Top Story with Tom Llamas - Thursday, April 2, 2026

Episode Date: April 3, 2026

Tonight's Top Story has the latest breaking news, political headlines, news from overseas and the best NBC News reporting from across the country and around the world Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tonight the shakeup at the Justice Department, President Trump firing his attorney general, Pam Bondi. The second cabinet member, acts by the president in less than a month. Our new reporting, the heated confrontation between the president and Bondi just last week, why sources say he grew more frustrated with her. And how her handling of the Epstein files may have been the final straw. Plus, who's replacing her for now? Also tonight, the top general forced out. Pete Hedgeset, said, housing the army's top leader less than a day after the president,

prime time address on Iran, Alla Strikes Overseas Rage on. The Tiger Woods arrest videos released police body cam showing him handcuffed for an alleged DUI the moment police find pills in his pocket, the sobriety test he was given, and this revelation that he says he was just getting off the phone with President Trump. Taking the stand, the doctor accused of trying to kill his wife in Hawaii, testifying in his own defense saying, she hit him. His cross-examination happening right now. Amazing new photos from Artemis looking back at the earth and the critical maneuver for the crew tonight, firing up their engines in space and blasting towards the moon.

Hard stopping video, the hammerhead shark just under the surfer off the coast of Hawaii. And Real Housewives star Jen Shaw speaking out for the first time since her prison release, describing her life behind bars and her interactions with high-profile inmates, including the Lane. Maxwell. Plus, as AI transforms the job market, why many Americans are turning to nursing to secure their spot in the middle class, top story starts right now. And good evening. We're going to start right there with that major shakeup in the Trump administration. One of the president's most loyal allies, Pam Bondi, out as Attorney General, marking the second time the president has fired a cabinet member in less than a month. Multiple sources telling NBC News the president has grown more and more frustrated with Bondi and that even though he likes her as a person, he does not believe she

executed on his vision. At this hour, we're also learning more about a heated confrontation between the two at the White House. The firing comes after months of the president's public demands for the Department of Justice to bring down his political enemies. You may remember this call out on truth social last year saying, quote, all talk, no action, nothing is being done. Bondi also facing backlash over her handling of the Epstein files, walking back statements she made about a, quote, client list on her desk. Just yesterday, she attended Supreme Court arguments with the president and sat in the front row of the public area during his primetime speech.

But today, the president tapping Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as a personal lawyer, you'll remember, to President Trump. And now he's stepping in his acting AG. Our Kelly O'Donnell is fallen in all, and she leads us off. Tonight, loyalty was apparently not enough to save Pam Bondi's job. We are so proud to watch. work at the directive of Donald Trump. According to sources, the president vented his frustration to allies than a heated confrontation

with Bondi last week. That led to today's shakeup. He fired the attorney general, posting, we love Pam. As he announced, she is transitioning to a much-needed and important new job in the private sector, an unspecified role where Bondi said she is thrilled to continue fighting for President Trump. from two-term Florida AG to the Trump administration. The partisanship, the weaponization will be gone.

The president raised expectations and pressure publicly. She's going to go down as a great attorney general. I may change my mind about that. I don't know. Maybe someday I'll set call and say I was only getting. Missteps caused political pain. On the Jeffrey Epstein files, Bondi claimed DOJ had the late sex offenders' client list. It's sitting on my desk right now to review.

Later reversing course with a memo and testimony before Congress. Our memo in Epstein clearly points out that there was no client list, our July 6 memo. Bondi was caught in a tight corner with MAGA, Epstein survivors, and bipartisan lawmakers demanding more Epstein disclosures. The president blasted the Epstein attention as distraction, all while Mr. Trump expected her to prosecute his perceived adversaries. And we're looking at Pam because I hope something's going to be done about it. These people put our country at great danger. The president posted his complaints to Pam, writing, all talk, no action, nothing is being done. We'll be taking all available legal action. Tonight, reaction about Bondi from the family of Epstein accuser, the late Virginia

Dufray. We hope she has the courage to testify and actually do right by survivors this time. Okay, Kelly joins us from Washington. And Kelly, we now know that Bondi's deputy, Todd Blanche, will take her place, at least temporarily, correct? That is right, and that transition is already underway. So Blanche moves up at DOJ. He's been the deputy AG. Now he will be the acting attorney general. And he can serve in that position for up to 210 days. You may remember that he came to prominence publicly for many people when he served as the president's personal defense lawyer. That was during that hush money trial in New York where the president was convicted. He also said at a conference just last week it was the CPAC conference among conservatives.

In a way, he was sort of bragging or touting some of the changes they've made at DOJ, where he talked about they've cleaned house, firing FBI agents and department lawyers who had investigated President Trump for a variety of those indictments that he faced in the last term. Also, though, there is a connection between Blanche and Pam Bondi. He has worked closely with her. They have appeared to get along well, and he wrote about her today and praised her, complimenting her for the strength and conviction that she used in her leadership at the department. But Tom, one of the things that will be very interesting to watch is what else changes.

