alex perez with more. >> approaching a garage. in real life, tragic results. caesar loved stopping by his parents house to share an espresso. in june this family ritual shattered. >> to walk in and have to see that. >> it's ended in your brain for the rest of your life. >> caesar sitting here with his lawyer speaking out about the morning he found both parents rin na and pasqual dead after they accidentally left their car running in their attached garage. >> i was unaware there was a problem till this happened to my parents. >> the 2013 lincoln mks had a push button or keyless ignition. investigators say reena put the fob in her purse despite an audible warning likely made by the car. officials say the carbon monoxide from the engine built up into the garage and seed into the house eventually killing them both. to find out how quickly the fumes in a running car could turn deadly, abc news conducted a demonstration working with carbon monoxide experts to monitor levels, the bay shore fire department in long island new yorking there to help keep us safe. a chrys

tonight abc's alex perez finds out if your own car can put you at risk and how to stay safe. >> we're going to go down, we're going to mask up on the floor. >> reporter: firefighters armed with masks and safety gear. they approach cautiously knowing this garage is filled with deadly concentrations of carbon monoxide from the exhaust of this car left running. it's a frightening demonstration, but in real life it can have tragic results. investigators have confirmed 12 deaths since 2009 that are linked to carbon monoxide poisoning from cars with keyless ignition that had been accidentally left running. rena fontanini of illinois. >> i'd sit here, my mom would sit here, my dad would sit here. >> reporter: they were found by their son cesar in a routine morning visit after he finished his shift as a firefighter. >> i saw my dad laying four feet down on the main entrance by the garage door. >> reporter: in that moment you must have wondered what's going on. >> i thought my dad had cardiac arrest. >> reporter: pasquale had collapsed from carbon monoxide poisoning. upstairs rena in the same

here's more from abc's alex perez. >> reporter:. the bracing for more rain and the governor, a warning. >> just because the rain stops does not mean we are out of the woods. >> reporter: a breach of a dam causing an emergency evacuation in forest acres, south carolina. national guardsmen in columbia going home to home searching for survivors, spray paint ag"x" where all is clear. this man doing the same from a kayak. the last 24 hours, family after family plucked from the flood waters. >> everything that i own that i know of has been destroyed. >> it's heart wrenching but i'm so glad we're safe. >> reporter: we rode with scott weber who took his own boat to check on his neighbors. >> i actually beached the boat on the roof and was stomping on the roof to listen to see if anybody thumped back. >> there he goes. >> reporter: this man trapped in his two-ton truck helplessly swirling like a toy in a bathtub. that driver and his rescue er z lucky to be alive tonight. david, a first look at the severe damage. you can see the white car cau

alex perez, abc news, kansas city, missouri. >>> the former head of chicago's public schools is apologizing to students and teachers. barbara byrd bennett pleaded guilty to corruption charges, admitting she steered $23 million in no-bid contracts to her former employer. outside the courtroom she cheerfully said students and teachers deserved much more from her. prosecutors have agreed to a 7 1/2-year prison sentence. >>> twitter is cutting back. the company is laying off more than 300 employees. that's about 8% of its staff. engineering will be hit hardest. the goal is to streamline twitter internally so it can move and adapt more quickly. analysts are divided on the move. it's one of the first moves by founder jack dorsey since he returned to twitter as ceo. advertisers still prefer facebook and google. >>> all right. how about this? starbucks have started a rather unique delivery service inside one of the most famous buildings in the world. >> it's happening at the empire state building and only at the empire state building. the whole thing is called starbucks green apron delivery service

alex perez, abc news, st. louis, missouri. >>> a body has been found inside a car buried in the mud at the scene of last week's flash flooding in california. it could be the first death related to the mudslides and severe flooding north of los angeles. the vehicle was found upside down and tilted sideways in a retention basin. it was six feet deep in the dirt. >>> and in arizona it took a team effort to rescue a woman from a flooded roadway while there were three first responders wading to the van and then they walked the driver to safety. others were upstream to make sure no large objects came toward the rescue team. and there were workers downstream in case either the rescue team or the driver were swept away. the driver said the water rose rapidly. and in the southwest it is bracing for more severe storms today after yesterday's extreme weather brought strong winds, hail, flooding, and possible tornadoes. at least one funnel cloud spotted yesterday northwest of phoenix. more than three inches of rain could

