arrests. reporting live stephen tschida abc 7 news. alison: he spent just a few hours in jail. but the arrest of a third year university of virginia student is now shining a light on the way the state's alcohol laws are enforced. suzanne kennedy takes a closer look at the alcohol and beverage control police and their power. >> why is this happening? suzanne: wednesday night's arrest of the u.v.a. student martese johnson is raising questions about the policing powers of regulatory agencies like virginia's department of alcohol, beverage control. the agency has 130 sworn officers who receive the same training as police. these officers have statewide arrest powers and can arrest anyone for breaking any virginia law. not just alcohol violations. >> abc! suzanne: in the case of 20-year-old johnson, agents thought the underaged student was trying to use a fake i.d. to get into a bar on st. patrick's day. students on the u.v.a. campus feel agents were overreaching in the way that johnson was treated. >> i think the police are abusing their power. >> i think they have this weird, this weird connotation of stopping underaged drinking to an aggressive force. suzanne: in recent years the virginia general assembly has considered legislation that would give the state police responsibilities for the enforcement of the state's alcohol laws. northern virginia delegate marcus styman thinks lawmakers need to probe the issue again. >> they have police powers but they're in uniform carrying weapons, you know, patrolling the streets. looking for people to arrest. strikes a lot of us as a little bit going overboard. suzanne: currently agents wear body cameras only during certain operations. they have not adopted any program in which all agents would be outfitted with those cameras that would allow for an entire arrest to be documented not just what's captured by an eyewitness on a cell phone. live in the newsroom, suzanne kennedy, abc 7 news. alison: let's get back to the breaking news tonight about that shooting on a metro bus in southeast d.c. leon: it happened on good hope road. roz made her way to the scene. she's joining us with the very latest. roz, what have you learned? roz: this was a wild scene on a metro bus during rush hour. this is 9 it -- 92 bus on the way to the reid center. there was two young men on the bus, one 19 and one 23. they got into an altercation. first it was verbal and quickly escalated to physical. one was armed with a gun and the other with something called a nail hammer. they got into that fight one of them fired a gun. that gun struck an innocent bystander, a woman, a passenger on that bus. she was struck in the leg. nonlife threatening injury and taken to the hospital. that's good news. the two of the men involved in that altercation are in custody. first taken to the hospital but are in custody. right now, there are plenty of witnesses on the bus. they've interviewed the witnesses a few minutes ago. they were in the front of the bus taking a look at the surveillance video to see how all of this went down. lucky if nobody else was hurt worse than this woman who was struck in the leg. for right now, a shooting on a metro bus during rush hour as folks were trying to make their way home. the two people involved in it are in custody. for now, we're live in southeast d.c., roz plater, abc 7 news. leon: thanks, roz. let's get to the weather. not exactly a delightful first day of spring. although it is not officially spring, things started as snow and turned into a misty cold and dreary day out there. alison: first full day tomorrow could be a totally different story. chief meteorologist doug hill in the stormwatch weather center with the forecast. hi, doug. doug: that's the expectation. unspringlike 36 degrees out there at the belfort furniture weather center. let's give a look at the radar. there's the storm system. nice compact little system with snow across new jersey southern new england and new york city. that move out. rain to the south and we've left over a little fog and drizzle. that's starting to lift up a little bit. show how quickly that's coming up here. we're in a waiting game for skies to clear up a bit. 36 in hagerstown and martinsburg. 39 degrees in fredricksburg and 38 at reagan national airport. leftover drizzle in spots. generally a cloudy night. stay above freezing. through the day and up to 52 by midday midday. close to 60 degrees by 4:00 or 5:00 in the afternoon. steve rudin joins me in a little bit. talk about the weekend, snow that we had and what's coming for the next seven days. leon? leon: now we turn to a story that maryland bureau chief brad bell broke first on twitter. a grand jury has indicted the prince george's county police officer jencheski santiago with assault. santiago is accused of putting a gun to a man's head in bowie last year. the incident reportedly was caught on video but the prosecutor not releasing that imagery because the case is ongoing. in addition to assault charges, officer santiago is also looking at charges of using a gun in the commission of a violent crime and misconduct in office. a man is dead after a police chase ended with a crash in prince george's county and the man it turns out had nothing to do with that chase. this happened along branch avenue near the mailer road metro station in temple hills where tom