he's the bicyclist who may be at the center of helping to solve the assassination of an imam in queens. tonight he's speaking to eyewitness news. >> he was hit by the man police say had just shot and killed two people outside of a mosque. jim dolan in east new york, brooklyn. >> his name is david. if he hadn't been hit in this intersection in brooklyn minutes after the assassination of the imam, they might not have as it is, oscar morel is charged with first degree murder. he faces the death penalty if he's convicted but he says he didn't do it. >> just denied having to do anything with it. that's it. nothing else. >> reporter: oscar morel told his lawyer and anyone who would listen today that he's an innocent man. he did not explain how a gun that is an exact ballistic match to the murder weapon used to kill the imam and his friend front of him, he wants to ask the shooter why did you kill my innocent father? >> reporter: he's not the only innocent victim. >> when i saw his face, just a couple of seconds, but i realized this person is totally norm ally. he's totally lost his control. >> reporter: david uses a cane now to get around. days ago he was an active bike rider. he won't be able to do that again for a while. >> do you think he targeted you muslim? >> i have no idea. because really i don't know. might. >> but you're sure he targeted you? >> yes. >> reporter: al-shamiri is the man on the bike who was struck police believe by a car driven by morel. maulama akonjee and tara uddin were walking home when they were shot and killed in ozone park, black gmc trailblazer and moments later a black short distance away at pine street and pitkin avenue in east new york. after the driver first cursed then turned toward him, who's from iraq. >> i said i'm done. >> you thought you were going to die? >> yeah. >> if it weren't for that incident, police might not have found that black suv. bu hit-and-run here that led police to the black suv. the same vehicle they believe that was used as the getaway car in queens. reporting live from east new york, jim dolan, channel 7 eyewitness news. >> what a story. thank you. a frightening scene on long island. firefighters battling the fires in east patchogue as other boat owners tried to save their vessels. u.s. coast guard and the suffolk county police marine bureau called in to help put out the sparked the fires. fortunately nobody was hurt. crews at kennedy airport are working to restore full power after a disruptive outage. the outage happening late today in terminal 8 affecting escalators and checked baggage screening. the tsa kicked in an alternate plan but it caused many delays much of the day. the system that screens checked bags is now back online but there are delays due to the storms that went throughout tonight. tonight, what a show they put on in the sky. light show. thunder, lightning, and rain. look at that. will all that obliterate the heat and humidity? meteorologist jeff smith in for lee goldberg. >> those storms were producing hundreds of cloud to ground strikes. heavy downpours. gusty winds. they moved on through new york city. parts of long island in to southwestern connecticut. there's another line of storms associated with the actual cold front slicing through eastern humidity as we head in to the day tomorrow. here's our futurecast overnight tonight by midnight, some of those showers and storms approaching the delaware water gap by 1 a.m., we're talking northwestern new jersey up to orange county. they may approach new york city by around 2:00 in the morning. do not be surprised if you wake up to a rumble or two of thunder during the wee hours of the morning. then everything moves out to sea there after. as we head to morning commute time, temperatures around 78 degrees. still going to be humidity comes down during the day. i'll tell you if that nice trend continues throughout the work week in your full accuweather 7-day forecast coming up. new tonight, another amusement park accident. this one shocking six kids and a ride operator in connecticut. it happened at ocean beach park in new london on the scrambler ride. police say as kids were getting off the ride, the operator reached for a power switch sending a jolt of electricity through him and the kids. they were all taken to a hospital and are said to be e is getting checked out. a killer on the loose in queens for the last two weeks. two weeks ago tonight to be precise. that was the night he sexually abused and murdered karina vetrano as she jogged in howard beach. friends and family tonight marching, looking for answers, while cops are looking for the killer. eyewitness news reporter carolina leid at the scene with the latest. >> hundreds of people walked in vetrano's memory, reminding the >> reporter: two weeks and still no suspects. this howard beach community refuses to give up, drawing hundreds for a walk to keep the attention on finding karina vetrano's killer. neighbors, family, and close friends walked alongside what is now called the trail the park where vetrano was murdered. her parents