break even though the state capitol saw its first day of dry weather in nearly two weeks, abc's alex perez is there. >> reporter: in south carolina that could burst under pressure. >> don't let the sunshine fool you. >> reporter: thousand-pound sandbags at the ready. they'll be dropped by these national guard chinook helicopters to stabilize this canal. in columbia, this is what we saw on burwell lane, water lapping at the roofs of homes. robert wise finally back at his house which was underwater. what's it like to come back and shambles? >> it's overwhelming. there's no way to describe it. >> reporter: 11 trillion gallons of water, enough to fill more than 130,000 rose bowls, it's making already swollen rivers overflow long after the rain is gone. at least 17 are dead in these floods. >> i have three children at home. we don't have anything to even flush toilets or take showers. >> reporter: alex perez, abc news, clumolumbia, south carolina. >> the concern is in the southwest. take a look on radar. rain stretching from the mexican border into colorado. strong thunderstorms are expected wi

>> alex perez tonight. thank you. >>> we turn overseas tonight, and to israel. a wave of violence now sparking fear and the reprizal. one stunning attack today caught on video. a driver slamming his car into a crowded bus stop. then getting out, stabbing people. authorities say with a meat cleaver. he was shot dead. there is fear tonight that the violence against israelis and palestinians in recent days could threaten to spin out of control. >>> back here at home tonight, to chicago, and the former head of the city's public schools pleading guilty to massive fraud. barbara bird bennett admitting she steered $23 million in no-bid contracts to education firms for more than $2 million in kickbacks. she will serve 7 1/2 years behind bars. >>> next here, a drunk driving arrest like we've never seen before, perhaps saving the driver's life. and here she is, a young woman, using a smartphone app called per scope to stream live video of herself throughout the night, including the drive home. it revealed she was driving drunk. a number of people seeing it, calling 911. t

alex perez leading us off. alex, thank you. let's get right to meteorologist rob marciano in south carolina. the governor saying, don't let the sunshine fool you. the next 48 hours could bring more flooding? >> reporter: yeah, much of that water, david, that fell in the upstate has to come down the river system into the low country and the water certainly is rising. several major rivers are going to continue to rise and be a major, if not record-breaking flood stage, including the ashley river which i'm standing next to. so, we'll will watching that very, very carefully. i want to mention this out west, in the southwest, we have flash flood warnings in phoenix and those watches expanded into parts of western texas. but here in the low country of south carolina, david, we are anxiously watching the water come up. >> all right, rob, thank you. >>> in the meantime tonight, we turn to the urgent search for the black box, after that ship went down after heading right into hurricane joaquin. 28 americans on board. federal investigato

>> alex perez. thank you. >>> we have breaking developments in that missing cargo ship. it went down, trapped by hurricane joaquin. the search now called off tonight. the cargo ship company saying the victims shared a bond, a love of sea. some of the faces of those lost. their families pleading with officials to keep searching. it comes after search teams plucked debris from the ocean, letters, numbers visible. that search now over this evening. abc's linzie janis, though, with new questions about the history of that ship. >> reporter: tonight, crew members' families receiving the news they were dreading. >> it's been six long days of hoping and praying. >> reporter: the exhaustive search for the 33 on board the el faro called off by the u.s. coast guard. >> any decision to suspend a search is painful. >> reporter: 25-year-old michael holland's mother thankful for the camaraderie of life at sea. >> if they can't be with this family -- >> yeah. >> then they're with their family. >> reporter: finding solace with the mother of 34-year-old danielle randolph, so proud of her

>> alex perez reporting in for us. thank you, alex. >>> and now to the race for 2016 tonight, and to the fallout from the fiery debate last night, the rivals taking swipes at one another. but also at the mod rail or thes. and you will hear what they said to them. and then the war of worlds between jeb bush and marco rubio. did the moment backfire on jeb bush? abc's tom llamas on the campaign trail tonight. >> reporter: tonight many calling this a game-changing moment in the republican race. an attack that backfired. jeb bush call chenging the man he mentored, marco rubio, for missing more votes than any other senator this year. >> but marco, when you signed up for this, this was a six-year term. you should be showing up to work. i mean, literally, what is it, like a french work week? you get three dames where you have to show up? you can campaign. or just resign and let somebody else take the job. >> reporter: but rubio ready for the attack. >> the only reason you're doing it now is because we're running for the same p

