Top Story with Tom Llamas - Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Episode Date: December 6, 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 flooding emergency in the Pacific Northwest as a powerful storm prepares to move across the country. Nine million people under flood alerts as the atmospheric river-fueled storm brings torrential rain, strong winds and even snow to the area. A river in Washington reaching record high levels, flooding neighborhoods and forcing a town to be evacuated. A mudslide also shutting a road in Seattle, Bill Karen standing by with where the storm is headed next. Also tonight, Israeli investigators saying there is mounting evidence that Hamas raped, mutilated, and abused Israeli women on October 7th, as more survivors share their stories. Now, there's even more concern about what's happening to the female hostages who Hamas is refusing to release. President Biden today saying that refusal is the reason a true steal fell apart. But with no ceasefire in sight, the IDF has pushed farther into Gaza, southern Gaza.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who thought they were fleeing the fighting now caught in the middle again. One family telling our crew in Gaza they feel their lives don't count. President Biden's re-election stumbled. In off-camera remarks, the president saying, quote, if Trump wasn't running, I'm not sure I'd be running. Not exactly a rallying cry. Could this signal be bad news for Democrats in 2024? Explosive confrontation. The shocking video showing a home in Virginia blown to pieces as police.

were executing a warrant. Officers seen right outside the house, urging the suspect inside to come out moments before the blast. What we're learning about the man inside who was shooting off a flare gun as police closed in. Panera's dangerous drink, a new lawsuit claiming a Florida man died after drinking three of Panera's charged lemonade. It would be the second reported death linked to that beverage that contained more than caffeine than a Red Bull and Monster drink combined. While a lawyer for the victim, family says Panera is not doing enough to keep vulnerable customers safe. Plus, new video showing a man shooting at a deputy inside of a Texas bank that injured deputy

managing to get up and fire back. Other bank employees hiding under their desks the moment a SWAT team eventually took the suspect into custody. And bah humbug, a man caught on camera, cutting off a Christmas tree from a family's parked car and then shoving the stolen spruce into his own car before taking off. The search tonight for that real-life Grinch. Top story starts right now. And good evening.

Let's get right to that flooding emergency in the Pacific Northwest. A powerful storm, drenching parts of Washington. As we come on the air, rivers in the area have started to overflow. This is the scene in Granite Falls. This is about 50 miles north of Seattle. Flood waters reaching homes, the water levels, up the stairs and garages. in some cases, as you see. And the flooding also washing out roads

are NBC news crew capturing these images around the Seattle area. And first responders say they are ready for what could be a long night or a few days with even more rain in the forecast. And here's a look why. Satellite imagery showing that atmospheric river pattern that is bringing the heavy rain,

the high winds, and possibly some snow. Bill Carrens will take a look at where the system is heading in just a few moments. But first, let's get right out to Miguel Almaguer, who is live in Seattle, with what's happening. And Miguel, we see the rain there, pounding you pretty hard, and that river is raging. Yeah, Tom, as you can see behind me, the rivers are raging, and they're rising. A mudslide has actually covered local Amtraks up in this area, so that service has been cut off,

and one small community is surrounded by rising floodwaters, and the biggest threat may be still to come. A powerful, unrelenting torrent is tonight cascading across communities outside Seattle, dangerous walls of water fueled by days of drenching rain, leaving some 9 million people across the region under flood alerts. With five rivers threatening to burst their banks, homes, cars, and roads are already partially submerged. If it's a couple inches or a full, foot of water or anything in between. It's a very dangerous situation. As three major storms

barreled down on the Pacific Northwest, tonight a pineapple express, a warm flow of moisture from Hawaii is already dousing the region. The conveyor belt of steady rain, setting a record in Seattle Monday, could dump up to eight inches this week, wreaking havoc on the region. If you've got water over the road, like they say, turn around, don't drown. With rescue crews on high alert and accidents piling up, tonight these waterlogged communities are bracing for yet another round of rain. A region on the brink of disaster as the water continues to rise. All right, Miguel, Amagher is back live with us.

Miguel, talk to us a little more about the conditions that you're seeing. And Bill Cairns, who we're about to hear from in a few minutes, tells me that some of these areas near Seattle are seen the worst weather they've ever seen. Yeah, Tom, the problem is what you're seeing right now. It's this falling rain. It has not given up all day long, and that means these rivers behind me are still rising. This is a warm weather system, which means we're not seeing a lot of snow. In fact, we're seeing a lot of snow melt.

That's bringing the river levels up here high, and all these surrounding communities are under threat. Tom, they've got another several hours to go before these rivers start to receive. So that threat is still going to persist all through the night, Tom. All right, Miguel Almagher, leading us off here on Top Story. Miguel, thank you. For more on those severe storms, NBC meteorologist Bill Karens, joins me now live in studio. Bill, what are you looking at tonight? We're watching these rivers.

