Transcripts For WFTS The Now Tampa Bay 20161121

Case of child abuse out of polk county. A 17yearold girl beaten and stabbed and so malnourished her hair was falling out. Two alternate adults are in jail. Clifton french is live right now. How is that girl doing . Reporter i just spoke with Sheriff Grady Judd who said she is doing this. She has been in the hospital for five days in that time she has gained 11 pounds. Accord her feet and shoulder. Want to go to the mugshots of those being charged. It is 45yearold kris peters and 33yearold melissa peters. She was able to run away and she was hiding in a wooded area 1 mile from her home. She started yelling for help. That is when a young man found her. She had a stab wound on her shoulder. She had scratch marks on her look like cigarette burns. It is unimaginable. That guy tells us that when he found her she was only wearing a jacket and pajama pants. The sheriff says the adults actually put locks on the pantry so that this girl could not get any food inside their home. She also was not allowed to go to the bathroom and had to use a bathroom either in her clothes were on the floor adding she h n once again, both adults denying this abuse today saying that this girl has Mental Health issues and that she was causing all of this physical abuse to herself. The sheriff says he does not believe that at all but regardless, these people did not seek medical or mental treatment for her either. In polk county, clifton french, for the now tampa bay. Thank you. Out to the driver who hit a Tampa Police Officers car head on this morning will be charged. It turns out he just made a wrong turn on a oneway street. Police say neither drugs nor alcohol was involved but it was a serious crash. The officer went to the hospital with minor injuries and the other driver was not hurt. A lot of new details coming of the officers in three states targeted in shootings and some even ambush style attacks. One of them was right here in florida. There is still a surge texas for the man who murdered a san antonio officer right outside the Police Headquarters. Then there for two of the shootings happening in missouri. In florida in the usually very quiet forest town of sanibel. Just look how peaceful that area really is. Ever in the citys history in that area. Police say this man you see right here,. 9yearold jon hay , shot an officer while he was doing with another driver. That officer visited the shoulder and is expected to be okay. Officers tracked him down to his house. It is not clear why he did all of this and we will get back to those other manhunts in texas. We dodged a thanksgiving travel nightmare. Workers at Ohare International airport say they will hold of striking until the tuesday after thanksgiving. The workers are mainly contractors and they are asking for union rights and they are asking for 15 per hour. There was concern they could walk off the job during this travel week causing major delays nationwide because Ohare International is a major hub airport. Relationship with Network Media . Is having a private meeting right now with some National Media executives and anchors. Some of the same people he called out as being corrupt during his campaign. It was organized by Kellyanne Conway was his Campaign Manager and all we know is for now everything is off the record. Trump also meeting with more former Texas Governor rick perry. He could be a possible Energy Secretary or defense secretary. Trump also met with tulsa gathered a prominent Bernie Sanders supported. She is being considered for united nations. Our first frost of the windshield kind of morning. Thank you chad curtis for up so far. Yeah. We have been in the upper 60s for most of the afternoon. You can see just how beautiful it is with folks still taking a walk on the sand out at clearwater beach. Take a look at the temperatures across the area. On 60s with the exception of sarasota and 61 and crystal river. Haines city is at 67 and for the temperatures quickly falling back into the 50s even by 7 00 tonight where they are at 50 degrees. So after we lose that sunshine, the temperatures start to come down. It will not be quite as cool or cold tomorrow morning when you wake up. We do have a warmup that will start kicking into gear, and i will show you what you can expect for thanksgiving day right here, in my next forecast. Online before a kids tonka truck burst into flames. The three things you need to know before you buy any of these batteryoperated cars. It is helping story right now with a missing child alert out of south florida. This girl is just 12 years old and she disappeared today in the miami area. Her name is omauria evans. You can head to www. Abcactionnews. Com or our Facebook Page to share this take a look at this. If you have not seen this, a big warning before you buy a certain toy for christmas. Toys r us and amazon and walmart have already taken them off the shelves because they burst into flames. The couple in Washington State that after they bought the tonka truck for their grandson it is one of the trucks the kids can actually get inside and ride. The officer said he appeared to be 15 or 20 