how passengers were able to get onto a flight without a full screening at jfk airport in new york. news4 at 6:00 starts now. new details in a strange murder case. the victim, a 63-year-old man. the suspect, a 76-year-old woman. the weapon, a metal baseball bat. >> now the question is why. police say it all went down in a home on 21st street in northeast d.c. pat collins has been working this story all afternoon. >> reporter: this is mind boggling. the murder suspect is 76 years old. the murder weapon, a baseball bat. the victim, 63 years old, naked, tied up, locked in a closet. why would someone do something like this?

came into some money, about $5200 from an insurance settlement. did that have something to do with his death? hear now from his ex-wife. she asked that we not show her face. >> reporter: anybody know where that money is? >> no, we don't. >> reporter: are you suspicious? >> yes. yes, i am. >> reporter: 63-year-old walter clark, a retired cook crippled by diabetes, murdered at this home on 21st street northeast. he was found naked, his hands bound. he'd been beaten to death with a metal baseball bat. charged in the murder, 76-year-old thomasine bennett. they say she met mr. clark at this seniors home on jasper street. mr. clark lived here. sometimes t

>> reporter: mr. clark's family believes somehow thomasine bennett lured mr. clark back to her house. according to court documents thomasine bennett claimed mr. clark asked her to marry him on valentine's day. she says she was tired of women being all over him, that she was tired of loving him. clearly there is more to be known here. tonight thomasine bennett charged with first degree murder. developing now in new york city, the tsa is trying to figure out how nearly a dozen people made it through a partially closed security checkpoint at jfk airport. 11 people walked through the tsa precheck lane about 6:00 this morning. sources are telling nbc news three of the

metal detectors and did not receive secondary screening. airport police say it wasn't until hours after that breach they were told to search for the passengers. it is assumed they boarded flights. the tsa says all the bags were screened and the passengers walked past bomb sniffing dogs. they're calling this a minimal risk situation. a d.c. government contractor says he was fired for speaking out against police. it happened during an active shooting training session last year right after another high profile incident at the office of the chief technology officer. mark segraves has a story you'll see only on news4. >> reporter: jay shancar spent years getting his life together. he is a contractor for the d.c. chief technology office. over the past two years he's been working and sending most of his money over seas t

he felt he was finally living the american dream. >> i love my job. >> reporter: but his life changed after one of his coworkers was arrested for threatening to shoot their supervisor. after that incident, d.c. police were brought in to provide active shooter training for his staff. during that training, shancar became upset after the officer encouraged employees to report suspicious activity to police. he stood up and told the officer what happened to him years earlier when he was the victim of a theft and called police. during that incident years ago, instead of following up on the theft, police questioned his immigration status and he was sent to a detention center for six months. when he was released, he became homeless. >> i called for help. next thing you know i'm packed off to some place i never even dreamed of. >> reporter: he acknowledges he became emotional as he spoke up at the active shooter training but he says he n

anyone. when he got home after work that night, he got a call from his employer. >> he said i have bad news for you. your assignment is over. >> reporter: he and his lawyer believe he was fired without good cause. >> i think it's a significant concern if employees are encouraged to ask questions and when they do, they're immediately terminated. we hope that litigation isn't necessary. >> reporter: jim mcgrath is chairman of a tenants' rights group. >> he's terrific. he's been a tenac volunteer for us for eight years. he's done such great work we put him on our board of directors. >> reporter: the company that he was employed by declined to comment. he was an outside contractor, an at-will position on a program octo is strein

a new position. he now worries without a job he would be deported. he's also facing the reality of being homeless again and he's no longer able to send money home to his family. hundreds of demonstrators marched from dupont circle to the white house today to express their opposition to president trump's immigration policies and his past comments about women, muslims and people with disabilities. >> we think our democracy is at stake and we need to fight for it. instead of sitting home, we need to get down here to the streets and try to save it. >> people who were born from my lineage built that house and i don't appreciate the person who is staying in that house banning people, getting rid of refugees. >> some groups came to washington in support of president trump too. rallies also took place in several other major cities including l.a., dallas, chicago, philly and new .

