tonight, a lot of breaking news as we come on the air. a massive manhunt may be closing in on two escaped murderers. possibly spotted. authorities now swarming a small town into the woods. and our nbc news exclusive. this woman questioned about the escape. what does she know? her son talkingnly to us tonight. out of hiding. a wild scene as former house speaker dennis hastert emerges for the first time since that bombshell scandal. what he told the judge. evacuations mystery. bomb scares on live tv at the senate and the white house. reporters rushed from the briefing room. the president in the oval office. the first family just upstairs. why weren't they moved? and making a difference for an american paralympic

hopeful robbed of his blades and his dreams until something amazing happened. "nightly news" begins right now. >> announcer: from nbc news world headquarters in new york this is nbc "nightly news." reporting tonight, lester holt. good evening. a search that extends as far away as mexico for those escaped killers from new york is right now refocusing much closer to the scene of their prison breakout. after four days on the lam, a possible sighting and a fresh scent picked up by tracker dogs as an army of cops descending on the woods surrounding a tiny hamlet just 40 miles from the prison. with police on what could be a warm trail, there's that other mystery to be solved -- who may have helped them stage their daring escape? in a moment an interview you won't see anywhere else with a man whose mom, a prison employee has become a person of interest. but first the search. nbc's miguel almaguer is in willsboro, new

york. >> reporter: tonight the mass mobilization. a flood of highly trained, heavily armed officers closing in on new leads. prison break suspects david sweat and richard matt may be on the move near willsboro, new york. matt's son speaking tonight to nbc news. >> very -- from the people i know that have been talking about my father that don't really know him directly. >> reporter: 40 miles from the prison break in this lakeside community, police presence built up overnight after a tip. two suspicious men spotted ducking into the woods. neighbors say canines picked up a scent. >> the whole area's in an uproar and really concerned about getting these guys off the street. that's for sure. >> reporter: grid searches like this one are being conducted overhead with helicopters and here on the ground. in open fields and in rugged terrain. today alone they've covered hundreds of acres. guns drawn, tension high. this is where they've asked us to hold our position.

into the woods there's too much cover. it's too dangerous. tonight officials are following leads on both sides of the prison wall. >> what's hard to understand is how the correction security staff was not aware of this. >> reporter: investigators are questioning a person of interest, joyce mvp'llmvp mitchell who works in the prison tailor shop where sweat and matt also had jobs. on the day the convicts were reported missing mitchell checked into the hospital with a "case of the nerves." law enforcement sources tell nbc affiliate wptz when the prisoners broke free from this manhole their getaway driver never showed. housed in the "a" block, the so-called honors section of the prison, where they first broke through this steel wall with power tools, like all inmates sweat and matt wore forest green prison-issued pants but could wear civilian shirts and shoes. profilers who helped track inmates on the run say the dragnet stretches well beyond the prison and

farmland. >> these guys were smart. they're sophisticated. >> reporter: while this area may look picturesque, this is the vast area that investigators are combing tonight. just a short time ago they headed down the street to conduct yet another grid operation. investigators tell us they were led to this area by direct tips leading to the inmates. so far tonight, lester it may be the best lead they have. >> all right, miguel thanks. now to our nbc news exclusive. about that woman that miguel mentioned joyce mitchell. she works in the prison. she's being called a person of interest being questioned by police. what does she know about all this? tonight her son speaking only to nbc's stephanie gosk. >> reporter: speaking exclusively with nbc news tobey mitchell calls the speculation about his mother prison worker joyce mitchell flat out wrong. >> she is not the kind of person that's going to risk her life or other people's lives to let these guys escape from prison. >> reporter: a government spokesperson tells nbc news that police questioned mitchell

about the prison break. her son strongly refutes rumors that she was in a relationship with one of the convicts. >> she definitely wouldn't have an affair against my father and it definitely wouldn't be with an inmate. there's no truth to that. >> reporter: joyce and her husband lyle worked together at their prison tailor shop a job she's held for eight years. tobey says his parents called him on saturday night from the hospital the same day as the braingz. >> prison break. >> there's a report your mom went to the emergency room with a panic attack. did that happen? >> yes. she was in fact in the hospital that evening. i don't know the exact details. i just know that she was having severe chest pains and she was concerned about that. >> a lot of people are looking at that and saying wow, maybe she had a panic attack because she was supposed to help them and get in the car and she didn't and, you know a lot of speculation. >> no, my mom, she worries a lot about everything. i mean especially with me. >> reporter: tobey says the public is rushing to judgment.

