ABC11 Eyewitness News - Eyewitness News at Noon - February 3, 2026

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

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It is very busy here on eyewitness news at noon. Including the lingering impacts from the winter storm. The first alert storm chasers showing you why kids are out of school again today. Plus, what we're learning about the possibility of more wintry weather this week. I was known. I could. Heartbreaking testimony underway in the sentencing phase of the Raleigh mass shooter. We're hearing from a survivor of that terrible day waking up to learn her friend was gone forever.

And North Carolina lawmakers react to consent. to concerns about immigration enforcement and ICE officers, what they're saying this new. Just to be able to help any dog, but a dog that's kind of bringing a lot of joy to people along with these monks was something that just felt like it would be really nice to be able to do. A local veteran with a part in the Buddhist monks' mission for peace, how she helped the monks dog get back on the road to recovery. Right now, live coverage from your local news leader. Today's top stories you need to know and your first alert forecast.

Here's what's happening where you live. This is ABC 11 I Witness News. And welcome on this Tuesday, February 3rd. I'm Barbara Gipps. I'm Amber Repenta. Thanks for joining us here for the news at noon. All right. We have started yet another day with schools closed, kids and parents stuck at home.

You can see why we went on a tour of Way County school campuses. And many of the school campuses are still covered in our school. and snow and of course secondary roads as well. Wait County went to a remote instruction day today. And of course we are making calls to see what the plan may be for tomorrow. All right, well the first floor storm chaser is out about on the lookout for icy spots. Checking out the secondary roads. This is Deerwood Place in West Raleigh and you can see there's still a lot of work to do in this area.

Meteorologist Cruz Medina is here. It seems like it's those kind of spots, some of the back roads, neighborhoods. be getting a little bit better but not completely safe. Yeah, they're not out of the woods yet, but I can tell you today, tipters go well into the 40s, and so hopefully that helps to accelerate the melting process before we get this next belt

of some wintry weather that's on the way for tomorrow. So let's get into the details in the first alert forecast center. And so as we go throughout today, today is a dry day, but you'll notice the cloud cover increasing. By tonight, we could see a few showers. That's mainly going to be closer to tomorrow morning. So tomorrow's a pretty wet day.

That's a day you want to plan on having an umbrella, And then we see this continue into Wednesday night. That's our window of opportunity for wintry weather. And after that, we're drying out as we go into the back half of the week. I do want to stress this. This is mainly going to be a rain event. So if you're hoping for this to be, you know, all snow, this is not really lining up to support that. But I can tell you, it's going to bring some beneficial rain to the region.

So a half inch to an inch possible for areas like the sand hills and the I-95 corridor. Closer to the triangle, a quarter to a half inch of rain there, and then lesser amounts back toward the triad. And you can see the system getting itself together back to our west. It's just some rain back in states like Tennessee, Mississippi and into Louisiana. That's pressing in our direction. And so the cloud cover is increasing out ahead of that. Like I said, today, tipters are going to be fairly warm. So we should see tipter's topping out sometime in the next hour or two,

maybe even reaching low 50s in some locations before coming down into the 40s for the rest of the evening. Tonight we go down into the 30s for Raleigh. It'll be mostly cloudy. Once again, showers late at night. This will mainly be toward daybreak tomorrow and tomorrow looks pretty wet. So as we start the day, maybe dry in many areas like the triangle. The cloud cover is definitely in place. Tiptures are above freezing tonight.

