NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Thursday, December 18, 2025

Episode Date: December 19, 2025

Person of interest identified in Brown University shooting; 7 killed in fiery plane crash including NASCAR great; WH: Board adds Trump name to Kennedy Center; and more on tonight’s broadcast. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Breaking news as we come on the air, the big break in the Brown University shooting. A person of interest now identified, plus a stunning twist. Officials now looking into possible ties to the murder of an MIT professor. The details just coming into our newsroom, police identifying a person of interest, the all-out manhunt to find the killer of two college students, and now the possible link to that MIT professor gunned down in his own home. A rental car spotted near both shootings. Also breaking tonight the fiery plane crash in North Carolina,

killing former NASCAR star Greg Biffle and his family. The investigation into why the jet went down as NASCAR mourns one of their own. New Epstein photos just released what these writings on a woman could mean, just hours before the deadline to release the Epstein files. This just in the new deal to keep TikTok running in the U.S.? Who's buying into it and what it means for users? The controversial name change for the Kennedy Center, which could be called the Trump Kennedy Center, the backlash tonight.

The powerful coast-to-coast storm unleashing hurricane force winds. A semi-truck flipping on a highway couldn't hit major airports during the height of holiday travel. We're timing it out. Body cam video capturing the stunning arrest of a mother accused of kidnapping her own daughter more than 40 years ago. The woman allegedly living under a fake name in a Florida retirement community. A driver crashing into a hardware store, customers just feet away from being hit. The car, then erupting into a fireball. Dramatic ice rescue and officer crawling over a frozen lake, saving a dog that fell through the ice.

And there's good news tonight, a group of employees showing the true spirit of the holiday season, how they surprised a beloved co-worker and dad to be. Nightly news starts right now. This is NBC Nightly News with Tom Yamas. And good evening. We begin tonight with a major break in the manhunt for a suspect from that deadly mass shooting at Brown University. NBC News has learned that a person of interest has now been identified by law enforcement. That according to three senior law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation.

And at the same time, a new twist. With police also looking into whether that shooting could be linked to the M.I. IT professor who was shot and killed Monday at his Massachusetts home. Those sources also tell us a rental vehicle may have been spotted near both shooting scenes. We still don't know the name of that person of interest, but it comes after the authorities released these surveillance images, asking for the public's help to track them down as pressure grows on officials to capture a killer who authorities say is armed, dangerous, and still at large. Aaron McLaughlin leads us off tonight from Brown.

Tonight in Rhode Island, a major break in the search for the Brown University killer. Three senior law enforcement officials tell NBC News a person of interest has been identified in connection with the mass shooting. And in a stunning development, the officials also noting authorities are looking into a possible connection to the murder of an MIT professor. The development five days into an exhaustive investigation that includes combing hours of surveillance footage pulled from homes and businesses in the area and released by authorities searching for this man. seen near the campus hours before the shooting and leaving the area immediately after. Yesterday, authorities appealed to the public for help finding this individual seen in close proximity. All we know is that that person was in the vicinity of the subject that we have any interest

time and we want to speak with them. Meanwhile, multiple senior law enforcement officials tell NBC News, police are looking into whether the mass shooting at Brown University is linked to the murder of MIT professor Nuno Larerro, who was shot and killed at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts Monday night. conference earlier this week, authorities in Rhode Island said at the time they hadn't found a connection between the attack at Brown and the murder of the world-renowned fusion scientist. Although it was clear they were in touch with law enforcement in Massachusetts about a possible tie. Colonel Noble reached out to me very early. Their lead on that particular incident, he made sure that if there's any intelligence, any information in which is connected to what we have here, that they would share that. Now, multiple sources tell NBC News they're exploring additional leads to see if there's a connection. As police in Massachusetts hunt for Lerrero's killer, today issuing this alert about a gray Nissan Centra with a main license plate.

The vehicle and occupants are considered armed and dangerous. Tonight, that Nissan spotted, according to Massachusetts police scanner traffic in Salem, New Hampshire. A vehicle has been located in Salem, New Hampshire. Aaron joins us now live. Aaron, let's go back to that rental car in question. What more do we know about it? Tom, three senior law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation tell NBC News they're looking into whether a rental car seen in the vicinity of the Brown attack is the same as a vehicle seen near the home of the MIT professor. Tom could be a major break in the case. All right, Aaron, thank you.

