breaking news from the university of maryland.

a student arrested, accused of threatening a shooting rampage on campus. good evening. i'm chris gordon. that student was taken for an emergency psychiatric evaluation. news 4's darcy spencer has the red flags that help police track him down. she's live tonight at the university of maryland. darcy? >> well, chris, we're right across the street from the university police department. it was here they received information right around 9:00 or 9:30 last night that these threats were being posted on websites. they worked it all throughout the night and they say they were able to track these postings down to this young man here. he's a 19-year-old student and he was taken into custody on campus this morning. a university of maryland student has been arrested for allegedly threatening to go on a shooting rampage at the college park campus. university police tracked down the students through internet postings and arrested him on campus around 10:00 sunday morning. police say he was unarmed.

>> it was terrifying that that could even be a possibility at this campus. i'm relieved he was arrested. >> reporter: the suspect has been identified as 19-year-old alexander song of fulton, maryland. he was taken for an emergency psychiatric evaluation. charged with disturbing the orderly conduct of campus administration, activities, or classes. that's a misdemeanor that carries a fine or six months in jail. >> it's a tribute to the police and university for being able to stop such a terrible thing from happening. >> reporter: among the thoughts posted on a website saturday night were "i will be on a shooting rampage tomorrow on campus. hopefully i kill enough people to make it to national news and stay away from the mall tomorrow at 1:30." >> anytime you hear something like that it's obviously very concerning. there are groups on campus that try to help people out who may need mental evaluation or have stress-related issues. >> reporter: many students

expressed concern they were not told about the threat through the campus alert system. >> we should have heard about it the second it came out. and everyone prepared themselves. i would have liked to -- this is coming as a shock right now. >> reporter: i did ask a university police spokesman why a campuswide alert was not sent out given the seriousness of this situation. they said they did not want to do something that might jeopardize what was a very sensitive investigation. now, again, here's a picture of the suspect. he has been taken into custody. right now he is getting a psychiatric evaluation. he has been suspended by the school administration. and banned from coming onto campus. reporting live from college park, darcy spencer, news 4. potential disaster averted. darcy, thank you very much. d.c. police are searching for two persons of interest in connection with a shooting inside the columbia heights i-hop. it happened around 6:30 this morning.

a witness told news 4 that two men were arguing about a woman and one wound up shooting the other in the chest. the victim remains hospitalized tonight. he's expected to be okay. police are looking for a man and a woman who they say left the restaurant right after the shooting. tragic and shocking. those are the words president obama used to describe the actions of an american soldier who allegedly shot more than a dozen people in afghanistan on sunday. afghan officials say 16 people were killed including nine children. the soldier's name is not being released, but we do know he is from washington state. tonight the president vowed to get the facts as quickly as possible and to hold accountable anyone responsible. frances kuo has the latest. >> reporter: 16 civilians including six children and three women were killed during a nighttime shooting spree. the killings happened just 700 yards from an american base in

afghanistan's karntd province. an american serviceman reportedly based in fort lewis at the joint base lewis mccord in washington state is in custody accused in the slaying. afghan president hamid karzai called the incident "a terrorist act and will never be forgiven." president obama phoned karzai to express his condolences and insisted this act does not represent america's military. >> it was a senseless tragedy. the larger problem will be this is a spark landing on this tinder box of afghanistan following the koran burnings. >> reporter: those accidental burnings of the muslim holy book last month at the bagram air base in afghanistan sparked violent protests throughout the country. the demonstrations left dozens dead including six members of the u.s. forces. american officials say despite these recent incidents they are dedicated to a strong relationship with afghanistan. >> to obtain greater peace and

security in the region, which is our common interest. >> reporter: but some afghanis say finding common ground is now out of the question. >> translator: this kind of action will give motivation to the people to stand against foreigner forces. >> reporter: after a decade of war and working to build a coalition between the two, a senseless act of violence could unravel the already strained relationship between the united states and afghanistan. frances kuo, nbc news. the archdiocese of washington has suspended a gaithersburg priest, putting him on administrative leave. it's the same priest who denied communion to a lesbian woman at her mother's funeral last month. the archdiocese says that father marcel guarizo, who serves at st. john newman catholic church was placed on leave for intimidating behavior toward parish staff and others. the diocese says the suspension is not related to the incident last month where he denied