So that should keep the melting process going all the way through the night. But then by the time we get into the later parts of the day, that's our window of opportunity for that wintery mix. Now I'm working on adjusting some of our accumulation maps right now. I have the latest on that for you coming up in your extended forecast. Back to you. Right. Thank you, Cruz. And be sure to download the ABC 11 app to stay up.

to date on the current weather conditions. You can check the warning, temperatures, first alert Doppler net will also send you washes and warnings straight to your device. In Wake County sentencing begins today for the teenager who pleaded guilty to killing five people in Raleigh's headingham neighborhood. The mass shooter Austin Thompson getting ready to now learn his fate. Let's go to Elena Athens. She is live at the Wake County Justice Center with more. Elena. Yeah, a judge is starting to consider Austin Thompson's punishment and did say this morning that his age at the time of the incident will be given special consideration. The first person to speak today was Lynn Garner. She is one of three survivors from

this mass shooting. Garner was friends with the victim Nicole Connors. The pair had just returned from dinner in October of 2022 when she says Austin Thompson walked up in black camel and just started shooting. Garner says the next thing she knew she was lying on the ground in a pool of blood. She spent three months in the hospital recovering and underwent numerous surgeries. Gardner says she still has constant numbness in her lip after being shot in the face and suffers from severe hearing loss also developed a hernia. Gardner called Thompson's actions that day a heinous crime. Her voice started trembling when she says she had forgiven the defendant for her own healing. Believe it or not, I feel for the family members who lost loved ones on that day.

I lost a dear friend, but because who I am and what I believe in has given me the grace to forgive the young man who shot me, being a Christian, I don't just talk to talk. I walk to walk. So the court will be receiving evidence from the state this week, and the defense will have an opportunity to do so. So next week we were told by the judge. Thompson does face five life sentences in this case. Live in Raleigh, Elena, Aethins, ABC 11, eyewitness news. Wow, powerful testimony there from Lynn Gardner.

Elena, thank you. And new at noon now. Another local county is reporting water issues. Residents, some residents in Halifax County are being asked to boil their water. This is for people living in the Medocallister area. Officials say there is some type of water leak, but finding the exact cause is difficult right now because everything is covered in snow and ice. And residents are being asked to boil their water before drinking it until further notice.

And water wells also continue in Johnston County. The county issuing an advisory about a water shortage after the recent winter storm, Johnston County residents being urged to avoid using water for non-essential reasons. The county also asking people to check for plumbing leaks on frozen pipes. Some residents telling us they're already seeing issues with their water at home. And the county expects the problem to be fixed within a day or two. Now to the latest on the partial government shutdown. Lawmakers are scrambling to pass a compromise funding deal as Democrats and Republicans are at an impasse over funding for immigration enforcement.

ABC's Nicole D'Antonios in Washington with details. The federal government remains partially shut down as lawmakers scrambled a compromise on a funding deal. The major sticking point, new restrictions on ice. Republicans and Democrats remain at a standstill over funding for immigration enforcement following the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal law enforcement in Minneapolis. And it comes just months after the longest shutdown in U.S. history. I don't think we need to be playing games with government funding. We still have winter storms. We've got FEMA and TSA and troop pay and everything else wrapped into this. Ice needs to be rained in. The American people know that Donald Trump lied to them. He said,

we're going to target violent felons. Instead, they're targeting five-year-old boys with Spider-Man backpacks, they're horrifying the American people. As negotiations continue, thousands of federal aviation administration workers have been furloughed, and nearly 14,000 air traffic controllers will work without pay

as the partial government shutdown drags on. The Department of Health and Human Services also listing on its website, quote, due to the government shutdown, information on this website may not be up to date. And with tax season underway, the IRS says it can only carry out operations through this Saturday. President Trump's saying he's confident they can reach an agreement.

I think they're pretty close to our resolution. You know, we were at 5.6% GDP and we lost a point and a half because of the 42-day shutdown. Last week, the president cut a deal with Senate Democrats to pass a two-week extension of funding for the Department of Homeland Security to buy time to negotiate. But Democrats in the House are not totally on board. And House Speaker Mike Johnson is saying, said he's confident the House can approve the Senate-pass spending bill sometime today. Nicole De Antonio, ABC News, Washington.

