what's known as an end of watch ceremony there. pat? >> reporter: this is the station where he served. the station on randolph road. in front, his police car draped in black. on the hood, his picture and bouquets of flowers. on this day, a county day of honor for officer noah leotta. a trail of tribute today for montgomery county police officer noah leotta. an honor guard at the hospital when his body was carried from the building. a fire engine with a big flag hoisted high as the procession moved down randolph road and at his home station here in wheaton, a final salute from his fellow officers. words and hugs of consolation for the leotta family. >> noah leaves behind a family that is absolutely devastated.

he was the son of two just loving, wonderful parents. we have grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, family, friends that are -- that will never recover from this loss. >> police say officer leotta died after he was struck by a drunk driver in rockville. at the time, leotta was out trying to arrest drunk drivers. captain tom didone was his boss. >> he was pulling drunk drivers off the red. >> noah leotta was a hometown boy and a graduate of sherwood high school, a member of the golf team there. william gregory is the principal at sherwood. >> it's always hard to lose a student and to lose someone so young. >> reporter: after officer leotta became a cop he went back to sherwood to help patrol all of the athletic events there.

he was only on the force a couple of years, but what an impression he made. more on that coming up at 6:00. jim, back to you. >> pat collins. noah leotta is the 18th montgomery county police officer to die in the line of duty. the first in three years and a lot of you have been sending condolences to the officer's family on our nbc washington facebook page today. if you'd like to do so or make a donation in his memory, we have links to both in our coverage in the nbc washington app. in addition to the sadness, the other emotion tonight that was palpable among police today was frustration. frustration that the driver who hit officer leotta was driving after two previous dui arrests and frustration that he's not been charged yet. we'll look into those, at 5:30 tonight. d.c. police, the fbi and k-9 teams searching a construction site hoping to find answers to what happened to relisha rudd. the second grader living in a

homeless shelter went missing last year. news 4's mark segraves is live near the search site in northeast washington with more on what led investigators to that site. mark? >> reporter: eun, it has been months since we've seen any type of activity by police in the search for relisha rudd. divers did search the anacostia river, but today they renewed their search focusing on this abandoned construction site right across the street from the fifth district police station. >> it was 2013 when relisha rudd was reported missing. khalil tatum, an employee at the d.c. general homeless shelter where rudd's family was living was responsible for her disappearance. weeks later, khalil tatum's wife was found shot to death in a hotel room in prince george's county, maryland, ten days after that tatum was found dead from a suicide. since that time, police have

launched multiple searches for rudd. they say others have not cooperated with the investigation, but today chief cathy lanier said they've been looking at evidence over the months and they haven't given up and they've resumed their search bringing dog, cadets and even the chief medical officer out to northeast washington just blocks from the hotel where rudd was last seen. this morning chief lanier told reporters the evidence that brought them to this site. >> it's a combination of things. we really have done some extensive dives into the information that we've had and then some new information that came in into different possibilities about the movements of mr. tatum. as you know, we were not aware of relisha's being missing for almost three weeks after she had actually gone missing. so we tried to piece together a lot of that stuff through a variety of different technologies and video and information from people who saw mr. tatum.

so now analyzing some of that information we have a couple of different places that we want to look at. >> reporter: now chief lanier promised there would be an update by the end of the day and we're still waiting on that update, but what we can tell you is police stopped their search at this site about 3:00 this arch and we are told by multiple sources familiar with the investigation that they did not find anything and they don't plan on coming back here. lanier said there is a second site that she did not disclose that they plan on searching in the future. >> mark segraves, thank you. the search continues for the second possible victim of a fire. firefighters found one person inside the home on old camp meade road. family members tell us they believe a second person was inside. crews arrived around 4:00 this morning to find the home engulfed in flames. that home destroyed, as you see. it was undergoing repairs from a fire back in february. >> that fire went two alarms and

from my understanding the residents here they were doing rehab work on the home while they lived there. >> investigators don't believe there's any connection between those two fires. we now know there was only one person inside a car involved in a fiery crash this morning. it happened at landover and barlow road in the landover area this morning. the driver lost control and crashed into a pole. the car then caught fire. police say the car was so damaged that initially they weren't able to determine whether any passengers were inside. now to a story you saw first on news 4. the police chief is stepping down to move up. county bureau chief tracee wilkins tweeted about chief mark magaw's plans in the next hour. magaw is expected to announce his immediate retirement from the police department tomorrow so he can oversee all of the county's public safety. magaw has been police chief for five years. intelligent, motivated and