roussey is live. we understand that police have just announced an arrest in this case. tom: they have. they caught this suspect late last night leon. they say he was going away from them here on branch avenue. he was coming towards us in the right lanes when he hit a car, according to police. then he hit the median and then jumped the median. before it was all said and done, he hit more cars in this area right here. and eventually, a man lost his life. police say around 8:30 last night at branch avenue and colbrook drive, an officer stopped an s.u.v. with no lights organization a tag was unregistered and they now it was stolen. the officer waited two minutes tore backup and then approached the driver larry hinson who soon sped away. >> as the driver accelerates away, he strikes our officer on the officer's right-hand side. reporter: police say they chased for a half-hour but hinson didn't slow down. a nearby hotel manager talked about what happened a quarter mile later. >> cracked, boom, like that. i said what happened? what happened? my wife asking me, what happened? i look at the outside of the window and i see the car is cracked. tom: police say hinson hit one car, hit the median and crossed on the left side of the road and hit more cars including one with 61-year-old charlie viveret of clinton inside. he later died. >> hinson through his flagrant disregard for the safety of the public has led us to a place where we've lost a life. tom: police say hinson was already on probation for armed carjacking. he's now facing assault, theft, traffic, and possibly other charges. police say their officers were right to pursue him. >> based on the fact that the individual had committed a first degree assault against one of our officers. tom: police say after hinson hit the cars in this area behind me, he got out and fled on foot towards the mailer road metro station over there. they were able to catch him a half-hour later. as far as that police officer, he was hit on his right leg. also his right shoulder. that said, he will be ok police say. but again, the one man in the accident lost his life because of it. reporting live in temple hills i'm tom roussey, abc 7 news. leon: thanks, tom. police are looking for the suspects in a deadly hit-and-run crash that shut down the b.w. parkway for most of the morning. this happened in the northbound lanes just before 3:00 in the morning south of route 202 in cheferly. witnesses say a lincoln struck a ford mustang and that mustang rolled over and caught fire. the driver in that vehicle died. police say the occupants in the lincoln abandoned the car and took off running before emergency crews arrived. alison: developing now, the white house says as of now, there is no sign the islamic state was behind today's deadly mosque bombings in yemen. an affiliate of isil claimed responsibility for the attack. karen: a horrifying scene in yemen. at least 120 people are dead. more than 37800 injured after multiple suicide bombers hit a crowded mosque. it was controlled by shiite rebels. eyewitnesses say a first suicide bomber walked into the mosque and detonated his device. as panicked worshippers rushed to flee, a second suicide bomber launched an attack among the escaping crowds. a group claiming to be a yemeni branch of the attackers took part in the suicide attack. the group warned of an upcoming flood of attacks against the rebels who have taken over the yemeni capital and parts of the country. if today's bombings were, in fact, carried out by isis, it would be the group's first major attack in yemen. a nation rocked by chaos and political instability. but the white house was skeptical saying often, these claims are made for propaganda purposes. >> there is not at this point clear evidence of an operational link between extremists in yemen and isil fighters in iraq and syria. karen: today's attack follows the shooting revenge on wednesday in the tunisian capital of tunis. nearly two dozen were killed. isis claimed responsibility. the white house also said today just as in yemen, there's no clear evidence to back up the isis claims in tunisia. karen traverse abc news, washington. alison: in australia, the cafe in sydney is back open today three months after that deadly siege there. hundreds came out for the reopening this morning including one of the staffers who survived the attack. a gunman took 18 people hostage there in december. the stand-off ended 16 hours later when police stormed the cafe killing the gunman. two hostages were also killed. leon: the speaker of the house says he plans to visit israel at the end of the month. congressman john boehner's office says this trip will come during the two week recess. that begins on march 30th. we're told that was planned before the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu's controversial address before the u.s. congress earlier this month. however, it was announce the as the obama administration is now reassessing its relationship with israel. senior political reporter scott thuman will have more on that and the u.s. nuclear talks with iran. all that coming up at 6:00 here. also, join abc 7 for a town hall meeting on iran, israel and the rise of isil around the world. a new terror threat. countdown airs tuesday night at 7:00 on our sister station newschannel 8 and you can watch it streaming