Transcripts For WABC Eyewitness News First At 4 20151222

The Roosevelt Field mall when suddenly a shot is fired. Turns out this was a robbery. In this exclusive Surveillance Video you can see store security guards and an offduty nypd officer taking the suspect down. The subject entered the rolex section of what we believe to be the torneau store. At that time he was able to get into the high end section of that store where he attempted to rob the store. The perpetrator fired one shot. That shot injured a mall employee shot in the shoulder area, in stable but serious condition. Thats the most updated report that we have. Store security guards ultimately captured the suspect. This man was taken into custody at the mall, and police now confirm only one suspect was arrested here, but ever since the paris shootings Nassau County police have ratcheted up their response for any shots fired here. We have bureau of special operations. Works in this mall. Im not going to go into the specific numbers. We have a very Robust Detail of Police Officers assigned to the mall. Regarding what happened here today, the robbery while violent and upsetting prompted an even more upsetting reaction, confusion and chaos. I heard like three sounds like that sound like gunshot sounds, but i dont have any other detail. You heard three pops. Yes. Not one. Yeah, there was like a few. There were a few. And if then what happened right after that. Just a stampede came through. Reporter and a lot of people talking about what they called pandemonium, a crowd of people running out, others who just sheltered in the stores that they were in. We want to point out the mall is open for business right now. Theres a small area still cut off where the actual robbery occurred. The man who was shot, hes a 67 yearold mall employee. Hes in serious but stable condition. The way, is an offduty Deputy Inspector for the nypd. He was here. He was Christmas Shopping. Were going to have a lot more on that coming up in a live report at 5 00. Were live, im stacey sager channel 7 Eyewitness News. The mall of course was filled with Holiday Shoppers this afternoon. Kristin thorne continues our coverage with their stories. Reporter you can just imagine how scary this was for people here didding their Christmas Shopping, and then they heard gunshots. A lot of people told us after they heard the gunshots they either ran out of the mall as quickly as they could. If they were in a store, they ran to the back rooms, any rooms, a supply room, locked the doors, some waiting there for as long as an hour and a half. This is some video we got from people hiding in the back of the Louis Vuitton store. I spoke with people who were in the gap and boese. They say the store employees handled it so well. They brought down the gates, took all the customers in the store into the book rooms, locked those doors where people were able to text and call their loved ones. We did hear about some stampeding situations, especially in the food court. People ran out of there very quickly running into each other, leaving purses, crying, screaming, anything just to get out of there. You have to remember in this day and age we live in, people honestly thought this was a mass shooting. We ran. We locked the doors, and we heard like about four or five pops, and we locked the doors. We ran to the bathroom at the back of my store and we crouched and we waited. People in the gap were great. They closed the doors. They got everybody in the stock room. The staff is very well trained, and they knew exactly how to get the whole store cleared in the back room. And coming up at 5, youll hear more from people here who were shopping about this scary situation. Were live outside the Roosevelt Field mall, Kristin Thorne channel 7 Eyewitness News. A reminder you can stay on top of breaking news with our go to abc7ny to sign up. Were going to turn now to the weather, and you know, certainly does not feel like the first day of winter out there. The first full day. No need for any of those heavy coats, gloves, scarf, nada. Nothing. Its a live look outside here when youre seeing a soggy start to winter. The question, how long will the rain last. Meteorologist lee goldbergs outside our studios on the upper west side. Lee. So this is winter, huh . 62 degrees, clouds, dont need the umbrella anymore. Kind of a warm breeze at my back. Its unbelievable. Temperatures will be a major story. First a big hurdle and that will be a good soaking. Right now some encouraging news for travelers. If you look at the ceiling visibility not terrible just yet. Hopefully minimal delays at the there certainly are going to be some with the rain we had today. 61 degrees our temperature right now. Great. Bridgeport for the second event over an inch of rainfall. Half an inch in islip. 