in this disturbing case. >> first at 4:00, we are still under a weather, letter. steady rain sweeping through the d.c. area this afternoon. >> we know a lot of you are heading out for the holidays or waiting for guests to arrive. this weather is having a significant impact on travel. traffic is slow and some flights on the east coast have been delayed. we have team coverage from the center. doug and amelia joins us with the timing of the rain. >> some of it is heavy and the heaviest rain, we'll still get it in the next couple of hours. >> and you want to keep the umbrella handy, tomorrow and saturday, right on into saturday as well. the hardest part about this forecast is the exact timing of the rain. >> right now the timing is easy stoept and we know it will be raining all evening long and it's tomorrow and christmas day and take a look at the radar right now, we'll show you where this is. take a look, from philadelphia all of the way down toward richmond and look at the rain moving in and over the last

couple of hours we started to see this heavy rain and the yellows and the oranges and reds here and look at this, just nasty, nasty stuff and right now 95 is very slow from washington all of the way down through fredericksburg and extremely slow weather and another band of heavy rain and down around the waldorf area, and we'll zoom over into waldorf and along 95 and quantico and woodbridge and very heavy rain, too, and we're moving through the d.c. metro area. more rain, some of it will be heavy at times and we're talking record warmth. not just christmas eve. we've got two days that we think will set records and both of them have highs in the 70s and unsettled weather and showers as amelia was saying and showers over the next couple of days and we've got a lot to talk about in just a couple of minutes. >> we have breaking news in prince george's county where police are on the scene of an officer-involved shooting. this is in fort washington.

officers do not believe they hit the suspect they were shooting at. the search is now on for that person. news 4's derrick ward is on his way to the scene. a virginia law enforcement agent got arrested in a mall and is facing some disturbing charges involving a child. news 4's scott macfarlane is joining us from the live desk. >> an undercover agent busted in an undercover string. we broke this story online on the nbc washington app. fairfax county police have arrested virginia tobacco investigator paul carey. he's accused of having inappropriate sexual contact with a 14-year-old boy. police say they arrested him in a parking lot in fair oaks mall after arranging a meetup with him. that is paul carey. one of the detectives, police say, pretended to be a 14-year-old boy and then had the meeting with carey. carey, a northern virginia cigarette tax board who

specialized in undercover investigations. combatting tobacco trafficking from the commonwealth and frequently appearing on tv and press conference on the topic. paul carey, how did police get wind on this case? we're working on that part of the story for news 4 at 5:00. scott macfarlane. there is a search going on right now for a man who shot a worker during a robbery. this happened at midday in an electronics store near beacon hill road south of alexandria. meagan fitzgerald is there now and do the police know who they're looking for? >>. >> reporter: wendy, they gave us a vague description and they told us the suspect was wearing dark clothing and he had a mask on and he went into the cell phone and computer store behind us here and the employee confronted that suspect and that's when the employee got shot. if you take a look around us, there are a lot of shots in the area and shoppers who say

they're concerned that there's a gunman who is still on the run. >> fairfax county police got the call at 11:30 this morning when they arrived at the computer and cellular store on beacon hill road they found the employee suffering from a gunshot wound. police sent hours speaking to witnesses inside the store and at the 7-eleven next door. investigators say the armed gunmen took off near richmond highway where folks are doing their last-minute shopping. >> it's a calculated gamble with crazy human beings and hoping you don't run into them. we're told that employee is being treated for nonlife-threatening injuries. police are asking anyone who saw the suspect take off. the contact is the police department. coming up at 5:00, what police say should not have happened inside this store behind us. chris? >> thanks, meagan. the remains of those six american service members who were killed in afghanistan are

being transferred to their families in delaware. the dignified transfer is taking place at dover air force base. the airmen were in bagram airfield when a suicide bomber drove his motorcycle right up to their patrol. taubs asand a new york city pole detective, a georgia college athlete and an openly-gay female service member. we're working to learn more about a body found along a popular trail in silver spring. police found the body in a creek just after 11:00 last night and this is the section of the north branch trail not far from the inner loop of the beltway. it's not clear how the person died, but people who use that trail are definitely a little surprised. i'm really surprised because it's, you know a trail that everybody uses in the neighborhood and we never have any kind of this issue.