urged people with have any idea or thoughts who it might be, you are equally as guilty of harboring him. >> reporter: vetrano was murdered and sexually assaulted during an evening run on august 2nd. she was alone. her body was found in spring creek park several hours later. the area is now patrolled by mounted police. >> i hope they catch that guy because we all have daughters and we support the family. >> reporter: many believe the family and this find peace until the man responsible is caught and put behind bars. >> somebody knows something out there. somebody knows, either it's your brother that did it, your brothers or your cousins or whatever. they're as guilty as whoever committed this murder. >> i can't tell you how many times i heard that during this with this case. $100,000 of that will go to any information that leads to an arrest in this case. the rest of the money will go to a charity in her name. reporting live in howard beach, carolina leid, channel 7 eyewitness news. breaking news out of new jersey and major developments tonight in a 6-month-old missing persons case. police arresting two people for the murder of tyrita julius who last march. investigators located her remains tonight in long branch and arrested 33-year-old jennifer sweeney and 32-year-old andre fall. they're charged with murder, desecration of human remains, and tampering with physical evidence. donald trump will receive his first classified intelligence briefing tomorrow in new york city. today trump took his campaign to the racially charged city of milwaukee, meeting with police officers who have been dealing with violent protest over the deadly police shooting of a black man by a black cop. the black vote, giving what's billed as his first policy speech about domestic security. meanwhile hillary clinton hammering trump over national security today, telling supporters in pennsylvania she is bewildered by his plan. trump yesterday unveiled his extreme vetting plan that calls for immigrants to pass an ideological test to see if they share american values. today secretary clinton releasing an ad questioning the constitutionality of trump's plan. clinton tonight also calling on the fbi to make its notes o public about the investigation in to her private e-mail server use as secretary of state. agency turning over interview notes from the investigation today but only to members of the house oversight committee. house republicans called on the fbi to release what was gathered before she was cleared by the agency in july. over 82,000 people are being forced to evacuate their homes, threatened by a wildfire in southern california. a 14 square mile fire is burning in san bernardino county along connecting los angeles and las vegas. the fire broke out just this morning but has spread so quickly, it is threatening 34,000 homes. the governor has declared a state of emergency. and from wildfires to epic flooding, the water isn't even close to subsiding in louisiana, mississippi. as harrowing rescues continue through both states around 30,000 so far, 11 lives have been lost. search crews are going house to house, checking for any other victims. that in louisiana alone, some 40,000 homes have been damaged. abc news tonight confirming the son of the imprisoned mexican drug lord called el chapo is one of a dozen reputed gang members kidnapped seaside resort in mexico. a group of armed men kidnapping the victims yesterday. happened at a restaurant in puerto vallarta. several of the men kidnapped had false identities so it complicates the effort to try to identify them. it's believed they're rival gang members. new york city pushing for against the zika virus. 49 pregnant women have tested positive for the virus in the city since april and one baby has been born with microcephaly. the city has committed $21 million to battle zika but health officials across the country are calling on congress to approve $1.9 billion in emergency funding. crews will spray for mosquitos in queens and manhattan tomorrow night. new tonight, he was the victim of a car accident but what happened next made him a very different kind of victim. an 11:00. the young man thought it was a good samaritan who came to help him in the horrible accident. instead they robbed him. >> and call it rat academy. guess what i just did? built a sandcastle? ha, no, i switched to geico and got more. more? 24/7 access online, on the phone or with the geico app. that is more. go get some mud... everybody likes more. mhm, i think so. geico. expect great savings and a whole lot more. at the the lincoln summer invitation sales event, it's time to relax. from the moment you take your foot off the brake, the brake stays engaged and you stay put. taking the legwork out of stop and go traffic. and even hills. that's the more human side of engineering. hurry in now to your dealer for limited time offers. lease a lincoln mkx for $349 a month or get 0% apr for 60 months good samaritans apparently not so good after all. a college student going home after doing volunteer work suddenly loses control