live on wjla.com. alison: coming up on abc 7 news at 5:00, today's solar eclipse was just the start of a celestial show. find out what else you can expect in the skies tonight. leon: local students express their outrage after anonymous attacks targeting their campus. alison: witnesses say she nearly honked her horn. find out what happened next in the middle of the morning rush hour. reporter: a man is suing the arlington county sheriff's office after saying he was mistreated inside this building. coming up, leon: a disabled man who says he was mistreated after being booked into the arlington county jail is suing the sheriff's office now. the man who was deaf claims the sheriff's department didn't provide an interpreter for him for six weeks. abc 7's chris papst spoke with the man today. this is a heck of a story. chris: it is, leon. not only does this man say that he spent 40 days inside this jail unable to communicate with anyone. he says for the first 30 hours, because he didn't have an interpreter, he didn't even know why he was here. >> i'm not sleeping well because i feel traumatized. chris: on february 2nd, abreham zemedagegehu who is deaf was booked into the arlington county jail after an acquaintance falsely accused him of stealing an ipad. >> they stuck me in a cell. i was very scared. the first time i've ever been in jail ever. chris: the native ethiopian who is homeless says his rights were violated by not being offered an interpreter for six weeks. zemedagegehu knows american sign language which he says he tried to relay. >> i would pound on the glass. the officers would look at me and then just look away. they ignored me. >> we treated him with the proper respect and dignity. chris: paul larson with the arlington county sheriff's office couldn't speak to the details of this case but says he's proud of the way that disabled inmates are treated in his jail. he said the county has deputies trained in american sign language. and the deaf are always treated properly. >> when somebody comes in, we will assess what type of disability they may have. and then we will work very hard to accommodate them. >> you feel that care was given to this gentleman? >> yes. chris: now, according to court documents, the sheriff's department did try to use a t.t.y. machine and also try to write messages to the man. but he doesn't speak, he doesn't write nor does he read english. he also will be in court sometime around april 16th for this case. he is seeking money for his damages. live in arlington, chris papst, abc 7 news. alison: thank you, chris. we have an update now on some closures along the appalachian trail in maryland. earlier this week, the department of natural resources closed all but one of the shelters and campgrounds along the 40 mile stretch of the trail. that was for tree inspections after that tree fell and killed a hiker last weekend. today, all but one of those shelters and campgrounds are back open. the pogo campground which is near south mountain state park will stay closed through the weekend. members of the maryland senate unanimously voted to repeal the state's stormwater fees. the measure known as the rain tax required nine counties to pay fees to help cover the costs of cleaning up the chesapeake bay. governor hogan vowed to repeal the bill and the measure heads to the house. leon: we got some rain today. soft rain. doug: a little rain, a little snow. if you got in the mountains as we told you, they had real snow there. frostburg and steve rude sin ready to give us the lowdown and numbers here. tell you what the snowfall was and look ahead to the weekend. steve, what are the numbers? steve: impressive snow amounts especially the higher elevations off to the north and west of us. inch and a half at leesburg and a little over an inch and a half in gaithersburg. inch in greenbelt. chevy chase coming in at an inch. areas didn't see a whole lot inside the capital beltway. arlington and oxon hill, maryland, hardly any at all. just a trace on the ground. best news of all, the snow has finally come to an end and we get to look forward to the upcoming weekend. cloudy, it's drizzling outside right now. let's head back to doug at the wall. give details on what to expect for the next several days. doug: the drizzle and fog outside from the rooftop camera. here's a good sign. with winds out of the north-northeast at 15, that will help lift the clouds up a bit. so fog and drizzle will be coming to an end. but it will stay cloudy and chilly. 36 in frederick now. 34 in baltimore. 35 in annapolis. 