tonight, there are storms bouncing around all over the area. they're generating lots of lightning. severe thunderstorm warnings have been issued. doug, this is potentially rough stuff, huh? >> yeah, real rough stuff, jim. i think the biggest concern right now is going to be the heavy rain, and we are looking at a lot of lightning here. a lot of reports on my facebook and twitter pages talking about a major lightning storm out there. the biggest storm right here into frederick county, we've seen this area of storminess just sit over southeastern portions of frederick county, northwestern portions of montgomery county, but you can see a lot of storms all across the area and they do continue to form. sensitive mode on the radar showing where these storms are just to the north of barnesville. this is the strongest storm with some very heavy rain, watch out for possible flooding here, and right down 270 toward gaithersburg, then you move out to the east, savage toward laurel, maryland, into northern portions of prince george's county. you're going to continue to see the rain move in. some heavy rain and some hail has also been reported with these. then you move back down to the south. you have new storms forcing into leesburg or just to the south of leesburg and then another area of storminess just to the south of fredricksburg. some big-time thunderstorms into spots of the county. nothing severe at the moment but that could change as we make our way through the next couple of hours. a few of these have been severe over the last hour and a half. they will all move through here and most likely be out by tomorrow morning. but they will reform. i'll show what you i'm talking about tomorrow. >> thank you, doug. to breaking news in maryland. two women have been shot inside a church. somebody else found dead outside. police are still trying to figure out what happened at st. peter's episcopal church in ellicott city. shimmari stone joins us with what we do know right now. >> tonight people in this neighborhood are in shock. you can see howard county police behind me over my right shoulder. they're investigating, trying to figure out who the shooter and the victims are. a s.w.a.t. team, canines shoot for a man who shot two women in an office inside st. peter's episcopal church nell cott city, maryland. one woman died. medics drove another to shaw trauma in critical condition, leaving this quiet community stunned. >> very scary. you know, very unexpected. >> reporter: investigators say a janitor found the two women in the office. he was in the building at the time of the schooting and called 911 around 5:20 thursday evening. >> we don't know how long the bodies were there. >> reporter: police found a man dead in the nearby woods with a gun near his body. they believe he shot and killed himself. they're investigating to see if he also shot the two women. >> we don't know who the man in the woods is. we don't even know for sure who the two victims are. >> reporter: st. peter's episcopal church has a preschool for kids age 2 to 4. the kids were already gone. >> this is a church. likej expect something like that to happen around here. >> reporter: police have not released the names of the victims or the man who was found dead in the woods. they'll release more information tomorrow. in ellicott city, maryland i'm shomari stone, news 4. a family dog attacked a newborn baby, and tonight that child is in stable condition at fairfax hospital. the attack happened on tuesday at a house on the culpepper county side of amisville virginia. police say it appears a jack russell terrier jumped into the newborn's bassnet and bit the child more than 30 times. the mother apparently was asleep at the time. when the father got home, he pulled the dog off the child and then shot and killed the dog. a car exploded in flames, and the fire quickly moved from the garage to the main house. erica gonzalez caught up with the homeowner, who has lived there for more than 20 years. >> reporter: firefighters are still on the scene. they're working to make sure that every single hot spot has been contained. all three people that lived inside this home made it out okay. however, there are still three other members of the family that are missing tonight. after 20 years of making a house a home, jerry gilrith and his family saw it all go up in flames. montgomery county firefighters were called to his home on baltimore avenue in bethesda around 6:30 this evening. he says the warning sign came when the lights inside the home began to flicker. >> all of a sudden we heard a boom and i was afraid they might have got hit. they said they were okay. so i came up the stairs to the door that goes out into the garage and there was a flame there. >> reporter: firefighters opened the garage door and found a car on fire. the flames quickly spread, but fortunately, no one was injured. >> the only thing i can figure out is i have an electrical cable in the garage that goes to our electric lawnmower. that could have caught on fire. >> reporter: the family was reunited with milo shortly after the fire but say he's run off, skittish from all the commotion. miko and flipper are also missing. gilreath says they plan on staying with friends the next couple of days until they are able to get back on their feet, and he adds that luckily they did have insurance. in bethesda, erica gonzalez, news 4. a man in baltimore is facing up to ten years in prison for a beating that has drawn comparisons to the trayvon martin case. a judge today convicted 24-year-old eliyahu wertesheim for an attack on a black teenager in 2010. he had been patrolling for a jewish neighborhood watch at the time. the judge did not accept his claim of self-defense. wertesheim's younger brother, also accused in the attack, was exonerated. sentencing is scheduled for june 27th. the university of virginia in