ABC11 Eyewitness News - Eyewitness News at 11pm - December 29, 2025

Episode Date: December 30, 2025

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right now live coverage from your local news leader preparing you for tomorrow starting tonight and your first alert forecast here's what's happening where you live this is a vc 11 eyewitness news and we begin here on eyewitness news at 11 with the first alert weather we're getting you ready for a really chilly morning tomorrow down into the 20s thanks for joining us here for eyewitness news i'm steve daniels lauren has the night off if you've been outside tonight you know That Arctic air is now here. Yeah, you can hear it right there. Our crew capturing the windy conditions tonight in Kerry. The good news, the wind is finally dying down, but it brought cold, dry air, temps in the 30s right now. But then you factor in the wind chill. It feels like it's down into the 20s.

Meteorologist Don Schweniker here in our first alert forecast center to tell us about tomorrow. Don. Yeah, it's very windy out there today. See, look at some of these weed dust. 40. 49 miles per hour in Raleigh. We saw 40 miles per hour in Fayetteville, Greensboro, 48, and 46 in Burlington. Now, live lookout at RDU. This was bouncing earlier. Windsor light now variable, about seven with some gusts into the teens tonight. Here are the temperatures, 33 Ronald Crapets, 41 Goldsboro, 41 Clinton, 39, Lillington, and 37 in Raleigh.

But factor those wins, and it feels like it's 22 in Oxford, 24 in Burlington. 30 in Durham and 34 right now in Smithfield and all that cold air is pushing south overnight look at these feels like temperatures later tonight by 3 4 o'clock in the morning we've dropped down into the 20s and it will feel like it's 21 degrees at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning and it'll stay in the low 20s for those feels like temperatures it will be cold tomorrow most of the days in the 30s but it's the coldest day of the next seven we'll talk about a little bit of a warm up on the way and your next chance for rain and your first alert seven-day forecast coming up in just a bit. Steve. Okay, Don, we'll see you soon for that. Thank you. We have some breaking news tonight. A triple shooting is under investigation in Goldsboro. This is some new video from this scene. Here's what we know just before 630. Police responded to shots fired near the Tanglewood Mobile Home Park off Central Heights Road. They found one victim there at the scene. A second victim was found at a nearby shopping center on Berkeley Boulevard.

And a third victim was driven to the hospital in a car. One of the victims was airlifted to ECU Health in Greenville. He's in serious condition. And moments ago, we learned all three victims are men. ranging in age from 21 to 23 years old. So far, no one has been arrested there after three people were shot in Goldsboro. Now to the growing controversy tonight over a comment allegedly made on social media by the executive director of Shop Local Raleigh about a transgender young person. The administrator of a Facebook group says Jennifer Martin posted anonymously in response to a Wake County mother wanting advice about her transgender child transitioning from female to male who wants to play on a boys volleyball team. Some triangle business owners now want Jennifer Martin to resign.

Nearly 900 people have now signed this online petition demanding Shop Local Raleigh to take immediate action against Jennifer Martin. And new tonight, Tom George, talked with a woman who is behind that petition. Tom, this business owner was a big supporter of Shop Local Raleigh, but it sounds like not anymore. Yeah, that's right. And other business owners have been signing on to that petition, weighing in as this outcry continues, all centering around the executive director of Shop Local Raleigh, Jennifer Martin. and it all started from a Facebook post that she allegedly made in a networking Facebook group for women in the triangle.

You can see the post here. A parent is asking advice about a volleyball program for their transgender son. That's when an anonymous member responded, saying, quote, there's no such thing as a transgender son. Blessings to you, but the sooner you help your son realize this, the more successful he, maybe a she, will be. The post was anonymous, but in Facebook groups, the admins can still see who posted it. and it was attributed to Shop Local Raleigh executive director Jennifer Martin. Since then, some businesses who are members of Shop Local Raleigh have called on Martin to be held accountable. There's even a petition online gathering over 800 signatures. Erica Vogel is the owner of Zebulin Boutique Be Like Missy and says her business would no longer affiliate with Shop Local Raleigh.

