now from washington's leads news station, this is news 4 at 11:00. big bust in connection with a rash of street robberies. the news is so fresh detectives

are writing down serial numbers on iphones and ipads. this team police didn't go after the stick-up guys but the ones leading the charge. >> jackie benson starting off in northwest d.c. with developing details. jackie. >> reporter: tables at d.c. police headquarters were covered with iphones, ipads and other portable electronic devices believed sfoelen in the unprecedented series of street robberies that have left residents of several northwest d.c. neighborhoods unnerved. they include a series of armed muggings in the friendship heights and tenley town areas since december. faced with increasing public concern, kathy told investigators don't just arrest the robbers but take the profit out of the crime. police won't give out details of the undercover operation which is ongoing except toosz the electronics and hundreds of

pacts of pacts k-2 or spice were recovered during search warrants served at corner markets and carry outs throughout the city. 25 people were arrested. >> if you are in any way, shape or form involved with the robberies, the breaking into cars, breaking into homes to steal items to pass them along or fence them, we're going to find you and arrest you. this will not stop. >> every d.c. resident has the right to walk our neighborhoods in safety and confidence. >> reporter: the chief is cautiously optimistic about the department's efforts. she said in the last 30 days robberies have dropped by about 15%. tonight we've learned a u.s. soldier accused of killing 16 afghany civilians suffered a traumatic brain injury fighting in iraq. the military says tonight the 38-year-old staff sergeant acted alone when he opened fire on

families when they slept in their village near kandahar. nine children are among those killed. the suspect is himself a father of two and remains unidentified tonight. he was deemed fit for duty following treatment for a traumatic brain injury he suffered several years ago while on a tour of duty in iraq. this shooting is sparking more calls tonight to get troops out of afghanistan. >> two-thirds of the american people essentially don't support this operation in afghanistan. we got a problem in terminating it without a catastrophe. >> obama condemned the shooting but says he's committed to bringing u.s. forces home in 2014. tonight chopper 4 is over a 40-mile possession from reagan national to the town of percival. a pro session as the body of a fallen service member returned to his hometown. michael quinn was killed in a helicopter crash in arizona late last month while preparing for a mission to afghanistan. tonight his father spokes exclusively to news 4's darcy

spencer. >> reporter: >> we apologize. we're having some audio difficult to the piece. right now an honor student accused of planning a massacre at the university of maryland college park is in the hospital undergoing a psychiatric evaluation. angie goff has new details. >> people who saw the suspect around campus say this is completely out of character, that he seemed like a good kid. this scare started to unfold late saturday night, and police say he they got a series of phone calls from people concerned about an online threat to shoot students on the college park campus. one of the postings said, quote, hopefully i kill enough people to make the national news, end quote. investigators say they traced the threat to 19-year-old a

alexander song from howard county. he was arrested sunday morning on campus. those who knew him are surprised. >> i was honestly really shocked because he just seemed so normal. a very good student. he participated in class all the time. he seemed fine. he seemed just like another kid in the program. another student at maryland. he's one of us. yeah, i just can't believe it. >> police say they searched song's room and did not find any weapons. officers say he was shaking and crying when they arrested him. now, right now song faces a misdemeanor charge of disturbing university it activities. he's also banned from campus. jim. to southwest virginia now in the civil trial involving the 2007 massacre on the virginia tech campus. a judge is expected to decide tomorrow if the defense can question witnesses about the reputation of school president charles steeger. the defense offers that the

prosecution implied president steeger lied and they should be able to counter that. two families filed a wrongful death suit against the school. right now scattered showers across the area, and temperatures tomorrow could be 25 degrees warmer than normal. doug, we have spring fever. >> spring fever for sure. high temperature today is 71 degrees. tomorrow could be warmer than that. look at the numbers out there right now. currently 66 at the airport, 68 in fredericksburg, and 11:00 at night in the middle of march. amazing how warm we have been, and we'll stay on the warm side through the next couple of days and most likely through the rest of the week. a couple of showers right now in calvert county, and then more shower activity just to the west of winchester through west virginia up and through portions of the west virginia panhandle. this is the area of rain we wait to see come through the area overnight and through tomorrow morning. i think it could affect early

rush hour, guys, if you're out there really early 5:00, 6:00 in the morning. that band moving out. we may not be done with the showers and thunderstorms just yet. i'll show you how warm we'll get in the forecast. >> thank you, doug noinchts jail time for a prince william county mother initially charged with murder for leaving her toddler in a hot van last summer where he died. dr. karen murphy accepted the plea deal and pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges. instead of jail time she will complete community service and serve six months probation. prosecutors agreed to the plea deal saying the pain over the loss of her son ryan was punishment enough. the board of trustees at penn state says a failure of leadership led them to fire hall of fame football coach joe paterno. in a report today they say paterno could have done more when he learned about he an alleged case of sexual abuse involving a former assistant coach. a lawyer for the paterno family questioned the times of the