When they're going to crest, which ones have crested and how high. This has already been historic. Still, Guamish River, the records go back to at least the 1940s. And this is the highest water level that's ever been recorded. So this isn't just like, oh, it's raining, it's hard, and the river's up. I mean, this is historic for some areas. All everywhere in Maroon is where we have the flash flood warnings and the flood warnings. You can actually see this is the Cascades.

The rivers run this way. This is the Stilgwamish. This is the Skagit. The Stokwamish, we have to deal with tomorrow. So we have about four or five major rivers that all still were waiting for that crest to occur. They won't all be historic, but they're all going to be top 20 all time. So we're going to have roads closed. Each of these little dots shows you where we're having the flooding.

These gauges show these dots here. These are the major flooding. And this one right here was the one that was historic. As the rain has shifted southwards, we're going to wait for that, the rain to happen tonight. It's very warm. All the snow that fell over the weekend is melting, going in the rivers, too. So the rivers are already high. We're adding rain, we're adding snowmelt.

And that's why we're still going to see the rivers pretty much south here of Seattle going up throughout the night's night. Those rivers are expected to crash during the day tomorrow. And that's when we'll possibly see more damage like we've seen right now. As far as rain totals go, the cascades, another two to four inches. Coastal Oregon, another two to four inches. isolated about three to five. And Tom, I mean, they're lined up. This is tonight tomorrow. This is Thursday storm. This is Saturday storm. We'll be talking about the Northwest for at least the next week. All right, Bill Cairns for us tonight, Bill. We appreciate all that. We want to move

overseas now to the war between Israel and Hamas and new details in the investigation of alleged sexual violence carried out by Hamas during their October 7th attack. We have the horrific new evidence and eyewitness accounts and the international outcry against the UN for being too slow to respond. Hala Gurani has this report, and we do want to warn you, parts of the story are very graphic and disturbing. On October 7th, Hamas attacked within Israel's borders with a wave of terror, murdering over 1,200 people, including entire families. And Israeli investigators say there is growing evidence that Hamas unleashed another kind of horror against women. Something so horrific happened, and the world should know.

We spoke to Merit Ben Mayer, who's helping lead the investigation of allegations of repeated rape and sexual assault by Hamas. Where does your investigation stand? We have eyewitnesses that are slowly arriving and giving testimonies. Disturbing accounts about October 7th, including this woman describing how a Hamas terrorist, quote, laid a woman down. He is raping her. Then they pass her on to another person, telling investigators, the woman was alive and bleeding. Another chilling eyewitness account from Yoni Sadon telling the Sunday Times he was at the music festival where Hamas slaughtered hundreds of Israeli concert goers, he hid under dead bodies, saying he saw a, quote, beautiful woman with the face of an angel and eight or ten of the

fighters beating and raping her. When they finished, they were laughing, and the last one shot her in the head, he said. Hamas has denied committing sexual crimes against women. Israeli officials say the investigation is challenging because most victims were killed. But among the evidence seen by NBC News, graphic photos of women's bodies with obvious signs of sexual assault, including some naked from the waist down. that are interrogated, they're saying that this was happening and this was done. First responders describing naked female bodies tied to beds. NBC News also reviewing this Hamas document that Israeli officials say was carried by Hamas militants on October 7th with

instructions on how to say, take off your pants in Hebrew. The U.N. facing backlash for its response, some deemed too slow, including this protest Monday. Critics blasting the Secretary General for taking seven weeks to publicly call for an investigation of Hamas and sexual violence. And the agency, UN women, for not putting out a statement until last Friday. Tonight, the agency telling us in part, within days of the horrific attacks, U.N. women began offering concrete support to the U.N. Commission of Inquiry, which is investigating these matters. We feel like the world has turned their backs. Miriam Schlerer runs a rape crisis center in Tel Aviv and says Israel's critics are downplaying,

even dismissing alleged Hamas sexual violence. You say that people can be opposed to what's happening to Palestinians, but at the same time they need to be sympathetic. Yeah, I mean, there's two things that don't have to do with each other. I feel for the suffering of Palestinian civilians, it has not. nothing to do with the fact that there can never, ever, ever be an excuse for rape. Hala Garani joins us tonight from Tel Aviv. Hala, I want to go back to your report. What exactly can the UN do in this situation?

