ng back to paralympic sports programs to help future athletes every step of the way. men in masks, guns drawn taking aim at area businesses. power struggle, thousands left in the dark and cold after last night's ice storm and could be more trouble on the way. and three family members locked up in connection with the disappearance of a police reservist. tonight new details about the take down. nbc 411:00 starts now. masked men storm a liquor store near catholic university. >> tonight the d.c. police say the case could be connected to three other crimes over the last week. jackie bensen with new developments.

>> reporter: these cmes stretch from northeast to northwest. the ruthlessness in what you would almost describe as a precision is what leads police to believe they may be connected. tonight we talk to a man who survived the frightening robbery. he says the four masked gun men entered last wednesday night in a terrifying way. >> one guy tried to open. >> reporter: the employee who asked whee not identify him says one man stood guy while another asked for the money. the lookout waved away incoming customers by showing his gun. >> they opened the door and left. >> reporter: dc police believe it could be the same group of men who terrorized during a robbery on 12th street and a similar robbery at a domino's may be the work of the same

suspects and on january 28 a group fitting the same description robbed a metro access facility. in each case four to six suspects and lots of guns. d.c. police are making the crimes a top priority. they are adding extra patrols and extra manpower. metro's red line is moving again after a person was hit by a train at dupont circle. service was suspended for about an hour. police say a 36-year-old man was taken to the hospital in serious condition. weather now thousands of people still without power as crews are trying to restore it after the storm last night. pg&e has 14 outages. 700 pep co customers without power. the hardest hit are north and west where potomic edison has

22,000 without power. >> i hate this. >> reporter: tonight two cand are the only thing shining. >> i don't like it. >> reporter: the loigs went out when freezing rain pounded the area causing this tree to slam on to her roof. >> it was loud. >> reporter: knocking out the power. >> i thought maybe a truck hit my house. >> reporter: tonight more than 20,000 people are in darkness. we drove in neighborhoods with our dash cam. our head lights are the only thing showing you light. the bad weather caused wide spread damage. crews removed fallen trees, fixed downed lines. 150 line men, 200 additional workers trying to restore power. this woman needs it now. >> a little disappointed. >> reporter: caroline waits in disappointment and wants the lights back on. >> hopefully it is the longest we have been without it i think

is two hours. >> reporter: right now looking at the tree. crews will have to come here and chop it up and get it out of here so another crew can fix her roof. as for the power outages it could take several days before the lights turn back on in fredrick county. i'm shomari stone, nbc 4. freezing rain having an impact on people across 32 states. downed trees and wires left drivers and train passengers stranded. the conditions delayed or cancelled 5,000 flights throughout the country. the weather might be a bit quieter for us but we are not out of the woods yet. >> that's right. tonight it is the temperatures and the winds. the winds have really been howling out there and that is only going to create more power outages towards the north and west where we already have the problems. current temperature down to 35

in d.c. when you look at the wind take a look at the wind gusts gusting upwards of 30 to 40 miles per hour. they have been gusting around 40 all night. that is bringing in colder air. the storm system is miev moving out of here and tomorrow wind chills may stay in the teens during the day. not one but two storm systems to watch and one includes the weekend. prince george's county police officer acquitted in the beating of a student at the university of maryland is back on the force tonight. his name is corporal reg nld baker assigned to the clothing supply unit. a police jury found him not guilty in a case that stems back to a maryland basketball game in the year 2010. baker and another officer were accused of excessive force against a student during a riot

after the terps upset duke. a big break in tdisappearan three siblings bars. chris lawrence has reaction. >> reporter: witnesses are talking about a dramatic raid telling news 4 how swat teams converged. >> all i could hear what somebody say was get back in your room. when i looked down the cop was like this like get back in your room. >> jeffrey hut showed us the room where police smashed their way in. how did police get into this room? >> with the battering ram. >> reporter: he thinks he saw police arrest mercedes shelton. >> it looked like a man but from the photo i saw it could have

been that woman. i know he was questioning her. >> reporter: shelton and her brother have been charged with possession of stolen property. the toyota 4 runner that belongs to kevin quick on his way to see the mother of his infant daughter when he went missing friday night. >> we have reason to believe that when they abandoned the vehicle they were picked up by another vehicle and transported from there. >> reporter: shelton and mathis arrested with their sister. police investigating whether they are linked to this surveillance video. police received more than 100 tips but these arrests are by far the biggest break yet. the award for information is now $30,000 and investigators are still searching night and day for kevin quick. chris lawrence, news 4. tonight d.c. fire chief is talking about the death of a man outside a firehouse in

