Southern Californians awoke to flash floods, mudslides, power outages and traffic chaos Friday as a powerful storm slammed the region.

Avalanches of mud and debris blocked part of Pacific Coast Highway in Ventura County, flooding the 170 freeway in Hollywood strong winds caused power outages around Santa Barbara and other parts of the coast, and forecasters predicted the winds would continue to gain speed.

The storm hit Camarillo Springs possibly the hardest, with mud pounding into homes and forcing firefighters to go from house-to-house to ensure people were safe. A massive clean-up operation was underway by morning.

The National Weather Service extended flash flood warnings for the Colby, Williams, Madison and Tecolote burn areas in LA County to 10:15 a.m.

The brunt of the weather system known as the "Pineapple Express" previously hit the San Francisco Bay Area on Thursday, flooding freeways, toppling trees and forcing thousands to stay away from work and school. The storm was also blamed for two deaths in Oregon and thousands of power outages in Washington.

A small tornado touched down in South Los Angeles Friday morning, ripping parts of rooftops and downing trees, the NWS confirmed.

A flash flood warning was put in place for Los Angeles County and Ventura County, with burn areas in particular danger due to the potential of mudflows. PCH was closed between Las Posas Road and Yerba Buena Road in Ventura County due to a mudslide, with up to 18 inches of mud on roadway according to the California Highway Patrol.

On Friday from 12 until 4 a.m. there were a total of 46 accidents compared to a total of 8 accidents on the same day last week, the CHP said.

Ventura Road from Wagon Wheel Road south to Stone Creek Drive in Oxnard reopened Friday afternoon after the flooding forced closures through the morning. Heavy rains also caused the shutdown of Sepulveda Basin due to flooding. Burbank closed from 405 Freeway to Balboa.

In Long Beach, a building facade collapsed at a building that houses a home and a liquor store, a city spokesman said. Residents were being escorted out of the home and no injuries were reported.

Power outages hit thousands of customers in LA County, including Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Carson.

Some 11,000 DWP customers were affected, while almost 30,000 customers lost power at some point in the rest of the county, SoCal Edison said.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department bolstered its staffing levels in advance of the rain, with an urban search-and-rescue team on standby, along with swift-water rescue teams and canine search teams.

Winds up to to 70 miles per hour are possible in the mountains and flash flooding may occur near burn areas, according to the NWS. Flash flood watches were issued in Orange County's mountains and foothills, especially the Silverado Canyon.

Less than a week after taking a pounding in the first heavy rains of the year, Southern Californians are expecting for what looks to be a far more intense pummeling of wind, rain and snow.

A homeless man in Oregon died after a tree was blown over in Oregon, while a similarly huge gust blew down an 80-foot fir at a Santa Cruz elementary school. The tree pinned a 6th grader by his arm for 15 minutes until the boy was cut free.

City News Service contributed to this report.

A Hartford man is accused of trying to assault an off-duty Hartford police officer after a car crash, running from police and having drugs in his possession.

Police responded to Broad and Mountford streets at 8:45 p.m. on Thursday after receiving a report that an off-duty officer was being assaulted and obtained a description of the vehicle the assailant was in.

According to police, the suspect, Joshua Suarez, 28, of Hartford, had gotten into a crash with the officer and became enraged when the off-duty officer identified himself as a Hartford police officer and approached him, enraged, police said.

When the officer asked Suarez to calm down, he tried to punch the off-duty officer several times, but the officer dodged the attempts and was able to call 911 for assistance, police said.

For some reason, the officer lost contact with Hartford dispatchers.

But as Hartford Police patrol officers arrived in the area, they saw a vehicle matching the description heading southbound on Broad Street, and tried to stop it, but Suarez kept going, police said.

Soon after, Suarez hit two parked cars on Franklin Avenue and ran, so a Hartford patrol supervisor chased him.

After a struggle, police put Suarez in handcuffs and said he had several bags of suspected crack cocaine, packaged for sale, in his car.

