Top Story with Tom Llamas - Thursday, October 26, 2023

Episode Date: October 27, 2023

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.

Tonight, the major manhunt for a mass shooter, entire towns in the state of Maine, paralyzed in a lockdown as another community is left reeling from gun violence. The surveillance images showing the gunmen on his rampage. The highly trained shooter opening fire in a bowling alley. Then minutes later, killing more at a nearby bar. The haunting images of body bags being removed. Survivor stories emerging of terrified people running for their lives, and hiding behind bowling pants.

Schools and businesses shut residents across Maine terrified and told to shelter in place. The father telling us about the agonizing 14 hours of not knowing about his son, only to learn he was among the dead. Armed and dangerous, the chilling details about the accused gunman and firearm instructor. His family telling NBC News

he was having an acute mental health episode. They say he was hearing voices in his sense. head that his mind was twisting around. The call, they say, they gave police before the massacre. And the interview with a former reservist who was trained by the suspect, his ominous warning about his skills in military tactics and how dangerous it might be to capture him. Tanks inside Gaza, Israeli tanks and armored bulldozers rolling into Gaza, the military conducting targeted raids, its biggest ground operation since the war began, searching for tunnels Hamas uses for surprise attacks. This as hundreds of airstrikes rang down on Gaza, burying people

in rubble. Hurricane disaster zone, the first signs of the true devastation after a monster category five hurricane barreled into Mexico killing dozens. High rises shredded by winds, neighborhoods and resorts torn apart. Power out for hundreds of thousands. Our team reporting from the ground. Plus, back behind bars. A former Philadelphia policeman arrested again on murder charges for fatally shooting a man who was sitting in his car, why a judge overruled an earlier decision to drop all charges, insisting a jury needs to hear this case. And House Inferno, a home engulfed in flames. pouring from the windows. Could it have been started by a Tesla? How the family got to safety before fire crews arrived. Top story starts right now. Good evening. I'm Stephanie Gosk,

in for Tom Yamis. We begin top story tonight with the all-out manhunt for a killer who has vanished. After carrying out a deadly rampage last night, shocking what was a once quiet main town. The authorities at this hour are looking for this man, captured in harrowing surveillance images with his gun drawn moments before he opened fire at two locations in the city of Lewiston, first at a bowling alley, and then at a bar just miles away. At least 18 people killed, 13 more injured, panicked survivors running to safety, as others are packed into ambulances. The suspect, 40-year-old Army reservist Robert Card, a firearms instructor with a history

of mental health issues. His family saying he heard voices tormenting him recently, saying they say they warned police before the shooting about his condition. Law enforcement calling him armed and dangerous, ordering residents to shelter in place, putting whole cities under lockdown as they scour the streets. In a moment, we'll talk to the mayor of Auburn, Maine, a neighboring community on edge tonight with the gunmen still at large. The death toll from this horrific attack now close to the total murders in Maine in all of last year. NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt is on the ground in Lewiston and leads us off. Tonight, a mass killer is on the loose and a large swath of Maine is on lockdown. Hundreds of law enforcement officers urgently searching for the

armed and dangerous man, they say carried out a shooting rampage at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, killing at least 18 and injuring at least 13. There is a full court pressed by all of our partners to bring him into custody. Businesses and schools up to 50 miles away are closed. Police advise that main people should not approach him under any circumstances. Officials say the suspect is 40-year-old Robert Card from Bowden, a longtime member of the Army Reserve. A family member says he struggled recently with mental health issues. Law enforcement sources tell NBC News a note was filed.

found at Card's home. They are working to determine its meaning. Police say they also located a white Subaru, registered to Card at a nearby boat landing. I want to know who, where, when, why? Like, why would he do this? Like, why in Lewiston, Maine? Today, body bags were removed from just-in-time recreation, where the rampage began. Active shooter incidents are all available units to Lewiston. Officials say the first 911 call came in at 6.56 p.m. Wednesday night, reporting a shooter at the bowling alley, which was hosting a youth night. It was probably 15 feet behind me. I mean, it was close. Very close. People inside hid under tables and behind bowling pins.

I just booked it down the lane, and I slid basically into where the pins are and climbed up in the machine and was on top of the machine. for about 10 minutes until the cops got there. Police say seven were killed there. Two active shooter locations. I can all be at Schmengi. Just 12 minutes later, more calls flooded into 911. The shooter had opened fire again. This time, four miles away at Schmengi's Bar in Grill, where police say he killed eight.

Officials say multiple law enforcement agencies were dispatched to the scenes. It's unclear what time they arrived. Among the dead at the bowling alley, Bill Young and his 14-year-old son, Aaron, and Trisha Aslin, who worked there and was bowling with her sister when shots rang out. Her mom says she was killed while calling 911. Her sister survived. The world lost the great girl, and I lost the precious daughter. Leroy Walker's son, Joey, was a manager at Shemengees. He says the suspect had been there before.