northeast. mills daughter said she begged for help for her father but no one from station 26 stepped up. in today's interview didn't talk about the investigation. he did reveal that mills was a friend of his. >> when we are called we are supposed to respond. everybody who puts this uniform on takes an oath. >> family will hold a news conference tomorrow across the street from the d.c. fire station where he collapsed. the hunt is on for whoever is behind a theft of elephant tusks. why some worry it is the beginning of an international crime. >> reporter: he is probably the most popular pachyderm at the nation's capitol. we have discovered a growing number of experts worry the

gleaming white tusks could be drawing the wrong attention. >> anything that a museum or private collector has that would involve rhino horn or elephant ivory be aware. >> reporter: dozens have been hit by organized gangs. the national museum of ireland tried to hide its heads by putting them in storage but the thieves got them anyway. >> what we are seeing now is large sophisticated, criminal networks cht. >> reporter: the director of the u.s. fish and wild life service and says a recent break in has animal trafficking experts worried the u.s. could be next. two large elephant tusks given as a gift from ethiopia disappeared when left.

a tusk goes for as much as $1,000 a pound on the black market, worth more when carved into sculptures desired by wealthy chinese who crave it as a status symbol. >> it would be a risk to us personally. >> reporter: a large rhino horn like this one is worth as much as a half a million dollars. >> if a rhino horn is wurlth more than its weight in gold it is like saling a gold bar. people have been marketing horn as a cure all. you can go to a rhino horn party and drink a cocktail. >> reporter: the world wild life fund says a record 31,000 rhinos and elephants died last year for their horns and ivory. gangs use timber and other materials to disguise their halls. u.s. customs and border patrol sent us these photos of what was pulled out of luggage.

the federal government seized more than six tons of ivory and then in november crushed it to pebbles. >> we did it to send the message to the world. >> reporter: ash wants museums and private centers to treat it the same way as they would precious art. >> we watch all of our rare objects. >> reporter: what about henry whose giant tusks seem so easy to access? the museum's director says don't even bother. >> the tusks are made out of fiberglass. our ivory tusks are behind glass and alarmed and safe and no fear our ivory will be stolen. >> reporter: in washington, tisha thompson. >> u.s. fish and wild life wants congress to change laws to

include animal trafficking for organized crime. next at 11:00 customers forced into a vault as robbers took over a local bank. we will have the surveillance video. plus count down to the p[ male announcer ]the at northrop grumman,

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a bank robbery played out

like a scene from a movie. the pair held up the bank. customers forced into the vault as the robbers made out with the cash. investigators tell us there have been 28 bank robberies in northern virginia since october. new details about a potential terror attack surrounding the olympics. u.s. homeland security officials are warning about possible attempts to smuggle explosives on to planes. recent intelligence says explosives could be hidden in makeup containers. to the latest on the winter games. a live ppicture of the village that is the gateway to the skiing venues with the count down just a day away. in sochi with the final preps underway. >> reporter: good morning. we are here now just a couple of hours away before the

competitio competitions actually begin. some are new like slope style, the dangerous course that shaun white pulled out from yesterday. he took one run and said that was enough. take a look at video. he jammed his risk yesterday and two others had much more spectacular falls. the ioc is defending the course but white is focused on trying to bring home his third straight gold in halfpipe instead. >> it is disappointing when you see a fellow rider go down and unable to compete. >> i think it was blown out of proportion a little bit about my wrist the other day. you get bumps and bruises all the time. >> reporter: the man with the most at stake here at these olympic games president putin is on site. he arrived yesterday and today took a tour of olympic village and met with athletes and checking out the canteen where they get meals and visited the

24 hour operational center, the international effort securing is up and running. we have seen security everywhere we go all around sochi and olympic park in particular. the searches are getting more extensive, pat downs, baggage checks. talked to one virginia volunteer. she told me she has been here four days and gone through about 100 security check points. we are getting our first detail about the opening ceremony tomorrow. the u.s. flag bearer is 37 year old todd ludwik. he is here along with the jamaican bobsled team. they made it on their plane through snowy new york. their luggage, clothes and equipment did not make it. they may have to borrow from other teams. a tough first day at the office. tomorrow a complete run down on the first events coming up in