Or is it more the global community acknowledging and condemning what happened to these women? Is that what Israel wants? Yes, I think we spoke to, for instance, the head of a rape crisis center. We've spoken to a police investigator who is part of the team trying to piece together exactly what happened on October 7th in terms of this alleged sexual violence that Hamas militants unleashed on women, and in some cases, men, they told us that they really have been disappointed and frustrated by the silence from international organizations, women's rights groups, human rights groups as well. One of the people that we spoke to in our reporting over the last few days

said, look, you can condemn Israel's military strategy in Gaza all you want. You can support Palestinians, but it doesn't mean that you should be able to dismiss the suffering and the crimes that the women and men on October 7th were a victim of, and that's what they have found frustrating, Tom. And then, Hala, what has Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said specifically on this issue? Well, on this issue, specifically after a very tense day where he was confronted by the relatives of hostages, he said in Tel Aviv that the women's organizations and the human rights organizations, he asked the question, where the hell are you?

So expressing dismay and also essentially telling Israelis that he too shares their consternation about this silence that they say, they have found. found frustrating and, in some cases, insulting coming from international organizations. He also said that he expects all civilized leaders, nations, and governments to speak up against this atrocity, Tom. Hala, Garani, for us from Tel Aviv. Hala, thank you. Staying in Israel, the country's military, pushing farther into southern Gaza today and what

it calls the most intense day of the ground operation. Now, many civilians are left with nowhere to go. MEC's Richard Engel has more. The UN's humanitarian chief says every time it looks like it can't get more apocalyptic in Gaza, it does. These images are from Darylbella in central Gaza today. Lana Abu Safi was injured by an Israeli strike and carried into a hospital by her uncle. I want my mom. I miss her, she cries. She's six years old.

Gazans are escaping Israel's expanding ground offensive against Hamas by heading further south. Rafa, at the southernmost point of Gaza, on the Egyptian border, is the end of the line. The town is now so overcrowded, families live on the curbs. Gazans say they feel abandoned, that their lives don't count. A man notices our camera filming and says, don't bother. Nobody cares. Zakaria Kadum just saw his niece's body under what's left of his family home. Zacharia returned to dig under the house hit this weekend to look for his relatives. My love, my love, he says.

His mother, father, sister and brothers and their children were all killed. Israel says it's warning Palestinians where to go to avoid strikes. We've been making, again, with everything we have in our capabilities, every effort we can to facilitate the movement of civilians in the south, in order to mitigate civilian casualties. There are still 137 hostages in Gaza. Five-year-old Emilia Aloni went back to kindergarten today. She was kidnapped by Hamas and freed during last week's ceasefire.

And in the United States, a warning from the FBI director about the increased possibility of an attack in the U.S. following the Hamas terror attacks on October 7. I see blinking lights everywhere I turn. Richard joins us again tonight from Jerusalem. Richard, I want to go back to that moment we saw in your story there where one of the NBC crews captured that moment, filming those Palestinians in Gaza and them essentially saying, you know, why even bother? Nobody cares about us.

Talk to me about that moment because these people obviously have not seen sort of the world reaction to the bombing of Gaza. And they're also at a point now where they have nowhere to go. So it happened more than once. crew in Raffa was filming, and there are not that many camera crews in Gaza at the moment. So it is quite unusual. It attracts a lot of attention. And he was filming street scenes, showing the crowds, showing how people are just sort of wandering around.

They have no place to go. They have nowhere to stay. Some people are sitting on the ground. Some people are sleeping outside. And on more than one occasion, people walked past and said, you're wasting your time. Don't bother. He's listening. Don't even waste your breath.

And we did an interview with a woman who's in southern Gaza with her family said the same thing, that the world is watching. The world knows by now about what is happening in Gaza but isn't moving. And so the only conclusion they can draw is that people see what's happening and have decided they don't care. Richard, do we have any idea how many people have been displaced in Gaza? The numbers are very hard to come by. The UN has released some figures.

Rafa, which is not a big city in southern Gaza, has a population of anywhere between 250,000, 280,000, some say 300,000. The population is more or less doubled right now, and more people are coming. Because according to the UN, about 600,000 Gazans are under... evacuation orders. So a lot of them are heading south. Some of those people, all of those people potentially could head to Rafa. Rafa is not the only place on the border. There are other areas closer to the coast. But the populations all throughout southern Gaza right now are exploding. And there's simply not the infrastructure to handle them under normal circumstances, let alone while they're under attack.

And many of these people who are being displaced more than once. Some of them come from the north, then they stopped in the center, then they went. Some people then went back to the north. We've interviewed people who've moved multiple times, five, six, seven, eight times as they went from place to place because they didn't know where to go. Sometimes people make their own decisions about, they make the wrong decisions.

