for the most part, anyway. forget you, kelly! ♪ hark the herald iron sings you know who knows the truth about what happened here? santa. "the end." good night and happy holidays. (cheering and applause) captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

a huge misunderstanding leads to a lockdown at american university tonight. officers moved in and students were forced to hide out after reports of a gunman on campus. and tonight we know what sparked this chaotic chain of events. chak si b jackie bensen is live with new details. >> we're told this began around 8:00 p.m. a student saw something suspicious on one of those au shuttle busses that go back and forth from the metro. a man appeared to have a gun in a holster. they were to treat this as a possible crime and they did. d.c. police officers with weapons drawn made their way inside gray hall on nebraska avenue as students throughout american universities northwest d.c. campus were told to shelter

in place and keep the door closed. they tweeted a photo of a couple taken by the student who made the report of man he had seen on the shuttle bus. >> yeah, it's scary. everyone is in their room. the ras came through and told us to be quiet, lock the doors, shut the blinds. so everyone is doing that. everyone is doing what they should. and it was really easy for them to get the message out. >> after almost two hours the all clear was given and d.c. police were able to clear up the confusion. turns out the man with the gun holster was an off-duty cop who was on the shuttle as a guest of the au student. >> i did a subsequent investigation and learned that it was not any kind of threat, there were no gunshots. there were no injuries. and no threats to anyone. the person saw what we believe to be an off-duty officer. >> reporter: adding to the chaos, we're told this was make-up final exam night for the semester. so there is a possibility that some students who had evening exams were not able to take

them. live in northwest, jackie bensen. disturbing new details revealed. two d.c. police officers accused of preying on underage girls. one of them is in jail charged with pimping teen girls he met at bus stops and shopping malls. the other officer is dead. shomari stone is live with the latest developments. shomari? >> officer linwood barnhill who joined the police force in 1989 had his first court appearance behind me at d.c. superior court. and we are learning more details about what led up to his arrest. this is our first look at him. he's spending the night in jail following allegations he pimped teenage girls. they found two girls including a 16-year-old run away. along with marijuana. eight cellphones, and a mirror with the names of different

women on it. the 16-year-old says those are the names of people who engaged in prostitution for officer barnhill. and according to these court documents the 16-year-old told investigators that he met officer barnhill at a shopping mall around two weeks ago. he allegedly walked up to her and said are you interested in modeling. court documents say she met him in his apartment several times. he gave her a cellphone and made date for her with a man who paid her $80 for sex acts. she had to give officer barnhill $20. court documents state barnhill took naked photographs of her, paid to get her hair done for the date, and advertised her on a website commonly used to post ads or prostitution. police also interviewed a is a-year-old who says she met barnhill at a bus stop. she says barnhill set her up with a man to do sex acts. he turned himself in to police today. his neighbors are stunned. >> make me feel real bad. seems like you can't trust anybody these days.

>> reporter: in a separate case last night officer mark washington's body was recovered in the water at hanes point. he was arrested on child porn charges last week, accuse of taking naked pictures of a teen girl while on duty. now tonight we're told that these cases are not related, but police chief kathy lanier says that both officers tarnished the entire department. again, police are questioning other officers, including linwood barnhill's roommate. tonight three people are facing charges in connection with a shooting that injured a police officer in district heights. it happened this weekend. investigators were called to the scene of a robbery on marlboro pike. we're told the suspects jumped into a stolen car and drove to a nearby apartment complex. minutes later they ditched the car and one of the suspects started shooting. an officer was hit but he was wearing a bullet proof vest that stopped the bullet and saved his life. a top senate aide facing

child porn charges is out of a job tonight. ryan was taken out of his home on southeast d.c. in handcuffs today following a raid by the u.s. postal inspectors. he was the chief of staff for tennessee republican lamar alexander. after the raid, senator alexander immediately suspended him without pay, saying he was, quote, stunned and disappointed by these allegations. turning to our weather now. incredible video out of texas as big slabs of ice come crashing down from the roof of a lodge. nobody was hurt here, but falling ice is a big concern there as buildings thaw out during the day and then refreeze at night. back here at home, temperatures are falling into the teens and it could feel even colder than that in the morning because of the windchills out there. doug kammerer let's us know just what we can expect next around here. doug? >> that's going to be the arctic freeze as it makes its way in here. look at the numbers. currently not all that bad. most areas, but there are some cold numbers. 21 currently in manassas.