34 degrees near andrews air force base. you're looking for warm air and you'll have a long way to go. if you're looking for mild air, just stay put because temperatures in the 50's close to 60 will be pushing in rapidly tomorrow with developing southwesterly winds. this is courtesy of the storm system moving out and mid level winds turning to a different direction to bring in the warmer air. at 5:00 when the animation stops here, the bright clouds are to our east and now we have some cloudiness to the west and that will break up towards sunrise. satellite and radar close up, kind of gives you good feel of how quickly everything has moved out and now just a matter of time. futurecast has it figured out by 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning, breaks in the overcast. may see some sunshine early. as we get through the day and the winds continue to push up through the southwest, clear things and push us close to 60 degrees. by tomorrow night, a cold front comes in. maybe a few sprinkles with the front and then clearing skies for sunday morning. maybe some additional cloudiness on sunday afternoon along with cooler temperatures. but both days side by side, a big improvement over what we're dealing with right now. areas of drizzle will come to an end. temperatures will drop to 36 for an overnight low in the city. tomorrow, 59. may be in the low 60's south of the metro area. very nice first full day of spring. but partly cloudy skies and then looking ahead, what lies beyond? a little bit of a cooldown by sunday. near 50 degrees. sunshine in the morning. clouds may increase in the afternoon. colder air coming in only 45 on monday. i'm not going to complain anymore. 49 degrees on tuesday. we'll see temperatures climb back into the 50's and kind of get back in the ballpark where we should be thursday and friday. but that will come with clouds and more rain. alison: ok, you're not a complainer in general. doug: really? leon: in general. doug: really? general, yeah. alison: you're not! all right. thank you. leon: that record-setting winter is finally over in new england. but still to come, find out why all the threat from all that snow hasn't passed away yet. alison: plus -- >> there's no excuse. these aren't children. these are adults that are my age. they're saying this. they know what they're doing. alison: what's inside this little green book that's causing a firestorm on one college campus. reporter: if you use drop box, you are the target. e-mail sophisticated enough to almost get a high-tech c.e.o. here in georgetown. i'm kimberly suiters with that story just ahead. leon: a look at what's coming up tonight on a as a small business owner you wouldn't deliver just half of what you have to offer to your customers. so why are you settling for half-fast internet? only verizon fios comes with speedmatch - uploads as fast as downloads so files go out in a snap. don't miss your last chance to get $200 back when you upgrade to fios internet and phone for just $99.99 a month with a 2-year agreement and get $200 back. hurry call now it's your last chance. this offer ends march twenty-first. leon: "7 on your side" now with a consumer alert. an e-mail that looks like it's from drop box, popular sharing site is coming from hackers in some cases. alison: this pfishing literally fishes for your accounts and other numbers. even the tech savvy are vulnerable as kimberly suiters reports. >> like a lot of people, i get a ton of e-mail. kimberly: the c.e.o. gets about 300 e-mail a day. to the georgetown freshman bethany miller. >> probably like 10 on average. >> 10? is that a lot? kimberly: those are targets of a fake e-mail that looks like it comes from the photo and file sharing shot drop box. >> i use drop box all the time for business. kimberly: the business is developing beacons that communicate with your phone in public spaces. offering you better seats at a game. more details at a museum. >> got a buzz. kimberly: and even mot reminders. >> reminded me to wash my hands. kimberly: and it was the high-tech guy who almost took the bait of this pfishing scheme. >> clicked on the initial link. kimberly: up top the fake page sign ins to google and other e-mail services. if you log in, you hand the key for your personal information to hackers. worst of all, you're redirected to the dropbox page and you're none the wiser. >> mom and dad tell my friends and family to watch out for this. it's a pretty good looking scam compared to what we see in the past. kimberly: george mason university warned the students first. they have since taken down the page but that's one less fish in an on-line ocean. kimberly suiters, abc 7 news. alison: and still to come at 5:00 -- >> she blew her horn at the individual. alison: find out what happened to one driver after she did that simple thing that any of us can do on any day. leon: the government gives the green light to a new kind of apple and potato. reporter: students at american university rallied against racism through social media with one black student appealing to more white students to alison: students joined arms to take a stand at american university today. leon: they are speaking out after a series of racially charged posts on the yikyak app. a story you saw first on 7 and d.c. bureau chief sam ford is live on campus now. he's got the very latest. sam? sam: leon, this rally was planned for outside but because of the weather, it moved inside. at issue racist posts on the social media sight yikyak that likely originated here on campus. they rallied against racist yikyak posts like these. slavery was the worst thing to happen to this country. bringing them over here. uggh. and it's obviously racist but i really don't like 99% of the black people i meet. >> right here at american university, we face oppression on a daily basis. sam: at first, the protesters were competing with other happenings at the center until the freshman took the mike and challenged other students to also be offended about the university of virginia incident. >> for what? honor roll student. sam: and about yikyak at a.u. >> no, it's not. not enough