reading online, they wanted police in maryland to know about it it was alexander song, been busy on read it, a new sharing site and omagle, an online community where strangers are linked to strangers. song saying, quote, i will be on a shooting rampage on campus tomorrow. hopefully i kill enough people to make it national news. and stay way from the mall at 1:30. >> it was a serious threat. >> reporter: as he drove on campus to approach his dorm at 10:00 a.m., he was arrested at his call. >> there were online postings that led us to believe that he is very stressed out. >> reporter: his family home has been searched. his laptop seized. no weapons found. song was involuntarily committed for psychiatric care. >> out of character for him. >> students who know alexander song are surprised. >> he has close friends and stuff, so it wasn't like he was

antisocial. he was a nice guy. >> on the university mall today, police offered a reassuring presence and students viewed the threats as the real thing. >> i think that is a significant threat and i don't want him here. i don't want someone here that is going to threaten the campus like that. >> at the university of maryland, scott broom, 9news now. prosecutors say they are reluctantly dropping the charges against a part-time teacher accused of having sex with a student. dropping the charges because of a legal technicality. last month, 47-year-old scott speier was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old. the prosecutors say the case is no more and that legal technicality, well, it is all about speier being a part-time employee at the school. >> has to be a full-time employee of the school. teacher, principal, add min spray tore, something along those lines. but as a part-time employee, he falls into a loophole. there's no crime with which he can be charged. >> schools will conduct their

own investigation into whether speier engaged in inappropriate behavior with that 16-year-old and speier remains on leave. speier tells us he has never done anything inappropriate with any student or any athlete he coached. >> only only 9, we are learning more about the explosive device found inside an alexandria home last week. obtained the search warrant that details what police found and that document says the explosive was similar to vices used by terrorists overseas. there's no indication of a connection to terrorism. this is a mock of what it might have looked like. the device was 12 by 8 and had lots of nails, screws, and bolts inside. if it blown up, would have acted like strapnel. a virginia mom who faced up to 40 years in prison for the death of her son walked out of the prince william county courthouse today a free woman. sort of. karen murphy was charged with killing her two-year-old son by

leaving him in a hot van. but she was sentenced to probation with community service. >> karen murphy sobbed loudly after leaving the courtroom. her husband ushered her out the back door of the prince william county courthouse. she'll be on probation for six years and must do 400 hours of community service. she will face no jail time in the death of her two-year-old child. >> my daughter is six weeks old and i can't imagine being too busy, you know, you're a mother, that's your responsibility. that's your first priority no matter what else is going on. so i definitely think she should have to serve time for it. >> murphy had been indicted after leaving her toddler in her minivan all day on june 17. she had forgotten to drop him off at daycare and went straight to her job as a vet at the caring hands animal hospital in bristow. at the end of the day, her husband drove that same minivan to the daycare and back home

again after not finding the child there. at home, they made the horrific discovery, finding the child dead still strapped in his car seat. >> this is the parking lot where karen murphy left her son in the car for seven hours while she went to work at the caring hands animal hospital. of particular concern to the commonwealth attorney, she done the same thing five months earlier. >> after the first event, almost inconceivable to me that it would repeat, but it's clear that she sort of concentrates on things other than the well being of her child. >> friends and clients are relieved she will spend no jail time. >> it's a tragedy. i feel better about the justice system. >> people make mistakes. >> the loss of cheer child is a lifetime sentence that she will live with. >> reporter: peggy fox, 9news now. and murphy will perform that community service at an animal shelter. former penn state coach, jerry

sandusky's case is back in court today. sandusky's attorneyments the judge to give him more information about when and where those alleged crimes occurred. and the names of the people present or nearby because that may help them develop a defense. the judge did not rule on the request and gave no indication as to when he might make a decision. we have more information about why the late joe paterno was fired last fall. the penn state football coach was fired shortly after the sandusky scandal broke last fall and a report from the university trustee says that they fired paterno after learning about his testimony before a grand jury when the charges were filed against sandusky. as for why they did it via the telephone? the home was surrounded by the media and they determined there was no private way to do it in person. another spectacular spring- like day out there made nicer in the late afternoon. thanks today light savings time. the sun sticked around an hour longer. can we expect more? >> it's going to stay warm all

week. we're looking at temperatures of late april, almost early may. let's start with temperatures because it's still mild outside. we are still looking at 66 downtown, but it's still 72 in manassas and also in culpeper and still 72 in fredericksburg. even in frederick, it's 63. and 66 in leesburg. our average high is 55. satellite picture, radar combined. some showers are on the way. certainly nothing in the immediate metro area for the next few hours. we will come back and track the showers and tell you when they'll roll in tonight. for tonight, mostly cloudy, breezy and mild. lows 50 to 55. winds southwest at 10 to 15. we'll come back and let you know if it's going to be a wet commute going to work and come back and let you know, could we hit 80 before the week is out? it's possible. thank, top. republican gop candidates are making their final push. but up next, what we now know about the soldier who allegedly slaughtered more than a dozen

villagers in afghanistan.

