the revelations were all part of the videotaped confession, prosecutors say, cullin jr gave police over several hours. one prosecutor says dennis cullin jr's confession holds back little, telling police in vivid detail how he drowned his 63-year-old mother in the backyard pool of their lloyd harbor home. >> mrs. cullin was one of the nicest ladies i ever enun the whole thing is a tragedy. >> reporter: two family friends say cullin jr had a long history of mental illness. when he stopped taking his medication, prosecutors say, his mom confronted him on wednesday, prompting the alleged attack. >> he put her in a head lock, walked from the shallow end of the pool with her in a head lock to the deep end all the time while she was struggling. >> reporter: the prosecutor says that water struggle was violent.

surprised him because his mom was only about 5'2". he dumped her body by a shed. >> he hasn't been convicted of anything. he hasn't said "i'm sorry." >> cullin jr's lawyer entered a not guilty plea for the young man who lived with his parents on this sprawling property. neither his father or three sisters appeared with him in court. >> this is a son who killed his mother and the way he killed her, was done is chilling. >> reporter: cullin jr was ordered held on $8 million bond. his mom was an interior designer and from a prominent military family. a source tells us she was the daughter of u.s. army major general george casey who was killed in vietnam, and her brother was the chief of staff for the u.s. army as recently as

greg cergil, news 4 new york. thank you. an emotional day for the family of an imam and their assistant. the family of the accused killer was the most vocal today. >> reporter: inside the courtroom, family and friends of oscar marel yelled out "we love you" as he was led out. they maintain he was innocent. the family members of the victims tell it differently. family and friends walk out of the courtroom furious saying oscar morel didn't do it. they say he's not the man who killed two muslim leaders in ozone park over the weekend. >> is this the type of person he is? >> he didn't do it. >> reporter: investigators paint a different picture. they say this surveillance picture shows him running up behind the two victims and shooting them at close range. the imam and his assistant were

their mosque. >> members of the muslim community held an emotional rally on the steps of city hall. the victims' family held back tears. they believe the murders are a hate crime. >> what's the reason for it? we want justice for it? >> everybody is scared to go out. i'm scared with my husband when he goes late night work. i couldn't sleep until he come a motive. they haven't ruled anything out. the defense attorney says police have the wrong guy. >> i don't see how it's a hate crime. defendant, number one, the defendant says he didn't do it. as far as he's concerned, he didn't commit any crime. >> reporter: the nypd is going through his phone and social media post to pin down a motive.

the 5-year-old girl and grandmother who died in that father in little ferry, new jersey. this is little mirabella and 56-year-old margaret cologne. the inferno started by a gas explosion consumed their house tuesday night. you see the flowers and candles in front of the charred home. relatives set up a go fund me page to help with funeral costs. word going out to residents in southwestern connecticut to conserve water. stamford and darien to not water their lawns until at least sunday and limit to a maximum of twice a week for the rest of the summer. because of the below-average rainfall, the water in reservoirs is below normal and declining. news 4 reported on the terrible airport security lines at local airports. tsa promised to address those

>> reporter: the security lines are moving quickly at newark liberty today as the busiest part of the summer travel season approaches. the seemingly endless lines that clog nurng around memorial day have gotten shorter thanks to more ts afrp employees and k-9 units. >> they are checking to see if they have explosives on them. >> reporter: large crowds are expected over labor day weekend. 15.6 million travelers people per day. travelers have to follow the rules. leave the swiss army knives at home and any liquids more than 3 ounces are banned for carry on. that includes some lotion. laptops need to be removed from bags because they could conceal a bomb. >> they remove the baitry and replace it with plastic explosives. >> reporter: tsa agents in newark want travelers to understand while special checks are needed.

people to take off their shoes, officials made this model of the shoe worn by the shoe bomber who tried to blow up an airplane and failed. you can see the explosives are in the heel of the shoe, completely undetectible from the outside. if you want to keep your shoes on, apply for tsa precheck. the tsa did not have figures for newark specifically, but nationwide they say 97% of travelers get through the tsa line in jen maxfield, news 4 new york. a shortage of air traffic controllers. 4 investigates what's being done to fix it and how it affects the safety of air travel. >> nude statue. who was behind the prank that put a nude statue of donald trump in union square park and other parts of the country.

