Police armed with rifles and backed by air units surrounded a Southern California home overnight after receiving a 911 call of a woman gunned down inside the residence — only to learn that the call was a "swatting" prank on a teen whose viral "Damn, Daniel" video has captivated the Internet.

The caller reported just after 1 a.m. Tuesday they had shot their mother dead with an AK-47 assault rifle at a home in the 6200 block of Hamilton Drive in Riverside, prompting officers to swarm the neighborhood east of Los Angeles with guns drawn, said Lt. Kevin Townsend of the Riverside Police Department.

The family came out of the home and told police no one inside had been shot, and they had not placed the 911 call.

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While speaking with the family, officers learned that a teen who lives there is behind the "Damn, Daniel" viral video. The family told police they've been receiving phone calls from strangers ever since the online video gained fame.

Police cleared the scene and dismissed the call as a swatting hoax.

In the video, a teen repeatedly says "Damn, Daniel," marveling over another teen's fashionable footwear.

"Damn, Daniel. Back at it again with the white Vans!" the teen gushes.

The video, posted on Twitter on Feb. 15, has spawned numerous memes and parodies.

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They're not just for tech companies anymore, nap pods have come to the campus of UC Berkeley.

The pods are the result of an initiative led by students, who reached out to library and Student Union officials to designate four areas as “REST zones."

REST stands for Relaxation Enhancing Study and Tranquility. One of the zones is located in the student center in Eshleman Hall.

There, a nap pod is open for all students in the meditation room. Comfy chairs have been placed in three other buildings: Bechtel Engineering Center, Wurster Hall, and the Tang Center.

The university hopes students will use the areas to nap and rest in between their studies.

Many students are grateful the REST Zones arrived a few weeks before mid-terms.

“Sometimes, where we live is really far from campus so it's really hard for us to take naps so having these stations Is a lifesaver,” student Grace Mendoza said.

“It’s important to have this kind of facility so that we can take a rest in the middle of the day, or de-stress,” sophomore Andrew Tu said.

University administrators expect several more rest zones will be designated throughout the year.

The zones are funded by student fees. the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Student Services and Fees, according to campus newspaper the Daily Californian.

A woman upset about being asked to stop smoking on an MTA bus stole the vehicle and drove it for several blocks on a busy Manhattan street, according to MTA officials and police. 

Officials said the woman hijacked an M101 bus Tuesday morning near the East 96th Street stop in East Harlem, then drove it for about three blocks. 

The incident unfolded when the woman, in her 50s, lit a cigarette on the back of the bus, authorities said. When the driver asked her to put it out, she allegedly got upset and refused to get off the vehicle.

The driver pulled over at East 97th Street and Third Avenue and let the other passengers off so they could catch another bus. He also called police. 

The woman got behind the wheel and sped off as the driver was helping other passengers off the bus, authorities say.

A second bus blocked the woman's path at East 100th Street and Third Avenue. Police arrived a short time later and took the woman into custody.

Police say that the woman allegedly said "people were following me."

She was taken to Metropolitan Hospital for evaluation. Charges against the woman weren't immediately available.

The exit 28 onramp to Interstate 84 East in Southington is closed after a truck rolled over.

No additional information was immediately available.
 

Nearly 800 people have been held at Guantanamo Bay prison since prisoners begun arriving there in January 2002 and 91 still remain today. 

All would be transferred somewhere else under President Obama's plan to close the facility. Half are facing criminal charges, while 35 have been deemed eligible for transfer to other countries. Another 10 have been determined to be "unreleasable." 

The detainees are from more than a dozen countries, but most — 52, including 29 who've been cleared for release — are from Yemen. The detainees include Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a Pakistani citizen who was "the principal architect" of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, according to the 9/11 Commission Report. 

Abu Zubaydah, suspected of being an al-Qaida operative and 9/11 plotter, is also being held there. He was waterboarded and lost an eye while held by the CIA after his capture in 2002. 

Click through for more on the detainees being kept at the facility. 

Ted Cruz told Fox News Monday night that he would support federal law enforcement agents actively looking for undocumented immigrants to deport.

"Of course you would," Cruz told Fox News' Bill O'Reilly. "That's what [Immigrations and Customs Enforcement] exists for. We have law enforcement that looks for people who are violating the laws that apprehends and deports them."