Shop Local Raleigh states that their mission is to support and uplift and be sort of a home for our local small businesses. and I feel like what she did was not inclusive of our community, and it just really rubbed me the wrong way. In response, Shop Local Raleigh, issuing a statement saying, quote, the comment made does not reflect those of the organization. Shop Local Raleigh is dedicated to a culture of diversity, inclusion, and respect. And as you mentioned, that petition now has nearly 900 members signing on to that right now. In the meantime, we have also reached out to Martin directly for comment.

So far, we have not heard back. Reporting live in Raleigh, Tom George. 11. Otis News. And Tom, we want to point out ABC 11 as a media partner for the Raleigh Christmas Parade presented by Shop Local Raleigh. Thanks. We're also following some breaking news in Wake County right now. This is a live look from our breaking news crew on the scene in a neighborhood in Kerry. Firefighters on the scene of this house fire in the 400 block of Parkman Grant Drive. It's off Carpenter Fire Station Road between Highway 55 and the Triangle Turnpike. Early reports say the fire started in the garage and then it spread to the house.

firefighters still on the scene trying to figure out exactly what happened. We did notice a Tesla in the garage there that will be part of that investigation to see if somehow that is where the fire sparked this evening. New tonight, Fayetteville Police identifying the woman who died in an apartment fire this afternoon is 35-year-old Portia Corals, a one-year-old girl is in critical condition. Police have not said how the two were related, but they say they both did live in that apartment. Firefighters responded to the Kensington Court Apartments off Yadkin Road just to after one o'clock.

Fire investigators do not suspect foul play was involved in the fire, but the cause is under investigation right now. New tonight, we have an update on a story. We first told you about here at six o'clock a deadly fire at the home of the parents of NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin. We now know Hamlin's 75 year old father Dennis was killed

and his mother, 69 year old Mary Lou was critically injured. That fire started about six o'clock yesterday evening in the town of Stanley. That's about 20 miles northwest of Charlotte. It took nearly a dozen fire departments to put it out, because that part of Stanley does not have fire hydrants, so all the water had to be trucked in. The cause of that fire is under investigation.

In Wake County, some new court documents tied to the deadly shooting of a WakeMed police officer at a clinic in Garner. Reveal police are now working to determine if the man charged with murder was under the influence of THC Gummies at the time of the incident. Benji Martin is charged with killing, Officer Roger Smith at the WakeMed Healthplex

in Garner on November 8th. Two of Martin's friends took him to the emergency room because he was having a mental health crisis, they said. In court documents, both friends told investigators Martin did use gummies in the past. Martin also worked in a business called Carol and Dika, which police describe as a THC and hemp dispensary. Police want to get surveillance video

that shows Martin at work the day before the shooting to observe his demeanor and also his mannerisms. Now to an eyewitness news exclusive. The I team sitting down with the mayor of Kerry, Harold Weinbrecht for the first time since the town manager, Sean Stiegel, resigned. The use of taxpayer dollars is in question. after open records request revealed financial mismanagement, including thousands of dollars spent on a council member's graduate school tuition and a land deal worth more than a million dollars that happened without approval from the town council.

Tonight, the I-team's Tom George spoke with the mayor about what he says needs to change, so this doesn't happen again. It takes years to build trust and it takes a second to destroy it. Mayor Harold Weinbrecht tonight speaking out saying he understands Kerry needs to rebuild trust. Trust, he says, was broken by Sean Stiegel, who served as town manager for nine years and who the mayor thought was doing a good job until financial records came to light as part of an open records request last month. I was made aware of things in early November, things he did and things he said, which was devastating because, one, I thought he was my friend, and two, not only was he withholding information, he was making decisions that he shouldn't have made. Among other things, a pattern of what the mayor says was a toxic environment and unchecked spending. Councilmember Lori Bush getting approval under Stiegel's watch for the town to pay nearly $40,000 towards a master's program. Money she says she later paid back.

