answer the call already. right now on news channel 8 at 6:00. >> good evening, everyone. i'm rod carter. >> and i'm melanie michael. thank you for joining us on this sunday night. today dozens of tow trucks drove in unison to remember robert perez-borroto who was killed in a hit and run crash on the howard frankland bridge this month while he was helping a stranded driver. news channel 8's chip osowski joining us now from lou's total car care where the man worked. today was all about the awareness campaign. tell us about it. >> reporter: most motorists are familiar with the move over law when it comes to police cars, ambulances and fire put into place to protect tow truck drivers. the st. petersburg side of the howard frankland bridge looked like a tow truck convention as dozens of drivers gathered to ride for roger. >> these are for the trucks. these are for the arms, left arms. >> reporter: wearing black bands in his memory offering condolences and help for his family. >> donations and business cards, thank you. >> reporter: his sister still can't believe her brother is gone. >> you have moments where it doesn't dawn to you and then there's those brief moments of silence when you go to bed that your mind starts to wander off and it's like you get hit by -- it feels like you got hit by a train. >> reporter: perez-borroto was hit in the early morning hours of february 15th on the howard frankland bridge as he loaded up a disabled vehicle. the drivers honking their horns as they pass where the then making their way to borroto's neighborhood where they honked in tribute. they believe he might be alive today had the driver who killed him followed the law and moved over. many have had countless close calls. >> it's very dangerous. i've been on scene with the highway patrol when they got hit by a mirror. we've had to jump out of the way of cars. you know, it's a very dangerous situation. >> reporter: it clearly can be very scary out there. florida highway patrol troopers tell us the driver who hit and killed that 43-year-old husband and father is allison huffman. she remains in jail without bond charged with leaving the scene of an accident involving death. mel? >> chip osowski reporting live for us tonight, thank you, chip. we're following some breaking news also at this hour coming out of st. petersburg. police are investigating a pedestrian crash on 34th street south. officers say a man was hit by a car while crossing the road between 14th and 15th avenue crosswalk at the time. we're learning right now at this hour he's at the hospital with serious injuries. the driver did stop in this accident. 34th street south is closed right now as the investigation continues. new information tonight about a boater who drowned in plant city. this happened saturday night in the pond near turkey creek road. two men were on the water in a small boat when it capsized. one of the men was able to swim to shore, but the other could not. 21-year-old jose perez bravo drowned and the other 27-year- old antonio lopez was not hurt. new information in the case of a baby girl abducted from a south florida home at gunpoint and tonight a woman and a 14- year-old boy are held without bail. 23-year-old stephanie augustin and her teenage cousin are charged with kidnapping and other charges. 2-year-old taraji kemp was night by two intruders and late yesterday afternoon baby taraji was found in orlando. a teacher in volusia county said she is heartbroken and her career will never be the same after detectives tell us three 12-year-old girls tried to poison her. the deltona middle schoolers spiked their teacher's soda with pepper flakes in retaliation for one of them being sent to the principal's office. the teacher suffered stomach pages and shortness of breath -- pains and shortness of breath. her neighbor believes the girl should be held accountable. >> it's a terrible thing. i don't understand why kids have lost all respect. they got to be held responsible for their actions or they're never going to stop. >> one of the girls told investigators an average plan was to vandalize the teacher's car was paint. the three juveniles were arrested and charged with poisoning and tampering and remain locked up tonight in juvenile attention. the race to the white house, with jeb bush out of the race we have seen plenty of his former supporter getting behind marco rubio. we talked to a newfound supporter to rubio. >> reporter: so friday night you announced you are now endorsing senator rubio. you were before endorsing governor bush. >> well, i'm a huge governor bush fan and very sad to see him get out of the race. there's no question that he would have been a phenomenal president. i think very highly of the man, but he's out of the race now and we have a very tough decision to make as a country and that is who is going to lead the free world and the republican party has an opportunity to pick a nominee that is uplifting, someone that has shown results and led with great distinction in the state of florida as the speaker of the house i had the honor to serve with. it's marco rubio. i believe he has the vision, courage and character to lead this country where it needs to >> reporter: when it comes to endorsements in florida, will weatherford is one to have. we were there as he campaigned for jeb bush in early primary states. his support then didn't waive from bush. >> when it -- waiver from bush. >> when it comes down to the records for these two men, i cannot say in good confidence marco rubio's record prepares him more for president than jeb bush. has your perspective changed between then and now? >> no. the difference is they've had differences of background. jeb bush had been a governor, in his 60s, been in government a long time. senator rubio is a fresh face only 44 years old. what he's accomplished in those years is amazing. i think if we could make this a two-man race between senator rubio and donald trump, marco rubio can win. >> reporter: candace mccowan, news channel 8. >> just this afternoon marco rubio