2 10 in new york city and same thing up the hudson valley. The steadier rain is now moving away. Some rain over nassau and Suffolk County not too far from hunting don. A couple showers through mahwah and randolph new jersey. Dont abandon your umbrella for the next hour or two. Clouds are starting to thin. Our next batch of heavy rain is still gathering steam over the gulf of mexico, so its still a while before we get into another round of heavy rain, and that heavy rain will open the floodgates to 70degree temperatures, which are now climbing up the carolina coast, and thats for Christmas Eve. Heres what you need to know. The lull that has now begun in the rainfall will last until late tomorrow morning. Fog and heavy rain in the afternoon will definitely slow travel. I had to buy santa a fan for record shattering warmth Christmas Eve. Have the futurecast with your rainfall totals. Have the sevenday forecast in a few minutes. Liz, david, burr. Nice try, lee. Thanks lee well see you in a few minutes. If you would like to keep up with the radar wherever you are you can do so by downloading our accuweather app. Police arresting two people for assaulting a legally Blind Salvation Army bell ringer. The assault happened outside a restaurant on tarrytown road in greenburg. Marcus solis talked to the victim. Hes in greenburg for us this afternoon. Marcus. Reporter despite his disability, Jermaine Simmons has been a dedicated Salvation Army worker for the last five Holiday Seasons. He was here at his usual spot when he decided to get a bite to eat. That is when the trouble began. Thank you, have a great day. Jermaine simmons is back ringing his bell, bruised and beaten but not defeated. Allegedly punched, kicked, and hit the Salvation Army worker with his kettle. They threw the kettle at me. They threw the ketchup bottle at me. And my whole face was bleeding. The incident happened at a smash burger in greenburg. Simmons who is 41, legally blind and has Cerebral Palsy was on his lunch break. The assault took place after police say the two accused simmons of cutting in front of them in line. There was a scuffle. He got in my face. I got in his face. There was a couple words exchanged. All of a sudden i get punched by a right hook and i fell to the ground and my bucket fell along with me. 30yearold Juan Rodriguez allegedly punched simmons, and when the victim fell to the ground, police say 21yearold audrina wignall began kicking him. Charges against both suspects have been upgraded to felonies. It it speaks to the occur out there and the people that commit those. Its inexplicable. Reporter simmons was treated and released from the hospital. He did suffer a fractured eye socket and fractured nose. Well hear more coming up later on. For now were live in greenburg, marcus solis channel 7 Eyewitness News. Thank you. Tributes are pouring in for the nypd detective who was killed along with five other u. S. Soldiers in afghanistan. Black and purple bunting hangs at the entrance of the 50 precinct in the kingsbridge section of the bronx where detective joseph lemm was assigned. Detective lemm was a 15year veteran of the department and worked in the tracking down criminals. Overseas he was part of the Air National Guard serving in afghanistan. Hes being remembered for being a good family man and a good friend. He was he was sort of like the quiet man. He didnt brag. He didnt say much, but once you Start Talking to him he im glad i got to know him. Back in 2013 cameras were rolling when detective lemm returned from a 10month lodge deployment in afghanistan, and he surprised his family. He is survived by his two young children, one of the other victims was stationed at stewart Air National Guard base in orange county. He had a family in the midwest. Just so sad. Turning to the race for the white house now and the name calling reaching a new low. Donald trump using a vulgar term when speaking about hillary clinton, and all as he demanded an apology from the Democratic Front runner. Trump attacked clinton after she said isis is using his anti muslim rhetoric to help recruit for its organization. Today clinton declined to speak about trumps comments, only saying that she will not apologize for her remarks regarding isis. Meanwhile fellow republican ted cruz was asked to weigh in on the controversy. There are an abundance of political pundits in the world who like statler and wall doff need to be another political pundit. Im going to let donald trump speak for himself. Senator cruz has cut into trumps once dominant lead. Stocks on wall street extending gains for a second trading day in a row. Energy stocks got a boost after the price of crude oil stabilized. Here is a live look at the big board, the dow rose 165 points closing at 17417. Still to come on Eyewitness News first at 4, false alarms at a local high school. Coming up, School Officials say fire alarms are being pulled on purpose. Whats being done to stop it all. Plus someone is trying to ruin the Christmas Spirit for families in new jersey. Well tell you what the criminal is doing to Holiday Light displays. And thousands of dollars worth of donated gifts stolen but students at one school are meet the moores were the moore family, and as you can see, we need an internet that can do more. We do more games, and more streaming. Thats why we switched to Time Warner Cable. You can too. Call now. Now we can connect more devices, at the same time. The wifi in this house is amazing. So is my guacamole. Hi grandma and grandpa ha, look at that [laughs] Time Warner Cable even has an internet plan for us. Get the Internet Speed thats right for you. From 3 megs to ultra fast 300 megs they even made it easy to switch with a onehour arrival window. Why settle for less, when you can get more get 50 meg internet for 39. 