this kid's not having it. he's like, yeah, breakingovernight, routine traffic stop leads to a deadly shootout and a police n officer slain georgia. an urgent tip stopped what might have been america's next mass school shooting involving an armed 14-year-ol boy. >> had they not made that call, there is no doubt in my minth at we would be having a muchen diff conversation here right now. a new investigation has emerged this morning into the $107 million trumpfunauguration nd as new details emerge about hush money paid to a porn star and playmate. are you ready for a thrill ride to the edge of spac and is 100 grand enough to

make you give up that smart phone for a whole year? "early today" starts right now. good friday morning. >> police in dekalb county georgia confirming that a traffic stop led to aoss on their force. >> i have sad news to report this morning. tonight a dekalb county police officer died in the line of duty serving theitizens of dekalb county. the officeconducted a traffic stop, the driver fled on foot, the offeder pur him and during that foot purr site, the suspect produced a handgun and shot the option. >> it happened in a grocery store parking lot near interstate 20 the officer had been with the force for less than two years. backup arrived and found the suspect who shot a canine office. the suspect was taken to the hospit and pronounced dead.

a new bombshell for the trump team. according to a "wall street journal" report, donald trump's inaugural committees also under a federal criminal ainvestigation foregedly misspending 107 million dollar. federal prosecutors in manhattan hether somegating of the committee's top donors gave money in return for access to president trump and his administration. in an intervie with fox news, white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders distanced president trump and the first head di fromhat committee. >> this didn't have anything to do with the president. the president was focused on the trantion. the role that the president had in the inauguration was to raise hi hand and takehe oath. same thing for the first lady. >> president trump has yet to comment on that report. president trumpeanwhile is breaking his silence for the first time since his fixer michael cohen was sentenced. in an interview with fox news mr. trump dismissed cohen's role with his company saying cohen did, quote, very low level work.

sources tell nbc news that mr. trump was in the room with michael cohen and the national enquirer publisher when hush money payments were discussed. >> reporter: president trump on defense. i'm the only one this happens to. d> reporter: on fox news the president lasheut at former attorney and c fixer michaelohen who's going to prison for crimes he says he committed at thepr ident's direction. >> let me tell you, i never directed him to do anything g. wron whatever he did, he did on his own. he's a lawyer. >> reporter: cohen admitted he facilitatedo payments two women who claim to have hadir af with trump. david peckerit a and ttedmd hel corroborate cohen's testimony. nbc news confirmed that pecker, cohen and the future president met in august of 2015 to discuss ways to counter negative stories about his relationships with men. the president down played cohen's role as a trusted

confidant. >> he d very low level work. heid more public relations than he did law. >> reporter: the president continuing an onslaught that started on twitter decrying the russia investigation asch a wit hunt. >> it seems like he's alarmed and he has good reason to be alarmed. >> reporter: the president has said for months he's not concerned about impeachmentte lling reuter this is week he hasn't done anything wrong and saying if that happened, the people would revolt. but privately nbc news has learned he's confided in those close t him thae is alarmed. the feds a racing to figure out who was behind the e-mail bomb threats that led to y and evacuate waeions in cities from coast to coas kerry sanders has the details. >> reporter: across the country, schools, businesses, hospitals evacuated, police searching for

explosives in at least 21 statet and d.c. a wave of bomb threats. the fbi now investigating what law enforcement sources tell a s news appears to be widespread hoax. in each case the threats came in an e-mail, later posted by some targets on twitter. i want to ypropose a bargain. you pay me 20,000 in bitcoin, and explosive will notlooking f the threat overseas. each threat taken seriously but no bombs found. this morning we could have been reporting news of yet another school massacre but we'renot,ll because of a quick-thinking tipster whose actions put anch indianal on

lock down. >> ts world is something else for real. i do not understand this. >> reporter: in an indiana middle school a crisis averted. thanks to an early tip dennis intermediate school locks its doors. police confronted and hater exchanged gunfire with a 14-year-old boy before he could target students and teachers. officials saying the tipster saved lives. >> had they not made that call, there is no doubt in my mind that we would be having a much different conversation here right now. >> reporter: richmond police say they can't release the shooter's name, but many credit their rapid respons and the school's activeer training for avoiding a massacre. gun deaths have spiked to their highest level in two decades.

60% of those gun doeeaths are suicide. >> as ugly as it is, itould have been way worse. >> reporter: and a sense of dread. >> i already think about this ppening every day, so sending him to school is very, very >> reporter: the next time might not be so lucky. matt bradley, nbc news. a waveis finally ov in france. the manhunt for cherif chekatti ended gunfire. as officers moved in to symptom him he opened fire. that's when police shot and killed him. reporter: french police say a nationwide manhunt for a terrorist isover. cherif chekatt killed in a shootout with police notar from the christmas market where investigators say he launched his deadly rampage. chlice say att, a lifelong criminal turned isis supporter,

was hiding out in a warehouse, that they spotted him by helicopter with thermal imaging. when he came out, police confronted tm. he fired ay fired back killing him. in the end police found chekatt in his oldor neigod. police may have set a trap to flush him out. hours earlier they searched the same area. police have cordoned off andre searching this neighborhood about a mile from where the attack took place. he francere's been criticism that chekatt, who had been on a terrorist watch list, was able the carry out his attack in the first place. leading the news, ade familr lopment in technology could dramatically change concert security all tnks to a taylor swift concert. facial recognition was used at a

taylor swift concert earlier this year to detectnown stalkers. the venues set up kiosks displayidisplay ing rehearsal footage. if the sky is clear where you are right now you may want to go lookoutside. the annual geminid meteor shower is back. you can expect to see about one shooting star per minute. in this case, that's the constellation gemini. the activity this time is expects to be at its highesta. around 4:0 eastern. >> good morning, everyone. we are watching just aoang rein this morning coming on shore in areas of florida, spreading through georgia and k soutrona.