of you guys are up here. sam: anonymous posts only travel a mile and a half from origin. it's popular on campuses and one came in during the rally that they deserve to be hanged. >> the cover of anonymity is very powerful. people feel emboldened when they know there's no consequence to the things they can say. sam: the rallyers announced and denounced that post and joined by other students linked arms. >> clearly, we need to have this conversation and it needs to continue. sam: there were hugs and laments. >> i'm a bit tired. >> and demand for change because this can't continue. it just can't. sam: and it is not just on a.u.'s campus. it is an issue coast to coast. issues of sexism and racism on yikyak. "the new york times" recently headlined a story "who spewed that abuse"? anonymous yikyak isn't telling but it may be bringing a number of young people here closer together. reporting live from northwest washington, sam ford, abc 7 news. leon: thank you, sam. more fraternities are coming under fire. two at north carolina state university have been suspended. alpha tao omega was suspended earlier this month among sexual assault and drug allegations. now, the national chapter of pi kappa phi suspended its raleigh chapter while investigating a neat book by one of hits members filled with handwritten racist and rape jokes. >> group of 60 young men making jokes about raping people raping raping young women. leon: it comes not long aftershocking behavior was revealed at other fraternities including the university of oklahoma and penn state. alison: checking the other top stories now. d.c. police are in the shaw neighborhood as we speak. they are looking for the man who attacked and robbed four women and one man in just the past couple of days. when one woman refused to give up her money, police say that man slammed her head right into a street sign. the attacks all happened mid morning near vermont avenue between 10th and 12 streets. leon: a man faces multiple charges after a police chase ends in the death of another driver. police say larry hinson sped away during a traffic stop in temple hills last night. after a short chase, officers say that he crashed into another vehicle. that driver, 61-year-old charlie zeberet of clinton, maryland has died. alison: d.c. police on the scene of a shooting on a metro bus. it happened an hour ago along good hope road in southeast washington. we're looking at a live picture of the scene right now. metro says a woman was shot in the leg after two men got into a fight. the two men suffered injuries to their hands and they're now in custody. investigators are looking at surveillance video of the incident. leon: wal-mart agreed to pay $10 million to the family of a man killed in the same crash that injured comedian tracy morgan. he died when a wal-mart truck hit the limo van that he and morgan were riding in. under the settlement, wal-mart admitted no liability in last year's crash on the new jersey turnpike. the driver of the wal-mart truck is facing criminal charges. former rap mogul suge knight collapsed in a los angeles courtroom today. this happened moments after a judge set his bail at $25 million. knight was wheeled out of the court on a gurney. reportedly unconscious from hitting his head on a chair. this, by the way, marks the fourth time that knight has been taken by ambulance away from a courthouse. he's charged with murder, attempted murder and hit and run in the death of one man and seriously injuring another man. alison: well, prince charles and camilla are wrapping up their royal visit in kentucky. the royal couple touched down in louisville this afternoon. we're told their schedule includes a visit to the african-american heritage center, old louisville's historical society and a visit to oxmore farm. let's get a check on how our traffic is here in the d.c. region with bob emler in the wtop traffic center. hi, bob. bob: hey, alison. northbound traffic on 270 doing pretty well for the most part. slow up through montgomery village, germantown headed for frederick and earlier, there was a crash near route 80. that's been out of the road for a while. otherwise, rather uneventful drive on 270 right now. 95 in virginia it's got a lot slower getting past a broken down trunk past quantico and that's a tractor-trailer stopped on the center of the roadway that has things quite slow. it's slow beyond that most of the way down towards stafford once you get beyond the truck, the lanes are open and 95 south will take a little while. 30 minutes to get down from the occoquan river towards triangle right now. outer loop, half-hour drive headed from van dorn to the wilson bridge. incident on the wilson bridge, either a crash or police incident there that's making things quite slow and this is the beltway in prince george's county. inner loop on the left side coming around from college park past the overpass at good luck road and towards route 50. outer loop, that's running pretty well. 66 towards nutley and 123, volume delays to centreville. have a great weekend. i'm bob emler with 103.5 wtop radio. leon: same to you, bob. doors will open up at a new museum at george washington university tomorrow. it includes what is being called a significant collection on the history of washington, d.c. as well as art history and culture from the city's textile