news4 at 11:00 starts now. mall. >> i just heard so many shots go

off. >> three people killed after a man opens fire inside. >> we have an active shooter at the columbia mall. last seen in the food court. kids are hiding in the bathroom. >> tonight, people gather at a vigil for the victims. good evening. i'm christ gordon. the columbia mall will remain closed tomorrow as investigators comb the crime scene. this is video of investigators inside the mall searching for evidence. tonight, howard county police say they have tentatively identified the shooter, and say they believe that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. investigators are still looking for answers about what led the man to open fire inside. shots rang out shortly after 11:00 this morning. three people, including the gunman, were found dead at the store on the mall's second level. now, the name of the gunman has not been released, but police say that he was armed with a

large amount of ammunition. news4's erica gonzalez is live at the columbia mall tonight with new information about more weapons found on the shooter. erica? >> reporter: just a few minutes ago, police revealed they located a bag next to the shooter. inside the bag, two crude devices which have been disabled. some sort of an attempt at making explosives with fireworks. >> boom, boom, boom. >> reporter: 11:15 this morning. >> they just kept shooting and it didn't stop. >> reporter: witnesses say an unidentified gunman fired up to ten shots. >> it was a shotgun. >> reporter: the weapon was near his body. >> he was also still -- had a large amount of ammunition on him. >> reporter: two store employees

shot to death. >> this shouldn't happen in the columbia mall. it shouldn't happen anywhere, but that's where we are in society. >> reporter: mall employees ran for cover. stock rooms turned into shelters. >> we went into the back room and locked the door and waited. >> reporter: five people were injured and taken to the hospital. at least one with a gunshot wound. tonight, members of the fbi are searching every nook and cranny and asking every question as to why. >> somebody had to have seen the warning signs and could have done something about this and they didn't. >> reporter: two federal law enforcement officials have told nbc news the incident was domestic in nature. however, police have neither confirmed or denied that. erica gonzaleznews4. >> we are learning more about the two victims.

identified as 21-year-old breanna of college park and 25-year-old tyler johnson. darcy spencer continues our coverage now live from the mall with details. >> reporter: chris, tonight we went to the family homes of both victims, and understandably we were told it was just too soon for them to begin speaking about their tragic loss. >> very nice family, and very sad to hear that. had no idea until right now. >> reporter: he tracked reports of the murder-suicide through social media, not knowing it was his own neighbor in mt. airy who was one of the victims. >> floored. had no idea that -- i didn't even know he worked at the mall. but yeah, our thoughts and prayers are with the family. but very nice, very quiet, very good families. >> reporter: family members of 25-year-old tyler johnson told news4 it was too soon for them

to speak about his death. he was killed at the state shop where he walked, along with 21-year-old breanna, a store manager with a young child. police have not said what the motive may have been or whether the victims may have known the shooter. >> stand and to declare, and we ask you, god -- >> reporter: tonight, a local church youth group held a vigil at the mall where the gunman created so much chaos. a mourning at the mall, turned to tragedy for so many, shaking their sense of safety. >> i come here every weekend and have brunch and we walk just to get exercise. you just don't see that type of thing happening here in columbia. >> reporter: this investigation is still ongoing. we still don't know the motive in this case, why the gunman walked into the mall here this morning and committed this murder-suicide. reporting live from columbia, darcy spencer, news4. dozens of emergency called

flooded the howard county 911 system shortly after the shooting occurred. dispatchers had more than 40 calls on hold at one point as they tried to understand what was going on. police moved in on the mall and shortly after the first calls came in, they radioed police units with a description of the suspect and the casualties. >> all units at the mall, we have an update, a male between 18 and 25, a white t-shirt, khaki pants, last seen with a shotgun, possible suspenders on his khaki pants. we have a victim on the upper level. a male and female were shot. >> the chaos didn't die down for several hours as police searched the mall for any possible victims and any other possible weapons. we will continue to monitor developments on the columbia mall shooting is. visit nbcwashington.com for the latest updates and tune in to

news4today starting at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. storm team 4 meteorologist amelia segal is tracking snow on the radar. what's the latest? >> generally light snow moving through the area. it's not going to amount to much but it will continue for the remainder of the overnight hours. tomorrow morning, you're heading out the door early, maybe going to church. dry weather at that point. but there is activity here on the radar. all of this ahead of a cold front, this front bringing in more cold air. like we need that at this point. not much back into west virginia. some light snow is possible, and you can see where this front is already having an impact. hagerstown down to 23. winchester at 27. washington at 34. tomorrow will be a dry but cold day, and then for the upcoming week, another arctic blast arrives, some dangerously cold temperatures in the forecast. i'll be telling you when that

