diane cho is live near the scene with the latest developments. >> police say the shooting happened here, near these homes last night. a party was being held about 100 feet away. >> all of a sudden i heard pop pop pop, and it did not sound like a real gun. >> sounds not heard often here. >> the worst thing that has ever happened is a screeching of tires. [laughter] somebody going too fast on ridge road. you never hear gunshots. >> it was unexpected. >> devon gallagher was on his computer last night when he said he heard people yelling outside. >> essilor like there was a fight. -- it sounded like there was a fight. there were 6, 7 people in the street. >> greenbelt police say two teenagers were heading to a party at the synagogue when they saw an altercation nearby. a 60-year-old male was shot in the arm and called a family member who took them to an area hospital, while a 19-year-old managed to run to the synagogue for help after he was shot. >> i'm saddened. prayers go out to everybody. >> the synagogue says they rented out facilities last night to an outside community group. it hasn't

our diane cho is live there with reaction from the parents and students this noon. what are they telling you, diane? >> jummy, as you can imagine, parents we talked to this morning are simply not happy. a lot of people have been getting on line on social media sites like twitter here voicing their frustration today. in fact, the hashtag has become one of the top trending topics this morning after the school district decided to keep school open at the normal time. one mom had to come up with a last minute game plan today with her neighbor to try to get their students to two different schools today. she said she drove in from oakton to get to luther middle school in falls church which took her more than an hour. and by the time she got there, she learned some of the teachers weren't there yet because they were stuck in traffic themselves. the school district sent out a message to parents this morning apologizing for the difficulties the weather caused today saying that the decision was made with the best information they had and the conditions, obviously, were far wors

in fairfax county, diane cho, abc 7 news. >> ok diane thank you very much. meanwhile, loudoun county schools also caused a stir by opening on time. county school spokesperson says the decision was made about 4:30 a.m. after the director of transportation and 18 other staff members drove around various parts of the county to survey the roads. once the kids were at school it was the safest place for them to stay. more from loudoun county coming up at 5:00 p.m. those decisions, of course sent students and their parents straight to, you guessed it social media this morning. at 10:15, six of the top 10 twitter trends in d.c. dealt with the weather. >> yeah, and you can see that included the call to close fairfax county schools and the public information service in loudoun county talked about that as well. joesy at our live desk right now talking about how you sounded off today. >> the answer is loudly. the twittersphere sounded off today. one local school district took heavy fire eventually trending across the country. we want to show you #closefcps had thousands

diane cho is in the newsroom with our friends want the law to change. >> they were out to raise awareness on virginia's move over laws, to try to save another family from having to deal with tragedy. tow truck after tow truck piled into this parking lot sunday morning, to honor a fellow driver killed on the job. >> everybody is kind of in shock still. >> the 45-year-old better known as aj worked for fairfax towing and recovery. he was looking up a disabled vehicle nearly two weeks ago when the box truck hit him. he died at the scene. quick someone should have to suffer any tragedy like this. -- >> no one should have to suffer any tragedy like this. >> this is his oldest son. >> part of me is winning to get a call to say, what is going on? to see his smile, hear his laugh. part of me is waiting to hear that again. >> he said he was only expecting a few dozen drivers to attend the memorial today and was touched to see the massive turnout. >> to see how many people came out to support my dad and to raise awareness for the move over laws is amazing. >> the law requires drivers to move over it

. >> diane cho shows us what's being done for the dogs who were only discovered because of a crime.pitbulls were ed and underweight when they were discovered but still, they were considered the lucky ones. >> any time an animal dies it's a horrendous case. >> police say a pitbull was found dead last weekend frozen to the ground. the lieutenant with the anne arundel police department say detectives were out investigating a recent homicide in the freetown community when they came across this littered area with trash and bowls of water where the dogs had been trained to trees left out in the cold. >> for such a cruel act for people to do this for animals, you don't know what they could possibly do to a human. that's problematic and these are people we need to talk to. >> animal control officials say the dogs are now recovering. some have even gained weight since they've arrived. >> we have to hope for a positive ending for the dogs that we were able to help. >> police say there's been a recent spike of violent crime in the neighborhood where the dogs were discovered. two were homicides