investigators are waiting on the autopsy results and still looking for witnesses. if you have any information call the montgomery county police. fairfax county school board was hit with a lawsuit after approving a non-discrimination policy. it claims that the board violated virginia's law by adding sexual orientation and gender identity to its non-discrimination policy in the past year. the votes sparked protests at the time. supporters say this updated policy protects students and teachers who of a as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. at last check the school board has not filed a response to this lawsuit. >> we're hearing about a small plain crash that killed several people from our area and a pilot took off and tried to land the plane and investigators look into why they went down in

pennsylvania. three people were onboard the plane when it crashed and all of them were killed. the national transportation safety board put out a preliminary report that found no mechanical or structural problems with the plane. >> we have a developing story at the minneapolis airport where one of the terminals is closed because of a protest from black lives matter. . these are people trying to get on the plane. security told them the protesters were not lawful. they want to release video of officers killing a man. a woman accused of intentionally plowing through a crowd in las vegas. it took minutes for lakeisha holloway to be charged. she'll spend the holidays in jail while the investigation continues. one person died in sunday's crash and dozens of others were injured. her attorneys say she is heart

broken over what happened, but plans to plead not guilty. >> a kush crackdown, a sting that brought down a d.c. mobile hot business. >> what ted cruz is saying about the controversial cartoon that of storm team 4 radar.ncing as

you can see moderate to even heavy rain pushing on to the south impacting parts of the d.c. metro region. not only is volume an issue on the roads, but when you add in the rain leading to wet roads and you can see it is causing some slowdowns especially if you're leaving washington making your way to woodbridge, look at

the orange and reds on the map. you can see also if you're traveling in the district to baltimore, slow go in spots there and you can download our nbc washington app. for the latest radar, maryland travel times from 95 to 270. average speed 37 miles an hour taking you about 15 minutes. >> donald trump and marco rubio are among those voicing their support after the washington post cartoon that featured cruz's daughters. >> the backlash forced the post to take it down. one of cruz's daughters is 7 years old and the other is 4. the cartoon depicted them as dancing mofrpges. the cartoonist claims cruz uses his kids at political props. he didn't see the cartoon before it was published. >> and cruz responded saying my daughters are not fair game. i'm sicker knned and i knew i'd facing attacks from day one, but i never expected anything like

this. >> it has ted cruz at 24% in the gop vote, four points behind donald trump. he says he was only asking for done eggs and i'm mark segraves, why police say he's a drug dealer. >> and coming out in force. we'll show you the tribute to a fallen officer.

team 4 are tracking rain that continues to fall into the evening and temperatures are way above normal and they're about to enter record-setting territory and doug joins us live from the storm center in two minutes. the man from d.c. who was arrested in a marijuana sting says he'll be back on the street tomorrow. >> nicholas cunningham calls himself the kush god. he's been charged with selling marijuana out of luxury cars on the streets of d.c. and he just appeared before a d.c. judge. mark segraves is live at the courthouse. >> reporter: what makes this so notable was that he was selling it out in the open and every day he would advertise on social media where he would be and what he would be selling. the kush god, as he likes to be called, he believes what he was doing was completely legal. nicholas cunningham appeared before a judge and he's been charged with distribution of marijuana and he goes by the name kush god and he's been

operating out of these high-end luxury cars plastered with pictures of marijuana mostly around the chinatown and neighborhoods of northwest. he and his employees have been handing out marijuana-laced cupcakes, and brownies and asking for donations. d.c. laws allow adults to give one another marijuana. the kush god may have been breaking the law, but he didn't deserve to go to jail. >> i think he should have gotten a warning first because if this was happening out in the public view for a long time and it was high profile police were often on the corner nearby so they could have simply said cease-and-desist. we've looked into the law what you're doing is not legal and this is your final warning. we talked to cunningham as he left court today, he said had he been given a warning by police he probably would have stopped. coming up at 5:00, you'll hear directly from cunningham and you'll hear from police as to why they didn't give him a

warning. wendy, back to you. >> narc segraves. the baltimore county police officer who was caught on camera appearing to punch a 19-year-old is now on administrative duties. blumen stein resisted arrest on saturday as officers tried to take him in outside of a restaurant. video posted on youtube shows three officers struggling with blumenstein and investigators are reviewing this incident. a tribute to a fallen montgomery county police officer may just save other people's lives. the red cross and police department hosted a blood drive in honor of noah leotta. a suspected drunk driver hit and killed him earlier this month. more than 100 donors showed up filling every available time slot. the red cross struggles for donations this time of year. >> it's super important to give blood. i did follow the story very closely. i've got a 24-year-old daughter