You can change the personnel. The president might be even more comfortable with Blanche since they had been in court together. But the facts of the cases he would like prosecuted remain the same, and those have been difficult. They tried to bring a case against James Comey, the former FBI director. They tried to bring a case against Letitia James, the Democratic Attorney General of New York. Both of those were dismissed. That is not Pam Bondi's doing. She can only work with the facts that she has.

So will Todd Blanche approach it any differently? That's something we'll be watching very carefully. Tom? All right, Kelly, we thank you for that. We're also tracking another shakeup for the Trump administration. this one inside the ranks of the Defense Department. It comes at a critical time with President Trump ramping up attacks on Iran. The president posting this video of U.S. bombs demolishing what he said was the biggest bridge in Iran.

With the message, time for Iran to make a deal before it is too late and there is nothing left. That post, just hours after a rare prime time presidential address where he suggested, once again, the war could soon end. We are on track to complete all of America's military objectives. shortly, very shortly. We're going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. Our NBC reporters are following this from Washington, senior White House correspondent Garrett Haake and senior national security correspondent Courtney Cupid, Courtney, I'm going to start with you. We'll start with the sudden removal of the Army's top general. What do we know at this hour? Yeah, I mean, we know very little other than Secretary of Defense Pete Haig says fired him. Now, Tom, this is not a surprise. We've been

expecting this for some time, in fact. This is one of the firings that the Secretary of Defense has decided to target people who were part of the prior administration. So in the case of General Randy George, the Army's top leader, as you mentioned, he worked as the senior military aide to Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, under President Joe Biden. We were expecting for some time that he would be targeted. Most likely he'll be replaced by the Vice Chief of Staff. That's General Chris Lanieve. He got President Trump's attention early on in the Trump administration and this current administration when he called into the commander in chiefs ball and praised the president and congratulated him on his victory.

President Trump's saying there, this guy's out of central casting. He was brought back from Korea to serve as Secretary Heggs as senior military aid. But Tom, what I really have to point out about this is just how very unorthodox it is to fire a four-star leader in the U.S. military while the U.S. is at war. This has nothing to do with. with Iran, according to all of the officials we spoke with. And in fact, this is something that's been expected because of General Georgia's ties to the former Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin. All right, Courtney. And then Garrett, you know, we talked about yesterday during that primetime address. There was not a lot new we learned. After that sort of, that, you know, address to the nation was

digested, talked about, obviously there's going to be political allies spinning what he had said. Are we learning anything new? Not really. I think what we're seeing is a response from the Iranians here that, you know, they were firing a missile again at Tel Aviv today. They've suggested they're almost goading the White House into taking this still further with that bridge being bombed today, suggesting, you know, if you come any closer, you know, we'll be here waiting for you. To me, the biggest thing that we're still trying to address from all this is what happens with the Strait of Hormuz. You saw a number of leaders from some 40 different countries meeting in the United Kingdom today. to talk about options to open it after that was the biggest question left from the president's address last night, where he said two different things. He said it would open naturally at the end of the war or suggesting that allies would have to come seize it. So I think yesterday's address, you know, the White House has said today was meant to reach past the people who are watching daily newscasts like this one and to sort of get them caught up on the state of the war. But what that state is, I think, is still as unclear tonight as it was at this time yesterday. Courtney, if we study the second term, anytime the president has moved forces into the theater,

whether it be Venezuela or the first time we attacked Iran or this time, he has always used the military forces. He's moving ground troops into the region. Should we conclude that the president is not done in Iran, that there might be this two-week timeline, it might be three, four weeks, it may go longer, but that there's still unfinished business there. There absolutely is unfinished business. If the goal here is to take out Iran's conventional military forces, they simply aren't there yet. And while they have taken thousands, more than 10,000 strikes and more than 10,000 targets so far, and they have really degraded their conventional capabilities, they are not decimated. We saw that just last night after the president's speech ended, when Iran and their proxies,

were able to fire off a number of projectiles at Israel, one of the biggest volleys that we've seen since this war began. So there is a very real possibility that U.S. troops could be brought in in some capacity to sort of finish this. And what we've been talking about in the past couple of weeks, this idea of escalating to end the war. But again, the officials we speak with are not talking about a large contingency of ground troops, nothing like we saw go into Iraq, over 100,000 troops at some points during the war in Iraq, but it could include U.S. troops on the ground in Iran.

It doesn't appear whether that decision has been made or not yet, though. We're asking the questions. Garrett, do we have a sense of how much the president is looking at the calendar? I mean, we talk a lot about, oh, the midterms are coming up in November, the midterms are coming up in November. But do we even know if the White House is concerned with that? I mean, the president could be also looking a lot farther down the line into the history books and saying to himself, I'm going to change things in Venezuela, I'm going to change things in Iran, maybe I change things in Cuba, and I'll be talked about forever.