>> people might say well no matter what i wouldn't do that. well when you're put in a situation where family members are threatened or other family miebtz beembers might be you know threatened or at risk you'd do a lot of things to protect your family. and in my family family always comes first. >> were there threats, tobey? >> i have no idea. >> reporter: tobey is worried for his parents' safety with two convicted killers on the run and insists the truth will soon come out. stephanie gosk, nbc news dannemora, new york. in chicago today a wild scrum as we got our first glimpse of the man who was once second in line to the presidency former house speaker dennis hastert. emerging for the first time since that bombshell scandal. allegations of long-ago sex abuse while he was a high school teacher. nbc's gabe gutierrez is there. >> reporter: after 12 days in seclusion dennis hastert walked into a media frenzy at federal court.

a dramatic fall from grace. at the brief arraignment hastert, who has now surrendered his passport showed no emotion and pleaded not guilty. he's charged with violating federal banking laws and lying to the fbi. the indictment alleges in 2010 hastert agreed to pay an unnamed individual aid $3.5 million to conceal prior misconduct. and for about two years he made 15 $50,000 cash withdrawals. banks are required to report withdrawals of more than $10,000 to the government. after hastert was alerted about that reporting requirement, prosecutors allege he took out more cash but this time in increments of less than $10,000. on at least 106 occasions. intentionally structuring those transactions to fly under the government's radar is illegal. the indictment says hastert lied to the fbi about why he did it. >> you rarely see them prosecute a case on facts like these. but -- and i'm speculating here. the fact that he lied

to the fbi about the nature of the transactions and their purpose could well have been a tipping point for prosecutors in deciding to bring both charges. >> reporter: now he's hired high-power washington attorney thomas green, who has represented defendants in other national scandals from watergate to iran contra. >> whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. >> reporter: but the outrage is about much more as law enforcement officials tell nbc news the misconduct hastert allegedly tried to cover up was sexual in nature with a male student at the illinois high school where he taught for 16 years. the identity of individual a remains a mystery, baffling many of hastert's former students. >> i don't believe it. not at -- not at all. i never had any problems with him at all. >> reporter: tonight the man who was once second in line to the presidency is out on $4,500 bail. hastert said nothing as he left federal court this afternoon. if convicted he faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count.

lester? >> gabe gutierrez in chicago tonight. thank you. some pretty anxious moments in our halls of power today. when bomb threats forced evacuations on capitol hill and in the briefing room of the white house, where the president and first family were home and stayed inside the building even as others were being evacuated. our national correspondent peter alexander was in the briefing room when it all happened. >> at each of these agencies. >> reporter: the order came without warning. >> we need to evacuate the press room now. >> reporter: a bomb threat phoned in to washington, d.c. police led to the unprecedented evacuation shortly after 2:00 p.m. during the daily televised briefing startling members of the white house press corps, quickly ushered out of the building just steps from the west wing. president obama was in the oval office and was not evacuated. the first family was in the residence, also not evacuated. the press evacuation was orderly but confusing. one reporter asking if the press should shelter in place. reporters clutching their cell phones and laptops with crews backpedaling cameras