beautiful. more than our sister, she was our soulmate. touching words tonight used to describe the first of the san bernardino shooting victims to be laid to rest today. pat lawson muse joins us now with more. >> eight days after the attack and it's the first in what's expected to be a grim procession taking place over the next week. family and friends of 27-year-old yvette velasco are gathering right now for her funeral. it will be an outdoor service at a spot on a hill. her family, three sisters and parents say they chose the spot in remembrance of her love for nature. the day she was killed velasco was set to receive the gold badge officially recognizing her as a public health inspector. her family said the last week has felt like a living nightmare. eun? >> thank you, pat. up until last week a 24-year-old walmart security guard from california lived a relatively unremarkable life. now enrique marquez is at the center of that massive

federal terror investigation and here to talk more about the man who purchased the two semiautomatic rifles used in those shootings in san bernardino, nbc's justice correspondent pete williams. >> marquez is not considered a suspect, but he spent the weekend talking to the fbi. what is he telling agents? >> they said initially he wasn't a suspect and what they're saying now is they're taking a close look at him. it is clear he is the best source of information they have right now inside farook. he's a former neighbor and a close friend of farook and there is a distant relationship by syed farook and him by marriage and they're very close and he's providing officials with lots of information, they say including this idea that it's possible that syed farook was talking about some kind of attack in the l.a. area as early as 2012, but he got spooked because four people were arrested and four were charged and three were arrested in this area plotting to go to afghanistan and fight against u.s. soldiers. he's been a very good source for them, they say.

>> tell us about marquez's relationship with farook and his wife. >> bear with me on this. it's complicated. so syed farook, one of the two gunmen in san bernardino, his brother is also named syed. syed, the brother has a wife. her sister is married to marquez -- excuse me, pardon me, married to marquez. >> and we understand that he had converted to islam several years ago? >> not clear that he actually converted. he was at the same mosque that syed farook went to, but whether he actually converted or not is unknown. this afternoon fbi divers were searching a lake near the shooting scene about two and a half miles from the shooting scene. we are told it was related to the investigation. we don't know what it is they were looking for or why they were there. whether it's something marquez told them or something they determined in other way in the investigation. >> they're still talking and they're getting information. >> and he hasn't even asked for

a lawyer, i'm told. >> be sure to stick around for more on pete's report on nbc news as the san bernardino investigation continues and that starts at 7:00 with lester holt. at the white house, president obama's advisers are finalizing a proposal that would expand background checks on gun sales without congressional approval. after the mass shooting in roseburg, oregon, in october the president said his team was looking for ways to close a so-called gun show loophole that allows people to buy weapons at gun shows and online without a background check. now to a developing story. the fbi is doing tests now on a letter that caused a scare at the country's largest muslim advocacy group. the headquarters on the council of american islamic relations was evacuated downtown after white powder was found in a letter. early tests show the powder is not dangerous, but the dert did include a message of hate and that's yet fbi is doing

extensive testing and this will not deter us from continuing to protect the civil rights and liberties of all americans. backlash is growing over donald trump's proposal to ban muslims from the u.s. a group of activists put a racist sign over the trump hotel construction site today. the group code pink, women for peace says his hate speech has targeted women and latinos. >> donald trump is leading presidential candidates in a new poll in "the new york times" and cbs news. he has 35% of republican voters right now. ted cruz at second place at 16% and ben carson has dropped to third with 13. he was first back in october, and marco rubio is in fourth place with just 9%. the poll was taken largely before trump's proposal to temporarily ban muslims from entering the u.s.

there is chris gordon in baltimore. ahead, why a police chief from virginia came here today to testify at the police trial of the officer charged in the death of freddie gray. that's ahead on news 4. plus, we are working on a story that you will see only on news 4. a man who used to teach children in two counties is accused in a child porn case. find out why one school district is getting the word out now thanks to our report. a former deputy accused of embezzling close to a quarter of a million dollars. his defense? he doesn't remember. a high temperature of 63

the defense team for a baltimore police officer on trial for freddie gray's death presented half a dozen witnesses today. one of them surprised a lot of folks in the courtroom and news 4's chris gordon fills us in on that and the day's big moments. chris? >> reporter: well, you've probably seen him on local news a lot. he led the investigation into the disappearance and ultimately the death of university virginia student hannah graham and he came to baltimore today for a

