the snowstorm was hit by a bus. and the governor takes responsibility after that snowstorm brings atlanta to a standstill. "news4 at 4" starts right now. and good afternoon, i'm wendy rieger in for jim hanley. >> and i'm barbara harrison in for pat lawson muse. and we begin with a story causing outrage across the area. a man died after struggling steps from a d.c. fire station, and the victims' family and the citizens are crying foul. >> and we have confirmed that the fire lieutenant in that station at this time has been relieved of her command. and we are joined by chris gordon on north avenue in d.c. chris? >> we are told by a number of sources in the d.c. government that her name is lieutenant kay lean davis, and she has been assigned to desk duty in the office of the chief of the d.c. fire department, and that a rookie who was on duty on

saturday when this incident happened has been reassigned to another firehouse, and this is as the investigation continues, and we want to share video of you now showing the investigation showing internal affairs looking into the incident in which 77-year-old medrick mills who spent years working for the parks and recreation department, came to the fire station begging for help. we are told that a rookie said that he had to check with his lieutenant and that was apparently kaline davis who had the rookie respond saying that they could not help. but today, we are told that there are no protocols that would have prevented the ems personnel are from responding, and she is shocked and disturbed an disappointed. >> what should have happened is that e reflex.

it should have been something that you don't think about. you respond immediately. you take care of the emergency and you do what you are trained to do, and that is the expectation. that's a no-brainer, and that's what should have happened. >> and he e tells me that internal affairs has so-called conducted 15 interviews with firefighters and police officers and civilians to determine exactly what happened here saturday afternoon. and if appropriate disciplinary action will be p taken, and we want to stress that at this point, no charges have been led and nobody is guilty of anything, and nobody has been blamed, but the investigation continues and lieutenant davis apparently has been placed on desk duty and the rookie assigned here is now at another fire station. that is the latest from northeast washington. chris gordon, news4. >> and this police canine tracked down the smell of pizza and helped to take down two men who robbed a delivery driver. that driver works for papa

john's pizza, and he we was robbed at gunpoint in temleple hills maryland last night, and after calling for help, the police canine found both suspects and the gun and the pizzas. and two sisters face charges r an attack inside of a victoria's secret store on black friday. the women were arrested at their home in clinton today. the sisters attack a woman shortly after black friday began inp annapolis mall, and the video was uploaded to youtube, and the women are charged with disorderly conduct and assault and other charges. and right now, president obama is set to land in nashville, and earlier he was in wisconsin where he toured a g.e.

natural gas engine plant in waukesha, and his focus is on job training. he has asked vice president joe biden to lead a federal review of the job training programs and to change the system to be employer-needs. steve handelsman will have a report in the next half hour. and a big p prob brewing in the tyson corner. it is part of the area to make it more pedestrian friendly, but it is not happening in some folks, but with one in particular has been especially dangerous. this is lees and tyco road and the pedestrian signals are not on and making it difficult for people to cross the street. >> it is treacherous and scary. yeah, no crosswalk so i don't know when the cross, so i eyeball it and guess. >> and adam tuss of news4 is asking who to blame and how to fix it? he will have the answers at "news4 at 5:00." we are following a developing story, the snowy owl that made headlines around the district is recovering, and it was hit by a bus. d.c. police found the owl near mcpherson square this morning and released be by the national zoo, you can see the experts taking care of the owl which has now been transferred to the city

wildlife and rehabilitation center. and the zoo says the goal is to treat the owl, and release it back into the wild is the. rusty the red panda and his partner sharma need a little privacy. so the two red pandas were moved to the con sservation biology institute in front royal in the hopes they will breed. sharma has had success at the national zoo, but this year, so much traffic at her neighbor boa boa's place that officials don't want to take a chance and miss the mating season, and the zoo is working the bring in two nonbreeding red pandas for the exhibit this spring. well, can you feel the warmth after that cold start this morning? we have the sun out, and the temperatures are rising just

enough to feel some relief. >> wep, byep, but don't think t wi winter is over. meteorologist veronica johnson says it is not over yet. >> well, for the short term, we will be smiling with a chance to thaw out, and the chances are definitely cold with a calm light wind across the area as d.c. dropped down the 16 degrees and gaithersburg to 5and pax river right to zero this morning and we are minus two in martinsburg and one in fredrick maryland, and throughout the overnight period, we won't see ere it is 33 now, and1; m0 . ve 5 per hour, and the air is dryer and a forecast just a few clouds for us as we we head down to the 24 degrees by 11:00 p.m. and we get the mild conditions for the next couple of days, and the winter again, far, far from over, and we will look at the trend and the seven-day forecast in a few. a five-time nominee and best actress winner is going to help decorate the academy awards this year. and a manqv"00éz]é

