tim fleischer was. it's called rain. streets get wet. lee goldberg is tracking the foreign object outside the studio. >> we have been looking at it all day long. sounds like the umbrella is optional. we have light drizzle right now. the george washington bridge, a little steadier in fort lee at this time. we have occasional rain and drizzle as we go through the evening hours. we are at 48 degrees. a little on the raw side. northeasterly wind feels chilly at 10 miles per hour. rainfall a quarter inch or less so far. no ponding on area roadways. look at toms river. nearly .9. they will push an inch or more steady rain over eastern long island and connecticut. a little last burst over parts of bergen and that's why the camera looked worse than what we are experiencing on the west side. there it is a gap during the evening commute before the batch over the virginia's gets here at 3:00, 4:00 in the morning. off and on rain and drizzle. if you head out, you need the raincoat. shouldn't be heavy. early commuters a period of heavy very rain. tha

here is tim fleischer with a look at what we watched and loved. >> >> reporter: police work was never like this. in dash cam confessions, dover police officer jeff davis and his rendition of shake it off is one much you tube's top ten videos for 2015. >> videos like these, lift ups, have you been popular on you tube. >> the lift is celebrate -- list is sell bracing the anniversary. >> we sedans to pranks to social experiments and top television moments. >> little heaven king from new jersey captures the top spot. >> for the first time this year we have a dance video at the top of the trending video lists. she has created the dance of the year. the top videos have over 40 million subscribers amongst them. it shows they are creating >> one of the top sites is the slow mo guy. one guy squeezes into a balloon when hits eye filled with water. suddenly -- and it's slow motion. >> taking something like the explosion of a balloon, slowing it down so people see the drama of it and making that entertaining for people to watch. >> number 4 is love has no label from the ad council where people st

they're telling their amazing story to our tim fleischer. >> reporter: the quick thinking action of officer frank. >> he was there. >> reporter: saved would could have been for driver ryan a brutal beating at the hands of a bat wielding road rager. >> he just went into lis ticket. >> reporter: last friday ryan encountered a man in a pickup truck. >> i saw the truck behind me, had plenty of room. that's when he just thought i was too close, and he just started with the high beams and riding on my bumper. >> the driver cut him off throwing a handful of change at his car. moving down on route 138 ryan tried to get away. >> as i passed him he was waving the bat. >> reporter: but then ryan got stuck in traffic. >> when i got out of the car i looked behind him, he was >> reporter: the sergeant is also sitting at a light several cars behind and a couple in front of the bat wielding suspect. >> the guy went rung past me that way. i drew my weapon and said, police officer, drop the bat. and he stopped and looked at me andy was really angry. >> do you really think at this point that this guy is going

there. >> you and me both. >> reporter: reporting from long branch, tim fleischer, channel 7 eyewitness news. >>> new details about that deadly and fiery crash between a metro-north train and an the ntsb releasing photos showing the suv after it was hit by the train that was moving at 49 miles per hour. it happened in february. the suv pushed the length of two football fields. parts of the third rail flew into the train's first car killing five passengers in the inferno. >>> new tonight a step forward to begin commercial flights from the u.s. to cuba. an understanding reached between the two naightsz to try to pave the way to restore regularly scheduled flights. the deal is expected to open negotiations between the cuban government and airlines. >>> new at 11:00 the man who got into trouble for landing a gyrocopter outside the capital now says he is rung for congress. he sleaze running a gins a south florida democrat but he hasn't specified which one. his attorney asked the judge to lift travel restrictions so hughes can campaign. haas said stunt last april was to call attention to the