we still do not know the identity of the american sergeant accused of killing more than a dozen afghan villagers over the weekend. but the taliban is vowing revenge for those deaths. at least nine of the victims are said to be women and

children. we have the story from elizabeth. >> look at these bodies. they are all belong to one family. >> grief stricken afghan families are preparing to bury their loved ones. as investigators comb this murder scene, there's an outcry for justice. barbaric actions, that's how the taliban are classifying sunday's alleged attack by a u.s. soldier on afghan civilians. afghan president karzai, is calling it an unforgivable crime. u.s. officials are condemning it. >> it does not reflect the values that we share with the afghan people and our joint resolve to work together. >> president obama called president karzai to offer his condolences. the white house says sunday's tragedy will not derail the u.s. mission in afghanistan. >> but it is important in the aftermath of this terrible and tragic incident to remember why we are there and what our objectives are. >> the gunman's identity is

not being released. nato will only say he's a u.s. army staff sergeant in his mid 30s from washington state. he is serving his first tour in afghanistan, but deployed to iraq several times. >> this is very clearly the act of one individual for motives we don't understand right now. >> soldier was taken into military custody when he returned to the base. according to the pentagon, he will be judged and not face punishment ons the afghan justice system. sunday's massacre compounds the fragile relationship between the u.s. military and the afghan people. just weeks ago, protests erupted when military personnel accidentally burned koran's. i'm elizabeth reporting. and that suspect is 38-year- old staff sergeant with a wife and two kids of his own. cbs news is reporting that the family moved on to his base for their protection. take a look at this sky 9 out over the funeral home in perserville, virginia, where the town is paying tribute to a

hero. captain michael quinn died last month in afghanistan and his body arrived at reagan national airport one hour ago. this procession is going to be making its way to percerville and a will the of folks lining the streets honoring him. alabama and mississippi are on deck for their republican primaries tomorrow. rick santorum visiting both states today. mitt romney made a brief appearance before taking the rest of the day off from the campaign trail to celebrate his 65th birthday. a poll out finds 73% of primary voters believe that romney will be the nominee. gingrich and santorum are appearing at a republican candidate's forum. spring doesn't officially start until next week, but topper says it feels like it's here already. then, in search of the perfect bracket. what are the odds for one person to get all 67 games

correct? are there that many? wow.

shocks, sadness, and call for justice in florida tonight. last week, 17-year-old tray martin was visiting family inside a gated community near orlando when he walked to a nearby convenience store. george zimmerman who was head of the local community watch called the cops to report a suspicious black man in the neighborhood.

now the police reportedly told him not to confront the teenager, but he did anyway and he shot trevon in the chest and he died. >> i really believe if that was a white boy, he would still be alive. >> i wonder if the shooter had been a black man. >> he would be in jail. >> police do say he was unarmed. zimmerman was scheduled to start a course in criminal justice today. they are conducting a full and complete investigation and urging neighbors to be patient. developers are calling this the rebirth of the waterfront. mayor vince gray took part in a ground breaking ceremony for the sky house project. the two commercial buildings are being transformed into two new luxury residential buildings. one bedroom and two bedroom apartments. the first phase of the project aught to be done by early 2014.

>> cemeteries going high-tech. today the cemetery showed off it new geo spatial mapping technology. that's what it's using to manage operations now. that change comes as the paper records are being replaced. eventually, it will have detailed maps on its website and visitors will be able to zoom in on a single grave site and find out who is buried there. a stunning development for the washington redskins tonight and the news is not good. days after trading for the second pick in the upcoming draft, the team learned that they will have much less to spend on free agency. you see, the nfl says the skins front loaded too many contracts in the uncapped 2010 season. those contracts given to albert haynesworth are the likely culprits. so, as a result, the redskins will lose $36 million in cap space over the next two years. the cowboys lose $10 million and almost every other team will gain $1.6 million because the league cannot take away salary cap space from other

players. it is a huge hit for the team and could have implications on the redskins this year and next year. have you filled out your bracket yet? how many upsets are you picking? you think a perfect bracket is possible? the odds are long. a math professor says if you filled out a bracket with every possibility, the amount of paper would not fit inside the universe. so, what are the odds of finding perfection? if you use a coin to pick the winner of every, the odds are one in 1 million. that is a one with count them, 20 zero's. even the incredible wisdom of topper shut would not be enough to pick a perfect bracket. it would take a little luck. >> better off playing the lottery. odds wise, anyway. 72 today. good enough, sir? >> i think i will not complain about this. >> it's like may.