opened a gain office in miami where several lawmakers endorsed him and appeared with him when he opened that office. away and a new nbc news poll shows marco rubio trailing donald trump and tell cruz in several states. in texas it's cruz winning followed by trump with rubio coming in third again. as for the democrats, that same new poll shows hillary clinton with a huge lead over senator bernie sanders in three key super tuesday states. clinton's biggest lead is in georgia with 64% compared to 30% for sanders. in tennessee clinton is ahead by 26 points and in texas she's up by 21 points. hulk hogan's trial versus gawker gets underway in st. petersburg this week. on friday the attorneys 20 over last minute details with the judge. hogan is suing gawker claiming the website violated his privacy by posting portions of a sex tape of him. jury selection begins on tuesday. meanwhile those opening statements are expected to begin on march 7th. gets a facelift. >> yeah. coming up we'll show you a look at all of the new improvements completed just in time for spring break. >> also ahead feel packed like sardines on airline seats these days? it is not a comfortable fit and you're not alone. we'll show you how a u.s. senator wants to help travelers get more leg room. >> and it's a beautiful evening. we'll have something kind of cool to see in the nighttime sky over the next hour or so. i'll have that coming up in an army staff sergeant assigned to the pentagon has been accused of killing two people including a police officer. officers say he opened fire as call. rookie ashley guindon died from her injuries. two other officers are injured. police tell us hamilton was fatally shot before they arrived. the fallen officer was working on her very first day on patrol. >> she was literally sworn in the day before on friday and this was her first day back with us on the street riding in a field training officer program. >> hamilton is held without bond. his 11-year-old son at home at the time of those shootings is not hurt. leg room is shrinking on the airlines and now a u.s. senator is trying to do something about it. you been on a plane lately? you know it's not very comfortable. new york senator chuck schumer said seats are getting more narrow and leg room has shrunk to 31 inches. sardines, yes, would you agree? you're like sitting on your neighbor's lap. >> i would agree. coming up meteorologist workweek forecast coming up. >> also we'll peer at the pier 60 improvements just completed at clearwater beach. just gorgeous. you see what i did there? >> i see what you did there. >> clever like that. >> you're watching news channel 8, the station that's always on this is pretty cool stuff. after five months of renovations and construction to clearwater beach's pier 60 park all of the improvements are finally done, just completed today in time for spring break. news channel 8's mary mcguire shows us how some of the changes that visitors will see this season are going to be really nice. >> reporter: clearwater beach was just named the best beach trip adad -- tripadviser.com and it's pretty easy to see why. the beaches, white sand and sparkling water is actually what prompted many of the changes and upgrades to pier 60 park. >> the beach just looks really awesome. it's very welcoming. it looks great. it's really going to improve business out here. >> reporter: by redesigning and expanding the park, pedestrians will be able to move and flow more freely. the project also included regrading the park to make an amphitheaterlike setting for movies and events allowing the city of clearwater to bring back the popular sunset cinema movie screenings on fridays and saturday nights. visitors from the north are loving all of the changes. >> i got exercise the day before i left with my snowblower and shovel. we got a nice dump of snow, about 8 or 9 inches to remind us even though it was a mild winter that it still was winter, so nice to come down here and see the blue skies instead of the gray skies. >> reporter: other improvements include an expanded beach walk and more in clearwater i'm mary mcguire, news channel 8. >> if you like what you see, the changes aren't finished just yet because the city also plan on improving the women's restroom on the barefoot beach house on gulf view boulevard. hundreds of students and lego enenthusiasts gathered at polk state college for the very first lego lead expo. childrens age 9 to 14 each competed. each built a machine using lego mind storms, a programmable robot construction set. the robots must be able to complete several tasks including stacking blocks, all of that within 2 1/2 minutes. >> weeks and months before we programmed the robots to tell it to do what we want it to do. we program it to go left. it will go left. if we program it to go right, it will go right. >> eight teams will move on to a state tournament and two will and california. here's a live view right now from clearwater beach. the sun is setting. you see folks outside dotting the beach looking for that beautiful sunset that we'll have over the next couple of minutes or so. temperature-wise not quite as evening. we'll see temperatures right around the 60s all throughout the evening. light jacket. right now we're at 69 degrees in tampa and brooksville right now, 71 st. petersburg, 69 in sarasota. so we're hovering right around that 70-degree mark. satellite and radar picture clear skies for the most part all over the bay area. it's been a beautiful afternoon and it's going to be a nice evening as well all the way over to the east coast as well. cape canaveral now clear skies which is great news because we have a spacex rocket launch scheduled for 6:46 p.m., about that's going to be out at cape canaveral. they're going to try to deliver an 11,000-pound satellite to face and then land the rocket back on a barge about 400 miles offshore of cape canaveral, could be quite a historic feat if this can occur. if you'd like to watch me cover this live, i'll be on facebook, facebook.com/wflabryan