And all of the people over there, they know it. So he would come to Chimangis? He would actually come to Chimangis. He'd been there off and on. Leroy says he waited 14 hours to hear whether Joey was among the dead. You're all going through a lot of pain right now. It's awful. That moment when I got the call and said, Joey's dead.

It just brought me back. right back to my knees. He says Joey was a married father of two who loved running cornhole tournaments at the bar. As manager of that club, he loved that club enough and the people enough that he would give his life. And that's what he did.

A state trooper told the family, Joey died a hero. He picked up a butcher knife and he tried to go at the gunman to stop him from shooting anybody else. Does that change your pain at all? Knowing that? It made it worse.

Yeah, it made it worse. Tonight, President Biden ordering flags across the country to be flown at half-staff to honor Joey and the 17 others who lost their lives. My boy, Joey, will be missed by thousands. You were close. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Lester joins us now from Lewis. And what a heartbreaking interview with that father, Lester.

You know, you've been on the ground talking to people all day. But with this suspected gunman still on the loose, it must be a mix of grief and fear right now. Yeah, the fact the gunman is on the loose really changes the conversation. Stephanie, I've covered far too many of these more than I want to even think about. Generally what happens is people begin to come out of their homes. They see where the media is. They want to engage us. They want to tell their stories.

They want to make sure that their town is in the best light possible. You didn't see a lot of that today because people are heating this sense of staying inside, sheltering in place, as authorities call it. The people I, you know, when I was coming up here from driving up from Portland, Maine, the airport there went to pay the toll there. And instead of have a nice day, it was be careful out there. And people meant it. They're very obviously on edge because this shooter, this killer,

is still out there. Tragic and eerie there tonight. Going back to that interview with the father, he had to wait so long to get the terrible news about his son. Did he have anything else to add to his experience? Yeah, Leroy Walker is a strong man, but he broke down several times in that conversation. He was very close to his son. One of the things that I don't want to say it surprised me necessarily, but that I took away was his sense of forgiveness. He clearly had some compassion for the shooter and for people who may be struggling with the things we believe the shooter was struggling with. And so that was interesting to hear from him. He just wanted like so many people when they tell these stories they want their loved one honor to be recognized as

someone more than a number. We are inundated with these things and the statistics of shootings and that. But at the end of the day, they always come down to people and glad to be able to tell his story and that of his sons, Joey. like this father. Lester, thank you so much. Next to the new details we're learning about the suspect, Robert Card, including a disturbing warning about his expertise with guns from a man who Card trained himself. NBC news correspondent Sam Brock is on the ground with the latest. In Robert Card's hometown of Bowden, Maine, area-wide shock.

It's mind-blowing. Everything about it is, it's unbelievable. I mean, why this is going on and why this happened. Even as the suspect's own family reveals chilling details about the decades-long Army reservist. His sister-in-law telling NBC news they alerted police and military officials that Card was experiencing an acute mental health episode in the months before Wednesday's massacre, saying he'd been fitted for high-powered hearing aids a couple of months ago and was picking up voices that he had never heard. His mind was twisting them around. The family concerned about the mental state of someone who performs gun training. And with what we did, meeting, meeting. him and the way that he showed us how to use a weapon and then smart he's really smart and he's

tactical former army reservist phil gregory says he learned how to use an m16 rifle from card they weren't in the same unit but the 40-year-old left an impression on gregory he knows warfare he understands it it may not have ever been deployed but he's smart he knows what to do i think they need the soldiers to be honest with you to be here i really do the assault rifle believed to be the one used to massacre and maim at least 30 people was purchased legally in 2023, according to two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the matter. And officials tell NBC News, KART threatened the military base and was sent by his own commanders to a mental health care facility for two weeks of psychiatric treatment in July.

How could someone that fits that profile still be in possession of semi-automatic weapons? Well, I do think that the statutes around firearms and the possession of those are pretty complex. I know that we will be reviewing that information as we move forward. Back in Bowden, where Kart's family is owned, for generations. Childhood neighbor, Richard Goddard, is blindsided. No one would have seen this coming. Never. Never expected anything like this to happen here. NBC news correspondent Sam Brock joins us now from outside what's believed to be the suspect's house in Bowdoin, Maine. Sam, the Coast Guard is now part of the search effort to look for him.

Why were they brought in? So it was really kind of stunning today, Stephanie, to hear the Maine state police say we have no idea what state he is in, and we do not know if he is alive. Obviously, you have multiple towns and communities that are still right now under shelter and place orders. And speaking with criminal justice experts, they lay out the fact that there's four distinct possibilities here. Either he has taken his own life. He got onto a boat. The Coast Guard has been activated in this search. He took a car or a motorcycle or he's out there on foot, Stephanie. And the reality is there's all of these wooded areas around here. His family owns hundreds of acres. He likely knows

this entire area like the back of his hand. And it does pose a significant obstacle for law enforcement right now as hundreds of people are out there trying to find Robert Karp. All right, Sam Brock, thank you so much. Lewiston in the surrounding area tonight remain under a shelter-in-place order as an intense manhunt, as we mentioned, for the suspect continues. This is all happening as they mourn the loss of at least 18 members of the community. Joining us now is Mayor Jason Levec.

Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for joining me. Auburn, Maine, which is right across the river from Lewiston. Mr. Mayor, first, Auburn is the Twin City to Lewiston. It's been nearly 24 hours since this tragedy took place, and the suspected shooter is still on the loose. What are you telling your community tonight? I'm telling him simply honor the shelter or place order, stay vigilant, really have a good sense of situational awareness. And if you see anything abnormal, call the state police tip line. It's the best thing you can do at this time. We will get through this, of course.

And I have to give a hats off to a really heroic first responders that came off duty, on duty, and rushed it without any hesitation for their own personal safety in order to save as many people as possible. And they're still on duty tonight, for sure. Mayor, your city hosted Reunification Center in the first hours after the shooting. Can you tell us a bit about the scene there last night? Yeah, yeah. It was definitely surreal, very, you know, we had to bring in the witnesses from, you know, post-statements to the police. We brought them in. We brought their families in. We had grief counselors there.

We had clergy there. Our first responders were there. And we're just bringing them together. So it was a night that was, you know, mixed with joy and elation when people were finally reunified and they could go home. And it was also interspersed with sadness. People were there. they realized their loved ones were not coming to this relocation center. That's that hard truth that we all had to face together as a community. It's heartbreaking to hear. Mr. Mayor, it is being reported that the suspected shooter suffered with mental health issues that had caused concern before last night shooting, yet he still had access to an assault-style

rifle. Should more be done in this country to restrict access to those kinds of weapons? At this point, I'm not going to comment on motive, mental health access. my job is to focus on the mental health of my community. We need to make sure that people of Auburn, Lewiston, the entire and district county area, come together, honor those who have passed away, the victims, their families, and help their easing, and ease them out of their grief. That's our focus right now, and I'm not going to speculate at all about whether or not

someone should or should not have had this weapon. You know, your community tonight, there has to be overwhelming shock. You've had conversations with people all day long. How are people doing? This is it everyone. To be honest, to be the first time I've watched coverage of this, was just waiting for this interview with Mr. Holt. Leroy Walker is a city counselor of mine.

He's a close advisor. I've known him for years. I knew his son, Joey, very well. So this is personal. for everyone in this community. We have a combined population of around 65,000 people. There's not going to be a single person that hasn't been touched by this tragedy. Mayor Jason Levec, our hearts go out to you and your community.

Thank you so much for your time tonight. And with a killer on the run, many families spent hour after hour in lockdown. Emily Aketa has the latest on the community living in fear. tonight amid an urgent manhunt tens of thousands of people across two counties are sheltering in place police telling people to secure their homes and vehicles i've never locked my door once at night i leave them wide open now i'm going to get a ring cam scary today the streets of maine's second biggest city louiston eerily quiet gas stations restaurants and pharmacies shuddering their doors and dozens of schools even three hours away canceling classes Jasmine Gray hasn't left her dorm room at Bates College since last night. I didn't think this was going to happen my first year of college. It's just something that just doesn't happen in Maine because it's so safe. A shock echoed by Trevor Brooks, who learned one of his customers is in critical condition.

It is a close-knit community, you know. I would say we're more like three degrees of separation rather than six around here. Governor Janet Mills, who worked in Lewiston for years, called Wednesday's violence and assault on Maine's peace of mind. Our small state of just 1.3 million people has long been known as one of the safest states in the nation. The mass shootings death toll approaches the number of homicides the entire state typically sees throughout the year. A total of 29 homicides last year, 20 the year before. On the Facebook page for Schmegge's where eight people died this post, I'm at a loss for words.

In a split second, your world gets turned upside down for no good reason. reason. How can we make any sense of this? A heart-wrenching question, many here are wrestling with tonight. I'm going to go home tonight and be my kids and I'm not going to watch the news thinking, wow, that was in Florida or Texas. That was in my backyard. Emily Akeda joins us now from Lewiston, Maine. Emily, any sense when we can see the shelter and place orders ease there? All staff officials tell me that the directive for people to stay inside and keep their doors lock will likely remain in place until one of two things happen. First, the obvious one, the suspect is apprehended or captured, or if they get some kind of information that makes them confident

that the community is safe, that he has left the area. But those remain to be two big question marks at this hour as this community continues to reel both heartbroken, in utter shock and absolutely uneasy. As we learn, Steph, that more schools and government buildings will remain closed tomorrow. All right, Emily Akeda, thank you so much. For more analysis on this manhunt, I'm joined now by Carl Schmay, a retired FBI supervisory special agent with 10 years of SWAT experience. Carl, thank you so much for joining me. You've been involved in multiple manhunts, including in rural areas. From your experience, where do you think he might have gone? So, Stephanie, there's a lot of places he could go. So one of the things with Maine,