diane cho says what is being done for the dogs. >> most of these five pitbu were malnourished and underweight when discovered, but they were considered lucky. the police say that six dogs were found dead friday. one was frozen to the ground. the anne arundel county police department say they were investigating a recent homicide in the community. they came across this area and glen burnie littered with trash and bowls of frozen water, where the dogs had been chained to trees, left out in the cold. >> for people to do this to animals, you just don't know what they could possibly due to a human. that is problematic. these are people we need to talk to. >> animal control says the dogs are recovering and some are gaining weight since they have arrived. >> you have to hope for a positive ending. >> the police say there has been a spike in violent crime in the area. two were homicide, and there is an attempted murder that is being investigated. >> we are looking at whether these incidents are related including this animal abuse. >> which is why they are hoping somebody will come forward with the inf

in alexandria diane cho abc 7 news. >> thank you diane. the u.s. ski team is in shock tonight after two olympic prospects were killed in an avalanche. the victims have been identified as 20-year-old lonnie brlach and mike astley. they were part of a group of six skiers training in the austrian alps. the two left the prepared slope and set off an avalanche in the process. other four skiers escaped unhurt. we told you about a serious crash that shut down the inner loop of the beltway near b.w. parkway. let's get the latest on that situation trafficwise this evening, bob standing by in the wtop traffic center. what's the word now? >> leon still some pretty hefty draz delays on the inner loop starting on georgetown pike at 270 and 355 and the crash just cleared a few minutes ago. all lanes have been reopened on the outer loop of the beltway, delays start at 214 getting into green belt. but now nothing left to see and start to see things start toin out a bit. southbound baltimore-washington parkway is hung up badly getting down to the beltway. 95 to vir

diane cho is live in suitland with that video. it's new at 4:00 today. diane? >> well alison it happened right here in this parking lot as the victim was walking out to meet her son. within seconds, we see the suspect pushing her down to the ground grabbing her across the parking lot here before he eventually took off running down the street. we want to show you that surveillance video from 2013 when this happened at the gas station that the victim owned back then. prosecutors say she was walking to her son's s.u.v. at the time to take some money to the bank. you see the suspect running across the parking lot trying to grab the money out of her hands breaking her hip in the process. and surveillance video, you can see the victim's son trying to help his mother. prosecutors say he stopped when he saw the suspect was armed with a gun. what you don't see in this video is the suspect jumping into a getaway car driven by michael hall and he was just sentenced to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a robbery. >> and that's why a case li

diane cho live in falls church with what the parents are saying and the school system's response as well. diane? >> well alison the school system says the conditions ended up being much worse than they expected. as you can see behind me in the parking lot, they're still plowing here at this school at timberlane elementary school. many of the roadways look like this sidewalk out here right now. employees are still trying to get the snow off their windshield as we speak but now as you can see near the school the roads have since been cleared. >> i'm not happy about that. >> this fairfax county mother is outraged after her son waited at the bus stop this morning for more than an hour. >> the bus never showed up. we are at the top of the hill. >> she tried to get her schools to school on time. it took another hour to get to her son's middle school from oakton to falls church. >> it's ridiculous that this happened. >> michael webb is a special education teacher at timberlane elementary and she was more than two hours late because of traffic. >> snow covered slush and you could see where it wa

diane cho abc 7 news. >> and coming up on abc 7 news at 5:00 thousands of retired federal workers data compromised. the glitch that may have put all of the information an identity thief needs out in the open. >> their second walk down the aisle went viral. what this ring bearer and flower girl turned bride and groom are now saying about their chance meeting and their on-line fame. >> good samaritans make an effort to help a metro rider. i'm suzanne kennedy. that story is coming up. >> new details are emerging tonight about the moments smoke filled a yellow line train near l'enfant plaza leaving at least one person dead. >> within the past half-hour we've learned just a handful of people are still in the hospital tonight being treated for smoke inhalation and other injuries they suffered. and we've also learned tonight that the woman who died in that smoke-filled train is 61-year-old alexandria woman named carol glover. >> all of this as metro prepares to finally move that train tonight. and the ntsb leads an investigation into what went wrong. among those evacuated were people trying t