the state of virginia may have to pay for the murder of yeardley love. love's mother is suing the school and the state in a wrongful death lawsuit. she's seeking $29 million. sharon love claims the coaches, school athletic director, and the state ignored george hugh huguely's alcohol abuse and aggressive blafr. in august. the attorney general denies the state or university did anything wrong. tonight police have identified the bicyclist who was hit and killed by a car in olney this morning. she is said to be 48-year-old diane wittman. she lived in montgomery village. the car hit wittman near the intersection of route 108 and zion road. the driver stayed on the scene and was taken to a hospital suffering minor injuries. a firefighter is recovering from heart surgery. he says he got a major stress test today when somebody tried to break into his montgomery county home. phil herbert says somebody he didn't know kept ringing his doorbell. when he didn't answer, he heard someone trying to come through his locked patio door, then somebody else smashed a window open. herbert locked himself in his room and called 911. >> started to give a description. i saw the second guy come halfway up the stairs. afterwards, i found out that there was four people, i guess. i mean, i'm just -- i'm happy i didn't open up the door because it would have been a home invasion kind of thing. >> reporter: the would-be robbers ran off when police arrived, but herbert says they didn't take anything. the death of nfl superstar junior seau has once again put a spotlight on the brains of former nfliq as there are now new questions about how much damage is caused by playing football. wendy rieger here with more on this story. >> reporter: the medical examiner ruled that seau shot himself in the chest. some former players believe he wanted to preserve his brain. officials are now waiting for the family to decide whether they want his brain examined by a specialist. dozens gathered outside seau's oceanside home to pay tribute to the pro linebacker. his girlfriend found him unconscious yesterday when she got home and a gun was nearby. seau's death follows the suicide last year of former chicago bears player dave duer son, who also shot himself in the chest. before he killed himself, duerson asked to have his brain examined for damage that he believes was caused by playing football. seau's parents spoke today. still overcome with emotion. >> but i pray to god, please, take me. take me. leave my son. put it's too late. >> i just hope and pray that his -- you know, his boys and his daughter really understand what kind of dad they had. i mean, he really didn't care about himself. he cared about everybody else. >> reporter: seau's ex-wife says he sustained several concussions during his 20-year nfl career. but it is not known whether brain injury contributed to the 43-year-old's suicide. >> thanks, wendy. a 4-year-old montgomery county girl survived a fall from her second-story window today. it happened at an apartment complex in aspen hill. a witness saw the girl tumble through the screen and onto the grass below. paramedics checked the girl out and took her to the hospital. fire officials are urging all families to childproof their window screens as the weather gets warmer. former d.c. council member harry thomas jr. said that a sense of entitlement led him to steal money that was meant for children. a federal judge today sentenced thomas to three years and two months in prison. thomas once represented ward 5 on the d.c. council. he pled guilty to two felony counts back in january. thomas apologized in court today, said he put himself ahead of the of his constituents. also in court today, a former national archives employee received an 18-month sentence for stealing stuff he'd been tasked with preserving. lessly waffen worked with the archives for more than 40 years. prosecutors say he sold thousands of historic recordings on ebay. among them an iechlt wints account of the hindenburg crash and an interview with baseball legend jackie robinson. politics now. mitt romney was in chantilly, virginia today. he's hoping to get a boost in his popularity in the commonwealth. president obama leads romney by 26 points in northern virginia. the president is ahead by 7 points among all virginia voters according to the "washington post's" poll. virginia governor bob mcdonnell joined romney at a stop in portsmouth, virginia today. mcdonnell is said to be on the short list of possible running mates for romney. a popular urban legend in prince george's county is coming to life on the big screen. rather, i should say cinco de mayo started a few days early with a celebration at the white house. the holiday has added significance this year with president obama trying to hold on to the latino vote. the president says he's committed to signing a bill that would build a road to citizenship for undocumented students. >> we didn't come this far just to let partisan politics stand in our way. so we're going to keep fighting for this common sense reform, not just because hundreds of thousands of talented young students depend on it but because ultimately america depends on it. >> on actual cinco de mayo president obama will kick off his re-election campaign with rallies in richmond and columbus, ohio. remember that great big highway sign that fell on a man's truck on i-66 a while ago? wait till you see what the iteam uncovered when they looked at all the other highway signs in our area. rust, missing bolts, duct tape. that's just the beginning. the video that had people in the newsroom talking. it's boy versus beast, sort of. we'll tell you what that toddler's parents did not realize until after they got home. and what happens when you you drive past them every day but probably have never taken a second look at the large highway signs and the tall light poles that