responded to any of these demonstrations. demonstrators went to the british parliament tonight to protest president trump's state visit to the united kingdom. they accuse president trump of missole judge knee and race inch. they say is the beneath the dignity of the queen of england to meet with him. one week after forcing mike flynn to resign, president trump has found a new national security advisor. hr mcmasters. >> before the president returned home to washington this evening it was a busy day for him, mentioning as you just mentioned that he named a replacement for michael phone linflynn. people across the country held rallies to protest the president's policies. after a weekend at the winter white house, president trump announced his new pic

general h.r. mcmaster. he won the job over three other candidates and replacing michael flynn, who was forced to resign for lying to vice president mike pence about his contact with the russian ambassador to the u.s. addressing the controversy for the first time since flynn resigned, pence backed up the president. >> i was disappointed to learn that the facts that had been conveyed to me by general flynn for inaccurate. >> reporter: as trump was introducing mcmaster, in cities across the u.s. presidents day rallies with thousands of americans denouncing the policies of their current president. also in brussels, the vice president looked to clarify the administration's support for allies after trump labeled some news organizations as enemies of the american people over the weekend, the vice president said criticism of the immediate ja wi will continue. >> the president and i strongly support a free and independent press. but you can an

president and all of us will continue to call out the media when they play fast and loose with the facts. >> you look at what's happening last night in sweden. >> reporter: but it was donald trump who raised eyebrows during a campaign style rally saturday when talking about sweden. >> the swedes and others around the world were completely befuddled by what the president was talking about. >> reporter: trump clarified on twitter he was referring to immigration in sweden from a story he saw on television. it emphasized the divide between how he and his opponents see the world. he's been planning a new executive order on immigration ever since a court blocked his first order. that could come, we're told, any time this week. right now the fbi is looking into a series of bomb threats at jewish community centers across the country. all turned out to be hoaxes. the jcc of north america says

threat this is year. defense secretary james mattis is in iraq for his first visit as the head of the pentagon. the trip was not announced in advance for security reasons. he met with iraqi leaders and reassures them the united states will stand with them. >> i assure you we are going to stand by you through this fight. we'll stand by you and your army in the future so that your sovereignty is protected by the iraqi forces and no one else. >> before secretary mattis arrived in iraq, he told reporters the u.s. has no intention of taking iraq's oil. that despite past suggestions to the contrary from president trump on the campaign trail and in remarks to the cia last month. another weather system is slamming the state of california. residents are dealing with fears of more flooding. in central california, the rain is likely to trigger

state, they're bracing for high winds and heavy snow. engineers are inspecting dams and lee vees fvees for signs of weakness. no rain to put out the big brush fire in prince george's county. firefighters say there is no threat to nearby homes. meantime, higher than normal temperatures around here have a whole lot of us heading outdoors. doug, this is february, right? >> it's amazing. you take a look at those numbers. these are what you would expect in the late april. our average high is 48. take a look at the number we saw today, 68 degrees today at the airport. we missed our records high by eight degrees. incredible warmth continuing across our

numbers in here tomorrow. tomorrow will be a little bit cooler, but the warmth returns very quickly. by wednesday we're back into the 60s. near record high temperatures on thursday, possibly on friday. why are we so warm? we're going to talk about that. it has a lot to do with what's happening out there in california. they knew each other for decades, but everything changed in an instant tonight. one man is dead, another is in custody as questions about a motiveli linger in this deadly dispute between neighbors. >> reporter: how many hours are you wasting stuck in traffic? i'll explain why things might be getting better. >> reporter: we get reae ready o