so it hits home. >> the police chief is among those who donated and called today fitting because officer leotta gave so much of himself to others. just ahead, kristen wright reports on what the chief wants to see implemented as a tool to help fight drunk driving. >> and now your storm team 4 forecast. >> and that forecast, guys, a lot of rain tonight and some shower activity and heavy downpours during the day tomorrow and christmas as well could see a shower or two. right now it's rain and some of it heavy. you can see the capitol building and yeah, we are dealing with the rain downtown across the region and the umbrellas were definitely a necessity. and winds out of the southeast at 3 miles per hour and that's 63 degrees and that's nearly 20 degrees above average and fredericksburg, and 61 in frederick and cooler back to the west with temperatures of 55 and also dealing with some fog out there, but here's the rain and you notice anywhere where the

rain is on the yellow side, that's heavier rain and we get down to it and we have some areas of orange and areas of red here right along the beltway and it is just nasty across the area and up along the beltway along river road. take a look at this shot and this is the traffic that's going on right now, traffic is a mess and this is 495 right at river road and a problem area just about every day at this time, but both ways and the inner loop and the outer loop is completely blocked and it will continue to be that way and traffic is moving very slowly and in most locations, back to the radar map and you can see the heavy rain south of the beltway all of the way down through woodbridge and toward the quantico region and very heavy rain falling and that will be the case right on through the next couple of hours and make sure you take that big umbrella and we are going to continue to see that heavy rain and future weather timing it out through 7:00. still more rain through 7:00. the heaviest rain, i think, out of here by 5:00, 6:00, 7:00 and

we'll just see some scattering of rain through 9:00, 10:00 and keep your umbrella handy. tomorrow morning. look at this, starting off dry around 7:00, but notice this line coming through. this could be some thunderstorm activity early tomorrow morning by 9:009:30 and it's inside the d.c. metro area and this is something we could watch very closely and we will see storms early tomorrow and they will move to the south by 1:00 and not a total washout on your christmas eve and we're expecting those extremely warm temperatures and 75 degrees on your thursday and that's a record high and 68 on friday and a top five warmest christmases and going 75 on sunday, sunday right now seems like we could see some sun and maybe the best day of the next four and that will also be a record high and coming up in just a couple of minutes, amelia segal to talk about what happens next week. procrastinators, time is quickly running out if you plan

to ship those holiday gifts. abc's tom costelo is at one busy post office in bethesda and he has what you need to know if you want your packages. >> good day to you, here in bethesda, they are handling one of the most congested zip codes in the area, as you know, four zip codes, actually and they move here about 15,000 packages every single day during the holidays, but nationwide, we're talking 15 billion, packages, cards and letters before we're all singing auld lang syne. >> santa's not the only one trying to get presents under the tree by christmas morning. the nation's shipping giant are moving faster than rudolph ofl and fedex is expecting to move 28 million packages and ups 420 million and the postal service 545 million and more than a billion packages up 8% from last year. the surge in deliveries thanks to a record breaking cyber monday and online sales totaled

more than $3 billion. peak season hits right now so we'll be busy through the 24th. >> more shipping means more staff. amazon hired 100,000 temporary workers and ups, 95,000, fedex, 55,000 and the postal service 30,000. at the ups in louisville the sorting facility is the size of 90 football fields. on monday night millions of packages came through here sent to waiting times and planes and will your packages get to you in time? yes, say the shipping giants and on tuesday morning a postal service tracking system was down and some customers took to twitter. tracking function down three days before christmas. great. just great. at the post office. >> today i'm finally shipping my christmas presents and i'm hoping they get there by christmas day. >> some last-minute hopeful shippers. >> it's christmas. we only do it once a year so it's fine. >> if you still haven't sent

that package you do have a little bit of time and the clock is ticking and priority mail e press is your only option with your postal service and that's going to cost you. the bottom line is you better hurry. guys, from bethesda, back to you. and if that little story didn't put you in the holiday spirit then open up the nbc washington app. we have a list of the best holiday light displays in our region. just search holiday light sdmroos s. she won and then lost the crown in a matter of minutes and now miss colombia weighs in on steve harvey's unforgettable gaffe.