The position matches the tone of Donald Trump, who suggested to NBC News in November that there would be a "deportation force" under his presidency.

A Sikh comedian and YouTube star who was performing at UC Berkeley over the weekend said that the Transportation Security Administration made him take off his turban in private during the screening process, then walk in public with his bare head to retie the traditional head covering in the bathroom.

Jasmeet Singh, also known as Jus Reign, began tweeting late Sunday night about his experience at San Francisco International Airport. He injected some self-deprecating humor into the situation, joking online about his public embarrassment. Sikh men are required to cover their hair at all times.

"I've flown many times before and never been asked to remove my turban," Singh said.

"I asked if it's okay if I leave it on" and the agents could "pat it down," he said. They refused.

By Tuesday morning, his story had been picked up all across the globe, mostly because of his stinging Twitter comments, such as: "Hey dude, a shoe is not a turban. All I asked was for a mirror bruv."

In a Skype interview from Ottowa, where he was on his way to perform a comedy routine Tuesday night, Singh reiterated his story, saying he had no problem with taking off the turban but felt a "lack of respect" by agents who didn't seem to realize that forcing him to put the head covering back on in public is "embarrassing" for most Sikhs.

"I felt frustrated," he said."It's like having someone ask you to take your pants off."

Then he added:  "Unlike a hat or a shoe, a turban takes more time. I gotta make sure I look crisp."

Harry Singh, who owns Tom's Outdoor Furniture in Redwood City, agreed.

"It's not simply that we just wrap it up like this," he said. "It has to be well, nicely cleaned, and proper. We can only do in front of a mirror."

TSA spokesman Nico Melendez said the agency is looking into the matter and had not received a formal complaint from Singh. The TSA manages the private company, Covenant Aviation Security in South San Francisco, whose employees do the baggage screening at SFO.

But according to documents provided by the Sikh Coalition, the Department of Homeland Security received a similar complaint from a Phoenix traveler in 2008, and promised in 2012 that the TSA would provide mirrors in these booths across the country.

"They agreed, and they didn't do it here," coalition senior staff attorney Gurjot Kaur said by phone from New York City. "For a Sikh to be without their turban in public is akin to being naked. It's very humiliating."

Singh's experience is the second in less than a month during which a Sikh-American was stopped at the airport for wearing a turban.

Waris Ahluwalia said attendants at the airport in Mexico City barred him from boarding his Aeroméxico flight back to New York City on Feb. 8 because he didn't want to take off his turban in public.

The airline has since issued an apology.

"This incident inspires us to make sure that we strengthen the customer service protocols," the statement read in part.

Singh said he had Ahluwalia's experience in his own mind when he simply put his long hair in a bun and covered it with a bandana when he walked along the public airport terminal to put his turban back on. He's shown his hair before, but thought it would be more horrifying for those more observant than he is.

Sikhism, a 500-year-old religion founded in India, requires its male followers to wear a turban and beard and keep their hair uncut. Many members of the Sikh community have objected to the practice of frisking turbans, calling it unnecessary in a world with machines for body scanning and metal detection.

"Considering all the screening that they do and all the technology, you'd think they'd be able to use it to look through our turbans and see if there is anything in there," Harkeeret Kaur said. "It's just our hair." 

As of 2010, U.S. guidelines no longer require air passengers to remove turbans if doing so makes them uncomfortable. They may, however, be subject to additional security screening, including pat-downs by TSA officials.

The Toronto-based comic said he had never been asked to take his turban off, but eventually relented because he was told he couldn't board if he didn't. The agents let him take off his turban a private room, he said, where his head cloth was sent through an X-ray machine for "safety" reasons.

"After finding absolutely nothing wrong because a turban is just cloth and the whole thing is stupid I ask for a mirror to tie it back again," Singh tweeted.

Singh said the agent then told him he could put his turban back on if he walked to the bathroom.

"FAM WHAT WAS THE POINT IN TAKING ME TO THE PRIVATE ROOM IF U JUST TELL ME TO WALK OUT TO THE NEAREST RESTROOM TO PUT IT BACK ON AGAIN," he tweeted.

Singh said the ordeal, which garnered media attention across the globe, won't deter him from honoring his faith, or from cracking jokes.