They go back to a place. It turns out to be dangerous. They go back to collect something. A million personal calculations that are always being made in Gaza right now. But the general trend is for people to be moving from the north to the south, and many, many of them ending up in Ruffa. Richard Engel from Jerusalem tonight. Richard, thank you. Next tonight to Capitol Hill, where the presidents of three major universities faced intense questioning about the rise in hate on campus,

with lawmakers accusing them of not doing enough to stop it. NBC Stephanie Gosk has this story. On Capitol Hill, the presidents of three top schools, MIT, UPenn, and Harvard, grilled over a spike in anti-Semitism on their campuses. Your university is a hotbed of it. At the center of the hearing, tension over how to protect both student safety and free speech while combating anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Disagreements about the conflict in the Middle East should never escalate

to threats of violence. Harvard's president was asked about pro-Palestinian demonstrators calling for Entifada on her campus. Can you not say here that it is against the Code of Conduct at Harvard? We embrace a commitment to free expression, even of views that are objectionable, offensive, hateful. It's when that speech crosses into conduct that violates our policies. In recent weeks, a number of Jewish students had told NBC News they worry for their seat.

Why today a Jewish student is afraid to walk to the library at night. Congress, and let me start by saying I'm devastated to hear that, and the safety and security of our campus and our students in particular is my top concern. All three presidents are facing criticism for their response to hate rhetoric on campus. Each walked through new plans to combat anti-Semitism. Staff here at UPenns say they've received anti-Semitic emails and hateful slogans were projected on buildings. Now there's additional security at religious centers and a new anti-Semitism task force. Editors of UPenn's student newspaper spoke with us today on campus. I think the

important part is to have respectful discourse. People do feel on both sides kind of feel like the space for open discussion and discourse has been lost. The president's testifying on Capitol Hill told Congress today they're fighting hard to get it back. Stephanie Gosk, NBC News, All right. We want to turn now to power and politics in the 2024 presidential race. President Biden making comments to Democratic donors today about his decision to run for re-election. Biden saying, quote, if Trump wasn't running, I'm not sure I'd be running, adding, but cannot let him win. The comments being made off camera at a fundraiser held at a private Massachusetts home. These comments come as Biden faces criticism from his own party on his decision to run for a second term.

I want to bring in NBC News White House correspondent Mike Memley from Washington. So, Mike, look, you know, Biden has been prone to sometimes saying things like this. I know the White House is out spinning these comments saying this is the exact reason why he ran the first time. But it's not exactly a rallying cry, especially when your poll numbers are as low as his are. Yeah, that's right, Tom. I mean, these fundraisers are often small, intimate gatherings of the president's closest, most enthusiastic supporters. And I've learned in all the years I've covered President Biden over 15 years now that with the camera's not rolling, the president often lets his guard down in these settings, and you get a real sense of what he's

really thinking, and that was certainly the case today up there in Boston. Now, what's interesting about this, Tom, is that NBC News reported just about a year ago when there was questions about whether Biden should announce he was seeking a second term, that one of the things he was telling Democrats who were calling him is, listen, I'm the only Democrat who can beat Donald Trump. He was including on that list, his own vice president, Kamala Harris. Now, what he said today was similar but not the same, and it raises this intriguing possibility. If one of other Republicans running for president right now, maybe Nikki Haley, maybe Chris Christie catches fire in the six weeks leading up to Iowa, New Hampshire, the rest of the primaries,

and ends up as the nominee. Does that change Biden's calculation? Would he even consider dropping out of the race at that point? Biden advisors, I'm talking to, say, the most likely scenario is still in their eyes, Donald Trump as the Republican nominee, and Biden still is confident he can beat him. Mike, do you think the president himself is feeling any pressure from anybody else in the Democratic Party? Obviously not the people that are working for him, but other big names in the Democratic Party who have, you know, started that Whisper campaign. It's now, I'd argue, a shouting campaign in some Democratic circles to maybe step aside and let somebody else run. Or is he not even focused on that?

Well, certainly the other part of these fundraisers is that there's the part that the reporters are allowed to hear, which included these remarks, and then there's the one-on-one conversations he might be having. And it certainly stands to reason that in these settings, the president might be getting more candid advice and questions about whether he should stay in the race. Now, everything you hear is that the president is committed to running in 2024, that he, again, believes he is the best Democrat to run and win. And as somebody has also said to me, this is a man who wanted to be president in his entire adult life. Now that he's finally in the White House, he's not about to give it up. So, Mike, you know, tomorrow's the GOP debate. I think it's the fourth debate and former President Trump's counter programming event as well.