diane cho is live tonight with that video. diane? >> well alison, it happened in this parking lot two years ago. as the victim was trying to take a bag of money from the convenience store here to the bank, the suspect took off running here down the street thinking that he's probably going to get away with it until the victim's son ended up chasing after them. everything appears to be normal on the summer day in july of 2013. watch as you see the victim's son walking to their s.u.v. in this surveillance video. the 74-year-old soon follows leaving her convenience store here on silver hill road. just seconds later, prosecutors say you see lee running across a parking lot after her knocking her to the ground and drag her as he tried to rip the bag of money out of her hand breaking her hips. the victim's son gets out of the s.u.v. and rushes over to help his mother. prosecutors say abdullah lee pulled out a gun forcing him to step back. moment later, you see two employees at the gas station running after the suspect. the victim's son also

diane cho live on the scene with word on when this road will be reopening. d, diane? >> leon it looks like they're getting ready to reopen the stretch of route 7 here any moment now. initially, they thought they'd be done out here by 4:30. it took them longer to finish the repairs to the road. fairfax water tells us the fluctuating temperatures caused a water main break overnight. crews have been out here all day, though, and told they finished replacing the pipes earlier this afternoon and water has since been restored to the area. they've been working on repapering the roads for the rest of the day. we're told it affected eight homes in this area. we talked to a lawyer who works out of his home nearby and he says he first noticed all of the commotion this morning but hopes since they've been out here pretty early this morning they would have been done a lot sooner. >> going to the gym about 5:30 this morning, and i noticed that the road was shut down. the police were out there. the fairfax water crews were starting to assemble and everything. it was kind of

diane cho has how you at home can help. >> even though rex survived an explosion several years ago in afghanistan, he is facing a deadly disease at home. >>, on. >> this eight-year-old is no ordinary canine. he was deployed for two tours in afghanistan. his job was to sniff out explosives. >> all these dogs have saved numerous lives of american serviceman. >> in 2009, he was being transported when a roadside ied if their vehicle. the explosion caused him to be more sensitive to flashing lights and loud noises, forcing him into retirement. >> any strobe lights, sirens blinking lights, though scare him. >> this marine was deployed in afghanistan when rex was with a unit. they have been inseparable ever since. >> he is pretty much our kid. >> after surviving missions abroad, he has another battle at home after a tumor was dithe back of his throat. >> he is a loyal patriot who has served his country. the is a member of the family. it's deftly heartbreaking. >> his surgery and medications have already cost $3500m, and cancer treatments will only pile up. they have created a crowdsourcing p

diane cho, abc 7 news. >> in greenbelt, a condo fire forced more than a dozen residents from their homes and into the wet, cold weather. the fire started just before 5:00 this morning and greenbelt. richard reeve spoke with some residents who escaped the fire. he is live at the scene with what they said. rich? >> kimberly, a lot of upset people. you can still smell the smoke. some of the debris -- mattresses, pieces of furniture, filing cabinets, even a bike. this from an apartment packed with stuff. the authority still trying to figure out what caused the blaze. a ball of fire, heavy smoke, blaring alarms. >> i smelled smoke and said this is not a malfunction. >> a frightening wake-up call for residents at the condos in greenbelt. >> the smoke was filling the kitchen. >> this woman who lives next door to where the fire started was among those shocked awake saturday morning. >> i saw the smoke and then the alarm went off. we got up, got out, got the dog. >> fire investigators say the two alarm blaze began in this basement apartment. once packed full, it is now gutted. >> there was a lot

diane cho live in arlington with this story you'll see only on 7. diane? >> nicole says she want to get her 3-year-old car seat checked to make sure it was properly installed and it turns out it was actually her 8-year-old booster seat that needed to be adjusted. she says had she not figured that out, two months before the accident after going to a car seat check safety event, she feels her daughter's injuries would have been much more severe. take a look at these photos of the crash they were in. you can see why. they were rear ended last month and both of her children were in the back seat at the time. now, the d.c. blogger and stay-at-home that typically writes about free programs in the community feels she has a new calling to make sure parents understand just how important it is to make sure they have their car seats and booster seats checked. >> what if i didn't have my 8-year-old in a booster and she was just in the seat with just the seat belt? you know could it have been a different story? i think so. >> coming up at 5:00 we'll hear more from her