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george mason has a message for students. if you get a hoverboard for christmas don't bring it back to your dorm. mason officials sent a letter to students saying hoverboards won't be allowed in residence halls after the holiday break. they're worried about catching fire. the ban only applies to dorm and students can use it in general areas. loyola university is one of the schools in our area that have been banned hoverboards. a couple in alexandria, they were strangers when they met on the plaza outside the "today" show and they struck up a

conversation and they hit it off. they shared their story with hoda and kathie lee this morning. >> we would like to make one suggestion and one -- >> yeah. >> we would like to offer that we host your wedding right here on the plaza when you are finally ready to do it. >> i'm in. >> they've been together for six years and they plan to get married next year. i'm scott macfarlane, coming up, a news 4 i-team investigation and the d.c. area's drone problem. so many people getting them for the holidays, but too many people flying them where they shouldn't be. and a christmas catastrophe averted. why an elf on a shelf had a 7-year-old dialing 911. storm team 4 is updating a rapidly-changing forecast. they're tracking the rain and have a new outlook for christmas day next.

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right now a lot of people heading out for the holidays and here's a live look at reagan national and no issues reported and several other airports on the east coast, they still have delays. >> aaa says between now and the end of the year a record 100 million people either take the skies, roads or trains. storm team 4's amelia segal continues our holiday travel team coverage. amelia? >> here are your weather headlines right on through saturday you'll want to keep the umbrella handy.

we're tracking rain and the most difficult part of the forecast is nailing down that exact timing of the rain as long as you have the umbrella and rain boots you'll be just fine and not talking about any snow, talking about way above normal temperatures and in fact, record highs are likely tomorrow and sunday, as well. your impact forecast 4 tomorrow, the weather having a low to moderate impact for the day and record warmth in the forecast and as that rain moves through it's not going to last all day, but it could have very heavy rain embedded within it and maybe even a rumble of thunder and you can have the nbc washington app and check the radar as you're headed out and about and maybe doing the last-minute shopping and the rain tomorrow will generally moving from north to south. here's your planner, 7:00 a.m. and it's breezy, dry, balmy and muggy and 67 degrees and 10:00 a.m. and around the midday hours and 70 degrees and a high tomorrow of 75 and metro areas dry by 3:00 and still muggy at 6:00 p.m. and mainly dry for

your christmas eve with the temperature around 70 and each at midnight and we're around 67, wendy. >> wow! love that. if you're on the move, you can expect lots of company out there. nbc sarah dallof is at the airport where many are playing hurry up and wait. >> reporter: christmas lights and taillights. a holiday tradition is nearly one in three americans hit the road this holiday season. we're seeing more than 100 million people will be traveling overall. that's the first time we've ever hit that record. >> 91 million of those are traveling by car. >> we think it's reflective of the better economy, but lower gas prices. gasoline is at $2 today and 37 cents cheaper than a year ago. those traveling by air will need to pack a lot of patience. rough weather is causing flight cancellations and hundreds of delays. >> it's supposed to leave at 1:00 and 1:30 and that's the

first delay, but you know laguardia. >> >> reporter: the theme of the day, hurry up and wait. >> it's been delayed two hours and we got here when it was supposed to arrive at 10:00 and we've been waiting ever since. >> reporter: the good news about air travel, air fares for the top 40 domestic routes are 6% lower, averaging $176 round drop. lower airfares and gas prices all adding up to big savings as americans head home for the holidays. sara dallof, nbc news, new york. >> if you're traveling by air there say good chance you'll go through the full-body scans at the airport. they're requiring them for travelers rather than a patdown. non-metallic, like the underwear bomber of christmas 2009, you may recall and make sure you're following at first 4:00 traffic on twitter. we will keep you up-to-date on all of the traffic tie-ups as

you try to make your way around the region. we're just get something new video coming into the newsroom. one terminal of the minneapolis airport has been shut down by black lives matter protesters. they moved over from the mall of america where some of the stores were first to close. the protesters want minneapolis police to release video of an officer shooting and killing jamal clark last month and that's where we'll start the "talk around town" troy johnson is here with us. your listeners have been calling for justice. there was an l.a. times viewer that wrote being black is exhausting. >> you're talking about a community that's uneased by these ongoing stories. life after life being lost and in many situations we're talking about at the hands of police officers and the folks that were supposed to be protecting you. on the other hand, being in the