Police found the off-duty officer and determined that he was the victim of motor vehicle accident with Suarez, police said.

The off-duty officer identified the driver as the man who attempted to assault him, and stuck his personal vehicle, police said.

Suarez was placed under arrest and transported to Hartford Hospital for medical treatment, then to Hartford Police Booking.

Suarez, who police said has a prior record, was charged with failure to maintain lane, evading responsibility, second-degree breach of peace, criminal attempt to assault a police officer, reckless driving, engaging police in a pursuit, possession of narcotics, possession with intent to sell, possession within 1,500 feet of a school, unregistered motor vehicle, misuse of number plate and insufficient insurance.

An anonymous person paid the layaway accounts of about 150 people at a Toys "R" Us store in Bellingham, Massachusetts, in an act of holiday cheer that covered $20,000 in merchandise.

Emily Burlingame told NECN that she was not expecting such a random act of kindness when she she went to pay her layaway balance.

"I just went to go pay, and [the cashier] said that the 'layaway angel' took care of the balance," she said.

The mystery woman had visited the store Wednesday, Toys "R" Us said. She asked to pay off every outstanding account.

"It's a very nice surprise," Burlingame said. "Thank you to the 'layaway angel.' Very nice."

Other shoppers at the store were overjoyed when they learned what happened.

"I know the feeling of gratefulness when you get the phone call saying, 'somebody paid off your layaway,'" said Christine Roberts, who was on the receiving end of a similar gesture last year.

"It's a really, really nice thing that was done, so a big thank you, very much," Burlingame said.

Toys "R" Us told NECN the act was an incredible display of what the season is all about.

The identity of the "layaway angel" remains a mystery.

A Yale University professor has filed a complaint against New Haven's police chief over his behavior and a confrontation at the Yale-Army football game in September.

The complaint Yale University Professor of Epidemiology Daniel Weinberger sent to the mayor and Board of Police Commissioners says he witnessed an usher ask Chief Dean Esserman to see his ticket, but Esserman told the usher he had "an all-access pass."

The usher then turned away from the chief and commented to the professor that the chief "was a jerk," the letter says. Then, the chief allegedly screamed at the usher, asked the usher's supervisor that he "be removed from the premises" and threatened to "shut the whole game down" if he did not comply.

Esserman has since apologized, according to the New Haven Register, and told the paper he acted “inappropriately.”

NBC Connecticut tried reaching out to the chief on Thursday night, but we have not heard back.

Esserman told the New Haven Register earlier Thursday that he was not proud of his actions and was “having a bad day but that's not a good enough excuse. When you're wrong, you're wrong.”

City officials said this is the same apology Esserman gave New Haven Mayor Toni Harp and Yale after the incident happened, that this is a personnel issue and they cannot comment further.

The Board of Alderman forwarded the complaint to the board of police commissioners as well as the mayor but several alders said they couldn't say much else.

In his letter, Weinberger went onto say he supports the job New Haven police are doing in addition to the community policing initiatives Esserman put in place since he returned to New Haven in 2011, but he wants to ensure the usher doesn't lose his job over the incident.

The professor also asked the city to look at the chief's behavior to make sure there's not a broader problem in police conduct.

Alders said the complaint will be acknowledged at Monday's meeting, but not discussed.

Gov. Dannel Malloy is asking for U.S. and Connecticut flags to fly at half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Sunday in honor of the victims of the shooting Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown two years ago.

Twenty children and six adults who were killed in the shooting on Dec. 14, 2012.

In a Swift Water rescue executed in the wake of driving rain, firefighters pulled a homeless husband and wife from the raging Los Angeles River Friday morning.

The man was rescued first.

The call was reported at 9:41 a.m. and the man was spotted soon after 10 a.m. A Los Angeles Fire Department diver jumped into the swollen river and the department deployed a helicopter for the search, near the Glendale Boulevard overpass close to Interstate 5.

