jackie bensen. >>> amtrak says it will operate on a modified schedule. trains between d.c. and norfolk are canceled so is at auto train from virginia to south florida. >>> snow blanketing the sand, leaving the popular beach town. maryland's governor declaring a state of emergency for that area saying the snow is going to take a while to clean up. >> serious storm down here on the shore. we declared a state of emergency last night and i am glad we did. snowbanks but most people heeded the advice and stayed off the roads. >>> not just us folks, leon harris at the live desk. 15 to 20-foot waves slamming chunks of ice and debris into homes. what you see here is the situation in scituate, massachusetts. it is only january 24, but the storm is being called the blizzard of 2018. boston harbor, highest storm surge in years. >> this is probably the worst i have seen it since living here. >> definitely isn't nowhere. >> the tidal surge little different. >> reporter: what is the concern now? >> the next high tide. 1:00, 1:30 in the morning. all you here is the waves splashing against

news 4's jackie bensen takes it up from there. >> right down there in that cemetery are the graves of the men who thought it was a good idea to sell my family. >> reporter: from her dorm room -- >> this is the tiny >> reporter: melisande short-colomb can look down on the grave of the jesuit priests who owned her ancestors as slaves. >> we have greatly sinned. >> reporter: after much prompting from students yorjtown university publicly apologized for its ugly history of slave ownership. short-colomb, a chef by profession, seen here in a photo by gus bennett, part of his new orleans people project, remembers reading something about it in the newspaper. but it was only last year after getting a call from a genealogical researcher that she learned her great-grandparents were among the slaves sold to plantation owners in louisiana by the jesuits in 1838 to raise money for georgetown university. >> to be able to connect in america who owned your family, who sold your family and why, to be able to put that together never associating it with my family. >> reporter: when short-colomb learned t

at georgetown university, jackie bensen, news 4. >> wow.t that must feel like and look out that window and look down at that. chuck, how inspiring is that,?;3 years old to go back to college? >> job well done. i think history is a fine major choice for her. unbelievable. >>> for us, we're in store for a big snapback in temperatures here. you know something is out of whack in the atmosphere when it's early january, it's before already near 60 degrees outside. our average high only 43. so today, likely to be the warmest day in weeks. we were 65 on the 23rd of december. if we can get above that, it will be the warmest day since november 29th, right after thanksgiving when we were 70. no matter how you slice it, a nice warm day. unfortunately or fortunately, depending how you look at it, we'll have rain. rainy for your date night plans on friday night. the polar plan arrives this time tomorrow. there will be a near 50-degree drop from what it feels like. going to feels-like factors in the teens and 20s before the sun goes down tomorrow. right n

live in arlington, jacki bensen, news 4. >> they sneak up on you, jackie. thank you. 1.45 million people up and down the east coast were under winter weather advisories. the good news now, this deep winter freeze is starting to loosen its grip. boston, buffalo, and providence, rhode island all felt temperatures above freezing today for the first time since christmas day. we're working for you to keep you updated on tomorrow morning's school delays. if you have the nbc washington app, make sure you allow push alerts so you can get real-time information. our news 4 today team will also have all the latest delays starting right here first at 4:00 a.m. >>> now to breaking news that might be related to tonight's icy mix. three families are staying somewhere else tonight after a car skidded into their apartment complex. news 4's shomari stone is at the scene in bethesda. >> people who live in this neighborhood tell me the woman was driving here on this cold pavement, hit some ice, you can see the tracks right into this building. take a look at all of this damage.

live at the tidal basin, jackie bensen, news4. >> good advice. thank you, jackie. >>> fairfax county school officials say students may see more school bus delays in the morning. some school buses had problems starting today because of the extreme cold weather. hundreds of students were forced to wait in the cold for nearly an hour. tomorrow you can track the delays on our nbc washington app. search "bus delays." >>> in the district we just learned cramer middle school will reopen tomorrow morning as scheduled. today a pipe bur the basement. crews worked all day to fix the pipe and clean up the mess. the school tweeted just a few minutes ago, telling students and staff to use the front entrance tomorrow. >>> leon harris here at the live desk where president trump has started the new year as you would expect, on twitter. in just the l]q couple hours, he has seemingly threatened to cut off u.s. aid to the palestinian authority, compared the size of his, quote, nuclear button to the one in north korea, and attacked what he calls the dishonest media.

. >> that's where jackie bensen joins us live tonight. jackie, what have you learned? >> reporter: jim, sources tell us that the shooting is not believed to be random or the result of a robbery attempt. instead, investigators preliminarily believe it resulted from a dispute between the two men involved. witnesses say the shooting happened right in front of the doors to the george washington university hospital entrance in the 900 block of 23rd street northwest. it was just after 8:30 p.m. the streets were filled with people walking from the gw foggy bottom metro station a few yards away. crime scene technicians documented the scene and placed evidence markers near numerous shell casings on the ground. police say bystanders, it's unclear whether they were hospital staff, helped the man get inside the facility. officials confirm that the hospital was briefly placed on lockdown. officers blocked off the lobby with crime scene tape. the dashboard camera on a passing metrobus may have captured images of the shooting. metro transit police officers held the bus in order to do

news 4's jackie bensen is live in the newsroom with that story. jackie? >> reporter: jim, 17 years old. 17 years old, she calmly describes the torture and stabbing of a 15-year-old girl she believes played a role in the death of her boyfriend. and all of it recorded on cell phone. this still image pulled from the cell phone video of the murder shows the look of terror on the face of damaris alexandra reyes rivas, 15, as she stares into the eyes of venus iraheta. this is the recorded fairfax county poli the 17-year-old calmly confesses to torturing and murdering the younger girl. a former romantic rival she believes played a role in the january 2017 murder of her boyfriend, christian sosa rivas, a gang member. >> then what did you do? >> i killed her. >> how did you kill her? >> with a knife. >> what did you do with the knife? >> [ speaking spanish ]. >> i don't remember how many times i stabbed her in the stomach. >> was it a lot? >> like 13. >> she told detectives at the direction of one of the gang members present before stabbing her she did something g

here's news 4's jackie bensen. >> reporter: family members say louis spessard and his wife built in th as their dream home. >> if we go to the bob evans in springfield, this all knew who uncle lou was. they all made sure he got his extra rolls and his coffee cup was filled. because they liked uncle lou. >> reporter: john walker is talking about his great uncle. he treasures this photo of lewis spessard seen here with his first wife hazel around the time he served in the military where he learned aw skill that would make him a sought after repai >> they would go to the fine department stores, pick up things, people would bring things to their home. they were very well known in the annandale community and in northern virginia. >> reporter: lewis spessard was found dead in the house on columbia road after fire swept tlou the house around 4:00 a.m. fire officials say mr. spessard who useded a walker became trapped and unable to escape. a woman who rents a room says she escaped the burning house as smoke detectors began sounding. mr. spessard remarried several years ago. he's seen here in a