communion to an artist, barbara johnson, because she was in a relationship with another woman. well, it is selection sunday, the night the ncaa chooses the tournament teams that will play for the men's college basketball championship. well, the announcement sent some teams to the big dance and others to the couch. hakem dermish chose to be at georgetown tonight. >> that was fun to be at georgetown, in the cafeteria with all the students. i didn't take any of their food. i wanted to. the food at georgetown looked pretty good. it's good food for a party. >> and a party there will be. >> exactly. selection sunday is pretty much a national holiday, and in six of the last seven years georgetown has been invited to partake in the march madness. this year the hoyas are back in the big dance, ready to crash the party. >> oh, yeah, we are dancing. georgetown earned the number 3 seed in the midwest region.

the hoyas will play the number 14 seed, belmont, on friday in columbus, ohio. georgetown met belmont in the first round of the ncaa tournament in 2007. the hoyas beat the bruins then by 25 points en route to the final four. however, the last two years the hoyas have been knocked out of the big dance in their first game. they're confident that won't happen this year because it's go time. >> it just gets you pumped because you're like it's time to dance now. there's no turning back. it's time to get it going. >> we're excited. it's a privilege to have the opportunity to participate in this tournament. it's something that i have never taken for granted and it's something people at georgetown have never taken for granted. there are so many teams whose seasons are over right now, so many good teams. if you can't bet juiced up as a coach, as a trainer, as a fan for this time of year, then follow another sport. >> yeah, you should. coming up on "sports final," the

capitals turn over a new leaf. your number one seeds are kentucky, michigan state, unc, and syracuse. >> the orange. >> heavy hitters. those are some big-time boys right there. >> and now the rest of us go through the tradition of filling out the brackets. and chuck, your seven-day brackets are looking there. >> seven-day brackets are looking good. my advice, dark horse. it's either going to be kentucky or carolina. those are my dark horses for this tournament. they're both number one. >> of course you're going with the cuse. aren't you a syracuse alumnus? >> central new york. >> great weather coming our way for not just tomorrow. the tip of the warming iceberg. let's take a check of it. it's your warming forecast. temperatures only in the upper 30s and low 40s. that will be nice. plenty of sunshine as well. but clouds sneak in tomorrow afternoon. high temperatures upper 60s and

even a few spots reaching the 70 degree mark tomorrow. i think some showers sneak in late. so a mild monday. passing showers coming in late monday. monday night. and a chance for maybe some thunder on tuesday. but wait till you see the rest of the seven-day forecast. you're going to think it's memorial day. >> dwlaz i said your brackets are looking so good. >> my personal forecasting bracket looks good. >> thank you so much, chuck. we'll see you later. about 50 firefighters battled a brush fire in gaithersburg this afternoon. it broke out along watkins mill road and quickly spread to several acres. it was brought under control a short time later. the cause is still under investigation. no one was hurt. well, virginia governor bob mcdonnell and maryland governor martin o'malley went head to head on "meet the press" this morning. the two debated the social and economic issues affecting the presidential race. governor mcdonnell clarified his stance on virginia's new law requiring an ultrasound before getting an abortion. >> were you wrong initially when

you said this invasive procedure should be part of the bill? >> no, i never said that. no, david, i think you're wrong on the facts. we said we support the concept of an ultrasound. and through the committee process i realized there were some other things that needed to be amended. i re78d that to the general assembly. they agreed to p. >> you see the rollback of women's rights, rollback of women's access to contraception and other health, rollback of voting rights, rollback of workers' rights. all of these things that take us back are not strengthening our economy and creating jobs. >> mcdonnell agreed that the economy is the number one issue of the presidential election. he blamed the democrats for shifting the focus to social issues, saying "they don't have an economic plan." well, still ahead tonight, a coach had part of his ear bitten off at a sixth-grade basketball game. what sparked the violence in the first place. >> they just want to talk, they want to say what they want to say, they can do whatever they want to do, but in reality i

know who she was. her family knows who she was. >> whitney houston's daughter breaks her silence. how bobbi kristina defended her mother in her first interview after the singer's death. and depending on your age, if you could pick a reason to pack on the pounds, we'll tell you how old you have to be before obesity actually helps befor[ male announcer ] helps this was how my day began.

