diane cho is live. diane, you talk to this gentleman. diane: he says his life has not been the same since last year. now he's helping his case will prompt changes in the future. >> i felt like my life was about to end. diane: for the first time since it happened last may, william cunningham is speaking out about a terrifying encounter prosecutors say he had with a prince george's county police officer. >> i have not felt safe since the incident. diane: the incident was caught on video, recorded by his cousin. the victim's attorney would not release it. in it you see the officer holding a gun to cunningham's head before he lowers it to his mouth. the officer was indicted by a grand jury on several charges, including assault, and has since been suspended without pay. >> no person should have their civil rights violated. more or less, a human rights. . he is a human, and he should not have been treated in that fashion. diane: cunningham's attorney says the alleged incident happened after officers accused the victim of parking illegally outs

diane cho, abc 7 news. kimberly: many parents are aware that seneca valley high school was told to shelter in place wednesday. we know that one student was reported to have a knife but officials believe they ran from the school during that time. abc 7 is talking to police and school officials to find out if this was related to either incident. when we know more, we will let you know. marvin frazier by the way, has a bond hearing monday. heartbreaking news from prince george's county, where a two-year-old has died after she and her grandmother were hit by a van. they were crossing old chapel road in bowie when the driver came around the corner and could not stop on the wet roadway. she was airlifted. she dies shortly after she arrived. her grandmother was not seriously hurt. new developer it's in a story we have been following all afternoon. transit officials say that one person has died after being hit by a marc train this morning near the halethorpe station in baltimore county for stop it was carrying abou

in fairfax county, diane cho, abc 7 news. leon: right now, a burglary suspect is in the hospital after fairfax county police say a home owner shot him. this was along lenore lane in huntington. the home owner was inside the place at the time. and he asked only to be identified in the story as mr. king. mr. king said he told the burglar to stop and when the man kept trying to get in mr. king said he had no other choice but to shoot. >> >> i was just shaken and i was really terrified. i didn't know if i was going to even hit the guy. i didn't aim to shoot to kill him or nothing. leon: the suspect ran and flagged down a school bus for help and that's when a nearby officer arrested him. he's currently recovering in the hospital with nonlife threatening injuries. a big police presence today in silver spring after reports of shots fired. abc 7 counted at least a dozen officers along with a k-9 unit at the apartment complex on featherwood street. an officer on the scene told us that someone fired a shot into the air during a fight.

in hanover, diane cho, abc 7 news. >> the roads aren't the only problem today. right now, we want to take a live look at i-270 right near 370. airports, they are also a mess. up and down the east coast. we will check in on the conditions at reagan national next. the world is filled with air. but for people with copd sometimes breathing air can be difficult. if you have copd, ask your doctor about once-daily anoro ellipta. it helps people with copd breathe better for a full 24hours. anoro ellipta is the first fda-approvct containing two long-acting bronchodilators in one inhaler. anoro is not for asthma. anoro contains a type of medicine that increases risk of death in people with asthma. it is not known if this risk is increased in copd. anoro won't replace rescue inhalers for sudden copd symptoms and should not be used more than once a day. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition, or high blood pressure. tell your doctor if you have glaucoma, prostate or bladder problems, or problems passing urine as anoro may make these problems worse. call your doctor

we sent diane cho to investigate and she joins us live from springfield. how are the roads now? >> the areas that have not been treated yet are pretty slick out here. in fact, the sidewalk where we are in springfield is covered in a sheet of ice. in northern virginia, vdot crews have been added since 4:00 a.m. using a salt and sand mixture to treat icy roads. by noon, they had more than 1600 pieces of equipment spread out trying to stay ahead of the winter storm. >> that's why you see so many trucks -- we don't know what we don't know, but we are going to stay on top of it so we can react quickly. >> freezing rain and ice may driving difficult on sunday. this woman was going eastbound when she slid off the road. i was coming off the lane right there, only doing like 25. then tho of the lanes and it just came over here. >> at one point on stringfellow road it was closed because of icy conditions but it has then reopened. fairfax county police putting damage estimates at just how many accidents there were today they say there were a number reported throughout the county. >> diane

diane cho was there today. she has new developments from one of the alleged victims. diane: dozens of people lined up across the street from calvary temple on sunday morning holding signs protesting against the church. protester: it is a shock to realize all of the craziness. diane: this after the sheriff's office confirmed they are investigating allegations of sexual assault at the church. they said because it is an ongoing case, they cannot release other details. one of the victims, who was out of town when we called, said the sexual abuse started when she was 12 or 13. she is now 26. >> we are hoping there will be evidence and people will come forward, and people will be called accountable. diane: john is a former member. he and other members describe it as a cultlike atmosphere. john: part of the difficulty to recovery is, there is no justice. diane: andrew lawrence was raised in the church for 27 years, and is no longer a member after questioning its practices. andrew: the more we can -- we want justice to come out. diane: we stopped by the church today told they

