johns hopkins hospital. good evening. i'm jim vance. >> the calls that arrived today came from fightened patients. they actuallsaw the man shoot the doctor outside the operating room where his mother was being treated. it happened yesterday. jackie vincent is here with the latest on this. hi, jackie. >> hi, dore reason. many people came from people used to dealing with emergencies. >>e have had a shooting on the floor. >> just one person, it's a doctor. >> the 911 calls described the feathat enveloped the eighth floor of what's known as the nelson winning of johns hopkins hospital in baltimore thursday. callers also provided valble information to police, quickly relaying that a physician later identified as dr. david cowen appeared be the only victim. >> there was a gun shooting up on nelson eighth. >> how many shots did you hear? >> one. i was staing right there and a physician went down. >>ne call came from a terrified patient's room. >> i'm in room 877. we're trying to keep our door shut tight. >> we are going to get officers down there. okay, did you see if anyone was actually shot? >> no, but they're saying get a stretcher fast. >> one caller provided critical information that helpedirect swat team officers to the right place. >> he still might be in his mother's room, but he's still in the hospital. >>t a press conference friday, the police commissier was asked how a gun made it to the eighth floor of an internationally renowned hospital. >> very, very small weapon. th whole thing could be concealed in the palm of your hand. and so in terms of recognizing an armed gunman and all of those things that people will theorize about it would prooercht a big challenge. >> people are still tryi to figure out what would make the man shoot his ailing mother and then turn the n on himself. >> jackie, thank you. a tragic accident appears to have taken the line of a seven-month-old boy in silver spring. police say he died after getting caught in a drapery cord. a hysterical call from the child'smother brought them to the north hamp tons late this morning. they think the child somehow got out of his crib and got his neck caught in the window cord. officers performed cpr and he was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. officers see no foul play. they are looking at this as an accidental death. some people in fairfax county are on edge after a series of burglaries and robberies in their neighborhood. police say there have been 34 cases since august 24 and they believe one man is responsible. dorothy spencer is at fairfax county atolice headquarters with more. dorothy? >> reporter: i spoke to one of those victims tonight. she had her purse stolen from her unlocked suv. she said her sense of safety is now gone. she is getting a home security system installed. residents in fairfax county felt so safe many residents didn't even lock their doors or windows. but a recent rashof burglaries has shattered their peace of mind. >> it happened once or twice and we thought, well, that's it, but they keep coming back, and that's what's alarming. >> police believe one criminal is responsible for 34 burglaries, thefts from houses and cars since august 24. they say he steals wallets and purses for the cash. >> it's just the information we're receiving from the neighborhood and just the typical oration of highway he's doing these larcenies and burglaries that lead us to believe it one person. >> they found a neighbor's purse in a yard. >> they had just taken the cash. the driver's license and credit cards were there. they just took the cash and dropped it and took off. >> one of the reasons we liked this area was it seemed like a safe neighborhood, low crime rate, good schools, that type of neighborhood, and it's very surprising. >> police say the burglar usually enters homes and cars through unlocked doors and windows in the middle of the night. >> we've told all of the residents that they should make sure that they lock up all their possessions, keep lights on at night for added visibility and be vigilant, you know, about strange cars in the commuty and such. >> reporter: police say this burglar has entered homes while people are asleep. fortunately no on has been hur and no one has encountered the such face to face. police do want to get him off the streets because these crimes do continue to escalate. crimestoppers is offers a $5,000 reward. outgoing d.c. mayor fenty says he will not be running for mayor on the opposing ticket. fenty won the gop's primary as a write-in candidate. fenty lost tuesday's democratic primary to d.c. council chair gregg. he says he has no plans to seek public office again. srah palin is making yet another high-profile appearance tonight. she was a featured speaker at a ig republican party fundraiser in iowa. palin's time in that caucus state is stirring up more speculation that the former alaska governo might make a bid for the top seat in the white house. >> sarah palin's presence in iowa, fresh from other influence in the primaries, is rekind ling speculations about her aspirations for the white house. >> it's time for no more business as usual, it is timeto take our country back. >> palin was senator john mccain's vice presidential running mate in 2008, ask now, in her firstisit to iowa this year, she joked about whether she wants top billing in 2012. >> todd says, i can guarantee you if anybody spots you in the tennis shoes, the headline is going to be vanity fair. they're going to say palin in iowa decides to run. >> the primary seasohas pointed to the growing division between the established gop and tea party activists. palin, a star of the tea party movement, has supported both sides and called ou some of her traditional republican counterparts to do the same. >> carl here, you can come to iowa, and carl roven, the other leaders, will see the light and see that these are hard-working patriotic americans -- >> with a message she sees as a desire for changein the country, palin calls for unity as the gop heads for reelection. leanne greg, nbc news. john stewart are in political satire. now they're planning dueling rallies on the mall on september 30. it is a satirical back rally. stewart is calling his the rally to restore sanity. ez it will be like woodstock except the drugs and nudity will be replaced by respectful disagreement. two men taken hostage inside the discovery building describe their dramatic escape. plus, new detalils about th six people under arrest in an alleged terror plot against the pope. veronica,how about our weekend weather? >> it going to be a nice weekend but we need the rain. we will have a weather front moving in. i'll le you know if we get any drops out of it. high school football and ch flowers meet overtime to decide their battle. the phillies dominate the redskins and they're standing patient as he hos to get on field as a hey, ove, i'm gonna need a bank. any ideas? capital one bank. they're everywhere. ♪ yeah, you're right! 