feet high flames. It was pretty shocking. That is just incredible. You can see the print toy in the truck. Toys r us is trying to figure out what happened. The company says this appears to be an isolated incident but they are taking all while they investigate. That is not supposed to happen. The nows nicole grigg found out that is not the only problem people are reporting with that particular kind of truck. Reporter riding miniature style is a holiday gift that falls under the most popular category every year. Everything from a motorcycle to a fancy bmw and vintage cars all batteryoperated. So here you want to find the age for the 12. Right here on the motorcycle it is says ages three and up. You want to listen to that because you dont want anyone younger because they could lose control. Next you really want to read that manual. Especially for how long you should be charging your toy. Some are going to be much shorter times than others. And you really wanted to keep an eye on the childs cords. If it see ahead and throw it in the trash. And you do your homework and read some online reviews. For example, the tonka 12 will be mighty dump truck we found amazon reviews from just last month saying ive had to call for three replacement chargers already. As of now the toy is not on any r us stores to make sure it was pulled from shelves and they had already been pulled. In the meantime samsung is doing more damage control because of phones catching on fire. Other galaxy s7 devices are catching on fire. Similar to what happened with the note 7 in october. They stopped selling the galaxy note 7 phones after they did not correct the problem that caused the devices to no samsung is trying to reassure customers other devices are still safe even though customers are saying otherwise. We have breaking news right now with northbound lanes of i 75 at the brandon offramp are closed because of a crash. You can see how the backup is starting on both sides between us301 and the selmon expressway. We are still waiting to hear how many cars are involved in route as you can see. There are some serious delays. A lot of headlines today about president elect Donald Trumps wife and son not moving to washington dc. It is partially true. They are not moving to the white house right away. After the inauguration only trump is headed for dc. He says his wife melania and their son barron will keep living in new york temporarily until he finishes out of the your they would appreciate the same privacy considerations given the previous first families. The actor from the musical hamilton who delivered a message about equality. President elect donald trump has been asking for that apology since mike pence saw the musical on friday. Here is part of what happened. We are the diverse americans will not protect us. Trump has accused the cast of harassing mike pence. Today and actor from the show says conversation is not harassment. He says trump is welcome to come see the show and he appreciate he would appreciate pence listening. Today the trump Campaign Manager said he has a right and mike pence says i did hear what was said from the stage. I can tell you i wasnt offended by that was appropriate to say at that venue. Trump the businessman versus reporter the president. Spike there could be some conflicts. The two could be at odds when he is sworn in. The nows pinnacle corresponded mike sacks. It in the of donald trump all come from his wife worked as a businessman. You can imagine it is tough for him to give it all up even as basically every decision are implicated by his businesses. That is why he should turn them over to a trustee and let the trustee convert them into cash and put him behind a big, beautiful wall of blindness. Reporter this was the white house ethics counsel and why he is describing as a blind trust to avoid real and complex of interest. Ivanka trump sat in on his meetings with the japanese prime minister. Since then it is contract that trump and his kids but with Business Partners and according to an argentinian journalist trump used a congratulatory call from the president to request he authorized trump construction project in buenos aires. The president is not legally he does not separate himself . We have the framers close in the founders knew this day would come. It is a very fancy word and some people calling it the no foreign bribery clouds. Reporter it trump maintains an interest in his businesses it could be an impeachable government owned banks to business with the Trump Organization gives up a loan for a project. With headaches like those, the advice of eisen is not just ethical or legal but practical. For the now, i am mike sacks. We received a comment from Kellyanne Conway about the off the record meeting that trump had today with some of the National Media executives and anchors. A lot of questions raised about Kellyanne Conway just that i am confident that he is not breaking any laws in the meetings were organized by her. Lets get a check of the forecast now. We are with shay ryan right now. Shay, people woke up this morning and this is what they saw. It is cold for florida. For florida, yes. I walk