just a couple of hours. live from olympic park. back to you. >> thank you. you can keep up with jim as he blogs about his experiences behind the scenes at the winter games. just follow him on facebook or twitter or go to nbcwashington.com and search handly in sochi. >> it is just like sunrise. >> 7:18 is the current time there. that is amazing. >> we are excited for jim to be able to do that and to share it with all of us. >> he will be there throughout the olympic games. we will be talking about the snow out there. they were worried about the snow but not any longer. some of the rest of us across the area it's not the snow, it's the wind. the wind has been howling out there. a lot of reports on facebook and twitter pages talking about winds of 30 to 40 miles per hour. we have been talking about the potential for trees down and power outages that continue back

to the west. i would not be surprised to more of those overnight tonight. 35 degrees the current number. gusts to 30 and wind chill down to 25. a very cold night and only going to get colder. 36 in fredricksburg. take a look at early tomorrow morning with the wind chill dropping into the teens. by tomorrow morning 16 in d.c. all day tomorrow going to be rather breezy. not as windy as what it has been over the last few hours but breezy. wind chills tomorrow around noon. lunch time 25 in d.c. we're in for a rather cold day tomorrow. one thing we're not in for, no rain, no snow. radar all clear and i expect it to stay that way for the next 48 hours until the weekend.

satellite and radar together showing we are starting to see clearing but the clouds trying to move back in, too. we are going to see a mixture of cover tonight. the cold air trying to move back in. this is the storm we saw today. earlier this week it looked like we could have a potential coastal storm on sunday making its way from the south. has a lot of moisture with it. that is not the case now. i think this is more of a clipper-like system coming through with just a little bit of moisture on saturday and sunday. that means we are talking a little bit of snow for the weekend. temperatures 35 degrees for tomorrow. wind chills in the 20s. 40 degrees on your friday. friday looking like a nice day. 38 on saturday. a good chance for snow. this should by on the light side. same deal for sunday. chance of snow but rather light. next week this storm system we'll have to watch. the weekend not looking too bad. take a look. snow saturday afternoon. the big words here no big deal.

this will be a pretty snow if it does fall i think and could be lingering flurries or snow shower s into the day on sunday we will watch the one next week, next tuesday and wednesday and the stormy pattern does look like it will continue. >> okay. >> keeping me busy. >> keeping us all busy. see the game

this is the x finity sports desk. those guys are fun to watch. i'm talking about the wizards. they took it to double overtime. >> the spurs have their number, dominant is an under statement. the longest current team versus team streak in the league. they own them. make it 16 straight games. the spurs have beaten the wizards, eight plus years of doing nothing but losing to san

antonio. exciting, frustrating and heartbreaking all in one. the ageless wonder tim duncan in town left off the all star roster this year. in overtime leading the spurs. spurs up four. duncan with the jumper. season high 31 points. spurs up six. down two, six seconds left in the first overtime. coming out of nowhere going the other way. he ties it up and sends the game to double overtime. verizon center starting to believe. san antonio is unflappable. they own the second ot. danny green takes a three-pointerer, curses again. wizards fall 125-118 in double overtime. college basketball 20th ranked cavaliers welcoming in boston college. this one all virginia. cavs up 12.

baseline to baseline. second half they kept running away with it. pass to anthony gill. 77-67 the final tonight. wish i could do that. i couldn't touch the net. virginia tech and florida state. this is the human slinky. thomas just could not miss against tech hitting a career high six. he led the way with 24 points and cruise past. spirits high for the george mason patriots hosting dayton. early on wright can do no wrong. steal and the speed throwing down for two. dayton was flying. jordan driving for two. two of his 19. mason loses for the ninth

straight time 84-67. one more score for you. american lost their first patriot league game this season 62-58 to loyola. national signing day. damian prince is his name, one of the top football recruits in the country. his announcement coming during a nationally televised broadcast. >> i will be playing at the university of maryland. >> you see the unbridled joy from the coaches at college park. prince could have gone anywhere but signed with maryland. even getting a kiss. he is a 6'5", 295 offensive tackle and doesn't mind wearing lipstick around on a day like this. >> or too small hat. [ male announcer ] if you could re-design business travel from scratch,

you'd make it about speed and efficiency; giving people the freedom to spend their time how they choose. chances are, you'd make business travel a lot like us. acela. take off.

so of all of the sophisticated security technology available today you have to watch this. a guy owns a bait and tackle store. remember them? >> motion activated billy bass started singing sunday night when somebody broke into a store. turns out the singing bass scared the burglar off and got away with nothing. the fish sings "take

>> announcer: it's "the tonight show with jay leno," featuring rickey minor and "the tonight show" band. tonight, jay welcomes oscar nominee sandra bullock, blake shelton, and the music of vintage trouble. and now, jay leno! [ cheers and applause ] ♪