museum. the six story museum opens months after the school acquired the corcoran gallery's collection. some of those works will be on display at the facility as well. alison: coming up on abc 7 news at 5:00, we couldn't see today's solar show at the area. find out what the skies may have to offer us this evening. leon: plus an 1980s tv star heading back to the small screen with a play on his signature phrase. you want to hear that one. alison: wintry weather causes a few problems on area roads. that's a recording from the office of personal management say that the federal government leon: check this out. some young filmmakers honored at the white house today. second annual white house film festival featured 15 works by students age 6 to 16. that included some students from bethesda, chevy chase high school. those films were chosen from among 1500 different entries on this year's theme of giving back. president obama spoke there at the event as did director steve mcqueen and actress hillary swank. oscar winners, i should note. no awards were presented today, however, but the honorees get to take part in workshops with movie making pros. alison: sure. you know, we've probably all had that moment. you're on vacation and you consider actually buying a house in that tropical destination. well, for a while today, it looked like the first family had done just that. the internet was abuzz as words spread that the sale of a mansion along the beach could be related somehow to the president and first lady. it's not far from the area where they vacationed for the last few years. well, not just any house, by the way, it's the house that served as the backdrop to the 1980s hit show magnum p.i. as the day went on, the white house made it clear that the president is not behind that purchase. instead, it's a businessman who served as treasurer for the president's first run for the executive office. he paid $8.7 million for that house. leon: and now he's happy that everybody knows about it. alison: exactly. leon: check this out. another 1980s tv show connection here, mr. t. mr. t is getting back into television in the renovation business as well. the a-team actor will be starring in a new d.i.y. network series and it's titled, as it only could be titled with him "i pity the tool." alison: fantastic. leon: the show features mr. t helping out people in need of redoing their kitchens and living rooms. it's set to premiere later this year. alison: this will introduce a whole new generation to mr. t. leon: how does he work a saw with all that stuff around his neck? i'll never know. alison: it turns out maybe sometimes you don't have to know a group of people to know you want to hang out with them. that sums up how a washington state man will end up at a philadelphia bachelor party with a group of complete strangers. joey says he received e-mails for weeks about organizing a bachelor party. only problem is he didn't know the groom. he didn't really know anybody else on the e-mail list. he finally fessed up that he thought they had a mistaken e-mail address. but the rest of the group thought it would be fun if he came along. so they all pitched in and bought him a ticket to join the party at the end of this month. he's even being invited to the wedding in may. he says he's excited to meet some new people. leon: that's how guys do it. he's not being forced to wear some ugly dress or anything. invited to come and party. alison: you never know. leon: that's how we do it. alison: hopefully he fits in. otherwise it could be bad. leon: could be awful. you wouldn't know it by the look of it, some of your produce out there at stores are changing. we'll explain coming up. alison: on the first day of spring, doug hill is back with the start of the season. alison: "7 on your side" with a health matters report now on genetically modified foods. today, the food and drug administration said that nonbrowning apples and bruise resistant potatoes are in fact safe. the f.d.a. approval covers six varieties of potatoes and two kinds of apples. there's no word when these foods will end up on store shelves. and two breakthroughs to tell you about in alzheimer's treatment. research out of australia shows a new ultrasound treatment used on mice is providing some encouraging results. leon: a second project shows major progress in treating human suffering from the disease. and rebecca cooper is live now with more on that. rebecca? rebecca: big news. in early testing, the experiment they've been testing is proving so effective in slowing down memory loss, it could be available to all patients in as little as five years. that still seems like a long time for families struggleing with the disease. that other promising development you talked about, the new test results on mice announced in australia. it shows ultrasound treatment is working to restore lost memory not just slow it down. today, we spoke to the head of medstar's memory program at georgetown, he's one of the top alzheimer's neurologists in the country and says it will take years to test the ultrasound treatment on humans. >> i think there's a lot of work still to be done. we have to do the translational work that is more difficult and take more time and expense and effort. we don't know if this will be another way to cure alzheimer's. rebecca: dr. turner says the