jennifer donelan is joining us live to tell us about this. jennifer? jennifer: we just walked up to the scene right now. we have a number of fire trucks here from prince george's county. we can't get very close to it. there's a ton of smoke. if you're anywhere near this around the beltway or route 50 you can see it from reagan airport. what we understand at this point is that it is a roofing company. that would explain the thick, black smoke that we're seeing. actually, too, if you're driving around this area, it's like hard to your eyes start stinging. it's a lot of smoke. prince george's county has also lost two fire trucks. two fire trucks to this fire. we understand no injuries. and we don't know exactly how those fire trucks were destroyed in this fire but prince george's county is down two fire trucks. more fire trucks arriving on the scene as we speak. maureen: thank you so much. get back to you in a little bit to get an update on this. a weekend party too big to control and tonight an apology from the d.c. government. it happened late saturday

jennifer donelan, abc 7 news. alison: switching gears to talk about the weather, what a gorgeous day today. steve: it was pretty today, and tomorrow looks even better. then clouds and rain thursday. outside right now, the high temperature 72 degrees. the record, not even close 91 back in 1974. if your allergies are still bothering you, like mine are the trees are still on the high category, grasses. my allergies are driving me crazy. the grass is low, but that will increase through the coming days. 53 martinsburg 54 frederick, 57 andrews, lexington park 55. low temperature in the upper 40's, low 50's. the skies mainly clear, stays cool, the wind out of the northwest at five. the satellite radar, it is quiet and dry around the mid-atlantic for stop further south and west that you go, this is the moisture that will eventually make its way to our area. it will take another 24 hours and then you will notice the difference. clouds increase this time tomorrow night. the low-pressure rides up the coast. the best news of

jennifer donelan is joining us live to tell us about this. jennifer? jennifer: we just walked up to the scene right now. we have a number of fire trucks here from prince george's county. we can't get very close to it. there's a ton of smoke. if you're anywhere near this around the beltway or route 50 you can see it from reagan airport. what we understand at this point is that it is a roofing company. that would explain the thick, black smoke that we're seeing. actually, too, if you're driving around this area, it's like hard to your eyes start stinging. it's a lot of smoke. prince george's county has also lost two fire trucks. two fire trucks to this fire. we understand no injuries. and we don't know exactly how those fire trucks were destroyed in this fire but prince george's county is down two fire trucks. more fire trucks arriving on the scene as we speak. maureen: thank you so much. get back to you in a little bit to get an

i'm jennifer donelan. it's aimed at protecting our area's religious institutions and it's gaining momentum. that leon: policing with the pool pit. for the first time on television, take you inside a unique program with police and religious organizations in one part of our area that's gaining steam. "7 on your side" fighting back against crime investigator jennifer donelan is live in dumfries with worship watch. jen? jennifer: well this is about protecting our churches our synagogues, our temples, our mosques across our area. it's so much more than just making sure that the door is locked. it happened. a swastika painted on a maryland synagogue, windows smashed out at a virginia church. a priest killed inside an arizona church. >> we do understand it can happen anywhere. jennifer: the next day, police replace the pastor on the pulpit at montclair tabernacle church in dumfries. audience represented 28 different faith based organizations from prince william county and fairfax. >> we need the churches to know

jennifer donelan joins us with details. jennifer: adding to this disturbing case of violence we have detailed information tonight about the man who is now facing rape and assault charges in this case. this court order shows that he was just released from the custody of d.c. authorities which included time at a psychiatric facility and a halfway house just 15 days ago. 27-year-old juan randolph of d.c. is back behind bars tonight accused of breaking into the home of a nun and raping her. after the horrifying crime last night in prince george's county d.c. police sources tell abc 7 news randolph went right back to his home on 51st street in northeast. the investigation overnight led officers there this morning. and that's where they say they found randolph hiding underneath a sink. prince george's county detectives are now in the midst of piecing together exactly what happened last night at the nun's apartment on 16th avenue in chillum. sources explain that randolph broke through an apartment through an unlocked sliding glass