it's very rural. And my experience in being in Maine, manhunts in those kind of areas is that you could almost step on somebody before you see them. So if he's gone into the woods, he could very well hide out for a long time. If we look at what happened in Pennsylvania a couple months ago, a prison escapee who had just the clothes on his back was able to hide for two weeks. So these kind of matters can take some time to resolve. And particularly if Robert Card pre-planned this, if he's got stockpiles of supplies and those type of thing. So it really just depend. But it looks like right now that he took a lot of preparation

before he attacked his community. You know, we heard earlier in Sam Brock's reporting the warning from Card's fellow reservists that he's smart and skilled with weapons. How much harder does that make it for law enforcement? Definitely. It makes it tremendously harder. So it was very clear. Just when I saw the picture last night, I could tell he had tactical training just from how he's handling that weapon. And to be a firearms instructor, he's got to pass firearms qualifications, so we know he's a good shot. In addition to that, he's also going to have tactical training. He's going to know how to move with a gun. He's going to know how to take cover.

He may have knowledge of tactics, how to set up ambushes and those type of things. The other thing is that high-powered rifle that he has is a very, very deadly weapon. Most officers are only going to be having their Kevlar soft body armor on. That's not going to stop a rifle round. The SWAT officers will have enhanced body armor. They're going to have special plates that go inside that will give him protection. But for a lot of those officers, they're going to be vulnerable to an attack from Mr. Carr. And also, looking at his rifle, it appears that he's got some kind of a scope or some kind of an optic on it.

And so that could give him the opportunity to shoot at a much longer range, particularly if he's hiding out in the woods. All frightening details. You know, we're nearly 24 hours out. And authorities still haven't captured him. Does the nature of the search change after that amount of time? I mean, he could be anywhere, couldn't he? He could be anywhere, you know. So obviously, he parked his car by a boat dock, so that raises the possibility.

Did he have some kind of a boat waiting? Did he have another vehicle park there? You know, I know investigators are going to be combing everything, turning over every stone to try to find evidence of where he might have gone. So they're going to be talking to his neighbors. his family members, coworkers, anybody who might have any sort of knowledge. Is there a favorite place he likes to go? So there's just a lot of pieces to put together, to get this puzzle put together,

so we have a more complete picture of what's going on. All right, former FBI special agent, Carl Schme, thank you so much. Turning overseas and to the other major story we're following tonight, Israel says its troops and tanks briefly entered into Gaza last night. A move, they say, is to, quote, prepare the battlefield for an expected ground invasion. This latest escalation amid an unrelenting campaign of airstrikes. The Hamas controlled Gaza health ministry, reporting the death toll there is now over 7,000. And at top of mind for Israel, the fate of the hostages likely held underground in Hamas' dense network of tunnels like this one.

NBC's Richard Engel once toured those tunnels and now has this report on the latest. Israel tonight says it killed a senior Hamas commander hours after the military's biggest ground incursion yet into Gaza with armored bulldozers and columns of tanks firing on the move. Israel called it a targeted raid to prepare for the next phase of the war against Hamas. It's also a test of Hamas's defenses to probe for tunnels the militants used to move and launch surprise attacks. They are not new. Nearly 15 years ago, I went down into one. So I've just reached the bottom. It's 18 meters from top to bottom.

It's extraordinarily claustrophobic down here. A lot of this tunnel remains. It's reinforced with wood. The tunnels have gotten more elaborate since then. A maze under Gaza, where released hostages say they were held. Hamas only freed four hostages so far. Today, Israeli families pleading for the rest. to be set free.

Simone Steinbrecker recalling being on the phone just before her daughter was taken. She was a scream and afraid and crying, Mommy, Mommy, they came to take us. Help me, help me, but I can't go to help her because all the place was with Hamas. For now, Israel is striking what's above ground. Our crew in southern Gaza witnessed an Israeli airstrike and rushed toward it. A boy is rescued from the rubble, but a girl remains trapped. She's eventually freed, and our cameraman caught up with her in an ambulance. She's dazed and seems unaware of what's happening around her.

At the hospital, she's treated on the floor, given air, and comes around as she's clean. She says her name is Myraal and asks if her father is alive. The medic tells her he's fine, but doesn't know. A woman next to her asked, why are they doing this to us? What did we do? Israel and President Biden accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields. But Palestinians who can't leave Gaza ask where else are they supposed to go? Stephanie.

Richard Engel, thanks. For more on this conflict, Alison Barber joins us now from the Israel-Gaza border. I want to start with those Israeli strikes, Alison. What's the latest? Are you hearing anything on the ground tonight? Yeah, I mean, we've heard the sound of some booms in the distance of Gaza. We've seen a convoy with a series of jeeps with what appeared to be IDF soldiers inside of them headed towards closer to the border with Gaza. Richard was reporting there on the ground incursion that took place last night, which the IDF has described as a limited raid.