line our interstates. in the wake of one of those signs coming crashing down in our area, the news 4 iteam's tisha thompson is reporting for the first time what kind of shape our signs are in and whether you need to worry about another one coming down. >> reporter: virginia crews working overtime repairing highway signs. after this sign came crashing down on interstate 66. >> i was surprised that the sign structure on i-66 had faulten because we are out there inspecting them frequently. >> reporter: nick roper is in charge of sign inspections in our area for the virginia department of transportation. >> we've been doing quality insurance inspections of all our cantilevered structures since that failure. >> reporter: they still don't know why it fell, but inspectors are focused on the anchor bolts. after weeks of negotiations, vdot released its inspection records to the news 4 iteam. internal records show an estimated 8% of northern virginia's cantilever and overhead signs are in poor condition. but records show these high-mast light poles have the most problems. inspectors look for very specific things. for instance, on this high mast pole they have a problem with the fact that there's no cover. you can get to the electronics. and the system holding up the lights. but down below they also really focus on anchor bolts. these are what's holding it to the ground. they don't like it when they have too much space, there's no washers, and there's too much clearance underneath. >> reporter: vdot's internal records show as many as 25% of high mast poles are in poor or serious condition. but roper cautions, the records are out of date and the number is closer to 15%. >> pulling a sampling of those reports i noted that about half of those that i pulled its deficiencies had been corrected. >> reporter: many had been repaired or replaced. the news 4 iteam wen up and down virginia highways check out the the worst rated. near gallows road a rusty pole, corroded bolts, a cracked foundation. on 66th near roslyn washers and nuts coming off, duct tape holding broken parts together. >> the public can see corrosion on a bridge beam or a sign or a pole. it doesn't necessarily mean that they need to be concerned that that structure is in danger of falling. >> reporter: roper says these structures are safe because they're inspected every five years. >> they're massive and they're heavy. >> reporter: henry jazzny with advocates for highway safety says signs should be inspected every two years. >> they're always a risk if they're not in good repair. >> reporter: back on 66th near arlington, inspectors noted missing bolts on this heavy cross-beam more than three years ago. news 4 found there's only one bolt now holding it on over a lane of traffic. after we told vdot about what we found, they took the entire sign down. as for that sign that fell down, vdot says inspections show it was in good shape. vdot is working overtime to inspect more than 500 similar cantilevered signs. now, tomorrow night we're going to expand our investigation to find out why there's no consistent inspection policy for highway signs and how that has allowed some signs in our area to go decades without being inspected. jim, doreen? >> tisha thompson, thank you. this startling video of a lion swiping at a toddler is making waves around the world. the 1-year-old's parents record td at the oregon zoo last week. they can be heard laughing in the video.çs!3e officials say ty was not in any danger. one-inch-thick glass kept the 400-pound animal from actually getting to the child. zookeepers say the lioness simply expressed her natural predatory behavior. the boy's parents didn't realize until later that they had dressed him like a zebra that day. ooh. >> yeah. >> that kind of makes you nervous watching that. >> yeah, i'd say so. i don't care how thick that glass is. i'm moving my boy. >>? stormy weather out there. >> stormy weather for sure. a lot of areas seeing thunder. lightning right now all across the area. i think the lightning has been the biggest factor from this. tons and tons of lightning but also some very heavy rain and we have seen some reports of some hail coming in across the area. the good news right now is at least the latest -- the latest here is that most of these are starting to weaken just a little bit, but there has been a little bit of an uptick in some of these storms in toward the northern portions of ann arundel county. everybody seeing a chance for some showers and thunderstorms tonight. take you on sensitive mode here, show you where this storm is just to the north and east of barnesville. southeast frederick county saw one report of over two inches of rain there. so watch out for some flooding down around that area, just to the south of urbana. and down 270 another good storm near the gaithersburg area. this is putting down some fairly heavy rain. then you move to the east over toward the ashton area, ul ni, laurel, and savage all seeing some of that rain move through. and then even down closer to the district, right around the area and bowie and crofton, some fairly heavy storms moving through your area too. nothing severe at this time. but once again these storms continue to move down to the south and east fairly slowly so they will produce a lot of rain in a short amount of time. here's one more storm that has formed just to the south of dulles and then a lot more down to the south around fredricksbu fredricksburg. this area starting to fall apart. that's some good news here. we would love to see some beneficial rain out there. haven't seen a whole lot of it. close to five inches below average. high temperature 81 degrees. low this morning 56. yes, it was on the humid side and some of you said a little too humid. right now we're at 70 with a dew point of 64. your humidity 83%. the winds just about calm. we may see some fog form