Footage captured by NewsChopper4 showed him clinging to tree branches inches above the surging water in a section of the river dense with trees and brush between Silverlake and Atwater.

Using a zodiac boat and some rope, the firefighters shuttled the man to the bank of the river.

“I’m just thankful that those people were cruising past," the man told NBC4 as he emerged from the rescue craft.

After rescuers pulled him ashore he told them that his wife was also in the river.

One man has been rescued, he says his wife is up stream, @lafdtalk try info find her in the trees… http://t.co/i9iL0Y97XD

— John Cádiz Klemack (@johnNBCLA) December 12, 2014

The rescued pair are a homeless husband and wife who were living in the riverbed before it swelled with Friday morning's rainwater.

A red and white fire department helicopter hovered low over a grove of trees in the middle of the river, while Swift Water rescuers scoured the water, following reports that a woman's voice was heard nearby.

"We had to weigh our options, the flow of the water was increasing, increasing the risk to our rescuers," said Dusty Clark, an eight-year veteran of the LAFD's Swift Water Rescue Team.

It took rescuers nearly two hours to locate the woman and bring her to safety. They loaded her into a boat and took her to the bank of the river just before noon, bringing the long search-and-rescue to a close.

The Swift Water rescue team is an elite group that practices in this part of the LA River, but almost lost one of their own in Friday's rescue.

"Fortunately I was able to position myself up on an underwater stump and wrap my leg around it," said one of the rescuers.

The couple were taken to a hospital in fair condition on Friday afternoon, officials said.

Meriden police are looking for two brothers in connection with a shooting in October.

A female was shot and injured in her apartment on Franklin Street in October and police have obtained warrants for Emilio Mercado, 21, and Edward Mercado, 23, in connection with the incident.

Police said they might be traveling in a black Honda Accord with Connecticut registration 1AMAG3.

Anyone with information should call Detective Marty Eisner at 203-630-6260.

Hours after two Hartford firefighters appeared in court on unrelated charges, Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra announced that he has created a task force that will be looking into the Hartford Fire Department and advising him over the next three months.

Segarra said he has full confidence in Fire Chief Carlos Huertas and his goal is to get the department back on a positive course, make sure the fire department has the support it needs and to ensure that people of Hartford have a department they can have confidence in.

"Our fire department has... unfortunately had some serious and very tragic events over the last couple of months, most notably the tragic death of Fireman (Kevin) Bell," Segarra said.

He called firefighters heroes, but said public safety cannot be compromised.

"What should not be affected is the people of Hartford's confidence in their first responders," Segarra said.

The task force will include an advisory group of former fire chiefs who will be responsible for command review, looking into resources and equipment and the investigation into the on-duty death of Firefighter Kevin Bell.

It will also include a six-member committee to develop a new code of conduct for the fire department, which will cover conduct both while on-duty and off.

Segarra made the announcement on a day when two Hartford firefighters appeared in court on unrelated charges.

Jeffrey Vendetta, 43, was in court to answer to drunken driving charges and Justin Wood, 25, was in court briefly in connection with an accidental shooting.

When asked how many firefighters are on administrative leave at the time, Segarra responded "four or five."

The mayor is also encouraging first responders to use resources within city when they have issues with drugs, alcohol, mental health or anything else that might affect jobs.

When asked about the investigation into the death of Firefighter Kevin Bell, Segarra said he is "all onboard" if a decision is made to have an outside investigation.

Interstate 91 northbound has reopened in Rocky Hill following a crash involving multiple cars, according to the state Department of Transportation.

Police said injuries are not serious. Witnesses said at least one car rolled over.

The highway was closed for about an hour between exits 23 and 24. All lanes of travel have since reopened.

Check back for updates.

East Hartford police are investigating a robbery at a Laundromat and they are asking for help to identify the person in surveillance photos.