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housing. flowers honoring jane emery are on display at the lu lu lemon display in bethesda. one year ago she was beaten to death inside the shop. her co-worker was convicted of murder. today family and friends paid tribute leaving flowers and balloons inside the store. her brother and his wife honored her memory, participating in an 8k run. >> just to kind of commemorate an activity that jana enjoyed and actually a race she's runn the past. my sxarnts my brother and his family went to the houston area and went to the grave site-h a memorial service there. >> brittany norwood is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. well, gas prices are back on the rise after a slight drop early last week. according to aaa, the national average is $3.79. that is up three cents from just

a week ago. locally, virginia is paying $3.68 a gallon for regular. maryland is at $3.78. and d.c. around $3.97. prices at the pump have been on a relentless rise since labor day. turmoil in the middle east is considered the main reason why prices continue to rise. analysts predict a record-high price of $4.25 a gallon by spring. well, the national mall had a very irish feel to it. this beautiful sunday. it was all for the annual st. patrick's day parade. this is the 41st year of this washington tradition. george washington. >> he's allowed to walk in the front during the parade. and look at the trees on the side of constitution avenue there. already a couple of varieties of cherry trees starting to sneak out some flowers. absolutely gorgeous day for the parade today. >> it was a gorgeous day.

it seems like so much is in bloom already. >> mm-hmm. and boy, seven days from now mark my wards, we'll roll the videotape back. seven days from now we'll be talking about how amazingly warm it was all week long, and i think a lot of spring flowers are going to take this opportunity this week to leap forth out of the ground because it's going to be seriously warm around here for the second half of the upcoming week. i don't know that we've got any records in our future, but we're going to be way above average. some of our records date back to march of 1990, and the record highs are in the mid and upper 80s this week. so i don't think we can quite get into the mid and upper 80s, but i don't think there's going to be too many people complaining about 75 to 78 degrees here in the month of march coming up later in the week. for now though not a bad night at all. 52 degrees. a couple of light weather clouds. light breeze out of the south at seven miles per hour. temperatures relatively mild all over the region. upper 40s and low 50s at the 11:00 hour. startup temperatures tomorrow

morning upper 30s to low and mid 40s. mild indeed. nothing showing up but ground clutter. nearest raindrops to us are just entering the western parts of the ohio valley. that's all part of a much larger storm system, which is going to bring us at least a chance of some passing showers, mainly late monday night and then another chance of maybe a rumble or two of thunder as this little weather front tries to through. but there's no cold air on the other side of this system. none at all. so as a result things are actually going to get warmer around here as the week goes along. high pressure moving away. that opens up the floodgates. warm and moist air coming up out of the gulf of mexico. brings the clouds in tomorrow. as you get to 8:00, 9:00 tomorrow, the leading edge of that warm moist air sneaks on in here. i think it might ring out a shower or two. and then tuesday afternoon with this little weak cold front coming on through really just a wind shift, i think that might kick off one or two thundershowers tuesday afternoon. here we are in our microcast model starting at 6:00 tomorrow night. that's when i think our rain

chances start to sneak in here during the overnight hours. then breaking up for much of the late morning, early afternoon on turs, and then another chance for a thundershower tuesday afternoon. doesn't look like a lot of rain. barely even chilly at all startup temperatures upper 30s to mid 40s. then tomorrow starting with sunshine, it will be a mild one for sure. tomorrow may be the coolest day of the week and it will only make 70. that's 15 degrees warmer than average. how about 74 tuesday? 78, 7, 75, 73. 78 degrees is an average high temperature for memorial day. by comparison. >> all 70s. >> all of them. >> i have not seen seven 70s in a row in march in forever. >> there you go, chuck bell. thank you. whitney houston's daughter says she is doing well and coping with the loss of her mother. on oprah winfrey's "next chapter" bobby kristina brown says she still feels houston's presence. brown says that she and her mom

were best friends and they always took care of each other. she defended her mother's reputation. >> i started to cry. and i held her through that. we held each other through that. we have so many people saying so many other things. but they don't know who she really was. and i want people to know that everything people are saying about her, you know, all that negativity, is garbage. >> whitney houston died last month in a beverly hills bathroom in a hotel. authorities are still trying to determine an official cause of her death. up next in sports, it is the push for the playoffs as the ca caps try to keep up their good fortunes a dinner's ready.