tim fleischer with new information from the chancellor. >> reporter: sade, two very similar threats in new york and los angeles but two very different reactions and outcomes. certainly though tonight here in new york city education officials are giving us more of an insight into how they made the decision to hold school. >> safety is my first priority on all circumstances but we felt very confident that this was the right thing to do. >> reporter: the rate thing. leave schools open in the face of a threat of a large-scale jihadi attack. >> nypd contacted the fbi who said it was not a credible threat. commissioner bratton made a decision to keep schools open. >> reporter: another threat, however, would lead to los angeles shutting down schools. >> we believe our schools are safe, and we can reopen schools in los angeles unified school district tomorrow morning. >> reporter: late today officials revealed that all facilities had been checked. >> 1531 school sites have been walked through. >> reporter: classrooms had sat empty, buildings were closed, and buses held in place after school of

our children are being murdered. >> tim fleischer, channel 7 "eyewitness news." >> just so profoundly sad. joining us this morning to talk about this and more, reverend al sharpton for the national action network. reverend sharpton, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> so, where do you begin? you're gonna have this national campaign. what is it gonna entail? >> it's gonna entail -- we started a petition drive saturday at national action network. we are saying to the legislators, "you've got to do something about easy access to guns." let's not forget that in san bernardino, those two bought assault weapons legally, and governor andrew cuomo was on my radio show this week, bringing up the fact there are loopholes that the nra has been able to get right-wing legislators to not close that allow people that are on the list of suspects where you can't fly -- they're on the no-fly list -- but you can still go and purchase a gun. so, are we serious here? we are outraged with colorado and with san bernardino happening within five days, but a person that can't get on an airline and fly cros

tim fleischer is in queens. >> reporter: muslims are shocked as you point out, diana. they are perplexed. others condemned what mr. trump said and concerned by what others are thinking when they hear this call of banning muslims in the u.s. as men made their way to midday prayers at the jamaica muslim center, there was no shortage of minneapolis opinion from those who heard what some believe is a di vice is siff -- diabetes vice -- divisive comment. >> it am we are very upset because of that. >> donald trump would not back down. >> we have to look at people. we have to use vigilance in our country or we will have many more world trade centers and our country will never be the same. >> muslim immigrants have contributed as much as any other group of people. >> reporter: they established in america in 1920. the mosque here is in hollis queens. >> says from mr. trump are very disappointing. this is exactly what extremist want. >> reporter: trump's proposed ban-- >> this is not what the majority of americans think we don't hate muslims. although these statements are decisi

eyewitness news reporter tim fleischer is live in east flatbush brooklyn with the details. tim. >> and that murder suicide took place just down the sidewalk where those people have gathered here on this afternoon. it's on east 91st street. friends and relatives of one of those victims this morning mourned his passing. >> to lose a good man like that. >> glen alexis still can't believe his cousin who police have yet to identify was shot he sweeps up the glass that was shattered when another 39-year- old man, police say, shot and killed glen's cousin and the shooter's former girlfriend wounding her. but then investigators say the shooter took his own life in and 6-year-old daughter, children he had had with his former girlfriend. >> too much to see him one day yesterday, today not see him. so hard. >> trevor gay was good friends with the 44-year-old victim. he and others lit candles and talked about how they had worked construction projects together including the city water tunnel and the 2nd avenue subway project. >> worked together, friend, we all go to school together. >> g

tim fleischer is live in wykoff with the details on this. tim. >> reporter: and shirleen, police here in wykoff have this nagging vandalism problem on their hands this season. it would seem the grinch is not necessarily stealing christmas decorations but rather cutting the wires on those decorations. the lights and damage this property it's quite destructive and quite upsetting to the residents. >> this griffin-like activity within the past week has occurred five times, reported incidents where residents have had the wires cut on their christmas decorations. >> one would probably think that this is kids. these are pretty disrespectful young adults if that's exactly what's happening. if you get caught you will definitely be charged with a criminal offense. >> chief benjamin fox is encouraging homeowners to be on the lookout for suspicious activity and to call police if they do see any. the latest incidents have taken place in various parts of town, not one particular area. >> and chief fox stresses again that this is quite upsetting to the res