I know NBC News has some new reporting about how the Biden campaign is planning to take on the Republican Party and the frontrunner. Yeah, that's right, Tom. This is going to be the smallest of the Republican debate so far. Only four candidates on that stage. It's also the first one that's in a deep red state. Think of where some of the ones in the past have been, Wisconsin and Florida, battleground states, California, one of the most democratic states in this country. Well, Alabama is as a Republican as it gets, and that's really how the Biden campaign is framing this,

that Alabama, with one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, and also one where they didn't expand Medicaid, even as some other Republican states did, to help with health insurance costs for their low-income Americans, that this is a place that looks like what the country would look like if Donald Trump were given another term in 2025. And that's how they're spinning this debate, even if Donald Trump isn't on the debate stage. And then, Mike, you've covered President Biden. I mean, I don't know for how long, and I want to say decades, but I know you, I think you're the reporter that's covered him the longest and been with him the most. What do you think his campaign is going to look like next year? Well, what's interesting is we're

not going to see him on the campaign trail. At the end of the fundraising period, as we're seeing now, he's doing a lot of fundraising. He'll be heading out to the West Coast for some star-studded events in Southern California. It's not until maybe May or June even that we're going to see President Biden on the campaign trail, and that's because he is the president. They want to use that advantage of incumbency as much as they can. But with those questions about his age, Biden's team knows that it's important for him to try to ease some of these concerns Democrats have. That's why there's a lot of focus being put into his State of the Union address, likely, in February, as an opportunity that he really does need to knock it out of the park,

deliver a firm message about not just how he's led the country over the last three years, but what he sees in terms of the future of this country and that he's the person to help lead us there. Mike, Memole, White House correspondent for NBC, Mike. We always appreciate your time and your reporting. We want to stay in Washington and the Republican efforts to launch an impeachment inquiry into President Biden as soon as next week. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer suggesting the president may have improperly used his influence to help his son Hunter's businesses. Earlier tonight, NBC's Ryan Noble's pressing Comer on his investigation into the Biden family and if there's any concrete evidence yet linking the president to wrongdoing.

Why do you need to formally launch this impeachment inquiry now? And are you opening it because you believe you have evidence at this point that President Biden's committed high crimes or Mr. Meeners? Or is this more about the process because you can't get your hands on documents or compel your witnesses to appear? Well, we'll say this is about process. Certainly the White House has obstructed us every step of the way. We got a letter from the Biden family attorney, Abby Lowell, implying he wouldn't come for depositions because this wasn't a legitimate impeachment inquiry. It hadn't been certified by a vote. So we're going to bring it up for a vote. But with respect to evidence, I think we've had evidence a long time. Then let's talk about influence peddling and the argument that you're making here. You're saying that Joe Biden, as a representative of the United States government, was able to influence his son's business practices to raise millions of dollars.

But all this money that you're talking about being transferred from the president's son to the president is while he was not an elected leader of any kind. He wasn't the vice president, and he wasn't the president. So explain to me how that rises to the level of an impeachable offense. The money that Joe Biden received came while he was in the private sector between the vice presidency and the president. That is correct. The money and the show companies were created while Joe Biden was vice president. So the money that the Biden, much of the money the Biden's accumulated from the foreign nationals actually happened while Joe Biden was vice president. We didn't know that until this investigation. We assumed it all happened in 2017 and 2018, but it goes back to

2014. So that's how we believe Joe Biden has some problems. And look, we honestly, Where is the evidence that while he was vice president, he did anything to help facilitate the creation of these companies or help those companies in any way? Well, he met with all the people. He took his son on Air Force 2 a dozen times to meet with many of these foreign nationals. He had dinner at Cafe Milano. He had phone calls. Do you have any evidence that the vice president was involved in any of those conversations with any of those business leaders where they substantively talked about business dealings? I don't know what they talked about.

We'll bring the president's son and the president's brother to ask them those questions under deposition. That's why we need to bring them in for depositions. But look, we have evidence the president lied. He said he never talked to any of these people. Lo and behold, we've got pictures, we've got emails, we've got sworn testimony from Devin Archerry. He met with all of them. Okay, so my last question for you, sir, is at this stage, do you believe that you have the evidence to file articles of impeachment? and do you think that other members of the Republican Party agree with you?

I think that at this stage, we have more than enough evidence to continue with impeachment inquiry. My job as chairman of the Oversight Committee was never to impeach. That's the Judiciary Committee. My job was to follow the money. We followed the money. The media has changed the goalposts so many times on what we had to find. You all said for months. Okay, find evidence where Joe Biden benefited directly from the influence peddling scheme.

You're calling it an influence peddling scheme, and you don't even know, definitively, whether or not it's a loan? No. You don't understand. It's like you're financially illiterate. You look like a smart guy on TV. Listen, I'm a banker. I've been involved in a bank board

for a long time. The money that the Biden's paid Joe Biden back with came from influence peddley. When they made the deposits and then wrote the check the same day, they had like a $2,000 balance. I think one account they were overgone in. And they

deposited the same amount of money they wrote to Joe Biden. There's no question. I don't even think the White House is disputing that. Being paid back from a loan, I don't think there's any statute that says being paid back from a loan regardless of where that money comes from. All right, sir. It does matter.