into my garage, which is normally the warmest place in the house and i had to move back inside. The mainsail beach inn on anna maria gorgeous outside. Plenty of people are walking along in the sand. A Beautiful Day to bundle up and walk along our beaches because we live in florida. Take a look at your monitor at the radar. You can see how dry we are across tampa bay with no rain in sight. As we take a look at futurecast and we move forward by 8 00 at night it is still perfectly dry with barely any clouds inside. Anything is going on at all because we have clear skies and a little bit of cloud cover but nothing in our area. Those skies will allow us to have Cool Temperatures overnight again but not quite as cold as this morning. Our low in tampa is 44 degrees this morning. Right now we are looking at temperatures that will be a little warmer with 49 as the low in tampa. Brandon 43 and the warmest spots overnight. It is still a chilly start to the day. By the time we get to thanksgiving, talk about a warm up. We are going to have highs near 80 degrees with the lowest starting off in the low 60s. So it is going to be beautiful and steps with sunshine. Just a gorgeous day. Another cool front is approaching on thanksgiving day also your turkey day travel forecast across the u. S. And where we may have our hotspots and slowdowns coming up in my next forecast. Misleading or just ridiculous . The reason one of the most popular restaurants priding themselves on being healthier might just wind up owing us all some money. Before we go, take a look at this. The jackpot is now up to 359 million for the powerball because no one hit it this weekend. If you is 219 million in the next drawing is wednesday. Paul are told me he would give me half if you are. The now tampa bay is back in welcome back. We are following breaking news with an earthquake in japan. Youre actually looking at a japanese newscast right now. Evacuations effective immediately. A tsunami warning has been issued and it was a 7. 3 quake. This area is always a concern. In 2011 a nine point magnitude quake hit causing several Nuclear Reactors. This is the theres been another earthquake at 7. 3. This is something we will monitor thread the newscast. Reporter all right. Also new video of a huge fire near kansas city, missouri. The Pioneer Building was built in 1872. It has been completely gutted. You can see firefighters battling the five. This used to be an old offer house and it is now vacant. Unfortunately you can see how a local abc affiliate reports it does not look like anyone is hurt. Officials are still trying to figure out how the fire started. Just incredible. Usually you are happy when you get more not less of something you have asked for. Usually. Is not in the case of this mega burrito from chipotle. People are actually suing chipotle because they are saying this made them to go full to go full. Heres the problem. The sign for the burrito says 300 calories but it has chicken , pork, all the good stuff. It is actually 1000 calories. So now there is a Class Action Lawsuit filed in los angeles. And making matters worse for bites on this, it would actually cover everyone who purchased food at chipotle for the past four years. Me and you are in that. They claimed it as part of a pattern by the chain about presenting misleading information. There you go. Kanye west just went from zero up to 60 again. Before he dropped the microphone he went on for people like beyonci, jay z, lebron james and mark zuckerbergs. He counseled the rest of his current tour canceled the rest of his current tour. He says the tickets will be fully refunded at the pointof sale and that is a legitimate point of sale. Right. Probably worse than anything reason for why he canceled the dates including big venues. A violent and deadly 24 hours for Law Enforcement across the country with four offers is shot. Now investigators are searching for this man who they say is we want to update you on breaking news in our area as well as overseas. First big traffic delays right now in Hillsborough County because of this. A crash in the northbound lanes of i75 at the brandon offramp. It looks like on the right side of the screen there is a grass only two lanes are open. This is right between us301 and the selmon expressway. No word of injuries yet. That is going to cause some delays. We are heading back to japan with the breaking news we have been watching. What you are seeing is basically the japanese news station in the area of the 7. 3 earthquake off fukushima. A tsunami warning is in effects. You can see the words that say if i could immediately. Waves of up to 10 feet are possible. It is the same area where in 2011 a 9. 