He reported hearing nine or ten gunshots. Police were on the scene in minutes. A witness reported seeing the final showdown between the gunman and police near the entrance, saying about four or five officers repeatedly yelled for him to get down, saying it maybe six times. Police confirmed he shot at the officers, they returned fire. The student witness said the whole episode was over in about ten seconds. Three other students described what they heard. We heard the gunshot. We thought it was something, like out of the blue thing. But we did not know once we started hearing from friends, we thought that was at the library, the library was locked down, at first it just like we thought it was the hype of it, but we called our parents. Florida Police Confirm the male gunman was shot dead by campus officers. Three students were also shot, one received a grazing wound, was treated en scene and released. The local hospital says it is treating the other two. One is in critical condition. The other one stable. Police say the scene is secure. Of course, well bring you updates as we get them this morning. Now to this, a onetwo punch, that second blow hitting western new york where theyre still scraping their way out of the first dumping of lakeeffect snow. Cars and houses, many with people still inside buried by a storm that is unleashed nearly an entire years worth of snow so far. Already seven people died in the storm, another two feet or more comes today. But hypothermia be darned two athletes brave the surf of lake erie. Lester holt has more. Reporter this powerful storm has paralyzed parts of the buffalo area. Immobilizing entire communities. People trapped in cars, trucks and their homes. The relentless arctic air dangerous for anyone who has to be outside. Dumping almost six feet in some parts. Looking down at the extreme conditions, a whiteout, backyards buried, homes under huge drifts. From the air, you get a sense of the patch work. Some areas barely got a dusting. Other neighborhoods appear to be just buried. Astonishing, even by buffalo standards. Ive never seen anything like this. Im 36. Been in buffalo for good storms. This is by far the worst. Reporter 100 people stranded on roads. Trucker mick brennan was on his way from massachusetts to ohio when his semi got stranded in the snow for more than 40 hours. We use a bunk heater we have inside the truck to keep warm. Every now and then we have to start at the end to keep it warm, keep it from freezing up. Reporter police had to use snowmobiles to help when a fire truck got stuck. The National Guard arrived and hundreds of plows were mobilized. This is an extraordinarily difficult circumstance. We have had a loss of life. Lets hope that we dont have any more. Reporter in and around buffalo, many are snow bound at home. Thats our backyard. Reporter chris hazard and her family spent the day sweeping up this mass, all the snow broke through the back door. They had to get creative with the cleanup. It is almost all the way to the top of the treadmill is holding it in place. We have been stuck here since monday evening. Reporter jennifer and her family including baby evan are snowed in and worried about their food supply. Were trying to ration what we have because the only plan for three to four days at best. And theyre saying the plows may not get to us until it starts to melt over the weekend. Reporter Niagara UniversityWomens Basketball team was rescued after spending more than 24 hours stranded on the highway, rasing food and melting snow for water. The call is out for workers to help shovel buffalos Ralph Wilson Stadium before the bills play the jets on sunday. 10 an hour and free tickets to the game, if they can get there safely. Hope they can catch a break. That was Nbcs Lester Holt reporting. It is finally here. Tonight, 8 00 p. M. Eastern, president obama announces executive action on immigration reform. Lawmakers support is mixed as expected and the Republicans Governors Association annual conference, Texas Governor rick perry told nbcs chuck todd, texas could sue. Sounds like youre going to file suit. I would think that there is probably a very real possibility of that. The state of texas versus the president of the United States versus the u. S. Government . John kasich said hes open to path to citizenship. The issue of citizenship, ive heard lots of voices on it. Im not opposed to it. You know why . Because everybody in this country has to feel as though they have an opportunity. Last night, former president bill clinton said president obamas potential executive action seemed to be on pretty firm legal ground. While Oklahoma Republican senator tom coburn thinks violence could erupt following any president ial executive action saying, quote, the country is going to go nuts. Im joined by nbcs tracie potts. What can we expect from the president s address tonight . Reporter you can expect him, frances, to lay out pretty specifically what it is he wants to do. And republicans are already giving him some pushback, but frankly the president s opinion on this, his point of view, is that if he doesnt get it done before the Republican Congress takes over, they may not ever compromise on immigration. Here is a photo of president obama preparing for tonights speech. What im going to be laying out is the things i can do with my Lawful Authority as president to make the system work better. Reporter 18 democrats got a preview at a white house dinner last night. What he said to us, was, look, he said, look, i want to put felons ahead of family. I want to put criminals ahead of children when it comes to the process of deportation. Reporter were expecting the president will announce up to 5 million undocumented immigrants could stay in the u. S. , including a quarter million farm workers, patierents of children born here, children brought here illegally and high tech college