arctic blast arrives coming up. still no word on what caused a two-alarm townhouse fire in montgomery county in silver spring. a total of three town homes were damaged by the fire. a firefighter and resident had to be treated for minor injuries. a vigil tomorrow for the teen hit by a car in gaithersburg. 16-year-old theresa french died after she was struck by a car that drove onto the sidewalk yesterday. she was walking from school with 13-year-old emma lowe. the vigil will be held at covenant life church tomorrow at 6:00. hundreds gather to say goodbye to a teenager. the special service for the autistic teen who went missing more than a year ago. a third retailer joins the list of companies reporting a major security breach. and where justin bieber was

spotted just days after being

another retailer is reporting a possible security breach of customer data. michael's, the arts and crafts chain, said its system that processes customer payment cards, may have been hacked. the store says they're working with authorities to determine the nature and scope of the breach. michael's joins target and neiman marcus to have its data br months. a final farewell for an autistic boy who went missing last year. the remains of 14-year-old avonte were found in the east river near new york city last

week. he was last seen running away from his school in october. hundreds of people gathered this morning for his funeral. a family attorney says his parents blamed school officials for not monitoring him and not calling police quickly enough. justin bieber may have caught a flight straight to panama after being arrested in miami this week. according to tmz, bieber was photographed on a beach in the central american country tonight. on thursday, the pop star was arrested after drag racing a yellow lamborghini near miami beach. the first hearing for this case is scheduled monday morning. bieber does not have to appear but his lawyer does. after some help from news4 and social media, a northeast man is reunited with his stolen dog. how he was able to track her down. temperatures a little higher today, but more arctic air is on today, but more arctic air is on

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getting word that margo the dog that was stolen from a man's home in northeast washington is in good health tonight. eric peterson, seen her, took her straight to the vet after he was reunited with her this morning. peterson says margo seems exhausted but he's so happy to have her home. police found the dog after a tipster said they spotted her on benning road after seeing her picture in a story here on news4. about 150 people went for an icy dip this morning to raise awareness for climate change. they took the polar bear plunge into the potomac at national

harbor. here is how icy it was. volunteers had to use hammers, ice picks and some jumping and stomping before the plunge could start. organizers say they didn't mind the cold. the event raised more than $65,000. so it's a good cause and i just have never understood this. >> it's cold just looking at it. >> we were covered in snow. we know it's cold. >> and they're picking at the ice. that's how old it is. it's frozen over. they had trouble getting into the water. >> it's like getting into a slushy. >> right. it was not too bad today. relatively speaking. our high was 34 degrees. but we've been in the 20s for the last few days, even on wednesday we only hit a high of 19 degrees. so today when we compare it to what we've been dealing with, it

hasn't been so bad. tomorrow, though, it will continue to be cold. and even a little bit colder than it was today. high temperature tomorrow of 28 degrees. on monday, i'm tracking some rain and snow chances. right now i'm not forecasting any snow accumulation. again, that's for monday. and then dangerously cold air arrives late monday into early tuesday. i think there could be some school closings, delays tuesday and wednesday morning just because of the cold once again. here on storm team 4 radar, very light snow in the area, including portions of frederick county, southern maryland and the northern neck. this is around for about another hour and a half and not amounting to anything. but temperatures are going to fall overnight tonight into the teens. 34 right now in washington, and that was our high for today. but we also hit that during the afternoon hours. 28 in rockville and 33 for those of you in college park. when you factor in the winds right now at 5 to 15 miles per

hour, this is how it feels outside. it feels about 25 degrees in washington and 16 in gaithersburg. 23 down in fredericksburg. here are your low temperatures tonight. washington has a low of 18 degrees. so a cold start tomorrow morning. once the sun comes up, it's a sunny start for your sunday morning because clouds will increase during the day. tomorrow afternoon, breezy at times and a high tomorrow of 28 degrees. notice on future weather at noon, all the clouds across the area, maybe some light flurries passing through the area tomorrow afternoon. and then monday, it's the warmup before the cooldown. a high on monday of 35. there's the rain and snow chance. winds increase later in the day on monday. and then on tuesday, this is when our arctic blast arrives. tuesday morning, single digit lows in the suburbs, windchill temperatures below zero. and overall, our high

temperatures on tuesday will be running about 30 degrees below average. another cold day on wednesday. saturday, temperatures will return to about average for this time of year with some rain possible on saturday. >> thank you, amelia. coming up in sports, the captain returns and helps his team get back on track north of the border.

