We spent much of last night trying to extract the people out that was trapped. After several hours, we were able to get them to safety. Could not even begin to tell you how many walking wounded went to the doctor, hospitals on their own. While the risk of tornadoes is diminishing, the concern now is flash flooding across parts of the southeast and midatlantic. Theres much more on the devastation left behind. Coming up on nightly news with lester holt. If you are planning to travel this holiday, check the conditions nationwide on our free nbc bay area weather app. Also get a personalized Weather Forecast for your neighborhood. This has been a heartbreaking Christmas Eve for a fairfield family. Mourning the death of their baby son, thor. Today, the babysitter accused of killing him made her First Court Appearance and tonight the boys family is speaking out exclusively with nbc bay area. Jodi hernandez talked with the boys father. Shes live in fairfield with more on the family and the court appearance. Jodi . Reporter scott, the babysitter pled not guilty here in court today. Meanwhile the babys family has traveled to utah where theyve surrounded themselves with loved ones as they deal with an unimaginable loss. I trusted her with my kids, and she took my son from me. Reporter Jake Thompson is dealing with more this Christmas Eve than any father should. His 17monthold son, thor, died last week while in the care of the familys trusted babysitter, gina bailey, at her Travis Air Force base home. They said that he suffered a fractured skull and shaken baby syndrome. Reporter thompson and his wife just learned the results of the autopsy on tuesday. They say they didnt suspect the sitter until police told them she confessed. And she had had a hard day and she just grabbed him and just started shaking him uncontrollably and said that he slipped out of her hands and fell to the floor. Reporter bailey pleaded not guilty to felony assault in court today. She told our sister station, kcra in a jailhouse interview, shes innocent. What do you want to tell us today . You didnt touch the baby . This. Reporter this couple who wouldnt give their names came to court to show their support for bailey. The best babysitter i ever had. She loved our child and every child she had with all her heart. Reporter the Thompson Family is left with nothing but heartbreak. The baby boy who loved his blanky, his superhero name, and his family, is gone. He made everyone happy. He was just a happy little guy. I know no punishments going to be will bring my son back, but she doesnt deserve to be able to come back and do this to anyone elses kid. Reporter now the investigation is still under way and the prosecutor tells me that they may add homicide charges. Bailey will be back in court next month. Reporting live from fairfield, im jodi hernandez, nbc bay area news. Jodi, thank you. New at 5 00, fire the police chief. That was the demand as protesters demonstrated at San Francisco city hall today. Dozens of people filled the halls demanding mayor ed lee fire police chief greg surr over his handling of the Police Shooting of mario woods. The mayor has not responded to todays protest. The demonstration was described as loud but peaceful. The 26yearold mario woods was shot 14 times by Police Officers earlier this month. He was a stabbing suspect and police say they only opened fire after he moved toward an officer with a knife in his hands. Chief surr has defended his officers actions saying the officers were threatened. Woods family disagrees. They have filed a lawsuit. There are at least three independent investigations currently going into this shooting. An angry complaint tonight from the bay areas Muslim Community over the release of a man accused of making deadly threats. Members of the Islamic Center of west Contra Costa County claim William Celli stood outside their mosque and yelled he was going to, quote, kill you all. Police arrested celli this weekend and found an inactive pipe bomb in his home. Now members of c. A. R. E. The council on American Islamic relations say theyre shocked celli was allowed to bail out of jail on sunday. The group will hold an interfaith rally tonight in richmond. Theyre asking for increased security at mosks mosques and buildings and say celli should face federal charges. In oakland a vigil is under way for the grandson of a City Council Member gunned down last weekend. 17yearold torian hughes was shot to death sunday afternoon on mandela parkway near the west oakland b. A. R. T. Station. Police have not released information about a suspect or possible motive. His grandmother is Oakland City Council president la net gibson. Some social media posts shes said the death of her grandson reaffirms her commitment to strengthen gun laws. His death is the citys 83rd homicide this year. Is this it . Tonight could be the last time the raiders ever play a home game in oakland. They are one of three nfl teams under consideration for a move to Southern California. Theres a live look at the oakland coliseum. Fans have come out in droves tonight hoping to make sure the team knows this is where they belong. Nbc bay area joins us from o. Co. Pete, an emotional night for these fans. Reporter a very emotional time especially considering the team is turning the corner with young stars like derek carr, amari cooper and khalil mack to name a few. Fans are are starting