"today in the bay's" chuck coppola joins us live from the san jose police department this morning. chuck, if approved the drones will only fly in certain situations? >> reporter: that's right. there is some guidelines, i will tell you about those in just a moment. san jose police took an awful lot of heat from members of the community for buying a drone in the first place without any public input. the can concern has been would it spy on people. well, today after numerous public meetings after that fact city council is expected to decide if the police can begin a one-year trial run using the drone. >> police should be able to use it as a tool in case they are chasing somebody, that's a lot safer than following them at high speeds. so there's probably a lot of legitimate uses for it. >> i think there needs to be a balance between what is being done, what i can request and what the public should know. >> reporter: san jose's police issued a list of guidelines for the drone's intended use, guidelines include that it would not be used for surveillance, it would not carry weapons, it wou

that's where "today in the bay" chuck coppola has been all morning long and, chuck, we know the major flames that we saw in that video they are out but there are still small flames that they're concerned about, firefighters. >> reporter: well, already. this was a very hazardous fire for them, but i do want to advise people waking up and about to'd out the door, if your commute takes you through san leandro and perhaps through the marina and doolittle this will be closed for host of the morning. if you take marina to take davis as an alternative. firefighters are still on the scene, they have been here since 2:30 this this morning and that's when the call came into this strip mall and soon 50 firefighters were on the keen here, very shortly after they arrived there was an explosion that blew out the windows at the marina supermarket. that is believed to be where this fire began. it happened as firefighters were setting up their hose lines. fortunately none of the firefighters were hit by flying gas or suffered the concussive effects of the explosion, but it did immediately lead to a lo

"today in the bay" chuck coppola joining us live in san jose right now, where, chuck, san jose city council expected to vote on that drone program. it is a subject that has stirred up strong emotions in the ast. >> reporter: that's right. this has become a question of whether government intrusion into our private lives trumps crime fighting or the other way around. san jose police also bought the drone using federal money but the department needs the approval from the city council to fly it even for a one-year pilot program. what's gotten people concerned is that the police did this without am i public discussion beforehand. it that is since held public discussions on this, the flying robot has cameras, but according to police would not be used for surveillance but instead for dangerous police situations such as someone shooting at them, but it would not carry weapons. >> we don't know what they're going to see, we will never know what they are going to see and how that could actually affect our lives. >> i think there needs to be a balance between what is being done, what i can request and

. >> "today in the bay" chuck coppola live in san leandro where the crews controlled the flames about 30 minutes ago, but it's impacting traffic this morning as well, chuck. >> reporter: it is. we're just a little bit to the west of interstate 880 and traffic is blocked off here at doolittle and marina. i want to show you the scene behind me here at this strip mall, firefighters are still on the roof of this one story strip mall, there are about a handful of businesses there, but this is proving to be a very stubborn tire because every once in awhile there will be a hot spot that pops through the roof and flames will be shooting out. we've seen it happen for the last 10 or 15 minutes or so, about three or four times. so though they are moving -- you might be able to see behind us there -- some firefighters on to the roof and then behind that over toward the left there is another aerial tiller truck, aerial firefighting unit that is spraying water on the black of the complex here. this is all happening it at the marina supermarket which is at the corner of marina and doolittle, that's

live at san jose police headquarters, i'm chuck coppola, "today in the bay." >>> 4:35. more drama for san francisco sheriff ross mirkarimi. this this time a suspended license for months. the dmv says it suspended his license back in february after he failed to submit paperwork related to an october crash. through a spokesperson the sheriff says he did not know that he was only allowed to drive to and from work until now. the controversy comes as the sheriff runs for reelection. supporters say political on nept are trying to make him look bad while critics say it's part of his pattern of bad behavior. >> everyone is embarrassed by it, but if in reality the sheriff should know better, he is the head law enforcement person in the city. >> the sheriff says he's working to fix the problem and has contacted his insurance representative to see why the proper report was never submitted. >>> happening now, crews are going to spend much of the morning trying to repair a broken water pipe that spewed precious water into the streets. you hate to see this, especially in the midst of