alex perez, abc news, columbia, south carolina. >>> the ntsb has now joined the investigation into the sinking of the cargo ship "el faro." 33 people were on board when the ship went down last week during hurricane joaquin. in 15,000 feet of water. only one body has been recovered so far. investigators say finding the voyage data recorder will provide crucial information. >> the voyage data recorder has a lot of information. it would give information about everything that happened in the 12 hours before it actually hit the water. >> that recorder will ping for 30 days after it's touched by water. >>> the justice department is set to release a record number of prisoners, nearly 6,000 federal inmates will walk free later this month. that's the largest number ever to be released at one time. most of them are non-violent drug offenders. it's part of a white house push to reduce the country's overcrowded prison population. >>> a texas inmate has been executed for killing a man during a robbery which netted $8. juan martin garcia received a lethal injection last night. he acknowledged shooti

alex perez tonight. >> reporter: tonight investigators in st. louis on the hunt, trying to figure out who is setting fire at churches. >> original doors built in 1948. >> reporter: reverend rodrick burton says the damage to his church could cost more than $7,000 to repair. the building's original 1948 doors, charred. >> if someone is attacking or stepping out, americans should come together and say, this is wrong. >> reporter: in the last two weeks, 6 churches, all within 3 miles of each other. the fires all set near an entrance different denominations, but mostly black congregations. >> it is arson, these are being intentionally set. it isn't spontaneous combustion so they're not occurring on their own. >> reporter: this area still recovering from the riots sparked after ferguson police officer darren wilson shot and killed michael brown. tonight, many in this community praying for the culprit and, for an arrest. you are see the flames so hot, completely melting the siding on the church here. atf investigators believe the same person is respons

alex perez with what the video showed. >> pulled you over today because you flashed me. i didn't even have my brights on. >> yes, you did, sir. >> nope, i didn't partner. >> reporter: the encounter quickly turning deadly after sergeant jonathan frost pulled over 17-year-old deven guilford in michigan for flashing his lights. >> driver's license, registration, and proof of insurance, please. >> i don't even know you're an officer. handing over his driver's license, the teen starts recording the february encounter with his cellphone. his video on the left. the situation heats up. >> you are right now refusing to give me your i.d. refusing to give me your i.d. in a traffic stop is a misdemeanor. >> reporter: the officer calls for back-up. >> do you realize that if you would've complied with this traffic stop it would've gone a whole different way for you? >> yes, i do. >> out of the car or you're going to get tased. >> reporter: that taser ineffective, the prosecutor later finds, also saying that, at this moment that the camera deputy, repeatedly punching him in the head, p

team coverage across the storm zone, and alex perez starts us off in columbia. >> reporter: crews using a rope to rescue a woman. and take a look at this mom's face. grief and relief. as firefighters get her son out of a car and into her arms. a marathon of rescues in columbia, south carolina, dangerous for even trained firefighters. two firefighters rescued today. there's so much water, it's easy to forget it's a roadway, not a river. and the water up to the rooftops of some homes. these residents trapped on the upper level. roads giving way. dams bursting. this man escaped with his wife. >> it's tough because everything i own that i know of has been destroyed. everything i've worked for. >> reporter: countless neighbors volunteering all day and night to get people to safety. >> when i saw what was going on, i just felt the need to help. >> reporter: some who lost everything they owned, just grateful they'll get a chance to start again. >> it's heart wrenching, but i'm so glad we're safe. >> reporter: now, the wait for the water to recede. the cleanup process just beginning. >> alex, t

alex perez is there. good morning, alex. >> reporter: hey, good morning, george. many are waking up to scenes like this one. there's a creek somewhere back here. so much water, you can't tell where the creek ends and the neighborhood begins. this morning, in columbia, residents waking up to scenes of total devastation. >> everything that i own has been destroyed. >> reporter: people wading across streets to see what's left in their home. that's a bed frame wrapped in that tree. >> i've been here since 1986. i have never seen anything like this in columbia, south carolina. >> reporter: this man using his own boat to help with rescues. >> i was stomping on the roof and listening to see if anybody thumped back. we found a note that said we're in the attic. >> reporter: officials warning be prepared to be without drinking water for days after water mains broke. reeking havoc on the city's sewage system. >> it's hard. everything. my car. my pictures. >> reporter: overnight, we caught up with kelly, who grabbed anything and everything she could, as water came rushing in