They said that when their forces went in, they were in there for several hours, but now all of them have since left. We heard a lot of activity when we were out here last night, a lot of booms in the distance, presumably some of what was taking place in terms of that limited, as they're describing it, raid into Gaza. Tonight, things are pretty quiet here other than just the movements of that convoy that we saw in some of the booms in the distance, but there is this feeling and has been for a while of when will this ground invasion happen? because quite a while now, Stephanie, we have seen the massive amount of equipment,

military tanks, military vehicles, IDF troops, all in the border, ready to go. But one troop we'd spoken to, they said on Thursday night that they had been told the ground incursion was going to start that night. It didn't happen. And they said that was the third time they'd gotten orders that it was going to start. And then it didn't. But hearing from the prime minister in recent days, hearing from Israel's defense minister, they're increasing their rhetoric in saying that this next phase, a full,

ground invasion of the northern part of Gaza is coming soon. Yeah, I mean, the Israeli defense minister today reiterated that his forces are ready for a full-scale ground invasion when the time is right, but there's U.S. and international partners pushing for more aid, which would mean it would have to happen when there was a pause, at least. What's the feeling I want to know from Israelis on the ground about the prospects of boots on the ground inside Gaza? Has there been any shift in opinion there? It doesn't seem like it amongst the Israeli public when we have talked to people, and there's some recent polling locally that also supports this, there is strong support amongst the Israeli population for Hamas to be entirely dismantled and removed from Gaza.

And there is anecdotally, and again from local polling we've seen, still support for Israel to escalate this war and to lead a ground assault into Gaza. the perception seems to be changing a bit internationally right now. But based on what we heard from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his speech last night, it doesn't seem like he is really bending to those international calls to maybe change course here. It seems rather that he is more leaning into what the Israeli population wants. And there is so much anger at what happened here on October 7th that from the first couple days when we were here to now, what Israeli citizens keep saying from Tel Aviv to here is they want to see an incredibly strong response to this so that Hamas never has the capability to carry out something like what happened

on October 7th. Stephanie? Alison, Barbara, thank you so much. Still ahead tonight, devastating images coming in from Mexico. High-rise buildings ripped to shreds after a monster category, five hurricane, slammed into Acapulco. at least 27 people killed. We'll have a full report from Mexico. Plus, the moment an SUV smashed into the front of a dispensary in Philadelphia before burglars rushed inside, a manhunt now underway.

And a stunning moment in the waters off the coast of Sydney, a surfer knocked over by a whale, how he was able to get back to the surface. Stay with us. We're back now with the latest on that devastating hurricane that slammed into Mexico as a Category 5 storm, early Wednesday morning, killing at least 27 people, and injuring hundreds more. The full scope of the devastation only now coming into view. Telemundo's Julio Vacero is on the ground in Mexico with the latest. Tonight, utter devastation in Acapulco, at least 27 dead after a Category 5 hurricane slammed into the popular. Mexican tourist destination, home to nearly a million people.

I'm not sure how we are alive, he says, but we are. Closive hurricane Otis, another strongest storm ever to hit Mexico's Pacific coast. Otis more than doubled its strength, just hours before landfill, leaving residents and tourists with little time to prepare. Some of the worst damage along the city's waterfront, where 165-mile-per-hour winds shredded high-rise buildings and left the street. streets choked with mud and debris. The exterior of this hotel room, 21 stories up, ripped, clean off,

as the terrified guest sheltered inside. With its streets underwater and power out for hundreds of thousands, Mexican authorities are now scrambling to assess the damage and provide relief. Our house was a total loss, this woman said, as desperate residents fend for themselves. The devastation in Acapulco has no precedent. This is one of the most famous and most important resorts in Mexico. Its recovery will be a huge challenge for the Mexican government

and for President Andres Manuel López Obrador. For now, we still don't really understand the scope of the damage. That was Julio Vicaro in Mexico. For more on Hurricane Otis' path of destruction, NBC News meteorologist Bill Cairns. Joins me now, Bill, it was wild how quickly this storm intensified. How did that happen? Yeah, scary, especially heading to a huge benchmark. an area, you know, just hours before landfall. It was just, you know, growing into a beast,

and especially late in the day and into the evening, too. A lot of people woke up, weren't expecting any of that. So this was the map as we went through a Tuesday night. So this is where the storm was as a tropical storm. This was at about 1 a.m. Tuesday. This reddish-oranges color here shows you water temperatures that are roughly about 85 to 90 degrees. You need 80 degrees to get a storm to intensify. So this was like high-octane fuel for this engine. The engine wasn't really good at this, point. But as the storm moved northwards over the warm water, it just blew up into this beast of a storm and was all up to 165. So we have something called rapid intensification. That's when any hurricane or storm would get 35 mile per hour wind stronger in 24 hours. This went up by 105.