The robbery happened at Squeeky’s Laundry, at 310 Main St., on Dec. 9 and police are asking for help from the public in identifying the individual in the photos because they would like to speak to him about the robbery.

If you have any information about the person, call East Hartford Police Detective Smola at 860-291-7541 or the East Hartford Police Crime Tip Line at 860-289-9134.
 

A Columbia middle school teacher charged in a drunken driving crash after leaving school sick earlier this month has resigned.

Earlier this month, Jessica Duers, 44, of Mansfield, was arrested after getting into a crash on the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 3.

She had taught one class at Horace W. Porter School before leaving to go home sick, according to Columbia Superintendent Laurence Fearon, who said that there was no indication that she was under the influence of anything at school.

Duers was trying to make an illegal left turn from West Main Street to West Avenue in Willimantic and hit a Ford with two people inside, sent it off the road and onto the sidewalk, where an 78-year-old man was struck, police said.

At first the man was unconscious, then he was screaming in pain and medics would soon determine that he had a fractured femur and several injuries, police said.

The two people in the Ford sustained minor injuries and all three were taken to the hospital to be evaluated, but Duers said she was not hurt and did not need medical attention, police said.

As officers questioned her, there was no smell of alcohol, but Duers' speech was slurred, she stared off into the distance and paused during the conversation, according to police.

At first, Duers denied drinking any alcohol and said she took a .5 mg dose of Klonopin and a 1 mg dose of Vexitran, but later admitted to drinking alcohol before the crash and failed several sobriety tests, police said. 

She also admitted to being arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs several times in the past, according to the warrant.

Court officials said Duers has been arrested on driving under the influence charges at least five times since 1997, some under the last name Duers and other times under her maiden name of Fleming.

In the most recent case, she was charged with driving under the influence, second-degree assault with a motor vehicle and restricted turns and failing to signal.

When NBC Connecticut spoke with Duers' husband, Chris, he confirmed the prior arrests and said his wife has struggled with the issue in the past and that she's had past incidents in East Hampton.

"She's a very good person, but obviously has done some regrettable things," he said.

Duers, who was a part-time life skills teacher, a subject similar to home economics, was on paid leave, but the school board has accepted her resignation.

"The Willimantic Police Department is now aware of Mrs. Duers' resignation. [We] have no further comment on this unfortunate incident other than to say that this is now a judicial matter," Cpl. Stanley Parizo, Jr. said in a statement Friday.

When Duers appeared in court earlier this month, a judge set bond at $50,000 and revoked her driving privileges. She is due back in court on Jan. 5.

A car has rolled over on Route 2 eastbound near exit 5 for Pitkin Street in East Hartford, according to state police.

The crash happened right where Route 2 converges with Interstate 84 east and westbound. Lanes that were closed have since reopened, according to the state Department of Transportation.

No injuries have been reported.

Check back for updates.

A farm worker in Wilton was rushed to the hospital Friday morning after the tooth of a boar snagged on his leg while he was moving the animal from a trailer into a pen, according to police.

Police said the 42-year-old man was working at Millstone Farm at 180 Millstone Road. The accident, which occurred around 11 a.m. Friday, was first reported as involving a wild boar.

"The boars have canine teeth which extend out of the mouth, and a tooth accidentally caught the employee's leg as the boar moved past, causing a laceration," Wilton police Lt. Donald Wakeman told The Wilton Bulletin.

The animal wandered off while the injured employee was receiving medical attention but stayed on the property and was later ushered back into a pen, according to police.

Police said the employee was treated at Norwalk Hospital.

The American Museum of Natural History was evacuated Friday afternoon because of a smoke condition inside the iconic building.

Over 3,000 museum attendees and workers poured out onto the street on Manhattan's Upper West Side as firefighters arrived to battle the blaze.

FDNY officials said the fire started at around 3:30 p.m. when a maintenance worker using a blow torch outside the building caused an air conditioning unit to catch fire. The building's heating, ventilation and air conditioning system then sent smoke into the museum.