diane cho picks up our team coverage from the station in arlington tonight. hi diane? >> there's plenty of ice here on the sidewalks outside of the metro stop in arlington. there's some small patches of ice and snow here out on the roads. much different story earlier today especially out in loudoun county where there was still icy roads in some of the side streets out there creating dangerous conditions for drivers. those who try to avoid getting behind the wheel dealt with their fair share of problems. at one point, everyone except metro's blue line had some sort of delay this morning. many of them were caused by cracked rails or rail car issues due to the extremely cold temperatures, 30 minute commutes suddenly turned into 1:40 for some people we talked to. one woman we talked said it took her 45 minutes to go five stops on the red line towards shady grove and she certainly wasn't alone. >> had to get out because that train broke down. wait for another train to come. get on that train and we sat out for about 30 minutes because that train ahead of us broke down. >> m

diane cho is live in arlington tonight with the look at the problems of stretch commutes from minutes to hours. diane? >> well leon we had just checked the boards and it looks like the times are back up there now. and it looks like the orange and silver lines are running on time right now. but this morning many o these platforms at various locations are filled with crowds of people because of all the delays. posted on twitter this morning said it all. >> i'm ticked off and i'm freezing! >> it's ridiculous. >> this is what it looked like at the grovener stratmore stop on the red line after they had equipment problems and one train became disabled because of a brake issue. at one point, every metro line except the blue line experienced some sort of delay during the morning commute. >> it's unbelievable. i've been riding metro for 15 years and they don't seem to get it right. i don't understand. >> katie morton posted on twitter from the cleveland park stop this morning, want to say something witty about the nightmare but my humor is still defrosting. gave up and went home. >> we're the

diane cho has the story. >> 27-year-old bodenheimer was a former volunteer coach with the washington little capitals and authorities say he's been charged with 10 counts of possession of child pornography. several parents in the northern virginia area whose children play hockey in the community told them the children was being approached by a suspicious person on line. an undercover officer posed as a 12-year-old boy who plays hockey and that's when investigators say the suspect sent what appeared to be child pornography of a 13-year-old girl. investigators say over the course of the next several days he continued to send more child pornography and they eventually seized computers and hard drives from his parents' fairfax station home. he's being held currently without a bond. he was recently working as a contracted instructor for cold rush hockey. owner told us by e-mail that "she was shocked and absolutely sickened to learn of the information surrounding his arrest." she says that they immediately notified their clients and recommended that they speak to their children. in arlingto

diane cho abc 7 news. >> very cute. national children's museum will spend the first days of the new year moving. the museum plans to shut down its national hub or location on sunday. it will temporarily loan some of its exhibits to d.c. public libraries while it searches for its new home. they are hoping to move into the district as it searches for new space, a new location though, has not yet been found. >> it will give people at the library something else to focus on. >> exactly. it will be nice. >> up next on abc 7 news at 5:00 paying more at the pump where the gas tax is on the rise with the new year. and other new laws that come with the change of the calendar. >> a million dollar bethesda home invaded by a family of squatters. how police say they >> an upscale bethesda home falls victim to what police say are squatters. investigators say that a convicted con artist moved into the vacant home along with his wife, children and pet dog. only on 7 tonight, montgomery county reporter kevin lewis is live to explain that

our diane cho is live with what this means for commuters this noon. diane? >> well jummy, a lot of headaches this morning for metro riders who are taking the metro today during rush hour especially during that 8:00 hour when a lot of these problems seemed to arise. right now, we are joining dan stecil, the spokesperson for metro to talk about the latest situation going on right now. dan, tell us what's happening. >> well, very difficult morning this morning operationally. the result of two cracked rails. one at east falls church and the other at prince george's plaza. east falls church just wrapping up those repairs right now. should have that track back in service within the hour and prince george's plaza we had that fixed in the 10:00 ur. in addition to that we had rail car equipment problems primarily affecting the red line also the result of weather and this extreme deep freeze taking its toll on what is 40-year-old equipment. we have new rail cars on the way much more rugged than the ones we're using now but they can't arrive soon enough for the passeng