situation, fighting off the stigma, the conversations that people have at work or have with friends and, you know, there's a perpetuated feeling in some circles that the black community doesn't have folks that really care about what's happening in our community. >> that stigma that, you know, these things are happening in the plaque community. there's kind of a tie-in that people were telling me about that people are lumping these conversations about the black lives matter protest with the ongoing crime and shootings that happened in the black community in general and those are two separate things and we're talking about a community that cares about any life being lost and they were underlying those conversations when i talked to them. it's tough, as you said, exhausting for some people. some people are ready to kind of eject from the conversation because they don't want to have to be the one to defend the community all the time, but then others are emboldened by what's been going on especially with

the black lives matter movement. it's a movement that's not going anywhere and a movement that's sustained each with the situations that have been happening over the year and that makes people want to continue to fight for justice. >> and when you look at some of these cases, freddie gray, sandra rice, all of this amounts to video and is that essential to get the national attention? >> absolutely tp it seems to be the catalyst because young activists are forced to use video to get the conversations in the community. there are people that have been killed at the hands of police in the past and folks are telling me now you have irrefutable evidence with video and it doesn't lie. we're seeing when police officers are telling a different story about what may have happened in the situation and when you see the video it's something completely different. it's kind of the equalizer. sometimes the video shows the

officers doing the wrong thing. sometimes it shows them doing the right thing. >> that's true. that speaks to another point that folks were telling me about. what they really want to see is accountability. they want to see an open situation. you know, if there's something untoward going on. let's talk about it and let's lay all of the facts out there so we can, you know, get justice for families and get justice for those that really want to find out what happened. >> all right. whur's troy johnson. merry christmas. >> same to you. merry christmas. happy holidays. >> she was a gracious runner-up. miss colombia. she is sharing her>> and storm

showing heavy rain and the heaviest rain coming through the area right now across our region. you see the rain from philadelphia down to rich mopped a monday and the heaviest is coming through right now. notice the yellows and the oranges and the reds. veronica johnson is off today and she just reported lightning and thunder in fort washington and i'll take you into this area and you can see right around where the rain is port washington, right through downtown and very heavy rainfall and don't be surprised to hear thunder, as well. more rain on the way and extremely warm temperatures and amelia, she'll have that in just a second.

steve harvey's mistake on sunday won't cost him his job. he's signed a multi-year contract with the miss universe organization. it was signed before sunday's, vent and the producers say he is welcome to return. harvey, as you must know by now, first named miss colombia the winner and then apologized and gave miss philippines the crown because she was indeed the winner. he apologized several times since then to both of these contestants and to the viewer. >> the praise is pouring in for miss colombia because of the way she's handled the miss universe crown literally being taken off her head. ar yiadna gutierrez posted that because of the mistake colombia is being talked about in every corner of the world and she congratulated miss philippines for winning the miss universe pageant. she has 137,000 like sgloos drones are this year's hottest gifts.

the news 4 i-team explains how to stay out of trouble if you unwrap one christmas morning. a one of a kind

>> and now your storm team 4 forecast. >> it's been a rainy day and rain will continue on into the evening hours and begin to wind down around 9:00 p.m. and a dry start early tomorrow morning, but then you can't anticipate a

period of rain moving through and as that rain moves through we could have some embedded heavy downpours and i definitely want to keep the umbrella handy and not just tomorrow, but friday, christmas and saturday, as well. here's the latest on storm team 4 radar. you can see bansed of heavy rain with the brighter colors here and the yellows and oranges and right inside washington right now impacting parts of prince george's highway down toward the woodbridge area and even getting some reports of lightning moving through and here's the wider picture and this is where we're getting our moisture coming up from the south and those warmer temperatures and driving locally, you can anticipate some moderate rain traveling around 68, 91, wet conditions there and seeing a lot of delays being reported and if you're headed out of washington either toward fredericksburg or baltimore along 95. traveling, you want to call ahead or check on your phone. current temperature testimonies right now are in the low to mid-60s and this is where it will stay during the evening or