Yeah, look, I think there are a number of different timelines in play here. You mentioned the midterms, but the president's also being briefed on the real-time economic impacts. He watches the markets and gas prices very closely, as do his advisors. And he has talked a lot about his long-term legacy, the idea that he might take Iran off the table as a major geopolitical threat for generations to come. But, Tom, I'll give you an even shorter term deadline that the president is likely looking at. And that's his trip to China. They've already rescheduled it once. They were concerned about the optics of him being in China while this war was going on.

if there is some kind of ground invasion or if this does go beyond those two to three weeks, we could see the rescheduled trip potentially booted again. That is the big picture American adversary of the future. China is the country. The administration is long-term focused on. To not be able to have that face-to-face meeting with President Xi would be a major problem for President Trump. Yeah, the world will be watching that as well. Garrett and Courtney, so great to have you guys.

We appreciate it. Tonight, for the first time we are seeing videos of Tiger Wood. DUI arrest. The footage released by the sheriff shows the moment deputies discovered pills in the golfer's pocket and this series of sobriety test he had to perform. Here's Jesse Kirsch with that video. The newly released video shows Tiger Woods performing a series of sobriety tests. You understand? Perfect. And the moment deputies handcuff him. So at this time, I do believe your normal faculties are impaired, okay? And you're under the unknown substance. Okay. So at this time, you're under arrest for DUI. Yes, sir. Allegedly finding two opioid pills in his pocket.

Yeah, that's a narco. It's narco? Yeah. Okay. Tonight, Florida's Martin County Sheriff releasing hours of footage from the star golfer's DUI arrest. This is fun. Here he describes the moment he hit a truck's trailer. Up down, all of a sudden, boom.

Then there's an apparent phone call with President Trump. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. You got it. All right. Thank you. I just keep you down here with us, please.

Yeah, I was just talking to the president. In the videos, Woods has constant hiccups and repeatedly shakes his head. During those field sobriety tests, at times he struggles with the deputy's instructions. Try not to move your head, okay? You got the hiccups. Earlier, Woods's manager asked investigators for help retrieving the star golfers' clubs, including his priceless putter. I've won 14 meters with it. Are you golfing in the master's here?

Open, Joe. Depends on y'all. Yeah. Don't depend on me. First responders later smashing his SUV's window to retrieve that putter. Woods' manager showing it off. That's a piece of history right there, huh? Once handcuffed in the back of a squad car, Woods yawns, closing his eyes.

He since pleaded not guilty and said he's stepping away for treatment. Okay, with that, Jesse Kirsch joins us now live from Miami. So, Jesse, in that video, you also hear police speak to the other driver. What does he tell him? Yeah, so that other driver, Tom, describes his account of the events as they unfolded leading up to the crash. That driver saying at one point that Woods was approaching, quote, so fast. But later, that driver said that Woods was going at a, quote, normal speed, Tom. And then, you know, when it rains, it pours.

And for Woods now, he's also facing a traffic violation in top of all this other stuff. Yes, so this just was posted today. This would, of course, be a civil violation, not criminal. He was cited for careless driving that has resulted in a crash. And of course, we know from investigators, they say he clipped the back of that truck's trailer leading to that rollover collision. And going back to what Woods is describing in the video he talks about the same things that we heard in that affidavit from investigators saying that he was looking down at his phone and then all of the of a sudden, as Woods put it, boom. And then, of course, in the days that have followed, there have been a lot of ramifications well beyond that civil violation. Yeah, you can say that.

All right, Jesse Kirsch, we thank you for that. None of the severe storms tearing across the Midwest, 33 million under alerts right now. Massive hail pounding eastern and southern aisle. Oh, look at that. Melting into a river in this parking lot, much of the region also under a tornado watch. This has spring storms sweep over parts of the Rockies dropping snow across Utah. to NBC Connecticut meteorologist Ryan Hanahan. Ryan, so great to have you here. A lot of action across the country, including several tornado warnings going off right now. Exactly. This is a huge storm. It stretches from the Gulf all the way up into the Midwest and the Great Lakes. So we'll zoom in a little bit, give you a closer look here. Severe thunderstorms, tornado warnings,

and large hail across portions of Iowa, northern Illinois, and now even into Michigan. And this whole storm system is producing a little bit of everything. To the north, we've got ice storm warnings and winter storm warnings from the UP of Michigan all the way back into portions of Minnesota and the Dakotas, but it's to the south that we have that severe weather threat where temperatures are warmer, it's a little more humid. That severe weather threat is greatest in this area from Peoria, Illinois, up through Chicago.

But it looks like as we go through the night tonight, it's going to extend a little bit farther to the east into portions of Michigan down through Indiana and central and southern Illinois. And that's not it. We've got a follow-up system. It's right on its heels. It moves in for tomorrow.