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a ruling in the murder trial against amanda knox in italy. and we go the chris lawrence live at the news desk. >> yes, this is just in, jurors have found amanda knox and her boyfriend guilty in the murder of her roommate meredith cur ch -- ker cher, and she has been sentenced to 28 years and 6 months and he has been sentenced to 25 years. knox and sollecito were first found guilty in 2009 based on the dna evidence, but then a court reversed the ruling saying that the evidence was unreliable, and then the highest

court ordered a retrial of the acquittal, and knox did not report in the court today and remains in the hometown of seattle, and defendants are not required to appear in italy. and now the italians will have to decide whether to ask for formal extradition. i'm chris lawrence at the live desk. and new details emerging from the stab the iing and shoog inside of a veteran officer's home. he shot and killed his own son who was attacking the officer's wi wife, and his wife later died. this happened last night in the home on lake katrine terrace ingain gaithersburg. this incident left the police department and the neighborhood reeling. >> reporter: the home here on lake katreen terrace is still cordoned. last night, the officer james

sterkens hd heard an argument between his wife and son, christopher, in a room upstairs. we h went up there, he saw the son in the process of stabbing the wife, and at that point, the sergeant shot his son with a gun. christopher sterkens was announced dead at the scene, and his wife was taken to a local hospital where she was p pronounced dead a short time later. police are calling this a tragic family incident, and nothing in christopher sterken's background the indicate that he would do this. he has two minor drug charges, a marijuana possession charge and paraphernalia charge in the last year, but nothing else to indicate an action of the kind of magnitude that was seen here last night. and in gaithersburg, jackie bensen, news4. >> well, they hold the keys to one-third of the nation's nuclear missiles, but they are trustworthy or are they? right now, new details that the air force cheating scandal is bigger than we thought.

>> and the early contenders for the best super bowl ads.

you are watching "news4 at 4." and earnings of the stock market is that the dow ended up more than 150 points up. we are tracking developments

in the air force cheating scandal and the number of officers involved in this has nearly tripled to 92, and 40 officers are believed to have shared answers to exam, testing their proficiency on nuclear missile systems, and the others are thought to have known about this cheating. they have been removed from their duties at mt. mall strom air force base in montana. and the air force secretary says that the climate required undue stress. they did not cheat to pass b but they cheated to achieve perfect scores. and a new development in the boston marathon bombing case. we go to chris lawrence in the 4 live desk. >> yes, prosecutors will seek the death penalty against joe car tsarnaev. there was a statement released saying that he supports the statement and he is prepared to

move forward. executions in the federal system are rare, but some experts say that seeking the death penalty could give him an incentive to plea guilty. he injured 260 people and killed 13 people along the route. >> and it is warming up. >> well, it felt good compared to the last week. >> yes. and just wait, because the folks are going to be running through the streets running and screaming of how mild it is, and not quite, but it is warming nup a big way, and the warmst stretch that we have seen in the last ten days here. and oh, you wait. look here as we look there with the national harbor cam towars s the woodrow wilson bridge, and this, too, i will remind you for this, too, any neighborhood streams, creeks, rivers, ponds, whatever, tell your adventurous kids to stay off, because we are

thawing out, and it could be a dangerous situation. we are at 33 degrees right now, just above freezing. 28 in gaithersburg, and 32 in manassas, and in fredericksburg, 35 degrees right now. you can see the pax river coming in at 27 degrees, folks, because of the areas down to the south that still have some snow pack on the ground. so, your weather headlines not as cold tonight, and get ready to thaw out, and we have a snow chance coming up yet again next week which i know that you are like, wait a minute, i thought that you would warm up, well, the warm stretch is not lasting that long, and the derivatives for the period here by at least 11:00, and we go from 33 to 24 degrees and not quite as cold as it has been, and the in terms of the high temperatures throughout the day tomorrow, we will start out at 11:00, with 10 in fredericksburg, and the next few days the mercury will look like this, upper 40s to 50 degrees and then again, a snow chance

