>> i just retweeted the link to the npd's video. you could almost feel the heat as one officer sticked h es hise body into the thick of the smoke and flames. >> can you open the door? open the door! >> officers got a call to respond a car crash. the second they arrived, this is what they saw. the man hit a light pole and his car burst into flames. he wasn't making any effort to get out. the officer is yelling at the driver to take his seat belt off and finally has to lung into the burning car to drag him away. they kept asking him if anyone else was inside. the other officer actually went around to each window, smashing it out just to make sure that driver was alone. i just followed one the

they tell me paramedics rushed the driver to the hospital. he has been treated and relesa d released. now to an ugly scar on some of our local landmarks. >> cryptic messages referencing the 9/11 terror attacks and jfk's assassination found throughout the city. now, police are pouring over surveillance videos to find the person responsible. chris gordon tells us what was written and the painstaking process to get that graffiti removed. >> reporter: crews are using a pressure washer and solvent trying to remove the words written in blank ink on white marble. there are also messages written at the world war ii memorial. one just removed fr

washington monument and graffiti on an electrical box on the mall. >> it appears at this point that it was one person that did all of the graffiti. >> reporter: one u.s. serviceman who brought his family to the lincoln memorial tells me he's taking the vandalism here personally. >> i served in the greatest air force in the world. to come here to see that is like a slap in our face. >> reporter: it is difficult to remove the words from the marble and hard to read or make sense of the message. the clearest graffiti is on the electrical box. it appears to say jackie shot jfk. blood test is a lie. 9/11/01, pilots fly planes into wtc. at the world war ii memorial, the families of veteran who s w served say graffiti disrespects their service. what do you think of

the monument to honor world war ii veterans? . it's terrible. >> i don't know what would drive somebody to want to disrupt what we're trying to do by honoring the fallen. >> reporter: if an arrest is made, criminal vandalism charges will be filed for all six sites that were vandalized by gra fffi around the mall. although rare, something like this has happened before. you may recall back in 2013 a woman from china was arrested. she splattered green paint on several landmarks including the lincoln memorial and the national cathedral. she was later found incompetent to stand trial. in the past hour, police released video from the man who they say robbed two separate 7-eleven sre

at gunpoint. those two crimes happened over the weekend just about 20 minutes and two miles apart. >> reporter: he's a most wanted man. he carried a large shotgun. he targeted 7-eleven stores. in one case he appears to shoot the gun and then cock it to scare the people inside. cops want him off the street. when you see this story, you'll understand why. take a good look at this man. police want to find him and get him off the street. here he is saturday morning, 4:00 a.m., robbing a 7-eleven on south dakota avenue. he comes in with a shotgun at the ready, moves about the store. and in an act of intimidation, he stops and

then comes the cash box. and then his departure with that big gun tucked under his arm like it's a newspaper. about a half hour earlier, the same man robs a 7-eleven at this gas station on georgia avenue in petworth. it was 3:40 in the morning, but he's wearing sunglasses. for the most part he kept that big shotgun at his side. he got the money and made a clean get away. but the picture police want you to focus on is this one. no sunglasses, full face, shotgun in his hand. now police need your help on this one. if you know this guy, give them a call. a first for president trump in his first 100

during an exclusive interview with nbc news he made his most direct and forceful comments yet regarding anti-semitism. tracie potts reports. >> reporter: president trump marked black history month today, touring washington's new african-american museum. >> this tour was a meaning full reminder of why we have to fight bigotry. anti-semitism is horrible and it's going to stop and it has to stop. >> reporter: his comments come after 70 threats so far this year, plus an increase in hate crimes. >> i think it's terrible. i think it's horrible. whether it's anti-semitism of racism or anything you want to think about. >> reporter: anne frank center for mutual reec