reporting live from capitol hill, i'm jennifer donelan, abc 7 news. leon: today marked 16 years since the columbine high school massacre. two students planned the attack there at the high school in littleton, colorado. they killed 12 students and one teacher before taking their own lives that day. the pair made home videos prior to the attack making references to what they were doing and apologizing to their parents for doing it. authorities say it's too early to say that an attack on a school in spain this morning was an attempt to imitate the columbine attack. investigators say the 13-year-old boy armed with a crossbow and a machete killed a substitute teacher in a high school there in barcelona. two other students and a teacher was injured in that attack. the boy will not be facing criminal charges because he's under the age of 14. he was taken off to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. alison? alison: the justice department and the f.b.i. admit forensic experts overstated hair matches in hundreds of cases before the year 2000. the federal g

reporting live from northeast, i'm jennifer donelan, abc 7 news. leon: thank you, jennifer. lawrence buckner served in the army before working as an armed security guard at various sites and buildings across the area. he started working at the u.s. census bureau in 2011. a job that forced him to commute 90 minutes a day from his home in king george county virginia. he is survived by his wife of 36 years, linda as well as a son and four grandchildren. our kevin lewis will have more on lawrence buckner coming up at 6:00. alison: in anne arundel county now, police are looking for the person who shot and critically injured a police officer in arnold. it happened along college parkway not far from broad neck park. diane cho is in annapolis monitoring this search. diane: as police k-9s scoured the area dozens from the anne arundel police cadet class searched for clues after an officer in uniform was shot in the neck. >> it's under here too. diane: police say an officer stopped by this 7-eleven store early this morning when someone inside said there's a man acting suspiciously outs

until then, i'm jennifer donelan, back to you. leon: we want to go to baltimore now where they're holding a news conference to talk about the case of freddie gray who died a week after suffering injuries with police officers. >> decades of mistrust but together i believe we have made great strides forward. however, it's still very clear that we have much more work to do. i'll never stop believing that we are up to this challenge. baltimore has made progress before and we've overcome difficult challenges in our city and i know that we will do it again. as we move forward with this investigation, it is important that we remain one community and i'm encouraged by how peaceful the demonstrations have been. as we move forward, i continue to encourage the residents who wish to voice their frustrations to remain peaceful. our community is experiencing a great deal of trauma. and none of us get the answers that we need or that the gray family deserves by resorting to violence. this is a very very 10th time for baltimore city. and i unders

leon: that was jennifer donelan reporting for us there. a co-worker's family and friends is remembering the security guard that lost his life while doing his job. he's been identified as 59-year-old lawrence buckner. kevin lewis continues our team coverage at the census bureau in suitland tonight. kevin? kevin: hi there, leon. lawrence buckner was patrolling the main parking lot at the u.s. census bureau. within the last five minutes, we just saw the yellow police tape come down and the front gates reopen. all day long investtgators have been combing through this crime scene. you can see employees' vehicles coming out for the first time in almost 24 hours. we learned a lot about lawrence buckner today. he was a married man. married to his wife linda for the last 36 years. together, they had one adult son and four grandchildren. buckner's family pictured here. it was simply put his pride and joy. during his younger years, he served in the u.s. army but for the last two decades, he worked as an armed security officer at various buildings and

jennifer donelan spoke with the driver and got a look inside that damaged home. look for her live report coming up at 5:00. alison: developing now, the supreme court will not hear an appeal from former government subcontractor alan gross. gross, as you may remember was held prisoner in cuba for five years. he was just freed in december. gross sued the federal government claiming it failed to prepare him for the risks of working in that country. but the u.s. court of appeals ruled last year the u.s. government is immune from claims arising in a foreign country. leon: tragedy at a row house in northwest washington. one person died and another was injured on kenyon avenue. our diane cho was there and spoke with the neighbors. what did they have to tell you? diane: leon the doors and windows have been boarded up at this house where the fire first started this morning. it affected these two homes next to it as well and firefighters are investigating exactly what caused this deadly fire earlier this morning. police tell us one person died and another in critical condit

abc 7 fighting back against crime investigator jennifer donelan sits down with the parents of a university of maryland student killed by a two time drunk driver. she also looks into why critics say maryland law allows repeat drunk drivers to stay behind the wheel. our special report drunk and still driving, tonight on abc 7 news at 11:00. he says people should not underestimate me. that's the warning tonight from vermont independent senator bernie sanders. he just announced he's running for president as a democrat. he will face hillary clinton in the primaries. as senior political reporter scott thuman shows us sanders could alter the tone of a race. >> in this day and age, w it is possible for any candidate who is not a billionaire or who is not beholden to the billionaire class to be able to run successful campaigns. reporter: with bernie sanders now in it looks like we'll find that out much the vermont independent faces challenges like hillary clinton, fine tuned political machines and, of course, cash. but he says that's the point. >> our country belongs to all of us and not the billio