99 per month. Call now. You could get free installation, no data cap, and access to over 400,000 twc wifi hotspots with select plans. Time to check the roads on this rainy tuesday afternoon there are some big delays on the northern van wyck expressway. Look at the red lights. Traffic backed up from the belt parkway to the long island expressway. Taking a look at the hudson river crossings, there are 10 minute delays at the outbound lincoln and holland tunnels. No problems at the George Washington bridge. Giants player Odell Beckham junior is appealing his one game suspension today for a helmet to helmet collision for a player from the carolina panthers. Beckham was suspended for unsportsmanlike conduct on sunday. The star wide receiver says it was the result of a panther player yelling antigay slurs and taunting him with a baseball bat and threatening game. The coach of the panthers player said today play letters no longer be allowed to bring bats on the field, even though new york city workers will soon be able to take up to 12 weeks paid parental leave. The mayor will sign an executive order allowing employees to get 100 of their salary for six weeks. This can be taken for maternity, paternity, adoption or foster care leave. It can be combined with existing leave, and accrued vacation. The change will affect about 20,000 city employees. Speaking of potential parental leave, a family car was transformed into an emergency delivery room along a highway in utah. Shay el red was rushing his wife kristin to the hospital around a. M. Last friday after she went into labor. The baby wouldnt wait. Mr. Allred pulled over, called 911, got a dispatcher with two weeks training. As the baby girl was coming the umbilical cord suddenly got wrapped around her neck. First she came out and she cried, and then she just went limp. Shoe lace, tightly around the umbilical cord about 6 inches from the baby. I need you to do it now and tell me when its done. As soon as we tipped her head back she gasped her first breath. Its like ah. That is exactly the sound you want to hear. Little baby annie is the couples fourth child. She and her mom are doing just fine. They were both so cool, calm and collected on the phone. Isnt it amazing when you hear those stories. Lee youre outside, its the first day of winter and boy it doesnt feel like it. Not at all, and im actually going back to my childhood here because i can see you see the kids who just got off on vacation a couple hours ago, and that exhilarating expression they have. Going to build a snowman. Its on, and it is now vacation and warm enough to walk outside. The folks who want the skiing, not so much. We have a mild afternoon and evening in new york city, and the good news is theres a lag before the visibilities go down later tonight and tomorrow morning. Hopefully the airlines can stay on schedule this evening. Lets go ahead and look at the George Washington bridge, which is moving pretty well. The visibilitys pretty good. You can see from fort lee all the way over to washington heights. I mean were in pretty good shape despite cloudy skies. Were not having as much rainfall anymore. Were at 61. The southwest wind is at 6 and the barometers now on the rise briefly, and the high is current at 61 degrees. The average high is 20 degrees colder than this, 71 was the record high. That was just a couple of years ago, record low, too. Heres that christmas outlook, and we just keep raising these temperatures. Record high on Christmas Eve is 63 from 1996. That will be obliterated as we go to 74. The only question now is can the clouds thin out and we get the all time december high of 75. Now ive bumped up the Christmas Day high to 66 degrees, and there can be a couple of breaks there. You might want to rethink the santas going to have to stay hydrated. Huntington its 57 and yaphank you can see our temperatures across the hudson, upper 50s and 60s. Visibility now pretty good across the board. Jfk at 2 miles, white plains at 3 miles. Thats okay especially for departures, a half mile at islip. Maybe small delays there and visibilities down the shore have improved. Lots of clouds overnight. More fog by morning, 54. If you travel early tomorrow morning, youll escape some of the heavy rain. Youll deal with some of the fog. Steady rain coming in by midday. Its heaviest afternoon into early evening. Some showers over Suffolk County and bergen going into westchester from new city over to ossining. Theres tomorrows rain. Thats taking aim at the tri state tomorrow. Thats still a ways away. That heavy rains not getting in here until midday. You look on the futurecast and youre fine tomorrow early morning. Late morning rain may be getting into parts of new jersey. The afternoon hours. Could be some downpours