So we still are dealing. with snow and ice across the northern plains and portions of the upper Midwest. Then to the south is a severe weather threat that exists from portions of southern Iowa again tomorrow into northern Missouri and then on down through Oklahoma City and portions of North Texas. And for Saturday, things are staying active. A little bit of winter weather up toward the Canadian border and that risk for showers and thunderstorms from the Great Lakes all the way down to the deep south. Tom?

All right. We thank you for that, Ryan. We're back in a moment, the emotional testimony in the trial of a Hawaii. doctor accused of trying to kill his wife on a hiking trail. What he says happened. Plus, major developments in the legal battle between Blake lively and Justin Baldoni, the surprising decision from a judge and what it means for the future of this case. And lurking in the water, look at this, the shark swimming just below this surfer on a hydrofoil.

We'll show you that moment ahead on top story. We're back now with the latest from Hawaii, dramatic testimony from the doctor accused of trying to kill his own wife on the stand tonight facing cross-examination. And we see Steve Patterson with everything that's happening in court. Grueling testimony from Dr. Gerhard Koenig, now taking the stand in his own defense. Do you blame him? Koenig telling the jury it was his wife Ariel who dealt the first blow, striking him in the head with a rock during a birthday hike on this Shawahoo Trail.

Konig says he hoped the trip would help save the couple's marriage after he learned of what they called Ariel's emotional affair with a co-worker. Gerard, did you have a plan to kill your wife on the mountain that day? No. Did you try to throw her off a cliff? No. You try to stab her with syringes? No.

When you hit her with the rock twice, why did you do it? In self-defense. Tonight, prosecutors pushing back in cross-examination, starting with quizzing Koneg about spying on his wife's texts. You were mad, right? I was not mad. You were not mad when you confronted your wife about these messages. I was upset. And digging in to their...

turbulent relationship. After you confronted Ariel called her a lying bitch, called her a whore, you wanted her to move out of the house. Is that right? That's right. And last week, Ariel testified the encounter had nothing to do with self-defense, describing a deliberate vengeful attack. He takes a deep breath, and then he just starts hitting my face in my head with a rock. Witnesses for the state also included Gerhardt's 20-year-old son from a previous marriage, testifying his father facetimed him immediately following the attack. What did the defendant tell you during that call? That Ari, my stepmom, had been cheating on him and that he tried to kill her.

Koenig, testifying he was contemplating suicide during the call, but denied the confession, saying his son misunderstood. He saved my life that day, but I put him in his position where he is now, where he thinks I try to kill her. Steve Patterson joins us now live from Los Angeles. Steve, when do we expect this case to go to a jury? Tom Koenig is back on the stand being cross-examined as we speak. The judge indicating that this is in its final hours. We expect closing arguments maybe early next week to the jury by midweek or so. Okay, Steve Patterson, been covering it all for us.

Steve, thank you. I want to bring in our good friend NBC News legal analyst, Misty Maris. Misty, you've seen it all. We've seen it all in this case. A sad and scary trial, right? We see the defendant take the stand in his own defense. What does that tell us? So it's such a rare thing, Tom, in a criminal case, to take the stand.

But in this case, he's asserting self-defense. So when we usually say the defendant doesn't need to say a word, the prosecutors have the burden of proof. In a self-defense case, the defendant actually has to raise some credible evidence that there was a threat and that they responded reasonably and proportionately to that threat. So whether or not the jury will be sold on that. theory, I have my doubts, but in order to establish that, the only person who's going to be able to talk about it is Gerhard Koenig himself. He was on the stand for a bit. What did you think

you watched this and you watched the cross-examination? I mean, how did he do? Yeah, I watched it. I would say it was pretty disastrous. Even his direct examination, it was very contrived, Tom, at least that's the way it was coming off. He was telling a story. Like when he does stuff like this, you're saying it doesn't feel real that he was really emotional. Yeah, it didn't feel real to me. You know, we're not in the courtroom. We're watching it on TV. The jury can really feel these emotions, feel when they're palpable. And this, to me, did not play as being something that was coming off as genuine, especially when we've seen other witnesses like his son, a pivotal witness in this case,

take the stand and come off with so much credibility. Well, I was going to ask you about the son, right? His own son, his own blood, basically testifying like, Dad, you're not telling the truth here. Here's what you told me. Right. Here's what you told me. He facetined his son two times. And actually, according to the son said, I tried to kill Ari. and now I'm going to jump.

