WRAL Newscasts
7PM News on WRAL - Friday, June 21, 2024
So the reason I chose William Peacels because of their stellar game design program, it's very rare to find a game design program in the United States at all, yet alone in North Carolina. And this place seemed like the right place for me for where I wanted to go and the connections I could make within the program. Turn your hobby into a career in one of the highest paid professions in the country with William Peacel University's Simulation and Game Design program. Master Design 3D Modeling and Programming in a state-of-the-art space with the latest and most remarkable technologies available. Find out more at peace.edu. Six people shot overnight in Durham, one of them, a two-year-old girl left with life-threatening injuries. What the Durham mayor says they are doing to crack down on crime. A dangerous heat spell this weekend means we've issued back-to-back WRAL weather alert days, when it could feel like 107 and the timing for relief to finally arrive. Then, a Wake County woman competing for a coveted spot on Team USA. We're live one-on-one with Ashley Twitchell, per perspective on this next round of the Olympic trials, and what's changed for this Olympian since becoming a mom. Summer is sizzling out of the norm. Thanks for being with us tonight. I'm Ashley Rope. You know, we're usually around 89 degrees this time of year. This weekend, the high is 97. North Carolina is in yellow now, but it's orange on Saturday and then red on Sunday and Monday and so on. Red means a major heat risk, and that's why we are calling Sunday and Monday WRAL weather alert days. Meteorologist Kat Campbell is in the WRAL Severe Weather Center. Kat, that 97 number doesn't even tell the full story. The heat index is much higher. And that heat index is what's going to make it so dangerous. It's unusual to see such a prolonged heat wave this early in the season. Sunday and Monday, both WRAL weather alert days because the heat index could exceed 105, and that may also warrant heat advisories. So let's get into the numbers. Mike Mays and myself updated these this afternoon. 97 is the high tomorrow, Sunday, and Monday. The humidity, not as high tomorrow, and the heat index is 101. That's why tomorrow is in a WRAL weather alert day. It's still hot though. Sunday and Monday is when we have the heat index forecast up to 107. By Tuesday, a nice dip in humidity, but really not a big break from the heat, 95, and that's what it'll feel like. We're already eyeing Wednesday of next week for another potential WRAL weather alert day. We're forecasting 100 degrees, and the heat index is likely to exceed 105 again. Make sure that you are staying hydrated and in the shade, and know the signs of heat exhaustion, cramps, fatigue, confusion. Try to stay inside the more dangerous hours are between noon and 7 p.m. The heat index already in the 90s, tomorrow morning by 11 a.m. By two o'clock we hit 100, and we stay there through at least five o'clock tomorrow afternoon. We do have a cold front coming though. We also have a potential tropical system offshore, I'm tracking both of those systems coming up. Alright Kat, thanks. The heat is bad enough. Now imagine in the midst of it all, not having ample access to clean water. Part of Durham has been under a boil water advisory since around 11 a.m. This is the section we're talking about. It's in the northwest corner, the Archer Woods, Willow Ridge, and Heather Glen neighborhoods. People there could see periods of low or no water pressure allowing bacteria to get into the water. That's why the city wants folks to boil the water before using it. They hope to have everything fixed by tomorrow morning. We now know the name of the man deputies shot during an hours long standoff this week. The SBI says Wake County Deputy Michael Reitman shot 52 year old Jason Lundwall. Lundwall refused to come out of his apartment on Water Oak Drive. Police were trying to serve an eviction notice. Many of Lundwall's neighbors were forced to evacuate their homes. That standoff lasted seven hours. Investigators are looking for the person they say shot a juvenile near a park in Siler City. This happened late last night around 1130 near Bray Park. Investigators say the suspect robbed someone and drove off. Then that person and the juvenile chased the suspect. The suspect fired shots at the other car hitting the juvenile. He went to the hospital. His condition is not known at this time. Six people were shot in eight hours in Durham last night. One of the victims is a two year old girl with life threatening injuries. This now makes 126 people shot in Durham so far this year. W.R.E.L.S. Monica Casey shows us where the violence is concentrated and what leaders are trying to do about this issue. The two year old girl shot in Durham last night is now the third child five