Eyewitnesses said they saw smoke coming out of light fixtures on the first floor of the museum and then the sprinklers go off.

There are no reports of any injuries.

By 4:30 p.m., officials said the fire had been knocked out and that museum workers were being allowed to reenter the building. It remained closed to the public and an event planned for Friday night had been canceled, the museum's website said.

Museum officials said they were still assessing the extent of the damage inside the museum, which included water damage from the sprinkler system.

The museum is expected to reopen tomorrow.

Police have arrested the woman who tried to pay with a counterfeit $100 bill at a Big Lots store in Milford, then ran from officers who arrived to take her into custody.

According to police, 22-year-old Christina Kipp, of Queens, New York, tried to use the counterfeit cash at Big Lots on Turnpike Square in Milford on Thursday afternoon.

Police chased Kipp and took her into custody. Authorities contacted the Secret Service after confirming that the bill was fake and learned that police in New York City also had an outstanding warrant for Kipp's arrest, according to Milford police.

Kipp has been charged in Milford with interfering with police, breach of peace, first-degree forgery and criminal attempt at sixth-degree larceny. Her bond was set at $100,000.

The man accused of stabbing and killing a taxi driver in Norwalk told police he pulled out a knife when the driver made sexual advances and choked him with his scarf, according to a statement from the suspect released in court Friday.

Ramiro Arcos-Garcia, 32, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, has been charged in the murder of Jackson Pierre-Louis, 51, of Bridgeport. Police said the two were acquaintances.

Garcia initially told police he had been "coerced" into robbing Pierre-Louis because the person pressuring him to commit the crime threatened to hurt his girlfriend, according to Garcia's Miranda statement dated Dec. 12.

He then changed his story and said he ran into Pierre-Louis just after midnight Monday, Dec. 8 after going out for drinks at El Mexicano in Norwalk.

"This taxi driver has flirted with me in the past and has said that if I allowed him to ado anything that he wanted to me, he would give me any amount of money I wanted," Garcia said in the statement.

He told police he got into the car with Pierre-Louis, who was on duty working for Norwalk Yellow Cab, Inc., when Pierre-Louis came onto him. Police said Pierre-Louis is married and has four children.

According to Garcia's statement, Garcia agreed to "sexual things" in exchange for $200, and Pierre-Louis said he would hand over the money at a hotel.

"He started driving and started touching me all over. He tried to kiss me and pull me closer to him by my scarf which was around my neck," Garcia said. "The taxi driver kept trying to kiss and hug me. When I started to resist his advances, he pulled me with more force by my scarf which I felt was beginning to choke me."

Garcia said he took out a knife and started stabbing Pierre-Louis to fight back. He also said he tried to cut off the scarf but couldn't remember if he did that before or after attacking the driver, according to the statement.

Pierre-Louis called 911 himself at 12:16 a.m. to report the stabbing, police said, and investigators found him on Grove Street. An ambulance responded and brought Pierre-Louis to Norwalk Hospital, where he was pronounced dead less than an hour later.

Garcia, who told police he is an undocumented immigrant and has gone by his brother's name, Gerardo Garcia, and the alias David Velez, currently lives in New Jersey but has spent time in Norwalk with his girlfriend and has also lived in New York and West Virginia, according to the statement.

He is also wanted Rockingham County Sheriff's Office in West Virginia on a warrant for kidnapping, felonious assault and carjacking. Police said local investigators have been in contact with authorities in West Virginia.

Bond for Garcia has been set at $2.5 million.

The deadline is looming for enrollment through the state's health care exchange, but at least one customer is hoping for more time.

"It was all going really well, my plans were in my range, but the computer was down so I couldn't get access to another account or something I had," said Courtney Linderman, after she left the Access Health CT office in New Britain.

Linderman said the broker inside had given her her phone number and she would call her, "but I just don't know how long it's going to be."