New and noon, North Carolina lawmakers react to the impact of ICE operations and the nation's immigration policy. John Dowding is live in Raleigh, where you just heard from several lawmakers. John, good afternoon. Hey, good afternoon to you, Barbara. Well, several elected leaders. We're also joined by civil rights leaders here in the state legislature, talk about a variety of topics from ice activity here. in North Carolina to immigration reform and the state's budget, which has not yet been passed. That press conference actually just wrapped up a few seconds ago before you guys joined us here

from the state capitol. You see here almost two dozen people outside of the press conference room here in the state capital. They're calling for unified action to send a message to other leaders in Raleigh and in Washington, D.C. Now elected leaders spoke out against the immigration actions taken by the Trump administration. They say ICE activity is scaring the public and is calling for a reform on ice actions across the country and in North Carolina. Now as we previously reported, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Nome announced to ICE agents would wear body cameras after massive protests in Minnesota following the death of Alex Pready. Now, Republicans in D.C. have signaled they will only support changes to DHS policy

in exchange for ending sanctuary city policies. Now elected leaders say everyone across North Carolina also needs to speak out against the activity. Now is our time. The time to take a stand to refuse to cower to injustice and to oust ICE and CBP agents from our cities and counties and thus end this domestic terrorism. Next. The Reverend William Barber was also speaking here at this press conference. He's going to have another press conference of his own right now here in the state legislature. He is calling for a three-day march from Wilson to Raleigh in the next week or two.

We'll have more information about what actions. is calling for and more information about that March coming up right here at 1230. Live here from the state legislature. I'm John Dowding. ABC 11. Hi Witness News. John, thank you. Body cameras are going to all federal officers on the ground in Minneapolis. The Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Christy Knoem made the announcement yesterday. This move comes after two deadly shootings by immigration agents in the city. Noam says the body camera program will be expanded nationwide as more funding becomes available. A German technology company announces a big investment in North Carolina.

Siemens Energy, which has a large manufacturing base in Charlotte, says it will invest $421 million to further expand its operations, creating 500 new jobs in Charlotte, Raleigh, and Winston-Salem. This involves infrastructure, equipment, transformers, and the capacity to meet growing energy demand. It also involves artificial intelligence. Our state, like others, is seeing a surge and proposed data center projects driven by AI. Today's announcement is part of a $1 billion investment by Siemens Energy in manufacturing in the United States. Well, there is new leadership today at the Walt Disney Company. The board of directors announces today a new CEO. Josh Diomaro, a 28-year-old veteran, a 28-year veteran that is, of the company and current chairman of Disney experiences, will succeed longtime CEO Bob Iger after nearly two decades at the helm. Also announced today, Dana Walden will become Disney's first ever president and chief executive chief creative officer.

Iger and Diomaro will sit down with David Muir later today on World News tonight for an exclusive interview. Disney is the parent company of ABC 11. While a frightening kidnapping case connected to a popular online game. How a man was able to lure away two teenage girls through roadblocks. At a delay in the next moon mission, those concerns just days before the mission was scheduled to launch. Watch Lauren Johnson tonight on ABC 11, I Witness News. Now at noon, today's show anchor Savannah Guthrie posts a hopeful message on Instagram after the suspected abduction of her mother. Guthrie writes, the family trusts the Lord to bring her mother home and is asking to join them with prayer and belief that it will happen.

Investigators believe Nancy Guthrie was abducted from her home near Tucson, Arizona over the weekend. They say evidence indicates that she was kidnapped while she was sleeping. Authorities have been using drones and dogs to search for the 84-year-old. A suspect is now in custody in the alleged kidnapping of two Florida sisters who police say were groomed for months on the popular gaming platform. Roblox. Police say the sisters, ages 12 and 15, met a 19-year-old man on Roblox before moving communication over to Snapchat, where he allegedly spoke to them for months. According to police, the suspect traveled more than 1,500 miles, driving 23 hours straight from Omaha, Nebraska to Indian Town, Florida, telling the girls to meet him. Police tracking down the suspect

using messages and pictures left in one of the girls' phones. The girls are okay. Roblox releasing a statement saying they have robust safety policy. in place to protect users, including filters to block sharing personal information and age checks to limit minors to chatting with others their age. Well, NASA's plan to send astronauts farther from Earth than ever before now on hold. What's next for the Artemis Mission and its brave crew? And a popular event disrupted by two winter storms is being extended. We'll tell you about it. Everyone needs help with something. If investing is your something, we get it. Co-operator's financial representatives are here to help. With genuine advice that puts your needs first, we got you.