to head into the stadium right now. One thing is clear, this is the message theyre sending,thy want this team to stay in oakland. Go, raiders woo reporter ask a raider fan how much their team means to them and youll understand why the thought of them leaving is simply unimaginable. As fans we come out here because we love this team. It would be heartbreaking if they left. This is what oakland is. Raiders reporter fans understand the team known for saying just win, baby, could leave them with a loss if they follow through with a plan to move to Southern California for the second time. A move back to los angeles would destroy the greatest comeback in sports history. Reporter the raiders are one of three teams the nfl is considering moving to Southern California. The other two, the st. Louis rams and the san diego chargers. In fact, the raiders proposal includes sharing a stadium with the rival chargers. We do not share it with oakland. Reporter the same chargers theyre playing tonight. I wouldnt want to share nothing with them, not even a church. Determined that this will not be the raiders last game in oakland. Reporter i spoke with oakland mayor by phone about this situation. She says building a new stadium for the team will be complex since they share it with the oakland as and because the property is also coowned by the city and alameda county. She plans to submit an updated proposal to the nfl in a matter of days so raider nation can continue to root for the silver and black. Were confident we can keep the raiders in oakland in a way thats responsible to our taxpayers. Reporter now the mayor plans to submit that proposal december 30th. As for the nfl theyre going to make their final decision at the owners meeting coming up in january. Reporting from oakland, nbc bay area news. Thank you very much, pete. Meanwhile on this Christmas Eve, stores are still packed with people picking up lastminute christmas gifts. It is crunchtime for those who have not finished christmas shopping. And today the procrastinators had the added challenge of rain. Nbc bay area lili tan went shopping. Shes outside of target. I understand theres extra security tonight. Reporter not here at the Target Shopping Center but we have seen other local Police Agencies step up patrols around other Major Shopping Centers to give shoppers a little bit more peace of mind. It does seem to be working. Store managers say shoppers will likely be here until the very last minute. The day before christmas and theres no shortage of excuses for lastminute shopping. Yeah, we had a lot going on. I accidentally fell asleep. Procrastinator. Reporter she and her dog, butter, drove from San Francisco only to find it raining at santana row. He is wearing boots and raincoat from petco. Pouring rain and its freezing outside, so its a little bit slower than average. Reporter inside, store managers say theres usually one type of customer on Christmas Eve. A lot of guys. Im jack. Im joey. Twins jack and joey are looking for jewelry together. Were both shopping for girls that we have recently become friends with i guess. Yeah. Reporter while sam moody is taking steps to get it right. Then theres a compass, can you see the dial right there . No compass. Reporter . Compass, okay. Reporter hes facetiming his girlfriend for advice. I think its perfect. Thanks for your help, babe. Reporter kohls in campbell been a long day. Reporter others say shops on Christmas Eve could become a new tradition. I didnt expect to see what we saw here today. Not a lot of crowds and found parking pretty easily. So i think given all that i might shop more often on Christmas Eve. Reporter many shoppers admitted to me if a store was open until 6 00, they would shop until 5 59. Target is one of the last stores to close tonight at 11 00. Live in san jose, lili tan, nbc bay area news. Lili, thank you. Coming up, Christmas Eve chaos in North Carolina. Police swarm a Shopping Mall after gunshots ring out inside a busy charlotte mall. What police are saying about the gunman tonight. And hundreds of thousands of drones are under Christmas Trees tonight, but do you know where you can fly them . A new warning from park rangers on this Christmas Eve. Panic in a North Carolina mall today. After gunfire rings panic in a North Carolina mall today after gunfire rings out inside a charlotte mall. Police say it started when two groups of people pulled out guns during an argument. Police officers working at the mall responded firing and killing one of the armed men. One shopper says it was so chaotic she briefly lost her twin daughters. It just all happened suddenly. The shots fired. People went running. They ran through the store and they actually rushed right through the twins, grabbed the twins and were gone. Police were able to find that womans children. They were safe. Outside of the suspect, police so no one else was injured in the shooting. All right. More than 12 million californians will take to the roads over the holiday. Thats a new record. Tens of thousands more will fly. Tonight the weather here and across the country is adding some extra drama to that trip. Nbc bay area is live at s fork tonig sfo tonight. Chuck, how do things look out there now . Reporter i tell you scott, got to check the weather by your watch. On and off, rainy, cloudy, sunny, bright, now dark clouds are moving in. There are more dark clouds to the west moving