"today in the bay" chuck coppola is live at the fire. chuck, what can you tell us? it looks like you have lots of activity behind you. >> reporter: we're catching a little bit of the spray from the aerial truck behind us that's pouring water on to this fire. we are at the corner of marina and doolittle in san leandro, you can see the scene behind me, it's a strip mall that is anchored by the marina superintendent, that's a supermarket where the fire we are told began this morning and then it continued for several hours while 50 firefighters aboard 16 trucks arrived at the scene here. so far two businesses have been destroyed, the marina market, as well as the thrifty medical supply store next to it, however, about three other businesses also this this strip mall have been spared. with me is allen evans, he is the battalion chief here at alameda county fire. we are told there was an explosion fairly early on with this fire as well. can you tell us about that? >> yes, so after the first alarm arriving units got on the scene and were starting to set up their hose lines

nbc bay area's chuck coppola is live at the san jose police department with more for us. chuck. >> reporter: that's right. no word yet from the san jose police or the city attorney on this. but the attorney for the south san jose couple involved call it outrageous. police behavior. jasmine whitley says her husband, emmanuel stephens was followed home by a san jose police officer without cause, and with stevens' two daughters, aged 7 and 14 in the car he was driving, whitley says the officer then stopped him, pulled a gun and threatened the couple's children. the lawsuit filed in federal court this week their attorney alleges it was because of the color of their skin. >> when i told my 14-year-old, i said please can you get my camera phone so i can record it. he told her if she gets up and leaves, she's going to jail too. >> reporter: what was the cause of all this? what prompted this do you think? >> i was told that there was suspicious black man in the neighborhood, and they get these calls weekly and they have to come out and check. >> reporter: the incident happened las

nbc bay area's chuck coppola is standing by live at the san jose police department with more for us. chuck? >> reporter: that's right. it's now led to a lawsuit filed by the family and that joins another class action lawsuit of at least 3,000 people accusing officers of racial profiling. jasmine whitley said her children age 7 and 14 were threatened and driven to tears when they and their father emmanuel stephens were followed home by a san jose police officer who they claim pulled a gun, handcuffed stephens and threatened the children without any cause. a lawsuit filed in federal court this week their attorney alleges it was because of the color of their skin. >> i told my 14-year-old, please can you get my camera phone so i can record it. he said if she gets up and leaves, she's going to jail too. >> reporter: what prompted this? >> i was told there was a suspicious black man in the neighborhood and they get these calls weekly and they have to come out and check. >> reporter: the incident happened last october. whitley and stephens filed a complaint with police and with the independ

reporting live at the foot of russian hill in san francisco, chuck coppola, nbc bay area news. >> thanks, chuck. for that part of the story. let's go to cheryl hurd in oakland. she takes it from there. cheryl, once the suspect reached oakland, more chaos. >> reporter: well, janelle, a huge sigh of relief for an oakland neighborhood under lockdown for about three hours now. that lockdown has been lifted. the pursuit from san francisco ended up here in oakland, one street over on 60th street. that's where the get-away car crashed into a tree. here's video of the first suspect being arrested at 61st and idaho in front of a church. soon after that, the s.w.a.t. team and police from several agencies, including san francisco, did a door to door search for the second suspect. that search lasted a couple of hours. the second suspect was eventually caught in the backyard of a home after being bitten by a police dog. police found a camera and a gun inside the get-away car. police say the two suspects are facing serious charges. >> so we have a plethora of charges that could be facing, robbery at t

. >>> chuck coppola is also with us. e chuck, flanagan studied journalism here at san francisco n rte and even worked for s nnel 5 in town. i> reporter: that's right, raj. professors here at san francisco state university and among his earliest co-workers in bay area television either cannot recall much about vester flanagan, but they do know this much. there were no warning signs about stress on the job that he had given them in his chosen career of television news. they say quite simply, there were no red flags. vester flanagan graduated from san francisco state university 20 years ago with the hope of pursuing a career in journalism. >> i don't know of any faculty members that spoke about that. that could say i saw this then. i would think that if they had seen it, they would have done something about it. >> reporter: in the mid '90s, flanagan was a production assistant at kpix. former anchor barbara rogers said he was a young, eager kid out of journalism school. i feel so sad for the journalists killed and the young m

live in alamo, chuck coppola. >>> developing news out of china after a series of massive explosions. look at the pictures that show the fiery scene that lit up the sky. this is at a busy port this morning local time. about 13 people are dead. hundreds more injured. investigators say the explosion came from a warehouse that stores dangerous materials that did not give any further details. the warehouse is right by -- about 90 miles southeast of beijing. right now, emergency crews are facing a devastating scene with doors and windows of nearby buildings blown out. they're estimating that up to 400 people are hurt. >>> it is not slowing down. the jerusalem fire is spreading into another county. the fire in lake county has moved into napa county, burning through more timber and more brush. it has charged 16,500 acres since sunday. cal fire issued new evacuation orders overnight for at least 150 homes. the fire is 6% contained now. take a look at this new map. the flames reached the perimeter of the larger rocky fire, but authorities say they've not merged. the charred brush is acting as