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Drive design, deliver, make it sing. AI builds the deck so you can build that thing. Learn more at adobe.com slash do that with Acrobat. This is Breaking News from ABC 11. I witness news. I'm Barbara Gibbs in the Breaking News Center. NASA's historic mission to the moon is now on hold. That's after a critical equipment test just days before the launch, showed concerning results. This is the Artemis 2 mission. The goal was to send astronauts beyond

the far side of the moon. That would be the farthest humans have traveled from Earth. NASA now says the March month is the earliest that the launch could take place. Some relief for foodies in the triangle. Triangle Restaurant Week is being extended due to the winter storm. The popular event fell right in the middle of two back-to-back winter storms when many restaurants shut down and everyone stayed in their homes as they were told to. Now some restaurants have agreed to extend their special pricing and their menu offerings through this weekend and they need support. They do indeed. Speaking of that winter storm, we're still seeing those lingering impacts. You see from this live picture here from the first alert storm chaser on the lookout for icy spots and finding them. This is Raleigh Road or rail fence road in Raleigh off of Buck Jones Road and may look just like your neighborhood. Mountain is getting so much better, but there's still spots like that throughout the neighborhood.

So our house faces north, and we get no sun on our driveway, on our front yard, and the people across the street bone dry. They get all the sun. They're showing off. But no, we have thick ice out there, too, and it's just from the first storm. That was a big concern for this morning was that black ice potential. But the good news is this afternoon is above freezing, and so hopefully we're going to start to see that melt. It's good. And it stays above freezing tonight.

So that's encouraging too. Let's actually take a look at the next 24 hours. So this afternoon's highs will be well into the 40s. A few spots down in the sand hills, maybe even near 50 today. Tonight, aside from a few showers late at night, that'll mainly be toward daybreak tomorrow. Tipters will be in the mid-30s. So there could be a spot or two that falls below freezing tonight. Most of us are above freezing.

And tomorrow is above freezing as well. And we get a cold rain throughout the day tomorrow. And that's going to eventually transition into some light snow showers across the region. So I'll show you what we're dealing with here in just a moment, but let's take a look at the system itself as it's developing back to our west. So we've got a front back in the Arklotech region, so Arkansas, Louisiana, back toward Texas and Mississippi as well. This is going to push toward us as we go throughout the day, and that's throwing clouds in our direction already. So this afternoon, if you have lunch plans, you're good to go. It should be dry. It's just going to be

cloudy and temperature will be warmer than what we've had over the past seven days. Now let's step forward in time and so I'm going to take you through the rest of today this afternoon, obviously above freezing tonight other than a few showers once again, not expecting a whole lot to be going on. Now by 7 a.m., this particular model has the rain farther south. Some of them have it farther north. So plan on at least those southern communities having a wet start to the day. As we go throughout the course of the day, more moisture is coming in as low pressure develops to our south. So that's going to keep the supply of moisture coming in. But notice the winds by then have turned out of the northeast. So that's where the

the cold air comes into play. Tomorrow, 6 p.m. We could see a transition to some light snow showers right across the North Carolina, Virginia border. The rest of us just seeing rain at that time. But the later it gets, the more of that cold air is going to catch up to the moisture. We could see a transition to light snow showers after a period of maybe some sleet during tomorrow evening. That's what you're seeing here in the purple. And that will stay pretty much from the triangle to the north. Now, there could be a few flakes that fly down in the sand hills as this wraps up. But this is mainly a Triangle North event. And I'll reiterate, this is mainly going to be a rain event for us.