very different reason. charlottesville police chief timothy longo has a different job. he testified as a consultant on police procedures. the tran transporting freddie gray made six stops on april 12th. prosecutors are trying to convict officer william porter for manslaughter because when the van driver called for backup, porter saw freddie gray face down on the floor of the van, assisted him up to the bench and failed to put a seat belt on him. longo testified i think porter's decision was objectively reasonable. >> i think that it's important that the -- the history of transport of inmates by or a defendant by police reveals that they're never seat belted in. >> porter feared for his safety because his gun could have been exposed to freddie gray. as far as porter's failure to call a medic for freddie gray, he saw no obvious signs of

injury to that would need to take steps. >> porter notified cesar goodson and his supervisor, sergeant alicia white that freddie gray wanted to go to the hospital. >> when you got your something broken, when you move and sit in any kind of position you're in pain. so any position you would have put him in, the best position would have been in an ambulance. >> reporter: one highly anticipated witness didn't make it to the stand today. dante allen was a passenger in that van along with freddie gray. he was brought here from a jail in york, pennsylvania. he could testify tomorrow. ahead on news 4 at 6:00, how the defense will try to prove that freddie gray's injuries were self-inflicted. that's the latest live in baltimore. e eun, back to you? thank you. two men in a plot to start a race war will go on trial in

march. they pled not guilty in a richmond court today. the man accused of plotting to rob a silver and coin dealer and use the money to stockpile weapons. pros kooecutors plan to shoot ud bomb churches. a twist in the case against a former deputy charged with stealing from the loudoun county sheriff's office. he now says he has amnesia. he's accused of embezzling $200,000. he faces four counts of theft and up to four years in prison. following his amnesia claim a judge ordered him to undergo a competency exam. results are due by the end of the year and his trial is set to begin in january. the head of public schools of prince george's county has an assignment of his own as kevin maxwell put the finishing touches on the state of the schools a doctors today. he sat down with tracee wilkins to talk about the big challenges his district is facing as he

plans to tackle them. >> next year, it has a big price tag to it. >> prince george's public school ceo has a long list of costly needs in his new, proposed budget. >> i believe strongly that we need to fund this district at a level that will allow us to do the things that we're asked to do. >> last year's budget request of $1.84 billion prompted the executive to propose a high property tax in order to fund it, that request failed and with it, a lot of the programs maxwell wanted to see in place. this time he wants better communication. to have the level to talk about how are we going to really come to grips with the needs that our county has. >> most prince george's county students partially met or did not meet expectations on the state assessment park exams. maxwell says it validates his request for more resources

starting with higher compensation for county teachers. it's a real problem for us and do we want to fix it or do we not? you can't fix compensation issues for free. >> he would like to see reduced class sizes for kindergarten, first and second graders and pre-k, that means more teachers. he wants to add additional grade levels to the immersion schools. >> this is about our children and the future of prince george's county. >> some of the stories we reported first on news 4 will impact his budget and we'll tell you how coming up on news 4 at 6:00. in upper marlboro, i'm tracee wilkins, news 4. it's a christmas miracle and those words from president obama as he put pen to paper to sign a bipartisan education bill. it's known as the every student succeeds act and it replaces the no child left behind law that was passed back in 2002. educators have complained that the law was too focused on

standardized tests and too punitive when schools underperformed. the new law gives states more power to make the decision about testing. now to the video of the first lady that's been liked more than 1 million times already on twitter. michelle obama raps! this is all an effort to get teens to go to college. ♪ ♪ south side chicago, we all know we had to do overtime to make it tomorrow. ♪ and everyone can really make their dream, too. hey kids in michigan, that could be you ♪ >> the video is part of the first lady's education initiative called reach higher, better make room. comedian jay farrow, you know him, snl. he plays president barack obama on "saturday night live," very fun. check it out. >> it's a big day in hollywood. the golden globe nominations are out tonight. the comedy category, a movie with steve carell and christian

bale scored big. >> the whole housing market is backed up on these bad loans. >> receiving four nods and takesa i look at the building of the housing and credit bubble. one surprise was sylvester stallone for best supporting actor in "creed." here are the nominees for best drama, the 1950s romance "carol," "mad max: fury road," "the revenant." for the full list of nominees download the nbc washington app. an apology to customers after the e. coli outbreak at chipotle. now the investigation into the connection to norovirus is expanding. tom sherwood in the district where marijuana use is legal if you're over 21. now supporters want private clubs to offer marijuana. what does the city think about

and what a forecast it is here in mid-december. we're talking about temperatures that we see in mid-may. outside right now, temperatures have come down as the sun has gone down and we're still at 58 degrees. nice and mild, calm winds and mostly clear skies and just a few clouds now and we'll see more clouds tonight.