I've got to get away from the police. All of these things that he's trying to refute in his testimony by saying, what was windy, maybe he misheard me. Tom, there's a couple things in this case that I think make it really difficult for Konig to get over, and we're seeing that the explanations

in his testimony are just not lining up. For instance, there's an eight-hour manhunt for him after. The physicality that he describes in the self-defense act against his wife just really doesn't make sense when it lines up to the other evidence, including the forensic evidence.

comparing the two, the wife and the husband's testimonies. Did the wife sort of blow away everyone? She sounded real. You believed her. I mean, you see the video of her wrapped with the gauze and bleeding everywhere. Yeah, so the wife's testimony definitely came off more genuine and really was more in line with some of the other evidence in the case, which is really what you're looking for, right? Consistency with that evidence in addition to assessing the credibility. But, you know, I think from the defense perspective, that eight hours that he's, he spends on the run. He admits to hitting his wife two times with a rock. Keep in mind what the defense plan is here. They other want to show self-defense, and that would be an acquittal if the jury believes that this was a reasonable response hitting his wife two times with the rock, or they want to say he did not have the intent to kill. This is an attempted murder case.

Instead, it was an assault, and that's really the defense strategy here looking for mitigation, probably unlikely to have an acquittal. Explain somebody to me, because we've been watching this day-to-day, but I think there's still a hole here. His defense is that she was, cheating on him and then she attacked him first while they're on this hike. Correct. She's cheating on him. They talk about it. He says, I'm leaving you and I'm telling everybody you're cheating. She tries to push him off a cliff. He turns around. She pulls him on top of her. And then he's struggling hits her two times with the rock, which is seen by the other hikers, conveniently lining up. He's mid-blow when the hikers see him. So he can't say he never hit her.

And how did that story sound on the stand? It did not sound. Good to me, Tom. I got to tell you. I was cringing during the testimony, although I understand why the defense had to do it. Yeah, and again, a terrible crime. We'll see what the jury thinks. Thanks so much, Misty. Good to see you here. Still to come on top story, former Real Housewife star, Jen Shaw. Remember her? Speaking out and taking responsibility in her first interview since getting out of prison, what she's revealing about her fellow inmate Galane Maxwell, plus an update on NASA's historic Artemis launch as those four astronauts make their way to the moon. But first, top story's top moment and an emotional reunion three years in the making.

Dog owner Shelton's beloved pet Baya was stolen right off his porch in July of 2022, a dog napping. Since then, he has tirelessly searched with no luck. Until last week, a friend saw the Boston Terrier featured on the Instagram for an animal rescue in Los Angeles. Shelton immediately reached out and was reunited with his long-lost pup. Take a look. This took three years, but. Somebody. Somebody called me to let me know they found her.

The shelter wags and walks, says Bayo was days away from being adopted, but is now safely with Shelton in the home that she remembers. All right, stay with us. More top story on the way. We're back now with NASA's historic Artemis launch and the next big step for the four astronauts on board their Orion spaceship. They've been given the order to fire up their engines. Once that happens, they're committed to the round-trip journey

to the moon and back. Here's Tom Costello. Tonight, the first images of home from Orion flying high above Earth. As mission control sends the order to the four astronauts on board, We are go for TILI. Orion approved for the trans lunar injection burn, firing their engine for five minutes, 49 seconds, to head to the moon. A four-day journey traveling at 24,000 miles per hour. Good news, as their Artemis' long,

launch Wednesday night is still going viral. Wow, so fast. From a Florida beach to a college softball game. Everyone is really interested in this. To a spectacular view from a plane flying high above. You don't see this every day. They're going around the moon. Even astronauts on the space station.

Godspeed Artemis 2! The docking camera is showing the crew inside Orion. O'ernight, the astronauts practiced manually flying and docking docking their spaceship named Integrity. That is a good-looking American flag. Then, after two four-hour sleep cycles, Mission Control woke them up this afternoon to John Legend's green light. But then an unexpected order to start storing water in plastic bags

in case problems with the ship's water system suddenly reappear. Now, NASA thinks they've got this water issue solved, but they don't want to want to take any chances as they now are on their way to the moon. That's why they're storing extra water in plastic bags. Now, keep in mind, right now, Orion is 17,000 miles above us. They've got to go 234,000 miles out in space to the moon and then back. Tom? All right. We're going to be watching every step of the way. We thank you for that, Tom. Now to the latest chapter in the real life legal drama as we take a turn here surrounding Blake lively, a judge dismissing many of the claims in her lawsuit against her former co-star, Justin Baldoni.

Emily Aketa's tracking this one for us. Tonight, a major blow to Blake Lively's sexual harassment lawsuit against her. It ends with us co-star Justin Baldoni. I would never lie to you. I know it's nothing. It's nothing? Yeah. Lively's lawyer said she was kissed,

nuzzled, and touched without her consent, and that Baldoni was consistently inappropriate. But a federal judge today dismissing 10 of her 13 claims, including harassment, defamation, conspiracy over key legal requirements related to classification as an employee. She was not an employee who could bring those claims that only an employee could. She was an independent contractor. So she had no chance of winning on those claims at trial.