It's just on the back end, that's where we have the little possibility of seeing some light accumulations. So if you're along the North Carolina-Virginia border, you could get up to an inch there. And it's possible we'll up that number later today when we get some new data in. For the triangle, this is mainly about a quarter of an inch at best. And so we're not really expecting much in terms of accumulations. Like I said, this is more of a rain event down to the south, just a few flake. maybe to a dusting. But as far as the rainfall goes, half an inch to an inch as possible for most of Central North Carolina. As you work your way back to the northwest of the triangle, those amounts

drop off just a little bit. But keep in mind, we are very much still in a drought. So any of this rain is going to be beneficial. Just to recap here over the next 12 hours, expected to be very cloudy. Tipper's top out in the middle to upper 40s today. We fall into the 30s for the evening, but we stay just above freezing in areas like the triangle and the sand hills. So tomorrow morning, even though it's chilly, dip in the 30s, we will see that rain chance increase as we go into the afternoon. So tomorrow is one of those days you want to bring an umbrella with you as well. And then this should be out of here by the time that we get into Thursday. So by then, high pressure is going to take over back to our west.

This will obviously keep us cold with winds out of the north behind that front. We're in the 30s, but we'll at least get a little bit of sunshine throughout the day on Thursday. And then by Friday, we'll be watching to our north. There's a system. could bring a few snow showers to our north. Looks like we'll be missed this time. And I hope that that continues to be the case. But by Friday, those tipters should start to rebound back into the 40s.

So you can see that here in your first alert seven-day forecast. Mid-40s by Friday this weekend. It's nice to have a dry weekend after having two wet weekends with wintry weather. And then look at next week. We can be right around 50 degrees. So that's what I've got my eyes on. We need all of this to melt. But I could tell you in the near term, Wednesday, mainly a cold rain.

transitioning to light snow showers later in the day. Back to you. All right, Cruz, thank you. Well, and about face from the Clintons. What we're learning about their plans to testify in connection with the Epstein files. And a local veterinarian helping the dog of the Buddhist monks get back on the road to recovery after an entry on their walk for peace. Watch Steve Daniels. A Tins donut and coffee is the original collab. And now any classic donut is a dollar when you buy any size original or dark roast coffee. Get a deal on the iconic duo with a Tins Dollar donut. Plus tax at participating restaurants for limited time.

Terms apply. See app for details. It's time for Tims. Investing is all about the future. So what do you think's going to happen? Bitcoin is sort of inevitable at this point. I think it would come down to precious metals. I hope we don't go cashless. I would say land is a safe investment.

Technology companies. Solar energy. Robotic pollinators might be a thing. A wrestler to face a robot, that will have to happen. So whatever you think is going to happen in the future, you can invest in it at WealthSimple. Start now at WealthSimple.com. Tonight on ABC 11I Witness News. Well, the Blab Buddhist Monks Walk for Peace, of course, has captured the attention of the nation. Indeed, and we followed them as they made their way through North Carolina.

Many of you have also been following their story about their dog as well, Aloka. Aloka has a big following on social media, but had to ride most of the way through. our state after having surgery to repair a knee injury, a local veterinarian helping who followed the monk's journey like the rest of us, getting the chance to help Aloka on the road to recovery with some specialized care. I'm part of a big group of mobile vets, so obviously we're all pretty flexible to get there. So yeah, I think there's a huge interest in the vet world to help out as much as they can. And the monks are expected to arrive in Washington, D.C. next week. Everyone is hoping that Aloka is walking right there beside them when they reached their final destination.

It was a big deal every time aloka would visit them on their stops. So sweet. So much joy. I know. One month out from the primary elections. And we're helping you prepare. And we're hearing from victims of the Raleigh mass shooting as the sentencing is underway. Also, big news from the TST, the big soccer tournament and carry a third million dollar prize.

for grabs.