And an over million-dollar land deal, Stiegel and the town approved without counsel approval, even after the town recommended against it. The mayor says the town still now owns that land but hasn't decided what to do with it. You're kind of skirting your authority when you break it up into two parcel. that total over the amount that your discretionary spending allows, and that should never have happened. He says one of the biggest things that needs to change is the million-dollar discretionary spending limit, which meant anything below that Stiegel's town manager

could approve without counsel signing off on it. Weinbrecht believes Siegel got around that number by splitting that land deal into two purchases. He also says that amount of unchecked money is one of the first things carry plans to change, that limit, already much higher than most similar-sized cities. I don't know how I got that high. I don't know when it got that high. I don't know what it was before it got that high. But we're going to find out. And I'm pretty confident that counsel will want to lower that amount. He also wants greater transparency. He says live streaming every meeting will help. And so will their new interim town manager, Russ Overton, who the mayor believes can help turn things around. And he hopes one day taxpayers and Kerry can have that trust again. It's important to know that even though this was very bad, it could have been a disaster, and that was avoided because we have one of the best staffs in the state, if not the nation.

In Carrie, Tom, George, ABC 11, eyewitness news. Tom, thank you. Still to come here on eyewitnesses, we have a new twist we'll tell you about in the Heddingham match shooting case in Wake County. Lawyers for Austin Thompson, who's charged with going on that shooting spree in his Raleigh neighborhood, have filed some new motions. And coming up, you'll see why they want a judge to prevent prosecutors. from talking about race and gender when the case goes to trial. Also, the new clue in the search for a college student who disappeared on Christmas Eve in Texas, the new dash cam video that could show her last known direction of travel.

And Don's back with us, checking on those temps outside. Yeah, and it's a cold night out there tonight. Wind chills now down into the 20s, but we're dry across the region. We do have some rain, though, showing up in the seven-day forecast. We'll tell you when that shows up. Coming up next. New tonight, the American military conducting another airstrike today targeting suspected drug trafficking boats in the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. Southern Command says these attack today killed two people.

The Defense Department has carried out more than two dozen of these airstrikes since that operation began in September. At least 107 people have died. The Trump administration says it's targeting these narco-terrorists, in their words, who are smuggling drugs here into our country. Here in the triangle tonight, Duke Health telling eyewitness news, the, nurse accused of sexually assaulting patients is no longer employed with the Duke health system. Today, 39-year-old Jamil Tugato returned to court after an alleged third victim came forward. Court documents show two of the incidents took place in May at Duke University Hospital and the other happened earlier this month. His nursing license has been suspended and today

he admitted in court he's not a U.S. citizen. Tagato was being held in the Durham County Jail without bond until his next court appearance coming up in January. In Wake County, defense lawyers have filed some new motions in the Raleigh mass shooting case. Austin Thompson, you'll remember, is charged with killing five people and injuring two others in Raleigh's Heddingham neighborhood. The defense is asking the court to restrict the prosecution from arguing the victims were chosen because of their race or gender, claiming there's a lack of evidence. And a civil lawsuit filed against Thompson, people claim he used racial slurs against minority

neighbors in that area of Raleigh in the past, but those claims have not been confirmed. New tonight from Texas, some new dash cam video shows a person believed to be a missing college student. Moments after she left her home on the morning of Christmas Eve, authorities in San Antonio say the video shows Camilla Mendoza almost walking a couple of blocks from her home about 7 in the morning. This new video is now giving authorities a better idea of the direction she was heading. The video was provided to authorities by a neighbor who checked their camera. Previous surveillance video showed the 19-year-old woman near her car outside her house near San Antonio. Police say she was rummaging through her car wearing

some pajama shorts and a hoodie and some running shoes. Moments later, that video ends. A couple of hours later, her mom realized she was missing after she spotted her iPhone on her bed with the battery missing, and she decided to call police. Authorities believe she is in danger. The sheriff says she recently had a breakup, but it's believed to have been mutual. We're certainly not taking anything for granted. Boots on the ground, coupled with the technology searches that we're doing. We believe we're covering all bases. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have now joined that search in Texas for Camilla. New at 11 here in North Carolina, Attorney General Jeff Jackson has won a legal victory for North Carolina in a case against FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security. The court ruled against the federal agencies for unlawfully withholding $17 million in state funding that was intended for emergency management, disaster relief, and homeland security operations.

The court found the conditions imposed by the federal government on those grants were not consistent with congressional intent or FEMA's mission. Jackson, who filed the lawsuit in November, argued the agencies imposed unlawful terms. on those grants without congressional approval. Let's take a live look now at Terminal 2 at the RDU airport where extreme weather across the country is causing a ripple effect right here in the triangle.