If you take money from a drug dealer, if you loan money to a drug dealer and that drug dealer pays you back with money that he sold drugs, then you're complicit. But you don't. That's where the gap, though, is. That's where, and I'm, if you can fill that gap, that's another thing. That's, I think, where many of us continue to raise questions. All right, that was Ryan Noble's a portion of his conversation with Representative Comer, I should say. Still ahead tonight, dramatic shootout inside of a Texas bank, video showing the moment a man opened fire on an off-duty officer behind the counter.

What that deputy did that likely saved lives and where his colleagues tracked that suspect down. Plus, an update on that deadly shark attack we told you about last night in the Bahamas. The American tourists killed just identified. And Panera's deadly drink, a man in Florida dying after drinking three of those chains, caffeinated lemonade's, his family now the second to file a lawsuit, why their lawyer tells us Panera is not doing enough to keep customers safe. Stay with us. Back now with shocking new video of a shootout inside of a Texas bank. Surveillance video capturing the moment a man shot an off-duty police officer. That deputy severely, severely.

injured, but springing into action and firing back as other employees ran to take cover. NBC Stephen Romo with that dramatic video. Tonight, harrowing video shows the moment a gunman opened fire inside a Texas bank and an attack police say could have been much worse if not for the quick action of one deputy. And he went down, but he didn't stay there. He got up and went at evil until the fight was over. The footage released by the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office shows a man identified as 30 five-year-old Leland Williams walking around the Fort Worth Community Credit Union lobby last week, where police say he tried to open an account with a fake name. After briefly sitting down,

he jumps up holding a gun. Williams seen from multiple surveillance camera angles lunging toward the counter and firing multiple times toward Deputy Brent Brown, who was off duty, but in uniform and working security. Deputy Brown was hit twice, once in the upper chest, once in the lower abdomen. The deputy falls to the floor, but just for a moment, even though he's seriously injured. Seconds later, he's on his feet, returning fire, as other bank employees hide under their desks and run into back rooms. Deputy Brown would make every cop in America proud.

The suspect fleeing as the deputy's bullets shattered glass window. Moments later, Fort Worth police arrive, giving first aid to the deputy and trying to track down that suspect. searching the area, they began talking to witnesses. And this is one of those instances where our relationship with the community proved to be beneficial. Investigators say they found Williams at a family member's home, or after a brief standoff with a SWAT team, he was taken into custody. According to the arrest affidavit, Williams telling a witness, quote, I shot the law. Williams attorney telling NBC News in part, we are early in what

will no doubt be a very long process and are still obtaining and reviewing it. evidence. Deputy Brown was rushed to a hospital and underwent surgery, but his department officials say his prognosis is good. Incredible courage, incredible stuff that makes you get up and go to the fight. All right, Stephen Romo joins us live in studio. So Stephen, I think you were pointing out there that one of the witnesses heard the suspect yell, I shot the law. So was this a targeted attack? Was he trying to rob the bank? Was he trying to kill the cop? What was he doing? There's no indication that it was targeted. He declined to speak with police after. after his arrest. So it's not really clear his motive, but they did speculate during that

press conference we saw that the likely motive they believe is robbery, but more to come on that. Yeah, and then do we know how Deputy Brown's doing the officer who's shot? Yeah, this is a pretty incredible update. We know that he's trying to go home already. He's on the mend. His department is saying that he's doing much better. He's actually asked the sheriff when he might be able to go back to work. So some very good news there, especially considering he was shot twice. Yeah, wild video and a wild incident. Okay, Stephen, thank you for that. Next to the lawsuit. against Panera. Earlier this year, we told you about a college student who died after drinking

the chain's highly caffeinated charged lemonade. Now the family of a Florida man is suing, alleging he went into cardiac arrest after having three of the drinks. NBC's Emily Aketa has that story. Cheers, cheers. Cheers. Tonight, Panera's charged lemonade is stirring up controversy again. Now with the family of Dennis Brown, blaming the chain bakery cafe for the 46-year-old's death last month, calling Panera in a scathing lawsuit, negligent, careless, and reckless, and alleging the company knew or should have known that the drink could injure people sensitive to caffeine, even causing death. Brown, who had high blood pressure along with the chromosomal deficiency disorder, developmental delay, and ADHD, ate at Panera up to three times a week in Florida,

