Top Story with Tom Llamas - Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Episode Date: January 12, 2023

A second batch of Biden classified documents found, growing outrage in Washington, D.C., after 13-year-old Karon Blake was shot and killed in the street, mudslides and rockslides burying roads in California, the disturbing video bringing attention to San Francisco's homelessness crisis and the passengers trapped on an Amtrak train for 20 hours.

Tonight breaking news, the new NBC News reporting, a second batch of Biden classified documents found. Aides to the president discovering the documents at an unspecified location separate from the private office where classified material was found in November. Our Kristen Welker pressing the White House for answers on this second batch, she'll join us in just moments. Also in our nation's capital, outrage growing after 13-year-old Karan Blake was shot and killed in. in the street. Police say the shooter said the boy was tampering with vehicles in the neighborhood. The identity of the gunmen not yet made public what the mayor of D.C. revealed today about where that shooter worked. The 13-year-old's grandfather joins Top Story Live. Out west, the National Weather Service calling it an enormous cyclone dumping inches of rain on California, mudslides and rock slides

bearing critical roads, snow piling up in the mountains. The endless onslaught already costing in the state, hundreds of millions of dollars, our team, live in the storm zone again tonight. Disturbing video out of San Francisco, a gallery owner, sprained a homeless woman with a garden hose. The incident pushing the city's homelessness crisis to the forefront, how the man seen in that video is responding tonight. The FAA meltdown amassed computer failure grounding all commercial departures in the U.S., nearly 9,000 flights delayed, 1,200 canceled. The investigation tonight into what caused that. crippling outage. Plus the explosion at a chemical plant in Illinois, residents ordered to shelter in place. And trapped on the tracks, passengers stranded on an Amtrak train for 20 hours, garbage

overflowing, some bathrooms unusable. You'll hear from one of the passengers who live through it, who says he's not getting back on a train anytime soon. Top story starts right now. And good evening. We begin top story tonight with that breaking news out of Washington. NBC News, the first to report a second batch of Biden classified documents have been found. This one by age to the president. The documents discovered at a second location, different from that private office where documents were found by Biden's lawyers a week before the midterm elections. The discovery of that first batch of classified documents from Biden's time as Obama's vice president not made public until earlier this week. and a growing number of Republicans tonight calling for Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate, just as he did in the case of classified documents found at former President Trump's Mar-Lago estate. NBC's Chief White House correspondent, Kristen Welker, pressed the White House today on the timing of all of this, and she leads us off tonight.

Tonight, the controversy over President Biden's handling of classified information is growing. Revelations, a second batch of classified documents has been discovered by aides to the president, this time in a different location from where the initial documents were found. A person familiar with the matter tells NBC News. Just yesterday, the president defending his handling of classified material. I was briefed about this discovery and surprised and learned that there were any government records that were taken there to that office. We're cooperating fully.

Still unclear, when these new documents were discovered, and if Biden attorneys are still searching for more. Now, top Republicans are calling for Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel, the same action he took in response to former President Trump's handling of classified documents that were seized from his Mar-a-Lago home. Garland, if you're listening, if you thought it was necessary, Attorney General, to appoint a special counsel regarding President Trump, then you need to do the exact same thing regarding President Biden.

The original classified documents, less than a dozen, were found by Biden attorneys a week before the midterms in an office Mr. Biden had used as a private citizen after leaving the vice presidency. They were then handed over, but not disclosed publicly until just this week. While the Trump and Biden cases share similarities, the White House notes key differences, including that the Biden documents were not the subject of an archives request and that once they were discovered, they were quickly turned over. Republicans are demanding answers in the Biden case. Why does his Department of Justice treat people different? Every time we find something that comes up before the election, dealing with Biden's family, it's pushed under the road. Tonight, we pressed the White House.

Does it undercut the president's promise of transparency that these documents were not revealed for several months after the White House discovered them? But look, you know, so when his lawyers realized that these documents were there, they turned them over to their archives. All right, Kristen Welker joins us tonight from the White House. So, Kristen, at last check, at this hour, the White House hasn't disclosed where these documents were found or how many. And NBC News broke this new development,

so they didn't even disclose that, that there was this second batch. Do we know why this case is different from that first batch? Well, there are a couple of reasons, Tom. I do want to just highlight what you point out, this key similarity, right? which is that both were revealed by press reports, this last one by our colleagues, Carol Lee, Candelanian, and Mike Memley. But this revelation is different because the White House is not responding at all. They did have a response to the initial one.