for next week. the highs, 48 in culpepper, and 44 in fredericksburg and 48 in la play ta tomorrow with a partly sunny sky and friday and saturday and sunday, a fair amount of clouds around from time to time. and again, as we start to thaw out, and a reminder to stay off of the ice for ponds and rivers and streams. and in terms of sunday, folks, partly sunny and mostly cloudy sky and second half of the weekend and just a little weak system that may come through the area, and then a system that could bring some snow on monday, and here it is 7:00 a.m. with the light accumulation that is going to be ending at 1:00. and the high temperature is 46 and 48 on saturday, and 55 on sunday, with again a slight chance of the big game day that we could see rain showers coming through the area at 55 degrees and monday now, it is a 40% chance of snow, and monday, right now, with the temperature of 39 degrees, the best chance of snow will be early in the day, i think.

we will continue to watch this storm, and the good news is where the temperatures are being so warm with the next system coming in on monday, we hahave warmer road temperatures to talk about, and that is in the four-day forecast, but looking at the extended, yet another storm making its way into the area next week. back to you. >> all right. a new test treatment for peanut allergies suggests exposing kids to small dosages of peanut flour to the raise the tolerance. in sweden, researchers found that most kids could eat half a handful of peanuts. they do fot want you to try this on your own, but it is years away from treating mainstream allergies. it is not to allow allergies to be complete cured, but to prevent life-threatening exposure. and a study shows that less

than half of kids and teens treated for disanxiety order get the long-term care, ab only 47% were ainge sonxiety free after years. and anxiety afflicts 1 in 5 children in the u.s. and which can lead to the drug abuse, and depression. >> and a super bowl ad is worth $4 million and we are getting a

>> we now know what was in justin bieber's system when he was pulled over for the arrest. he had thc which is a common ingredient for marijuana and xanax and he showed negative for cocaine and amphetamines and opiates. he denies taking pot or other drugs when he was arrested. he is set to be arraigned february 14th. the green room at the academy awards is going to be sporting a oscar winner's touch. susan sarandon will be putting her touch on the area where the presenters hang out before and

after the nomination. she will be collaborating with e designer david rockwell who has twice designed the oscar stage. sarandon won a best actress award for 1995's "dead man walking." >> and for some, the commercials that air in the super bowl are just as exciting as the game. >> companies all over the world have spent millions to get you the watch their ad this sunday. >> and sarah joins us from new york city with a look at at what to expect. >> hi, sarah. >> well, good evening, barbara and wendy. you have seen the glimpses of some of the ads and with the expected audience of more than 100 million, advertisers are spending record amounts and nearly double over last year. >> it is the biggest game of the year and accompanied by some of the most creative, talked about and expensive ads. again, this year, doritoes has created the crash the super bowl

competition in which the ads are submitted by advertising rookies and the fans pick their favorite five spots and the winners are named in the game. >> and any buzz or publicity that you can get, isn't that the point, you know? and just to hype up the spot, and hype up, you know, all of it is great, and absolutely great and good idea. >> at $4 million for a 30 second super bowl ad this year, the companies are doing everything they can to get their money's worth which is including leaking the teaser ads. >> well, we put our spot on wednesday, and we got comments that were some were good and some so-so, and instant feedback that makes you look, wow. and for us, totally pays off. >> reporter: and others look to the familiar celebrity faces. heinz ketchup is back this with

their first advertisement in 16 years. >> people debate it, is ate great way to relay all of the money? but the audience of 109 million people is a big audience and the numbers speak for themselves. >> reporter: and men, women, people of all lifestyles, and it is a advertiser's dream. samsung is combining to allow with the internet to shop and buy items you see. >> you can dial in and purchase. >> reporter: and a captive audience worth the big bucks. and for some companies, this year's ad rates are actually too much apparently, and one that you won't see this year is etrade. in new york's times square, i'm sarah doll live. >> dangers on the road still lurks as this driver found out the hard way. >> and interstates in georgia