ultrasound uses soundwaves to peel back a layer surrounding the brain. he says he's especially encouraged by the drug breakthrough since it's already proven hopeful treatment can work on humans. he says eventually, he hopes the ultrasound could be used in combination with the drug and make great progress in the treatment of alzheimer's. reporting live, rebecca cooper, abc 7 news. leon: thanks. something great to see here. not one but two celestial shows to tell you about today. alison: tonight, we should be able to see a super moon. you know, the last time it happened was in august. a super man occurs when the moon's orbit brings it closest to the earth and that makes it look larger than it normally does in the sky. leon: earlier in the day today, people in northern europe were able to see a total solar eclipse. some of the most spectacular views were in norway. tourists flocked there for a chance to see that site. passengers on a flight from chicago to munich also took a detour near iceland so they could get a glance of the eclipse from the sky from inside the plane. how about that? and on top of all of that today is the vernal equinox, the first day of spring. alison: snow started falling across much of the area earlier this morning. in frederick they saw about three inches before noon before things started switching over to rain. and people we spoke with say they're ready for winter to end! >> i'm really ready for spring and i cannot believe that here we are, first day of spring, and we're dealing with this again. especially since we drive a lot. >> ready for spring. ready for green. ready for none of the snow and ice and all that yucky stuff. alison: as much as half a foot of snow fell in parts of western maryland this morning and things are even worse to our north. leon: after that record-setting winter in new england, a new threat is on the horizon. huge snow packs starting to melt now. and in maine, rivers are still frozen and that's causing concerns about flooding. >> particularly worrisome because you can't predict where they might occur. and in a flood, if it does occur, it occurs very quickly. water levels can rise very fast. as much as a foot a minute. leon: the coast guard said it's prepared to step in and help break up the ice if the thawing process doesn't go as planned. they may have a lot of work on their hands. alison: definitely. let's talk about our weather that will be improving shortly. leon: ok. let's see how shortly. doug, what is the word? doug: we can gauge this by checking the rooftop cameras. look at the full screen. we've moved the vantage point here from the rooftop looking southbound towards reagan national airport to the pentagon, it's definitely cloudy and hazy but visiblities are pretty decent and all the drizzle that we had seems to be abating but it's going to take to the overnight early tomorrow to start clear skies out. temperatures will stay chilly pretty much where they are in the mid 30's and maybe drop to the lower 30's in a few spots. i don't think we'll have any icing issues in the metro area. perhaps, if that's to happen, it may be closer to hagerstown and martinsburg and winchester briefly in the morning. tomorrow, nice turn around. this storm will be chased out of here and high pressure will start building in. the way it's configured we'll have southwesterly winds and that's a warm direction. so instead of having highs in the 30's, we're going to have highs tomorrow close to 60. our futurecast shows clearing skies by morning and then we'll have more sunshine and nice breeze, temperatures climbing through the day. a cold front tomorrow night. could bring a band of clouds and a sprinkle and then it will turn noticeably cooler again for the day on sunld. in fact, chilly weather will be here to stay for several more days. here's the weather story for tonight. cloudy, 36 degrees for a low. tomorrow, partly sunny. breezy, warm. approaching 60 degrees. partly cloudy, sun in the morning. clouds in the afternoon. sunday near 50 degrees and see temperatures get quite chilly through monday and tuesday but warmer as we head through the middle and end of next week. this is the very latest. happy spring! alison: happy spring. leon: happy brackets. tim: the dance continues. while there was some entertaining games today, no major upsets yet. virginia battled with belmont but won. maryland trails valparaiso and they've just taken the lead. if maryland survives, they'll play west virginia. the mountaineers had all they could handle with buffalo. buffalo's xavier ford dials long distance. 62-62. oh bobby hurly! with time running out, shot clock at one, buries a three ball! if the terps win, they'll play west virginia and former maryland player billy hahn is a west virginia assistant. 