immigration policy is still rnd under review. homeland security promised to hire 10,000 new agents. but they'll continue president obama's policy to protect dreamers, children brought here illegally from deportation. >> but we know the dreamers were picked up over the raids last week. it's the cruellest act i've ever heard. >> reporter: president trump promising a fair and safe america to everyone, including immigrants, jews and african-americans. more details now on the immigration crackdown outlined in two memos signed by homeland security secretary john kelly. one memo pertains to border security. the other involves immigration enforcement within the country. ho

immigration enforcement will be hired. kelly's guidelines called for an additional legal staff to handle asylum claims. and people who are caught at border wils will no longer be released while they await a hearing with an immigration judge. a dramatic rebuke today to president trump's policies at the statue of liberty. a group that calls its lady liberty unfurled a banner on the pedestal and it reads, refugees welcome. that group released a statement saying they felt the need to say something about the america they believe in. the u.s. park police say affixing a banner to the statue of liberty is strictly prohibited. they're working now to identify who did it. in manassas, virginia, chopper 4 over the scene as students wal

high school today in protest to the president's immigration policies. one of the organizers said many of those who took part are children of immigrants. they're afraid of what may happen to their families under the new rules. new at 6:00, d.c. mayor muriel bowser unveiled a plan to attract more district residents for jobs in local government. her plan would include student lo loan repayment assistance. it would also allow the district to fast track hiring for some critical, hard to fill positions. that proposal now goes before the d.c. council. tonight, the district is also looking for a contractor to help shore up the floors in the historic wilson building downtown where mayor bowser and the d.c. council go to work every day. several floors are sagging. but employees are in no immediate danger. the cost of the repair is about $4 million. the building

$68 million renovation in the late '90s. bao bao is officially on her way. the national zoo's giant panda is now more than three hours into her flight on her way to her new home in china. that journey began this morning when bao bao was driven to bulless airpobull le dulles airport and placed on a special plane for the 14-hour trip. >> reporter: today marks another milestone in our race to save giant pandas from extinction. >> reporter: bao bao begins a new life and the hope is she breeds new life also. >> we want her to be able to go back to china and hopefully have cubs of her own some day. >> reporter: bao bao is only the second surviving panda come born at the national zoo in 45 years. giant pandas were recently reclassified from endangered to

when our giant panda grow up, they will be sent back to china. that will be helpful for them to adapt to new environment. >> reporter: bao bao will enter a breeding program in china. her departure is sad for many, but an important step. it's been a long good-bye and those are sometimes the hardest. >> seeing that crate go into the truck was a little bit tough. >> reporter: in washington it's not uncommon to cry when pandas have to leave. >> it's been a hard day. i'm also pretty excited for her. >> reporter: chopper 4 watched bao bao ride from the national zoo, through her city to dulles airport. the 3 1/2-year-old giant panda arrived to the tarmac in her special crate. in seconds bao bao was on board. a delicate transfer for a panda who's captured heart

>> our team has worked so hard for so many years to make sure that giant pandas stay on the earth. video of the aftermath after a plane crashes into a shopping mall overseas. what we know about the trouble after takeoff and the four americans killed. >> the flames were about a foot high. >> reporter: ten brush fires in prince george's county alone yesterday. and we're not done with the weather that could permit this to happen again. coming up on news4, details on how you can keep yourself and your family safe. we've been extremely dry over the past month and really over the past several months.

>> reporter: the fire so intense, rescuers couldn't get close. >> it's pretty much just a smoking wreck when we got there. >> reporter: the wreckage so badly mangled, the aircraft was unrecognizable. debris scattered on the highway. unboard, an australia pilot and four american tourists, reportedly on their dream golf vacation. there were no survivors. >> it was pretty horrible. couldn't do anything. >> reporter: investigators say the plane was a private charter flight, a twin engine beechcraft in trouble just moments

it took hours to put out the flames. now australia's crash investigation team is trying to figure out what went wrong. the key clue for investigators right now, the pilot was able to get a mayday call out before the plane went down. he reported engine failure. by the way, there were workers inside that mall when the crash happened. remarkably, nobody on the ground was injured. there is shock and grief in moscow tonight after the sudden death of russia's ambassador to the united nations. today president trump offered his condolences while foreign minist minister sergei lavrov paid tribute with flowers and a message of remembrance. he died yesterday at the russian mission in manhattan. autopsy resultse