"I know dudes that don't even wear turbans to airports anymore," he tweeted, "because they have to deal with this bull---- but I choose to cuz i look swanky." 

NBC Bay Area's Peggy Bunker contributed to this report.

A 23-year-old woman was taken to the hospital after crashing into the deck of a house on Monday night.

Police responded to the area near Better Val-U, on Norwich Road, at 8:59 p.m. to investigate a car hitting a house and found a 2002 PT Cruiser driven by a 23-year-old local woman.

Police said the driver went off the road, through the Better Val-U parking lot and hit the deck of 665 Norwich Road.

Police said there was some structural damage to the house and the Plainfield building inspector determined the building was safe.

Cassidy was transported from the scene as a precaution and police are investigating the crash.

A church in Waterbury is leading the effort for congregations across the state to deliver water to Flint, Michigan as it continues to deal with a lead contamination crisis.

The pastor of Grace Baptist requested that every congregation in the Connecticut State Missionary Baptist Convention donate at least 50 cases of water to be driven to Flint.

Then, began pouring into churches shortly and Grace Baptist exceeded the goal.

Residents of Flint have been directed to use bottled water since news broke that the city’s water supply had become contaminated with lead following a switch in the municipal supply source.

The chairman of Grace Baptist’s board said the church believes it’s their responsibility to do what they can for the people of Flint as they wait for the government to find a solution.

“We feel like this is our mission because of the way that the government is acting now. They're a little slow in doing this and the people are in dire need there,” Deacon Thomas Piland said.

The church has partnered with a congregation in Flint that will distribute the water once it’s delivered.

On Saturday, February 27, a tractor-trailer will be loaded with the bottles of water the churches collected and Grace’s pastor plans to travel with the donations to Flint on Monday, Feb. 29.

An attorney for the family of a 21-year-old University of North Texas student fatally shot by a campus police officer in December says she has evidence proving the shooting was not justified and is worried the case is being pushed through the system without a full and fair investigation.

Ryan McMillan was killed at the intersection of West Oak and Fry streets, just north of the UNT campus, Dec. 13, 2015. Dashcam video released by the university showed McMillan, while holding a hatchet in his right hand, advance on UNT Police Cpl. Stephen Bean while repeatedly saying "shoot me."

McMillan continued advancing despite Bean's orders to "back away." Bean then shot and killed McMillan, police said.

Prior to the shooting, McMillan was suspected of using the hatchet to smash the windows of several parked vehicles in the area, according to police.

Renee Higginbotham-Brooks, the attorney for McMillan's parents, released a statement saying, "police have failed to review all the evidence in the case" before an upcoming grand jury hearing into the shooting.

During a news conference in Denton Tuesday morning, Higginbotham-Brooks and Dexter Simpson, a criminologist and former police officer, addressed the media, saying they had several witnesses to the shooting who said the officer overreacted and had not been threatened by McMillan.

According to Higginbotham-Brooks, witnesses said McMillan was killed while he had his hands to his side, with his wrists up, while holding a Boy Scout hatchet in a non-threatening manner.

Higginbotham-Brooks said the officer should have used non-lethal means to detain McMillan, whom she added was acting like a typical, reckless college student out celebrating his 21st birthday.

"There are things that are ordinary. Ryan McMillan did what an ordinary college student would do — all college students do. He became intoxicated on his 21st birthday. In his extreme intoxication, he committed vandalism," Higginbotham-Brooks explained. "Vandalism is normal behavior throughout this country on college campuses. What is not normal is for an agent of a university to immediately use deadly force against a student when there are other non-lethal forms of force that should have been used."

"No Tasers, chemical sprays or tolerance were afforded this young man," said Simpson, who also spoke repeatedly about the Use of Force Continuum, a policy that guides a police officer's acceptable use of force.

Higginbotham-Brooks said her team has talked with "four key eyewitnesses who witnessed Ryan McMillan’s killing, and all four witnesses do not believe Ryan McMillan threatened UNT Police Cpl. Stephen Bean before he was killed."

"The four witnesses further believe that Officer Stephen Bean had ample time to use non-lethal force and that he overreacted," she said in a press release.