The spokeswoman for Access Health, former Rep. Kathy Tallarita, was not available for comment. In a news release, she said that as of last Friday, 29,000 Connecticut residents had enrolled so far this year for coverage effective Jan. 1.

Residents can still buy health insurance after Monday, but coverage won't start until March 1.

In addition, people must purchase health insurance by Feb. 15 to avoid hundreds of dollars in penalties on their income tax returns.

A photographer who saw an undercover California Highway Patrol officer point a gun at a crowd during a protest in Oakland said the action seemed to be a justified reaction to what had happened moments before: A protester had hit his undercover partner in the head, and the crowd seemed to be moving in.

"Yeah, it was an appropriate response," Michael Short, 38, of Oakland and a freelance photographer for the San Francisco Chronicle told NBC Bay Area on Friday, two days after the officer pulled the gun at Harrison and 27th streets in Oakland. "I would have been scared if I saw my partner get knocked to the ground. He was justified. I felt threatened by the protesters, too."

He said, before the weapon was pulled, the plainclothes officers had been trying to back away from the crowd, when two protesters shouted, "They're cops, they're undercovers!" At that point, someone in the crowd took off one officer's hat and threw it around, Short said. And then a protester hit the officer in the head.

At a news conference this week, a CHP chief said he was investigating the incident, but in general stood by his officers’ conduct.

The tone of the protests, in response to recent non-indictments of white police officers in the deaths of black men, began to take an ugly turn on Saturday night in Berkeley, when police began to fire tear gas into crowds after small pockets of demonstrators seriously damaged and looted buildings, and set fires in the streets. Over the next few nights, protesters who said they weren't looting told NBC Bay Area they were jabbed with police batons. Several reporters and news photographers have been detained, injured and pepper sprayed during a CHP roundup in Berkeley over the weekend.

The Society of Professional Journalists of Northern California wrote a letter to the mayor and police chief in Berkeley condemning the "outrageous conduct of law enforcement officers." And the organization is drafting a similar letter to the CHP. In turn, police have responded that some protesters have gotten violent and out of hand, as well.

On Friday, Rachel Lederman, president of the National Lawyers Guild, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, said this overall use of "intimidation and use of force" by police violates the demonstrators First and Fourth Amendment rights.

She added: "We are also concerned about CHP's dangerous and indiscriminate use of so called less-lethal munitions during the demonstrations. All of these munitions are potentially lethal or can cause extremely serious injuries and it is unlawful to shoot them into a crowd and at people's heads."

As for the CHP, Lederman said "we are very disturbed that CHP had masked undercover officers with guns provoking the crowd, and actually drawing firearms without even identifying themselves, which is obviously extremely dangerous and could cause crowd members to justifiably defend themselves from these masked armed men."

But Lederman said her guild "will be following up" with Oakland police and the federal monitor, because that department is "responsible for ensuring that mutual aid acts lawfully and in accordance with the OPD Crowd Control Policy."

That policy is part of a federal order that stems from a misconduct settlement that came as result of use of force issues during the Occupy and Oscar Grant protesters in 2010 and 2011.  She said Oakland police can't hide behind mutual aid doing "their dirty work."  Oakland police did not respond for comment.

The CHP also did not respond to email and phone questions on Friday by NBC Bay Area.  However, this week, the CHP defended the agency's use of firing rubber bullets into the crowd, saying that they were just trying to protect themselves from protesters who were hurling bricks and M80s at them and their helicopters.

Golden Gate Division Chief Avery Browne held a news conference with reporters on Thursday, and stood by an old police tactic where officers dress like the crowd to gather intelligence. In addition, it was raining on Wednesday night, and the CHP helicopter wasn't flying overhead.

And much of Browne's version, matched Short's  account, that the officer pulled a gun after his partner had been hit in the head.