diane cho reports. >> it's been nearly two weeks now since he's been in the hospital. >> i'm screaming i got shot. >> after his friend pulled him to safety he was worried he may have been paralyzed. i couldn't feel my legs. >> the 22-year-old believed he was blessed with good instincts on the football field knowing where to be at the right time. on december 30th he said he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. >> first shot came and the second one hit me. >> the star safety for the montgomery county rams feared his hopes to play in nfl were about to get ripped underneath him. he just landed a full ride to a junior college for his talent on the football field before the shooting happened. >> sometimes you have to look past the evil and just thank god because it could have been other way. i could have died, you know. >> he admits he was kicked off campus at another school because of mistakes he made when he was younger. he thought his career in football was over until he met the coaches at the rams who helped him land a scholarship. it was his second chance to focus on what he loves.

coming up at 5:00 diane cho has more on the special deliveries and why some hospitals have stopped announcing the first baby of the year. >> foreget about parties and confetti. people across europe celebrated the beginning of the new year that's right, with a dip into some of the continent's coldest waters. the tradition dates back decades in countries like italy and germany. more than 55,000 people expected to take part in similar events across europe. some brave souls, steve rudin. >> at first when i saw that video, i thought that was key bridge. obviously mistaken. >> nothing i'm interested in doing today. >> no polar plunge? >> no, not for me. have you done that? >> no. >> i would definitely do it. >> you would do the polar plunge? >> definitely, why not? >> what would you wear? >> i'll let you pick. >> wet suit. easy way out of that one. hey, today was a nice way to end, but not end start the new year. a lot of sunshine. a little cool out there. a lot of people were like it's so cold when i was walking my dog this morning. it's january 1s. >> what do you expect? >> we have to get through

diane cho, abc 7 news. >> thanks diane.ight from the man whose terrifying wreck sparked an image that went viral on social media. take a look at this. kaleb whitby's chevy truck slid into a jackknifed tractor-trailer in oregon to be crushed by another tractor-trailer. whitby said after the initial crash, he turned and all he could see is the headlights of the second tractor-trailer. >> i turned right back and closed my eyes and said a prayer that i'll be safe. i'm firm in that. i tucked my head and kept praying the whole time. when things like that happen and what i've come to realize it is a miracle. >> incredibly whitby walked away from that mangled mess of steel with only bruises and cuts. in all, 26 cars were involved in the pile-up on ice covered roads. we are lucky we did not have any of that around here this weekend. >> a little sleet north of town this morning but all things considered, we're in a weather pattern that's pretty nice and talking that the six to next seven days looks really great. wednesday, not so gre

diane cho has our update now from our live desk. diane? >> 22-year-old marcus smith was worried that he may have been paralyzed after he was shot in the back because he couldn't feel his legs. he just landed a scholarship to a junior college out of the d.c. area, of course, and was worried that all of that was going to be taken away from him. he says that he was hanging out with his friends on december 30th in northeast d.c. when someone opened fire. smith says he didn't even have a chance to react before he was shot that day. he is recovering at a local hospital and will have to learn how to walk again. he won't let this setback stop him from getting back on the field and trying to make it in the nfl one day. >> sometimes you have to look past the evil and just thank god because it could have been other way. i could have died you know, and i don't hold grudges, you know i'm coming out on top or i'll be on top. >> and it's unclear how long he'll remain in the hospital at this point but hear more from smith coming up tonight at 6:00. alison

. >> diane cho is there live with an update and what's to blame for the break.ed? >> well alison and leon as you can see out here crews are still out here working on the roads right now. they have a couple of patches of asphalt they need to finish up before they can reopen the stretch of route 7. it is still blocked off at this hour between lee highway and cherry street. they've been out here all day after a 12-inch main broke during the overnight hours this morning. a spokesperson for fairfax water say the temperature fluctuations that we've seen recently caused the pipes to burst here in falls church. we're told this is one of three they've been working on throughout the county today. we're told that eight homes in this area were without water because of it and we talked to one neighbor who says it really didn't affect her but she was surprised to see crews still out here working on it when she got home this afternoon. >> it didn't seem too bad this morning. they were trying to flush owl that out. it looks like they're just patching things up now and putting d