and recently started drinking the charged lemonade. The drink, according to Panera's website, can contain up to 390 milligrams of caffeine. That's more than a resident. bull and monster energy drink combined. It does have caffeine, but I filled up this much with bubbly, so I'm only giving myself a little bit of caffeine. One afternoon, Brown had three charged lemonade's offered side by side with uncaffeinated drinks, according to the lawsuit. While walking home from Panera, Brown suffered a fatal cardiac event. I think the general public believes Panera to be a healthy fast food alternative. And so it was completely reasonable for some someone like Dennis Brown to rely on the fact that this lemonade was safe and safe for consumption

and safe for consumption in refills just because they encouraged it with their unlimited SIF Club. The lawsuit filed Monday comes amid a social media frenzy over the drinks high caffeine levels. It's like a burden feeling inside. It's like I'm being tickled from the inside. And I'm still pretty wired, okay? And less than two months after Panera was hit with a separate lawsuit regarding an Ivy League student with a heart condition. That legal complaint, says Sarah Katz died after she drank a charged lemonade in 2022. Since then, Panera told NBC News it enhanced our existing caffeine disclosure for these beverages. But tonight, now facing a second suit, Panera maintains, based on our investigations,

we believe that the unfortunate passing was not caused by one of the company's products. We viewed this lawsuit, which was filed by the same law firm as the previous claim, to be equally without merit. What's your response to that? If this was really a baseless lawsuit and these people didn't really die as a result of this dangerous product, then why change anything at all? Emily Ikeda, NBC News. All right, when we come back, the million-dollar jewelry heist. Two suspects caught on camera ransacking a jewelry store and pulling a massive vault.

See it right there. Out of the front door, how police say they snuck their way into the business. Stay with us. We're back now with Top Stories News Feed, and we begin with an update on that deadly shark attack in the Bahamas we first told you about last night. Royal Bahamas police force identifying the victim as 44-year-old Lauren Eckerson Van Wart from Massachusetts. NBC Boston reporting sources told them she had just celebrated her wedding. Local police say the victim was paddleboarding near the Sandals Resort in Nassau when she was attacked and killed. A man featured in the popular S-Town podcast killed in a shootout with police.

Police say Joseph Tyler Goodson barricaded himself in a home and brandished a gun at officers in Woodstock, Alabama, which is the setting of the podcast. Officers eventually shooting and killing Goodson in the standoff as town gained popularity for profiling Woodstock and the people who live in it. The U.S. reaching a grim new record this week, and according to a watchdog group that tracks gun violence, there have been 38 mass killings involving guns this year. A mass killing defined as shootings in which four or more people are killed, excluding the watchdog group. the shooter. According to the Washington Post, that's the highest number since they began tracking mass killings in 2006. 1097 people have been killed in those shootings just this year. And jewel thieves in Florida caught on camera during a million dollar heist. Surveillance video shows two suspects ransacking a jewelry store near Miami before using a stolen

truck to pull a large vault through the front door. Police say the thieves came in through the wall of an adjacent business. They eventually were able to track the stolen tow truck through a GPS device inside that car. At least two people arrested, but police say they are looking for at least two others. And a real-life Grinch wanted in California, look at this video. It shows a man cutting the wire,

holding a Christmas tree on top of the family's car in broad daylight at a shopping center in the Bay Area. He then pulls it down and stuffs the tree into the back of his own trunk before taking off. The tree or the thief have been located just yet. Okay, now to a new proposal from the NCAA that could change college sports forever. The association's president, Charlie Baker,

writing a letter to some of the country's top athletics programs, making a proposal that they pay their student athletes through investments in a trust fund. Morgan Chesky explains. Tonight, a bold idea from the NCAA president, proposing for the first time ever, schools be allowed to pay student athletes. The potential shift could impact a policy past two years ago

that allowed players to earn money through endorsements outside of school. NCAA President Charlie Baker now wants to allow schools to take part. In a letter to more than 350 Division I schools, Baker called for an entirely new athletic division to be created. Participating schools would invest at least $30,000 for each qualifying athlete, male or female, annually and work with the NCAA to craft different rules for the new division. Baker noting 59 schools already spend more than $100 million annually on athletic programs. schools already responding. I think it's going to be really good for college athletics

and we're excited to be a part of it. Let's finally figure out the best way to move forward in a way that takes care of our student athletes very well, allows us to be competitive across our conferences. Do you see this potentially leveling the playing field? Not particularly. College sports has never had a level playing field. If a school wants to spend a lot more money on football players

and offer them a lot more, they can do that as long. as they spend an equal amount of money for female athletes on the other side of that as well. A longstanding playbook on its way to changing. Morgan Chesky, NBC News. All right, coming up next, new details emerging about that massive explosion in Virginia, video capturing the moment the powerful blast blew an Arlington home to pieces. What we're learning tonight about the man who police say barricaded himself inside with a flare gun. Stay with us.