are clearing up, but everybody is rushing back on to the roads to find their cars. new developments today in atlanta's icy two-day gridlock and w

you are watching "news4 at 4." i'm barbara harrison. >> and i'm wendy rieger. >> in a officer is on administrative leave after he shot and killed his son while attacking his wife. this happened in james stirkens'

gaithersburg home. he tried to intervene after his wife stabbed his wife, which is also his son's mother. and his wife, denise, died later at the hospital, and their son chris died on the scene. he is a 27-year veteran of the force. and a lu tieutenant has bee placed on desk duty pending the outcome of an investigation. medric mills collapsed at the fire station last saturday kts and the family says that the people at the fire station refused to help, and mills later died. we will have more at "news4 at 5:00." and police have arrested two sisters for an attack at victoria's secret at annapolis

mall on black friday just after midnight. and a snowy owl was treated for injuries after being hit by a bus. the owl was transferred to the d.c. animal rehabilitation scepter for care. in minnesota, you would assume that people know how to drive on slick roads, but a state transportation camera catches a chain reaction crash on tape this morning. the state police say that some drivers were moving too fast for the conditions, and some of the vehicles ended up in ditches, but no reports of serious injuries. in texas, this driver's dash cam was rolling when a pickup truck in the next lane hit a patch of ice and spun out of control. the truck passed in front of him and slammed into the cement wall. this is tuesday morning in austin and another look, and fortunately, no other vehicles were hit in the scary crash. and icy roads in the florida

panhandle, and this is the scene in pensacola, florida, this morning. dozens of roads an bridges have been closed until this layer of ice melts. there were slick road conditions across the border as well in alabama. that region has not seen snow and ice in more than a decade. the governor of georgia is now taking responsibility for that epic traffic jam that forced drivers to abandon the carton highway or sleep in their vehicles in this week's snowstorm. a lot of finger point iing is happening, and crews are still rushing to try to remove the vehicles before the rush hour. and the governor says that the buck stops here. >> reporter: the winter storm that paralyzed the south left motorists stranded for up to 20 hours. >> it was scary. i got into a little bit of a panic mode about six hours into the it, and then finally, i was like, i'm just going to walk. so, yeah, it was scary. >> reporter: in atlanta, thousands of abandoned vehicles

littered the roadsides and in birmingham, much of the same. this tow truck driver narrowly escaped before being hit as this truck careened into his truck. and there were about 2,000 abandoned cars, but it is zens went to try to the give some aid. >> the tow trucks have been working through the night. >> reporter: and the government officials are responding to the criticism of citizens to the untimely response to the impending weather. jordan says that the city of atlanta was not prepared. >> the difference is that in ohio, they are ready for that and put the salt out. and got on the roads and no salt and pure ice. >> i think that we did not respond fast enough. >> reporter: and georgia's governor says that he will take action sooner in the future, and he has asked for an internal review of all of the agencies

involve involved. >> we will be compiling a new plan of acti for similar events in the future. >> reporter: as the ice melts throughout the south, the political firestorm is heating up. nbc news. and well, car washes in our area are doing a brisk business these days and all of the salt and the brian put down in those crews, and they turned the cars white, and today, they visited a tyson area, and they expected to clean 800 vehicles todayk and fyi, that salt wil corrode the paint on your car and you need to get it off of the vehicle as soon as possible. >> and seems like you are getting a respite from the nasty weather. is a -- is it a great time to clean the car? >> yes, i was in line early, and got it out of the way. and we are looking dry until the early part of next week. and sunshine and the melting and the only thing that you have to watch is that once you get that car, you have a little slush

aside from the melting taking place, and temperature wise just above freezing and around suitland and oxville, you folks near alexandria coming in at 32 and 33 degrees and the weekend planner forecast, with we drop to 22 at 5:00 a.m., and that is 10 degrees higher in most neighborhoods tomorrow morning, and it is going to be drier, and alst mild tomorrow, and 33 to 48 degrees with a light wind, but as we look to the weekend, you can have a little something, something to move in sunday and then two storms for next week which we will talk about later. and a father is speaking out after his daughter was car jacked and then abducted in front of the family's home in prince george's county and a 31-year-old woman was pulling up to her parents' house on ramble wood drive in district heights last night when three guys came up to her, and forced her back into car at gunpoint. they reportedly forced her to drive to three atms to with draw