So this will be like rapid intensification times three. We don't even have a term for it. There's like super rapid intensification. That's like double. This is triple as fast as it should be. So Stephanie, yes, this was horribly predicted. And now we're seeing just how dire of a situation. It will probably have more lives lost after the storm than during it. A lot of people were able to hide from the wind, but now they don't have anywhere to go. Yeah, and there wasn't a lot of warning here. I know you've covered a lot of these storms before. It sounds like you were even shocked by this one.

Is this what we can expect with climate change in the future? Do we have to start thinking about these storms in different ways? A lot of people are scratching their heads and thinking that way. So let's kind of break down where we're at this year and talk more about the rapid intensification. So we have what we have storms in the Atlantic, and then storms in the Pacific. off the coast of the west coast of Mexico. So this is in the Atlantic Basin. Anywhere in red, these are the three storms that we've had so far that had rapid intensification. Typically we average about three. So we've had kind of an average season for rapid intensification. We're well above

average for the total number of storms. But when we go to the Pacific side, over half of the storms there have undergone rapid intensification. And so of course, Otis was the one near land. The other ones were harmlessly off the coastline, so that wasn't as bad. 80% of major hurricanes in history go through this rapid intensification. So that's not shocking. Usually they will. But this one happened right towards the coast. And there's definitely a new study out just this last week before this hit saying that in the Atlantic Basin, there's definitely an increase. And all of the recent storms in the U.S. that had this rapid intensification right before landfall, Harvey, Irma, Maria, Michael, Laura, Ida, and Idalia, all storms that were billion-dollar disasters. So that's a

scary trend. Rapid intensification, and especially if we're getting more of those rapid intensifications right before landfall, because people have to make their decisions to evacuate or not, you know, well before the rapid intensification. Yeah, it's got to happen quickly. All right, Bill Carrens, thank you very much. When we come back, a major reversal in a case we've been following out of Philadelphia, a former police officer charged with murder after shooting a man during a traffic stop this summer. His arrest coming just weeks after all charges against him were dropped. How a judge is explaining that reversal. Back now with Top Story's news feed, and we begin with a massive house fire outside Miami

that authorities say may have been started by a Tesla. Video shows flames engulfing the home, plumes of thick smoke billowing from the windows. The fire department saying the fire appears to have started in the garage where a Tesla was parked. A family of five was inside at the time, but they managed to escape. without any serious injuries. A dramatic burglary at a Philadelphia marijuana dispensary caught on camera. New surveillance video released by police

showing a driver smashing an SUV into the dispensary twice, shattering the front doors before several masked suspects rush into the store. No word yet on what was stolen. Authorities are still searching for those involved. A rogue deer sending diners scrambling at a restaurant, in southern Wisconsin. Surveillance video capturing the moment a buck broke through a window before charging into the dining area. Try that with your scrambled eggs. The animal making its way

through the kitchen and then running out the back door. Nobody was hurt. The restaurant says it's reopened, quote, after a deep clean. Turning now to a story, we've been following out of Philadelphia. A former police officer is being held without bail tonight, charged with the murder of Eddie Irizari, who was killed during a traffic stop in August. The arrest comes just weeks after all charges have been dropped. Valerie Castro has more on this major reversal. And a warning, some of the video you're about to see is disturbing. Tonight, the family of Eddie Irizari, the man who was shot and killed by a Philadelphia police officer, says they're finally on the path to getting justice.

That is good. That is good. We finally got the Azari. We've got the ice. We needed. Ex-cop, Mark Dyle, arrested again for murder. Back behind bars, one month after all charges against him were dropped. A new judge now reinstating them. We are very thankful that the judge actually heard all the wonderful evidence that was presented by both sides and decided that, yes, Mark Dyle is back in jail for now. Erizari was killed as he sat in this car after a traffic stop in August. Police say he was driving erratically when Dial and another officer pulled him over. Police body camera footage capturing the moment dial walks up to the closed driver's side window and fires through the glass. Prosecutors say Irizari was shot five times.

413 shots, fire, shots fired. Irizari's devastated family calling the incident cold-blooded murder. Everyone in Philadelphia seen a murder. They see my nephew get murdered. But the first judge in the case called it a justified shooting, dismissing the charges over what she saw as a lack of of sufficient evidence last month. My client did everything he could to get him to the hospital to save his life. It's a tragedy, but not a crime. They threw away all this, I'm going to be charges. This is some that's what it is.

Protesters took to the streets outraged over the initial ruling, but now a second judge agreeing with prosecutors, ruling that there are sufficient questions of fact that will need a jury to review. Among that potential evidence, this doorbell security video obtained by Irizari's, family and attorneys shows the encounter from another angle. Dyle's police partner testifying he mistakenly yelled out gun before the fatal shots were fired. Irizari was actually holding a knife. Now Dyle is being held without bail and could be facing prison time. We can't wait to go to trial.