of his car. it flips over, leaving the student trapped, dazed and confused. strangers come over to the car not to help, but to steal. now that's low. here's eyewitness news reporter josh einiger who spoke to the victim. >> if it wasn't for that seatbelt, i would have been right through the windshield. it would have been over for me. >> reporter: the crash was the least of h this city college student who ask we not reveal his name has just flipped his car after falling asleep behind the wheel looking for a parking space here in astoria when two apparent good samaritans offered a hand. >> i was shouting anybody here, anybody here? the ago is cursing oh, man, shoot. as i get out of the car, i don't see anything because i don't have my glasses. i'm touching my pocket, am i alive? what's going on? the man in front of me saying, you know what? >> reporter: actually, it wasn't. the two men were the ones running with all his stuff about $2,000 worth. cops are trying to find them. the victim who says he was so exhausted after volunteering for the homeless says he hopes the two assailants are caught so they can learn a lesson. >> if anyone is in trouble, help them out. don't go for objects. these things aren't going to help you. you don't want that to happen to you. morning saturday at the corner of 40th street and 48th avenue in astoria. police don't have much of a description at all of the suspects in this case. they're hoping someone might have noticed something who can help bring them to justice. in the astoria section of queens, josh einiger, channel 7 eyewitness news. an arrest tonight in a hit-and-run in new jersey. the victim, a man in a wheelchair. scene of the an accident. he hit the 78-year-old victim and kept going. the victim ejected from his wheelchair, thrown 20 feet on to the street. he suffered several broken bones. caught on camera, a terrifying ordeal for a man who was just trying to check the mail. the man left his car running as he went to his mailbox outside dallas. that's when a thief jumped behind the wheel. the owner ran back and grabbed the door handle and got his hand stuck as the crook started speeding away. the victim was yards but managed to break free suffering only a nasty cut on his knee. >> don't try to stop somebody stealing your car. you'll end up getting hurt. >> i was petrified he could have been hurt. he could have been ran over. >> the car was later found abandoned and trashed. it's hoped the surveillance video will lead to an arrest. political talk show that created a genre. host of the mclaughlin group died of prostate cancer today. his political talk show raised the bar by raising voices, watching the round table format of pundits. he missed only one show in his years, last sunday when he was too ill to go on. a rat academy tonight,he with the office of councilman cory johnson holding the sessions at the lgbt center in the west village. experts were on hand to teach people ways to rat-proof their apartments and buildings. >> everybody has a role in pet control. what this funding has done for us is allow us to bring together diverse groups like elected officials, community boards, and 30 rodent resistant garbage cans were raffled off tonight. the topic was new and created ways to remember loved ones who die. a kind of how-to and dare i say fun book written by former eyewitness news producer allison gilbert. my honor to interview the author tonight at the new york public library in midtown manhattan. her new book past and present, keep ing memories of loved ones alive. ways to remember family membe e of those tonight. >> the heat wave officially came to an end in central park but the humidity more than made up for it. temperature 82. humidity still way up there at 85%. we still have another round of showers, perhaps a rumble or two of thunder before these humidity levels lower. got up to 87 for a high. 4 degrees above average for this in central park. downpours moved on through earlier this evening. sun setting at 7:52. you continued the heat wave in earnest at newark getting up to 93 degrees. that's your 7th consecutive day of 90-plus. got in to the upper 80s on the island. 90 in to southwestern connecticut at bridgeport. still a shower or a thunderstorm overnight. frontal passage after midnight. a little bit less humid tomorrow. i think it starts pretty muggy in the morning. then humidity gradually lowers. it will feel a whole lot better. we're about a week away from real relief where you can actually open up your windows at night and save on the air conditioning bill. 75 in morristown. 82 at belmar. 80 on the island at islip. when we have dew points above 70 it feels oppressive. still right now we're pre-frontal ahead of the front front some showers and thunderstorms redeveloping not too far from allentown. some of these can work their way in to new york city by around 2:00 in the morning. 