in. Right now its not raining but it was raining literally two minutes ago. Behind me see the new control tower lit up for the holiday. Its quite striking, to say the least. And right now, though, its pretty quiet here at sfo. There were conditions, cloudy skies, a few showers earlier. But very few delays despite weather in the northeast. And atlanta, major hub, lot of travelers are familiar with. But busy earlier. Particularly if you were picking up travelers here at sfo. The arrivals level, it was bumper to bumper as people came from highway 101 and felt compelled to merge immediately all the way over to the left to get to that lower level and pick up people coming into the airport. One tip that we got is if you are picking someone up at the art a airport and its busy at the arrivals level, use your cell phones. Communicate with each other. Maybe decide to meet up at the departures level. Today it was very, very light. A lot of people did that. We thought it was pretty nifty of them to do so as well. Police are moving drivers who had kept at the curbside for anywhere longer than two minutes. They were telling them to quickly move along. And airports, a spokesman tells us he has other tips to help things go smoothly as well. If youre picking somebody up, theres a couple good options that can help you avoid roadway congestion. We have a cell phone waiting area. Someone can call you and allows you to avoid the circular traffic around the terminal area. Think about that. Also the kiss and fly. It runs at the end of the air train system. It allows you to go out to the rental car center, somebody can pick you up there, too. Both great options to avoid holiday congestion. Reporter on bay area freeways, travel was exceedingly light. We did talk to some people who were traveling to los angeles. They said going over hekker pass 15 miles per hour. Once you got on i5 clear saling. They were going the limit and then beyond. However on highway 80 especially in the sierra, very treacherous. Visibility was causing some closures earlier today and as always during the wintertime, do carry chains. Here at sfo, theyre looking for about a 9 increase of air traffic over last years. Reporting live at sfo chuck coppola, nbc bay area news. Thank you. As chuck mentioned we have plenty of snow falling on sierra ski resorts today. Interstate 80 in Placer County there wasnt much blue in blue canyon. Its all white and looked like a lifesized snow globe. Conditions actually got so bad the chp had to shut down i80 for a time. Since the snow was falling at such low elevations today we checked to see if there was any on mt. Diablo. The only sign of a White Christmas here is from the lowhanging clouds over that summit. What are we going to face on Christmas Day . Rob is here with our forecast. Hey, rob. Hey there. We did find snow at least at Higher Elevations during the afternoon. Above 4,000 feet. That was the view from mt. Hamilton. Lake observatory. See a combination of snow on the ground. A little light rain on the camera lens there. And we will see an opportunity tonight as temperatures drop off even more. For snow levels to tdrop a litte bit more. 22 2,5,000 into 3,000 feet tonight. Areas south of livermore, again, around hamilton and lake county, more snow possible for tonight. In the sierra, more than just a pocket of snow. Were looking at another foot of snow, highway 50, twin bridges and kirkwood. We see tough driving conditions continue in the high country. For the bay area this storm not bringing a lot of rain. Most places about a quarter inch or less. Orinda, dublin, hayward saw the most out of the system. San jose under. 3 an inch of rain. Chilly outside. Down to 3 43 already in the north bay. Calm conditions here. Lets show you a picture here from east of sacramento. Tie yan gross sending this into our sister station in sacramento. You can see clearly there a funnel cloud, tornadowarned storm moving away from fulsome lake. Active weather heading to sierras. Heavy snow in the sierra. The bay area, scattered showers coming down. Some could drop hail at times around the peninsula. One moving toward redwood city moving to the eastsoutheast. San jose still seeing a chance of snow showers mixed with some of those heavier showers into tomorrow morning. So the story for christmas morning, still a few more scattered showers like were seeing now. Just not nonstop rain. Hit and miss areas of rain. As we go through the morning. Chance of hilltop snow. By the afternoon, skies begin to clear and it is going to be chilly outside. As the showers shut down, winds pick up a little bit. Those highs not really going to feel like the 50s. It will feel more like the 40s outside tomorrow. Low 50z from san jose to San Francisco. For the north bay, temperatures in the low to mid 50s. Were going to hold this trend as we go through the weekend both saturday and sunday. High temperatures in the low 50s. But the real story for the weekend is just how cold its going to get at night with the freeze watch. Up for the central valley, bay area valleys this weekend. A sneak preview of our temperatures. Saturday and sunday mornings look to be in the 20s and 30s for the valleys around the bay area this weekend. One more thing to talk about this weekend, sunday, theres our next chance of seeing a few more showers headed our way so we could have a little hilltop snow tonight. Chilly temperatures