now at 11:00, it's happening again. big scores at some of our area's priciest retailers. thieves armed with pepper spray. tonight, one woman shares her frightening encounter. >> searching for the person who killed a man on

what we're learning about the. f california tonight. torrential rains, possible mudslides. threat's not over yet. >> news4 at 11:00 starts now. >> good evening. all new tonight, progress in the crack down on thieves targeting high end stores in d.c., maryland and virginia. >> women go in those stores armed with pepper spray, threaten employees and get out with thousands of dollars worth of bags, clothing and accessories. >> two more incidents just this week. news4's jackie bensen is live for news georgetown tonight with the details you'll only see on news4. >> reporter: we spoke by phone tonight to an employee of a store hit in december. we're not identifying her. >> and she had smiled at me and said have a great day as she sprayed pepper spray in my face. >> these are images of persons of interest in a series of

in most recent monday at tory burch on wisconsin avenue and tuesday at kate spade on m street. during that crime, pepper spray was used on an officer that tried to intervene. >> commander morgan cane of the first district station says detectives recently got a tip that resulted in two arrests for similar incidents at r at city center in downtown d.c. in january, thieves held employees at the ferragamo at bay and grabbed,000s in pricey goods and ran. the same suspects are believed to have hit the gucci store around the corner in late december. in that case, an employee hit with pepper spray. police released these surveillance images saying they're trying to identify this person. commander cane says the crimes are believed to be the work of a different group and they're the focus of a regional effort. >> he's worked with our partners in montgomery county and out in virginia having the same issue. >> reporter: the emplee

december says she'sthg's being >> i had horrible anxiety obviously after that, and i didn't feel like safe in my store. and i know other employees felt the same way. >> reporter: if you recognize any of the people in those pictures, you're asked to call dc police. live in georgetown, jackie bensen, news4. >> thank you. there's a security alert for members of congress tonight. news4 has learned the house sergeant at arms warned house members to be vigilant back home during the presidents' day recess. the memo doesn't specify the threat but it urges congressional representatives to notify police before staging public events. and "it is especially critical to note that if your home address and phone number are publicly available, you should remain particularly alert regarding your surroundings." >> occasional periods in our history where congressional offices not just the members but the actual

protests or for even attacks. >> congressional sources tell news4 security upgrades are also being made at the capitol including added officers and canines near entrances. >> a judge today sentenced a virginia man to 8 1/2 years in prison for trying to help isis. ha reese kumar pleaded guilty back in october to terrorism related charges. according to court documents on september 11th it, 2015, qamar he told an fbi confidential witness that u.s. military member who's appeared on a terrorism watch list or kill list lived near his home. two weeks later, his attempt to fly overseas to join isis failed because his father took his passport away. then last year, kamar and the informant discussed an size need for pictures and possible targets in and around the district. there's a push under way

killed a maryland man on valentine's day just hours before his 21st birthday. >> tonight, friends and family left balloons and candidate ales at the spot where martin died. darcy spencer reports from greenbelt. >> we worship ulf. >> reporter: they gathered outside an apartment building in greenbelt, a building martin and his family used to call home, a building he went to on valentine's day to deliver flowers and chocolates to a friend. but he didn't get that far. >> somebody took his life. we don't know who it is, why they did it. >> reporter: he was shot and killed in the hallway of that building one day sheaf his 21st birthday. that's where balloons and candles have been placed. friends, relatives, can't make sense of this killing. >> it's sick. he didn't even get a chance to

an age all of us look towards. he because of what. it's hard. >> reporter: he came to the united states from cameroon with his family when he was 11. they were in search of a better life. his brother says he planned to attend montgomery college and wanted to study law. >> just to better ourselves you know, to get a better future and help our families. >> reporter: police have not made any arrests. >> we have to make sure at the end of the day, this gets solved because we all loved martin, we all want him to rest in peace. we have to make sure whoever did this is brought to justice. >> reporter: in greenbelt, dares spencer, news4. in less than an lawyer, d.c.'s death with dignity law takes effect. the clock is about to runway on one way congress

lawmaer the power to disavow any law with a disapproval resolution. it won't happen tonight. the resolution would have to pass the house and the senate and then be signed by president trump before midnight. congress cos still block d.c. from using its own money to carry out the law. the death with dignity legislation allo people are terminally ill to end their lives with the help of a doctor. fire raced through two units in this apartment building on beauregard street in the alexandria section of fairfax county today. two people ended up in the hospital. they're expected to be okay. the fire caused a lot of the damage and the people who live in those two units can't go back hope tonight. the other apartments in the building were spared. no word yet on what sparked the fire. >> investigators are working to identify more possible victims of a dance teacher who has been charged with having sex with one of his young students. that girl was 14 years old. fairfax county police say chase l