52 in gaithersburg, and 57 in leesburg and the sun is down and the temperatures are still ten degrees above where they should be. the bus stop, maybe some areas of fog and nothing like what we've seen the last few days and recess and a-plus and it's 60 degrees and 66 degrees for a dismissal and a very nice day and a-plus at recess because the kids will love it. i want to say hello to the kids in cardinal forest elementary. their big question, of course, is when are we going to get some snow? if you listen to the storm team 4 winter forecast it's still saying february. i don't expect to see anything. as a matter of fact, the wider view here. there's one storm back to the north and west. all of the storms we're seeing are moving to our north and what that allows is for that very warm air to make its way from the south right into our area. this weekend there will be high temperature records all of the way around the portions of the

southeast and into new england and that includes us. the cold weather is to the west and the warm air is across the east and i do think we'll see record high temperatures in our region and many areas near 70 degrees this weekend and we are warm all of the way through next week and it is amazing how warm we get and tomorrow warmer than today. 67 in fredericksburg and 62 in martinsburg and 60 in annapolis and just a fantastic friday out there and your friday evening forecast looking nice, too. if you'll be out and about on a friday evening, this is what you can expect and dining outdoors and going from the 60s to the 50s, but all in all, another very nice night. look at the high. 69 on saturday and 70 on sunday and on monday, the record is 70, and i think we break that record on monday. that ahead of the next storm system could bring us a chance for showers and amelia segal has more on what to expect in the

entire forecast at 5:45. >> thank you, doug. a montgomery police officer killed in the line of duty. the suspected drunk driver still has not been charged. find out why and what could be done to address a troubling trend in the county. >> i'm adam tuss live in northern virginia. are you ready for more tolls? who is, really? they could be coming and we're not talking about 66.

>> there's a push to transform another road you use into a toll road. 395 from the beltway to the 14th street bridge carries tens of thousands of vehicles today and every day and many of them may have to start paying a toll if they want to ride in the future. news 4's transportation reporter adam tuss is live in arlington tonight to break it down for us. adam, what's going on? >> reporter: eun, it's pretty clear that virginia is now adopting a tolling strategy to try to beat congestion and this is why. you take a look at 395 tonight and the traffic is moving slowly. this plan deals with the center lanes where the cars are going a little bit faster and the hov lanes there, they would become high-occupancy toll lanes. paying a toll to get around the horrible traffic on 395. >> by converting the hov lanes to express lanes and adding new capacity we're allowing folks a new opportunity to pay a toll and get a faster trip during the

rush hour and they're stuck in the regular lanes during the period. >> reporter: he says 395 itself wouldn't have to be widened and could happen quickly. >> it's less disruptive than projects of the pass and construction of this could start as soon as spring of 2017. >> it's a similar concept to the other express lanes in the area. hov lane would still ride for free and anything fewer and you would pay the toll. 395 primarily flows through arlington and getting the county onboard hasn't exactly been easy. they want transit and other forms of transportation to be in this project, as well. mary hines is chair of the arlington county board. arlington is the skinny part of the funnel. everything has to come through us because of our geography and the bridges, except the beltway bridges are all with us. so if we want to be successful as a region, then figuring out how to move these layers all at

once through arlington is part of everybody's success. >> reporter: before any next step is taken, a full environmental impact study is performed and 395 looks to be the piece of the puzzle much like the lanes already on 95 and the virginia beltway. >> back here now live as you take a look at 395 and the traffic moving tonight. it calls for the new hot lane system to go all of the way to the 14th street bridge and some people are saying why stop there? why not go into d.c.? we'll tell you about those plans coming up at 6:00. in arlington, adam tuss, news 4. scott macfarlane at the live desk with calls from montgomery county's police chief for tougher drunk driving laws in maryland. >> he learned of the death of officer noah leotta today. he was hit by a drunk driver

while working on alcohol and enforcement control. >> this police officer who was an example of what every cop should be was killed by a man who decided to smoke some dope, drink for four hours and get behind the wheel of a car. >> the driver who hit officer leotta luis reluzco had been arrested twice before and he could have his license revoked for life. leotta, the 36th person to die in a car crash this year and the driver that caused the crash was drunk. reluzco hasn't been charged and he refused a crash and the blood test is still pending. >> scott macfarlane and all she wanted to do was get some groceries and the next thing she knew, some stranger was reaching under her skirt to try to take some cell phone pictures.