0 mandatory quake damaged several Nuclear Reactors at fukushima causing the plant julie. Police are on high alert after ambush style attacks. It is south of here in santa antonio, texas. The nows todd walker explains why. Reporter violence against police air ops with four offers is shot and one killed. None of the attacks appeared to be connected, but it is shaking Law Enforcement to its core. It began sunday with an officer ambushed in texas. Detective Benjamin Marconi who has spent half of his life the police force was purchased outside of headquarters when this man allegedly shot him in the head. Today the chief captured the men outside and inside Police Headquarters four hours before the attack saying it appears his target was any officer in uniform. We consider the suspect to be dangerous. Reporter he is now on the run. Hours later another officer performing a traffic stop was jon hay. Officers tracked him to his home and hay was taken into custody. The officer is expected to survive. In st. Louis a man pulled up next to a marked Police Vehicle and shot an officer twice in the face. He felt the glass breaking in his window. Reporter investigators later got in a shootout with that suspect. The Police Officer is expected to survive and released from the hospital. In warrenton, missouri and office was shot and injured while in a struggle with the teenage suspect. That teenager was shot and killed after pulling a gun on the officer. That officer is expected to make a full recovery. For the now i am todd walker. We are seeing an Alarming Number of ambush style attacks across the country this year. And that is according to the national Law Enforcement memorial fund. Last year just three officers were killed in the ambush style attacks. The number of officers killed by guns is also up this year. 60 Law Enforcement members have now died this way. Is up 67 from last year. We looked into these numbers for you on the now and 13 officers have died the total is up 16 from this time last year. In florida we lost five members of Law Enforcement immunity this year. The National Security agency is now under audit as senior officials would like the man in charge fired. The pentagon Inspector General office is looking at the nsas effectiveness. The u. S. Defense secretary has present obama has not publicly commented yet. Today we are learning what a legend will be laid to rest. The oldest living member died at 101. Master Sergeant Willie rogers served in the u. S. Military when it was still segregated. Rogers was living in st. Pete with his family. They treated him part rest in peace. He was awarded the congressional gold medal from george w. Bush. Funeral services for roger is set for november 27 at noon at Bethel Ame Church at nine 912 third avenue north in st. Pete. Now changing our focus to the weather. If you complained about it being cold, fees we are not in this situation. This is a video from syracuse, they have got the whole week off with kids out of school for thanksgiving. So some people are going to be traveling in this or at least today. It is good to know what is going on outside of our area because so many people traveling somewhere or having folks come and visit us and i think this is just fabulous weather to be visiting this week. If you are departing from tampa are coming in, you will not have any issues in our airport. Take a look at some places where we have significant delays. The northeast and new york city with laguardia as well as the Newark Airport about one hour approaching two hours or delays. But you can see a lot of the other cities across the southeast into atlanta also baltimore and philadelphia all delay free. It is hit or miss but new york all day long has had issues with their airports. As we look at the forecast tomorrow, the middle of the the nasty weather will be with snow upper in minneapolis with an lingering snow in the northeast. It will not be quite as significant as what we have seen today. But the central part of the country is where the active weather will be tomorrow. Into wednesday you can see that pattern shifting a little farther to the east so chicago is mainly going to be a rainy event but further to the north we will see more snow. Overall for a thanksgiving weekend bad. As were heading into the travel for tuesday and wednesday, the Pacific Northwest is going to be seeing some snow in the higher elevations. As far as our next big chill we have a couple cold fronts headed our way and i will time that out for you with an update on Tropical Storm otto making landfall on thanksgiving day. It is hard to believe on that one. Expensive . The new reason you cannot afford not to when the now the high cost of college wanting a college degree. Even some College Education can actually help you live longer. Just one year of college decreases your risk of death by 19 according to a recent study by the brookings institute. High School Graduates have a death rate doubled those with some college or a college degree. Receptors found death from gone to college. Why is this . The researchers say that College Education can come the bigger paycheck so you may have more disposable income in a job that does not wear you down as much. It can also mean better healthcare coverage which can also mean earlier diagnosis of disease. It is all related. Nearly a quarter 80 million a quarter of 1 million coming to help people in the bay area. The trick with cash scientifal help anyone stop some of the most destructive habits when staying with the breaking news on the now tampa bay a 7. 