And they're pointing back to that original statement from the White House counsel's office to the president's comments, which essentially is saying that they are committed to cooperating with the DOJ inquiry. Still, Tom, just taking a step back politically, this could be a real problem ahead of 2024 if the president does decide to make. make it official and run again. And then on top of that, even before we get to the election, the House Oversight Committee now under GOP control is hoping to get briefed on these documents? They absolutely are, Tom. That's right. In fact, the Oversight Committee is looking into the classified

documents launching their own investigation. And today, they announced yet another investigation into the finances of President Biden and his family. It's worth noting that's something that aides here at the White House have been bracing for, have been preparing for. But this is what the next two years will look like this oversight with Republicans launching a series of investigations into the Biden administration, and now they have one more thing that they say they want answers about. Tom. All right. Kristen, welcome for us tonight. Kristen, we thank you for that. The White House facing a growing firestorm over the documents found from Biden's vice presidency. To analyze more of this new development, first reported by NBC, about that second

batch of documents, I want to bring in our panel, NBC News Legal Analyst and former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuaid. She was appointed by President Obama, an NBC News political analyst and former Republican Congressman Carlos Grubello. Thank you for being here to the both of you. Barbara, I want to start with you. There's still a lot we don't know, right? And our guest yesterday, former U.S. attorney, just like yourself, Joyce Vance, pointed out that the DOJ doesn't typically announce investigations. But what do you make of the Biden team quietly searching for than turning over a second batch of documents to the DOJ, but not announcing that second batch? Well, legally, Tom, it's, no one has an obligation to tell on themselves when they have either violated the law or engaged in some sort of misconduct.

But politically, I think it's a bad look. You had to anticipate that Republicans would jump all over this, that Republicans would draw the false equivalency between the treatment of Donald Trump and the treatment of Joe Biden. So I think politically, it was a poor move. But legally, the case is right where it belongs, which is in that preliminary assessment stage by a U.S. attorney who was appointed by, by Donald Trump to determine whether this case merits the appointment of a special counsel. There are a lot of facts that need to be determined here before that can be decided. It appears that the Biden team turned these over voluntarily. There was never any willful retention of the documents.

There was never any failure to comply with a subpoena. There were never any false statements that documents had been returned when they had not. So there are an awful lot of differences between this scenario and the Trump scenario. And to suggest that it needs to be treated exactly the same way is really suggesting an apples and oranges kind of comparison. I want to get to the politics of this and whether it passes the smell test or not with Carlos. But I do want to ask you again, Barbara, is it strange that they announced the first batch and they're, I would say, transparent about where they found it, what was there, how many?

And then the second batch, they're not saying how many documents they are, where they found it, refusing to ask questions. Isn't that part strange? It is. And I guess it may be that they are still in the, phase of gathering information and finding out what the facts are so that they can share those facts. But I agree with you. If you're going to disclose one set of facts about finding these documents, you would expect that they would disclose all of them. And I expect that they will in short order. But I agree with you. I don't know why they haven't done that. Carlos, talk to us about what this does for Democrats, what the Republicans are going to do.

You now have an investigation already underway by the Department of Justice involving Hunter Biden. We know House Republicans. are hungry to go after him. You now have this, and Kristen Welker was already talking about, you know, potentially a re-election campaign. The president may announce sometime this year that he's going to run for re-election. What is this due to the Biden White House right now? Well, Tom, think about the way Joe Biden presented himself to the American people when he ran, and the way he does from time to time when he criticizes former President Trump, his supporters,

and their attacks to democracy. Biden is the institutionalist, the man who respects the law. the man who's decent. That's the way he has presented himself to the American people. And a lot of people think he won due to that contrast in 2020. Now, even though the cases aren't exactly the same, they are both about mishandling classified documents. So this really undermines the way Joe Biden has presented himself to the American people. It muddies Democrats' messaging completely. And I think it also puts pressure on the Justice Department because of the special counsel aggressively goes after Trump.

for mishandling classified information, then people are going to be expecting the same kind of treatment towards Joe Biden and his administration. So this is not a positive experience at all that Democrats are going through right now. Barbara, I want to talk about the DOJ right now, right? Because if we go back to 2015 with what happened with Hillary Clinton and the FBI, and then what happened right before the election, with President Trump and again the FBI, and now we come to this point where you have Attorney General Merrick Garland, as I mentioned, there's an ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden. This may turn into an investigation of a sitting president as well about these classified documents.

And, oh, yeah, there's that entire investigation involving former President Trump as well. I highlight all these things because talk to me about the pressure that Merrick Garland is under right now. Certainly all of these are difficult decisions, but, you know, he will get wise counsel from his closest advisors and proceed accordingly. You know, there really isn't political pressure when you are in one of these. jobs because there is really only a right course of action, and that's what you need to do. If you need to assign a special counsel to investigate President Biden, so be it. If prosecution is merited, so be it. That is what prosecutors do. You separate yourself from the political questions and decide cases based on the facts. But first, let's not get ahead of

ourselves. This preliminary investigation is going on to determine whether was Joe Biden himself who has handled classified documents. It's possible he returned them. to the aid who is supposed to put them somewhere. It's a great point. It's possible. How long do you think this process will take? It's difficult to say, but I don't think it would take a long time, only because it seems likely that it is a small number of people who had access to those documents. So I would imagine it would be necessary to interview all of the people who had access to that.