Welcome back. you may have heard about that wild explosion out of Arlington, Virginia. Tonight we're getting some new information. Police telling us they were responding to reports that someone was shooting off flares from inside their home. Yes, flares. Well, when cops got there, things got really ugly, and then the neighborhood shook.

All of it caught on camera. Here's Tom Costello. Neighbors in Arlington, Virginia, feared this was going to end badly. Just after 8 o'clock Monday night, It did. A massive explosion lifting an entire home off its foundation. It started in the afternoon when police responded to reports that a man inside had fired a flare gun more than 30 times. That led to a stand-up with a SWAT team armed with a search warrant. Then the enormous explosion that shook homes for blocks.

We need all fire apparatus so we can get the house that's exploded, I believe. I thought it was actually, like probably like either a car crash or like a plane crash. This afternoon, police identified the suspect as 56-year-old James Yu, who several neighbors say acted erratically, covering his windows in aluminum foil. Police also confirmed he posted online conspiracy theories. The suspect was inside the residence at the time of the explosion, and he is presumed at this point to be deceased. Thomas Joyce lived next door and says he wasn't surprised by the massive blast. He was not a stable individual. Police say you had no known criminal record but had a history of filing unsubstantiated complaints with the FBI.

Police still searching for a cause of the explosion. Police and the FBI say this was an isolated case, no ongoing threat to the community, though 10 homes were damaged. Thankfully, no one seriously injured. Tom? We thank Tom Costello for that report. We want to turn now to Top Story's Global Watch, and we begin with the deadly cyclone battering the southeast coast of India. Take a look at this. Video released by police shows the moments a woman in labor was rescued as the storm made landfall.

She and her baby both safely making it to the hospital. The storm pounding the region with torrential rains and winds gusting up to 70 miles per hour. At least 13 people have been killed and thousands more evacuated. At least 12 people were killed in a catastrophic bus crash in Honduras. Authorities say the bus smashed into a bridge while skidding on the highway, then plunge into the gorge below. The crash happening just outside of the country's capital of Teguosi Alpa. Two dozen others on board were injured, the president late today declaring a three-day period of national mourning. And legislators in France are voting to ban certain kinds of e-cigarettes.

French Parliament passing the proposal by a unanimous vote to outlaw disposable e-cigarettes known in France as puffs. The move of a reaction to growing concerns over the product's impacts on the environment and public health. The Senate is also expected to approve the bill, which would go into effect next year. Okay, coming up, a holiday chart topper, 65 years in the making. Brenda Lee made the hit rocking around the Christmas tree as a 13-year-old. Now she's finally number one, the oldest ever to hit the top spot. She's savoring the moment, and that's next. Finally tonight, a beloved Christmas classic finally topping the charts, decades after its release. Brenda Lee's rocking around the Christmas tree landing the number one spot on this week's Billboard Top 100 for the very first time in 65 years.

The moment the music legend heard the news bringing tears to her eyes. Here's Savannah Sellers. Brenda Lees instantly recognized. hit rocking around the Christmas tree has been a holiday staple for decades. But for the first time since its release in 1958, the song is topping the charts, hitting number one on Billboard's Top 100. The Christmas Classic, reaching nearly 35 million streams and 21 million radio plays this year, making the 78-year-old icon the oldest artist to hit number one on the Hot 100.

Billboard releasing this video, showing the moment Lee first heard the news. Today, we're number one on a high 100 billboard card, 65 years later. No one. You are. Overcome with emotion and thanking her fans, so-called Brendanators, for making her dreams come true all these years later. I love the Brendanator. Unbelievable, right? It is.

I don't want a night for Christmas. Lee had come in second to Mariah Carey's perennial top song. All I want for Christmas is you in recent years. But she made a push with a new music video and TikTok account that vaulted her to number one. Lee was just 13 years old when she released Rocking Around the Christmas Tree, launching her into the spotlight. Here she is, so let's have a nice hand for the youngster. Brenda Lee. She had more landmark hits like Sweet Nuffins.

all alone am i ever since you ever since you goodbye and just because well honey i i'm saying you baby i because ladies and gentlemen the newest member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, Brenda Lee. Cementing herself in music history as the only person to be inducted into the rock and roll, country music, rockabilly, and pop music halls of fame. I will cherish this moment for the rest of my life. The four-time Grammy Award winner boasting a prolific career, blending genres and breaking records. But never forgetting the beloved holiday hit that started it all.

65 years later, finally hitting number one, right where she's always belonged. Savannah Sellers, NBC News. Good for Brenda Lee. We love that song. We thank Savannah Sellers for her help on that story, and we thank you for watching tonight. I'm Tom Yamis in New York. Stay right there. More news on the way.