. >> chuck coppola is live at the hospital where two are hospitalized as a result of the collision. >> reporter: some would say that the truck and the driver were not where they should have been. sources have confirmed that the name of the pickup driver is joel thoent messina. he lives in alameda. he and the woman who was hit after impact by the flying truck were brought here to the hospital. a driver of the 4x 4 pickup stopped on the tracks while pulling his jet ski out of the delta. the truck flew into the water, hitting a woman floating on a raft. kevin sadler, a construction worker nearby rushed over to help. and says since june he has seen people use a road marked no trespassing, and private property, to get to the water. >> people like to use that water to swim and kick back and relax. >> if you have got four by four, do you think that's a place where you are going to pull your jet ski out of the water, too? >> we haven't noticed that in the past. >> even though the ramp is on this side? >> that's correct. >> reporter: the both of the launch is a five minute walk to the other si

nbc bay area's chuck coppola has more. >> reporter: members of a book club were led off a napa valleyait police officers. one guest nearby made this comment. >> the passenger who was closest to us on the b.a.r.t. leaned forward to us and said, "this is not a bar." and i think we all kind of said in unison, yes it is! there is a bar right there. >> reporter: the women who traveled together for 17 years without being kicked out anywhere were escorted to the train's six cars. >> it wasn't comfortable at all. and people were looking at us. >> reporter: did you think there was something racial about this? >> i do feel it was racial. >> reporter: soon after the incident, the wine train's facebook page included a post about the incident, saying that the group had been, quote, verbally and physically abusive to other guests and staff. the post was ultimately removed, but the women and a spokesman for the train have different explanations as for why. >> i have to go as far as to say to the social media person, if you make another accusation, i am going to get an attorney involved, and at that

reporting live in san jose, chuck coppola, nbc bay area news. >> chuck, thank you. it> just up the road in sunnyva yunnyvale, a manhunt. the suspect might be linked to nrostitution and a murder. rolice believe this man, ll-year-old sean brown, is armed. =='s been on the run since officers shot and killed another an on saturday. it happened at a motel 6 near matilda and 101. olice responded to a report of ro picious activity. two men ran from a car when the away pulled up. ec-estigators say that brown got away. an officer cornered the other suspect where police say that ean pulled out a gun. the officer then opened fire and edet man died at the scene. f> a loaded firearm was located near his body and another loaded firearm was located in his a ckpack. >> police spent more than six curs combing this area for brown. he also has an outstanding arrant for a homicide in fresno county. s/tovew details tonight about a shootout near stockton last stkmer that made national headlines. na independent report released today found that stockton police nired weapons unnecessarily a

i'm chuck coppola, nbc bay area news. >> chuck, thank you for the update. >>> 27 hours later and till burning, crews are trying to get the upper hand on the fire. it's burning between livermore and tracy. the flames have charred 2500 acres. we've just learned the fire is now 45% contained. nbc bay area's kr ar yy area ch live to give us a report. >> reporter: they're saying that basically the fire has not grown. it has stayed consistent at 2500 acres burned. the new information, as you said, now it's 45% contained. >> i guess lucky is not the word. i feel blessed. >> reporter: the horses are back and safe. a ranch in the path of a fire near livermore had a close call but appears to be in good shape. >> they kept it from getting to the house. the firemen went above and beyond. i cannot thank them enough. >> reporter: the fire started yesterday and grew quickly to 2500 acres burned by midday today. in rolling hills in drought conditions. >> the wind were favorable today. they continue to be favorable as compared to yesterday afternoon. the winds have picked up a little bit this afternoo