years old or younger who has been shot this year. The two adults who were shot with her have minor injuries. I don't see the touch while leaving shit about the solution. Fayetteville Street resident Jerry Smith tells W.R.E.L. He moved to the back of his house because he's worried about bullets coming through his front windows. He hears so much gunfire he didn't even notice it last night. It's like every day, every night and I don't got used to it and I've gotten used to it. So I'm just hoping it don't come my way. Since last Monday there have been three shootings in a quarter mile stretch of Fayetteville Street. A man and a three year old boy shot outside of Walgreens on June 10th, a woman shot in the 1100 block on June 11th and early this morning, three people were shot where the road intersects with Linwood Avenue. A woman there has life threatening injuries. 13 people have been shot in Durham in the last 11 days. One man on June 10th on chalk level road, two people in a domestic incident on Tobler Court on June 11th. Police found the body of a man with multiple gunshot wounds on June 16th on Rightwood Avenue. Three others were shot last night in the 1400 block of East Cornwallis Road. A two year old girl has life threatening injuries. I'm extremely frustrated Durham Mayor Leonardo Williams says he wants to see the city be more proactive with solutions. Coke is on capturing our youth before we lose them. I'm going to work on resources that are, you know, just going to help people be more self-sustaining when it comes to their basic resources of making sure that they have access to jobs. We're going to make sure we have the training programs in Durham, Monica, Casey, WRL News. Police have made arrests in some of these cases over the last two weeks, but not in either of the ones from overnight yet. They're asking anyone with information to come forward. Today Governor Roy Cooper vetoed a bill that would have outlawed wearing cloth masks in public. Medical or surgical grade ones would be okay. Law enforcement would decide whether someone's mask qualifies and you could only wear one if you're sick. As proposed, the change after pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, they say the ban would only be enforced against people who are doing something wrong. Cooper believes the law would hurt people who need masks to protect their health. Why do we want to change the law? I mean, the law was working well as it was. Now it's going to be even more confusing. We don't know if we get some prosecutor who's going to just go after people for wearing masks. The bill also creates a new loophole in campaign finance rules. Republican lawmakers say they plan to override the veto and put it into law. That could happen as soon as next week. Well, if you thought a $650 million renovation sounded expensive, how about a brand new stadium? We've shown you these renderings for weeks. The plans for an upgrade to Bank of America Stadium. Well according to documents from Charlotte City Council, if the funding passes, so does a timeline for a new stadium. They do these upgrades first, and then at some point they would start from scratch. Negotiations with the team's owner could start in April 2037, and the stadium could be opened by 2046. Charlotte City Council will talk about this next week, as well as the proposed renovations. The way County Sheriff's Office is starting to fill in its staffing gap. Their new class of 26 cadets is the highest in nearly a decade, plus today the Sheriff's Office announced a 6.8% pay increase. Cadet pay starts at $54,000, and six months later that can go up to $56,000. We heard from one cadet going through the program. Law enforcement in general, all over the country, has a bad rep, and part of me wants to correct that. The Sheriff's Office is still short about 40 positions. There are two classes going on right now to help fill those spots, and the county just approved 31 more positions to fill the gap even more. The Cumberland County Animal Shelter is in dire need of adoptions. Today the shelter reached full capacity. Adoption fees for large dogs are waived tomorrow to try to get some of these animals out into homes. The shelter is accepting fosters as well as adoptions. The shelter opens tomorrow at 1 p.m. It closes at 5. They're closed Sundays, and then they'll be back open Monday at 11 a.m. Well, a big bummer for Willie Nelson fans in our area. The legendary artist will not perform at Coastal Credit Union Park at Walnut Creek tomorrow. The 91-year-old is not feeling well, and his doctor says he needs to rest for the next four days. He's been traveling as part of his Outlaw Music Festival, going to town to town with Bob Dylan, Robert Plant, and more just legends. In his stead, Lucas Nelson and the family band will play a special set, including Willie's Classics. Next