today, with lester holt and tamron hall. live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. good morning, everyone. welcome to today on a saturday morning. i m lester holt. and i m tamron hall. it is the ending that no one wanted. after a week-long search, police say the body they found earlier this week is that of little jessica ridgeway, the 10-year-old girl who disappeared after she was headed off to elementary school a week ago. i was actually in denver this week when they found the body. unable to identify it. but parents especially very scared, very angry about this whole thing. there is a predator on the loose, a killer. the investigation is continuing. we re going to talk about that in a moment. also ahead, with just three days to go until the next presidential debate, the candidates have a busy weekend campaigning and preparing for their next showdown. take a look at how they re getting ready, especially in light of their running mate s performances on thursday
any storminess yesterday and now overnight with weak high pressure over the region, we ve got a mostly clear sky. those bright spots in the eastern sky, that s jupiter and venus rising this morning in a clear sky. it s very pleasant temperaturewise. all those areas in green are in the 60s. the pleasant 60s across most of virginia and maryland and west virginia. few locations upper 50s western maryland. right now, nearby suburbs, prince george s county, the 60s. mid 70 nasdaq washington. but by 7:00, upper 60s. beautiful morning by noontime. mid 80s. late afternoon, there s a small chance of an isolated thunderstorm popping up. still not terribly humid throughout the day today. i ll be back in ten minutes with another update. danella is here now with the first4 traffic. thanks, tom. right now i m checking on a situation in silver spring, maryland. if you re traveling northbound at georgia avenue there s a road hazard in the road. take colesville road instead to continue nort
leads anybody to terrorize their fellow human beings like this cht . it is now just 14 hours from when all eyes shifted to the tragedy in aurora, colorado. one of the deadliest mass shootings in u.s. history. the details remain influx, but here s the latest this hour. 71 shot. 12 died. the rest were injured. now, the tragic shooting in colorado has stunned the nation an the political world today. it happened just after the start of a midnight premier of the new bat man movie, the dark knight rises. a heavily armed gunman bursting into the theatre through an exit door and here s how witnesses describe what happened next. he threw one gas like, one tear gas thing. landed in the road. hit the girl right in front of us. then it exploded. then he threw another one. i think that went to the right of us. and did you see him starting to shoot people at that point? he waited, he looked like, he looked so calm when he did it. it was scary. he waited for the bombs both to
he was wearing a ballistic helmet, a tactical ballistic vest, ballistic leggings, a throat protector and groin protector and a gas mask. and at this hour, police are working to disharm holmes aurora apartment. they ve been working hard all day, which they say is boby trapped in an elaborate fashion. we are trying to determine how to disarm the flammable or explosive material that s in there, so that s why we re here. we could be here for hours or days. the pictures are pretty disturbing. looks pretty sophisticated. the tragedy pushed politics aside today as both the president and his rival, mitt romney, scrubbed campaign events and pulled political ads from colorado s air waves sh speaking instead to a moment of wrunity d great sadness. if there s anything to take away from this tragedy, it s the reminder that life is very fragile. our time here is limited and it is precious. and what matters at the end of the day is not the small things. it s not the trivial things,
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