for weeks since the owner of adrenaline dance studio called police to report him. he is 19. at the also taught at stage door in manassas. >> police arrested a local school teacher today for allegedly sexually abusing children in falls church. they believe there could be more victims out there. jose estrada faces felony, aggravated sexual battery up till january 17th, he taught math at mary ellen henderson middle school in falls church. on that day, one of the two female students reported the abuse and the school removed him from his teaching position and placed him on leave. detectives want to hear from anyone whose child might have had inappropriate contact with estrada. a strange story in d.c. tonight. a man found dead in a closet. police initially called it suspicious. now it's a murder investigation. it happened on northeast 21st street this afternoon. officers arrived on the sc

remove him from the building. he was later pronounced dead at the hospital. investigators say the man likely knew his killer. we're watching southern california get inundated with water. it may be the strongest rainstorm they've seen in decades. just in the past few minutes, we got word just in the past few minutes, we got word that i second person has died. sub americaned in a car. there's no letup from what some meteorologists are calling a weather bomb. southern california is getting a month's worth of rain in one day. mandatory evacuations are under way as roads become rivers, mud and rocks come sliding down the hills. freeways are flooded. hundreds of flights canceled, crews scrambling. this is a parking garage at the glendale galleria that turned into a water fall. one person died near l.a. when the wind and rain ripped down a power line and

it's been a tore pour. look at this video from our sister station nbc los angeles if we can look at that. the l.a. river yesterday and then today. one minute bone dry. the next rushing water. one analyst prediction over the next week, up to 10 trillion gallons of rain will fall on the state of california. doug, you've seen just about every storm imaginable, but this has got to take your breath away . >> los angeles seeing an the rain, san francisco seeing the rain and all of this continues to move on in. already two to four inches of rain in parts of southern california and upwards of 8 to 9 inches in the mountains of los angeles. they are going to be dealing with this for quite awhile. this is a seri

for us though, much different weather here. we are going to be so nice over the next couple days. 51 our high today. roanoke coming in at 67. 75 back there toward st. louis. that warmer air making its way in during the day tomorrow. we'll talk how long the warm air sticks around. more on the california storms, as well. i'll see you back here in just a few minutes. >> a maryland teen's murder connected to gang members. next at 11:00, how gangs are using social media to recruit all over our area. >> plus, they moved here to get away from zika. they thought they were in the clear. now this pregnant couple finds out they need to get retested. and a big surprise tonight for a local college gymnast during a competition here in d.c.

tonight, we know the murder of a 15-year-old montgomery county girl is connected to the killing of a 21-year-old man in prince william county. both killings have been tied to gangs. and disturbing court documents show us how gang members are luring their victims via social media. northern virginia reporter david culver has the story. >> reporter: fairfax county police have arrested ten suspects connected to alexandra reyes' murder. investigators found the 15-year-old's body last saturday but it was the murder of christian in neighboring prince william county that helped fairfax solve alexandra's case. trouble is, christian's killers are still out

>> the victim was lured down to where he was killed. >> reporter: this search warrant filed in court suggests christian had alleged himself to be a leader of a local ms13 clique. it seems that is didn't settle well with other gang leaders who began contacting him and questioning his rank. police believe those leaders then used social media accounts of femalessociates in an effort to lure out unsuspecting victims like christian. etting him up and luring him away from his normal surroundings. police say he was then murdered. >> it is still on going. we are still investigating our murder today. >> reporter: at a thursday press conference, both local and federal law enforcement warning of the growing gang threat and who they're trying to influence. >> we are seeing a lot of increase in recruiting high schools and middle schools. which is alarming to us. >> reporter: police don't believe random students are being targeted. what's being said inside schools and online is helping investigators track gang activity. >> we have school reso

schools. they are present gathered. >> reporter: no doubt questions are raised after you see a report like that. for one, why is it we're seeing an increase when it comes to gang activity and two, how can it be stopped? these are questions we're bringing tomorrow to the northern virginia regional gang tack force director when he joins us live in our 9:00 hour. in the newsroom, david culver, news 4. anxiety, helplessness, fear some of the emotions expecting parents are dealing with after learning their zika tests were flawed. melissa and brandon leavitt left miami and moved to d.c. to escape zika for seven months, they thought they were in the clear. their test was negative. now they learned that the d.c. department of forensic scientists made a mistake. the retest is positive for zika. >> we realized it was sort of a false sense of security for the last seven or eight mth

>> the d.c.em pregnant women, that their zika tests were negative. so far after retesting, two pregnant women learned they had did have it after all. a lot of pomp and circumstance greeted the decision by the prince george's county school chief to stay for another term. today community leaders, school officials even a marching band cheered kevin maxwell's commitment for four years. he broke a streak of seven superintendents in as many years for the county. in fact, it's been more than two decades since the district had a two-term schools chief. maxwell is credited with growing enrollment and the highest graduation rate increases in the state. he's had the job since 2013. >> we got to see a very special reunion tonight for a george washington university student. take a look. >> you have a surprise. you haveot