report. he died in january, and former coach jerry sandusky is awaiting trial. he's charged with abusing ten boys over a period of 15 years. a new measure to toughen child abuse laws in the district goes to the committee. the council held a public hearing to talk about the bill. it would expand the current city law to require everyone that witnesses sex abuse to report it. violators have to face a fine and have jail time. they s . the next chapter in the race for the white house kicks off in a few hours from now. alabama and mississippi hold their primaries today. in alabama 47 delegates up for grabs. naets where mitt romney spent the day alongside comedian jeff foxworthy. rick santorum spent his day in both states. in mississippi he and newt gingrich addressed the crowd at

the gulf coast energy summit hoping to secure the 37 delegates up for grabs there. >> we want to make sure we have a candidate to go up against president obama to make the case about energy and our future, who can draw a sharp contrast. >> nare ideologically commit fod faintcy plan. if you read the president's agency speeches he's in couucko land. >> almost two-thirds of the people disapprove the way the president has handled the price increase at the pump. a small sense of normalcy is returning to parts of kentucky ravaged by tornadoes earlier in month. students in menefee county headed back to school today. the ef-3 killed six people and destroyed the the homes of more than 600 others. next at 11:00, a scare in the air today leads to an emergency landing at dulles.

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procession to the national airport as michael quinn is returned to his hometown. he was killed in a chopper crash late last month while getting ready for a mission to afghanistan. his father spoke to darcy spencer. >> he gave his life in service to his country. we're immensing proud of him for that. >> brad quinn is the father of michael quinn of percival, virginia. he died in a military helicopter collision in yuma, arizona on february 22nd. tonight his son made a final return to his hometown. he spoke exclusively to news 4. >> the important thing was to get him home, his sisters and mother and i really appreciate all the support we receive from the marine corps and everyone else involved in activities since the incident, and we wanted him home. >> a police led procession drew resident who is lined the sidewalks with candles and flags. >> right now i think everybody should learn that, you know, each day is very precious and

you need to take it a step of at a time. >> quinn was in training preparing to the employed to afghanistan. two helicopters collided in the desert sevenlt were killed in the crash. >> he died doing what he was wanting to do. he was training hard for a difficult mission that we asked these marines in our service to do our country's bidding >> reporter: quinn was 28 years old and a decorated marine and pilot and he was in love. he asked his fiancee to marry him on new year's. >> i told her she's yet another daughter to me. >> funeral services will be held here next week and he'll be laid to rest in arlington national cemetery. hiss father says he's remember his son's smile most. surveillance cameras were rolling as a school playground went up in flames in the philadelphia area. nobody was hurt but today students were quite upset. the school's principal plans to

rebuild. they said the relatively new playground was dedicated to a former teach wire died of cancer. police are trying to break up an underground dogfighting ring. two dogs were found suffering from severe bite wounds. they believe they were used as bait dogs to train other pit bulls to the violent. the dogs are now at a animal hospital being nursed back to health free of charge. >> you can see the marks on her from where she was bitten by other dogs from her tail to nose, she was full of them. >> i hope they find whoever did this to them, and that they'll be tortured as much as these guys were. >> vets say both dogs could have died from their injuries if they hadn't been discovered. a catholic priest who denied communion it to a lesbian at measure mother's funeral has been suspended. he was placed on leave last

friday for intimidating behavior toward parish staff and oers. he serves at st. john's pneumoniaman catholic church. she says the priest denied her communion because she was leaving with another woman. the archdiocese says it's not related to communion. the group is responding to criticism about its campaign. >> we want to be as transparent as possible. >> the nonprofit group invisible children created the document y documentary. tonight the ceo released this video to answer critics who question their mission and finances. he said the criticism is difficult to hear, but attributes it to lake of familiarity with the organization. the original kone 2012 video was to show atroscities committed by a ugand dan warlord. a plan had to make an

emergency landing. a mechanic warning light can came out in the cockpit. the pilot declared an emergency. he was headed to philadelphia before 2:00 this afternoon. it landed safely 30 minutes later at dulles. fire officials inspected the claim and gave the all-clear. he they put them on another flight to be safe. madonna got roughed up during rehearsals for her youming world tour. she posted these pictures. she was working on the promo for her latest single called girl gone wild where she suffered a fall. she bruised her knee, butt and cut her lip. she's okay. her tour comes to d.c. september 23rd and 24th at the verizon. >> how did she fall? >> we don't know. >> she's on top on one of the guys from bmfao. >> they were laughing something. >> something was going on. >> didn't look all that bad to