72 is early may and 75, we're talking mid 70s later this week. our live weather cam brought to you by michael and son. clouds moved in. it's still dry. it's going to be dry around the immediate metro area. temperatures are nice. 66 degrees downtown. winds out of south at 9. the pressure is steady. 30.16 inches of mercury and the dew point 46. it will get moist as we go through tonight. why? because we have showers rolling in. these showers appear to be west of town are not reaching the ground. showers toward cumberland are and a rumble of thunder toward morgantown. temperatures, still in the upper 60s. a couple 70s still left. 72 in manassas. but 68 in leesburg. 67 in reston. and even 71 in college park. 68 in beltsville and 67 over at andrews. temperatures are well above average. our average high is still only 55. a warm week.

a few showers tonight. a thunderstorm possible tomorrow. and actually, a better chance of storms on tuesday night and just beautiful on wednesday. it's going to be a tough day to get to work on wednesday. here's a look at the future cast. by tonight, 10:00, clouds yes. most of the showers well west of us and these are all light. shades of green here. and into west virginia. we'll put this into motion. by 4:00 in the morning, a little line of showers tries to develop. but still very, very light. and the good news s get out of here by early morning. most of us have a dry commute to work tomorrow. maybe not southern maryland, southern charles county. may have left over showers, but most of us will have a dry commute and a sunny commute. we get into the afternoon hours, it's still clear and then we see another batch by 7:00, 8:00, about this time tomorrow night south of town. may be two batches of showers. one in the early morning hours and one late as we go through

the afternoon. it becomes unstable tomorrow. mostly cloudy tonight, breezy and mild. 50 to 55 and winds southwest 10 to 15. by morning, maybe an early shower, but becoming partly cloudy. breezy and mild. 50s and 60s and even though we had showers, you need sunglasses tomorrow and then by afternoon, partly cloudy, mild, in fact, warm. shower or thunderstorm possible. high temperatures about 75 and winds out of the southwest at 10. all right, next seven days. it stays warm right on through the seven days. look at wednesday. just gorgeous. sunshine and 74. 76 on thursday. a couple showers or storms possible. better chance for storms on friday. that will hold us in the upper 60s. we can handle that. low 70s for st. patrick's day. watch that marathon live here on channel 9. we have a shower chance. but not bad. temperatures in the 60s when you are running and low 70s on monday and maybe a shower or temperatures in the upper 60s. >> love that 55 at night.

we'll be back. we want to hear what you think. send your e-mails to mcginty's mail bag. mailbag@wusa9.com. 9news now will be right back.

greatest tv theme song ever. in the mail bag tonight, afghanistan, an american soldier allegedly goes on a killing spree, gunning down 16 afghan civilians, alfred says it is fine for u.s. officials to offer condolences, however, now where are the expressions of regret and apologies by president karzai for the four enlisted members of the nato forces and the two high ranking officers of the u.s. killed? far more afghans are killed by afghans. why doesn't the karzai government do something about that? alfred, it's a fair point. polls say a will the lot of

americans say it's time to get out of afghanistan. over on the wusa9 facebook page, a heated debate over karen murphy, that mother who left her two-year-old to die in the back of her minivan. murphy will serve no jail time and that struck you as insane. lisa writes, so, let's see. a person can go to work, leave a child to die and only get probation and community service. did i get that right? how do you have kids and forget them? karma will get her because she has not suffered enough. but, joe argues, the woman was guilty of making a tragic mistake. the commonwealth deemed it not necessary to jail her because of her contributions to the greater good and the fact it was a mistake. this is not enough for you vultures to accept the fact it was a tragic mistake and one she'll have to face for the rest of her life? you know what? i would note the prosecutor who is no softy thought murphy had suffered enough as well and

favored this lighter sentence. and having accidentally killed her own child, that is a life sentence, i think harden criminals would take years of extra jail time to avoid. we never avoid your e-mail. the address, mailbag@wusa9.com. that is our report. i'll be back tonight and don't forget, log on any time you like to wusa9.com. have a great evening. enjoy the weather. bye bye.

now, "entertainment tonight," the most-watched entertainment news magazine in the world. >> was whitney houston's daughter too calm and controlled speaking about her mother's death? >> she always asked, do you need me? i said, i'll always need you. that just came out of my mouth. i'll always need you. ♪ >> now, how bobbi kristina is really doing? >> i'm her daughter. i got to keep moving. i have to carry on her legacy. >> as we analyze oprah's riveting new interview with the houston family. >> and drug, whitney and younger men. >> and what happened inside the hotel room? >> i saw my brother trying to revive her to the point of exhaustion. >> the details you haven't heard. >> i could not leave her.