NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Saturday, March 22, 2025

Episode Date: March 23, 2025

3 killed, 15 injured in mass shooting in New Mexico park; Pope Francis set to be released from hospital; Delays linger after power outage at London’s Heathrow airport; and more on tonight’s broadcast.

This is NBC Nightly News with Jose Diaz-Balart. Good evening. As we come on the air tonight, a manhunt is underway for suspects involved in a deadly mass shooting overnight in New Mexico. This was the scene in the Las Cruces Park when gunfire suddenly erupted at what police are calling an unsanctioned car show. This video showing the chaos as people run for their lives. Three people were killed. At least 15 others were injured. And tonight, there are growing concerns about why it happened in the first place. Our Camila Bernal starts us off with the latest on the investigation. There was chaos and panic.

People running for cover and hiding under cars. As the gunfire erupted. Three people dead and 15 others injured after an unsanctioned car show turned deadly Friday night at a park in Las Cruces, New Mexico. I was over there with this car. Christian Salas was there with his brother. As soon as the first shot, people started yelling, people started running. Like everyone, the whole group just ran towards the park. It was like a stampede, shoo, towards the park. So far, no one has been arrested, as police stitch together what happened and look for the people responsible.

The investigation so far reveals that there was an altercation between two groups of people, and that altercation escalated to gunfire between both groups. At least 50 shots were fired. This is a huge crime scene with a lot of moving parts. It will take time to process it thoroughly. Among the dead, a 19-year-old, an 18-year-old, and a 16-year-old boy. The injured ranging in ages 16 to 36. There's no place for violence like this in our community and we will continue to work tirelessly to make our community safe. Camila, police today said they've been concerned over violence in that specific park before.

That's right, Jose. In fact, the governor of New Mexico said today that violent crime is on the rise in all of Las Cruces. She said that increase is 46 percent in comparison to last year. Jose. Camila Bernal, thank you. The global travel chaos is slowly unraveling as flights have now fully resumed at Heathrow Airport. The international hub was shut down after a fire at a nearby substation knocked out power there on Friday. But travelers are still facing some major delays. Ralph Sanchez has the latest from London. Tonight, even as London Heathrow says it's once again fully operational, travel pain from its closure still being felt worldwide,

with thousands struggling to make it home. It was a disaster. Europe's busiest airport was completely shut for 18 hours yesterday, after this massive fire tore through a nearby power station. More than 1,300 flights were disrupted, and today, airlines rushing to clear the backlog. So it's actually pretty normal in here. You're not seeing big lines anywhere. But when you look at the boards, you can see there are still lingering cancellations. Passengers caught in a tangle of misconnections.

I'm very frustrated. I'm very frustrated. Laura Fritchie and her family trying to get back from London to Kansas City. This was my first big vacation with my kids. My husband died and it's ending now. So it's just I just want to go home. Heathrow bringing in additional staff to help and had about the same number of flights scheduled today as last week. But cancellations six times higher than last Saturday's numbers. Heathrow's CEO facing questions about how a single fire could knock out his airport's power supply and why backup systems couldn't keep it online. Continuities of certain sizes, we cannot guard ourselves against 100 percent.

And this is one of them. This has been a major incident. A major incident with global impact. RAF, what more do we know about the cause of the fire? Well, Jose, it's still under investigation by British police. They're saying at this point, there's no indication of foul play. And today, both the British government and Heathrow itself launching inquiries into what went wrong here. Ralph Sanchez in London, thank you. After weeks in the hospital, Pope Francis is set to be released tomorrow. Claudio Labanga is at the Vatican for us. Claudio, good evening. What can we expect? Jose, tomorrow Pope Francis will return here to the Vatican 37 days after he was hospitalized with pneumonia. Well, the doctors today said that during this period he suffered two life-threatening respiratory incidents.

Now, on Sunday, he's expected to appear at a window of that hospital to bless and greet the crowd below before he returns to the Vatican. Once here, he will need to continue his recovery for at least two months. It will include rest, therapy and avoiding large crowds. Claudio Lavanga at the Vatican. Thank you. President Trump has revoked access to classified information for his former political rivals. Von Hilliard is in Bedminster, New Jersey tonight covering the president. Vaughn, what prompted the president to make this move? That's right, Jose.