Now to a deadly plane crash today that killed a NASCAR great and his family. The accident happening just north of Charlotte. But Kathy Park is at the scene. Tonight, seven people are dead after a fiery plane crash in North Carolina, including NASCAR star Greg Biffle, his wife and two children. Approxby 10.15 a.m., we got a report of a corporate jet that crashed off the end of the runway on the east end. Take a look at the thick black smoke billowing from the Cessna business jet shortly after a crash at Satesville Regional Airport. It looked like a bomb going off. It just black smoke everywhere. Joshua Green says he was golfing with friends nearby when he saw a plane flying dangerously low.

All we saw from our point of view was the plane nosedive into the ground, a mushroom-like explosion, and we felt the heat. We were probably within 100 yards of the crash. After calling 911, he shot this video. It was flying from this way. It was way too low. Huge explosion. I was just terrified. I felt my heart drop. out of my body. The plane took off this morning in drizzly and foggy conditions, bound for Sarasota. Flight tracking data shows it turning around not long after. Here comes Biffle. Greg Biffle is back to the lead. Biffle, known as the Biff, had a long career with NASCAR, winning 19 Cup Series races and earning a nomination for the Hall of Fame.

He's also inexperienced pilot posting this photo of himself flying the same plane back in September. The caption, excited to get back to flying again. When Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina last year, Biffel flew helicopter missions to rescue stranded residents and fly in supplies. We were just people helping people. Late today, Dennis Dutton, his son Jack, and Craig Wadsworth were also confirmed dead. Tonight, the victim's family is releasing a statement calling Greg and his wife, Christina, devoted parents, and active philanthropists, remembering their daughter Emma as a kind soul,

and Sun Ryder as active, curious, and infinitely joyful. All right, Kathy Park joins us tonight from the Statesville Airport. Kathy, what's the latest on the investigation to what possibly caused this crash? Yeah, Tom, we now know that the NTSB Go team is headed this way to begin their investigation. They'll be looking at physical evidence, maintenance records, even the weather. Tom. Hey, Kathy Park first. Kathy, thank you.

There's breaking news tonight about a new deal that will keep TikTok, the hugely popular social media app running in America. Savannah Sellers joins us now with the latest in Savannah. The issue has been that it was a Chinese company that owned the app. So who owns it now? Yeah, it's a great question, Tom. Hi. Good evening. After years of drama, we finally have some details here about who exactly is stepping in to take some control of TikTok and keep it operational in the U.S. We obtained an internal memo. It was sent by the CEO to TikTok employees today. It outlines a new joint venture made up of three major investors. That's Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX. They will each have a 15% stake in the company, and then another 30% will be existing investors of bite dance.

That is TikTok's Chinese parent company, and just under 20% of the company will be retained by bite dance. So this is not a total sale. Now, the big concern here was that that Chinese ownership was a national security concern. The company says the new venture will include a trusted security partner to make sure they are in compliance. And then Larry Ellison's Oracle is going to take that over. TikTok says this deal should close January 22nd. So what about all the people that use TikTok here in the U.S.? Will their app change?

It's a great question, Tom, and people are certainly wondering it. For now, the expectation should be no changes to that user experience because the company claims this means they will be compliant with the law and therefore operating business as usual. We are waiting, though, to learn more about that full list of investors. All right, Savannah, we thank you for that. We want to head to Washington now. We're just 24 hours from the deadline for the Justice Department

to release its files on Jeffrey Epstein. House Democrats putting out a new batch of photos from the Epstein, estate. Ryan Nobles, with those images. Tonight, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee releasing a new batch of photos from the estate of the late sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. We think that transparency is the absolute best approach. The 60 photos were released without any context and do not prove any illegal activity. One photo is a screen grab of a text chain, appearing to discuss recruiting an 18-year-old

woman from Russia. There's also a series of photos of an unidentified woman. with passages from the 1955 novel Lolita written on her skin. Lolita is a controversial book about a professor's sexual pursuit of a 12-year-old girl. It all comes the day before the Department of Justice is required by law to release their files on Epstein after a nearly unanimous congressional vote. They have until midnight on Friday, so I expect that we're going to get a big release on Friday. President Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, told Vanity Fair Trump's name is in the

the files but not, quote, doing anything awful. President Trump has never been accused of any wrongdoing related to Epstein. And Republicans say Democrats are using the Epstein files to unfairly attack the president. The Democrat Party is using the abuse of these women for political advantage. And that's horrible. I feel like it in a way that it was used as a political smear campaign. While Democrats argue the Trump administration has stood in the way of transparency. They've been covering up the files. And now that they're being forced to put everything out, I am hopeful. All right, Ryan joins us now live.