diane cho is live near the tidal basin with how people are out enjoying all of this. diane? diane: scott, despite warmer temperatures today, you can see the tidal basin is still frozen over right now. across the way, there are plenty of people enjoying the weather at the jefferson memorial. based on the conversations we had, many are ready to put their winter coats away for a while. while we may have lost an hour of sleep, mother nature brought warmer temperatures in exchange. >> it is so nice. i grew up in buffalo, so this is -- i like the sunshine and the 50 degrees. diane: leftover ice and snow continues to melt. >> it is really muddy out. but the snow is going away, so that is nice. diane: some took advantage by going for a run. others took in the sites. >> figured since it is so nice we would come over here and see the planes and get tired for naptime. diane, poor people who grew up in chicago, it is not so bad. >> it is nice. diane: many say they are hoping the worst is finally over. >> the weather is the pits, and then it is great. i think we are on the cusp of spring

diane cho, abc 7 news. kimberly: thank you, diane. no complaints about the springlike weather today. but changes are ahead. alison: all right. let's check in with chief meteorologist doug hill. doug: good stuff out there. 64 outside of the storm watch weather center. let's give you numbers around the area. if you're watching this west of washington, you'll be jumping up for joy if you like spring temperatures. 81 in culpepper. 79 in luray right now. plenty of warm stuff west. to the east you can see how the temperatures drop the farther east you go. tomorrow, we'll see ourselves back in the upper 60's briefly. a lot of clouds, high clouds streaming from the great lakes towards our area. there's a small area of rain coming across northwestern pennsylvania we'll keep an eye on for later tonight. gemly get a little sunshine in the morning and one more chance to get mild temperatures for a few hours before a cold front arrives. that may be arriving by the own band of sprinkles and showers to gusty winds. and again, through the later night

in the newsroom diane cho, abc 7 news. leon: more students are graduating high school than ever before. helped in part by a maryland achievement gap. the u.s. department of education says the national graduation rate now is 81%. within that figure was a 4% increase in graduation rates for african-american and hispanic students over a three-year span. that is the fastest growth for any segment of the population. alison: and checking our top stories now. a jury convicted rahul gupta of first degree murder in the stabbing death of georgetown law student mark waugh. gupta was attending george washington university at the time. gupta told police he caught his girlfriend cheating on him with waugh. he faces life in prison when he is sentencing next month. leon: vice president biden traveled to maryland to raise awareness about a backlog in the test of rape kits. an estimated 400,000 kits are backlogged in crime labs and storage rooms across the country. last year congress approved $41 million in funding to reduce that backlog. a

and prince george's county diane cho, abc 7 news. >> good progress there diane. thank you. meanwhile, we are learning more about the truck and the driver involved in that crash this morning. it all involves a maryland company. and the "7 on your side" i-team has been digging through its federal records. investigator joce sterman is here with more on its history. joce? >> well alison the truck and the driver both came from petro express. that's a company based in baltimore. they've been around since the late 1980s. a representative from the company confirms the driver has been with them for more than a year and a professional trucker for more than a decade. petro express tells the "7 on your side" i-team the driver was heading south on 95 when a car in front of him crossed over two lanes. they say he was trying to avoid that crash and ended up rolling his truck which was carrying biodiesel. the driver is ok but the company has not identified him. we also dug through the federal safety records for the company. petro express has a satisfactory record with the agency that overs

in prince william county diane cho, abc 7 news. autria: thank you. now checking the other top story. at least 12 people are hurt three of them critically after a building exploded and then collapsed in new york city. this is in the east village in lower manhattan. there's no word what started the fire. but early reports say it might have broken out in a restaurant. we will bring you the latest as soon as we hear it. kimberly: we're expecting an update in the next half-hour from polaski county virginia on the case of noah thomas. sources are telling richmond television stations that the 5-year-old's body was found in a septic or sewage tank this morning. thomas had been missing since sunday morning. autria: metro says it will start running those new 7,000 series cars on april 14th. the first of eight cars will roll out on the blue line shortly after 7:00 a.m. i believe from the franconia springfield station. kimberly: pope francis plans to visit the white house during his first papal visit to the u.s. this fall. the white house says president and mrs.

in the newsroom diane cho, abc 7 news. leon: thanks diane. still ahead, new details on a former jet blue pilot that caused a commotion leading to an emergency leon: a prince george's county police officer has been suspended following an incident that investigators happened when an officer occurred off duty. it stems from a lawsuit filed in the county accusing stewart of hazing during an incident with the kappa alpha psi fraternity. prince george's county police department says an internal investigation is under way. alison: and an investigation, leon, is under way into an overnight police chase. it resulted in gunfire. police tell us the driver took off during a traffic stop. he drove towards an officer who was just outside his cruiser. the officer fired his gun but did not hit him. the chase ended in marlow heights where the suspect clipped a police cruiser. he was arrested after crashing into a tree. leon: beautiful day today outside. really did feel like spring. of course, can't last for long, right? alison: no we're getting for some rain