The pair have been locked in a headline grabbing legal battle since 2024, that at times has drawn in famous names in text exchanges with her husband Ryan Reynolds and pop star Taylor Swift. Last year, a judge dismissed Baldoni's $400 million counter suit against Lively, alleging defamation and civil extortion. Lively's team praising the move then. It was a sham lawsuit designed to retaliate against Ms. Lively for speaking up against what she experienced on set and to silence others who might come forward. But tonight, a win for Baldoni's team, saying they are very pleased as a narrower set of

allegations against Baldoni's production company now head for trial. Lively also alleges that Baldoni waged a retaliatory campaign in the press and on social media after she raised concerns of sexual harassment. It's those retaliation related claims that are moving forward to trial. And her lawyer tonight says Lively looks forward to testifying and continuing to shine a light on this vicious form of online retaliation. Tom. Emily, I cut out. We thank you for that. We're going to turn out to a shocking murder case out of Florida trailblazing politician found shot to death in her home and now her husband has been arrested for the crime. George Relief has this one. Tonight, a rising star in Florida politics is dead

and her husband charged with her murder. Stephen Bowen was arrested Wednesday after police say they found the body of his wife, Nancy at their home. Nancy Bowen was the vice mayor of Coral Springs, Florida. After she missed city meetings, officers went to her home for a wellness check according to the affidavit, which says her body was found wrapped in blankets along with three spent shotgun shells. That same day, Stephen Bowen knocked on an unidentified person's door, according to the affidavit, and asked that person to hold on to a shotgun for him. He then admitted that he shot his wife, three times with a shotgun the previous night, and then slept downstairs. Nearby, a pillow with burn marks fashioned as a makeshift silencer. Asked why, Stephen Bowen said that he couldn't take it

anymore. Today, Bowen appearing before a judge who ordered him to be held without bond. Who does find probable cause for the charges. Tonight, Nancy Mateer Bowen is being remembered as a trailblazer. The 38-year-old was the first black and Haitian American woman elected to the Coral Springs Commission. She was always smiling, always smiling. Wenda Tima was a close friend. She was one of the good ones because she cared. She cared and she didn't just care about the community that she came from. She cared about everyone. She cared about making a difference. All right. George, solese joins us now. George, you're hearing more from her family tonight? Yeah, that's right, Tommy. And she was eyeballing a run for Congress. Her family saying that she was a leader and an advocate, someone who was a daughter, a sister, someone whose laughter would fill the room.

And obviously, they are mourning saying she is going to be missed severely, Tom. Yeah, and then, George, while we have you here, we know the community there in South Florida. Florida has some things planned to remember her? Yeah, that's right. The official saying that they're planning a large candlelight vigil right outside Coral Springs City Hall tomorrow to remember this life lost. George Solis for us.

Now to Top Story's News Feed, we start with the urgent manhunt after a terrible shooting. Dramatic new video shows two suspects crashing their moped into a car in New York City. They were on the run after the shooting of a seven-month-old baby killed by a stray bullet at a bodega nearby. One of those suspects hit the pavement. and was taken into custody, police are still searching for the other suspect.

All right, in New Hampshire, a voice actor from the show, Bob's Berger was seriously heard. In a fiery car crash at a highway toll booth, Eugene Miriam's publicist confirmed that the news to our NBC affiliate, a state trooper assigned to Governor Kelly Aott's security detail just happened to be near the crash and is credited with helping to pull him from the burning car. Mirren was taken to the hospital but is expected to be okay. And an Amtrak train smashing into a garbage truck in South Carolina. Video shows the truck crossing over the tracks before getting clipped. Look at this.

Wow. Sends the dust and debris into the air. Once the train passes, you actually see the body of the vehicle completely ripped off. Here's the incredible part. Nobody was hurt on the train or on the truck. It's incredible. The driver of the garbage truck, though, did have minor injuries. And a scary moment for a surfer off the coast of Hawaii.

Take a look. The dark shadow there lurking right under the wave, a giant. Hammerhead shark. Pretty scary. You can see the shock on the surfers face as he sees the distinctive shape of the head only feet away from the foil board. Okay. Turning now to a story Bravo fans have been waiting for the return of Real Housewives stars Jen Shaw. The former reality star speaking out for the first time since her prison release exclusively to People magazine, NBC's Valerie Castro, has this one. When I walked in there, it took my breath away. way. I just thought this cannot be where I'm going to be. Real Housewife star Jen Shaw describing

her first thoughts as she arrived in prison in an exclusive interview with People magazine, her first since her December release. What I would say to somebody that lost money because of this is that I'm sorry for any part that I had. The Salt Lake City reality star spent nearly three years in federal custody after she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a multi-million dollar telemarketing fraud scheme. Shaw now detailing how she spent her time while at federal prison camp Brian in Texas, a minimum security facility. I would put together all the workout classes. Shaw says she made friends with another high profile inmate Elizabeth Holmes. Lizzie and I are good friends. The disgrace Theronos founder is still serving her sentence for wire fraud. Also at the same

facility convicted sex offender Galane Maxwell, who Shaw says received concerning treatment. Shaw telling people that Maxwell was treated very well and was afforded things in prison that nobody else was afforded like private workout sessions, special meals, bottled water. Maxwell's attorney did not immediately respond to NBC News request for comment. We asked the Bureau of Prisons about Shaw's allegations. It disputed them saying in part, staff are required to treat all inmates equitably in accordance with law, policy, and institutional security and safety protocols. She would come over and talk to us and or I would see her if she would, you know, come by recreation.