tell you the truth. could have been a rough day on the tennis court from you from the looks of it. maybe we should head out to play tennis tomorrow. >> tomorrow would be the day to do t. a lot of people are making golf tee times this entire week and next week, too. we're in for a great stretch of weather for us. for us nothing but sunshine today but parting of the upper midwest and upper northwest into washington state, look what they're dealing with. a major dust storm through the area, snarled traffic in the enter at a time up into the region. numerous accidents reported with that dust storm. this is another system coming in and pummeling the northwest portion of the united states. they're getting a lot of snow in the mountains and a lot of rain towards parts of seattle. as far as our weather is concerned forks the record today we saw a high temperature of 72 degrees. that's 20 degrees above average, but that's close to the record high. the record high temperature is 89 set way back in 1990. the low this morning is 45 degrees, and we're not even close to the numbers now.

66 currently out at the airport with winds out of the south at 9 miles per hour. just incredible warmth this time of year. it's really simply amazing how warm we are and how warm we're going to be. 79 in fredericksburg right now. 72 in winchester and 70 in gaitsburg. it doesn't take long for the atmosphere to warm up. 57 in winchester, 66 in culpepper and right now over towards annapolis at 56 degrees, too. a few showers toward the eastern shore. more shower activity off to the west starting to enter virginia now. this is frederick county, virginia starting to see them come here. you see them around the charlestown area over towards martinsburg in the next hour to hour and a half. an area of moderate rain and maybe heavy rain right here with this little guy. this is one of the last pieces of in frontal boundary that will

make its way through. then there's another front to the north producing some severe weather towards parts of great lakes. we're not going to see severe weather here but we'll get into the secondary part of the rain. very warm temperatures with the showers tonight and there's that storm passing by tomorrow afternoon. let's break it down even more mplt wednesday, plenty of sunshine and warm temperatures. as we move through the night tonight, shower activity throughout the region. 5:30 best chance of rain is south through southern portions of maryland. by noon tomorrow we clear out, a great day to take a lunch outdoors and here come the afternoon showers and maybe a thunderstorm and i'm not expecting anything strong. how about 77 tomorrow and i do expect a couple of 80-degree temperatures down to the south and maybe fredericksburg, and 73 on thursday, and 71 on friday with another chance for some shower activity and we stay

right around that 70 degree mark right on through the weekend. the coldest day, the coldest is 68 andst it's close to 15 degrees above average. >> looks good to us. thank you, doug. >> coming up a long lost work of art from da vinci found in an

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>> this is a developing story out of redskins park. some mixed signals coming out tonight. multiple reports say the reds n redskins will lose $36 million in cap space over the next two years for front loading contracts during the 2010 season, which was an uncapped year. free agency suddenly looks a lot different for the redskins. two contracts in particular irk the nfl. handz worth and deangelo hall, guaranteed a combined $36 million in 2010. the nfl said it warned teams multiple times not to take advantage of the uncapped year, or there would be harsh penalties. the redskins and cowboys were the most egregious so they were punished. bruce allen released the following statement. the redskins received nothing in writing from the nfl regarding salary cap adjustment. every contract in 2010 and 2011 complied with the collective bargaining agreement and was approved by the nfl commissioner's office. we look forward to free agency,

which, by the way, starts tomorrow. could be a legal showdown between the nfl and the skins. that is going to be interesting. in preparation for free agency, the skins cut sellers, and he was the longest tenured redskin. atogrrwe was sfoining starting only eight games in his own season in washington. meanwhile, selection monday in women's college basketball. several area teams including maryland find out who they will dance with. the terps finish the regular season at 28-4 coming off an acc tournament title. they're riding a seven-game win winning streak. they are a number two seed. the head coach brenda friess is ready too get it on. >> march madness is what you rev up for. all those long practices and games to prove yourself during the season is kind of, you know,

this last hurrah p in it terms wanting to finish to the best of your ability. >> real special, to play in front of the home crowd and to go out and make a last run at this, i think everyone will give their all. >> the yornlg town women are heading to chapel hill. they face fresno state. georgetown, 22-8 this year. the hoyas were actually in the final region to be revealed making for a very antsy head coach and antsy team members. the wizards had a grueling six-game road trip where they could hardly come up for air. the first of four games in five days. problems for randy whit man's squad. the wizards have not won in san francisco since 1999. third quarter, in the john wall back to singleton. it's a weird-looking runner there, but he had a team high

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a california researcher spent nearly 40 years searching for lenard dpoe da ving chi's masterpiece nafs painted in 1 0

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featuring rickey minor