. >> our diane cho spoke with some of the those drivers dealing with that. she continues our team coverage live from laurel. hi diane. >> good afternoon to both of you and drivers we talked to told us they were sitting in backups today anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour causing a lot of headaches for people who were trying to get around this mess. >> pretty bad. >> depending on who you ask -- >> going like five miles an hour maybe. and this happened and then i had to merge. so i had to be out of that. >> 95 south or north usually is a very you know very heavy. so this is it just a few stops. so that's really bad. >> which direction they were going on 95. >> wasn't really that bad. less than an hour. we just stayed on some people got off. we stayed on. >> drivers dealt with backups for miles going in this southbound direction after a tanker truck overturned shutting down both directions of traffic at route 198 for a few hours before their northbound lanes of traffic reopened by the early afternoon. >> traffic has been kind of thick all the way up so as i

diane cho live with a look at the shellfish shortage. hi diane. >> good evening to both of you as well. mussels are one of their top selling items here at jesse taylor's seafood. now they say they've had empty boxes like these sitting in its place for days now. here at the cafe in southeast d.c., they go through about 2,000 pounds of mussels a week. on friday night, mother nature took its toll on thet when they ran out. >> shocked. that's a staple in our business. >> causing a ripple effect for diners like peggy who is looking forward to it for lunch today. >> the food is still good but yeah, when you have something in your mind to have, you miss it. >> glenn castin with pro fish in d.c. says for 23 years he's been in the business he hasn't seen anything quite like it before where it's lasted this long. >> the areas in prince edward island are frozen over and what's complicating more than that is the snow on top of the ice so they're not able to get the rigs out to the farms themselves. >> he says they haven't had clams in two weeks, the

diane cho is there tonight with one victim's story of fright and survival. diane: this woman who didn't want to be identified says she was jogging along the metropolitan branch trail on sunday night near eighth street in edgewood northeast when she noticed a young man on the other side and ran past him. before she knew it she says he was running up behind her. >> he passed me. ran in front of me and pulled out a knife. diane: she says he demanded everything she had. he didn't have any money on her. she pulled out her cell phone and then asked for her password so he could unlock it. worried about the personal information on her phone she says she immediately had the phone company shut it down. >> didn't realize until afterwards when the detectives and police showed up that protocol was asking me to delay cancelling so they could track it. i didn't know that at the time. diane diane: she was one of four people robbed that day. one had her young daughter when it happened. >> it's sad. you don't wish that experience on anybody else. diane: the other victims told

diane: diane cho, abc 7 news. alison: all right. that's it for abc 7 news at 5:00. leon: coming up right now at 6:00, an i-team exclusive. a payroll company accused of pocketing payroll tax withholdings. alison: what police are saying about the claims of a gang rape at a university of virginia frat party. leon: a warning for drivers. new speed cameras are on line. we'll show you where as abc 7 news at 6:00 starts right now. maureen: an abc 7 news exclusive, a local payroll company under fire accused of withholding hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes from workers but never paying the government. "7 on your side" i-team investigator joce sterman is live in frederick with what she found. joce? joce: maureen, what we found is several local companies including two popular d.c. area restaurant groups thatlaim they were stiffed basically by this frederick company. they filed lawsuits here in frederick county circuit court saying they did the unthinkable. they had to pay their taxes twice after they say they paid this frederick company but the money never made it to t

diane cho, abc 7 news. >> ok. we want your thoughts on the new apple watch. would you wear it and would you pay hundreds of dollars or maybe more for it? answer on our abc 7 facebook page and we'll share some of your responses a little bit later. >> all right. time for a check of the traffic situation with bob emler in the wtop traffic center. how is it looking today? >> not too bad for a monday. we'll have a lot more sunshine today for an hour longer but as far as volume goes we filled out a bit about the georgetown pike up to 270 briefly through bethesda and silver spring in the usual spots there. but no incidents along the way. 270 had a crash northbound. it's out of the road now still getting attention. 9 95 traveling southbound doing all right. and beyond that the heaviest traffic getting down through stafford with the travel lanes open, let's take a look at some cameras and see how things look right now. things are generally good on 66 heading out to the west. we have volume getting out through vienna and fairfax city headed to 123. beltway and inner lo