overnight hours and we'll start to warm as we work until midnight and 11:00 p.m. and temperatures at that point of 67 degrees and if you're dealing with the rain, it will likely be dry at that point and still damp outside, but you won't even need a jacket and future weather i'm showing you tomorrow and 6:00 a.m. and cloudy start and this is that period of rain i'm talking about moving through the area and 8:00 a.m. in areas like frederick and loudoun counties continuing to sink south during the later morning hours and 9:30 and 10:00 a.m. and it's moving through the d.c. metro area and it's down in southern maryland making its way toward the northern neck and by 4:00 we dry out with late-day sunshine and overall tomorrow the clouds definitely win out and for christmas eve heading out at 6:00 very mild with the temperatures still around 60 degrees and it is looking dry for christmas eve and 9:00 a.m., with temperature around 67 and however as we work toward midnight we anticipate areas of fog to start to form and on

christmas morning, fog could be a bit of an issue with the temperature of 68 degrees and rain is likely for christmas. on saturday there's the advance of showers mainly earlier in the day and sunday looking dry with the high of 75. notice the temperature drop on monday. a high of only 49 and more rain for tuesday and maybe even into wednesday. chris? >> thanks, amelia. a world-class skier narrowly avoids being seriously hurt when a drone crashed inches behind him. the drone was carrying a broadcast camera and then it just falls out of the sky. hirscher wasn't even aware of the crash and he found about it at the end of his runs. >> drones are the popular gift for 2015. scott macfarlane found a fast-rising number of drone users are getting in the way of emergencies. >> reporter: you are seeing and

hearing a drone flight. we're doing it inside our studio because in so many parts of our area it's illegal to fly these things outside, but they nevertheless are more popular. 700,000 drones will sell this year alone and half of them during the holiday season which means the skies are about to get much more crowded. it's a view unlike any other. brian needle recorded over great falls middle of summer with his brand new dlorone. >> i had a good time for 20 minutes and all hell broke loose. >> we didn't see the helicopter until it came right at us. >> needle says he was flying the drone below the tree line and they fly directly over top of me and started pushing down. >> he isn't alone. the federal aviation administration records shows about two dozen air scares between drones and medical

helicopters in 2014. it came within a quarter mile from the city airport there. we found it's a growing problem from coast to coast including drones flying too close to fire fighting aircraft. dro drones over wildfires. >> about 25 times airborne fire crews reported close calls with drones including the ones fighting these flames in california. >> we are literally talking about life and death situations here when folks do stupid things. >> u.s. forest service records obtained by the news 4 i-team show in several cases the fire fight hers to detour or ground their planes because the drones were dangerously close. tom harbor of the u.s. forest service says they had no choice. we're not going kill somebody over some un -- improper use of a drone in that -- in that airspace. >> wrong place, wrong time.

>> reporter: on the ground one of those california fires torched malcolm's car. you can see it burning here and what's left here. he said drone operators put his home and his neighbors at risk, too. >> something's got to be done about it before there is a real disaster. >> reporter: police and fire response teams aren't the only people affected. the i-team found cases of drone flights over a red skins monday night football game over nats park over bwi marshall airports. the feds announced a system for drone users to register their aircraft so the faa can keep better tabs on who is flying and where. >> it's hard around here because there are so many areas. >> the u.s. government has declared all of d.c. a no-fly zone indefinitely and they issued brian needle a $70 fine for getting too close to the u.s. park police helicopter. he says he is still flying, but cautiously. >> i don't know what the story is with what's okay and what's not. >> with hundreds of sthouzs more people possibly joining the

skies come christmas morning. scott macfarlane, news 4 i-team. for more advice on how to operate your drone go to our nbc washington app and click on investigations. a lot of last-minute shoppers are out of ideas and looking for the nearest gift card and over the next 24 hours starbucks expects to sell a record number of their cards. last year, merchants sold nearly 2.5 million gift cards on christmas eve and when you look at the entire holiday season, one in seven adults bought one. gift cards are the most requested holiday gift over the past nine years. well, from the mouths of babes sometimes comes wisdom. >> other times it's just kind of cute. a kid in montgomery county managed both with a homemade card he made for the police department. it reads, police, you get into bad stuff a lot. i know. so when stuff happens think of pie. also think of unicorns, rainbows and pie. i think the kid's on to

something. >> yes. >> good advice. >> we're working several developing stories in the newsroom. shoppers on edge in fairfax count after a robber shot a worker at a small computer store there. police say the suspect walked into the store with a gun, but the employee confronted him before you can take off and that's where the shooting started. meagan fitzgerald will have more coming up in a live report. >> an undercover law enforcement agent is bursted in an undercover sting involving a 14-year-old boy. police arrested paul carey in a parking lot of fair oaks mall last night. scott macfarlane joins us at the top of the hour with how police honed in on carey. threats made against students using a few words and violent emojis. we're talking about the smartphone characters that can symbolize anything. it shows fairfax city police investigating posts made on