available. today would have been his 65th birthday. new details on a security breech at o breach at one of the nation's busiest airports, jfk. 11 passengers walked right through the precheck line without being screened by security. three of them set off medal detectors and were given no secondary screening. two hours passed before agents with the transportation security administration notified airport police. by that time, the passengers were gone. >> i don't know how that happened. >> i find it shocking, though, given how tight security is. >> tsa officials said their canine team was present at the checkpoint at the time of the incident and they are confident the breach presented what they called minimal risk. they are promising a complete review. there is currently no one in the

top job at that agency. in just one day prince george's county fire crews responded to ten brush fires. chopper 4 spotted this scene in glendale yesterday. we know dry conditions fuelled the flames. doug kammerer says this could be a problem for days. first we go to tracee wilkins who spoke with firefighters today about the danger of those brush fires. >> reporter: this is something that they usually deal with in the spring, not in february. now, just a few hours ago we were with the bladensburg fire department. it could be like this for the next few days. in bladensburg today, a brush fire, this one quickly extinguished. but yesterday there were ten in prince george's county, one of them just a few yards

barbara's back door in dplglend. >> it looked to me like three feet high then, the flames. >> reporter: no one was hurt or had to be evacuated. brush fires were popping up around prince george's county yesterday, including one here on public works road in bowie. while normally one fire truck can handle a brush fire -- >> yesterday just about all ten of the incidents we handled required more than one engine. and on the one in bowie and glendale took us hours. >> reporter: brush fires are unusual for the month of february. >> one of the contributes factors is the warmer temperatures, lower humidity and the wind. it wasn't a stiff wind, about 10 miles per hour, but enough to spread that fire rapidly. >> reporter: this could be the situation for the next few days. but officials have these tips for keeping yourself safe. >> they can limit the amount of things they do outside, including if

outside to smoke a cigarette, make sure it's extinguished properly in the proper container. >> reporter: if you decide to grill -- >> hose line, bucket of sand, bucket of dirt so you can extinguish the embers quickly. it has been fairly dry for a while. >> we all know we haven't seen any snowfall. but we haven't seen any rain either. the entire month of february we've only seen one or two days with significant rainfall. that's why we have a moderate drought now in effect for d.c. all the way up from philadelphia right on down i-95, fredericksburg, leesburg. interesting interestingly, to the west of the blue ridge we've seen a lot of moisture back here. for us, we are still in a moderate drought. these are the reasons why here. yes, we have been dry for sure. nearly two inches

since the beginning of this year and over eight inches of rain below average for the last six months. we are looking to remain dry through at least early march. we're going to update you on that and update you on the very warm temperatures. metro is slashing jobs and may raise fares. we break down the possible changes for riders who rely on the system. the i-team looks at the

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doug, pretty nice day today. today was the coolest day of the week? >> coolest day of the week. and still nearly ten degrees above average. yeah, it's really quite amazing. 58 degrees today, the average high temperature is 49 degrees. take a look out there across the area. looking okay. we saw a lot of cloud cover across the region. current temperatures sitting at 53 degrees. temperatures will drop but not all that fast. one reason is the cloud cover. the other reason, we've got warmer air mving right back into

radar, nothing to show you. again, rain, snow, we are so dry. we need a system to move our way. we've got two making their way our way. here's one to the south. that one actually is going to go to our south. and another one to the north will pull moisture to the north. in between, we will stay on the dry side. we will see a lot of cloud cover overnight tonight and into the day tomorrow. take a look at the numbers. 68 right now in lexington, kentucky. the cold air still locked up toward the new england area. new york only at 42 degrees. today we saw that flow coming out of the northeast. that's why we were a little bit cooler. tomorrow right out of the southwest and temperatures going right back up to a high of 66 tomorrow. clouds and sun and much warmer. pretty nice afternoon on our wednesday. one of the big factors from this warmer weather has been the tree pollen, very high for this time of year. thursday and friday could b