And also, classified documents typically have a chain of custody assigned to them. They aren't just floating around out there. They're listed. Who checked it out and when? in whose custody was it? Who had the obligation to return it? And so you can interview the finite number of people and review the small number of documents that would show that I would think within fairly short order. So I think a decision could be made whether there is more to this case or not. And also just to remind you that when Jim Comey announced that the FBI was recommending against charges for Hillary Clinton, he had reviewed every case of mishandling of government

documents in the past and concluded that charges are filed only when there is present an aggravating factor, like obstruction of justice, disloyalties to the United States, or willful violation of the law. It appears that some of those may be present with regard to President Trump, the willfulness and the obstruction of justice. Right, right. So far, we know it's two different cases, we know it's two different cases, but the president has already openly attacked former President Trump about that classified document fiasco.

Carlis, I want to finish with you here. If they do appoint a special counsel, will that be enough for the GOP or do you think they're not going to stop until election day? Tom, Republicans are going to be extremely aggressive about this. Think about what we were talking about just a few days ago, the disarray of House Republicans, the infighting. Now we're talking about how Joe Biden or people around who may have, could have possibly broken the law. So this is something that the Republican Party is going to harp on from here until 2024 and beyond, because they feel that President Trump has been treated unfairly to a different standard,

and they're going to try to highlight that. every day for the American people. Carlos Crubello, Barbara McQuay, we thank you so much for joining Top Story tonight. Okay, we want to turn now to the growing outrage over the deadly shooting of 13-year-old Karan Blake in Washington, D.C. Police saying the shooter told officials the teenager was tampering with cars on his block. There was reportedly an interaction between the two before the fatal shots were fired. People in the community have been calling for an arrest and for authorities to reveal the identity

of that shooter. Today, the mayor admitting a city employee was the one to pull the trigger. Karan's grandfather joins Top Story live in a few minutes to talk about his grandson and what actions the family wants taken. But first, NBC's Yamish Al-Sindor has the latest details. Anger boiling over in the nation's capital after the shooting death of 13-year-old Karan Blake. Because this is a fact, a murder, a homicide. Last night, more than 200 community members gathering to demand an arrest and more details about the tragic incident, including the shooter's identity. The U.S. Attorney Office, do your damn job.

While D.C. leaders have remained tight-lipped on the gunmen since Saturday's shooting. Today in a press conference, Mayor Muriel Bowser made this revelation, but only after being asked. A shooter, a D.C. government employee. I've seen that somewhere. Yes. A shooter is. Yes. I'm not going to say what agency. I can tell you the employee, like in other cases, where we've had a an employee accused or charged, that employee is on administrative leave. Police say the shooter told officials he confronted and shot the boy just before 4 a.m.

on Saturday after he believed Blake was tampering with cars on his block. According to police, Blake may have had two people with him who fled. The shooter had an interaction with Blake before the firing. I won't get into the interaction because that is going to come out in the grand jury. He told you exactly what he did. You saw exactly what he did. He should have been arrested. There's nothing else to investigate here.

And when you tell us that, you insult our intelligence. According to D.C. Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Conti, the shooter called police shortly after the incident and was performing CPR on the teen when officers arrived. Our detectives are gathering all of the facts and evidence so it can be presented to the United States Attorney's Office and ultimately to a grand jury of District of Columbia residents to make a judicial determination if they're, was criminal intent and if a crime occurred. The chief said the shooter, who was licensed to carry a gun, has now hired a lawyer. He also warned the public against spreading rumors as the process continues and made a point of clarifying the shooter is an African-American man.

There's misinformation swirling out there and people are tying it to race and other things and putting images of innocent people out there next to young Quran saying that this is the person that's responsible for that. That's reckless and that's dangerous. City Council member Zachary Parker, who hosted the community meeting where emotions ran high, is also demanding the shooter be held accountable. I am calling on MPD to be more transparent, to share details with the family and the community around this case, and to honor the process of the legal system by apprehending the perpetrator that took Quran's life.

And with that, Yamish Alessendor joins us now from Washington. Yamish, in the mayor's press conference, she was asked about the body camels. footage from when officers arrived on the scene? That's right. And today, Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters that police don't have body camera footage that shows the actual shooting. She also said at this time, officials will not be releasing body camera footage because it could, quote, prohibit how the investigation proceeds. Now, the community, in addition to pushing for the shooter's identity and an arrest has been demanding that police released the body camera footage from Saturday morning. While that debate

plays out, police say authorities are trying to gather surveillance. video and other evidence to present to a grand jury to make a charging decision. Meanwhile, Karan Blake's family and community is simply reeling from this shooting. His middle school principal described the 13-year-old as, quote, quiet and inquisitive, and also said he loved fashion and football. The team leaves behind a mom and three younger siblings. Tom? Okay, Yamish, we thank you for that. While the community grapples with the shooting of Karan Blake, his family is now pleading with the city to arrest and charge that shooter. We're grateful tonight to be. We're grateful tonight to joined by Sean Long, Karan Blake's grandfather, who's been leading those calls for justice.