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[ male announcer ] capital one bank. the most branches and atms in the dc area. what's in your wallet? ove, go long! pope benedict is pushing forward with the state visit in great britain despite what appears to be a threat agains him. earlier today police in london arrested six men in a suspected terror plot. five of them work as street cleaners in central london. the vatican says the threat did not alter the pope's busy schedule. today he attended mass with the arn bir archbishop of canterbury. it's the first time the pope has visited westminster abby. the taliban has promised to disrupt the parliamentary elections. officials say they won't even try to open some polling locations because they can't guarantee everybody's safety. but president ramid karzai is telling people to ignor the threats. final ballot collection isn't expected until the end of october. it's pretty obvus he was there to die either atis hands or the police's. >> up next, the dramatic story of how they planned their escape. plus, rescuers inch closer to freeing 33en trapped in an underground mine in chile. and another investigation into a drug company of secretly chevy chase bank is becoming capital one bank. with the most locations in the dc area, we figured they could use our help. ♪ down a bit. too much. [ crowd cheering ] [ grunts ] [ garth ] capital one bank. now with the most branches and atms in the dc area. what's in your wallet? we're hearing some chilling firsthand accounts from the hostages in the discovery building sndoff. chris wood and jim mcnullity were held by armed suspect james lee in the building september 1st. lee was threatenng to kill himself and everyone around him. after several harrowing hours of knowing their lives were hanging in the balance, they got a signal to run, a signal from the security guard who was in there with them, and they silently coordinated their escape. >> christopher mouthed the word "run" and i just kind of nodded and christopher had his arms folded. he held down three fingers. >> i started counting down a little bit, put one finger down, and i got nervous and the gunman was looking at me so i put it back up. i hesitated for a moment and i counted down again. i nt all the way to zero and i looked back at jim and i looked back at the gunman and he was looking right at me. and as soon as he looked down at the phone, i dropd my arms and took off running for the same door tha i came in. >> mcnullty said he heard gunfire when he ran out. it was from swat team members who killed lee. there is more to view of the hostages at our web site. there is renewed hope night that the 33 trapped miners in chile can be rescued ahead of schedule. a drill was able to reach the men today where they've been trapped 2,000 feet underground. the next step is to widen the hole to about 28 inches. it could take about six week to pull those men out. that's much sooner than the christmas estimate that was originally given. the men have been trapped now for about a month and a half. a congressional instigation is under way into whether a secret recall of pain relievers was carried out this summer. last year pkets of possibly sdept active motrin was bought for the stores by johnson & johnson. they told coworkers they were considering a similar recall from last july for children's tylenol. federal authorities aretrying to figure out if the second recall actually took place. veronica is here with our weather forecast. how is that weekend looking? >> the weekend is looking great, although great means for us now no rainfall. >> well, we can wait until monday for the rain. >> sunday night and monday, that's where we could have chance for it. let's take a look at thgs. right now we do have some mostly clear skies outside. our weather again pretty quiet but busy in theopics, as you're going to see in just a oment. we've got not one but two hurricanes to talk about. all right. today's high temperature, 82 degrees. we started out at 69. here's a look at your yearly rainfall deficit now well over six inches, folks. 69 degrees your current temperature. we do have a wind that's out of the ntheast at 14 miles per hour. some very dry air moved in during the overnight period wh a passage of that weather front. had a couple warnings ask severe weather up north. temperatures tomorrow start out at about 69 degrees. we'll get up to 70 by 10:00 a.m. sshine throughout the day and approaching the 80-degree mark. it's going to be a nice one coming up for tomorrow. that weather front well down to the south across north carolina. high pressure moving in. that's what's going to stay in control of our weather through the weekend. it doesn't look like we'll have much rain even out of the front that comes throh on sunday. there's the look at the driest conditions, western maryland around allegheny county, frederick couy down to the west and east. there are some showers down around houston from the outer bands of karl. let me sh you when hurricane karl slammed into the coast of mexico. this is around veracruz. it slammed down trees and tattered to lose its punch, but will move southwest through mexico. it will probably bring from five to as much as 12 inches of rain through the weekend. the other system, that's igor in the mid-atlantic. it will approach bermuda and late sunday and monday they will have to deal with hurricane force winds for about a day and a half and we'll get some rip currents around new england going into next week. as far as our forecast here, again, high pressure moving in. there's that weather front. it will be dropping out of areas of the midwest and the great lakes, losing a lot of its nch. we're not going to see probably but a fewdrops of rain coming in sunday night into monday morning. so monday, a few clouds to start your work week. here's the forecast. 