Simpson said during Tuesday's news conference that the police department has not commented on what kind of non-lethal weaponry Bean may have had at his disposal.

Higginbotham-Brooks said neither she nor the family have been granted access to McMillan's autopsy, saying officials refused to release it citing the ongoing investigation. Toxicology reports can take up to 60 days from the date of autopsy to receive.

The Texas Rangers are investigating the shooting.

Chuck E. Cheese's in Manchester will be hiring a security guard after a dozen people were involved in a brawl over the weekend. 

The security guard will start working immediately for peak hours, which are Saturday and Sunday between 3 p.m. to 9 or 10 p.m., Alexis Linn, PR manager for the franchise, said. 

Police are still looking for the group of people apart of the all-out brawl caught on camera at Chuck E. Cheese's on Sunday.

The incident began between two women at the restaurant at 82 Buckland Street and might have started after the two bumped into each other, according to Manchester police.

It quickly escalated to include about 12 people, police said, and two children suffered minor injuries when they were knocked down during the brawl.

The group involved in the fight left before officers arrived.

Police are reviewing video of the incident to try and identify those involved.

Chuck E. Cheese's has said they are "regretful of the situation" in a statement on Monday.

A Connecticut couple who lost their baby boy to cancer marked his second birthday by buying dinner for a family of strangers celebrating the birthday of their own young son. Now the restaurant where it happened wants to keep the acts of kindness going.

First & Last Taverns in Avon, Plainville and Glastonbury decided to honor the memory of 17-month-old Luke Dunn, who died of cancer, with a pay-it-forward effort of their own after witnessing what they called a "beautiful act of kindness" on Saturday.

Saturday would have been Luke's birthday and his parents, Shane and MaryJo Dunn, wanted to celebrate it by performing an act of kindness to keep his spirit alive. 

What they did was give a $50 gift card to family dining at First & Last Restaurant in Glastonbury with a little boy who looked to be around Luke's age.

The Dunns left before the family could thank them for their generosity and read the card they left behind, which described Luke's journey and asked the family to pay it forward in his memory.

The recipients — who were out that night to celebrate their own son's third birthday — were nearly in tears.

Then, they purchased a gift card of their own to buy dinner for another family, according to restaurant manager Max Rickis.

MaryJo Dunn said the restaurant reached out to her about the pay-it-forward effort and she is honored that her son is being remembered in such a positive way.

First & Last shared the details about the effort on their website.

"We were so touched by what happened we decided we didn't want this selfless act to end there. That's why we started our Pay It Forward Program. At our restaurants we are fortunate enough to be a community gathering place. We feel that we see the best people walk through our doors, and our Pay It Forward Program is a great way for us to give back.  #FNLPAYITFORWARD," the First & Last in Glastonbury posted on its website. 

The restaurants have posted nomination forms on their websites and will pick one recipient per week.

They will keep the nominations anonymous, but will reach out to the people who made the chosen nominations.

Here are the links:

Avon First & Last

Glastonbury First & Last.

Plainville First & Last

A Watertown, Connecticut, volunteer firefighter and his wife accused of punishing their children by making them stand in a locked bathroom for long periods of time have been arrested again. 

George Barnes, 45, a Watertown volunteer firefighter and Nancie Barnes, 47, were arrested on Tuesday on warrants stemming from the original child abuse investigation starting at the end of January. The original arrest was for crimes against two of their children and the most recent arrest is for the other three, police said. 

In January, they were charged with cruelty to persons, unlawful restraint, and risk of injury to a minor. The couple adopted four of the children and are guardians of a fifth child. 

Police said since the original arrest in January, two other children described isolation in the bathroom as punishment and the oldest child said George grabbed them by the throat and then was pushed by Nancie. 

In January, police said one of the couple's adopted children was locked in the bathroom from September to mid-December when the Department of Children and Families came to the house, according to police. The DCF removed the children from the house temporarily.

Baby monitors were used to see if the child was standing when he or she was "supposed to be," police said. Meals were brought to the child during the three months, police said.

All five children, ranging in age from 9 to 18, told police they had been punished various times and would need to stand in the bathroom and read for extended periods of time, Watertown police said. 

Police said the children were allowed out to go to sleep or to school while confined to the bathroom.

According to court documents, the couple didn't think they were doing anything wrong. 