we have a chance of severe weather too from jacksonville through the-4corridor. 9 people people at risk. is the greatest threat. with all the heavy rain, the grounds so soggy that we have flash flood watches for about 9 million do million people. that's a look at the big weather story of the day. here's a closer look at your day ahead. there's the warm temperatures our are going to fue thunderstorms in florida. further north we're going to continue with chilly temperatures. we'll take a look at the rest of the weekend forecast coming up. all right this is crazy. it was not snow that was backing up a new jersey highway thursday

morning. it was cold, hard cash, bills blowing out from a brinks armored truck during rush hour. some drivers got out of their cars trying to gra owl thosall loose bills on theroad. all this money mayhem caused several crashes. could rolling thunder be coming to an end in the nation's capital? plaque psoriasis can be relentless. tremfya® is for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. with tremfya®, you can get clearer. and stay clearer. in fact, most patients who saw 90% clearer skin at 28 weeks stayed clearer through 48 weeks. tremfya® works better than humira® at providing clearer skin, and more patients were symptom free with tremfya®. tremfya® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or have symptoms such as: fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough.

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. it was a major battle for first place among two of the best teams in the nfl. thursday night football, the chiefs, this is patrick mahomes with another amazing play.n uchd to start off the game. kc is up by twore sco late in the game. the bolts wouldome striking back. justin jackson has this run up the middl for the touchdown. eight seconds to go, philip

rivers connects with mike williams for the touchdown. why not go for o? they do. rivers steps back to pass. there is nobod around him- touchdown chargers they stun the chiefs. leading the news one of the nation's most iconic displays of support for military events, those missing in action and prisoners of war is coming to an end. the annual rolling thunder has been bringing thousands of bikers to d.c. for years. the group announced their last ride will be in may of year. organizers say it's over a lack of funding and coope law enforcement. the vp says staging the event costs about $200,000 each year, but the group has been in the red for some time.g roll thunder back in washington, d.c. in 1987. lou rigno is hospital

recovering from complications of a npneumonia vaccine. >> wow. forbes has announced the highest paid models of 2018. kendall jenner earned more than any model in the world making 22.5 million dollar in a year. >> chrissy teigen and rie huntington whitely are tied. there was a lot of money andg look pretty and strutting

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the tethree-year se for president trump's former fixer orney michael cohen. he now says he covers up his bosses dirty [ bleep ].

>> it definitely looks like he knows he's [ bleep ]. >> i had a300 pound guy walk to me and ask me t [ bleep ]. >> i still remember you said i want you to come out and [ bleep ] my family. i remember thinking wow i've never worked wit anyone who said that. i didn't know that was a thing. >> they're [ bleep ] in el paso. they're [ bleep ] in yuma. they're [leep ] in israel. >> what are they really saying? you know where our minds are going? >> we'll never know. i kind of don want to know. >> it's fun that way. > a major step forward toward taking paying customers to the edge of space as billionaire richard branson's virgin galactic passed a critical milestone. nbc's tom costello on when tourists will finally get to go. >> reporter: take off from the mohave desert.

virgin galactic was on its way, carried by its mother ship. at 50,000 feet, release. in a sudden free fall, virgin's two pilots fired their rocket. within seconds climbing to 51.4 miles beyond what the faa calls the edge of space. >> welcome to space. >> million dollar view. >> reporr: a stunning view that future space tourists may enjoy. then a perfect landing back on earth where virg's richard branson promised the first of 700 customers who paid $0,000 could start flying in six months. >> i can't think of any experience that will be more wonderful, extreme than going to space. >> reporter: fellow naires jeff bezos and elon musk are also in the space tourism business as a new space race takes off. tom costello, nbc news. i >> am so in. > so cool.

out of thisworld, but so out of our budget. >> ten years from now it could be a lot cheaper. >> there's always groupon. >>t. that's ri kfc is trying out a new tradition for the holidaysith a log they say smells like fried chicken. when lit, the log will smell like ts chain' famous fried chicken. kfc hopes it will result in a f craving fried chick. . it is available online at kfcfirelogs.com. it retails for $18. just ahead one young boy's unique way to help dogs find a home.

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christmas, but special dldls today c save you time and money. >> more layers of scandal unfolds forhe president after his formerttorney pleads guilty. major doubts about claims he was acting on his own. >> some record setti rain could be hitting in just a few hours. >> it might not feel like record breaking weather when the showers hit later today but it's expected to push our yearly rain total to a new record. we begin with chuck bell. with all the rain we've had, chuck,se might well break a record. we might as well. >> i'm with you. no doubt about it. if we suffered all of theany months with all of this rain around here, let's go ahead and break the record. i think that will be not a problem. we're a half an inch away from the all time yearly rainfall record and we have