reporting live, tim fleischer, channel 7 eyewitness news. >> tim, thank you. >>> we are following breaking news right now. two big problems for long island railroad commuters. westbound service is temporarily suspended on the babylon branch because of signal problems in freeport. on the ronkonkoma branch, a truck hit a vehicle near the bethpage station there. commuters should expect disruptions there as well. we received a someone on board the train struck. no injuries to report. we are continuing to monitor the situation and we will keep you posted on the delays. >>> now the terror threats against the school system of new york and los angeles. lots of second guessing of officials in l.a. that got virtually the same e- mail as officials in new york threatening an attack on the schools but it was apparently a hoax. the nypd figured that out early on. mayor de blasio criticizing the man that succeeded him as chief of the lapd. >> it's very easy in hindsight to criticize a decision based on results that the decider could never have known. it's easy to criticize a decision when you have no res

police are trying to track down the rightful owners: eyewitness news reporter tim fleischer has more. >> look at all this, everything you can imagine. people's prized possessions, all of it stolen but now recovered in what police believe is an unusual string of burglaries dating back to 2012. >>> this was huge, especially for the residents of our community to be able to recover at least some of their properties and give them the peace of mind. >> there are more than 670 photographs of the stolen items that were recovered after police arrested 54-year-old thomas tommy earls. >> he does it for the rush and the thrill of it. >> they found all this property they revealed in his home, his car, and a storage unit. >> like the tv show unfortunately, and there's a million dollars worth of jewelry and property in the house and it's just buried and wild up. >> among the expensive items this $5000 bottle of scotch was recovered and returned to its owner. there is this 24-carat gold zip poe lighter with a handwritten letter from bob hope. there are pearl necklaces and lots and lots of jewelry. po

tim fleischer is at the scene. >> reporter: this murder- suicide certainly has family and friends struggling to understand how all of this could happen. there are two victims, males, and a third woman has been wounded. the shattered lives of families. this means the loss of his cousin, 44-year-old kinly joseph who was shot and killed in what appears to be a jealous fit of rage. kinly joseph and a female friend were captured on surveillance video innocently before they were ambushed in their car. they were approached by jerry patterson, a boyfriend that riddled the windshield with bullets. the female was wounded and patterson was killed. he took his own life while his 11-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter, children he had with the female victim, sat in his car nearby. >> trevor gray is a long time friend and construction coworker of kinly joseph. as he watched others light candles, he remembered how they grew up together in grenada. >> it's hard. >> glenn alexis will miss his love of music. >> he likes to have fun and pick up his guitar and say, let's go play. >> he was playing his trump ni

tim fleischer, channel 7 eyewitness news. >>> another random knife slashing in new york city, the second day in row. this time a man knifed in the brooklyn. this comes after yesterday's come from behind slashing of a queens. we have new information on that attack and this latest jim dolan with the story. >> reporter: bill you are going to meet one of the victims in a moment. neither victim had any idea attacked. the violence was sudden. the attackers have something in common. they're both out there still. when the a-train pulled into the station last night, and the doors opened, john and another passenger both started to step out. >> i told him, go ahead. he said, oh, go ahead, so i just went ahead, didn't think nothing of it. >> reporter: and no eye contact? >> there was no eye i can't even honestly tell what you he looked like. >> reporter: john who did not want his face shown, started to walk up the stairs. >> i was close to the top of the stairs. i felt something brush over me, i didn't think nothing of it. the guy ran off, but people started screaming, he cut you, he cut you, you're