rolling. >> folks, please keep moving. >> reporter: with the media herded outside, secret service officers and a bomb-sniffing dog swept the area including a room where white house staffers work. >> everybody clear. >> reporter: during the search officers also covered the robotic cameras broadcasting live. after a 30-minute wait the scene was cleared. no bomb found and the briefing resumed. >> was president obama and his family in any way impacted or evacuated? >> they were not. this was the only room in the white house comple >> reporter: a separate bomb threat was phoned in earlier on capitol hill interrupting this senate hearing on the tsa just after noon. >> we're clearing the floor. so if you could in an orderly fashion please exit as quickly as possible. thank you. >> reporter: capitol hill police searched the room looking for anything suspicious. more officers and dogs combed the hallway, but nothing was found. were the two threats connected? tonight the secret service says it's investigating. the penalty for phoning in a bomb

threat to the white house or the capitol is no different than for threats involving any other building. up to ten years in prison. lester. >> peter alexander, thanks. i want to tell you about some new information about the woman being treated in the u.s. for a rare dangerous form of tuberculosis. we've learned that she knew she had tb before she boarded the flights that brought her here. now the race is on to find anyone who may have had contact with her. hundreds of people perhaps in at least three states over nearly two months. nbc's tom costello has more. >> reporter: in a special isolation unit at the nih in maryland doctors are urgently trying to find a drug treatment for a critically ill patient who arrived this weekend. the nih will only say it's a female no age, name or nationality. hospitalized with a very dangerous form of tb called extensively drug-resistant tb. >> you have to go around and find drugs to which the tuberculosis is sensitive because it's usually resistant to the standard drugs that we use all the

the time. >> reporter: the nih tells nbc news the patient was actually treated for tb in india before she boarded flights to the uae and then on to chicago in early april. she also flew to tennessee and missouri before being admitted to a hospital outside chicago. then over the weekend transferred to the nih. now the cdc and three state health departments are checking on the host family she stayed with in illinois and reaching out to airline passengers who sat within two rows in front and behind her. tb bacteria are released when somebody who's infected coughs or sneezes. in a closed environments like a plane people sitting nearby could be at risk. especially people with compromised immune systems. >> reporter: meanwhile the cdc is watching a serious outbreak overseas. the middle east respiratory syndrome or mers it's now spread to south korea with 95 cases and seven dead. 2,000 schools closed. >> we live in a global village. we're all very close to each other and what used to be remote can be in your back yard this afternoon.

>> reporter: the cdc tonight urging u.s. health care workers to seek the travel histories from patients who complain of respiratory illness. tom costello nbc news washington. word coming down just a few hours ago of a story we've been following closely. it's about a new class of cholesterol-lowering drugs that some doctors are calling a breakthrough in the fight against heart disease. late today a federal health panel recommended that the fda approve one of these new drugs with another to be voted on tomorrow. the full fda decision will come late this summer. up next here tonight, news just in on that pool party melee with police caught on camera. plus the incident that shocked this country so many years ago. we talk to the man who filmed the rodney king beating. how he changed the way so many now view policework. caring for someone with alzheimer's means i am a lot of things. i am his sunshine. i am his advocate. so i asked about adding once-daily namenda xr to his current treatment for moderate to severe alzheimer's. it works differently.

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it seems it seems hardly a week goes by without a disturbing police encounter caught on camera. yesterday we reported on a texas policeman seen forcing a teenaged girl to the ground while dealing with a disturbance at a pool party. and we've just learned that officer has resigned from the mckinney police force after first being placed on administrative leave. and now from california. amateur tape of a brutal roadside arrest is raising eyebrows. a confrontation that even the police chief there says is horrific if you view it out of context. tonight we teak a closer look at police through the lens. and a warning. some of it is not easy

to watch. the video captures salinas, california officers striking what appears to be a motionless man. police say 28-year-old jose velasco was high on meth a resisting arrest after having tried to throw his mother into traffic. his family says he wasn't high but mentally >> making a judgment based on a grainy video is not necessarily always the best thing to do. >> reporter: the moment is reminiscent of this -- the infamous amateur video of the violent 1991 arrest of rodney king by los angeles police. >> i ran to the balcony, grabbed the camera on the way, then started filming. >> you didn't really know what you were filming other than some sort of police activity. >> yes. and when i got out onto the balcony, they were already hitting him. >> reporter: george holliday's video of officers beating king after a car chase led to criminal charges against four officers. and later to days of deadly rioting after a state jury acquitted three of them and failed to convict the