week, President Joe Biden and the First Lady will visit the triangle. He'll be here one day after his debate with Donald Trump. Joe Biden will be in North Carolina a couple of days earlier, actually, at a campaign fundraiser on Tuesday in Charlotte. President Biden will join her in Raleigh next Friday. We're trying to get more information about where exactly they will be visiting during this trip. I'm Lena Tlaeton, the WRAL Live Center, following some breaking news out of the U.S. Olympic trials. So the track and field trials just began in Eugene, Oregon, and already we are seeing records broken. Take a look at this photo here. 16-year-old Quincy Wilson just ran the 400-meter dash at a time of 44.66 seconds. He's 16 years old. This is now a record for anyone under the age of 18. And he won his heat against -- we're talking people much older than he is. He is incredibly impressive. I'm so impressed by the young people who are running in the trials. Some other notable names for you tonight in the women's 800-meter dash. Duke's Lauren Tolbert, UNC's Michaela Page, are running. We will have the results of that tonight at 10 and 11 on Fox 50 and WRAL. In the women's 400-meter dash, Jessica Wright, who went to Howard University but is a hillside grad and a Durham native. She's running in the 400, so we are going to be watching her as well. This is such an exciting time. Ashley, what? He's 16! What? This is unreal. It is amazing. I love the enthusiasm. Thanks, Lena. Some of the nation's best swimmers have ties to our area. And a few will compete in tonight's Olympic swimming trials. Tomorrow, all eyes are on Ashley Twitchell of Kerry. Ahead of her 800-meter swim, she's sharing what's special about this year's competition. No doubt, a certain fan in the stands has something to do with that. Stick around for our live interview with Twitchell in about two minutes. If you're a facilities manager at a warehouse and your HVAC system goes down, it can turn up the heat, literally. But don't sweat it, Granger has you covered. Granger offers over a million industrial-grade products for all your operations, including warehouse HVAC maintenance. And even better, they offer access to experts and fast delivery, so you and your warehouse can both keep your cool. Call 1-800-GRANGER, click Granger.com, or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done. Is your vehicle stopping like it should? Does it squeal or grind when you break? Don't miss out on summer break deals at O'Reilly Auto Parts. It is the seventh straight day of the 2024 Olympic swimming trials. The best swimmers from all over the country are in Indianapolis. And only a very select few will make it to Paris. We know NC State swimmer Katherine Berkoff made Team USA in the 100-meter backstroke. A swimmer from Kerry is looking to make her second appearance at the summer games. Today, Ashley Twitchell advanced to the final in the 800-meter freestyle. She'll go up against Katie Ledecky and six other swimmers in tomorrow's final. Twitchell, joining us now, live from Indianapolis, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me on. Congratulations on making it to the finals tomorrow. How are you feeling after this morning's event? I'm feeling good. The 800 is a fun event for me. It's a little shorter. And so the 1500 was kind of my main focus. And so I actually didn't even know how I was going to do the 800. So I'm excited to be in the final and see what I can do tomorrow night. What made you decide that you wanted to do the 800? I just, this is my fifth Olympic trials. And it's the most fun I've had. It's the most relaxed I've been. After the 1500, I figured, why not take the opportunity and see what I can do in the 800? It's so great to hear that this is the most fun that you're having. You competed in the Tokyo Olympics, and now you're hoping to go to Paris. A lot has changed since then. You're a mom now. So I'm curious, as you talk about, you just, your happiness and how good you're feeling. I'm curious how your perspective on training and competing at this level has changed. And my perspective has definitely changed a lot. I really didn't know what to expect after having my son and getting back into it. It was kind of like a clean slate and lots of fun. It's also been frustrating at times having the progress and be a little slower than I thought it would be. But just being here and having my son locked him, be able to experience it and see him so excited in the crowd. I mean, he doesn't really know what he's cheering for, but to see him there and having so much fun, it definitely gives me a new perspective and reminds me to just have fun with it and make the most of it that I can. We're showing pictures now of you and Lachlan. They're so sweet. I also want to play some video. I love this video of Lachlan in the stands. Let's