. >> tim fleischer is in wyckoff with all the details. tim? >> reporter: rob, two police don't know if the same person is responsible. what they are doing is presented at this time messed -- pretty messed up. >> >>reporter: an elaborate display, christmas decoration are to be the wires. >> sad. i didn't hear about it at all. terrible. >> one might say that is grinch like actions and it's not to be taken funny. nothing funny about it. people take a lot of pride in the way they make their homes look. >> reporter: not to mention the cost of the decoration. in waldwick, rob's elaborate display was cut before. >> the train in particular. got cut once then redone and cut again. >> the neighbors have cameras. >> reporter: others can only guess who is behind the deeds. >> probably juveniles maybe, children running around doing i can't explain it. >> reporter: the five incidents in wyckoff have taken place in various areas of town. the police chief is encouraging residents to be alert. >> going forward, if you see anybody that may be involved, call us

tim fleischer is live on the scene for us. tim? >> reporter: and bill, that scout master's wife just a short time ago released a statement and i will read it to you in a moment. but this was not an official boy scout hike here at split rock reservoir yesterday. in fact, it was a father son and two young boys, that had been out for a fun day, and a nice day, hike in the wood, and that's where they encountered this black bear. >> having just been rescued and attack, 50-year-old christopher petrinino was rushed to a waiting med-evac with a helicopter, after a harrowing escape from the bear. >> and he entered was gotten by the foot by the bear. >> and they were hikes southeast of winnebago lake. a hunter and guide, jim franco flows the area well. >> would you have climbed into one of those caves? >> no i would not have. >> he entered the cave he was familiar with they say and did not expect to find a bear. >> and he struck the ball twice in the head with a rock hammer. >> and he puts his shirt over his head in a fetal position and yell

reporting live in east flatbush, tim fleischer abc7 eyewitness news. >>> tim thank you. the brother of rapper nicki minaj is under arrest on long island today charged with raping a child. minaj posted these photos of her and her brother 37-year-old jelani maraj on her instagram account several weeks ago. maraj is now facing charges including first degree rape of a 12-year-old child. he was released from jail on $100,000 bail. maraj is due back in court december 9th. >>> a larger area in new jersey will be open for bear hunting when the season starts on monday. officials have expanded the hunt adding about 600 additional square miles this year. wildlife officials say the extra area is in response to the rise in the bear population and more encounters with humans, the permitted hunt runs through saturday. headed back to hartford for a special legislative session, daniel malloy is bringing them back next tuesday to deal with a stage budget shortfall. a bipartisan agreement has not been reached but malloy says a deal is close enough. a plan needs to cover an estimated 350 to

tim fleischer is at city hall with the lead story. tim? >> reporter: the mayor making the announcements this afternoon. the first the regular signature nation of the homeless service commissioner and second a reorganization plan the mayor is hoping to put in place to deal with the troubling issue. >> a profound challenge and it will be for years to come. >> reporter: in the next three months mayor de blasio is hoping to review and reorganize the city's response to a changing face of mom less necessary with what he believes

tim fleischer, channel 7 eyewitness news. >>> yet another pedestrian killed by an mta bus, the fourth in the last six weeks. it happened in brooklyn, the sheepshead bay section. investigators questioned the driver. no charges have been filed. >>> turning now to weather more rain on the way. hold on to your hats tomorrow. it's been a drencher the past few hours and another band of rain is on the way. lee goldberg with the weather wall. >> our temperatures have been in the low and mid-60s all day and evening long. these are record highs tied or broken in bridgeport, islip. the normal high, 43, we're over 20 degrees above that. the rain has been light as of late. the heaviest rain went through during the early evening hours. there's a dense fog advisory westchester. we've had a quarter to half an inch. even more at bridgeport and islip. one more round. heaviest rain offshore. light rain along i naff right now. a skinny line with gusty winds due in the city in a couple of hours. i think it's just before 2:00 a.m., then moving offshore way before sunrise. partly cloudy skies at dawn. the r