Sean, thanks so much for joining Top Story tonight and talking to us about this. I am so sorry for you and your family's loss. This happened on Saturday. How is your family doing right now? Yes, everybody's doing right at the moment. They get into front of arrangements. They hand in all the funeral arrangements and stuff like that. Talk to us about what you want and what justice looks like to you from what you've learned so far.

All my 55 years, that's my age. I've never been through something like this, never, never in life. I want justice. That's all we want justice, because I never believed, and I never saw something that you could kill somebody and you could walk away with no problem. You're supposed to get arrested. You're supposed to get questioned. You're supposed to get taken down to the police station.

You're supposed to get your gun taken. You're supposed to get with the bullets, take the bullets and stuff like that. like that. You're supposed to get all that. I never sold nothing, something like this that you get to walk away and nobody's not saying nothing. They're not giving us no answers. They're not giving us nothing. Sean, if we can go back to that early morning when this happened, what is your understanding of what exactly occurred? Because there seems to be a lot of sort of missing parts to how we get from your grandson being on the street to then being shot and killed. We understand there was some type of interaction.

Can you fill us in on anything about what you understand happened that night? I did my own investigation when I came down the crime scene. I came down there Monday. I found out Monday morning I was at work. I went from Metro, and I got a phone call from my kids' mother, say my grandson has been shot, and he's dead. I went over there and did my investigation. A lot of people that I talked through walked around there,

they said the man walked outside all. times at night. The man is the troublemaker. The man is everything. And then it's like my little grandson being out three or four o'clock in the morning, everybody sneak outside sometimes. We can't keep an eye on these kids 24-7. They snuck outside. But even though he snuck outside three or four o'clock in the morning, he still shouldn't have got shot for playing with a car. If you're looking at a car or doing something to a car, you still don't supposed to get shot. That's why this is wrong. You're letting a person walk on the street and gets nothing happened to him. This is crazy. I never heard of this.

Look, I'm with you in that a 13-year-old should never be shot. A 13-year-old should definitely never be shot and killed. Do you understand, or have you gotten any information or evidence about any type of interaction before the shooting started? It seems to have escalated pretty quickly. Now, what I heard is say so, it's say so, but what I heard, it was no. It was like the gag. They said one witness that came past, he said the guy gets crazy.

It's crazy. And being honest, he's saying something like, I don't know. Is he telling the truth? I don't know what's going on. He said, he thinks the guy just came outside and started shooting at the little young guys. All three them together. You start shooting at them. My grandson, the one that got caught by the bullets.

But the crazy thing about you didn't have to shoot them. You should have just went over there to him, get away from the car, called 911, or you could have grabbed them to the police cane. And then you shot him more than one time. That's why I don't understand D.C. police and the mayor, how can you allow this? And this man shot my grandson more than once. It just don't make sense.

That's why I want the president to get involved. I want the Congress, the Capitol of the Hill. I want everybody to get involved with this because it don't make sense. Sean, if you could talk to the mayor tonight, what would you tell her? Mayor Bowser. Just do your job, Matt Bowser. Deal with that later on. Do your job.

The same way when they locked me up. When I was out there as a little boy selling drugs, somebody said I was selling drugs and I wasn't selling drugs, the police came up and snatched me and put me in the cell. That's the same way y'all are supposed to. I ain't had no gun. I ain't killed nobody. Somebody said, I was selling drugs.

And they snatched me off the street plenty times and put me in jail. That man is supposed to be in jail, and he's supposed to deal with the jewelry and do the investigation. why he's locked up. You don't supposed to do the investigation while he out on the street. Get this man in jail.

Go get him now. Because if you don't get him, you're going to start a war in D.C. We don't want that to happen. We don't want no more crime. That's why the best thing to do the men and the chief of police, go get this man and lock him up

and do the process later on. Okay. Sean Long, the grandfather, speaking to us of Koran Blake tonight. Sean, thank you for taking the time. I know it's a difficult time for you. and your family. We want to turn now to another breaking story we've been following over the last week, the deadly weather walloping California, the state being hit by a seemingly endless cycle of massive storms bringing heavy winds, rain, and flooding the death toll now climbing to

at least 18 with more bad weather and devastation in the forecast. Miguel Almaguer is in hard-hit Sonoma County. Back in the bull's eye, tonight it's waterlogged northern California swapped by yet another deluge as a flood of problems washes over the region. After a rare and violent round of hail, thunder, and lightning in the Bay Area, flash flooding, debris flows, and mudslides have buried highways, bridges, and train tracks. The costly damage to statewide infrastructure, which experts say could top a billion dollars, is skyrocketing. This is about 150-foot pine tree that came down. As is the widespread destruction to homes, with some 17,000 still under evacuation.

orders and facing the threat of more landslides. Get scared us. I've never been through anything like this before. As a blanket of heavy snow buries the mountains with another foot expected. I definitely don't want to be driving in the whiteout conditions. More than two million have lost power since the start of the year, an unrelenting conveyor belt of storms, and now an enormous cyclone dumping torrential rain on compromised ground, with at least 18 killed. Kyle had told me, Mommy, it's okay. Everything will be okay. Tonight, five-year-old Kyle Donne is still missing, ripped away from his mother's arms as they tried to escape their flooding car.