overnight tonight. so heads up for that. everybody, about that 70 degree mark. 70 in gaithersburg, washington, culpepper, and in fredricksburg temperatures in the 60s right along the areas of the chesapeake bay. here's the frontal boundary, and you see that warm front. that's what's helping to trigger some of these storms. tomorrow we'll see another round of storms form during the afternoon. maybe some strong to severe storms. not for everybody. but if you do get a storm you will see some stronger storms move in. saturday i think a front moves through. most of the day saturday i think will be dry. and right now i've taken the rain out of sunday. how about that? tomorrow morning partly cloudy. a mild start. rather humid. and some areas of fog. 62 to about 67. tomorrow afternoon we'll see those numbers back into the low 80s i think with the possibility of showers and storms. once again, some of them could be strong, maybe even on the severe side. we move to 82 on saturday. some showers maybe early. and then sunday and monday high temperatures in the low 70s. but right now i have both of those days dry before another more significant system looks like it's going to try to move in next tuesday and wednesday. >> okay. thank you, doug. we have sports next. and the legend of bryce harper at bank of america, we're lending and investing in the people and communities who call greater washington, d.c. home. from supporting an organization that helps new citizens find their way... to proudly supporting our washington redskins... and partnering with a school that brings academic excellence to the anacostia community. because the more we do in greater washington, d.c., the more we help make opportunity possible. trying to wrap up this series against the diamondbacks. did they do it? >> wouldn't you know it, they get another series victory. >> that's what i'm talking about. >> they've won almost every -- >> first place, baby. i love that. >> the kid coming to the rescue. this bryce harper experiment working out so well that nationals general manager mike rizzo looking like a genius. the nationals scraped together all of four hits tonight but thanks to harper's timely double the nats once again streaking in the right direction. harper moved up to third in the batting order against the diamondbacks tonight. bottom of the first, he's up with two outs. and harper's going to hit this chopper back to ian kennedy. kennedy waits to field the ball, throws it away. harper takes a wide turn and hustles into second. hold on a minute. they're saying that he missed the base. but look here. bad call. he got the corner. the umps rule on the appeal that he was out. no good there. then in the sixth harper going the other way. is it fair? is it foul? it's fair. harper's fourth double of the year. third rbi. and the nationals up 2-1. same score. in the bottom of the ninth, henry rodriguez. he can be a little wild trying to close it out. the 0-2 pitch. flies one to right. and jayson werth races over to make the catch. nationals win 2-1. and skipper davey johnson, color him impressed with 19-year-old bryce harper. >> play like that's infectious. you know. he sets a good example. we play hard. he takes it to another level. you know, it's not often we show you batting practice, but it's not often this happens. during yankees bp mariano rivera shagging fly balls, and he goes down. the yankees closer clutching his knee. this is not a good sight. and you can tell it was serious. check out a-rod's reaction. oh, my goodness. what happened to mariano? he had to be helped off the field. the preliminary diagnosis for the all-time saves just a strained right knee. but he's undergoing an mri. let's hope it's not too bad. and theúe< for the new york knicks. they still have not won a playoff game in 11 years. the heat just wearing them out. the knicks now one game away from elimination. heat forward chris bosh in miami this morning for the birth of his first child. baby boy jackson. proud papa arrived at msg just an hour before tipoff. fourth quarter knicks with the ball. j.r. smith. check this out. a dunk contest-worthy throwdown. >> oh, my goodness. >> in a playoff game. >> oh, my goodness. >> that's serious, isn't it? >> yes. >> spike lee loving it. you know, spike, enjoy it because your season's almost over. less than a minute later lebron going to work. gets the hoop and the harm. how about lebron coming up big in the fourth quarter? 17 of his game-high 42 in the final frame. the heat now lead the series three games to none. so [ female announcer ] safeway presents real big deals of the week. or how to get great prices on things you need. we know you look around for the best deals. that's why we give you real big club card deals each week. this week a crazy low price on tide, $10.99 for 100 ounces. 12 rolls of bounty are $11.99. that's a dollar a roll! pack your lunches -- marie callender's are just 2 bucks. real big deals this week and every week. only at safeway. ingredients for life. dr. maya angelou and rapper common joined forces tonight to raise money for a good cause in d.c. angelou was there to help chair fund-raising for the see forever foundation. that program helps at risk kids in the district by supporting them with educational and leadership skills. news 4's danela seelock emceed.foundation. this year's fund-raiser will also help with renovations at the maya angelou public charter school campus in ward 7. one more check on that stormy weather, doug. >> yeah, still looking at some heavy rain right now. in through eastern portions of prince george's county moving into ann arundel county. very heavy rain along route 50. all of that rain should be out of here in the next two to three hours. should be a-ok. tomorrow morning watch out for a little fog. temperatures tomorrow up to about 85 degrees. >> thanks, doug. from marvel's "the aveng