watch. This is the sweetest video. What I particularly love is that Lachlan's saying your name, not go mommy. Yeah. And so that's what I mean. He just copying what everyone else is saying, so he doesn't get it and it's just a reminder to me. He doesn't know if I get first or last and so that's really special, just a reminder to know that he loves me no matter what. My family loves me no matter what and so I'm just really here having fun and of course I want to do the best I can, but that's just kind of a bonus. No kidding. It's got to make you feel a little bit looser as you get into the water, too, having that perspective. I've got a two and a half year old as well. And I can't help but wonder from one mom to another, it takes so much sacrifice to train at your level. It also takes a lot of sacrifice to be a mom. And I imagine at times those are at odds with each other and can weigh on you. Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely been tough to find kind of the perfect balance and I don't know that the perfect balance really exists, but my husband and I have gotten into a really good rhythm of training and I do train a little bit less than I did kind of pre-pregnancy and pre-having a kid, but it's what works best for us and I really don't sit still at all during the day. There's no relaxing like I used to between doubles, but I just figure that's kind of extra dry land and the past few years have been so fun and so fulfilling kind of training and competing and getting to travel the world with him and it's been so fulfilling getting to do that with Lachlan. Yeah, that's amazing. So you train out of the Triangle Aquatics Center real quick. When you're not training there, I've got to ask where do you and your family like to spend your time? I personally love downtown Kerry Park. Yeah, that's amazing and we're so blessed. I mean, there are so many amazing parks in the Triangle area. You know, I could go to a new one every single day for a month, which is so cool. I love story time at the We Live in Apex, so the Apex library. I thought, yeah, the parks are amazing and the pool. You love swimming. So it's fun to go to the pool with him and have it be not training, just fun and splashing around with him. Yeah, exactly. All the best tomorrow, all the best moving forward. Let's keep in touch. We'll be thinking of you and cheering you on. Thank you so much. The Olympic swimming trials continue tonight on WRAL. Another local swimmer, Claire Kurzan, has one last chance to make Team USA. She's swimming in the 200 meter backstroke to other locals to watch for tonight. Quentin McCarty and Ryan Held in the men's 50 freestyle. Let's shift gears now back to weather. If you're heading to the beach this weekend, you really need to know about the high risk of rip currents this weekend. There have been at least 90 rip current rescues so far at the coast this week. Drone video shows one of them at Oak Island. How about this? Rescue crews saved kids who drifted 2,000 feet from shore. The currents and the wind kept them from getting back to the beach. The rescue lasted less than 30 minutes and the children were returned to their parent. A cat, one of the things that I thought was amazing about that rescue was they were able to use a drone to find them so that they could then send the rescue crews. Absolutely. Thank goodness that we had clear skies for drone flying because that's not always the case, especially with these days where there's a rip current risk. So please, if you're headed to the coast this weekend, pay attention to the flags. Not all beaches are under high risk tomorrow, but there will be some. This weekend for us here at home, limit your time outside. If you can, 97 Saturday, 97, but more humid Sunday and look at these lows. We only get down to 76 for the low at night. This is prolonged heat. Today was our ninth day in a row in the 90s and we've got seven more at least to go. 6 a.m., 72 already. By the time we get to about 10 a.m., it's 83, warming up to 90 by lunchtime, 97 at 4 o'clock, still mid 90s as we near dinner time. When Durham at the D-Bap, the sprinklers have been on much of the day as they work to keep that grass healthy. The good news is we do have some rain in the forecast, not a ton, but a quarter of an inch for the areas in green here and closer perhaps to half an inch for the areas in blue. And that's over the next week. Small rain chances this weekend, that chance 50% Monday is so it's worth scattered Monday. Our best chance for rain looks like it may come next Thursday with a cold front. So let's talk about our big picture. So keeping an eye on this system for potential tropical development, that chance is going down as it starts to move inland, we're not really going to see impacts from that system. But we will see a drop in humidity from that cold front. It gets