I tried to hold his hands, and then the curtain pulled him away from me. Kyle was drifting down the river, and I could see his head bobbing on the top of the river. After the discovery of another adult body today, the grim search for the missing continues, and now is some of California. begins its cleanup, another storm will barrel into the state this weekend, a forecast calling for more misery and destruction. Miguel Almagher joins us now from Sonoma County. Miguel, you're reporting there. It just goes to show how critical a situation right now is in California. As we get further and further into these seemingly endless rounds of rain, what's the concern, at least with landslides right now? Well, Tom, all of the ground across California is so oversaturated. We've already seen in so many different communities that these hillsides are starting to give way.

And there's concern that hills that haven't given way could in the next 72 hours or so because they're just so oversaturated. You can probably see the rain coming down right now. That's happening in so many parts of Northern California. And while we will get a break, we'll have it back here again this weekend, Tom. And then, Miguel, just tell our viewers exactly where you are right now. It looks like a lake, but I'm not sure what it is or a river, something like that. Yeah, this is the Russian River behind me. It actually is technically hundreds of feet behind me, but all of this, Tom, is floodwater.

The river has kind of burst its banks in this one area in particular. The river's running about 10 times higher than normal in some spots, and it's continuing to swell over the next couple of days as the rain stops. It should lower. Officials are hoping it'll stay that way before the next round of rain comes this weekend. And Miguel Almaguerre for us in the storm zone tonight, Miguel, we appreciate that. For more in California's emergency situation, we're joined now by Chief Anthony Hudley of the Montecito Fire Protection District. Chief Hudley, what are you and your crews seen right now in terms of scope of damage? As our crews are continuing to survey our community, we are fighting multiple areas with debris across roadways,

a few roadways that have been compromised by undermining from the water. We do have some treaties down and all throughout the district, affecting some access to a couple of the residences. You've been a firefighter in California for more than 20 years, I understand. Have you seen anything like this? As of, from the last five, this is the fifth year anniversary of the 1-9, and this is definitely something very similar, obviously up to the magnitude of what the one-nine debris flow happened, but just definitely

it resembles what we experienced at that time. Chief Hudley, I'm going to let you get back to your work there, but before you go, your shot's a little hard to see. Can you explain what we're seen behind you? Yes, what we have is a road closer side that's just identifying a slide, and up further north of me is where the road washed out, limiting access. And additionally, are at the Cold Springs Basin, where we are having about 500,000 cubic feet of material being removed, and that's also including Carpentry of Summerland and Montecito. So a lot of cleanup efforts happening right now. Okay, Chief Hudley, we thank you for your effort there, and we thank you for taking the time to talk to us here on Top Story. For more on this relentless rain, NBC News

meteorologist Bill Cairns joins us now. Bill, I want to get to the term, right? Enormous cyclone. We've been talking about this all the night. Explain what that is. Explain what that is. to our viewers. And regardless of what it's called, it has been very, very difficult for California. Yeah, we're usually, you know, the lingo we always say is, you know, it's a big storm, or it's like a hurricane or a typhoon, depending on where you are in the world, or a cyclone. Cyclone just depends, is another word to describe a storm and a big storm, like a Northeaster is a cyclone or a blizzard will be a cyclone. So don't get fooled by that. It's just a different word, you know, for a huge storm. And that's what we've been

dealing with one after another throughout this area. Now, we have five million people under flood watch is still. We're not completely done, but today's been a good day. I haven't heard of any reports of any new landslides or mudslides or debris flows. All the rivers have been retreating, and that's great. All the rain today has been mostly from San Jose northwards, and it's a lot of light green on the map. That's the light rain. The rivers are not going to flood because of that. This isn't like the atmospheric river event two days ago. The yellow is on the map is where you start to get flooding. Additional rainfall tonight, maybe an inch or so. There's still a chance of a hillside could give way or something like that. So that's why we filled the flood watches. But Tom, the next

big event, we get a break Thursday. Friday looks pretty good. It looks like Saturday is when the next atmospheric river heads into California. Okay, Bill Cairns for us, Bill, we appreciate that. Still ahead tonight, the disturbing video out of San Francisco. Have you seen this? A gallery owner spraying a homeless woman with a garden hose. What the man seen in that video is saying tonight as the city grapples with a growing crisis on its streets, plus the massive explosion at a plant in Illinois, urgent warning tonight to residents about a substance released into the air. And the wild discovery in New Mexico where police say they found a tiger cub while responding to reports of a shooting. Stay with us. Top story, just getting started.

All right, we're back now with a disturbing video that's bringing attention to San Francisco's homelessness crisis. It shows a local business owner spraying a homeless woman with a garden hose to get her to move. The action is causing an uproar on social media, but also highlighting the larger problem which the city is struggling to solve. Jake Ward tonight with the story. Shocking video of a man spraying a homeless woman

with water in San Francisco, fueling the debate over the crisis plaguing one of America's most iconic cities. It shows a local business owner using a garden hose to douse the unhoused woman sitting on the sidewalk. A local business. from across the street capturing the stunning scene and then posting the video on social media, according to NBC Bay Area.