instagram that are very violent and seem to go after students here at sydney lanier middle. police traced those posts to a home in fairfax city. we followed up on those leads, as well. we'll tell you who is allegedly behind them and yet school system in fairfax county is now warning parents tonight. that's ahead on news 4 at 5:00. call it an elf on the shelf emergency. a 7-year-old e plains hxplains adorable call to 911. this holiday, ford america's best-selling brand is giving you more. the ford holiday sales event... with 0% financing for 60 months on 2015 f-150 and focus

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>> right now more rain is sweeping in from the south and impacting what should be a busy night for holiday travel. our story continues in two minutes from the news 4 storm center. people are wondering what was that? the mystery of the fireball in the western sky has been solved. people in arizona, nevada and california saw light streaking across the sky. u.s. military officials say it was debris from a russian rocket. it launched from kazakhstan on monday and re-entered earth's atmosphere last night. it created a big sensation on twitter with people thinking it was a meteor, shooting star or ufo. a little girl in new jersey called 911 in a panic after she did something she thought was going to get her in trouble with santa. brian has more on her elf emergency.

>> reporter: izy, isabella points to the two elves safely tuckeded in these stockings in the laperuta living room. >> i was very nervous. >> you see, somehow one of the elves on the shelf ended up on the floor while mom was sleeping and ivzie making a desperate call to 911. >> hello? >> it's isabella. >> hi. isabel isabella. why are you calling 911? >> don't come to my house! don't come. >> okay! >> here elf was in trouble. i was trying to call my dad, but -- an accident. >> you can just say you made a mistake, okay? >> she tells me now that she was throwing a ball and accidentally hit her elf, but police came to this door worried that she was in real trouble. mom lynn ann woke from sleep to see her daughter trying to shoo the cop away. >> she was crying. she was panicking. >> i didn't want to get in trouble. >> the officer radioed

headquarters. >> 504 to headquarters. >> go ahead, 504. isabella apologized. she touched the elf on the shelf and she won't call 911 again. >> police are understanding. >> to her it was an emergency where she tufouched the elf andt was her emergency. in her mind she did right and it was fine with us. >> he knows i'm not going to do that again. >> she's going to be just fine with santa. news 4 at 5:00 starts now with jim and wendy. >> and now at 5:00, the first look at police as they swarm a quiet cul-de-sac after an officer open says fire. why that suspect took off and how the police caught him. you saw him on news 4 yesterday talking about a big smuggling bust and now he's the one busted charged with a disturbing crime involving a child. >> first, you can have wild weather affecting your holiday week. rain, fog and even some lightning and we are just two

days before christmas. >> here we go. we have team coverage for you tonight as we get started at 5:00. eening, everybody. i'm jim handly. >> i'm wendy rieger. >> the timing of this rabe could not be worse for people traveling to or from washington for the holiday. >> let's get right over to doug kammerer and amelia segal who are starting in the weather center. >> it is just a mess out there along i-95 all of the way from boston all of the way down toward atlanta and that's the kind of mess we're talking about and heavy rain moving in and we're not done with the rain yet tonight. we'll continue to track rain at times, want only this evening and then it will start to dry out, but for thursday, friday even saturday, as well, doug. >> take a look. here's the rain from new york all of the way down towards raleigh. thunderstorms. here we are in december and we're talking about strong storms making their way toward the raleigh area and we saw some thunderstorm activity here with thunder and lightning and around fort washington earlier and look at the heavy rain right on down toward baltimore and i'll stop

this and we'll move on in and we'll talk about what's happening around annandale and look at the beltway here and seeing heavy rain around buy and let's zoom in one more time and we'll show exactly where this is from d.c. around 395, simply a mess and that's the way it will be for the next few hours. we'll see the rain lighten just a little bit and more shower activity as we move through the rest of the evening and it could be a different story and amelia has more on that. >> we're tracking another round of rain and unlike today, this isn't going to be an all-day rain and notice this here on future weather and notice the bright colors here inside of the d.c. metro area at 9:30 and the potential for rumbles of thunder and by noon tracking southern maryland and around the northern neck. by 3:00, doug, it looks like we dry out and not only will be following record rain, but record warmth too. >> that's not then