But, and honestly, I chose, I chose that. I chose to have very limited interaction with her. Shaw was released last December, more than four years before her sentence was up. The moments leading to her 2021 arrest caught on camera. We're looking for 10 Shaw. During the Housewives' second season in Utah. Now she says she's ready to make amends. My mission as part of like my consequences and my responsibilities to make sure that

people are paid back through the restitution. And I hope that everybody else that had a part in this does the same thing. Andy Cohen, executive producer of the Real Housewives franchise, making it clear, Shaw won't be making a comeback on the show. She's not coming back to the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. I don't know that I could see Bravo working with her again. NBC News reached out to Bravo and Shaw's team for a statement and have not heard back. Shaw may not be a Bravo reality star again, but says she is looking for a second chance. I live and operate each day from a place of gratitude and where I didn't before and a level of

humility that I didn't have before. Shaw hasn't fully finished her sentence just yet. She will continue to wear an ankle monitor and will remain on house confinement until August. Tom. All right. Still to come on top story. Look at how AI is shaking up the labor market and the one job that could be the new path to prosperity.

Plus the Robotaxy Meltdown does. dozens of cars left stranded in the middle of the road what caused it next. Time now for Top Story's Global Watch, a check of what else is happening around the world. We're going to start with a powerful earthquake rocking parts of northern Indonesia. It toppled buildings and sent people scrambling. Authorities say the 7.4 magnitude quake left at least one dead and multiple other people hurt. It also set off a small tsunami. The strong shaking reportedly lasted around 10 to 20 seconds and was followed by dozens of aftershock.

Also, a chaotic scene in China when roughly 100 robotaxies suddenly stopped, leaving some passengers stranded in the middle of the road. This sped-up video shows one of the traffic jams in the city of Wuhan. Police say it appears the cars had a system malfunctioned. Luckily, no reports of anyone getting hurt. The taxis are operated by Baidu, a Chinese internet and AI company. So far, it hasn't commented publicly about what exactly went wrong there. And you remember the Kit Kat heist? earlier this week. Well, now, Nestle is asking for your help. It launched this website to try to

track down the stolen chocolate. All you have to do is enter the batch code on your Kit Kat wrapper, and it will tell you if the candy bar is one of the more than 400,000 that went missing, or possibly stolen. Nestle says the 12-ton shipment was taken after leaving its production site in Italy for Poland. Turning now to a possible bright spot in the rapidly changing labor market, As AI ushers in an era of job insecurity, more white-collar workers are turning to a very different career track, nursing. The Wall Street Journal publishing an article titled, Nursing is the surefire new path to American prosperity, taking a deep dive into why so many are swapping their suits for scrubs. And take a look at this, according to the Labor Department, the median annual salary for nurses in the U.S., $93,600 compared with under $50,000 for all other jobs. For more, I want to bring in Lorraine Frazier.

She's the Dean of Columbia School of Nursing. And Brian Chung, NBC News Business and Data Correspondent. They are both here joining us in the studio. Guys, so thanks for being here. Dean, I'm going to start with you. I have a two-part question. Why do you think people are turning to nursing? It can't just be the salary.

And two, why is health care in America able to pay nearly double what the median income is for everyone else in America? First question. We're coming to health care, to nursing, for meaning. They want a job that's different, that they can connect and that can bring meaning into their life. I just saw a nurse practitioner this week in a clinic who was an accountant, came back to, came to nursing. So I think for security, I think for control, but I think also for meaning. Those are the ones that really do well in nursing. Is it post-pandemic?

Did people, you know, we celebrated our health care heroes a lot during the pandemic. Did that in some way help, even though it was one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet? You know, initially it did, and then nursing applications went down. So it's a tough career in many ways. It's a rigorous education. And health care pays a lot for nursing because nursing is important to health care outcomes. And they know it saves money if they have educated nurses at the bedside. The patient outcomes are better.

The patients do better. They come back to the hospital. Fewer times for the advanced nurse practitioners that we're talking about, they manage chronic disease. And if you look at America, we're aging. Right. And we're really surviving all kinds of things we didn't use to survive. So all that is management, cancer survivors, cardiovascular disease.

They're handled for those nurses. We're living longer. That is a great point. Brian, Zoom out for us, right? So why is the health care industry driving this job growth? A lot of the reasons the dean said right there are important, but there's also the insurance industry, and people just in general are going to the doctor a lot more

on trying to get care. Yeah, well, I mean, the dean brought up the aging population, the demand for these types of jobs is higher. We just simply need more nurses. We need more people in the health care industry. But I should point out that, you know, we've already seen the fruits of this growing industry in the labor market data.