cash and then kicked her out of the car. this morning, the car was tracked down. >> and as it was said, it is more than just a carjacking, but an abduction, and when you abduct somebody, that is is a felony. and so, you know, where they were going to the jail for two to three years for stealing cars, now it is 10 to 15. >> and the bureau chief tracee wilkins will tell us how they made it back home and the search for the suspects of the rert coming up on "news4 at 5:00." and the update on the target credit card hack, and how the thieves nabbed the data. and outrage of a 3-year-old boy who has special needs who was left on the school bus

a dollmaker in japan has just unveiled a new cheollectio that includes a miniature version of u.s. ambassador caroline kennedy. the doll maker said he chose people who cheered up the country this year. other dolls include japanese prime minister shinzo abe. >> and the president's state of the union address hit a new low.

it is 20 million fewer viewers than those who watched the president's first aed dress to congress in 2009. at the lowest rated speech still belongs to former president be bill clinton and the final state of the address in 2000 drew little more than 31 million viewers. >> president obama is in nashville at this hour expanding on the proposals that he outlined in the state of the union speech. >> and the republicans are coming up with their own list of what they'd like to see happen in the year ahead. news4's steve handelsman is live on capitol hill. >> thank you, wendy. up here they like to call the gop party the party of no, and symbolized by the government shutdown, and this is the gop trying a sort of makeover. >> reporter: the house republicans retreated to maryland's eastern shore to plot election year strategy and promise fed-up voters a change, and less negativity. >> it is important that we show the american people that we are not just of the opposition party the, and we are actually the al

te terntive party. >> reporter: republicans say they will offer their own plan for health care soon, and for immigration reform, but it is not ready. >> and whether that is a so-call so-called path to the citizenship or legalization will be seen. >> reporter: and sep or the marco rubio pushed a bill for immigration reform through the house, but it is stuck in the senate. and your colleagues are not sure there should be a path to the immigration? >> well, there is no movement or supporter for that we are going to round up and deport 12 million people, but there is a consensus across the political spectrum that we have to address the 11 or 12 million people here. >> reporter: and president obama was in wisconsin pushing a hike in the minimum wage. >> and the americans overwhelmingly agree that anybody who works full time should not have to raise a f family in poverty. and in opposition is wisconsin's paul ryan. >> if you push up the price of the entry level jobs, there is going to be fewer of them, and

we want to pull people into the workforce to work their way up. >> reporter: and the republicans are going to work on the issues that they believe will win them more seats in congress in the fall. and the democrats are doing the same thing, and focusing on the working families to avoid having to focus on the obama carolout. i'm steve handelsman, news4. target revealing new details tonight on how the hackers got away with millions of shoppers' credit card information. >> and now to sochi which is described as a virtual fortress in advance of the games. and we will take you there next. veronica, how is the weather? >> well, it is looking nice for the weekend and a warming trend, but as we go into february, it is active and a lot of winter left, and in fact, 49 days to spring. we will look at next week and what surprises it offers when news4 returns.

amanda knox speaks out about today's guilty ver dick. chris lawrence is at the live desk. >> yes, wendy, we just got this statement into the newsroom and in it, knox writes in part, i'm frightened and saddened by this verdict. having been found innocent before, i expected more from the italian justice system. she was sentenced to 26.5 years and her former boyfriend was sentenced to 25 years. and now the italian government

has to decide to request formal extradition from the u.s., and then the u.s. has to decide whether they would comply. i'm chris lawrence at the live d desk. athletes are arriving in sochi for the winter games expected to kick off next week. we received a photo and tweet from maria lamb who says that they just arrived in sochi and it is followed by three exclamation points so she is excited to be there in her third olympics. and in the city of valvgrad violence last month, there have been concern about violence. >> reporter: in the runup to the games, russia getting bad press and officials focusing on the possible threat of terrorist attacks. and today, russia effectively