Both Nancie and George accused of risk of injury to a minor, cruelty to persons, unlawful restraint and disorderly conduct. George is also accused of assault. 

The children are still in DCF placement, according to police. 

The Barneses were released on $10,000 bonds each and are expected to appear in court on Feb. 24. 

A public defender is representing the couple.

About 20 students at an elite San Francisco high school walked out of class Tuesday morning in protest of what they see as racist behavior from fellow students.

Lowell High School students walked out of class around 9 a.m. and headed toward San Francisco City Hall for an 11 a.m. rally, where they were greeted by a representative from the mayor's office and by Supervisors Norman Yee and Malia Cohen, as well as by the Rev. Amos Brown, president of the local branch of the NAACP. The students are hoping to talk to school officials at a board meeting Tuesday night.

The school’s Black Student Union group said students found racist imagery on the windows of the school's library earlier this month.

Photos of prominent African-Americans — including Kanye West, President Barack Obama, and a shot of Ice Cube and Chris Tucker in the movie "Friday" — were taped to the window alongside a printout that said "HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH #GANG," the group said.

The display, which prompted students to organize Tuesday’s rally calling for change, is one example of the types of racist comments and uncomfortable climate many black students experience at Lowell, students said. Rev. Brown said the walkout is "an indication that courage has not skipped the Millennial generation."

A school district representative said the person responsible for the display has been dealt with but did not elaborate.

Lowell's principal, Andrew Ishibashi, condoned the walkout and admitted the school has a long way to go. He said he'll be meeting with community leaders, "continue the listening," then implement "corrective action."

Lowell has 132 teachers, but only four of them are African-American, one faculty member told NBC Bay Area. San Francisco Unified spokesperson Gentle Blythe said the district has been trying to attract more African-American candidates for teaching positions, but the nationwide teacher shortage has compounded the issue.

A number of students said they had experienced incidents of being called "ghetto" or dirty, of having other students refuse to believe they could be taking Advanced Placement classes, and of being told by adults that they needed to change the way they looked to fit in. Several students said they did not feel like they belonged at Lowell.

"We go to the same school, we passed the same test, so what makes us different?" one student said. "We are just as smart as everyone at the school, we worked just as hard to get there."

"I personally feel that the school can do more," Lowell sophomore Charlotte Schwartz said. "But, being someone that believes they can do more, I also believe that they’re taking a step at all, which is more than most schools would do for this."

Lowell, the city’s top-rated academic high school, has an enrollment of 2,650 students. Fewer than 60 of them are African-American.

The students planned to gather Tuesday night at 6 p.m. at the school district’s board meeting at 555 Franklin St. to release a list of demands.

NBC Bay Area's Chuck Coppola and Mark Matthews, and Bay City News contributed to this report.

Stop & Shop continues to negotiate with five local unions representing cashiers and other personnel as current contracts come to an end this February as threats of a strike loom.

Five locals with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 919, which represents 35,000, are in talks with Koninkliije Ahold the parent company of Stop & Shop.

The talks include concerns over health care premiums and wage increases.

According to a notice put out by the union, if new contracts are rejected, employees will strike as early as Sunday.

"These people have worked for you for years and you’re treating them like… garbage," Jackie Zimmerman of East Haven told NBC Connecticut. "Basically, like they don’t matter."

Advertisements have been seen on Craigslist hiring temporary Stop & Shop employees for $16 an hour in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Joe Steele of East Haven said he has friends who work for the grocery chain and they don't know what will happen.

"Emotionally draining," Steele said. "Physically and mentally."

Voting will take place on Feb. 28. 

Stop & Shop said this in a statement: 

The Stop & Shop New England and New York Metro Divisions are working diligently and in good faith to reach a fair new contract that continues to offer competitive wages and benefits for our 34,000 store associates in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut who are represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Union Locals 328, 371, 919, 1445, and 1459. There are approximately 12,500 Stop & Shop Associates in Connecticut who are represented by UFCW.

It is important that any agreement responds to the competitive challenges facing our industry and puts our people and our divisions in the strongest possible position to succeed. We have a long history of reaching contracts with the unions that represent our Associates without any disruption to their work or customer service and we have no reason to believe that this time will be any different.

Dan Corcoran contributed to this report. 