Facts here are undeniable. Mark Dyle did not commit a crime. Irizari's family anxious for what's ahead. This is only the beginning still. We still have a long, long road ahead of us and we are away. of that, but with prayers and just sticking together as a family. Valerie Castro joins us now. Valerie, you mentioned Mark Dial is behind bars tonight. What's next for him? Well, Stephanie, his defense team is calling for a change of venue. They say they plan to file a motion to have this case moved out of Philadelphia County. They don't feel as though Dial will get a fair trial there, given all of the publicity. There were six other charges that were also initially dismissed, including voluntary manslaughter, but all of those have also

been reinstated. Stephanie? All right. Thank you very much. Turning now to the trials of Donald Trump, tonight's special counsel, Jack Smith's office, is asking a D.C. judge to reinstate a gag order against the former president. NBC News legal analyst Angela Sanadela joins me now in studio. Angela, thank you so much for being here. So Jack Smith says that former president Trump's comments about Chief of Staff Mark Meadows are trying to intimidate him in his testimony. Is there any validity that? Well, I think this would be a good reason to reinstate the gag order, because if he was indeed attempting to say that Mark Meadows would be a coward if he did testify or did have immunity, then that is possibly intimidation. And look, that's really the point of a gag order. That's the

point of a judge in a trial to ensure impartiality, to ensure integrity, to make sure there's no outside bias or no outside interest, that whatever the jury decides is based on the information of the evidence alone in the course of the trial. So, yeah, there could possibly be lots of validity to that. Yeah, I mean, listen, this isn't the only gag order. Just one day after for President Trump's $10,000 fine in the New York civil case, President Trump took to truth social this morning to call the judge in that case, quote, tyrannical risking a further fine. How has the New York judge responded to that? Well, the judge today doubled triple down on his remarks yesterday.

So Trump's team attempted to get those sanctions repealed reverse. They said, look, take a look at the video again and try to say that Trump was telling the truth. The judge revisited the video and just doubled down. Said, no, I again am saying that Trump did not tell the truth. He was not talking about Michael Cohen. He was talking about my staff. And he made the statement, anybody can run for president. I am going to protect my staff.

So the judge in the New York trial really just is not having this gag order go anywhere. It is here for good. Yeah, he's not listening to him. You know, earlier today you had the American Civil Liberties Union filing an amicus brief arguing against the gag order. This is an organization not usually in agreement with Trump. What's their argument about in this case? So the ACLU is perhaps the biggest, greatest defender of free speech in this country.

And they are arguing that the gag order in the D.C. case is, overly broad, overly vague. It's not specific enough. And not only does Donald Trump have the right to free speech-free expression to speak as a presidential candidate, but that we as the American public also have the right to hear what our presidential candidate would be saying. All right, Angela, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Now to Top Stories Global Watch. And we begin with a wild moment caught on camera in Sydney, Australia. A GoPro capturing the moment a massive humpback whale soars out of of the water, knocking a man off his surfboard and dragging him under the surface. He was able to

break free when the leash attached to his arm snapped. The man was wing foiling at the time, a sport that involves using a small detached sail while surfing. Remarkably, he was not injured. In a massive show of force, Russia conducting a large-scale nuclear retaliation test. Footage released by the military shows missiles being fired into the air in what the Kremlin called a rehearsal of the country's ability to launch a retaliatory strike if necessary. Hours earlier, lawmakers rescinded Russia's ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, a global agreement that bans all nuclear explosions. The U.S. has signed but never ratified that treaty. And in Afghanistan, a woman's education advocate has been released after seven months in prison.

was taken from his home and arrested by Taliban forces in March after publicly advocating for girls' rights to attend school. The Taliban, which has ruled the country since the U.S. withdrawal in September of 2021, has banned girls from going to school after the sixth grade. Coming up next, our continuing coverage of that deadly mass shooting in Maine. Stay with us. We're back with our continued coverage of the manhunt ongoing in Maine. for suspected mass shooter, Robert Card. As we've reported, his family told NBC News that Card was hearing voices in his head

and experienced a mental health episode prior to Wednesday's massacre. For more on this, I want to bring in psychotherapist, Dr. Robbie Ludwig, who joins me now in studio. Doctor, thank you so much for being here. I want to start with this idea that his family and colleagues have said he suffered a psychotic break.

How might that impact his behavior? Well, I think it says a lot. someone who is having a psychotic break, it means that they can't tell the difference between reality and what they're thinking in their own mind. So they may have delusions where they think they're getting special messages from TV or God telling them to do certain things. Or there may be auditory hallucinations, which I believe his family also mentioned, where you're hearing things that aren't actually there.