10 flights have been canceled at RTU and another 160 flights have been delayed. The weather impacting millions of people all across the country during their holiday travels. ABC News reporter Alex Stone is in a rain-soaked Southern California tonight. More than 100 million Americans are under high wind alerts from Indiana to the northeast.

to the northeast, winds gusting to 65 miles an hour. In Hamburg, New York, near Buffalo, waves crashing on shore and then freezing on these cars, that wind churning up the Great Lakes. The wintry weather causing chaos for those traveling. Just a bit, like, heavily crowded. Just come here early, you know, be prepared for any delays. On the roads near whiteout conditions in Iowa. Zero disability. On I-75 in Detroit, snow squalls causing a massive pile-up. Authorities, say at least 30 vehicles involved and multiple people injured. Very slippery and someone hit me. On I-35, the Iowa State Patrol says at least one person was killed in a 14-car pile-up

that shut down the highway all the way to the Minnesota border. But on the warm side of the storm system, multiple tornadoes were confirmed south of Chicago. Candice White's house was hit. All of a sudden, it's just really loud, like a big gust is coming through. I look out the window as I'm sitting on the couch and it's just a wall of gray and I run back to the bathroom and I'm like I should probably be taken cover. And in Southern California, authorities are investigating whether shifting land from days of rain caused a gas pipeline to break open. You can see it here that rupture spewing out gas and dust causing the busy five freeway to shut down for hours over the weekend. SoCal Gas saying a preliminary inspection by a geologist has determined land movement was a most.

likely cause of the break. And herein, rain-soaked California, after a several-day break in the rain, more rain is expected to arrive just in time for the new year. Alex Stone, ABC News, Los Angeles. All right, and that winter storm is not bringing us any snow, but it is bringing us this Arctic air. It is tied to that, and Don says, look, we've got to have our lip bomb ready for tomorrow and maybe some lotion because the air is super dry out there. Absolutely.

These are the type of dew points we see out in the desert sometimes. So be ready for some very dry air over the next couple of days. Tomorrow is the coldest day as we check out what's happening on the seven-day forecast. You'll see 43 tomorrow, 51 on New Year's Eve. We've got to, of course, the festival going on down in Fayetteville, ABC 11, a proud sponsor of the district New Year's Eve. Thursday morning, 54, well, 54 by the afternoon. We'll stay in the 50s as we head toward the weekend.

Live look on your first alert Doppler net tonight, scanning the sky's dry across our part of the Carolinas. We'll take a live look down into Fayetteville. Atop to self-help sky cam, clear skies, winds are out of the west, northwest at 12, 41 degrees. You're seeing wind chills in the 30s. Maniota Murphy tonight, actual air temperatures, 43 at the coast. 41 down at ECU right now, 31. They've dropped below freezing in Chase City in the triad this hour. 36 here in Raleigh, 41 in Lumberton. Look at Boone checking in with the cold spot. Just 19 degrees. They are making snow at all of the ski resorts tonight. Overnight, we'll drop to temperatures down into the 20s, actually, 26 degrees, a lot colder

out there. Satellite radar composite is clear across our part of the Carolinas. We do see lots of snow flying through the mountains of Western Virginia and West Virginia. Lake effects snow guns are on in western Michigan. The Allegheny Mountains of Central Pennsylvania, upstate New York, Syracuse could pick up an extra foot of snow tonight with all of that going on to the north of. of us around here we will stay dry we're going to get chilly seven o'clock in the morning times on the title there first slur predictor forecast model shows those numbers in the 20s to start today we'll recover into the 40s for a couple of hours most of tomorrow though will be in the 30s as we head into wednesday morning we'll start again in the 20s wind won't be as bad then as we get toward three o'clock in the afternoon you're heading out to maybe some new year zee parties temperatures in the 50s we'll stop this at midnight if you're headed to any of the festivities around the area it will be be above freezing. You're still getting into the jacket, gloves and scarce, but not freezing