23, dulles. 21 in gaithersburg. 33 in the district. 31 towards annapolis. both warmer because of the water across the potomac and chesapeake. we have the arctic air coming in. with that, the wind. look at the windchills. near 18 in d.c. 14 in gaithersburg. 7 without towards winchester. a very cold morning. tomorrow may be the coldest we've seen yet. yes, we're talking about a winter storm, another one. this one coming just in time for the weekend. and check this out. it moves in, snow. a little bit of rain. look familiar? yeah. sure does. we'll talk about that when it moves in, when it moves out and what you can expect in your area in a minute. it's a story that has a lot of football fans talking. rg3 has been the starting quarterback for the redskins but this weekend he'll be on the bench. jason pugh is at our live desk with the controversial call. hey, jason. >> doreen, that's right. redskins coach mike shanahan is going to shut down robert

griffin iii inactive. kirk cousins will start this week in atlanta. shanahan noted the potential risk for injury as a major concern when it came to benching griffin. >> the quarterback needs an off season program. it's important to him. when you take a look at quarterback who is your franchise quarterback, he's your future if you miss two off seasons in a roerks it will be the hardest thing to do is recover from that. i take a look at the next three games. i'd like him to have that experience. but at the risk of setting him back where he doesn't go into off season, i think that would be devastating to him. >> i expressed my desire to play. of course i want to be out there and finish the season with my guys, see it through. and he explained to me his reasoning and at the end of the day, coach -- coach's decision is what we go with. >> as you can imagine it was a very wild day at redskins park. coming up later we'll hear from kirk cousins. he'll make his second start of the nfl career this weekend. from the live desk, i'm jason

pugh. developing now on capitol hill. these are live pictures where gop senators are holding a talk-athon to protest president obama's court appointments. last month they changed the rule making it easier for the appointments to be confirmed. republicans can't block the nominations but they can use hours of time set aside to discuss each nominee. majority leader harry reid says if the gop holds firm the senate will be in session continuously until saturday. south africa's government is urging mourners to line up early if they want a chance to say good-bye to the late nelson mandela. it was another emotional day for the thousands who came for the first day of the viewing of the antiapartheid leader. the former president's body lay in state at the historic union buildings in pretoria. police had to turn thousands away due to the extremely long lines that were still there by mid afternoon. the viewing will continue

thursday and friday. and here in washington today the tributes continued. diplomats from the embassy of south africa and other political dignitaries came to the national cathedral. vice president joe biden called nelson mandela the most impressive man he had ever met. jim vance was in south africa in 1994 when mandela was elected president. now almost 20 years later he's there for his funeral. vance filed his first report from pretoria tomorrow. it turns out budget shortfalls and staffing shortages contribute fod a series of problems at the national zoo. since june a red panda escaped, gazelle died, and zoo kip keeper was mauled bay zebra. they're working to make improvements while maintaining safety. >> we provide excellent animal care. and first and foremost is safety. so safety for our animal, safety for our staff, safety for our visitors. we won't compromise that.

>> the zoo plans to make both the internal report about the budget and staffing issues as well as the zebra attack report available to the public. next, and new at 11:00, erika gonzalez is live in gaithersburg covering a crime spree in maryland. >> tonight we are getting new video from the gaithersburg scene, caught in the act. a thief breaks into a number of businesses. why this could be the key to cops finding their man. plus, lost in translation. new details behind the phony interpreter who played a big role during nelson mandela's memorial service in south africa. the picture went viral. tonight the photographer who took it is shari

tonight after a crash that killed a pregnant woman and her friend, there are also questions for police. today police george's police took ronald hayes into custody, say heg speeded away after a shooting in saturday night. he allegedly slammed into a van carrying 21-year-old brittney queen, her mother says she was ten weeks pregnant. 23-year-old brittney everett was also killed. police told news4 they're reviewing whether officers followed the proper procedures in their pursuit of hayes right before that crash. nine montgomery county businesses targeted overnight. investigators are trying to figure out if it's connected to a similar crime spree in prince george's county. erika gonzalez is live in gaithersburg with new surveillance video from the