here Monday, it brings that 50% chance of rain in storms, Tuesday still hot but less humid behind that front. And then the stronger cold front arrives Thursday next week and this should put in into the unbearable heat. As long as it passes through and doesn't still, it's also going to bring a better chance of rain and thunderstorms. So our tropical outlook for this system, I mean it's chances are really starting to go down here pretty soon because it's moving inland and ashore. The model plots do carry it here closer to the coast, however it will have already fizzled out by then. So I just want to let you know that don't let any model plots that you see floating around online scare you with that system. We also have this system which is more worth watching in the southern Gulf of Mexico. About a 60% chance of development over the next seven days and the next name on the list is Beryl. Your seven day forecast is a hot one, 97 degrees, three days in a row, Sunday and Monday are more humid with a heat index over 105. That is why they are W. Wario weather alert days, less humid Tuesday than 100 on Wednesday. But here comes that cold front on Thursday, a little less hot down to 90 by Friday. A little less, thanks Kat. 25 years after Hurricane Floyd nearly wiped Princeville off the map the historic town is getting millions of dollars to prevent a future disaster. That's next. So the reason I chose William Peace was because of their stellar game design program. It's very rare to find a game design program in the United States at all the Elle and North Carolina and this place seemed like the right place for me for War I to go and the connections I can make within the program. Turn your hobby into a career in one of the highest paid professions in the country with William Peace University's simulation and game design program. Master design 3D modeling and programming in a state-of-the-art space with the latest and most remarkable technologies available. Find out more at peace.edu. Breaking news, the designer can give you the kitchen of your dreams. I'm Dana Merrill, the owner of the designer in North Raleigh. I am true Merrill. I am the project manager. The designer is a lovely kitchen bath and closet remodeling company. We do pretty much any of the utility spaces in your house. If you want to store things in your cabinets, if you want to work on things on your countertops, if you want to have a floor that can get wet or muddy, we're the place to help you fix your home up. We are at the designer in North Raleigh, located at 3030 Wake Forest Road in the Holly Park Plaza. We would love to see you or visit our website at thedesignery.com. We're one day into summer, but it feels like it's been summer for weeks, right? No doubt, folks, we'll head to Fantasy Lake near Rolesville to get a break from the heat. Owner Daniel Cox says, "While the water there is cool, that's really not enough. Everyone has to drink a lot of water, and that includes the park's lifeguards." We do 10-minute rotations on the guards to where every station they're at for 10 minutes, and then they switch, and we take water out to them. They have an air-conditioned guard shack where they go into after their shift. They're typically out there one hour, and then maybe 50 minutes to an hour, and then they come in the guard shack and it's air-conditioning. The park also offers cool shelters for their visits. $11 million will go to a town in Edgcombe County in hopes of protecting it from severe storms and flooding. Princeville was among the towns hit hard by Hurricane Floyd in 1999. The town's levy failed, submerging the town in flood waters. In some areas, the water rose 23 feet and took 10 days to recede. FEMA aims to use these $11 million to build better stormwater management, water distribution, and power systems. Today marks 61 years since our state chartered the UNC School of the Arts. The General Assembly moved forward with the school in 1963. The city, Winston-Salem, wanted the school badly. They paid up big. Citizens raised $850,000 in a two-day phone drive. The art school opened on the campus of Gray High School in 1965, and today UN CSA is one of the top-performing art schools in the country. Thanks for being with us here on this Friday night. Have a wonderful weekend. Keep watching WRL news over the Air Channel 34 and Spectrum Channel 1257. If you're a facilities manager at a warehouse and your HVAC system goes down, it can turn up the heat. Literally. But don't sweat it, Granger has you covered. Granger offers over a million industrial grade products for all your operations, including warehouse HVAC maintenance. And even better, they offer access to experts and fast delivery, so you and your warehouse can both keep your cool. Call 1-800-GRANGER, click Granger.com, or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done.