3 back into earthquake at fukushima, japan. It happen at 6 00 their time. There is a tsunami warning in effect and people are being evacuated. Says evacuate immediately. We didnt just learn their is not a tsunami threat there is not a tsunami threat to hawaii. This is the same area where back in 2011 in 9. 0 magnitude quake hit and damaged several Nuclear Reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant causing them to read. Laclede they have not been affected just yet. We will continue to keep an ey news at 5 00 and 6 00. Finding a good job is challenging enough and facing that search with a disability obviously can make it harder. 700,000 people right here in florida with disabilities would like to work but they are not. The nows kera mashek with a new program getting them trained right away. Reporter jesse is learning the tools of the construction trade. 18 months. There was no future. There was no light at the end of the tunnel. Reporter after finishing a class at care resources fall he landed a job within one week. Now i have a reason to get up. It really helps me to focus on my next step in life. Reporter thanks to a 250,000 threeyear grant from the able trust career source they can help dozens more people like jesse and mental disabilities. There is a ton of talent out there. The biggest barrier they have to overcome is the misconception of the Business Community and capabilities. Reporter because of the low Unemployment Rate many are now willing to give jobs to any qualified worker. We have people with unique abilities. Reporter anyone with disabilities can apply to take science center. If it helped me and i was the same day in and day out and i didnt want to do anything, look into this program. They will help you. Took in a few short weeks you can be on your way to a rewarding reer. Kera mashek for the now tampa bay. Things have calmed down after the Oil Pipeline Protest got out of control once ag protesters and one Police Officer were hurt. The Sheriffs Department is calling this a riot. These are pictures about what happened. You can see one of the officers used tear gas and a glass of water to try to break up the crowd. After protesters tried to move a roadblock on a bridge. We have new video to show you coming in from aleppo where the Syrian Government is making for seven Straight Days a witness says they are the worst bombings they have seen since the war started. More than 300 people have died since last tuesday. Rescuers are saying hospitals have been the primary target. The hearing to determine if dylann roof is competent to stand trial. He is the man accused of killing nine africanamericans ted a church during bible study. His hearing is not open to the public and the judge is keeping it private saying want the jury to be influence. Influenced. A reporter just tweeted it will continue until the morrow and no decision is expected today. Shay put on pants and i put on boots but it warmed up nicely. Right. We will continue to see a nice warm up so if that is what youve been helping or, the gift is yours. We now have Tropical Storm auto otto and hopefully this will be the last storm we are talking about this season. It is going to be moving inland between nicaragua and costa rica midday on thanksgiving. So it also is likely to be a category 1 hurricane. The concern is anyone traveling to the area during the thanksgiving holiday certainly could be impacted. We are looking at very heavy rains as well as potential for flooding and mudslides as this moves into the pacific. It is a slowmoving system and it will start to pick up a Forward Motion here. Certainly a storm with keeping an eye on it. As far as what is on the move across our nation, we have got a couple cold fronts. Right now one is an essential part of the u. S. Approaching our area by thursday on thanksgiving. We will not see a push behind it. The next front after that is out here and moving into the Pacific Northwest reaching a list by saturday and we will have a minor cool down. If you are looking for another big cool down, youll have to wait until 10 days out in the middle of next week before you can see a front that could make a dramatic shift in temperatures. Between now and then, tomorrow morning we are near 50 then on thanksgiving day the temperatures start off in the low 60s and 80 degrees. The same deal for friday. Into the weekend we will have the sevenday forecast for you on abc action news at 5 00 with denis coming up in just a bit. A big announcement from the pope extending the power of priests to forgive abortions. This comes as the year of mercy comes to a close. Cannot be wiped away if there is a repentant heart. It can be hard for some guys to talk about their feelings. When it comes to Mental Health, doctors say it is now more important than ever. The nows kumasi aaron has a story of a couple. I met clay and the first thing i noticed was his big smile. Reporter april page say she and clay watson had an in he was super happy and he loved life. This is one of my favorite pictures of us. Reporter after a year of dating she said something changed. When i tried to talk to him about anything that i noticed, he would just blow it off. He would say everything is fine. Reporter