That lady doesn't say go inside the business. She is sleeping on the street, but she's very calm. Another witness working construction nearby. I see a guy hosing this girl down and I thought it was not right. So I went over there to say, hey, what's up? Because I was going to take the hose and spray him. The man holding the hose is gallery owner Collier Gwynn. He spoke to K&TV through the intercom outside of his business. The whole neighborhood is a part of the situation. The police force is a part of the situation. The city and the social services is a part of the situation. There have been repeated attempts to try to help this woman who is psychotic.

Police telling NBC Bay Area the investigation remains open and would not comment on potential charges. But that video striking a nerve. While some commenters sympathize with Gwyn's frustration, They will take her to a shelter and they will turn her out in two days. Most expressed horror at a business owner soaking someone without shelter in the middle of historic rains here. Treating her like garbage on the street. You should be ashamed to yourself. There are people just like you.

The number of unhoused people in the city has dropped slightly since 2019, but still, more than 7,000 people do not have a home on any given night, up 43% from 2005, according to the city. A crisis on the streets. They are trying to address the problem by almost doubling funding to the issue since 2019 and by opening more supportive housing. I know we've built navigation centers and a number of other places to provide support for people who are living on the streets, but I want us as a city to move away from that model. I want us to move towards places like the garland and focus on places that will allow people to live in their own space and live their lives, as I said, with dignity. dignity at the center of the current controversy. I can understand both parties. I feel sorry for the tenant and I feel sorry for the lady.

But the police that came out one time, he said there's nothing we can do. Tom, experts here point out that this is, of course, symptomatic of a larger systemic problem. Here in California and in San Francisco specifically, we lack affordable housing. We have a fentanyl crisis and we have a lack of mental health and supportive services. All of that has conspired to put these two people into this situation. And while obviously people have tremendous criticism of this man's actions, others are asking, why can't the police get involved? Well, San Francisco has pioneered several programs to try to create alternatives to calling the police in a situation like this. But experts say that this is not a matter for law enforcement.

This is, again, a larger social issue that's going to need some very, very big and expensive solutions. Tom. OK, Jake Ward for us tonight, Jake, we appreciate that. And we just did get a comment from San Francisco's police department. They're saying officers interviewed both the woman in the video and the gallery owner and say they both declined further police action at that time. That is their words. And we're going to have some guests who have a business in that area on that block to further talk about this video and what happened there, along with the homelessness crisis in San Francisco. Okay, coming up, an update on Demar Hamlin.

The bill's safety continuing his remarkable road to recovery. The latest report from his doctors and where he's heading tonight. That's next. Okay, we are back now with Top Stories News Feed, and we begin with the chemical plant explosion in Illinois. Aerial footage shows the massive fire ripping through the plant in LaSalle County. Residents are being urged to shelter in place and to stay away from a potentially harmful green substance that has been released in the surrounding area. So far, no injuries are reported. The cause is still under investigation. Next to a surprising discovery made by police in New Mexico officers in Albuquerque finding a tiger cub in a dog crate while they were spawning to a shooting.

Police said they found the animal after following a trail of blood into a trailer. It is illegal to own a tiger as a pet in that state. The tiger was checked out by a vet and is in good health. It will remain with wildlife officials until a permanent home is found. Buffalo Bill Star, Demar Hamlin, has officially been discharged from the hospital. The football team announcing the good news on Twitter saying that Hamlin had passed a series of cardiac, neurological, and vascular test. This, just nine days after he went into cardiac arrest during a game against the Cincinnati

Bengals, this is such incredible news. Hamlin will continue his rehab at home and with the bills. And legendary British guitarist Jeff Beck has died at the age of 78. His family says he died suddenly after contracting bacterial meningitis. The eight-time Grammy-winning rock star earned two spots in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, once with the yard birds and once as a solo artist. He was also ranked the fifth greatest guitarist of all time by the Rolling Stones. Okay, we turned out at Capitol Hill where Enbattled New York Congressman George Santos is doubling down on his decision to stay in office despite growing calls by New York Republicans for him to resign.

Garrett Hake has this one. Embattled New York Republican Congressman George Santos is digging in tonight amid new calls for his resignation from within his own party. I will not. The New York State GOP chairman joining calls from county Republican leaders. in Santos District that he stepped down immediately. George Santos's campaign last year was a campaign of deceit, lies, fabrication. The freshman lawmaker tweeting that he was, quote, elected to serve the people of NY3 and that he will not resign as he faces an array of investigations into false claims about his background

and the funding of his campaign. Santos has admitted to lying about graduating college and to quote, embellishing his work history, but he is denied breaking any laws. Tonight, the House Speaker standing by him. What do you intend to do about Congressman Santos? I try to stick by the Constitution. The voters elected him to serve. If there is a concern, and he has to go through the ethics,

we'll let him move through that. On Tuesday, two New York Democrats referred Santos to the House Ethics Committee. George Santos needs to be held accountable for his lies. A bipartisan ethics investigation embraced by some of Santos' Republican colleagues. And it was up to me. I mean, I wouldn't seat the guy on any committees until we have a fuller understanding, until the Ethics Committee has a fuller understanding of exactly what he did. If Santos were to resign, his replacement would be chosen in a special election, a lengthy process that could cost Republicans a vote they can't afford to lose in this narrow majority.