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now to the severe weather wreaking havoc across the country from storms and tornados in texas to torrential rain, snow and more flooding in northern california. >> reporter: homes reduced to rubble, downed trees, power lines, torrential rain and flooding, the aftermath of severe weather

overnight tornados left a trail of destruction in san antonio as powerful storms toppled trees and damaged buildings in austin. only minor injury. the cleanup underway, over in california, officials are keeping a close eye on the oroville dam north of sacramento. >> we are currently under evacuation warning condition, which tells people they need to be prepared to evacuate. >> reporter: with up to ten inches of more rain expected, many of the 200,000 evacuaees ae concerned for what's to come. meantime, los angeles is drying out from deadly storms over the weekend. the rain weakening roads, sinkholes swallowing cars, freeways collapsing. now with northern california facing the biggest threats of flooding

mountains could see blizzard conditions, up to five feet of snow. this as cities from the midwest to the eastern seaboard deal with abnormally warm temperatures. what's causing this extreme weather? chief meteorologist doug kammerer takes a closer look at the wild weather pattern. that's coming up at 6:25. we're getting a better idea of how much the safe track program is affecting metro's ridership. new numbers show that between june and december of last year, rail trips fell 12% compared with the year before. transparency reporter adam tuss says metro will discuss these numbers at a public meeting on thursday. fewer passengers only adds stress to metro's finances. the transit agency predicts this fiscal year it will have $125 million shortfall in revenue from fares and parking. would you believ

it doesn't seem possible, but a new report says the d.c. area is no longer the first or second in line in the country when it comes to how much time we spend stuck in traffic. transportation reporter adam tuss is along the beltway in tyson. how did this happen, adam? >> reporter: okay. relatively speaking, the commute is getting a little bit better. we are now the sixth worst in the country for congestion. so much time wasted in traffic. listen to d.c. commuter liz who has a good explanation for why. >> my license plate is 30 years old. it has no letters. we are now up to fs, gs. too many people, too crowded and too rude. >> reporter: this new report from the traffic tracking group says d.c. is now the sixth most

the 15th most congested in the world. we wasted 61 hours last year stuck in rush hour traffic. would you believe that's actually an improvement? the same group says two years ago we were wasting 75 hours a year stuck in rush hour traffic. though we do continue to grow as a region, to deal with our congestion there are ideas. >> i think that we're missing a couple of keys. if you go back decades and look at old maps, there were 12 bridges originally planned for this region. we're down to six or seven today. >> reporter: she says we need to continue to invest this transit like metro. regardless, she's not happy with this current congestion ranking for our region. >> based on these metrics, it looks like we're doing better than los angeles or new york or mexico city. but i don't want to be in the top ten of any list when it comes

>> reporter: as a region we waste $3 billion a year because of the economic drain of congestion. now experts say if we really want to improve the congestion around here, we need to cut out more cars. that means more biking, walking, buses, transit trips. get ready to pay more at the gas pump. analysts say the consistent drop in gas prices are starting to stall. soon prices are expected to climb 35-75 cents a gallon as refineries switch to their summer blend gasoline. up next, a plea to the public after his mysterious disappearance, a civil rights leader is ask for your help to get out of debt. big crowds and tight security, tonight the concerns about

why we have been so warm, take a look. we'll show you not much around our region, but back to the west we've got another monster storm moving into california. high wind warning in effect around san francisco and another 5-10 inches of rain. ten feet of snow in some of the higher elevations. just amazing. when we have a kind of storm out here, that's a deep trough of low pressure through the rest of the country.

there's a nice big ridge in the center portion of the country. that means we stay on the warm side of things. for example, right now third or fourth warmest winter ever in our region. winter is defined after december, january and february. now we are in a moderate drought. all of the storms continue to move to our north and that leaves us on the dry side. how about these high temperatures today? 68 here, 79 st. louis. chicago at 70 degrees. they have now set a record four days in a row for chicago. for us, we're going to stay on the warm side too. we are going to see some cooler air in here tomorrow. then the warm air moves right back in. currently 59 degrees across our region. temperatures will be dropping down into the low 50s by around 11:00. that's where we're going to be during the day tomorrow. the 60s are