cheea wh her brother at tonight's gymnastics meet. sergeant cullen ranieri had been stationed in kuwait for almost a year. >> i'm one of six kids. so having one person missing is a huge deal. we're looking around saying where it colin. it's not the same. for him to be here tonight means the world to me. >> i was good till i saw the tears in her eyes and i couldn't hold it in anymore. i was able to hold it in for my brother, my mother. seeing her i couldn't anymore. >> nice welcome home there. on campus at gw into most definitely. >> better than a medal i bet. >> for sure. so we've got a lot to look forward to this weekend when it comes to the weather, huh? >> hello, april. >> that's right. >> you may have missed it. that's what we're dealing with. >> flowers are starting to come up already. >> they are. a lot of people asking if they should be doing gardening. ol

not yet. it is still winter. the ground has a lot of time to warm. we are still cold at night. right now, very cold night out there. it's going to be that way early tomorrow morning. tomorrow afternoon, we warm quickly. high temperatures today around 51. right now down to 39. winds are calm under mostly clear skies. look at the numbers. many areas down around freezing and below. 32 winchester, 38 in frederick, culpepper coming in at 32 degrees. nothing on the radar picture. as i mentioned before, big storm out in california. nothing here. i mean it really is going to be beautiful in our region. here's the storm towards california. just a monster of a storm. you're talking about five to 10 inches in parts of the mountain areas just to the west of san francisco. just to the west of los angeles, los angeles itself could be an all-time record as far as daily rainfall goes for the day. some thunderstorm activity, even into tomorrow. they will see days of rain here. i've said this before.

monster storms, it cha deep tro pressure in the west. a bigid in the center portion of the country. we've been on the cold side. watch this whole pattern move our way. we get into the warm sector. boy do we warm up during the day tomorrow. warmer air returns, back into the 60s. some areas could hit 70 tomorrow. staying mild right on into next week. there's one exception. that would be tuesday but still warm even then. 67 degrees for a high tomorrow. we could be warmer than that. increasing clouds nice and warm and a great afternoon here. when i say warmer, fredericksburg, maybe 70. frederick, maryland, maybe 65. still very nice no matter where you go. 65 on sunday. presidents' day 61. many of the suburbs in the upper 50s. 54 on tuesday. that's going to be the cool day. some areas could be in the 40s on tuesday. that's the day i'll be watching closely. 60 on wednesday with a chance for shower activity. then another warm period moves in next fr.

de sad. a chance for shower activity next saturday. how about sunday? of course, this weekend, nice weekend to get out there and maybe you get out to the zoo. the zoo looking great to baobao. temperatures up to about 65 by the afternoon but really, tomorrow, sunday, monday, looking good no matter what you're doing. out there playing tennis, playing golf, running faster than you try to normally. >> baobao is not going to want to leave. >> sounds good. >> coming up, the caps were back on the ice after a week off and now have their sights set on a adir of ro

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this is the x event sportsdesk. week of vacation is always a good thing, right? but now it's time for the caps to get back to work. >> chris miles joins us from the csn studio. been almost a week since we've seen these guys in action. >> great week for the caps. well-known for excellence on the ice but over the past couple days, most of the guys posting pictures on social media of sunny beaches and golf courses. that bye week of leisure is over. the top team in the nhl is being thrown right back into the mix with back-to-back road games this weekend. it starts tomorrow with a 2:00 game in detroit. the focus heading into the final six weeks of the regular season, evaluating the team before the upcoming trade deadline. >> i know the bye week hasn't been kind to teams the first game .

good challenge for us not something to look at. something to take that challenge and see if we can move forward. we've got build our game. build it hopefully you know, start the process of getting ready for playing in the postseason. i believe we can be there. >> john wall had his ninth straight double-double on thursday in the wids win over the pacers. today in new orleans for the all-star game festivities. doesn't sound like he's going to enjoy cajun cooking. 14-year-old new orleans super fan jarius robertson who is battling chronic liver disease asked john about his diet. >> what what is your favorite home cooked meal. >> favorite hope cooked meal. my favorite home cooked meal is broccoli and zucchini. >>

> disappoint. that's malcolm, getting his teammates involved. ing jonathan simmons putting it down. broad man filling up the stat sheets with alley oops. the star of the night was nuggets rookie jamaal murray. he hit nine three-pointers to lead all scorerses with 36. 153-125. bcu men's basketball team puts their seven-game winning streak on the line against richmond. strong start to the second half for the rams. i mean mo alley cox off the rebound. 8-0vcu run. they never look back. lewis coming off a career high three-point game of his own. he had a team high 16. bcu wins their eighth straight, 4-73. the win helps george mason

their quest. patriots host rhode island tomorrow at 4:00. once again, caps back at it tomorrow 2:00. john wall will participate in the skills challenge at night. interesting thing to keep an eye rr tomoow.

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who's the most romantic man in america? crystal's husband shemari. >> oh, yeah, that's shemari, our very own shomari stone named the most romantic man in america on the steve harvey show. congratulate him and his wife crystal. sh

shomari picking her up today with fl

[ cheers and applause ] ♪ >> steve: from studio 6b in rockefeller center in the heart of new york city, it's "the tonight show starring jimmy fallon." tonight, join jimmy and his guests -- joel mchale, zoe kravitz,