ponding on area roads. Tomorrow evening. I think that might be a little slow on the futurecast. I think well be getting out of the area around 8 00 or so. Lingering showers or drizzle after that. A soaking rain especially in the afternoon and early evening tomorrow. Mild at 62. That gets out of the way, and were just in a sweet spot on Christmas Eve. If the clouds thin out goodbye all time record high for december. Well be in the mid70s. Just ridiculous. Cloudy and mild areas of fog tonight, 52. Tomorrows up to 62. Dense fog, periods of rain, but heaviest in the afternoon, sunset 4 32. I dids getting longer. Rising temperatures tomorrow night. Well start the night at 61 and probably start Christmas Eve in the mid60s. Yes, put on the sirens if you like the warmth. Maybe the christmas barbecue is what you think about. Now a change to that Christmas Day forecast. Will it be raining by the end of the day. A look at that when i come back. Im so thinking that the super cool hightech sleds that may find their way under the Christmas Tree this year just are not going to have the same impact. You know, if youre really good you go up on the roof and make a little padding because its going to be a whole different type of landing adventure for santa. Theres a lot going on. Thanks a lot. A growing concern at one school to tell you about. Administrators on edge because students keep pulling the fire alarms there. How officials are trying to stop the problem. Plus infertility treatments, should you keep trying even if its not working. Were going to talk to the experts. And a fourth grader teaching the world a lesson with her generous gesture. But first heres a message from a member of the military from our area who cant be home for the holidays. My name is private first class Andre Stanley and im with hsb17fa. Its the holidays, which means a house full of people, who all want to get online. So hurry and get verizon fios. Only fios has the Fastest Internet and wifi available, with speeds from 50 to 500 megs. And right now, for only 79. 99 a month online, you get 50 meg fios internet, tv and phone for your first year. Plus, with a 2year agreement, fios gives you 400 back, and all the premium movie channels for a year. So go online or call now for this great offer. Side solve the parking lot controversy. Find out at 5 on Eyewitness News. New at 4, a 3rd grader is getting well deserved attention for her incredibly generous gesture. She donated her Birthday Gift Police Officers posted these photos on their Facebook Page to thank her. Her mom says she raised her focus to focus on selfless acts. Police officers surprised her with a certificate of recognition and a 100 gift card. That is what the seasons all about. When it comes to seeing a broadway play it can be a tough decision. There are so many choices and the wrong one can end up being a big waste of money. And a waste of your time as well. Theater goers have a new place to turn for their reviews, entertainment reporter sandy kenyon is here to explain. Thats right. Here in the city we are blessed with an abundance of choice when it comes to entertainment, any website that helps us sort through these choices is a great idea. Youll find my choices at abc7ny. There are Movie Reviews at Rotten Tomatoes and now at a new website reviews for stage shows. [ music ] theres so much to see on and in small theaters way off broadway. An incredible total of more than 150 shows every night here in the city, but there was no good way to sort through them all until now. I created show score because i love theater, and i got so frustrated by how hard it is to figure out what to see. We met tom melcher in broadways schubert alley. Hes more silicon valley, an entrepreneur whos just started his tenth company. The objective is to make it easy to find out how to find a show youre going to love and how to get a price youre going to pay. The site doesnt sell tickets. If you think theater is too expensive to afford, show scores founder is out to prove you wrong. You can get a ticket for 25 or less. Its like the price of a movie to see great theater. Each show gets one score based on the opinions of theater critics and another members. Its free. You just need an email address any visitor to the site quickly realizes members often disagree with critics as they did about wicked, the show some critics panned is still charming audience in sold out performances a dozen years and so whats great on show score is that you can see these opinions side by side. You can see what the critics thought, and you can see what members think and then you can decide who do you believe. [ music ] now selfishly i hope youll believe me, but seriously showscore. Com is a great resource. I looked up al pucinos new show on that site. Everyone agrees, thumbs down. Wow. Very bad. I cant think it took this long for such a service to be available. I still like my sandy service. Yes, love the sandy service. Thanks sandy. Still to come an alarming trend at one school, a fire alarm gets pulled and students coming up, were going to tell you whats going done to stop all of it. Plus a grinch targeting