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naked life-size statues of donald trump are showing up in new york and other major cities. here is the state ewe in union square before parks department employeesem afternoon. it's one of five across the country. the artist says the sculptures took about four months to complete, and together they are made out of nearly 300 pounds of clay and silicone. >> i guess this is how you make america great again. this is priceless. and it's well deserved. >> i think it is a great piece of art and a great commentary and making people think about what he is and what he is standing for and what a joke most of his campaign and

>> similar statues were found in los angeles, san francisco, cleveland and seattle. we asked the new york city parks department about its decision to remove the statue. nyc parks stands firmly against any unpermitted erection in city parks, no matter how small. well, trump has another small problem. his daughter ivanka purchased the jeweler sent the piece to her with a handwritten note this said the proceeds of the sales were being donated to the hillary clinton campaign. one jeweler said she felt the need to donate the money given her own views. coming up, news 4 investigates finds a major shortage of air traffic controllers. is it safe to fly?

olympics. >> we'll have the story of the little muhammed from queens. we'll talk to her parents in a moment as she goes for gold tonight in rio.

from rio with a look at what's ahead on nbc "nightly news." >> ahead from rio, there was no robbery, say police here. we'll have a tale of the tape and what authorities are saying about four american swimmers and >> the latest on the fast-moving wildfire near los angeles forcing people from their homes and defying efforts to control it. we'll take a look at women ed looking the way for team usa in the medal count when we see you live from rio for "nightly news." back to you in new york. >> see you then. you never see them but they see you and your life is in their hands. we are talking about air traffic controllers who orchestrate

through the skies every day. there was a shortage of these guardian angels. >> reporter: high stress and no room for mistakes. there are more air traffic controllers eligible to retire than there are in the pipeline to replace them. a federal hiring freeze in 2013 didn't help that situation. now the faa is on a mission to make up for a critical shortage in new york and across the as planes are stacking up -- the urgency is real. but the action happening in the s shadow of laguardia's air traffic control tower is make believe. this is von college one of the top schools in the country training the next generation of air traffic controllers. >> one of the things we train

now. what is the consequence of your instruction? >> this training has huge implications for every air traveler because there is a critical shortage of controllers. >> the current staffing levels are at a crisis level. >> reporter: the national air traffic controllers association. he works at the radar facility that handles every plane departing and arriving into jfk, laguardia and newark. >> we have approximately 134 certified professional controllers. those are the individuals fully certified, no longer required training. we are authorized to have 226. that gives you a sense of the deficit. >> reporter: 4 investigates reviews a department of transportation report that shows controller staffing at a 27-year low. since 2012, the total number has been on the decline to over 13,900. that includes controllers who are on the job trainees and

the number of fully certified professional controllers is closer to 10,600, just below the faa's required staffing range. facilities at newark, kennedy and new york trade con are facing critical shortages because many fail to fully certified and are transferred out. >> new york is a rapid-fire, very congested type of air space, decisions have to be made fast and correct. >> despite staffing shortages, planes are safe. this. if there is any compromise, it's going to be capacity. >> if there are staffing shortages, flights are delayed. the faa is working to tackle the problem. posting 1400 entry level controller jobs. >> the process is meant to get the best. it's meant to pick up the best controllers to keep everyone safe. it is a long process. sometimes you get hired, but

they can't just pick anyone up. >> the faa finished accepting applications monday. despite missing hiring goals the last seven years, the faa changed some of its hiring policies and expects to fill all 1400 positions. >> thank you. wasn't quite as hot today, was it? >> temperatures were in the mid 80s. humidity is starting to climb a little bit. starting to slowly feel more trend going into this weekend. temperatures were all below 90 today. not bad. here is a look outside from our top of the rock camera. a few scattered cumulus clouds. haze layer building up. a little bit going to seat air quality diminish the next couple of days. it's 38 in the city. up to 84 today. this is great. newark with a high of 86. 85 at la guardia. no record highs, no severe weather. mostly sunny skies.

winds out of the northwest, very light wind right now. a couple of storms we are tracking starting to dissipate now as they move into the catskills and poconos. they've been sitting in this northwesterly flow near port jervis and thompson. they are dying out as expected almost where they developed as the sun goes down, losing heating of the day. mid 70s in high point. you might be close to the upper 50s tonight. low 80s across long island. hamptons, islip, bridgeport 84. white plains 83. 81 in long branch. humidity is up a little bit. most of the dew points are in the 60s. right around 70 in belmar and toms river. that's close to that sticky range. it feels like the mid to upper 80s over the inland areas. it will feel hotter tomorrow into saturday. tonight's great. a little on the humid side.