scene. erika? >> reporter: wendy, a number of those burglaries happened here at this shopping center. the man was acting so erratically he was practically jumping up and down, his hands were shaking and he could barely get his words out, and he may have had an accomplice. nine businesses burglarized in one night. >> in all probability this time of year, christmastime, you know, people are low on cash. >> reporter: now police in gaithersburg, rockville, and montgomery county are a trying to figure out who is behind it. they've got a pretty good lead. around 11:30 last night the camera caught this. a man uses a tool of sorts to pry the glass of the front door loose, kicks it in and walks out with a cash register door. the dunkin' donuts next door was hit around the same time. >> why this particular area was picked, we can't speculate. >> reporter: and then there's this video from a bp gas station just feet away. same technique as the other.

the suspect loosens the glass, kicks it a few times, eventually barges in. once inside he heads straight for this door trying of get to the cash register but it's locked so he climbs up this ladder, pulls on these cables hoping to tear down the cameras. after realizing he can't get his hands on any cash he just comes over here and grabs whatever miscellaneous items he can. in prince george's county a similar rash of burglaries, 15 in late november. this picture was pulled from one of the crime scenes. this picture is from one of the shops burglarized in gaithersbu gaithersburg. notice any similarities? police say they are aware of that rash of burglaries. at this time they're not able to link them. live in gaithersburg tonight, erika gonzalez, news4. outrage and disbelief are growing tonight over a fake sign language interpreter at nelson mandela's memorial service this week. he stood next to president obama and other dignitaries who spoke

yesterday and sign language experts around the world agree the guy was just faking it. this isn't the first time it's happened, either. he was previously scene doing another fake interpretation job during an event with current south of course can president j jacob zuma last year. the man who took this picture of president obama and his selfie is defending the commander in chief's actions. many criticize it as insensitive because it was taken during the memorial service but the photographer says he thought it was perfectly natural. he said the atmosphere was festive. there was singing and dancing in the stadium. and he might have done the same thing. he also tried to dispel rumors the first lady looked annoyed. he said mrs. obama was joking around just moments earlier. always under scrutiny. >> of course. >> when you're the president. >> especially nowadays. >> getting colder out there overnight? >> starting to.

a little snow on the radar. just a little bit. nothing to worry about. >> piece of cake. we're used to it. >> yeah, the cold snowe, the cold, old hat by now after the last couple of weeks. it's going to get cold again tomorrow. tomorrow may be just a little bit different. out there right now, no winds. winds are fairly calm. you can see that out there towards union station. by this time tomorrow morning, they will be blowing pretty good. right now down at the airport, current temperatures at 33 degrees. one degree above freezing. dew point at 22. they're going to continue to increase as they move on through the night tonight. temperatures have cooled in many locations. frederick down to 18. manassas at 19. 28 in fredericksburg. we do have colder numbers across our region. as we look at the radar, look at this, snow on the radar. not much. if you live out towards frederick and charles town. making your way down towards loudoun, montgomery county, you may see a few flurries. that's going to be about it. that shows you where the storm system is. it's just a cold front that's going to move on through.

you can see the snow showers moving along with it. that's the leading edge of the cold air. and i'm not just talking about cold air. we're talking frigid air. 33 here. nine in detroit. two in chicago. one below in minneapolis. four in des moines. 15 in st. louis. very cold air making its way our way. chicago, expect it to get close to record low temperature of minus eight tonight. some areas may even break some records overnight tonight all because of that area of arctic air. high pressure moving down from canada right down into our area. tomorrow, it will be in place. tomorrow is going to be a very cold day with most areas staying below freezing all day. as we move on through the day tomorrow and friday, the arctic air starts to retreat. friday not bad. temperatures will warm into the upper 30s to around 40 with more cloud cover. and then guess what, here comes saturday morning. look at the radar. showers out there in the form of snow early around 10:30. watch what happens very similar to what we just saw.