that will last through the weekend and a chance of some freezing temperatures in our valleys beginning tomorrow night and again on saturday night as well. Back to you. Chaos. Get out of debt. Thats what i want to do. You know . I cant wait to cut out my credit cards. Christmas comes early for a south bay woman. Why the tax man showed up at her home with a 27,000 check. And speaking of christmas gift, governor jerry brown just gave actor Robert Downey jr. Something he definitely didnt have until now. An alert Neighbor Helps Police Nab a man wanted for new at 5 00, an alert Neighbor Helps Police Nab a man wanted for robbery in the east bay. Police say this man, parker, is a suspect in several robbery and burglary cases. He was arrested yesterday thanks to a watchful neighbor in orinda. She called police to report a suspicious woman at her door asking for directions to the freeway. Police followed up, stopped the car and found parker. Hes behind bars being held without bail. If you unwrap a drone tomorrow, two things to remember. New faa rules mean you have to register your drone with the federal government and east bay regal Park District says all open spaces are a do not fly zone. Park Officials Say drones are a danger to planes and helicopters and disruptive to wildlife. Drones are already banned in National Parks in dozens of state and local Park Districts. If youre caught flying the fines start at 300. An early christmas present, ill let you take it away. All right. For actor Robert Downey jr. Hell take it either way. He got a pardon today from governor jerry brown which means his criminal record is now clean. He was one of about 90 people pardoned by brown in something of a Christmas Eve tradition. Pardons for people who have served time for nonviolent crime. The actor served nearly a year in jail back in the late 90s for drug crimes. His pardon notice includes the phrase, he has paid his debt to society. Cold temperatures coming in for the rest of your holiday weekend. Rob is back with a final look at the forecast right after this break. A huge Christmas Eve gift was given in gilroy today. Because of a huge tax welcome back. A huge Christmas Eve gift was given in gilroy today because of a huge taxrelated mistake. This is erin cerdan getting a check for more than 27,000 from Santa Clara County tax assessor larry stone. You give out that kind of dough youre getting a hug. Cerdan and her family were overcharged on property taxes for 13 years. Erin, herself discovered the mistake and contacted the county which then realized it had overcharged more than 200 local families. Erin says she is grateful for the return, plus interest, and has some plans for the money. Pay off your bills. Get out of debt. And thats what i want to do. You know . I cant wait to cut up my credit cards and im going to keep one because nowadays you have to have a credit card, but i definitely want to be able to be out of debt. Now there is still the question of whether erin and the other families will owe, of all things, federal taxes on their refunds. Theyve been advised to contact the irs. Good for her. And the other families that she got that money back for. It is not too late to donate christmas presents. Lefty odouls in San Francisco had its lastminute toy drive this morning. Hundreds of kids went home with toys but they could use a few thousand more especially Sports Equipment and gifts for tween girls. You can still bring gifts to lefty odouls through 2 00 p. M. There will be christmas elves there all night. They haul them in. Definitely a good thing. Seeing a chance of showers tonight. Weather in a giving spirit as well. Im glad. If you like raindrops, maybe sop hail, some heavier showers. Youre seeing this next line kind of coming over the top of the fence peninsula, bringing r palo alto and sunnyvale. See colors on the radar we dont often see, the pink, sleet, and the white and gray, thats snow. Above 4,000 feet. Happening right now around mt. Hamilton. So the forecast for roughly the same areas east of san jose, along the summit there of some of the santa cruz mountains, a chance of more snow at times. Something to look forward to tomorrow morning. Might see white on the hills around the bay area. Showers as we start. Cool start to the day. Cool finish, too. Showers begin to decrease heading into the afternoons, highs in the upper 40s to low 50s. As our skies dry out, watch out for freezing temperatures. 20s and 30s to wake up to on saturday morning. Hopefully everybody is getting some nice wool socks and jackets. Some parts a White Christmas, at least a very cold christmas. Indeed. Thank crew very much, rob. Thanks very joining us. Nightly news is up next. Always find us online at nbcbayarea. Com and of course on facebook and twitter. Developing news tonight. A state of emergency after a ferocious tornado outbreak tears through several states. At least 11 people are dead, including a 7yearold boy. Entire neighborhoods destroyed. Panic at the mall. Gunfire erupts on Christmas Eve. A Police Officer shoots and kills a gunman inside a store as frightened shoppers run in fear. Winter summerland. Late december and temperatures in the 60s and 70s across much of the country. The warmest Christmas Ever. Shorts and tshirts, a day in the park instead of by the fire. And holy night. Celebrations in bethlehem, at the vatican and around the world. Nightly news begins right now