into the 70s. another reason why we need to see some rainfall out of this. we're not going to get much. take a look at the temperatures going up through friday. 72 thursday, 74 on friday. showers likely on saturday, some late in the day. most of the day on saturday will be dry. behind this system we get cooler and very windy on sunday, a high temperature of 50. but it will feel much more like the upper 30s. we go right back up into the 70s once again as we start off march. coming up, we're going to tell you why a down hall metn hg is creating controversy for northern virginia's lawmaker. >> reporter: metro is shedding riders, in part because of safe track. does metro's leader think safe track is a mistake? i'll ask them that question coming up. inside the mind of an artist who lives with mental illness. how thisnique exhibit is u

also, policing our schools. what the i-team and nbc news discovers about the way officers operate in public school campuses. and we'll take you inside an unusual exhibit in d.c. how the creator's mental illness plays a part in her artwork and what she wants you to learn from it. the venue is booked, the tickets are about to be printed but the main speaker may not show up. >> tonight a growing push from a group in northern virginia requesting congresswoman barbara comstock answer their questions in a town hall meeting. >> reporter: those behind this effort tell me they have the chair, they have the name plate, they have the microphone, all

barbara comstock. they expect 150 people who live in the tenth district to show up here friday night. problem is, at this rate they're not sure if there will be anyone here to answer their questions. >> good evening representative, comstock, i'd like to invite you to our citizen's town hall. >> reporter: a seemingly genuine invite calling for dialogue. those behind it, members of indy indivisible. they simply want a face to face public conversation with congresswoman barbara comstock. >> we're really looking for her to be our representative and our champion in washington, d.c. >> reporter: they've even picked out the location but no rsvp from the congresswoman. >> she's an independent voice for virginia. she's been representing the area for

house and then in congress. >> reporter: a former republican delegate to virginia's house, david says constituents should have access to their elected officials but doesn't trust this group's motives. >> i don't think this group is asking really for a dialogue or for a real town hall. what they're looking for is a show. >> reporter: he thinks it will end up like last night's virginia beach town hall. first term congressman scott taylor fielding questions from nearly a thousand people. >> we are going to have crowd control. it's going to be a controlled environment. >> reporter: the former delegate says comstock's been transparent. >> tonight she is holding a teleconference town hall where thousands will be able to log in. >> that doesn't take the place of the congresswoman coming out to her district and having community meetings. >> reporter: last week the i-team reported that the house sergeant at arms was warning congressional leaders that

president's day week long break they should be vigilant at any sort of public gatherings. as for the congresswoman, i did try to text her today. i also tried to e-mail one of her staffers. didn't hear back regarding this story. a man is facing chae ining driving under the influence after a crash that killed one woman and injured another. it happened about 2:00 this morning at route 28 and the dulles toll road in loudoun county. a jeep slammed into a divider on route 28. two women were thrown from the vehicle. one of them died. police tell us the driver has been charged with driving under the influence. faced with decreasing ridership and increasing costs metro's general manager says the agency is in trouble and there's no light at the end of this tunnel. adam tuss joins us with more on that and i

>> reporter: things just not getting any easier for metro right now. aside from just having the trains and buses show up on time, this general manager now has a very real and a very big budget problem for years to come. metro is shedding riders. year over year, ridership down 12%, in large part due to safe track. that obviously is stretching the financial picture even further. so does metro's leader regret safe track? >> no. that has to be done. it's a 40-year-old system that was not taken care of. >> reporter: the gm admits we they never get back to a spot where metro is carrying 750,000 riders a day. metro is looking everywhere for savings today from slashing jobs to potentially cutting service. money is tight. >> i can continue to press. i will. on absenteeism, workers comp,