3 a.m. out on to long island before they finally move offshore behind the front. we start lowering our humidity in to the day tomorrow. lows tonight only getting down to about 76 or so. highs in to the upper 80s. feeling a whole lot better than we're looking forward to. a big sweep of less humid air coming in from the great lakes for tuesday in to wednesday of next week. here's your accuweather forecast overnight. warm and sticky out there. shower or thunderstorm around after midnight. we're down to 76. clouds, a little bit of sun, breezy, warm and humid still at 7:00 in the morning but becoming less humid during the afternoon. 87. it won't feel too bad especially with the breeze out there. partly cloudy tomorrow night. down to 74. g a shower or storm thursday but most places would stay dry. 88. back to the heat on friday. does become very muggy over the weekend. thunderstorms in here with the next front. look at tuesday. only 81 for a high. lows in the city getting in to the 60s by tuesday night. that is looking good. bill evans has an update. >> open the windows. up next, could bananas soon be extinct? for all those pokers, prodders, shuckers and sniffers, ...so you don't have to guess. everything nature's promise is so wholesome. and it doesn't take the whole paycheck. stop & shop's exclusive nature's promise. yes, we have no bananas. the hit song from the 1920s could be reality within the next decade. scientists now say bananas are facing extinction. researchers in california say and deadly fungi. they warn the world's bananas could be extinct within the next 10 years. they say the fungi has already reduced the global banana yield by 40%. in tonight's health alert, endurance exercise could slow down the aging process. listen to this. researchers in belgium found that intense training like running or cycling releases an enzyme in the body. that enzyme strengthens a part of human cells that protects dna slowing the weakening and aging of our cells. ac young people in the bronx and in the stadium. >> not just sitting in the stands. there's it means a new lease on a potential playoff life this season all thanks to the baby bombers, the newly called up rookies who keep impressing. storm clouds threatening. it started well for new york. gary sanchez with the solo home run to make it 2-0 yanks. the weather wasn't improving but this begs the question. would lightning strike twice? for sanchez, yes. 4th inning. the game. 3-run blast. 42-minute rain delay. the yanks would lead 6-0. then the blue jays came to life. encarnacion tying it. martin, second home run of the game. that matches sanchez on the night. another two-run shot as the jays take the lead. they hold on 12-6 the final. yanks allow 12 unanswered. a crushing diagnosis for nate eovaldi who needs elbow surgery aft his ucl. he'll miss the rest of this season and most likely all of next season as well. eovaldi already had tommy john when he was 17. yoenis cespedes said he feels perfect. the team expects to have him back friday. tonight neil walker is out of the mets lineup with lower back stiffness. the amazings and diamondbacks met again in the desert. noah syndergaard was getting out of trouble a lot early but not what thor gives up, thor gets back and then some. syndergaard, the two-run home run. his third of the year which ties the mets franchise record. right now the mets are leading it 6-1 in the 6th. the giants enjoyed some rest today with a break from practice. they'll get back to work tomorrow in the meadowlands. victor cruz is expected to work out. the jets were out. matt forte started practicing for the first time this training sunday but just individual position drills. he's still confident he'll be ready to go for the season opener. >> they've had to hold me back personally because if not, if it was up to me, i'd be going at it every day. a lot of times they have to protect me from myself. i overwork or do something where you have a setback. >> the united states women's basketball team just continues to roll in rio tonight, beating japan by 64. moving the americans in to the semifinals. while gymnastics competition for team usa. simone biles rebounding from her bronze on beam yesterday taking gold on floor, fourth gold of these games, most for an american team gymnast. aly raisman took silver. leva was originally an alternate for the games then he got in. today he won two silver medals in the high bar and parallel bars. so a pretty good day for gymnastics as they wrapped ?slow, building african-style m? it's the little moments that make the biggest waves. kalahari resorts & conventions. the world's coolest indoor waterparks. nobody sings that theme song like you do. i'm going to get your mic open one day. thanks for watching tonight. [ laughter ] i'm bill ritter. >> and i'm sade baderinwa. jimmy kimmel is next. eyewitness news returns tomorrow at 4:30 with ken and lori. here, have a great night. >> dicky: from hollywood, it's "jimmy kimmel live!" tonight -- greg kinnear -- from the ufc, dana white -- "this week in unnecessary censorship" -- and comedian dino archie. with cleto and the cletones. and now, hunker down, here's jimmy kimmel! ? [ cheers and applause ] >> jimmy: welcome to you program. thank you for watching.