not much on radar and i don't expect to see anything next few days. 55 degrees the high temperature tomorrow. cloudy and cool and still above average. again our average high temperature is 48 degrees. 55 is one of the coldest numbers we have on the ten-day forecast. 50 degrees by noon and 55 by 4:00. relatively cool but still above average. look at this ten-day forecast now. 55 tomorrow and then 66 wednesday. 72 on thursday, 74 on friday. we could get close to some records on thursday and possibly friday. thursday i think dulles could set a record there. 67 on saturday, a chance of showers. again, the storm moves to our north. that's why we're on the warm side. that does bring in some cooler air. but again we're not talking any

freezing in city at all in the next ten days. we do get a little bit unsettled toward the end of next week. right now, all eyes on that heat that we just continue to see in our region. >> starting to feel like winter's over, doug. >> it is. you may not need the heavy stuff again this year. >> off to the side. president trump takes on the media again. why some are questioning his tactics and drawing comparisons to another moment in our history. a civil rights leader is asking for a second chance. tonight his plea to the public. >> reporter: richard mcdonald's name over the top of this mailbox here, a place he has called home for four decades. now he is in jail, charged with murder for killing a neighbor side this house.in

>> gunshot wound, possibly from several hours ago. >> reporter: it's the kind of call the fauquier county sheriff's department rarely gets, a call to record a homicide. the victim, larry walker, found shot to death inside his neighbor's home.

6 4-year-old richard mcdonald. the men had known one another, lived near one another for decades. mcdonald and walker had been hanging out together on saturday evening. early sunday morning something le led to a dispute. >> the caller advises his son was shot by the neighbor or possibly shot by himself. >> reporter: that early confusion about who did the shooting came because mcdonald allegedly used the victim's own gun. larry walker's parents owned most of the homes on this country road. the accused killer had been renting from them for 40 years. the victim lived just about a quarter of a mile up the road where where he was shot. there are signs of his occupation as a welder and one time plow driver are evident in the yard. what turned mcdonald against the victim's neighbors declined to be

citing the family's wishes. they all said the same thing about larry walker. they said he was a guy who would do anything for anybody. the victim's family also declined comment. tonight richard mcdonald charged with murder is being held without bond in the fauquier county adult detention center. police are still looking for the man accused of killing another person at a house party in arlington. police say this man, jason johnson could be armed and dangerous. investigators believe he murdered michael gray at a party this weekend on north 29th street. virginia's governor has some concerned over recent immigration arrests. he's going to take them directly to the department of homeland security. the governor wrote secretary john kelly last week after a news4 report about arrests outside a church in fairfax county hypothermia shelter. a group of men had

rising hope mission church on february 8th when immigration and customs enforcement agents detained them. several of the men were arrested. the governor's spokesman says the two will meet on sunday. as president trump tries to push his immigration agenda through, he's escalating his war on the media. over the weekend he blasted the press at least six times at his campaign style rally in florida. at a news conference last thursday he went after the media nine times. on friday he tweeted that the press is, quote, the enemy of the american people. if that sounds familiar, it's the same language president nixon used during the height of the watergate scandal. republican senator john mccain is pushing back on that line of thinking and s

is an essential component of democracy. >> we need a free press. we must have it. it's vital. if you want to preserve -- i'm very serious now. if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press. >> some historians note that enemy of the people is a charge phrase, one that's been used in the past by auto ccrats. walter fauntroy and his wife dorothy are facing foreclosure on the home they've owned for 55 years. a group of ministers is rallying to help the civil rights leader. >> reporter: in the '60s he was at the right hand of martin luther king, jr. even ran for mayor. now the

his wife are facing foreclosure on their long time home in northwest washington. dorothy nearly lost it once before when fauntroy essentially disappeared in africa and the middle east for almost five years. viola bradford has known them for 50 years. >> the legacy of the history of the black people and our struggle and how he is a been a pivotal point and a legend in that area. >> reporter: today a group of ministers announced a campaign to raise $700,000 to pay off mortgage liens, penalties and interest on the home. he says he owned it free and clear until he mortgaged it to help others. >> he needs our help and our support.