We saw in the last year, health care drove the most gains compared to any other industry, more than leisure and hospitality, more than white-collar jobs. And so for that reason, you're seeing a lot of people going into this field, and it's reflecting the numbers. And I shall also point out, it was a bad year for the labor market broadly, but the health care area was one bright spot. So, Dean, is nursing an AI-proof job? Much more than many jobs. We are using AI in education. We're using it in the clinical areas to leverage what nurses can do, but there's nothing can replace eye contact, human contact, respect, and empathy and understanding for that patient.

You can't send a robot into a room, right? Yeah. So I, especially for that nurse practitioner who's really doing those, seeing those patients with chronic conditions, those older patients, they need a person. And so I would say, yes, the human touch and humanity of nursing is what we bring. And I don't know if this is connected, but anecdotally, you hear a lot about doctors getting burned out. And not enough doctors to go around can never get an appointment, things like that. Are nurses filling the gap in some of these cases, filling those voids?

They are. They're filling the gap in long-term care management, chronic disease management. But nurses also get burned out. And in our education process, we prepare those students to find meaning in their job. Because when you find meaning in your job, you're less likely to get burned out. So it's a reality for nurses and for physicians. On average, how long do nurses need to go to school for? What is it like, the curriculum? It's a very rigorous curriculum.

For a registered nurse, four years. For advanced nurse practitioner, it can be five years more. So our three, it depends on the program you go to. We're trying to find ways to speed that up. I'm sort of fascinated by this. I'm not trying to ignore you, Brian. I kind of want to nerd out here about the nursing industry, because it really is fascinating.

Do nurses come out with school debt? Do they figure out ways to start working and work off some of that debt if they go to a place? And I'm not saying just Columbia, but Columbia is probably an expensive program because it's prestigious. They definitely come out with school debt, and we try to help them manage that. But the interesting thing about nursing is,

If you want to go back to school, a lot of the health care facilities subsidize your education and your tuition. So you get that help, I got that help. And they're able to pay that debt off. We have our default rate on our nursing program, and most are at 1%. 1%. Wow, that's incredible. It's a great investment to invest in nursing. Brian, a new study from Tufts University.

We're going to put it up here for our viewers. It projects that AI will displace millions of jobs resulting in an estimated. made it $757 billion in income loss for American households. That's equal to the entire economy of Belgium. What's the current outlook here? Because there are two schools of thought. You hear a lot of people say every industrial revolution has created more jobs than it's taken. And there are CEOs that are on different sides of this.

Some big CEOs are saying, just wait, there's a lot of hype here. It may create jobs. And other people like Jamie Diamond just recently saying he's worried about what AI is going to do the job market. And the challenge is that, okay, yeah, even if it creates more jobs, we don't know what those look like yet. So the displacement will happen before the creation of those new jobs. And I think that's why when you take a look at jobs like web and digital interface designers, web developers, these are the types of jobs at that same tough study than you mentioned said would be most vulnerable,

most exposed to being replaced by artificial intelligence, whereas those that are not likely to be exposed to AI would be things like roof bolting, mining, surgical assistance. And that's where the dean's anecdote about that accountant choosing to make. that switch. There's a lot of people that are thinking, okay, I might have a white collar job right now that pays pretty well, but if the displacement from AI is going to make blue collar, hands-on, where bedside manner matters, then maybe that's the place where you can do a career pivot to make sure that you preserve that income. All right, Brian, Dean, we thank you so much. We appreciate for you guys being here. When we come back, the heartwarming family reunion of father,

back with his five little girls after months overseas, that emotional surprise. Next. Finally tonight, the emotional family reunion in Tennessee, a marine veteran working overseas, surprising his family by coming home early after months abroad. The reaction from his five little girls, you're going to see, priceless. This is a hug this family has been waiting months for, the five Kendrick sisters, sprinting to their dad, jumping into his arms, practically tackling him to the ground, unable to contain their excitement. Their dad, Marine veteran Harrison Michael Kendrick, surprising his daughters by coming home a week early after four months in Baghdad. I was so excited just seeing them, being able to hold them, being able to hear them. They always want him all the time. They don't want him to leave. Just being able to hold them, being able to tuck them in at night, being able to read them a book, fixing boo-boos or just picking them up.

I mean, those are those are the best things. That's what helps my heart. And for five little girls, a priceless gift. A chance to spend time with their dad. As for how much they love him? One finity, 100, one bit of me. I mean, I'm getting emotional right now. I mean, just hearing them say how much they love me, it really, I mean, that's all that's all it's about.

It's really important to kind of remember that if you have people that love you and support you, that that's what life is about. You could watch that video all day. All right. We thank you so much for watching Top Story. I'm Tom Yamerson, New York. Stay right there. More news on the way.