christmas lights. And one university in our area trying to make college son, the Holiday Seasons just like football season. You got your big games. Cheese plates, turkey, appetizers. And regular games. Get it all at a great price. And the Holiday Season is won. Thats my boy fill your cart with everything you need this season, all at one place. Now new yorks number 1 news, channel 7 Eyewitness News. Updating breaking story we have been following all afternoon. An employee at the rose felt field mall was shot after an attempted robbery at a watch store. This was exclusive video taken after the shooting. The 67yearold employee was taken to the hospital in serious but stable condition. The suspected gunman was taken into custody with the help of an offduty nypd officer who was Christmas Shopping in the mall at the time. Were going to hear from police and frightened shoppers coming up on you eye at 5 00. Our top story this half hour, a growing problem at a high school in the bronx involving fake emergencies. Some students have been deliberately triggering fire alarms. They do it to get out of class, they do it to fight. You talk to the retailers here in the Westchester Square section of the bronx, theyll tell you this problem is happening every Single School day. One of the students here on the leeman campus, and remember there are six schools here. Theyll pull the fire alarm and thousands of kids will pour out on to the streets here. All of them come out, many of them to fight. Its kind of like a mob that comes through here. People are barely able to walk on the sidewalk. Israelion has the Security Camera video to prove it. Look at the mob of kids, students who should be in school. Instead theyre punching, fighting, swinging sticks in the street. Were getting to the point where we have to close our doors just to make sure theyre not bringing the ruckus and fights. And how often does this happen . Jeffrey stony is the account manager at a nearby tax preparation office. For the last three weeks almost every day there was a fight, every day theres a fight. 12 and 2 youll see what im talking about. It turns out kids are pulling the fire alarms in school, which gets all of them out on the street where the mayhem the problem has become so bad retailers are losing customers so theyve taken matters into their own hands. People dont like attention obviously. If theyre causing problems they dont want any attention from the Police Officers. We put the alarm on, alarm goes off. After 2 minutes we turn it off. They end up walking away. Reporter thats the problem, whats the solution. Coming up at 6 00 youll hear what the administrators at the six schools here had to say. They sent a letter home to parents earlier this month. Youll also hear the concerns from the local Business Improvement district. Thats coming up at 6 00. For now were live in Westchester Square, im joe torres channel 7 Eyewitness News. Thank you. Families of the victims in the Newtown School shooting have reached a 1 1 2 Million Dollars settlement with the estate of the gunmans mother. Sued claiming that nancy alonza failed to secure her rifle. Her 20yearold son adam lanza used it to kill 20 children and six teachers. He killed his mother before the massacre. He committed suicide after that attack. Families are also suing the company that makes the rifle. Meanwhile new Jersey Governor Chris Christie is backing the new gun recommendations given to him by a firearm study commission. The Panel Suggests Police Departments establish uniform criteria for processing gun applications. It also calls for clarifying the legal requirement for residents to show a justifiable need to get a gun permit. Christie formed the commission after a woman was stabbed to death by her exboyfriend while her gun permit application was delayed. Who is cutting christmas jersey and why. This is the mystery police are working to solve. At least five homeowners in wykoff reported that their lights were put out. Fleischer live in wykoff with the story. Tim. Reporter and david, mr. Grinch as it seems is giving wykoff police a real nagging vandalism problem this season. He is stealing christmas from homeowners by cutting their christmas decorations. For someone to come and cut the lights and damage this property, its quite destructive, and quite upsetting to the residents. This grinchlike vandalism within the past week according to wykoff police has occurred five times. Reported incidents where residents had the wires cut on their christmas decorations. Thats pretty messed up. I mean got to spread the christmas cheer. You cant ruin it, so thats pretty sad. The latest incidents have taken place in various parts of town, not one particular area. One would probably think that this is kids. These are pretty disrespectful young adults if thats exactly whats happening, and it wont be tolerated. Definitely be charged with a criminal offense. Residents who clearly have spent good money on their decorations are upset over the vandalism. Chief benjamin fox says hes encouraging residents to be alert. Certainly Going Forward if you see anyone in your neighborhood