snow to the north and west. rain down to the south and east. where is that dividing line? that's always the question here. i do think this will be more of a rab event for the washington, d.c. metro area. places back to the west may get snow. this is not a big storm. it does come on a saturday so if you get a little bit of snow, maybe it's a pretty good snowman making day. 31 in d.c. 29 in gaithersburg. 28 in martinsburg. 30 in manassas. the windchill will be about 10 to 15 degrees colder. some may be in the teens all day with the windchills. temperatures, warm just a bit on friday with a high temperature of 40 degrees. there's that mix. again, shower, snow and rain, temperature around 41. 44 degrees on sunday. we may see a few showers early. i think these will rain/showers, too, on sunday. then more cold air will make its way in here. the average high temperature this time of year, 48. i don't see that anywhere on the next seven-day forecast. so unfortunately we are going to stay on the cold side of things.

tomorrow night will be very cold. once again, tomorrow, a little bit of a shock when you step outside the take the kids to the bus stop or yourself getting on that train. whatever it is, it's going to be chilly. >> thanks for the warning. coming up, rg3 hits the

it's the dust starting to settle after all the kerfuffle out there today? >> no, the dust is still all over the place. >> everyone is skramping their head about this team after this

move by mike shanahan. throughout the course of this season the redskins have gone to bad to worse to now just down right confusing. shack h shanahan announced today that griffin will be shut down and cousin s will be your starter. since week ten, rg3 has been sacked 24 times. that's seven more times than any other quarterback in the league during that timespan. >> is it worth the risk for three games to play robert or is it smarter to say, hey, you know what, kirk, you take over, okay? we're going to make sure, robert, that this off season you're going to be there. >> i do believe that robert, you know, is the franchise quarterback here in washington. he's drafted number two overall. a lot of pick rsz traded to get him. i mean, common sense would say that you know, this is his team. >> although this time is -- it's a downtime for us as a team and

as an organization. we will rise out of this. i believe that. you know, for me, i have to continue to try to get better. try to help this team any way i can and move forward towards next year because that's the hand i've been dealt. >> i like kirk cousins, i don't know if he will be that much better than robert griffin iii. different quarterback but same aufshs offensive line. >> it's only three games. >> i think he will be surprise us. over in college basketball, george washington is off to their best start since 2005. a victory tonight would keep them on pace with the 2005 squad. that team won a school record at 27 games. coach mike's crew coming off a huge win against maryland. first half action, colonials playing some tough defense here. savage with the block. ahead to kevin and the big guy. flush it down with two hands.

gw show trailed by eight at halftime. second half though they came back. joe mcdonald, the sophomore follows up his own miss. gets to the rack. part of a 17-3 run by gw. how about some insurance here? just over 3:00 to go. savage pushes the lead to nine. he had a team high 22 points. gw, they win 70-60 improving to 9-1. their best start since 2005. this a very cool story, guys. special day for families in the d.c. area. members of the wizards, capitals and mystics all gave back to families during this holiday season. the family-to-family gift delivery. the kids were so shocked and amazed by the nba players, all 6'9", 6'10". his hand is bigger than her whole body. whole bodythis country was built by working people.

the economy needs manufacturing. machines, tools, people making stuff. companies have to invest in making things. infrastructure, construction, production. we need it now more than ever. chevron's putting more than $8 billion dollars back in the u.s. economy this year. in pipes, cement, steel, jobs, energy. we need to get the wheels turning. i'm proud of that. making real things... for real. ...that make a real difference. ♪

for real. ...that make a real difference. new business owner, it would be one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community, that helps our members connect and share ideas to make smart business decisions. if you mess up, fess up. be your partners best partner. we built it for our members, but it's open for everyone.

there's not one way to do something. no details too small. american express open forum. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. if year's white house christmas card has been unveiled. it's a pop-up card of the white house with tiny versions of the first family's portuguese water dogs. it's signed by everybody in the family including the dogs, sunny and bo whose paw prints are featured next to their names. you can find one on ebay. the starting bid, $165. people sell those on ebay right

away. >> you know it. >> it's a christmas card. >> the christmas card has snow on it. what about us? >> a little snow coming at us tonight. a little shower activity. won't effect anyone. 31 tomorrow, though. that will affect was was we will see windchills in the teens all day. on saturday, watch that storm. make sure you tune in tomorrow morning at 4:30 in the morning. they will be live to talk a little bit more about what to expect coming up this weekend. as i said, though, don't b think this storm is going to be much of a big deal. just something to watch. >> get used to the cold stuff. >> we can still go to our christmas parties on saturday. >> is that when the station one is?