but the big numbers just aren't there. >> reporter: while the gm has not called for a dedicated source of funding for the region specifically, others have said something like a sales tax needs to be set up that would specifically fund metro. >> red line does have its issues but still so does 270, so does 495. >> reporter: do you feel like you're getting what you pay for? >> yeah. >> reporter: for now metro's leader putting the region on notice that something financially is going to have to change. the general manager told us today that he believes the region understands that metro is really too big to fail financially. coming up, policing our schools. the i-team taking a closer look at who's more likely to be arrested at school. plus a former teen idol

health battle. and the warm air just does not want to stay away from the area. here comes the warmth. look at 72 just back to the west. temperatures soaring the next few days. ♪ ♪

one major local district did not provide the i-team with their specific rules for school reso resource officers. more on that and what could be changing for that school district will be in scott macfarland's report tomorrow night at 6:00. is it art or an insult to police? >> reporter: she's one of the world's most successful artists. now her work is being displayed in d.c.

y29phy y16fy there's a legal fight underway over a controversial painting th ing thaing that por officers as pigs. a missouri congressman filed a federal lawsuit in d.c. after that painting was removed from the capitol. he says the removal violates his constituent's first amendment rights to freedom of expression. the painting was taken down after some complained it was anti-police. the officers in the painting are

black panther. the singer adele is a big fan of her work and soon you might be too. the hirschhorn museum is bringing us something we haven't seen in nearly two decades. it's called infinity mirrors. it's the work of one of the world's most successful artists. >> five or six of these infinity mirror rooms, which is unique, never been done before. >> reporter: it's being called a one of a kind exhibition by yayoi kusama. through mirrors, images and lights, the 87-year-old artist takes the public on a unique journey inside her mind. >> in the '70s she started experiencing hallucinations to a point where she had to return to japan actually where e

institutionalized. >> reporter: for years she has lived with a mental illness. the curator says much of the work on display was inspired by her experiences. >> having these mirrors reflect each other with plays of light going up and down, you experience somethi that i guess is as close as it can be to the hallucinations. >> reporter: one by one, visitors will have a chance to walk inside each room and feel for a moment what plagued kusama's mind. they're visions that have even inspired artists like adele. she used one of the infinity mirrors as a backdrop for her performance at the brit awards in london. before there were infinity rooms, kusama expressed herself through culture. she determined to share her story with the world. >> mentalne

triggering an amazing body of work and creation. >> reporter: reporting in d.c., meagan fitzgerald, news4. the exhibit was inspired by the artist's struggle with mental illness. if you or someone you know is dealing with similar issues, we invite you to our website for a link to resources. it's all part of hour campaign o help what we call changing minds. nbc 4 responds tonight to a billing blunder. imagine getting a bill for nearly $7,000 and then being told it had to be paid or else your water would be turned off. >> this is one of those totally frustrating situations when you get an outrageous bill, you think it's wrong and yet you can't get anyone at the company to help you. diane shoemaker k

water bill. she has lived in this home for 40 years and normally pays about $100 a month. when she received a bill for more than $6,000, she says she nearly passed out. to make matters worse, the utility threatened to shut off her water. >> that's when i called channel 4 to talk to you guys, because i wasn't getting anywhere. they weren't calling me back. all they were doing is threatening they were going to turn the water off. >> nbc 4 responds contacted the utility company. we'll tell you what they said and also if you're a customer, this is going to impact you too. the story coming up tonight on news4 at 11:00. doug, more early spring? >> yeah. that's about all i got. >> keeps coming. >> we've got that. we've got a couple of showers

you? >> i've been bored for most of this winter. many of you love the warmer weather. the allergies are way up early this year. people are asking should i start fertilizing. no. still too early for that. it kind of gets you in that spring-like mood for sure. temperatures today a little bit cooler but still above average. winds have now shifted. they were out of the east earlier today. now they're out of the south. that will keep temperatures up tonight. frederick at 53 degrees, leesburg at 52. no rain in our immediate area, but i want to show you what's happening just back to the west. we've got two systems moving our way. one will go to our south, another to the north. we may squeeze out a couple of showers tonight, taking look at one of the latest computer models here. by 8:00 in the morning just cloud cover early. during the noon hour notice we start to get a little sprinkle action in here. again, most of the area