Back in 2021, President Biden revoked the security clearances for President Trump when he left office. But today, President Trump is going much, much further. He had already revoked security clearances for dozens of former U.S. national security officials and President Biden. But now he's adding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Vice President Kamala Harris and several other high level Biden administration officials, saying it is no longer in the national interest to have them have that access. And Vaughn, more than a half million people in the country are potentially losing their legal status here? That's right. The administration is ending a program that gave a certain number of Haitians, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Cubans temporary legal status in the U.S.

to work for up to two years in the country. The parole program was started by the Biden administration and it allowed these individuals into the country after they applied, went through background checks and had the support of sponsors. This is just the latest move by the Trump administration to remove and take away legal protections for legal immigrants here in the country. Jose? Vaughn Hilliard in Bedminster, New Jersey. Thank you. Tomorrow on Meet the Press, Kristen Welker interviews Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer

and Congressman John Curtis. That's tomorrow, right here on NBC. A new alert from the FBI after attacks on Tesla dealers and people who own the cars. This comes amid growing incidents of violence against the company over its CEO, Elon Musk, and his ties to the White House. Maya Eaglin has more. Demonstrators today protesting the politics of top Trump advisor Elon Musk by going after his business. Why target Tesla? Tesla, you got to hit Elon Musk in the money. We are not going to be silent. We are not going to sit back and allow him to run over us. Part of a concerted campaign against the company that helped make the Tesla CEO the richest person in the world.

And while today's protests remain peaceful, recent incidents involving arson, gunfire, or vandalism against Tesla have now occurred in at least nine states, according to the FBI. Violent attacks on vehicles and charging stations labeled domestic terrorism by the attorney general getting so bad, the FBI now issuing an alert to the public to exercise vigilance and to look out for suspicious activity near and around Tesla dealerships. Owners reporting their cars being keyed and vandalized. In Massachusetts, Dr. Koumei Jorouj says he's been targeted for having two Teslas. Death threats with voice messages, some online submissions through my website, death threats about me, about my family. Do you think that owning a Tesla right now is a political statement?

So basically, this is a very tricky question. To say owning a Tesla means that you support Musk or you support Trump, this is absolutely not true. With Tesla stock down by 50% since its peak last year, this week Musk promised better days ahead at an all hands meeting for his company staff. So what I'm saying is hang on to your stock. Today's protesters trying to make that idea as unappealing as possible. These protesters are trying to have a financial impact on Elon Musk. What would be some of the signs of that impact? So one of the first signs we could get comes in early April, and that's when Tesla is said to

release their report on first quarter vehicle deliveries. So in January, the company actually reported its first ever annual drop. And so there is a lot of anticipation for this next report. Yeah, Eaglin, thank you very much. Still ahead tonight, the new investigation into an alleged assault at a remote and isolated research station on the South Pole. Just a closer look inside the newly released JFK files, what researchers are hoping to find as they dig through thousands of declassified documents. We're back with an assault investigation at an isolated research base in antarctica officials are growing concerned about the safety of researchers stationed there after one of them allegedly assaulted a colleague kathy park has this report this is a brutally cold isolated base in antarctica where a drama has been unfolding

for nine south African researchers. The group of mechanics, engineers and scientists traveling there in February for a year-long mission. Their return home? Not expected till 2026. Now at least one is pleading for help. The Sunday Times last month obtained an email from one of those researchers claiming an unnamed colleague physically assaulted and threatened to kill one team member and sexually assaulted another, creating an environment of fear and intimidation. NBC News has not seen the email. Herman Bannerkirk was on a separate mission and says he briefly overlapped with that research team. You can put people through all different tests and stuff like that, but when it comes to realizing where you are and the conditions, you don't always know how people are going to react. The South African government overseeing the mission said an assault allegation

was reported February 27th. They say no sexual assault happened and they have engaged professionals to intervene from afar. The government says the alleged perpetrator has apologized and was put under a psychological evaluation. All team members were evaluated before the mission. John Dudany has lived and worked in Antarctica on and off for more than half a century. For researchers who are currently out there right now, what are they experiencing? Well, the weather is not the big issue. The weather, you dress for that. The real issue is the isolation and the need to get on with your companions who you may or may not have chosen as friends. Today, a difficult dilemma,

just as a harsh Antarctic winter sets in. Kathy Park, NBC News. We're back in a moment with our inside look at researchers as they dig through thousands of declassified documents from the JFK assassination. The clues they're looking for and what they hope to uncover more than 60 years later. We're back with the search for new clues about the assassination of president john f kennedy thousands of files were declassified this week and kandelanian has an inside look as the experts sift through them a renewed search for answers now underway researchers are pouring through tens of thousands of pages of newly released files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I would say it's the most consequential one since the original releases in the 90s.