anne arundel county police tell us richard david appeared to take the pictures with his phone while the victim was shopping on chapel hill road. the suspect was caught as he tried to leave that store. he now faces peeping tom charges and the woman was not hurt. the city still prohibits any group use in public or private clubs. tom sherwood reports that marijuana advocates are threatening political retaliation if that restriction is not lifted. >> voters last year approved private marijuana use by adults over 21 in their homes. the d.c. council added the provision barring commercial private clubs in part to avoid congressional interference. >> in your home, homegrown, home use as americans have said numerous times. >> reporter: the regulatory agency says the marijuana initiative didn't contemplate commercial group use.

>> private clubs would allow individuals to immediately become members and participate in the use of marijuana. we believe that would be a gift. >> but a steady line of people testified today that group private use should be legal for people who don't want to smoke around their children for those in federal public housing that bans marijuana. for others not in single-family homes. >> while we're under the eyes of the world that we provide reasonable accommodations for the disabled in the city. >> the toughest testimony came from marijuana advocate, he led the marijuana victory last year. >> i'm basic he here to send a message that if you don't respect d.c. voters you will get term limits. >> term limits could be on the ballot if the city keeps restrictions. >> how serious is that threat? >> it's very serious. they're totally disrespecting the will of the voters in the last election. i want to make it real for them. >> kenyan mcduffy said private group use of marijuana would be

decided early next year. in the district, tom sherwood, news 4. >> a local noody family needs your help for the holidays. why some will be left empty handed this christmas if you don't act fast. it's stressful, but i look

the number of people sick from this second illness at a chipotle restaurant is up again today as the chain works to fix the problem. more than 140 boston college students are now recovering from norovirus after eating at chipotle last week. that's about 1% of the student body. it comes after an e. coli outbreak linked to chipotle that sickened 50 people in nine states. chipotle's ceo apologized to the "today" show today and he says

he's fixing the problem and putting new health procedures in place that would be a decade ahead of the industry standard. >> put in place practices that will not enable this to happen again. practices that are so far above industry norms today, we will be the safest place to eat and that is our commitment. federal investigators have not yet been able to determine which food is behind the e. coli outbreak. protecting your family in a crash. new evidence today that automakers are doing a better job at keeping your family safe. the insurance institute for highway safety revealed its safest cars for 2016 today. 48 models earned the top safety pick plus rating which is the group's highest and that's up from 33 last year and the plus ratings are when cars ranked high in crash test and crash avoidance systems. japanese brands dominated the rankings, toyota, honda and subaru had the most winners with 23 combined. the chrysler 200 is the only

domestic model to get the plus award while the ford f-150 super crew was the only u.s. model to earn the group's regular top safety pick award. there were 12 other cars, trucks and suvs on that list. there were a lot of cars we don't have time to mention today, but we do have all of the information search safest cars on the nbc washington website to see all of them. >> thanks, eun. a father says he caught a teacher sending text messages to his child. now a child porn case is stretching into two counties and northern virginia and we just spoke to the former teacher accused. >> plus a train running on the rails with no operator. why police believe someone may have deliberately tampered with that train.

news reporters: it's a fish, but it's been changed. genetically altered by scientists. critics call the process creepy, and label it frankenfish. narrator: genetically engineered salmon was just approved by the fda - no labels required. disturbing, right? get this. if your state wants to label gmos, congress is trying a year-end sneak attack to block your right to label. call congress. demand clear labels, not high tech gimmicks. don't let them overturn state gmo labeling. protect our right to know.