65 in poughkeepsie. enjoy the cool while it lasts. tomorrow you're up to 87 there. same with madison creeping close to 90 in poughkeepsie. 85 in bethpage. might get a storm in the afternoon here and there random. saturday is not a washout but is more humid. 80s will feel like 90s going into sunday. best chance for rain on sunday will be late in the evening. sunday fight could be looking at severe weather. 80s. nice next week monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, low to mid 80s. friday we've got a storm or two possible in the area. at 5:00, we unveiled storm ranger 4 our new radar technology on wheels. it's i going to give us in you information where we are showing big storms and what's coming your way to protect you and give you the latest information.

>> as you mentioned, this is a brand-new piece of technology here at wnbc. this will allow us all to have a better view of the storm and more immediate information. some may have seen it on the road the last several weeks as we've been testing this technology. you talked about it a little while ago. this is a quick look at the these computers allow us to see this storm differently than we've ever seen it before. the main component that makes that happen is right here about 20 feet up. it allows us to view a storm in a way we haven't been able to see it and it's mobile. radar like this is close to the ground. that's where we are. stationary radars are often on towers or on the tops of buildings.

in the air. this allows us to get on the ground where we are. on the left we have a pop-up thunderstorm south of sandy hook. on the right a storm ranger 4 picture. sandaly hook in the clear. important differences. that is one example. we'll continue to deploy storm ranger 4 over the tri-state area the next year. back to you. >> thanks, dave. we are certainly back to you. thank you very much. now to the rio olympics where team usa keeps piling up the medals including the most gold medals of the game. a native new yorker set to bring another medal home. >> american dalilah muhammed established herself as the favorite for today's final. bruce beck introduces us to this

city. >> tonight is the night for dalilah muhammed. 19 years after she first joined the traffic club in queens, she races for gold and glory inside olympic stadium. in rio, she's been blazing as hot as the south american sun in the middle of the afternoon. she won her preliminary heat and she had the fastest time in the semifinals by o second. now at age 26, dalilah muhammed from jamaica, queens, is ready for stardom. >> i'm feeling good. i'm feeling prepared and ready. i want to excuse what i've been training. >> her family traveled from new york to support her. her mother, father and brother all in rio hoping for a coronation. >> this is a dream come true.

overwhelming. we are trying to relax. >> oh, man, that would be exciting, exhilarating. we are enthused and ready and anticipating that moment. >> reporter: the family is proud of her new york roots. she was recently inducted in benjamin cordoza high school hall of fame. >> george taylor is an excellent coach. he set the foundation for what we are seeing and about to see tomorrow. >> from the past back to the present, where one lingering question remains for dalilah muhammed. can you win a gold? >> i'm hoping. >> the community center will be

pattie. over 200 are expected to attend. they'll be rooting for that 7-year-old girl who became a woman and tonight goes for gold representing herself, her family, her community and her country. live in rio, bruce beck, news 4 new york. back to you. >> thanks. join david ushery and me tonight for the "olympic zone." >> then stay tuned for coverage of the 2016 olympic

fios is not cable. we're wired differently. so we wired the wagner's house with 100 meg internet. which means that in the time it takes mr. wagner to pour a 20 oz. cup of coffee, tommy can download 30 songs, and jan can upload 120 photos. 12 seconds. that's the power of fiber optics. and right now you can get 100 meg internet with equal upload and dowloads speeds, tv and phone for just $69.99 per month online. only fios can. giants visit the bills in their second preseason game saturday. expect to see eli manning and odell beckham play in this one.

trainer at the side of practice today. head coach said he wouldn't be surprised if he did practice tomorrow in a speed practice or monday. yesterday we learned kicker josh brown will be suspended for the opener because of a now-dismissed domestic violence charge from last year. brown today was apologetic and ready to move forward. >> players that know my character have been very supportive through the process. like we said, this has been a year this over my head and continued to play well and i will continue to play well. in baseball tonight, yankees are off. mets in san francisco. >> thanks. want to get to breaking news. this is coming out of the st. george section of staten island, our first look at live pictures from chopper 4. you can see those flames going there. this is a two-alarm house fire. this broke out at 2:28.

our top of the rock cam. three homes on fire. we'll keep you posted. >> nbc "nightly news" is straight ahead. breaking news tonight. caught in a lie. the tale of the tape in rio. surveillance footage revealed as police accuse ryan lochte of making up a story about being robbed with team usa swimmers. a stunning turn of events. country. raging fires and floods. so bad they can't even count the number of homes destroyed. face of war. a 5-year-old boy dazed, covered in dust, pulled alive from the rubble of a horrifying air strike in syria. the latest atrocity in aleppo shocking the world. and conspiracy theories about hillary clinton's health. outlandish claims fueled by the far right. the clinton campaign hitting back hard.