you've heard of fire and ice. this was real firepower? >> yes, and they needed this

victory. this losing streak was embarrassing. it's been over two weeks since the last time the capitals won a game. seven straight losses had everyone searching for answers. tonight, alex ovechkin was back after being out due to skriry. -- injury. capitals on the power play. puck is on the side of the net here. he gets it in, his 36th goal of the season. the caps go up 1-0. a little over a minute later, it's john erskine with the puck here and this glides io the net. erskine loses the puck, but turns out to be a good play. it's 2-0, capitals lead it. they add two more goals. in the third, they have a 4-0 l. ovechkin gives it up to weldman and he scores his first goal of the season.

ovechkin with one goal and assist tonight in his first game back. caps hold on for a 5-0 shutout. capitals back at it tuesday against buffalo, continuing their five-game road trip. over in basketball now, every time we mention the wizards, the team hasn't had a winning record since 2009. this season, they've come pretty close. could they get it done in utah tonight? randy whitman, the wizards 11-10 away from the verizon center this season. wizards down five. nene drives and finishes with the dunk. next time down the court, it's former michigan star trey burke. burke will bury the three-pointer here. utah is back on top by six. later on in the game, under a minute to go. nene gives it to ariza. she's showing off the range. that's a three ball.

got the wizz back within two. but they fall tonight, your final score 104-101. let's go down to college hoops now. after being blown out in pittsburgh a few weeks ago, maryland wanted redemption at home. it was the panthers who walked away with the win today. first half, terps down five. layman gets the steal here. he'll toss it up for the alley-oop. maryland down by five at halftime. later on in the second half, pitt is up six. peterson gives it up to james robinson for the finish. he had 13 points in this game. later in the half, panthers up by eight. terps with the pressure. pitt will get past that pressure. peterson with a game-high 28

points. they win 83-79. john thompson iii and the hoyas trying to snap a three-game skid in creighton. first half, tied at 13-13. smith, showing off the range here. 2 of his 18 points. hoyas up by two. later in the half, creighton on top by four. kicks it out to ethan, the long three ball there. creighton up ten at halftime. second half, they started to run away with this thing. mcdermott with the work down low. nice footwork. hoyas lose their fourth straight, 76-63. george mason hosting george washington. mason now in the atlantic ten conference. that means these two are now conference rivals. patriots lead it by three. johnny williams knocks down the jump shot. he had a game high 18 points off the bench. mason up by five. second half, it's all colonials.

maurice creek with the three ball there. a few plays later, this is to armwood for the flush. g.w. beats mason 75-69. a few other scores for you. american defeated army 84-74. the eagles are undefeated in patriot league play so far this season. virginia beat virginia tech 65-45. in football now, it looks like jay gruden's coaching staff is shaping up. the team confirmed that randy jordan will be the new running back coach. he spent the last two seasons at unc. the nationals held their nats fest today. the 2014 baseball season will be here before you know it. fans had a chance to meet the new managers. kids were out running the bases. we're 19 days away from pitchers and catchers reporting for spring training. everyone looking forward to getting the season started. including matt williams. >> i'm itching at this point,

like everybody is. i talked to the guys, a lot of them are here today and they're ready to go too. they can't wait. can't wait to let it go. >> i just met him probably an hour ago and we talked for a little bit. you know, i definitely like hearing what he's saying. so i'm the type of guy that likes to work hard. >> pitchers and catchers reporting, love that. we continue to

>> live from boston it is the

heterosexual skating chamonship. [ cheers and applause ] hi, everybody, i'm scott hamilton here with tara lipinski. >> and you can't tell from home but we're both tiny little people. >> we're two weeks away from the sochi olympics and there's already been a lot of controversy. >> much of it involving vladimir putin and his anti-gay policies. >> a lot of atheletes are rightly upset with a few organizations even demanding a boycott. >> that's why, in case of any last minute problems with russian organizers, the u.s. figure skating committee has decided to put together a b-squad of less talented but undeniable heterosexual figure skaters. >> starting for us is t.j. davenport. there's t.j. looking comfortable confident in jets jersey and cargo pants. >> let's see his olympic caliber. >> wow, a lot of air guitar right off the top. i like his attitude. >> and to his buddies. >> t.j. getting ready for his first shot. does he go for the triple axle? and no, it is a baby bunny hop and he nails it! incredible move.