graduates. A lot of these people are law abiding. I consider citizens. And i feel they should have the right to be here. Reporter the administration insists the reforms are legal. They will address a number of things, including border security. Reporter republicans say the president is making an illegal end run around congress, which failed to pass immigration reform. A new nbc news poll shows almost half of americans oppose president obama, acting on his own. The height of arrogance for this president to go around the constitution and around the laws. He did nothing about this except, you know, blow hot air. Reporter Texas Governor rick perry says his state will sue. And a spokesman for House Speaker john boehner says if president obama goes through with this tonight, if he issues this executive order, hell pretty much ruin any chance of a comprehensive reform bill coming out of the next congress. A lot at stake tonight. Tracie potts, thank you. Now to more fallout amid mounting rape accusations involving bill cosby. One day after holding back on commenting about a deal for a sitcom, nbc now says it has scrapped the project. Tv land has dropped reruns of the cosby show from its lineup. Todays new york daily news, his silence is no longer acceptable, time for americas dad to talk. Associated press released parts of an interview done on november 6th. Bill cosby with his wife camille sat down to discuss pieces of art they were lending to the smithsonian when the ap reporter asked mr. Cosby about the accusations of Sexual Assault. I just wanted to ask if you wanted to respond at all about whether any of that was true. There is no response. Okay. Can i ask you with the persona people know about bill cosby, should they believe anything differently about what there is no comment about that. Okay. And ill tell you why. I think you were told i dont want to compromise your integrity, but we dont i dont talk about it. Okay. And i would appreciate it if it was scuttled. I hear you. I will tell that to my editors and i think that they will understand i think if you want to consider yourself to be serious mmhmm. It will not appear anywhere. Okay. Cosby then went on to ask if the Associated Press not use or release the parts of the interview in which they discuss the Sexual Assault accusations. Cosby has never been charged with a criminal offense, and his attorneys say he will not dignify, quote, decade old discredited claims with a response. Meanwhile, cosbys expected to appear at sold out performances in florida tomorrow and another show in Las Vegas Next friday. Bill karins is here with our forecast. And talk about onetwo punch, and kick them while theyre down in some parts of the country. The buffalo area, all eyes on that. People have five feet of snow on their roof and calling for another two or three feet. Thats a serious situation. The way it was said to me, thats the equivalent of having two f150 pickup trucks sitting on top of your house and youll add a third. Your roof can only add so much weight. The heavy band of lakeeffect snow has shifted a little further to the south. Only about seven miles south of where it was two days ago. There is a good chance that the highest totals from two days ago will not be the same where the highest totals will be today. That will help this area greatly. Mostly talking about the area there. As far as anywhere else goes, two to three feet, dense snow before. Our fingers are crossed. You saw the amazing pictures from lester holt earlier. It does look like were going to avoid additional huge harm to this area already so hard ighes elevations, but mostly a rain event for the cities. And a little later in the show, ill show you the forecast for the rain moving into the west and the stormy period over the next couple of days. Hopefully along with it, a little bit of a warmup. Well be ready for it. Thank you very much. Breaking news to bring you on the death of a creative American Icon who want an oscar, an emmy, tony and grammy. Mike nichols has died. Welcome back. Some sad news to report this morning. Hollywood director and producer mike nichols died suddenly last night. He was married it abc news woman diane sawyer. His career spanned over six decades and included such successes as the graduate, working girl, and birdcage and annie. He won an oscar, emmy, tony and grammy in his lifetime. Mike nichols was 83 years old. Is the white house getting a new fence . Secret service acting director Joseph Clancy says a taller one is being considered. He revealed the plan at a House Judiciary Committee hearing about the september 19th fence jumping incident. But how about a moat . That was steve cohens suggestion. Some might think it is safer than an electric fence. Here is hoping this australian reporter is feeling better. He was covering a story about a skate park in venice beach and this is what happened. Watched. Doing the story and reporting and whoa, right there, slammed into his head. After that, he finished his report and walked away with a bump on the noggin there. Just ahead, an nba trailblazer calls it quits. Late breaking information on the Florida State university shooting that happened overknight. Three injured and the gunman shot dead. Well bring you details just ahead. This morning on today, the stars of the Box Office HitPitch Perfect stop by to chat about the new movie, the sequel, Pitch Perfect 2. Now to sports this morning, in the nba, spurs and cavs came down to the wire. One basket game with seconds to go. Cavs rebound a missed free throw. Lebron picks it up, but he loses the ball, 9290 win. Jason kidd was back in brooklyn with his new team, the bucks. As you can imagine, it was a thriller. Tied at 105 in the first overtime, Brandon Knight steals the ball, misses the layup for the win. 122118. Earlier in the day, nets Center Jason Collins announced his retirement from the