54 to 60 degrees, awfully refreshing. sunshine tomorrow, 79 to 84. and as we go to sunday moing, that's the day of the big race, right, dori? >> right. >> 61 degrees. dry conditions for the next couple days, for the most part. next best chance of rain coming our way on wednesday. >> we'll patient for the rain. what else can we do? >> when our broadcast continues, a bus driver paying a little more attention to a book than the road. america saves on dunkin', america runs on dunkin', with three freshly baked bagel twists for only $3, like our delicious new tomato basil or sweet chocolate chip, so grab three for 3 today. [ ding! ] how does that work? hit it! see, other machines only go in circles. this kenmore elite has multi-motions for a custom clean. it scrubs to help lift stains, rolls to wash gently, swings, steps, and tumbles. better than just circles, what! sorry. get 15% off all appliances and an extra 10% with your sears card plus, save up to an additional $250 instantly with our appliance trade-in program. sears. let's play some ball tonight. how did they do? >> philly could have done a little better. jason marquee took a step bck tonight. the national star pitcher was pounded in philadelphia. he gave up six runs and didn't make it out of the first inning. the first inng for raj was all the phillies needed as they crewsed to victory over the 115th straight sellout at citizens state park in philadelphia. a bright spot for the nationals tonight with danny espinoza on second. he comes around to score. nationals tay tke a 1-0 lead. bottom of the fourth now. nationals pitcher jason marquee had a brutal opening, to say the least. chase utley comes in to score, as does ryan howard. that makes it 3-1. a bauble from zimmerman and his troubles are far from over. oswalt gets in on the action. marquee's night is ver. he faced nine batters and recorded exactly one out. he gave up six runs in one inning before the phillies lost 9-1. devon omas was the first taken by the draft. now thomas is battling just to get on the field in shanahan's new team. he was basically the fifth wide receiver. last night's game plan, armstrong, galloway and williams. he's been relegated to a kick return wel. thomas did do that well. he averaged 38 yards on two kick returns and looked pretty good. even though thomas contributed to the win, he had mied emotions afterwards. >> it is what it is. i'm trying my best to get out there, putting my best foot forward, trying to keep myead up and not being down, but it's hard, especially it's my third year and i really want to be a major pa of this offense and i know i can be a major part. i just got to do my thing on special teams. >> keeping a good attitude. high school football, most teams played their games early this afternoon or early tonight to accomdate the jish holiday. this one all aboutrevenge. both teams 2-0 coming in. last year c.h. flowers beat them coming in. no score in this one. buoy with the ball on their own 25-yard-line. t. k. jordan plays a quick back. he has just destined everybody straight up the sidelines. he's going to maryland and play up there. the game would go into overtime. tied and flowers wns it in overtime 13-10. in the district, cardoza and black, tyrone campbell rolls to his left, throws it to john young, he makes one tale and young is gone. that's a sharp look. i like that. cardoza wins 34-18. we weren't choose frg ting e horn of plenty tonight but we did bring you some good a woman in michigan has been locked up after a wild police chase. it all started when the eriff's deputy tried to pull her over because the car was reported stolen. she put the car in reverse and slammed into the deputy's cruiser a number of times. here she comes again. atone point she even tried hitting the cruiser head on. then she drove across the state line into indiana and tried to it other cars before she finally gave up. >> good move. >> t officer was taken to the hospita he was not seriously injured. a bus driver in oregon is in hot water after he was caught using an e-reader while driving down an interstate with a bus full of passengers. yesterday one of the riders noticed him pull the tablet device out of his bag and prop it on the dashboard. the driver appears to be reading through much of the commute, even drooifiving with his elbow some points. the driver has been placed on id administrative leave. wow. authorities investigate. four of the most closely watched infts in d.c. cleared theirirst big hurdle today. there were four lion cubs given a clean bill of health today at the national zoo. it was their first physical exam. they were born only 2.5 beaweek ago. the cubs' health is exciting to zoo officials but they're still cautious. the success of lions held in captivity is about 30%. all four are believed to be female but the vet says it's still too ♪ [ male announcer ] new inventory. ♪ new equipment. new trucks. new hires. ♪ new space. ♪ new markets. achievement seizes new opportunity. go to pnc.com/businessloans to see how we can help your cash flow situation. pnc. for the achiever in us all. to see how we can help your cash flow situation. . a restaurant that's been part of downtown d.c.'s landscape for more than half a century is abo to move today was the final day for lowe's deli at its location on 15th street. lobe's has been serving up its famous sandwiches to customers for 51 years. the owners say they're being forced out by the owner who wants to renovate the building. that's going to last seral years. but they're going to reopen at 17th and i street northwest. they say ey'll do that in n