68-62 was that final. all right, maryland terrapins are playing right now. they lead by one. i made robert burton leave his seat to give us his take on the maryland terps. robert? robert: well, i'll leave anywhere to give you a take on the game, tim. no problem. so the terps definitely tried to set the tone early. they jumped out in the first five minutes for a 9-2 run. however, a lot closer than that. and one thing you don't want to do is let their leading scorer alex peters get up. they did a good job on him early on. he missed his first two threes. after that before i actually got out of my seat, he hit his last two. thing about it is you don't want to let valparaiso stick around too long. especially during this time of the season. they're a 13 seed. they have nothing to lose. if they win, it's a big upset. if they don't, we weren't supposed to win anyway. so i'm going to go back in and check out the rest of this one. but for now, i'm going to send it back for you in the studio. tim: get back in there and give them some help. moving on. how about the georgetown hoyas? the first final today was actually georgetown about 1:00 a.m. finishing up yesterday's night session and the hoyas were on the brink of elimination again. thank goodness for rivera. he scored 25 points and controlled the tempo. made the big plays at key moments and carried the georgetown hoyas into the next round. 84-74 over eastern washington. now, the hoyas had lost four of their last five tournament games. j.t. iii hope that talk now disappears. >> i don't know. we have to go out and prepare as devonte talked about for a very tough utah team. so you keep doing your business. you keep doing what you're supposed to do. eventually people will be quiet. tim: meanwhile, the american university women made their first ever ncaa tournament appearance. nice cut to the ba up and around, under the basket. but in the second half the crowd got behind iowa. whitney jennings, watch this, from the bonus-sphere. stop, pop, bang! hawkeyes win it. a 14 seed which a.u. was is now 0-85 in the tournament. wow! meanwhile, the terps lead by one over valparaiso. more of that coming up later in sports. leon: getting it together. getting it together. alison: up next here on abc 7 news at 5:00, police say she was just driving to work. leon: now she's fighting for her leon: a texas woman is being treated after she was shot in the head following an apparent road rage incident. alison: it we want down in houston this morning. police are still looking for the gunman. reporter: instead of arriving at center point energy where the 28-year-old works as a customer service representative, she's spending her friday morning in the hospital with a gunshot wound. >> one gunshot was fired. striking our victim in the back of the head. reporter: police think the problem developed into road rage when she honked her horn at a man said to be driving a white s.u.v. even with her severe injury, she was able to call 911 and pull over but was incoherent as police searched for her. >> run off the road and shot at our window and bleeding from the head. i don't know what the s.u.v. is. reporter: 15 minutes passed before they found her and rushed her to the hospital. >> she was in and out. she blacked out several times at the scene. so -- but she was coherent enough to give the investigating officers, you know, some information. to help us in the case. reporter: she was able to relay her husband's information who was called by police and made his way to the scene. >> i love her. that's the first thing i'll say. she asked me open her eyes and know actually who i am. that's what i'll say. i love you. reporter: word is that she woke up just after that interview. now, police do have some information that that same driver may have sideswiped other vehicles before firing his gun. they're now in the process of checking surveillance cameras in the area as well. in los angeles, abc 7 news. leon: boy. really gets you, doesn't it? that's it for us at 5:00.ison: abc 7 news at 6:00 starts right now with breaking news. maureen: breaking news comes from southeast washington where a woman has been shot after a fight between two men on a metro bus. roz slater is live on the scene with how this happened. roz? roz: maureen, they just took that bus away a few minutes ago. if you look up ahead there, you can see some officers still in a neighborhood and that's because the latest information that we have is they are still looking for that gun involved in the shooting. in fact, d.c. police just brought in a little while ago what they call a gun dog. a specialized dog to help them find it. let's review what happened here. just around 3:30 this afternoon aboard the 92 bus headed towards the reid center, packed bus because of rush hour. two men i'm told in the back of the bus began an altercation. first verbal, then physical. one had a handgun and the other had something called a nail hammer. now, the two of them escalated so much that the one pulled out his handgun and fired a shot. that shot struck a woman seated on the bus, a passenger totally not involved. innocent bystander in all this. we're told it was a nonlife threatening injury. a witness on the bus who didn't want to talk on camera tells me that when that happened, the man -- that several men on the bus jumped the guy with the gun to try to keep him from shooting. but he broke free and the two men involved in the altercation actually ran off the bus. m.p.d. did catch up with them but they did not find that gun. so that's the problem that they're looking for now. of course, they have witness statements on the bus and the surveillance tapes. they are right now questioning those folks who are in custody but again, the woman who was shot, we're told nonlife threatening injuries should be ok. for now, we're live in southeast d.c., i'm roz slater, abc 7 news. maureen: to the other top story