President Trump ordering a massive document dump of material kept hidden for years. People have been waiting for decades for this. It's their grandparents. And in some university of Virginia, professor Larry Sabato and other scholars say they are not seeing hard evidence to overturn the widely accepted view that 24 year old Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone when he shot the president with a bolt action rifle from the sixth floor of the Texas school book depository in Dallas. I believe that there's no evidence to suggest with 100 percent certainty that there was more to the story. Still, some experts here at the University of Virginia say the new files show just how extensively the CIA monitored Oswald in the years before the

assassination, fueling conspiracy theories that U.S. intelligence operatives may have been responsible for the killing. The CIA lied and lied and lied about what they knew about Oswald. Sabato's students at UVA are now combing through the records for new clues. We don't necessarily know what went down that day, but at least for me and a lot of the other people in this class, we have a lot of questions. One thing not in dispute, the new files are rife with detailed information about CIA sources and methods. It says that 47 percent of the staff working at U.S. embassies around the world were CIA agents. But few believe these records will put to rest the question surrounding the Kennedy assassination. Do you think that 60 years from now, there'll be another group of students

sitting around this table looking at documents? I hope. A quest for answers that may continue for decades. Ken Delanian, NBC News, Charlottesville, Virginia. When we come back, there's good news tonight about hard work paying off that had these kids cheering for their custodian. There's good news tonight. You know, so often the good news doesn't get as much attention as the bad. So every Saturday we highlight the many people who spread joy and love. And these are

just some of those stories this week. Just listen to those cheers. A big surprise near Boise for Park Ridge Elementary School custodian Amy Warren. Voted an employee of the year. Hundreds of students celebrating her with high fives, flowers, and hugs. School principal Elena Parsons says Amy is beloved by all for her hard work and can-do attitude. I've worked and had many custodians in the 15 years I've been in the district, and Amy, you're different.

And the reason you're different is because of how much the heart you have here. Amy, so humbled by the honor she says is a team effort. Sometimes we feel like we're just the custodian, the lunch lady or something like that and our school makes us feel special no matter what spot we're at. She's such a sweetheart. Here's a reunion that'll make your heart melt. I never thought I'd see you like this. That's Catherine Kiefer breaking down in tears, so relieved to see her cat Aggie safe and sound. Catherine and her family had to escape those California wildfires back in January. Aggie got lost in the chaos, ending up at a shelter. Hi, sweetie.

Look at this girl. The best friends finally back together. Speaking of Aggie, here's a gift that brought David Johnston to tears. His daughter Chloe and wife Elaine surprising him with his college ring from Texas A&M some 40 years after he left school before graduating to help support his own family. The Aggie Ring, an important tradition symbolizing valor, confidence, and dedication. How's this for a triumphant return? A hero's welcome at PS6 on New York's Staten Island for nine-year-old John Michael Pasquale. Back at school after suffering a series of strokes back in 2023,

John Michael bravely fighting back against the odds, moving mountains to get better. His parents, Daniel and Maureen, beyond grateful for the school's warm welcome. What were some of the moments that stood out to you, Maureen? It just made me feel how loved he is and in what good hands he's in. As parents, where do you find strength to continue to along with him to move mountains? The only thing that mattered was him. continue to along with him to move mountains. The only thing that mattered was him. So the sleepless nights, the worry, all that is wiped away.

If you think about it, what's our real purpose in life is the next generation and our children. Our purpose in life. And we wish John Michael a speedy recovery as he continues to move mountains. That's NBC Nightly News for this Saturday. The great Hallie Jackson will be here tomorrow night. I'm Jose Diaz-Balart. Thank you for the privilege of your time. And good night.

Thank you.