that potentially might be involved, call us and let us check the persons out. And chief fox says one of the most difficult things is to catch that vandal in the act. Now there was one other act of vandalism in a neighboring community. Ill tell you more on that coming up one eye at 5 55. Reporting live in wykoff, Tim Fleischer channel 7 Eyewitness News. Thank you. Rutgers university now planning to make its campus in newark more affordable for low income students who live in the city. The University Says it will cover tuition and fees for newark residents who are accepted to the campus and have a Household Income of 60,000 or less. That also applies to low income the campus after completing a twoyear degree from a county college. Benefits will be offered to those accepted into schools the schools new residential honors program. A new report showing how a majority of new york city Elementary Schools are failing children with disabilities. A twoyear federal investigation found that 83 of the citys public Elementary Schools are in violation of the americans with disabilities act. The department of education spokesman told the New York Times the agency was reviewing the report and is committed to increasing accessibility of all school buildings. Police charging man with drunk driving after they say he led officers on a high speed chase through rocklin county. Police say 26yearold jimmy pierre was driving nearly 130 Miles Per Hour on sunday. Once troopers caught up with him and a female passenger, police say they were both hostile and visibly intoxicated. They were both custody. First at four, are you having trouble getting pregnant. Some people turn to infertility treatments. Were going to tell you why you shouldnt give up. And the widow of a fallen long island firefighter who meet the moores were the moore family, and were always looking for ways to enjoy more. So we called Time Warner Cable and got even more than we expected. Call now to get more. More speed. Like, 300 meg. More tv shows and movies on demand. Call now. For 89. 99 a month, youll get 100 meg ultra fast internet, hd channels included, and unlimited calling to international destinations. We find more good things every day more ways to watch more shows. On more wifi connected devices in our house. Time warner cable made switching easy with a one hour arrival window. They even made sure all of our connections were up and running before they left. Why settle for less, when you can get more call now. Get free installation with a one hour arrival window. And ask how you could get a 300 reward card. A new Study Suggests that it pays to keep trying if youre using in vitro fertilization to conceive. The conventional wisdom that says you should stop after three to four failed attempts is wrong. A study conducted at Duke University found that additional cycles may be the key to success. In fact, the cumulative live birthrate continued to increase up in the ninth cycle, but the effect decreases after the age of 42. Just in time for the holidays, a Community Came together to give back to the family of a fallen hero. A Nonprofit Group wanted to memorialize a firefighter on 9 11 has paids mortgage of the the tunnel to Towers Foundation presented the paperwork to the family of Joseph Sanford junior today. Sanford died a year ago from injuries he suffered from a fire on woodmere his family says the gift is a reflection of her husbands commitment to making peoples lives better. It meant everything. Joe believed in saving his community. The Foundation Also donated items to the family, items that were lost when their home was damaged in superstorm sandy. A working dad in minnesota is desperately searching for the Good Samaritans who returned his 1300. Justin lovanella says he had citrus son vince in one hand his son vince in one hand the envelope of cash and got distracted. He put the money on top of the car. An hour later he returned to his car and noticed the envelope was missing. A note which i wish id kept. Daughter actually ate it. We grabbed it. We waited for 30 minutes, and then we couldnt wait anymore, so we brought it in to costco. Merry christmas, katherine and what looks like lar. Thats awesome. I want to know why his daughter ate the note. He says he hopes he can track the couple down. If he doesnt he will give larry a years worth of haircuts. A millions of people get their star wars fix, dozens of children experienced a real version of the Jedi Training back here on earth. An academy in california created its own karate class based on the blockbuster. How fun is in. Thats awesome. Students received their very own lightsaber and the jedi masters developed new moves based off the characters in the movie. Students have been buzzing about it the last month. Everyones getting ready for the movie. We decided to give a fun theme that attaches to the Current Events going on. Thats right. Back to the real movie here, after shattering nearly all the Opening Weekend records, star wars the force awakened took in another 40 million last night. Wait until they get the numbers from china. Youd make a great jedi. You got the sound. Can you imagine the sound effects in that room. Thats half the fun of it. Exactly. Students saving christmas, how they chipped in to help after thousands of dollars worth of donated christmas presents were stolen. And comedian tina fey wooed new york state hasnt seen much snow yet. On this first full day of winter transportation Officials Say theyre ready to clean up quickly after the storm as they introduced a new fleet of snowplows. 