in anne arundel county diane cho, abc 7 news. >> and that's it for abc 7 news at 5:00. of course, our storm watch coverage of the winter weather continues right now at 6:00. >> and right now at 6:00 spinning wheels, cars stuck in place on snow and ice covered roads. the winter storm we've been warning you about us and hit with a force that we feared. >> we have team coverage getting you up to speed on the conditions in virginia d.c. and maryland. >> steve rudin in the storm watch weather center. where do things stand right >> beginning to improve. the heaviest snow has movement out of here. few flurries in arlington and you'll see the same in district and alexandria as you move through the next half-hour or so. look at these temperatures. 23 gaiters erzhersburggaithersburg. lexington park maryland at 28 degrees. all below freezing. this is just the beginning of super cold air that's on the way later on tonight. doppler radar shows all of the action now drifting towards the east. we have that one band off to the west of us hagerstown west virginia, really don't expect th

diane cho has more on the controversy. >> today the house select committee held a news conference after a senior state department official confirmed former secretary of state hillary clinton only used the personal e-mail account during her tenure as the nation's top diplomat. >> our interest here is not in producing a story. our interest here is in gaining access to all of the documents, all of the e-mails, all of the witnesses. >> "the new york times" wrote the story reporting that the e-mail surfaced as a result of the special congressional committee's investigation on the 2012 attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. the state department says mrs. clinton tens of thousands of documents but they were selected by their aides. he is a fellow in diplomatic studies at the brooking institution. >> that is not uncommon. it's the standard practice of an administration not to turn everything over to congress and let them sort through what it acceptable and what is not. that's not scandalous. that's common administration practice. >> questions are being raised surrounding possible security br

. >> our team coverage continues rig now with diane cho also live near the scene. what are you seeing, diane? >> well, as you can imagine, it is causing major backups out here in this area near the scene. we are under the overpass here where the traffic is moving on to the ramps right now. you can see the tractor-trailer coming in our direction at the moment. they're going both directions of 200 in the southbound direction of 95 at the moment. we got into traffic going northbound on 95 earlier trying to get to scene and the lanes were blocked going northbound about half mile away from route 212, and emergency crews were rerouting traffic at that point on to the service road which is still open at the time. but all lanes of 95 northbound and southbound at route 198 are closed. southbound traffic is being diverted to route 198 and is backed up we're told about eight miles. and northbound traffic is being diverted to maryland 212 so if you can, you'll want to avoid this area at all costs because this is going to be a while before they get this cleaned up. back to you

diane cho checked out neighborhoods in anne arundel county and she's live with what she found today. hi diane. >> hi diane. alison leon i think i can safely say that most of us back at the station probably hate the snow by now. we're done with it. ready for it to be over. we found several people out here in anne arundel county who say they absolutely love it. the snow has been falling at a pretty steady rate out here and doing so for the last few hours since we've been driving around now and it's making driving pretty difficult in some areas, as you can imagine. in fact, we found a postal service truck stuck on a side street and the employee told us that's the second time it happened to her today. while she was dealing with one headache after another, we found someone else riding around on his four wheeler having fun it and a dad who was looking forward to finding a hill nearby since he was deployed overseas last year he says he didn't get to enjoy the snowstorms with his 11-year-old son last winter. >> tell us what you're excited about to do. >> now we get to go sledding. i've been

in spotsylvania diane cho, abc 7 news. leon: that's it now for abc 7 news at 5:00. coming up at 6:00, two men shot and a guard hurt after an s.u.v. tries to ram a gate outside of the n.s.a. what we've learned about the men inside that vehicle. plus the lasting legacy of a string of deadly shootings five years ago today. it costs five people their lives and -- >> better be safe than sorry. leon: the new security procedures at the national zoo. what you need to know before you go. as abc 7 news at 6:00 starts right now. maureen: a wrong turn is blamed for setting off a chain of events that ended with one man dead and another hurt outside of the n.s.a. headquarters in fort meade. n.s.a. police officers opened fire after they say two men tried to ram a stolen car through a security gate off connector road. maryland bureau chief brad bell is live near the scene with how this played out. brad? brad: the n.s.a. is such a secure place. we're not even allowed to point our cameras towards any of their buildings and we've been told we have to point at these trees but that gate

diane cho spoke with one of the victims and she's live in northeast with the story. diane? diane: leon the victim told us she was jogging along the trail here near edgewood and h street northeast on sunday when someone came up to her with a knife demanding everything she had so she immediately handed over her cell phone and that's when she says he then asked for her password so he could unlock it. now, d.c. police say they are looking into four similar cases that they believe could be related. and in each one, the suspect demands a victim's cell phone or money, according to police reports here. somewhere along the metropolitan branch trail or near it as you said. in one case a woman told us she was walking with her young daughter when she was robbed by a man with a knife. and in one case the victim told police that there could have been two suspects involved. now, d.c. police have increased patrols here along the trail in light of what's happened. of course, we'll have more on the story tonight coming up at 5:00. leon, back to you. leon: thank you, diane. alison: let's turn