with carcinoma. it can be used where cancer has spread to other parts of the body as well. there is a new study that finds heart disease can led to memory problems. researchers say they are planning follow up studies to figure out why it happens. your early relationship with your mother may affect the size of your brain later. a new study finds children who grow up with a sense of support from their moms are more likely to have bigger or larger parts of the brain responsible for emotions and regulating stress. researchers say this highlights how important you recall nuturing is for mental development. and you want to be sure to check in with wjz's eyewitness news today at 4:00, 5:00 and

6:00 as police chase a suspect. the latest on the suspect himself. ferris bueller takes another day off, the preview of the hottest super bowl commercials coming up today at 4:00, right after dr. phil. stick around, your five-day- forecast is still coming up. ,,

welcome back, everybody. i mean this is just incredible. open up your windows of your

house, air it out, get the bike out, the running shoes out. we have the five-day-forecast and marty has that. >> which is not ugly. let's take a look at it. today is off the charts. you know what the most amazing thing is? we have had a lot of days like this. tomorrow with showers, 54 degrees, 12 above normal. 50 on friday. clearing skies. 47 saturday. even sunday maybe a shower, 44. still above normal. those overnight lows nowhere near the normal of 25. pretty nice. back inside. >> very nice, i could live with a february like our january. >> we will see what we can do for you. >> got my fingers crossed, don't miss the primetime line up. then stay tuned for eyewitness news at 11:00. no doubt some of you and your friends may have gone water- skiing before but no one has done it like that. they got together to set a world record. they skied for a full nautical

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