covering the rocket launch life. we do have two fronts right now, 1 front through the middle part of the country, another front back in parts of oregon and washington right now. this first front is going to here. in fact, it's going to hit up against that high pressure system and not go anywhere. farther out west we have front no. 2. this front will reach us on wednesday and bring us a shower or two, not a big deal. in fact, we're looking at a pretty quiet week. so what's going on this again nice weather, temperatures right around 60 degrees. heading into the overnight hours you see these clouds out in the gulf of mexico? these are going to drift our direction so that by tomorrow morning we're going to see partly to mostly cloudy skies and temperatures right around 55 degrees as you head off to work or school early in the morning, but it will be dry. by the afternoon hours those clouds will start to dissolve, give us a nice partly cloudy monday afternoon and a bit warmer tomorrow, high temperature right around 74. overnight tonight partly cloudy skies, near average low temperature near 55 degrees, our average 54. then tomorrow afternoon partly cloudy skies, a tad warmer than it was today with a high temperature of 74. so very comfortable weather tomorrow, even warmer on tuesday approaching 80 degrees, yeah, you can tell that spring is getting closer and officially starts march 20th. we know here in florida we usually start spring a tad sooner than the rest of the country. to be relatively quiet honestly, maybe a shower or two wednesday, maybe a little shower on friday. other than that we are looking at some nice weather over the next seven days with temperatures right about where they should this be time of year. >> pretty spectacular i have to say. that is some nice weather out there. >> that is. two thumbs up for me. >> thank you very much. we appreciate it. coming up in sports another big trade comes on the eve of the nhl trade deadline. >> will one of these players be taken by the bucs for the nfl draft? dan lucas shows us what took place today at the nfl scouting combine. >> plus tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. >> it's a leap year and we get an extra day this month. i'm leigh spann and i'll explain what it has to do with well, bucs general manager jason light and head coach dirk cutter were licking their chops this week to watch the defensive linemen and defensive backs at the nfl scouting combine. today perhaps a future bucs pass rushing defensive end hit the field. the big boys were on the field. a handful of guys fluctuating up and down the mock draft, so don't rule out any of these top defensive ends when you're thinking about the bucs with that ninth pick. that was joe by bosa on defensive line day. shaq lawson is an interesting guy to watch. his game is speed. a 4.73 40-yard dash. that's a big boy running and forrest buckner, another strong candidate for the bucs. more when tampa's own vernon hargraves covers the defensive backs on the field. >> i've covered those guys. i've seen them before, not to say that i'm ready necessarily, but it definitely helps to have covered them before, to track them before. and on nhl trade deadline eve the new york rangers nab the captain of the carolina hurricanes eric stahl. it is rumors galore all across the hockey world as the lightning get ready to take on the boston bruins in a few minutes, all kind of speculation regarding that man, forward jonathan juwan, but no deal has been reached. day one of spring training archer hit 98 miles per hour on the radar gun in port charlotte, unbelievable. snell not the only one bringing it today. during live batting practice erasmo ramirez striking out tim give me another guy. evan longoria barely gets a piece of that one and ramirez all smiles after this workout, as was rays manager kevin cash. >> i saw erasmo. he was lights out. all the hitters were raving about his stuff, faust ball, change-up, combination. -- fastball, changeup, combination. i saw eddie romero again. he looked very good. he just kept pumping strikes which is really nice to see. the hitters really stood out today with their approach and there were just a lot of hard hit balls and good swings with intent. >>. and the nascar sprint cup circuit moved to atlanta this week. an overtime finish jimmie johnson got a great start. we have a crash at the back. a caution ends this thing. all johnson needs to do is get to the start/finish line first easily doing just, that his there you go. dale earnhardt, juvenile, his teammate finished second there. crazy day. corey dickerson tonight joins us on super sports sunday, rays outfielder, good stuff. paul ryan talked to him down in port charlotte. >> all right. sounds like a plan. thank you, sir. finally tonight some shelter dogs got to play fetch at a tennis match in brazil. i guess you can teach an old dog new tricks because four shelter dogs rescued from the slums and abandoned lots around sao paulo were trained as ball dogs for the tournament. check it out. they can do. this this is a great job for them having some fun, kind of giving them back to the players. as you can see, they didn't like the giving back part as much as the getting the ballpark. that's so awesome. he's like no. i've got it now the rest of the day. you can do your thing. i'm going to do mine. how is the weather looking for tonight? >> nice tomorrow, another warm day, temperatures around 74. >> all right. well, thank you. >> as bryan likes to say, two thumbs up. nbc nightly news is next. >> we're back here at 11:00. have a great night! on this sunday night, trump slammed. the frontrunner drawing fire from fellow republicans and democrats tonight for refusing to condemn the former leader of the ku klux klan. and bernie sanders looks for a path forward after hillary clinton's south carolina landslide. fallen hero. officer and former marine killed on the job just one day after she's sworn in. tonight, the small town police department in mourning. young guns. the intense debate in one state