Ryan, so now that the files are going to be dropped tomorrow, what do we expect to see in then? Well, Tom, by law, the Department of Justice must release the files to the public with a searchable database by tomorrow at midnight. And the members of Congress who wrote the law tell me they'll be able to tell if the DOJ is in full compliance within a matter of hours of the release. Tom. All right, Ryan Nobles for us.

Ryan, thank you. Also in Washington, the new controversy tonight over. the naming of the Kennedy Center after the White House announced the board has changed it to the Trump Kennedy Center. Here's Gabe Gutierrez. Tonight, the White House says the board of Washington's iconic Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has given it a new name, the Trump Kennedy Center. Well, I was honored by this board is a very distinguished board, most distinguished people in the country. Earlier this year, the president blasted the Kennedy Center's programming as too liberal and criticized the appearance of the building. He ousted

Most of the previous board members installed himself as chairman and hosted the Kennedy Center honors while securing $250 million from Congress for renovations. We saved the building. The building was in such bad shape, both physically, financially, and every other way. And now it's very solid, very strong. But Democrats tonight are outraged. This is not legal. You can't do this. Press Secretary Caroline Levitt posted the Board of Trustees vote to rename the center was unanimous.

Not so, says Democratic Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, who's part. of the board, adding she tried to object at the end of today's call. I was muted, and as I continued to try to unmute to ask questions and voice my opposition to this, I received a note saying that I would not be unmuted. It's the latest example of President Trump looking to reshape Washington, building a massive White House ballroom, installing these new partisan plaques in the White House colonnade, and renaming D.C.'s Institute of Peace, the Donald J. Trump Institute of peace. Now, Democrats are asking whether this latest name change is allowed. Former Democratic

Congressman Joe Kennedy, one of JFK's grand nephews, writing, The Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by federal law. It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial. And, Gabe, another headline we're following tonight. The president has been on defense on the economy, but he got some good news on the cost of living today? Yes, Tom, new numbers show inflation has driven. dropped from 3% in September down to 2.7% much lower than expected. Core inflation hitting its lowest level since 2021, though analysts warned there are gaps in the data because of the government shutdown. Tom. All right, Gabe, thank you. Across the Midwest, blinding blizzard conditions

and strong winds. Take a look at this, ripping trees right up from their roots. A semi-truck in Montana flipping over. And tonight, more than 100 million people under wind alerts. Just as the holiday travel crush is about to begin. Bill Carrens is here for us live tonight. Bill, walk our viewers through what's happening. Yeah, this coast-to-coast windstorm is now halfway through the country, and it's going to head for the East Coast tomorrow. So the worst of the weather now is through the Ohio Valley, some high winds, very isolated chance for a tornado as we go throughout the next couple hours. Look at these wind gusts tomorrow. So keep this planned if you have anything to do with the airlines, especially in the Northeast, 50, maybe 55 mile per hour wind gusts. That's

why we have all the airports read, especially the first half of the day from D.C. York airports up into Boston. Then as we go throughout the extended period, that's what we're going to start to watch, and all our focus is going to be in the west. So the eastern half of the country as we go through the first period of our holiday travel, nice and kind of quiet, but we're going to have a huge storm coming into California and Oregon. We're going to have a chance for a lot of heavy rain, flash flooding, river flooding, maybe landslides, too. There's going to be the northern half of California. And of course, we don't need any more of this mess up there and also in the Pacific Northwest. So Sunday is kind of our worst of our travel day. It's good to see most of the

looking good, though, Tom, after a very, very brutal week. Yeah, we'll take it. Okay, Bill, thank you. We're back in 60 seconds with the incredible video. Police arresting the mother, they say, kidnapped her own daughter 42 years ago and now finally caught. Stay with us. We're back now with a dramatic reunion, a woman meeting her father for the first time in decades after police arrested her mother accusing her of kidnapping. Here's George Solis. Hey, how you doing, us, Sharon? The stunning moment captured on police body cam.