62 vehicles known as tow plows will be deployed this winter. Tow plows attaches trailers to they can adjusted to swing out to the side of the trucks when used along with the front mounted plow they can clear two lanes at once. Snazzy. Take that rain. [ laughter ] its a good thing santa can count on his team of magical reindeer. Santa needs to travel about 226 million miles to deliver all of the gifts to children of the world. Scientists have now crunched the numbers, and it turns out it would take 54 million gallons of jet fuel to get around the world and at current prices that would cost about 54 million. A ha. Yes, so i think rudolph should ask for a raise or an extra cookie that santa gets. Scientists. In the north pole, scientists in the north pole, in the same room as elf on the shelf, fly back at night, all chitchat. They clearly thought about this a lot. They have a conference with santa, reindeer. You know we always track santa on Christmas Eve with the tune in to that. Scientist there is too. Give us the bad news about consider for some who like winter. Depends on how you feel. Certainly not going to see any cold anytime soon, you want to grill, whatever you want to do outside, a little visit to the beach on Christmas Eve, thats the way to go. Outside this evening, its all about some dreary skies. I like the fact that were looking, seeing the skyline, the visibilities havent decreased too much. Yes theres some areas of fog, probably not enough to cause widespread extensive delays. Weve had some because of the rain. Hopefully things can get going. 61 degrees, a cloudy sky, a southwest wind alt 6. Still very comfortable outside. A planner for the park, just mainly cloudy skies. Place like toms river will drop down in the low 50s. Toms river you can see some rain by the morning commute, whether its 8 or 9 can in the morning, and then much of the area to the north and east will wait until late morning to get the rain going. You see it im not showing any rainfall through 10 00. Showers that sneak in to the area. Rain gets going by late morning and kicks in during the afternoon. Its pouring here mid afternoon into the early evening hours, and then starting to subside. Look how the numbers are climbing into the low 60s later in the day. Heres the futurecast. Pick out the area youre concerned about here as we go through tomorrow morning. Early commuters youre doing much better or any type of early holiday travel. Still a little bit of a chill north and west here in the 40s. 53 in the city. Here comes a steadier rain by midday with the heaviest coming mid afternoon. Look at that, i mean pouring over parts of the hudson valley, new york city long island, parts of new jersey. Thats rough, ponding on area roadways. And then the bulk of that will move out during the evening hours. The question is this particular computer model is showing one last batch of rainfall trying to move through and extending it into 9 or 10 00. I think through 7 or 8 00 is were guaranteed some steady rain. Look at numbers by 7 a. M. Christmas eve, 67 degrees going into the low 70s during the rainfall amounts could be over an inch from this rain. Heres your sevenday accuweather forecast. Theres your 74, the all time december high is 75. We have a good shot at that, and then on friday there might be some rain later in the day. Hopefully it stays just south and west. Theres your weekend, 62 bumped up on sunday. Its all about mild. Even when it cools off still 10 degrees above average. Well have an update at 5. Thats good for my mom. She has trouble Walking Around, its good for anyone who has trouble getting around. Whats good for nelly is good for me. Exactly thats our motto. Lets see whats trending this tuesday. The Miss Universe epic fail still trending. Sofia vergara showing her support for her fellow columbian. She posted a picture during those few minutes she was Miss Universe to say she is the queen of all the world. They both look very much alike. Steve harvey named her Miss Universe by mistake. And moments later miss philippines was named ms. Universe. Steve harvey apologized again directly to miss philippines and did the same to miss columbia. Car tech is trending, lee Pay Attention to this as we take another big step forward to selfdriving cars. Yahoo reporting that google and ford are teaming up to create a joint venture to build self driving car vehicles with googles technology, both ford and google have been experimenting. Youve seen this. With their own systems for years. Google has 53 test cars on the roads in texas and california. The new partnership is set to be announced at the ford electronic show in january and its opening the door to a lot of