cold. And as we drop into Thursday morning, those temperatures will be in the 40s to start 2026. Forecast looks like this for tomorrow, 43 degrees. Sunny skies had a lot colder out there on a northwest wind at 11 miles per hour. First alert, seven-day forecast, powered by ACU, other 51 New Year's evening, New Year's Day 54. Friday, clouds move back in. We'll still stay in the 50s. It'll be warmer Friday night. Saturday's our next chance for rain. And really, it's not a huge chance, but it's the only chance. We've got drought conditions, so we'll take any rain drops we can get. Once that front drops, it's a little cooler Sunday morning, around 30. By the afternoon, we stay in the 40s, and we recover into the 50s

on Monday. And of course, we've got football on ABC on Saturday. Good day to stay inside and watch football here. Tomorrow, though, you're going to want to bundle up if you've got plans outside. Steve. Quick blast of the 20s and then it's warming up a little bit. Absolutely. All right, Don, thanks. Still ahead here on Eyewitness News. We'll take you to the annual food fight in Spain that's going viral right now. Check it out. These people grabbing some flour and they're using eggs and it's a wild battle that dates back in a very long time. We'll tell you what these people are up to coming up here on eyewitnesses. Tonight, Kamala returns. After the election, did you and Doug just start drinking?

We We are back now with tonight's Top Trending Stories in Real News and first a confetti test drop happened in New York City today. Three, two, one. Happy New Year! Yeah, it's basically a dress rehearsal

in Times Square ahead of New Year's Eve. The organizers conducted the test to make sure it all goes off on Wednesday night without a hitch. More than 3,000 pounds of biodegradable confetti will rain down at midnight on New Year's Eve, including 180,000 personal wishes sent in by people all around the world. All right, let's take you to the UK now and a special birth happening at a zoo, a second endangered giraffe born at the Wipsnade Zoo in England. The calf was born on December 21st after a 15-month gestation period.

His birth came four weeks after the birth of his half-sister, Leon. The new male calf hasn't been named yet. He'll be venturing outside in the coming days after spending the first week inside there with his mom. And now to a street battle over in Spain. It included eggs and flour and a bunch of fireworks too. Yeah, it's an annual food fight called Ells and Farinat. Dates back more than 200 years there in Valencia.

Every year these guys dress in old military solid. clothing and they stage a mock coup and then they impose some absurd laws on the citizens of Spain. The center of the festival is the battle using the flour and the eggs and those firecrackers as well turning the streets into that white and and very sticky battlefield for all that annual fun. Coming up here on eyewitnesses, we are getting you ready to ring in

2026 right here in North Carolina after the break. In Raleigh today, dozens of people lined up outside the new Liberation Station bookstore. It's North Carolina's first black-owned children's bookstore, and it reopened in East Raleigh after closing in 2024. The owner, Victoria Scott Miller, calls it a homecoming. This is her second location since relocating from her first location in downtown Raleigh. The community helped raise more than $70,000 to help her reopen. The bookstore is in the Washington Terrace neighborhood, among other black-owned

businesses. The day is also significant for Victoria because it is the fourth day of Kwanza, which celebrates and recognizes economics and black-owned businesses. Let's go to Fayetteville, where the annual Cool Springs District New Year's Eve Spectacular is returning for another year of entertainment and fun for the fifth year. Festival Park in downtown Fayetteville is the place to ring in 2026. They'll have food trucks and children's activities and lots of music including Bubba Sparks, Young Jock, and R&B Group 702. ABC 11 Together is once again proud to be sponsoring that event on Wednesday night.

And eyewitness News will also be in downtown Raleigh as the clock strikes mid-debrose. night and the acorn drops ringing in 2026. First night Raleigh takes place on Fayetteville Street right outside our downtown Raleigh Newsroom. The celebration begins at 2 p.m. with the children's celebration on Wednesday afternoon. And we hope you'll join us on Wednesday night here on ABC 11 as we ring in the new year. You can tune in for Dick Clark's New Year's Eve with Ryan Seacrest. That fun begins at 8 o'clock on New Year's Eve right here on ABC 11. And we will have a special edition of eyewitness news at 10 o'clock for you here on New Year's Eve. this Monday evening. I'm glad you joined us. We'll be back here tomorrow night at 11 o'clock.

Jimmy Kimmel is on the way next. Goodbye. ABC 11 eyewitness news is sponsored by Capitol Chevrolet. Together, let's drive. Shop Capital Chevrolet.com.