said, what threat? they identified the two bombers that they said it was responsible for carrying out twin suicide attacks in the city over new year's, and said that the forces have suspected two accompli accomplices, two brothers from dagestan and another russian official said that he has no intelligence of the suicide b b bombers on the loose, and according to russia's assessment, there is no credible threat of terrorism to the games at all, and so we are seeing two distinct different messages. one from the media and coming from the u.s. intelligence officials that there is a threat coming from the north caucuses, and russia stressing today that it has absolutely everything under control. richard engelle, sochi. and interpol will be working to sniff out crime. the international police agency will look out for things like doping and corruption, and match fixing among the judges and the pl players, and olympic organizers say that type of cheating is the biggest threat to the

credibility of the games. and our own jim handly is fou in sochi, and he is going to be blogging behind the scenes and bring you live reports on news4 throughout the games. make sure you follow on facebook, by fol hiloing his page or on twitter, and his handle is @jimhandly. a group of students got a look at the astronaut class talking about the importance of s.t.e.m. classes at the air and museum downtown, and those are science and technology and engineering and mathematics courses. they are currently in a two-year process, and that ri nasa's first group of astronaut hopefuls in four years. and carnivale cruise lines is return ting to the port of baltimore and the ships will be more environmentally friendly and have technology to release fewer toxins into the air. and you have a year to make the plan, because they will resume seven-day year-round cruises

starting on march 2015. and a new attraction to fredricks bug, pedal cabs. a seven-seat human powered vehicle will be here. this is a view of similar vehicles operated in various citi cities. they came up with the idea and launches it with a colleague friend and the city council just approved it. they will offer heritage tours and exercise themed rides in the morning, and the business-focused rides in the evening. and the weather is going to start warming up so you can peddle your own cab. >> and around here, folks, it is going to be nice. the extreme temperature tas we are dealing with, we won't see that. but we talked tab warming trend and it is going to be cold again and cold enough where we could be talk thing about wintry type weather, but the extreme temperatures are gone for a while. lo look at outside, and the breeze is out of the south and more of

a southerly wind, and that will help to the carry the temperatures way, way up over the next couple of days and even above average. we are at 33 degrees right now, and mild wind at 6 miles per hour with a dry air over us, and dry comfortable conditions right through the weekend, but it is not going to be all sunny. we will have a few clouds around the area tomorrow, and it is going to be remembered as partly sunny day, and leesburg at 45 and monrovia at 45 and 46 around warrenton and waldorf at 48, and college park up to a high temperature of 46 degrees. it is a pattern change for us that cold polar air will retreat and head back up to the north, but i think that on monday, time period, there is going to be just enough cold air around that could be sloppy around here, and we are watching the next storm system that looks for snow monday morning but the good news is that we will have warmer road temperatures, and only some isolated slick spots occurring

monday, and close to 50 saturday, and again, a partly sunny and sunny sky, and a slight chance to have rain and few showers around on sunday, and 55 is the high though, and then back into the 30s mostly next week. we are at 39 degrees again, on monday, and right now the storm system that we are watching now, and more importantly another storm that we are watching tuesday. that storm system could be bigger, and that storm system could cause us more trouble, and especially in the early part of the day right now, because it starts late, and with we have icy icy potential to have ra rain and not as much rain as looking yesterday. but next week, folks a little nasty, so enjoy the weekend. wendy and barbara. >> thank you. so new developments now from target about the security hack. target is now saying how hackers were able to the gain access to the giant database of customer

information, and it turns out that the hackers stole credentials from the target vendor to access the target database to steal personal information from millions of customers. they would not say how they stole them or the name of the vendor, but it is working with the secret service and the justice department in response to the data breach. >> if you drive the beltway, it may not surprise you to find out which part of it is the most dangerous. it is the four-mile stretch ckvie pike in montgomery d county, and that is also the busiest stretch. new details out this afternoon from a study done by the maryland highway officials. they looked back five years and discovered that that one single stretch of the beltway, it averaged 260 crashes a year and five of them were deadly. officials say that the driver error is much of the problem. >> i think that it is not volume, but people are doing stuff, and talking oe