we begin with chuck coppola live with more on the scope of this investigation. chuck? >> reporter: the neighborhood behind me, five years after the explosion, is still being rebuilt after that gas explosion. investigators blamed it on shoddy maintenance, and shoddy recordkeeping. now a new president says the puc commission will hire an independent panel of experts that will review every aspect of how pg&e operates. people in san bruno weren't shy about the puc's new plan to create an independent panel to investigate pg&e's entire culture. >> that's fantastic. i think finally someone is getting to the bottom of this. >> we think it's high time. this is a necessary investigation, because it's abundantly clear that the problems have not been fixed. >> reporter: we need to get to the root of the problem and determine why pg&e keeps having safety related issues says the new puc president michael picker. five years after the explosion, a spokesman for the utility says the following -- >> pg&e, i find them to be a monopoly. and if customers such as myself as community members

. = > anybody bay area's chuck coppola has been at the season ought morning. how does it look now? >> reporter: well, this is moving quickly, scott and kris, toward an arson investigation. federal agents from the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms, along with san leandro police say there's a strong smell of gas in the area. they also pulled a gas can from a dumpster where fire scorch marks lead from this to a wall drawing a line up to the roof. intense fire at the corner of marina and doolittle drive blew out the windows of the marina mart with such force that many of the firefighters disappeared in a rolling cloud of smoke. >> there was an explosion on the front of the building and it blew all the debris into the front. >> there were no firefighters injured. they were in the process of setting up. >> but the roof of the supermarket collapse been they poured water from the air, far safer. all of the shops were threatened. >> we're praying to god that, you know, that the building's at least salvageable at this point. >> do you have fire insurance? >> yes, we do, thank god. >> r

. >> had chuck coppola is live at san jose police. any idea how the vote is going to go? >> we will find out very soon. i don't want to give it away too quickly here. supporters of drones at the top of the list, police are very much anticipating a yes vote, it's the third item on the council's agenda, which means it could come up quickly for a vote if approved, it could allow police to fly a single drone for a one-year pilot program. >> i apolice eye in the sky. a drone with cameras and the ability to hover over a suspect who may be firing at officers or placed a bomb to go off. that's what the city council will consider this afternoon. the vote comes after months of public debate. >> police should be able to use it as a tool in case they're chasing someone. it's a lot safer than falling at a high speed. >> we don't know what they're going to see. >> suspension began when police used part of a homeland security grant for a $7,000 purchase of a drone without any public input beforehand. the public demanded meetings and got them. according to san jose mayor, police will use

i'm chuck coppola, nbc bay area news. >> thanks, chuck. >>> right now we do want to check in with meteorologist jeff ranieri. a lot of people will be looking to the skies tonight. >> yes, and we do have clear skies for that perseid meteor shower. we'll have more on that coming up in 25 minutes. i want to take you outside of the doppler radar right now and we still have this very weak storm system sitting offshore. we've been tracking it for the past three days. that's what you can thank for keeping temperatures out of the 90s and very comfortable. no rainfall headed towards california with this one. let's get a look outside the weather underground sky camera tonight. clear blue skies from the outer sunset in san francisco, no sign of any fog right now. we can do even better here in the oakland hills. ten mile plus visibility. look at that blue sky, it almost looks fakes. let's bring you down to mt. hamilton. we do have some haze throughout the silicon valley, but nonetheless looking very, very great. in terms of the futurecast, we start with patchy fog near the coast, maybe isolated drizzle for

. >> had chuck coppola is live at san jose police. any idea how the vote is going to go?

nbc bay area's ted coppola is with what led to smith's arrest. this morning, chuck. >> reporter: well, good morning, 25-year-old al done smith was arrested by santa clara police for driving under the influence, hit and run and vandalism. we are told that details are forthcoming, but smith, 49ers outside linebacker we know was trying to redeem himself and regain his skills as a fierce pass rusher. he was arrested overnight. this morning he posted $26,000 bail and walked out of santa clara county's main jail and disputed the charges against hypothetical. >> this wasn't a dui. situation could have been handled differently, and i apologize to everybody that i did let down and apologize for how it played out but it will work out how it's supposed to. >> robert honda las learned that the police affidavit indicates there was an argument that led to smith hitting a neighbor's car causing minor damage. smith had done well during the first five days of training camp impressing the head coach and general manager to the point where they publicly expressed that their first-round