Tom. Okay, Garrett, we appreciate it. Night at Top Stories Global Watch and the deadly bombing rocking Afghanistan's capital. Taliban officials say the explosion happened outside the foreign ministry in Kabul. these five people have been killed, several more injured. No one has claimed responsibility yet for this, but ISIS has been ramping up attacks in the region since the Taliban took control in 2021. Now to the stabbing attack at a popular train station in Paris. Police say the suspect stabbed six people with a homemade blade, one of the busiest train stations in Europe. Police then shooting the suspect who is now in custody at the hospital. All six victims are expected to survive. It's still unclear why the suspect carried out that attack. And Uganda

Declaring that their Ebola outbreak is finally over, less than four months after the first reported case. The announcement coming after 42 days with no new infections, double the maximum incubation time for the virus. The country's latest outbreak killing at least 56 people among 142 reported infections. Health officials say contact Tracy and other measures help and that outbreak quickly. We'll be right back. Okay, we're back now with more on that story. We brought you earlier in the broadcast, a business owner, caught on camera, hosing down a homeless woman in San Francisco.

The video and the incident leading to a massive debate about the crisis in that city when it comes to the homeless. And also outrage that one human would treat another like that. We're joined now by the co-owner of Barbarossa Lounge, the restaurant you can see in the background of that video. Trina Hamidi joins Top Story Live. Now, Trina, I want to roll that video again. One of the reasons you're coming on our show is because you want our national audience to understand that even though, Your restaurant is seen in the video. You and your employees had nothing to do with this.

This was a gallery owner next door to your business. That's correct, yes. It was a neighboring business. So the individual and his actions are not affiliated with Barbera so whatsoever. Trina, so talk to me about this incident, what you thought when you first saw the video. A lot of people around the country are watching this, and they're saying, how could one person do this to another person,

especially in the winter in San Francisco, especially to someone who's homeless. And yet in the story that we saw from Jacob Ward before you came on the show, it's led to a big debate because people are fed up with the homelessness situation in San Francisco and on this block. Yeah, absolutely.

It's very upsetting. When we first witnessed the video, we were upset and we were outraged as well because we absolutely condemned this type of behavior. No one should be treated this way. It's inhumane, you know, whether you're homeless or not. And, you know, there's been a big impact to our business because we have been falsely accused of being responsible for this incident. So it's been, you know, there's a lot of backlash that we've been dealing with, with that, receiving hateful messages and threats. And it's,

it's super frustrating for us as well, because, again, we completely don't believe in this type of behavior. And we try to treat everyone in all our patrons with dignity and respect. What is the history of the gallery owner there and this woman who was sitting on the sidewalk? Yeah. So pre-incident, we've been dealing with this homeless person as well. All the neighbors on the block have. It's been a few weeks where she has been squatting on the sidewalk. And she is clearly mentally ill. She needs help. And we've tried to help where we've. We've tried to help where we've tried to do our civic duty. We've called San Francisco Police Department several times. We've called the crisis response team to no avail. We actually give her food at the end of the night

because she is homeless. She's pretty aggressive. She's, again, clearly mentally ill. She needs help, and we were hoping to get her that help. So it's a really sad and unfortunate situation that all the businesses on the block have been dealing with for the past few weeks. I mean, again, that what happened there is never excusable. And again, we're talking about one human doing that to another human. But I have to ask you, what has it been like as a business owner to deal with the homelessness problem? It's tough. Homelessness is not a new issue in San Francisco, as any resident of San Francisco can tell you.

It's gotten probably worse, I think. feel like during the pandemic. We are dealing with, you know, in this particular situation as well, we're dealing with someone who clearly needs help who's mentally ill and at the same time trying to provide a safe environment for our patrons where they feel comfortable coming into our establishment. And it's uncomfortable when you're walking down the street and you have an aggressive individual who is screaming obscenities and spitting at you. And so... And that's what the man... That's what the man, that's what your neighbor, the gallery owner, essentially said in our story that we aired earlier, that the problem is out of control and that the police aren't doing anything.

Is that fair? I absolutely think that that's fair. The problem is out of control, and the city does need to get to the root cause of the problem. And it's not, you know, taking a homeless person after there's been a complaint and moving them a few blocks down. But really addressing the issue and getting help for the individuals, especially the man. mentally ill homeless people. Are business owners like yourself, have you guys been pushed to the edge? I mean, was this bound to happen?