eyewitness reporter tim fleischer explains why you need to know the abcs. avoid, barricade, and confront. >> reporter: an active shooter situation is about to take place in this airport. while david katz with global security group uses scenarios like this to train police officers, it also illustrates how most innocent people will react. >> last thing you want to do is freeze. >> reporter: but there the people are. >> the one back in the corner. >> this couple here. they didn't even people in the same situation won't move. >> reporter: that's when david says you need to remember your abcs. the first being avoid. >> if you have a clear path, if you can run and get out, do it. running is always your best option. number one, you get out of the line of fire. number two, even if you are being shot at, if you're a moving target it's not that easy. >> reporter: if you cannot get out, he says think barricade. >> get in to a room like this one. close the door. lock it if possible and put whatever piece of furniture you have in that room against door. pile it up. >> r

fleischer live in wykoff with the story. tim. >> reporter: and david, mr. grinch as it seems is giving wykoff police a real nagging vandalism problem this season. he is stealing christmas from homeowners by cutting their christmas decorations. >> for someone to come and cut the lights and damage this property, it's quite destructive, and quite upsetting to the residents. >> this grinch-like vandalism within the past week according to wykoff police has occurred five times. reported incidents where residents had the wires cut on their christmas decorations. >> that's pretty messed up. i mean got to spread the christmas cheer. you can't ruin it, so that's pretty sad. >> the latest incidents have taken place in various parts of town, not one particular area. >> one would probably think that this is kids. these are pretty disrespectful young adults if that's exactly what's happening, and it won't be tolerated. definitely be charged with a criminal offense. >> residents who clearly have spent good money on their decorations are upset over the vandalism. chief ben

eyewitness news reporter tim fleischer explains why you need to know the abc's. avoid, barricade, and confront. >> reporter: an active shatter situation is about to take place in this airport. while david with global like this to train police officers, it also illustrates how most innocent people will react. >> the last thing you want to do is freeze. >> reporter: but there the people are. >> the one in the couple this couple, they didn't even move. >> most people in the same situation won't move. >> reporter: you need to remember your abc's, the first being avoid. >> faff clear path, if you can run and get out, do it. running is always your best option. number one you get out of the line of fire. and number two, even if you are being shot at, you are a moving target. it's not that easy. >> if you cannot get out, he says, think barricade for your next line of protection. >> get into a room like this one. close the door, lock it if possible, and put whatever piece of furniture you have in that ram against the door. you want to pile it up. >> and if you are in a la

eyewitness news reporter tim fleischer nearby with the details. >> and david, clarkstown police were making this arrest late this afternoon. they say it's still an ongoing investigation, but they also point out this arrest coming very, very quickly because the murder they say occurred just a little more than 12 hours ago. now the victim, 66-year-old michael winbert was found stabbed to death early this morning. 19-year-old dylan lantini who gives his address as new york city ran from the apartment and call 9-1-1. when police arrived at the scene they found lantini a short distance away. he had blood on his hands. he was treated for a laceration on that hand. that's when police began to question him, and then eventually this afternoon charged him with second degree murder. >> we have him leaving the residence. we have him making a comment to the neighbor call the hospital, call 9-1-1. he had a laceration on his hand, and he was interviewed by detectives, and based on that we have probable cause to charge him with the murder second. >> reporter: and late this afternoon, he was arraigne

tim fleischer spoke with her. >> reporter: nassau county police are telling us they are taking this case seriously. store because it's not very crowded but she normally says that she's always aware of her surroundings. but this time she says she never thought this would happen. >> the feeling that i got in my chest and my stomach told me that something was wrong, that i was in danger or he was in danger. >> reporter: instinct that told this long island mother to be concerned. she asked her identity not be revealed. kohl's with her 18-month-old son when she had to change his diaper. but in the rest room she encountered a woman. >> with a lot of layers of clothing on, a hat. >> reporter: she said to the mother, what a cute baby. literally she scooped up her baby. >> she had come close, very close to me, and i kind of put my hand up to stop her from getting too close, and she said give me the baby. >> she says give me the baby. >> give me the baby. >> give me the baby. >> she took his forearm and i felt him pull back towards me. i didn't hit her or anything. i pushed her arm away, and i sai