april said clay is becoming more distant. One time april called the police for help. I felt guilty. I felt like he thought i betrayed him. But i didnt. I love him. That was hard. Reporter shortly after she got a call from clay. I said clay calm down and we will deal with this in the morning. And he hung up. I had with him. Reporter police found clay in his card dead from a self inflicted gunshot wound. When it comes to men, they go for lethal means pretty quickly. And often they cannot talk about it. Reporter clinical psychologist justin ross says that is why loved ones should not be afraid to bring up the topic if they are concerned. You really try to get this would tell clay he didnt have to do that if she could speak with him now. For the men she can speak to, she says this. If you are feeling all by yourself and you are alone and it is dark, then you dont see any light or any hope. There are some hope out there. Reporter a message for men in an effort to save lives. For the now im kumasi aaron. Dont wait for the the new england journal of medicine found people were divided by many were able to quit smoking after one year. People put down a 150 deposit and were told they were not only get that money back but 650 more if they did not smoke. It turns out a little more than half of those who participated stop smoking. Football goals international. But has some challenges. The stadiums altitude 7000 feet above sea level. Mile high stadium is 2000 feet. There is also concern about the pollution, the food, the security, and ports of possibly hitting food during the National Anthem as president elect trump has made it clear about his plans for the border. Despite the appear the fans are excited because the game sold out in 30 minutes. Timing is everything. That is why you look both ways before you cross the street. He gets leveled in the first way. He is the real mvp chriss glasses are broken. He continued on for the rest of the game destroyed by the talk about going over the middle. My kind of guy. [ laughter ] when you ask an 8yearold what they want for their birthday, you would expect to hear basketball or videogame. But this boy in ohio decided he did not need anything. He wanted to help others instead. I have lots of stuff, and other people dont. So i wanted to donate. Presents . He pretty much said i am good. I am content and happy. So he asked his friends to budget different kinds of playground balls and wound up with 100 of them. They all went to an Innercity School and the donated that. I love that. Friday we met michael jargon competition. This weekend in the tournament he placed. The nows craig introduces us to another athlete. Reporter he looks just like the other players. When he is in his uniform is the time i feel like he is most like other kids reporter having your child pay football of decisions. I am scared. Reporter what doesnt happen that often is letting your blind son play football. He started playing when he was just five years old months before he suffered congenital glaucoma. There was never a question or any hesitation. Football, as he says, insisting. I started watching football when i was five. I was blind when i was five and i thought why not . Reporter we could probably come up with 1 million reasons why not prefer the coach having him around is simply inspirational. That guy has character. When we first came out here, we did not know what to expect. The heart he has you cannot teach. R they have stories. One of our players says which one is your bag and he says i do know. But we look. Reporter and in case you were wondering, he does not just play football. Wrestling is about to come up for reporter congratulations. You are this weeks inspirational small stuff. And i am paul lagrone. That is it for the now tampa bay. Abc action news starts taking action for you. This is abc action news. Right now at 5 00 local families hanging in the balance and the action they say needs to happen to keep loved ones in this country. New details about a case of abuse. The brave action a teenager took to save herself from a living nightmare. Here is a live look at japanese tv where crews have seen a tsu earthquake. A tsunami warning now active 40 fukushima north of tokyo. It is home to the power plant that melted down after a tsunami five years ago. A news outlet in japan a telling us the plant hasnt been affected by a tsunami has been detected 12 miles offshore so people are now being told to evacuate. Feet high. Good evening everyone. I am jamison uhler. And i am wendy ryan. A dandy teenager got away from her home and deputies say she suffered terrible abuse. You can hear the caller assuring her she is safe. They said there was a girl in the bushes out here. They are going to come here. We are sending help. Struck these adul clifton french and polk county. How is that girl doing . Reporter she is still in the hospital. I just spoke with Sheriff Grady Judd who says she is doing better. She is responding well to treatment. She was 20 pounds underweight and in the five days she has been in the hospital, she has gained 11 pounds. She still has to have surgery on her shoulder and feet