So this man could have been hearing messages in his mind telling him. to harm people or thought he was in danger or thought he was on a special mission. We don't have a lot of information, but that would be my guess. You know, there were warning signs here. There were people who reported his behavior as concerning. He spent two weeks getting psychiatric treatment. Is this a failure of our mental health system in this country? I would like to say yes, because maybe he was hospitalized, he was put on medication, maybe he appeared

stable. But what about his history when he goes back to his home? Does he take medication? Is he resistant to taking medication? Who's there to observe him? What will happen to him once he's out of the hospital? That seemed to be a question that maybe wasn't answered or wasn't answered correctly because there is something called treatment over objection for people who are potentially dangerous or danger to themselves and don't take medication. They can be encouraged through the law to take medications so that they're stable and not a danger to themselves or others. Right. And you make a good point. There are so many things that we don't know about the kind of treatment he had and the kind of support that was around him. I want to turn to the people

of that community. You have 18 people killed, 13 people injured. What kind of support can be given to those people to deal with this trauma that they now have to deal with, like so many, unfortunately, people in this country? Well, I'm sure they're almost having an out-of-body experience and it may not feel real to them. And the best thing to do with anybody who's gone through trauma is to listen and say, how can I help you? And to just, you know, be available and validate their feelings. And the goal with any type of trauma treatment is to make sure that they get a feeling of safety at some point, which can happen by being in a healthy environment. that empowers them where they can learn more about trauma and be just shown to advocacy groups.

So really the group can be a very supportive factor in terms of people getting through to the other side. And it does sound like this is quite a tight-knit community, so that support may be there. Dr. Luig, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate your time. When we come back, United in Grief, the country reeling from yet another mass shooting, just one of more than 500 this year alone. The parent of a six-year-old Sandy Hook victim watching yet another tragedy unfold.

Her message to the families of Lewiston and her urgent call for change. We have late-breaking news on the Manhunt in Maine. Let's bring in NBC News correspondent Rahima Allison Lewiston. Rahima, what are you hearing? What's the latest? Stephanie, we are hearing that about 20 miles from here in the town of Bowden. This is where the suspect is from. We are hearing that at a residence

in Bowden, police have surrounded this residence. There is a heavy police presence. There are helicopters overhead in this area. Reporters we are told are being told to stay back from the area. The belief is that we're suspecting that they think that the suspect may be there. It would be the end of a very long 24 hours that this community has been in a shelter in place A lockdown as a result of the suspect being on the loose and a massive manhunt being underway. Now, just to cap, that we are hearing, there are 20 miles from here in Bowden. Police have surrounded a residence, and they think the suspect might be inside. Stephanie?

Raymond, we still don't have any confirmation of that. But that residence in Bowden, that's where the suspect is believed to live? Could it be possible that he's in his home? Could be, but we are hearing that it is not his resonance. But, Stephanie, as you know in these situations, when something is breaking, what you hear at this moment may turn out not to be the case in the next moment, once police have the final information. Stephanie?

And you're absolutely right, Rahima. Thank you so much for that update. And this nation reeling once again from another unthinkable act of violence, it's an all-too-familiar scene, vigils and memorials for the lives lost at the hands of gun violence, with hundreds of shootings and tens of thousands killed this year alone. Many are wondering, will it ever end? Another community ripped apart by America's gun crisis. Frustrated, worried.

We know a close friend has passed. At least 18 lives lost in the Lewiston-Main mass shooting, the 565th mass shooting in 23 and the deadliest so far this year, according to the National Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as at least four victim shot excluding the shooter. Pray for the families. Pray for these victims. Things have got to be changed, have got to change. That grief felt across the country time and time and time again, with more than 35,000 people killed by gun violence so far this year. Families in Monterey Park, California, California, still recovering from the horrific killing of 11 people at a dance hall studio that

took place just three weeks into the New Year. Flowers and pictures lining the entrance of an elementary school in Nashville, after six people, including three children, were shot and killed there in March. And a community in Allen, Texas, grieving the nine murdered at an outlet mall in May, and now calling for change. The heartbreak and anger in Lewiston, Maine also felt less than 300 miles away in Newtown, Connecticut. We know that gun violence is preventable. We need to do more to stand up to this issue, to enact safe laws, and to create the safe communities that we all deserve. Nicole Hockley watching another mass shooting unfold. Nearly 11 years after her six-year-old son, Dylan, was killed along with his 19 classmates and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary.

school. I just wish my little boy was back by my side. He would be turning 18 in a couple of months. And I often think about how tall he might be now or he'd be a senior in high school, what life experiences might be ahead from him. And I'll just, I'll never know because he's frozen at six. Huckley turning her anguish into action, helping launch Sandy Hook promise, a nonprofit that works to protect children from gun violence through programs and bipartisan policy. No one should feel unsafe. wherever they go, whether it's their school or their bowling alley, everyone should be and feel safe, and we have the power to make that happen. But tonight, more families impacted by senseless gun violence, and the nation, once again, united in grief. We have to do better. Thanks so much

for watching Top Story. For Tom Yamis, I'm Stephanie Gosk in New York. Stay right there. More news on the way.