that's a question of abc 7 fighting back crime reporter jennifer donelan hit the streets and is searching. she's here with us now with the answers. jen, this is a scary story. jennifer: it's a scary story and it's eye opening. we spent a lot of time on this one. this was an overwhelming investigation. at the end of the day, the most sobering argument for having tough drunk driving laws is death. >> so much potential and i guess that's the thing that's so hard. jennifer: the university of maryland student was crossing route 1 last year when he was run over and killed by a repeat drunk driver. the driver's license was suspended but they did not stop him. we hit the streets with maryland state police and saw the lockups first hand but mothersst drunk driving is arguing that maryland needs to toughen its laws. the latest proposal failed in annapolis. the driver in cory's case got two years in a plea. cory's father says his family lost and so did the driver's family. >> 10-month-old little girl twins who now he's going away for two years and he's not going to see them. and you know we're never

fighting back investigator jennifer donelan is here now with a preview. jen? jennifer: alison kellye there's a bombshell in this case and we'll hear from the person who lives to tell it. and we're going to hear from bethany decker in her own words after she disappears. the 21-year-old george mason university student went missing from ashburn, virginia four years ago. her cases have all the twists and turns of a marriage and allegedly abusive affair. a relationship her mother says she was trying to escape. >> there must be somebody else out there. if she did get away if she was -- somebody must have picked her up. she didn't have any identification. she didn't have any money. she didn't have her car. jennifer: did bethany escape for her own safety or something more sinister happen? we're hunting down answers in "gone without a trace" tonight at 11:00 here on abc 7 news. ladies? alison: we'll be watching. thank you. that's it for us on abc 7 news at 5:00. kellye: right now at 6:00 -- >> here we go! here we go! kellye: a tale of two cities in baltimore as some tr

fighting back investigator jennifer donelan joins us with a preview. jennifer: we're also going to hear from bethany decker herself after she disappeared. we'll explain in just a minute. 21-year-old bethany decker went missing from ashland, virginia in 2011 and her family and detectives say now is the time to speak up. the george mason university student was married with a son, a young son, but she got entangled in an affair an abusive one her family says. her family says bethany was trying to escape the situation with her boyfriend when she disappeared. that was four years ago. bethany's husband knew about the affair, we're told, that began while he was serving in afghanistan. he too, was questioned by detectives and submitted to a polygraph. and now, we have a recent bombshell. her then boyfriend is now locked up in jail. for allegedly almost killing another woman in north carolina. bethany's mother said the new case sent shivers down her spine. >> i was shocked. i had known about, you know, an assault case in fairfax earlier in last year. and some o

jennifer: i'm jennifer donelan with the abc 7 "7 on your side" team. today we're in prince william county where the prince william county police department is hosting a cutting edge program with local faith based organizations. your churches your temples, your mosques your synagogues. it's basically aimed at how to best protect yourself. it's not about scaring you. it's about preparing you. how to fight back against crime before it happens in a place where you least expect it to happen. that story is coming up at do you want to know how hard it can be to breathe with copd? it can feel like this. copd includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. spiriva is a once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that helps open my airways foror a full 24 hours. spiriva helps me breathe easier. spiriva respimat does not replace rescue inhalers for sudden symptoms. tell your doctor if you have kidney problems, glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. these may worsen with spiriva respimat. discuss all medicines you take even eye drops. if your breathing

leon: abc 7 fighting back against crime reporter jennifer donelan was there when state troopers arrested alleged drunk drivers and tonight, she takes us from the streets to the maryland legislature in a search for answers in the criticism that the state's drunk driving laws aren't tough enough and she also has the story of a heart broken family of a maryland student killed by a repeat drunk driver last year. >> sometimes you feel like you're functioning normal and there's moments that you're not. leon: our special report "drunk and still driving" airs tonight at 1 is 1:00 here on abc 7. alison? alison: tonight, you're getting your first chance to hear about one of the newest proposed metro stops. a public hearing on the potomac yard stop will kick off in just about two hours. the transit agency will be talking about its plans for the station as well as talking about that station's environmental impact. an open house kicks off at 6:30 at the cora county recreation center in alexandria and the formal hearing will begin at 7:00. leon: checking weather now, we have some rain drops affecting