potential. Id like an egg to drive me to work. It looks like an egg with wheels. Why do all the new Technology Cars have to look like eggs. I think its cute. You guys are professional complainers. I like the egg. On tina fey by flipping the script. This time she parodied feys character in 30 rock. Wheres the new page . Or will her writers ruin everything. Nerds. And force her old friend its not bad. This 1 minute video is for a conservative website. Of members. You can see from the original show and also lindsey grant and john mccain. Competing for your attention with this video are goats singing Christmas Carols [ music ] and then its darth vader santa. What . [ music ] okay. I can so see lee Walking Around his house like that. Very funny little clip until he meets the little boy at the ended its got a happy ending. As always check out the trend. Hes a mean santa that darth vader. Online abc7ny you can see more of that and send us your trend ideas. I want more of the goats. The goats are good. For a minute i thought the goat was being attacked by darth vader. See what i did there. Its jedi mind trick. Yes. Or not. She goes yes, no, shes confused. All right. Coming up on Eyewitness News first at 4, real life grinches stealing presents for thousands of children, how some students jumped into action to save their christmas. And a quick check of the delays at the hudson river crossings. Its 15 minutes inbound, lincoln tunnel 20 minutes outbound, and the outbound Washington Bridge is heavy on meet the moores were the moore family, and as you can see, we need an internet that can do more. We do more games, and more streaming. So we need more speed. Thats why we switched to Time Warner Cable. You can too. Call now. Now we can connect more devices, at the same time. The wifi in this house is amazing. So is my guacamole. Hi grandma and grandpa ha, look at that [laughs] get the Internet Speed thats right for you. From 3 megs to ultra fast 300 megs they even made it easy to switch with a onehour arrival window. Why settle for less, when you can get more get 50 meg internet for 39. 99 per month. Call now. You could get free installation, no data cap, and access to over 400,000 twc wifi hotspots with select plans. A group of students didnt let grinches ruin christmas for thousands of students. 20,000 of donated gifts were stolen. Thats when they stepped up to teach everyone the real meaning of the season. Shirleen allicot has the story. You guys are the future, and change the generation. Students at New Haven School brought back christmas for kids in need after a grinch stole christmas. Over 20,000 of donated Christmas Gifts fill the substation but on saturday they to fill up this room was no easy task for these guys. It took them a long time to do it and we are looking to try to do it, replicate that in 24 hours. The toys were supposed to go to 3,000 families in need. New Horizon School donated the bikes the students fixed up to look like new. They originally planned on selling the bikes. When they heard of the theft, the school wanted to give back. When i heard about it, i didnt like it. I wouldnt like how i felt if i woke up for christmas and didnt have presents. It broke my heart. I dont, like, having kids feel down on christmas. Christmas is a family day. I would love to make them smile. 100 of the students that go there qualify for free breakfast and free lunch. They are not a student that has a lot themselves. They recognized that they wanted to give back to other kids. Hours, united way is hoping to raise 20,000 to buy presents to make sure every child in need in new haven has a gift to unwrap this christmas. This is what we do. Reporter shirleen allicot, channel 7 Eyewitness News. You can feel that hug. Fantastic. There is still more news ahead. Eyewitness news at 5 00 begins right now. Shots ring out in the middle of Holiday Shopping at one of the largest malls in the country, Roosevelt Field. We have exclusive video tonight and tales of fear and confusion. Im pretty sure something drastic had to happen. There is no way everybody would be running like that. Tonight as shoppers tell us what they went through, we are learning about the gunmans take down. Good evening, im rob powers. Diana williams is off. Im sade baderinwa. Before christmas meant the mall was packed with shoppers. Here is what we know. It started with an attempted Armed Robbery at a watch store. The suspected gunmen then taken into custody and a mall employee hit by a bullet still in the hospital. Roosevelt mall is open tonight. Eyewitness News Reporter stacey sager and Kristin Thorne are there. We begin with stacey . Reporter well, sade, one man is in police custody. One man is shot and in the hospital at this point. There was also a whole lot of confusion at roots veldt field Roosevelt Field mall today. It began as attempted Armed Robbery. Massive police response. Protocol is for an active shooter. It was like the whole second floor of the mall, just the whole second floor. It was to tell you the truth, when i seen everybody running, i started running. Reporter so it was, the christmas rush of shopers