Connecticut Natural Gas had to turn off gas meters and repair the gas system in the Berlin Historic District on Feb. 14, but one customer still hasn't been able to finish repairs.

That day, CNG said it had tracked the problem to a frozen gas regulator on Farmington Avenue. There were 298 customers in the cold.

The Berlin Congregational Church was cold until last Thursday, its kitchen is still a mess and now the pastor's frustrated he wasn't notified at home about the gas outage so he could set up a propane heater and save the heating loop.

Rev. Mark Pilletere said, "We had church events that were scheduled last week that we had to cancel."

In the dining hall, where the church hosts community events, there's new baseboard heating. There were 20 breaks in the dining room heating loop and four more in the kitchen. Standing water wrecked the kitchen flooring.

There could be asbestos in the kitchen flooring that has to be handled carefully.

"We have so many events scheduled that we have to have rescheduled or moved to other sites," said Pilletere. "We have an event scheduled for Mar. 5, our annual pasta supper and auction. Thankfully the East Berlin Fire Department has opened up their hall to us."

A CNG spokeswoman said the company worked with the town government to notify customers about the outage.

A school bus converted into a New York Jets fan bus lit on fire on Tuesday.

Stamford Fire Department was dispatched just after 7:00 p.m. after getting reports of a shed or house on fire on the corner of Club Road and Kerr Road. 

Upon arriving, firefighters found a school bus that was turned into a NY Jets fan bus, used for tailgating games, completely engulfed in flames. The bus was only 20 feet from the house. 

The fire was complicated by multiple propane tanks stored in the bus that became involved in the fire. 

The cause of the fire is under investigation. 

Firefighters were working to put out a fire that started in chimney in Manchester on Tuesday night.

Manchester Fire Department were on the scene of the fire on Henry Street. 

Two people were home when the fire broke out and one person was treated at the scene, the fire chief said. 

The cause of the fire has not been determined yet. 

The baby sitter for the Staten Island baby who died Monday in what the medical examiner deemed a homicide has been arrested, police said. 

Gloria Fields, 31, has been arrested on charges of second-degree murder, seven counts of assault, first-degree sex abuse and two counts of acting in a manner injurious to a child, police said. 

Attorney information wasn't immediately clear.

Fields was baby sitting 16-month-old Anthony Delgado, whose family lives a floor above her in an apartment building on Steuben Street in the Park Hill neighborhood, police said. Officers were called to the home Monday and found the baby in cardiac arrest. 

The baby was pronounced dead at Staten Island University Hospital North, police said. Sources told NBC 4 New York he had bruising to his head and torso, and the medical examiner confirmed Tuesday the child died of blunt force injuries to the areas. 

The death was immediately deemed suspicious, and police interviewed the child's baby sitter. She was arrested after the medical examiner determined Anthony's cause and manner of death Tuesday. 

Neighbors set up a small vigil for the baby outside his home Monday night, as police were seen inside the boy's apartment and the apartment of his baby sitter. 

"It's devastating, it really is," said neighbor Kari Padilla. "I have children of my own, I have grandchildren, and to hear about a little baby being found like that is terrible." 

Two people were killed and another was critically injured when a big rig, a stakebed truck and a car collided in the Castaic area Tuesday morning.

The crash took place on State Route 126 at Chiquito Canyon Road, causing the stakebed truck to spill lemons across the highway, according to the California Highway Patrol.  State Route 126 was shut down in both directions while crews cleared the roadway.

CHP investigators say the stakebed truck was heading westbound on Highway 126 when a Toyota Corolla on Chiquito Canyon Road made a right turn onto the highway and the two collided.

The impact sent the Toyota careening about 150 feet down the road, the CHP said. The stakebed truck veered into the eastbound lanes and collided head-on with another big rig.

The driver of the big rig and the driver of the Toyota died in the wreck, the CHP said. The driver of the stakebed truck was taken to the hospital and walked away with minor injuries, investigators said.

Other drivers, many of whom waited for hours as the road was cleared, said they consider the intersection dangerous.

"The traffic travels so quick on this highway and there are so many blind turns that usually by the time you pull off a side street the traffic is already on you," said Phillip Agapiou.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify details of the occupants of each vehicle and the moments of the collision.