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people will be filling out their brackets without even knowing some of these teams. like who's belmont? >> belmont, if you didn't know, is located in nashville, tennessee. >> oh. there you go. see, i was confused with the team from indiana named butler. >> butler is from indianapolis. belmont is from nashvegas, as some people call. >> nashvegas? >> yeah, it's so exciting. nashville. have you been there? >> you've got to go to nashville. beautiful. beautiful city. so is columbus, ohio. because that's where the hoyas and bruins will be playing. >> the hoyas, they have their dance partner. the belmont bruins out of the atlantic sun conference. georgetown earned the number 3 seed in the midwest region. it will play number 14 seed belmont in columbus, ohio. for reaction we're on the hilltop. i love it. kids celebrating. good times. on the hilltop. georgetown met belmont in the

first round of the ncaa tournament in 2007. the hoyas beat the bruins then by 25 points en route to the final four. coming up on prfl sprfl, reaction from coach john thompson iii and the hoyas. at verizon center the caps playing the second of back-to-back games take on the mip'll leafs. first period no, score. toronto on the power play. brooks laich steals it. scored a power-play goal yesterday. today how about a short-handed goal? beats jonas gustafsson. 14th goal of the season. caps up front 1-0. more than enough for neuvirth. seventh career shutout. caps win 2-0. they remain one point hingd the panthers for the division lead. spring training baseball. buck showalter's orioles hosting the boston red sox. this is were there's spring training. cory aldrich up with a man on.

steve tullison from third. check it out, though. he slides past home without touching it. so ryan lavarnway tags him. that's a double play and the game is over. os lose 6-1. nats and cardinals. gonzalez paid four scoreless innings before the game was called due to rain. coming up on "sports final," where virginia and vcu will be dancing. tiger woods is hurting. @superstar's final round at doral ended earlier than anticipated. plus a candid conversation with former redskins defensive back shawn springs about players being paid big money for big hits. and what gm bruce allen says about the team's blockbuster trade. here's a preview of what they had to say in the "washington post." >> this is what the reads need to do. they need to make a dynamic bold move. they need to get out and get rg3. i think mike shanahan's probably listening to me. >> i love that he's listening to you because finally he'll listen to a smart man. right? >> i appreciate that, buddy. thanks. but seriously, you look at where they were at. and we all talked about it in

the media. they have to do something. mike in his first two years went 6-10, 5-11. that's not what dan snyder's paying him to do. he went out and got a quarterback who gives them a chance to be great. >> coming up on "sports final," i know i don't look like roger goodell, but i will turn into him when the show starts. >> a lot of people wearing redskins gear these days. even though it's the off-season, rg3 -- >> and your wife knows who rg3 is now. >> you can't just say rg3. robert griffin iii. >> or grif. still ahead tonight, the fight that led to part of a coach's ear being bitten off at a sixth-grade basketball game. i was paying too much with cable.

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most people try to avoid being overweight, but a new study says it could actually be good for you in your golden years. a study out of tel aviv university says extra weight has a protective effect on people 85 and older. researchers say heavier people have lower rates of osteoporosis. extra fat also provides extra energy in times of trauma and stress. despite the results, experts say people shouldn't strive to back on the pounds because it does increase your risk for other illnesses. a youth basketball game got so out of hand in massachusetts a man bit off part of a coach's ear. police say it happened friday night in springfield at a game between sixth-graders. a witness says one man was so upset he attacked the coach of the winning team.

investigators say they've identified the man responsible for the biting but they haven't been able to track him down. now, a georgia woman's treasure went out with the trash. so she decided to go on the ride of her life to try get it back. 19-year-old amanda still got stuck in a garbage chute for about an hour early this morning. it happened after she accidentally threw her cell phone away along with some trash. she said she could see the phone and it wasn't far away, so she tried to reach in and grab it. well, thankfully, a friend was there, too, and called 911. amanda made it out of the whole ordeal with just a few bumps and bruises. and hopefully with a smartphone because she needs it. next, a house that has a different sort of curb app ♪

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