>> reporter: long time fauntroy attorney johnny barnes on the fund-raising. >> it's a journey of a thousand miles. some would say it's an impossible dream. >> reporter: the national congress of black women will handle the fund-raising. it is the hottest ticket in town and tonight the national museum of african-american history and culture is celebrating a major milestone. >> reporter: it was a busy weekend here at national harbor. now as one convention leaves another one is on its way in. this one could bring some security concerns along with it. temperatures well above average the next couple of days but we do have at least one fly in the ointment.

crowd converge on the national zoo to say good-bye to bao bao. tonight a closer look at the

♪ ♪

>> reporter: that is part of the story. right now bao bao is in her indoor enclosure for tonight. she has a big day ahead tomorrow. and she's definitely going to be missed, but we still have her family. it's all about bao bao at the national zoo. >> if it rolls over, everyone loses it. >> reporter: she's leaving for her new home tomorrow. but the pandas will go on at the zoo. the hope is that bao bao's parents will breed and have a panda cub or two this summer. and there's bao bao's brother. he's staying for two more years. >> super excited about that. we saw them before hanging out in the trees and sitting in their little piles of bamboo and eating and entertaining

>> reporter: the bao bao only knew. >> we walked up here. it took so long, oh my gosh. >> we're probably eight blocks away. i'm hoping there's nothing on my car when we get back. >> we came here from jersey last night to come see bao bao. >> reporter: just to get a glimpse of the panda having one last treat. on a beautiful february day these are the panda lovers who wouldn't miss it for anything. >> she's a cool panda. i'm so sad she's leaving. >> reporter: we don't have the crowd count yet from the zoo today, but we do know that more than 40,000 people visited the zoo over the weekend. those are numbers typical for springtime and not so much for february. a lot of people coming out to say good-bye to bao bao. the zoo will be closed in the morning until noon so they can get her out of here. she's got a flight to catch tomorrow from dulles. >> so cool she put

>> reporter: people were absolutely loving it. when we first got her, i think she was resting. and then zookeepers brought out that treat for her. i don't know if everybody saw that shaped like a suitcase and it was covered in honey. she had a ball with that. she loved that. woke her right up. and everybody had a great time watching her. >> wow. sounds great. i guess a 16-hour flight. they eat for 16 howevurs. she may eat the entire way to china. it's hard to believe that bao bao has been at the national zoo for less than four years. she was the second surviving b cub. as is customer is chinese tradition, she received her n

100 days later. in mandarin bao bao translated to precious treasure. she made her public debut when she was five months out in 2014. people lined up for hours just to catch a glimpse. we all remember this. she captured the hearts of people around the world two years ago when the national zoo shared that video of her frolicking in the snow. a lot of you are turning to social media to say your good-byes. these are just some of the posts we've been seeing on instagram, twitter and facebook. angie posted a picture of her daughter wearing panda slippers. it certainly seems like winter is a thing of the past, doesn't it? tell us, have you put your winter coat away for good. doug says no

yet. that's our washington flash survey this afternoon. so far it's pretty split. but more of you think the cold will be back. you can vote on the nbc washington facebook page. >> you told us, though -- you did say you don't see any snow out there. >> no. it's not good. normally there's at least a chance. what it would take for us to get some kind of cold and snow right now would actually be a really big type of storm. we saw that back in 1993, the super storm of '93. could it happen? sure. does it happen? about 30% of the time that we see this amount of snow and then we see bigger snows in march. there's a chance. >> still hopeful, aren't you? >> yeah. i would love to see a nice little storm. hey, i need one. sitting back there in the weather department today,