Uh-oh, they're coming for you, Sharon. They don't really. But those officers actually did. Police say her real name isn't Sharon. It's Debra Newton. And she was taken into custody in Florida in connection with a 40-year-old kidnapping case where she was accused of abducting her own daughter in Kentucky. I didn't do anything.

According to authorities, back in 1983, Newton abducted her then three-year-old daughter, Michelle, after telling her husband she had a new job. She was named one of the FBI's time. eight most wanted parental kidnapping fugitives. I don't know anything. According to investigators, a crime stopper's tip led to her arrest four decades later.

I've never seen a case like this. I've been doing this for over 26 years. And just days ago, the emotional reunion between Michelle, now in her 40s and her dad Joe. I've been missing for all this time and I didn't even know. What was that moment like when you hugged your father for the first time? Emotion like I could never explain. And we both laughed. We cried.

It was kind of just a. filling of a big piece of myself that's been missing. And now, moving forward, I feel like I am probably the luckiest person in the world right now. So not everybody gets a happy ending like that. Deborah, it faces a number of kidnapping charges now attempts to reach her attorney were unsuccessful. Michelle telling me both of her parents are good people, and that there's more to this story. She's not quite ready to share just yet. Tom? George Solis, hearing from that daughter directly tonight. All right, George, thank you. We're back at a moment with the woman caught on camera with her boss on a cold play kiss cam. Remember her? Well, she's speaking out for the first

time. Plus, the Daring Rescue to save this dog trapped in a frozen pond. That's next. We are back now with an update on Brian Walsh, convicted this week of murdering his wife in Massachusetts. Walsh was sentenced today to life in prison after he was found guilty of first-degree murder. His wife, Anna, had disappeared on New Year's Day in 2023. Walsh admitted to dismiss. membering her body. President Trump signed an executive order today to fast-track the reclassification of cannabis, which would pave the way for the FDA to study its medical uses. That order would not make cannabis legal nationwide, just make it no longer a Schedule 1 drug.

The president saying today in the Oval Office that that move is, quote, something having to do with common sense. Okay, also tonight, new video of a car plowing into a hardware store in Redwood City, California. You can see just how close it was to hitting some of the people inside and how fast it ran through some of the aisles. Employees put out the fire caused by the crash, and thankfully, no one was hurt. Police say it appears to be an accident.

And you might remember the infamous Kiss Cam incident at a Coldplay concert over the summer. Now the woman in that video, Kristen Cabot, is speaking out to the New York Times, saying those few seconds ruined her life. She says she felt she had to leave her job and got death threats. She also claims that both she and her boss were amicably separated from their spouses at the time. And check out this video, a police officer rescuing a dog from a frozen lake in New Jersey.

You can see the officer rushing to the scene, and there's the dog struggling in that ice-cold water. That's when the officer gets to work, hanging on the edge, even going in the water himself, and then the dog finally gets out. Great job. Okay, when we come back, the good news tonight about the surprise of a lifetime for a restaurant employee trying to grow his family. family. That's next. Finally, there's good news tonight about a restaurant staff coming together for one of their own, with a surprise for a soon-to-be dad just in time for the holidays.

The restaurant staff at first watch in Naples, Florida, knows how to boogie down, especially at their holiday party, but this year was a little different. important came up so everybody knows about Norman's journey trying to adopt a baby. Yay, Norman! We've all decided that, well, these guys decided that it was more important for us to donate all of that money to you and your wife. The soon-to-be dad left speechless. I just broke down.

I didn't know what to think or what to say. Norman and his wife Alicia have struggled for years to have a baby, eventually deciding to pursue adoption. Now they will soon bring home a baby girl. We're beyond, beyond blessed that we have all these wonderful great people that, you know, had this thought in their heads and the kindness in their heart and decided to share it with us. with us that moment bringing his work family and his growing family together in a kitchen staff you're you're in everybody's life we're always thinking about how we can help others and you know brighten someone else's day and so for that to come back to us it's just completely overwhelming and guess what that restaurant CEO says they're going to get their Christmas party as well that's

Nightly news for this Thursday, I'm Tom Yamas. Thanks so much for watching. Tonight and always, we're here for you. Good night.