nba. The nbas first openly gay active player, he publicly came out in open. He played 13 years in the league. The nfl has fined seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch 100 gs for violating the nfls media policy. He was fined 50,000 for not speaking with reporters after sundays loss to the chiefs. Lynch did a phone interview with one reporter later that day. In addition, he was fined another 50 k for media violations during the 2013 season. It got violent after a youth table tennis tournament. The player shoves the ref right off the chair after losing the match. And look at the eyes, look at that, little bit of a staredown before they go their separate ways. Just ahead, which u. S. States have the worst thanksgiving . Plus, ever wonder why there are so many dog stories in the news . We have the answer for you next. Welcome back. A nice slug of moisture heading into Northern California this morning. Hasnt started raining yet in eureka, it will soon and will work its way to i5. Looks like it will be a piece of moisture and rain today and then another one coming in it looks like on saturday. Thursday forecast, eventually well get light rain into san francisco. Not a lot out there. We will be watching some of the moisture going inner mountains with snow toward boise at 32. Friday, we still keep the northwest very unsettled. Chance of rain in the seattle forecast five days in a row. Bill this is for you when your kids start asking for a dog. I want a dog. You want the dog. It is no secret we all love dogs. New Study Suggests news media may be tapping into the very weakness. Nbcs Anne Thompson explains. Good girl. Reporter it turns out dogs are indeed news hounds. A new Study Reveals a deep seedseed newspaper bias to the canine kind. It is called the dog effect. Researchers found that dog story in the National Section of the esteemed New York Times is 2. 6 times more likely to get picked up by regional newspapers than a nondog story. The study itself is small, but it was enough to catch our attention. Of course. As viewers of this broadcast know, we adore these bearers of unconditional love. It is not just traditional media that loves a pups tail. Today, with the snowstorm, puppies on their first day of work. There is always a story about dogs. If not, there is a cute picture about dogs. Reporter are dogs catnip to those people who click on buzzfeed . Yeah. Reporter we have done dozens of stories on mans best friend this year. Dogs in the air, underwater, at work, and the gym. Dogs who find people and cancer. Are you a good girl . Personally, i interviewed a talking dog. I love you. I love you. Reporter and i make stage mothers blush when it comes to getting my george on tv. And now this story, like so many before it, has gone to the dogs. Anne thompson, nbc news, new york. None of that it is true. It is a bias. It is a bias. What about the cat people . I feel bad for the cat people, all the cat lovers out there. So sorry. Whats better than that . Im frances rivera. This is early today. We hope it is your first stop of the day here on nbc. Leading the news in the washington post, john brennan considering sweeping organizational changes. The plan would replace long established diskz f eed disks fd analysis. Officials say the changes would be among the most ambitious. In slate, what exploded over russia this time. Another massive fireball caught on dash cam. Officials are left scratching their head as to what was behind it. Even the meteorologist is saying it is weird. Cloud effect. Some breaking news to bring you this morning in an update, three people have been wounded in a shooting at Florida State university. It happened at the schools campus library. An alert was sent to students early this morning to seek shelter immediately. Two people were taken to a local hospital, one of them is said to be in critical condition, the other in stable. Florida Police Confirm a gunman has been shot dead by campus officers. The fbi is investigating reports, unmanned drones are getting too close to commercial airlines at jfk airport in new york. At least three pilots reported close calls. Thanksgiving, meant to be a holiday where we give thanks and families get together. It can sometimes be a pretty rough holiday. Blog ranked u. S. States according to how miserable thanksgiving can be. Factors include the likelihood of political arguments, your nfl team losing and people leaving dinner for black friday sales. And it turns out the most miserable states are ohio, iowa, pennsylvania, arizona, and wisconsin. And the least miserable states are hawaii. They have the beach and the sand. New mexico, arkansas, utah and new jersey. Now california, im guessing, maybe because of holiday traffic . Maybe. But, you know what is not in there too . One too many cocktails, one extra drink of wine, that can spark it too. Anything goes. It is a long road to recovery for u2 front man bono. The New York Hospital that treated him said his injuries from sundays buy cycling accident are much worse than previously reported. They say hes undergone two surgeries, most recent one was monday to fix a fractured finger on his left hand. Bono also suffered more serious injuries including a facial fracture involving his left eye socket, three fractures to his Left Shoulder blade, and a left elbow fracture that went through the skin and left the bone six weisses. Doctors performed a five hour operation on sunday and repard his arm fracture by putting in three metal plates and 18 screws. Now for a look ahead, today is the Great American smokeout. The event sponsored by the American Cancer Society began in the 70s. Organizers encourage smokers to quit or make a plan to quit. Im frances rivera. Thank you for watching early today. Hope you have a great thursday, even bette and here is the storm. As you can right now, starting to impact Northern California. r