you. this is key. any time the wind is out of the east, off the ocean, much cooler numbers. look at beverly beach, down to 53 degrees right now. we're still 62 in d.c. again we're going to be a lot cooler tomorrow because of that easterly flow. we're not going to see any rain with this system. it's actually a back door cold front bringing in cooler air from the north. philadelphia only at 57, new york at 54. we were at 68. that's the air we have coming in, a back door cold front. normally cold fronts come in this way. it will be significantly cooler tomorrow. you can kind of see what's happening here, kind of between two systems, one to the west bringing a lot of high clouds tomorrow. another one, big storm creating more snow for parts of nova scot scotia. we will be cooler tomorrow. only 52 in annapolis. going for a high of 55 in d.c. our average is 48, so we'll

still be above average. warmest areas, back to the west. a cool day tomorrow. look at the warmth return. 66 on wednesday, 72 thursday, 74 on friday. looking at that forecast, this is baseball weather, not baseball weather. the nats are getting into the swing of things down in

creating a cleaner environment by using cleaner energy sources like solar, wind and natural gas. we've reduced carbon emissions by nearly 25%, which is the equivalent of taking close to two million cars off the road. cleaner air and cleaner water. it's good for all of us. dominion. depend on us for more than energy.

this is the xfinity sports desk. >> almost feel like we should have your weather forecast lead us into this spring training report. >> more baseball season. i love it. >> it felt like a perfect day for baseball here. but we still are six weeks away from opening day at nationals park. baseball season picking up down in florida. our carol maloney is in west palm beach with the nationals. having fun yet? >> reporter: yeah. if i say yes, does that mean we're going to fight over it next year? i hope not. we are counting all 42 days until they open up for real at nats park. i know they have a lot of work to do, including their star player. he's the best player in baseball in 2015. bryce harper didn't even come close to the bar that he set for hims

asked why she struggled last year, he didn't hesitate with an answer. >> i know exactly why. that's all last year. that's, you know, what you go through and you build and you grow and you try to maintain. that's what i'm going to try to do again this year, try to do everything i can possible to help this team win. >> reporter: bryce knows, knows what went wrong and knows now he is feeling all right. >> i feel great. i feel really good. i think i'm ready for this year and ready to hopefully stay on the field every single day. that's the key, staying on the field and playing 155-160 games nap . that's what i want to do. >> reporter: he has what he wants most, the pressure to prove it again and again. >> it's what have you done for me lately. everybody knows that. of course the media members know that better than anybody. it's always been that way. >> reporter: his nats contract

if he's hearing that big apple buzz, he's not saying. >> i'm going to play these next two years out. beyond that i really don't care. i just want to play these two years and hopefully win and bring that trophy back hopefully. >> reporter: you know what else that he doesn't have time for right now? the hater who is troll him for wearing the cowboys hat. he showed up here at spring training. it's been quite a story. he said i don't care what they think. i almost went to go buy a cowboy hat for this story. then i said, no, i better not. but harper says he likes to gamble on the best every time. >> there you have it. thank you so much, carol. baseball season does mean spring. spring means march madness. the regular season is coming to a close.

basketball shifting towards tournament season. the now 24th ranked terrapins are heading into their final four games of the year with bittersweet news. tr the bad news junior michael clet yesterday's game late in the second half after fracturing his ankle. the junior already missing ten games this season. you see him there in pain. big blow to the terps. now for your kirk cousins daily deal update. the deal is down to eight days. so far, nothing new. the waiting continues to see if the redskins will tag cousins keeping him for at least one more year. meanwhile one of his teammates looking for work. wide receive

spent the last five seasons with the redskins. in 2016 he had the second most receptions of his career with 79. looks like some tough decisions coming up for this football team. >> i'd love to

tonight, stunning breach caught on tape. a metal detector at jfk left unguarded as passengers walked through. some setting it off. then apparently boarding flights. why didn't the tsa alert police for two hours? the replacement pick. president trump's new national security adviser revealed. as the vice president tries to calm a anxious allies overseas. a new wave of bomb threats. evacuations at nearly a dozen jewish community centers across the country. tonight, parents alarmed. scandal rocks uber. an urgent investigation as a former employee makes explosive allegations of sexual harassment against women. dentist alternative. the new trend in getting your teeth taken care of. dress for success.