throughout our region. i ve been speaking to administration officials with the bowser administration in d.c. they said their goal is to keep d.c. schools and the d.c. government open on time. federal employees, opm said they ll have a statement later tonight. the latest from metro headquarters, back to you. here s an idea of just how many people this impacts. metro is the second busiest transit system in the entire country. trains make between 730,000 and 740,000 trips on a typical weekday. the metro rail system serves the population of more than 4 million people. about 45% of the population inside the beltway uses some form of mass transit. and that means a lot of people need a new way to get to work of course tomorrow. news4 s derrick ward will be joining us from silver spring where most commuters are just hearing about this news. derrick? indeed they just as befuddled or at sea i guess you would say as some government officials are over this. now metro did put out a tw
rig riders. let s start with mark segraves, live with more on the unprecedented move. mark? yeah, barbara, this is unprecedented. only when they close for weather has something like this been done. and you know this is going to cause a lot of problems for a lot of people tomorrow. but metro s new gm says any threat to public safety is too much to risk. while the risk to the public is very low, i cannot rule out a potential life and safety issue here and this is why we must take this action immediately. sudden closure of the entire metro system comes one day after a fire at mcpherson square station. metro s gm says early reports indicate the fire was caused by a faulty jumper cable like the one seen here. the smoke incident last year at l enfante plaza was also caused by a faulty jumper cable. so wiedefeld has ordered an inspection of every jumper cable in the system. he knows short notice will take its toll on the region. when i say safety is our highest priority, i
are going to begin tonight with breaking news from princews george s county.ge good evening, everyone, thanks for joining us, i m matt ackland. and marina maracco. officer gentleman key kohl s soe was shot and killedma outside te prince george s county police die d the three station. alexandra limon is outside the center. the comment that really got to me from the chief who said onesd of your defenders has been lost. set the scene for us there at the hospital tonight.al reporter: it s been veryy emotion l al here the hospital. you re right, the police chief gave a press conference about at hour and a haling a and gave a g very disturbing picture of what happened earlier today. the suspect essentially ambushea the officers at the third district police station walkingn up and opening fire with no warning, ultimately killing that young 29 year old police officer who has now beenรง identified aj at about 46789. 30 this afternoon, an individual launched an unprovoked attack on
leave or tell work. d.c. public schools will also operate as usual. > we have team coverage of the metro shutdown. we begin with jim lokay life at metro headquarters.o reporter: this is when the anounment came about 4:30 today. not a lot of notice. when you saw gm approach the podium, his voice this was a very different man than the one who took over metro.o. as you mentioned this all started after yesterday srday incident at mcphearson s square. no one was hurt when the smoke filled the station, but what the inspectors discovered was roughly the same issue that led to the deadly incident over at l enfant plaza last year. tomorrow is the plan to get the inspectors and engineers out on the tracks inspecting piece by piece the jumper cables. we asked paul whether it why are you doing this in the middle of the week, why aren ty you doing it on the weekend? he said in this case safety trumpsu convenient. i cannot rule out a potential life safety issue here and this is why we
leave or tell work. d.c. public schools will also operate as usual. > we have team coverage of the metro shutdown. we begin with jim lokay life at metro headquarters. reporter: this is when the anounment came about 4:30 today. not a lot of notice. when you saw gm approach the podium, his voice this was a very different man than the one who took over metro. as you mentioned this all started after yesterday s incident at mcphearson s square. no one was hurt when the smoke filled the station, but what the inspectors discovered was roughly the same issue that led to the deadly incident over at l enfant plaza last year. tomorrow is the plan to get the inspectors and engineers out on the tracks inspecting piece by piece the jumper cables. we why are you doing this in the middle of the week, why aren t you doing it on the weekend? he said in this case safety trumps convenient. i cannot rule out a potential life safety issue here and this is why we must take this action immediat