fourth on all charges. it also started the era of citizen journalists. >> you look back i guess it is true. you don't see any videos of that kind before the one that i saw. >> reporter: holliday says the tape changed his life. a story he plans to fully reveal in an upcoming documentary. >> you hear all the racket and you bring this camera out. >> yes. >> reporter: but it also changed the lens through how we view policework. >> now it's virtually every single stop has the potential to be filmed to be captured on video. it's certainly raised the public's awareness of officers the challenges that they face and perhaps in some departments the level of skill that they need to upgrade to. >> reporter: the potential for wrongdoing was on faden santana's mind he told me when he decided to point his camera at what ended with the police shooting of walter scott in south carolina. >> i just want to witness, you know that nothing would happen over there and the police know that i was pressing.

>> reporter: the officer, michael slager was fired and yesterday was indicted on murder charges. but these kinds of cases are rarely so cut and dried. even as powerful as the rodney king beating tape was, in the end only two of the four officers who were charged were convicted in a later trial in federal court. >> a lot of people do that now. a lot of people when they see things that don't look right to them they pick up cameras. what do you say to those people? >> don't be afraid to share the video if it's something important. don't abuse the tape or the images that you have either. i think even on tape it can be taken out offof context. >> george holliday says he never suffered reprisals for making his tape and he told me he once ran into rodney king at a gas station, who thanked him for what he did. we're back in a moment with a hero seeing-eye dog and how he saved the life of his owner. at chase, we celebrate small businesses every day

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an not usual twist in the colorado movie theater massacre trial. the judge today kicking three jurors off the case after a fourth juror came forward claiming to have heard them talking about the case including details on social media that they were ordered to stay away from. at least 21 people still on the panel. 12 jurors and 9 alternates. in the shocking case of road rage caught on tape here in new york, two of the attackers were found not guilty today of the most serious charges, gang assault and first-degree assault. but the two defendants one of whom is an undercover cop, were found guilty on lesser charges that could carry jail time. they were part of a group of bikers who pulled a man out of an suv and beat him in front of his wife and child back in 2013. the defendants claim he was fleeing after he ran over another biker and left him paralyzed. and the pictures so many have been sharing online today. the service dog being hailed as a hero for throwing himself in front of a school bus to save his owner, who was blind, from being run over by a driver

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we're going tappy note today on a story that certainly didn't start very happy. last week you may recall we told you about a paralympic hopeful whose running blades were stolen. at the time it seemed like heartless thieves had dashed his dreams. pretty lousy stuff. but that was before so many of you came forward to help make a difference. here is our anne thompson. >> reporter: the u.s. paralympic track & field championships are just under two weeks away. paul peterson is already a winner. >> it's hot out here. i'm running fast. >> reporter: training on a new blade. >> feels really good to be back running on my new leg and i'm enjoying every bit of it. >> reporter: the 22-year-old plans to compete in the long jump 100 and 200 meters and a relay were temporarily

sidelined after thieves ransacked his charlotte, north carolina apartment last week. >> everything of mine they just took it. >> reporter: stealing his three competition blades 20 medals but never getting close to taking his desire. >> i'm not going to stop. i'm going to keep going. and that's just how i am. these guys out there, they're not hurting me at all. >> reporter: determination now fueled by an unexpected show of support. 600 donors raised more than $32,000 in four days on go fund me. the page started by the man who makes peterson's prosthetics. >> it's been really an eye-opening experience for me and for paul just to see the support. it's been very very overwhelming. >> i'm so fortunate just to be able to be out here now training. >> reporter: the money will pay for the three blades worth tens of thousands of dollars. the words of support will power the athlete. >> i read every comment on that page, and some of the things that people said shows that people really care. >> reporter: moving now at lightning speed, going as far as

he can dream. anne thompson, nbc news, new york. >> a great reminder there's a lot of good out there. that's going to do it for us on this tuesday night. i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, thank you for watching and good night.