a former northern virginia middle school teacher is accused tonight of child porn possession and soliciting a minor. julie carey joins us live from benton middle school in prince william count we a story you will see only on 4. julie? >> reporter: well, these are the three grand jury indictments against the former social studies teacher here at benton middle school. the alleged victim not a student here. and tonight the man who is charged in this case thinks thinks he'll be found guilty of all of the charges. this is 32-year-old tommy stancell's mug shot. he was indicted on more charges this week in prince william county. he's accused of possessing child pornography and sending sexually explicit material. the investigation began when the father of a teenage girl noticed

inappropriate pictures and texts on her cell phone. stancell had allegedly developed a relationship with the teen who was younger than 15 at the time. investigators said he sent lewd photos of himself to the girl. the alleged victim was not a student at benton middle school where stansell taught social studies during the 2013-14 school year. >> i'm looking for tommy stansell. >> he's a salesman at a car dealership. he left teaching to make more money before he learned he was under investigation and stansell maintains he's innocent telling me i'm not pleading guilty to anything. definitely asserting my innocence. i just feel like i'm not going to be found guilty of any of these charges. the prince william county school district did not know about the charges until i called him to tell him about it. coming up at 6:00, i'll tell you what response they plan to this information. >> julie carey, thank you, julie. a new craft brewery is coming to loudoun county and

bringing jobs and business to virginia farmers. a pilot malt house will be building an operation north of leesburg. the brewery will use more than 2 million pounds of wheat and rye over the next few years. he's working to make virginia the east coast leader in the craft beer industry. >> alexandria city council members will decide on saturday whether to give themselves a pay raise. they talked about the plan at a meeting tuesday night. according to the patch.com. the current council's salary is $27,500. if approved it would go up to $45,000. the mayor's salary would be from just $30,000 to $50,000. all the positions are considered part-time. the new salary would go into effect in january. storm team 4 meteorologist amelia segal is here with a check of the forecast. i can't believe we're talking about the 60s in december.

>> and potentially the 70s on sunday and monday. near-record warmth as we head into the weekend. our high temperature today was 63 degrees. if you liked today you'll like tomorrow. there is a chance of isolated out there tomorrow morning and i don't think it will be too much of an issue. we could break a record on monday if we hit 71 degrees. the records to beat this weekend is also in the low 70s. we'll be close, but i don't think we'll hit those temperatures for highs. regardless, we're still talking about warm temperatures and even after showers on monday and temperatures stay above normal. the average high is 47 degrees and pretty much every number and every high temperature at 60 degrees or higher. right now we're at 58 degrees. we do fall into the 40s and we'll stay in the 40s as overnight lows as clouds move back into the area tonight and will remain dry tonight. >> tomorrow, the weather is having a low impact on your friday and maybe patchy morning fog and highs in the low to

mid-60s and what to wear tomorrow and definitely need the sunglasses and the long sleeves and the kids can leave the jackets at home and it will be spekt spectacular. at 7:00 a.m. starting off the day with temperatures in the mid-40s and we hit our high of 66 at 3:00 in the afternoon and we're at a comfortably cool 60 degrees and we'll find temperature temperatureses in the 50s. if you haven't gotten a tree yet and you'll head out to the tree farm early in the morning, anticipate temperatures in the 40s in the suburbs and 50s in the metro area and exercise to speak of looking perfect and for the holiday party you can expect temperatures in the 50s and 60s during the evening hours. a high temperature of 69 degrees and 71 for a high temperature on monday. clouds will increase throughout the day on monday and winds will also pick up and it will be

breezy and windy at times and showers are looking likely on monday especially during the second half of the day. after that, we do cool off, but not by much for this time of year. tuesday and wednesday, high temperatures still around 60 degrees. the chance of showers returns to the area on thursday and still balmy with a high temperature of 62. coming up on news 4 at 6:00, doug will be talking about the why. why are we so warm for this time of year. >> thank you, amelia. giving gifts over the holidays can be stressful and what do you do when you receive an unexpected gift from someone and you don't have one to return. erika gonzalez awkward moments can be avoided including when and how to gift money. for a relative you need to be sensitive. you don't want it to seem like you're giving them a donation. >> jim handly has been searching for my present. money is always okay.