I can't say if it's been, if it's bound to happen or not, I do know that I'm, you know, people can and do get hurt. And so there needs to be action taken. I, again, I can't condone this behavior at all because I don't think that that was right for someone to be hosed down like. that. I do think there are other ways that action could have been taken. You know, but it's a very difficult situation and a sad situation. It is a sad situation. Trina Humidi, we thank you so much for joining Top Story tonight. When we come back, trapped on a train, passengers on an Amtrak

auto train stuck in one spot for 20 hours and unable to get off. You'll hear from one of those passengers next. Stay with us. And we are back tonight with an update on the travel meltdown that rocked air travel today, an FAA computer failure leaving departing domestic flights stuck at the gate across the country. NBC's Tom Costello now with what happened. It started even before the sun came up, a critical FAA computer system was down. The Notum system, short for notice to air missions, provides critical information to pilots on everything from runway closures to airport construction, military, and space activities. Without that information, pilots can't take off. Soon, the FAA ordered all commercial departures to remain on the ground as it worked to dissect the problem, with delays and cancellations building through the day.

You can kind of see the writing on the wall that they're not, they weren't flying anything this morning. Happy birthday, you can't leave. We did try calling the airline this morning, and we weren't able to get through. By 9 a.m., the FAA said its system was again operational and allowed departures to resume, but the delays only cascaded through the day. apparently unrelated coincidence, Canada's Nodem system also temporarily went down today. Both the FAA and senior law enforcement sources say there is no evidence that the FAA system was hacked. What I would say is there is no direct indication of any kind of external or nefarious activity, but we are not yet prepared to rule that out.

Government sources tell NBC News the FAA system issues began to surface yesterday around 3.30 in the afternoon. The FAA switched to a backup system, then returned to the main system just before midnight. At 4.45 a.m., the FAA rebooted the system, but it took time for the critical data to reload. NBC News has now learned today's problems were caused by a corrupted file. I've been a pilot a little over 53 years, and I have never, that I can remember, heard of the no-tam system being down. It's the first. It was just last week that air traffic in Florida ground to a halt after a different. current FAA computer glitch. Over the holidays, Southwest Airlines suffered a major meltdown,

affecting roughly a million passengers. Now, the U.S. travel industry says the country's aviation infrastructure is in immediate need of an upgrade. The air travel system in the United States is running in a far less optimal way than it needs to. We all know that. Things are only going to get more complicated going forward. This was an FAA problem, not an airline problem. So the airlines do not have to reimburse passengers for meals or hotel stays, though most are waiving ticket change fees. Now both the DOT and Congress are talking about a thorough investigation. Tom? And finally tonight, another travel mess that is completely wild. Passengers on an Amtrak auto train traveling from D.C. to Florida stuck on the tracks, forget this, more than 20 hours,

and unable to leave. Valerie Casford tonight, who spoke to one of those passengers trapped on board. A journey by train turning into a travel nightmare, hundreds of passengers on board an Amtrak auto train stuck for 20 hours in rural South Carolina after it was rerouted due to a train derailment on the same path. To me, there is absolutely no plan for dealing with this type of emergency. The Amtrak train left Florida in Virginia at 5.30 Monday night, scheduled to arrive at 10 a.m. Tuesday, but it didn't get to its Sanford, Florida destination until after 4.30 in the morning, Wednesday. a more than 35-hour trip. I figured it was going to be a two or three hours delay. Really, that's when, but when we were in South Carolina, I woke up at like 3 a.m., and I realized we're still in South Carolina at 3 a.m. Michael McFadden was on board with his family, including his seven-year-old son, when he was told the crew timed out and the delay would be extended as they waited for a replacement.

We have the crew we need. We just got to get them here. The crews that we have, they got to comfort. from certain areas, man. We just don't have them, just going to stand by, just ready to go. Passengers unable to get off. That's when McFadden began recording an employee who tried to calm nerves. We're going to do some snack boxes later with some waters and stuff. We'll get y'all straight away. At one point, calling on this car to keep their spirits high. Y'all got to need everybody put your patience pants on. I need you more than anything. I need your smiles. But that became increasingly difficult as trash bins began to overflow and a bathroom became unusable with its contents now in the aisle.

Who is the world that did that? I heard that. It gets in your feet and then you're walking through the train. Do you have a sign or? All right. Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it. On that restroom? I got you. I got you. I got you. What were things like? Were things deteriorating? They were deteriorating. Yeah. It was, um, yeah, you had to choose the correct

bathroom. Yeah, there was, uh, it was unsanitary. Let's just leave it at that. McFadden, who was on his first Amtrak ride, now looking for a new return trip. I don't think I want to take Amtet home. I'll tell you that right now. I think I'm making plans to try to cancel that ticket and drive home or do something different. In a statement, Amtrak apologized for the delay and says it will be issuing refunds, adding that staff worked with pet owners to provide bathroom breaks. Tom?

Good, they're getting those refunds. Okay, Valerie Castle for us. Valerie, we thank you for that. And we thank you for watching Top Story tonight. I'm Tom Yamerson, New York. Stay right there. More news on the way.