best chance of rain will be in our southern zones around fredericksburg. that's it. not much in the way of rain tomorrow. most of us will remain dry. temperatures will be going right back up into the mid 60s. cooler in fredericksburg. that's because of the clouds and that chance of rain down to the south. a nice afternoon across our region and not bad tomorrow morning. it will be cool at the bus stop but very nice by the afternoon even with that cloud cover out there. temperatures continue to soar. sunday a high temperature of only 50 and rather windy. and all of next week also looks very boring. 74 again, though. >> welcome to an early spring. sports coming. that thing about jason werth never talking to reporters. guess what? he talked to carol maloney.

first here's lester holt with a look at what's ahead on nbc nightly news. ahead tonight the president speaks about the wave of threats against jewish community centers across the country. we head north to witness the desperate journey of undocumented immigrants from the u.s. to canada and what's behind it. plus as actor david cassidy announced his battle with dementia, we take a close look at its many forms andauses. c

this is the xfinity sports desk. >> she's got sports. carol's down in florida. you know what she has? she has somebody that nobody ever gets before. i am told this is the get of all time. tell us about jason werth. >> reporter: he's good in the media, he just shies away from tv cameras. i still didn't know he was going to sit down with us until the moment he walked out. it's a pretty big deal. this is the final year of his seven-year contract with the nats. he wants to keep playing, but will he? time will tell. no matter what, he tells me this season will define his career with the nats. >> i have no regrets. you take your shots, you get your chances. we've had some good times w i eve had some bad times.

if we wouldn't have been in that situation, we wouldn't have had those bad losses. no regrets. i just think we've been successful, but we haven't been successful enough. >> reporter: what does have to happen for you to consider the seven-year war with werth to be a success, a major success? >> i think we need to win a world series. that's been the -- that's the goal going into the season for every team, for every player. or at least it should be. i mean, we've had success. this team was a year away from a 100 loss season when i got here. now last five years for sure we're one of the best teams in baseball. so that -- in that regard, it's been a success. but i think a lot depends on this year and what we

ultimately though we need to win. we need to get to the world series, win a world series. for me to really, you know, say this has been a success. >> reporter: yeah. so it's world series for jason werth. that is the goal. he says he wants to play four or five more years, but it's all going to hinge on this year and his wrist, which is fully healed. he broke it three times in his career. he says as long as he can hit for power, he's still going to be in the game. >> good for him. how long ago was it when he had that world series? >> 2008. >> we would love to know what that feels like. we have never known what that feeling is. we've got super bowls. we've got nba championships. what must that be like? thank

what is that like? >> i wish i could tell you. i've never covered a world series team. let's do it this year. the battle of the beltways will be a little different for this season. the contract for two years, $21 million with an of out for the second year. wieters likely becoming the number one catcher. >> we were trying to, you know, get better in the position. we watch a lot of their games with the orioles. i'm sure he's happy to come back to the area. he's a big bat in the line-up. and to my understanding calls a good game and handles the pitching staff well. >> and if

about bao bao leaving d.c. v no fear. georgetown's jack the bulldog trying to ease your pain. the bao bao cam is just grass now. there was a facebook live premier of panda jack today. >> he doesn't look too enthusiastic about it. >> that ain't right. >>

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.

tonight, anti-semitism uproar. president trump condemns a wave of threats against jews. what he tells nbc news after criticism he didn't comment fast enough. trump's deportation plan. new details on a much more aggressive effort to deport undocumented immigrants. flood calamity, roads into rivers and dramatic rescues in california. officials warn a critical dam is not out of danger. americans killed in a tragic crash in australia. what caused the plane to plunge exploding into a mall? fighting dementia. after a former teen idol's devastating diagnosis. what you can do to combat it.