there are a lot of gift options and more questions about how much to spend and who to put on your gift list and those answers tonight on news 4 at 11:00. >> 20, 40, all right. >> giving to the salvation army certainly is stress-free and tonight the group is making a plea and an appeal to you. it needs more toys to make the holidays special for hundreds of kids in our area. meagan fitzgerald explains how much it would mean to her family. christmas is supposed to be special. it's often said to be the most wonderful time of the year, but that's not the case for lannic richardson. i don't -- i really don't look forward for christmas or any other holiday. >> reporter: she's a single mother of four who struggles to get by. the thought of christmas morning usually makes her cry. >> because it's the stress. it's stressful, but i look for the smiles on their faces when

they wake up. >> smiles that are made possible by the generosity of the community. >> it makes me cry. >> reporter: and people like dina wiggins and her friends. >> to think that some kids wouldn't have anything i think is just heartbreaking. jo but at this point some kids won't have anything. ken forsyth is the communications manager for the salvation army in the metro area. he says more gifts are needed by next week. >> 500 kids short of being sponsored for this christmas season. >> reporter: so he's hoping more people will see the value in making a contribution. >> i have to give you a hug. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> reporter: and whether it's one gift or more, families like lannic say they're grateful. >> they're happy either way. either way it goes they're happy just to have something -- just to have something on christmas. >> reporter: meagan fitzgerald, news 4. great story. if you'd like to make a donation, just download our nbc washington app and search angel tree.

more calls for the mayor of chicago to resign. a new surprising voice is calling for rahm emanuel to step down amid city police brutality scandals. >> i'm tisha thompson with the news 4 i-team. this is an illegal synthetic drug and all it took is for this to suddenly make it a new and legal drug. we'll show you what lawmakers are trying to do to stay one

>> in boston officials believe someone may have tampered with a train that left the station without an operator earlier today. it made no stops as it continued past four stations. that's when workers cut the power bringing that train to a stop. governor charlie baker said the inspection of the train showed that someone had the controls and had them manipulated. manipulated and tampered with -- it's pretty clear that it was -- it was set in forward motion which is why it moved in the first place when the signal was manipulated. the governor says it appears to be an isolated incident. no one was hurt. medical students in chicago carried signs and chanted all of the way to city hall where they staged a 16-minute die-in. it represents the 16 times laquan mcdonald was shot and killed by a chicago police officer last year. they're calling for the

resignation of chicago mayor rahm emanuel for his handling of the shooting and it's not just students who want president obama's former chief of staff gone. two illinois democrats are now working to forces, man well out. here's nbc's carol maureen. >> we could file the bill for the recall of the mayor of the city of chicago. >> reporter: and with that, lasean ford, a west side democrat introduced a house bill announcing the recall of rahm emanuel if he doesn't move the city forward. >> there should be something the people can hold him accountable with. >> 2 alderman with two petitions of 85,000 signatures. ford believes his bill could last despite the mayor's powerful springfield allies. >> it's what the people have asked me to do. >> reporter: emails obtained by nbc 5 through a freedom of information act request showed the city hall press office was made aware of the possibility of

video of la kwaun mcdonald shooting on december 8, 2014. shannon brameyer was part of a chain questioning whether the city would release video of the mcdonald shooting. a top assistant in the corporation council's office declined, this is not a lawsuit as of now. top press aides kelly quinn and adam collins were part of an email chain which included jamie calvin's article on the mcdonald autopsy results in which calvin wrote, quote, the account given by police cannot be true and finally, on march 6th, mcdonald family attorney jeffrey nesland hauntingly warned city officials this case will undoubtedly bring a microscope of national attention to the shooting and the city's pattern, practice and procedures. >> that was carol maureen

reporting for nbc chicago. now here's vance and eun with news 4 at 6:00. now at 6:00, tears and salutes during a somber tribute for a local officer killed in the community that he grew up loving. >> this officer was killed serving the public, trying to prevent the exact crime that killed him. >> tonight, his frustrated police chief goes public. he says changes must be made to the laws and he questions how the driver that hit the officer was still allowed on the road. >> this county is worse because officer noah leotta is not out driving around his patrol car. >> they took noah leotta off life support today. he will never again get to do what he so dearly loved doing. >> leotta was a police officer in montgomery county who had

only been on the force two years when he was killed by someone believed to be a drunk driver. >> today, on the way to the medical examiner's office, they drove his body past the station house where he served. his buddies were out in full force and his chief was clearly most upset. pat collins picks up our story from there. pat? >> jim, flags here at half-staff at the station where he worked. black draped over the front door all in honor of officer noah leotta. you know, he was only 24 years old. he was only on the force a couple of years, but they're going to remember him a long, long time. at the hospital where he died, on the roads he patrolled, at the place he was stationed an outpouring of love and respect for officer noah leotta. >> we have lo