Short said, after the officer's partner was hit, the undercover officer, wearing jeans, a brown hoodie and a black Champion vest, pulled out a baton and shouted "Get back, get back." When the crowd didn’t listen and even began to move forward, the officer took his gun out – the image captured on camera.

Meanwhile his partner, dressed in a black mask and gray jacket with a hood, wrestled on the sidewalk with the protester who had struck him on the head. At the news conference, Browne said that man was arrested on suspicion of felony assault on a peace officer.

Browne said the officer later told him: "Chief, I didn't know if I was going to make it out of this thing alive."

Browne also told reporters at the news conference that his officers identified themselves, as is department policy.

But Short told NBC Bay Area that he never heard the officers identify themselves as police officers.  And Short said that neither officer pulled out a badge, as evidenced in the photographs he took.  And at no time did the officers identify themselves as police, Dylan, a demonstrator, told Bay City News.

Short doesn't know how the masked protesters figured out the two plainclothes officers were police. But he said they stood out because they seemed "fit" and "better dressed" than most of the demonstrators.

At the news conference, Browne said the actions of the two plainclothes officers, who he did not identify, would be investigated. But he said he believed they acted appropriately and are on active duty. Both are detectives in the agency's Bay Area auto theft unit, he told reporters.

Still, Browne acknowledged that having a gun pointed at your face at a protest to voice that "Black Lives Matter" could be upsetting.

"The highway patrol is extremely cognizant and very sensitive to the display of a gun," Browne said at the news conference. "It's very disturbing and upsetting to individuals who are attempting to protest, and we recognize that."

Bay City News contributed to this report.

The man at the center of Thursday's dramatic, televised Amber Alert standoff along a Southern California overpass has been booked on suspicion of kidnapping four of his sons and murder in his wife's slaying, police said.

Daniel Perez was booked into the Montebello Jail on the charges after the body of Erica Perez was found in the trunk of a Honda Accord, police said.

Daniel Perez, 43, was taken into custody and his children were rescued Thursday by SWAT team members and the California Highway Patrol on a freeway overpass in San Diego County in dramatic footage captured on TV news.

Montebello detectives traveled to the El Cajon CHP office where they took protective custody of the four children.

The children were unharmed and in good condition.

Detectives took the children to the Montebello Police station where they were later reunited with family members.

Daniel Perez was taken into custody for child endangerment and kidnapping.

Erica Perez, 39, vanished with her four sons and husband nearly a week ago, police said. Erica Perez was last seen Dec. 5.

An Amber Alert was issued for the couple’s four sons late Wednesday after Erica Perez’s body was found.

The dramatic end to the case came after Daniel Perez negotiated on a cellphone after a pursuit began when his car's lojack system signaled a "hit" around 8:30 a.m.

Daniel and Erica Perez's marriage was unstable and has a history of domestic violence, their family told police.

The defense for the man accused of abducting University of Virginia student Hannah Graham is asking the court to enact a gag order in a Fairfax attempted murder case.

Attorneys for Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr. want the court to enact the gag order in response to the prosecution speaking to reporters following each hearing in the Fairfax case. The filing notes how prosecutors called the victim "a saint" following the last hearing. It also referrs to media reports about the specific timing of Matthew's transportation between Fairfax and Charlottesville.

The defense also requested $2,000 to hire their own DNA expert, citing DNA as the only link between Matthew and the assault. The filing says the defense was not provided a copy of the certificate of analysis by the commonwealth but instead got it from the Washington Post.

Authorities have said that DNA under a fingernail of the Fairfax victim provided a link to Matthew. According to a search warrant obtained by NBC29, Charlottesville police found a "wooden tip from a cigar butt" inside Matthew's wallet; the document states that the DNA from that tip provides matches to both the 2005 Fairfax case and the case of Morgan Harrington, a Virginia Tech student found dead in early 2010.

Matthew faces an abduction charge in Graham's case and three felonies in the Fairfax case. He has pleaded not guilty to the Fairfax charges. He has not been charged in Harrington's case.

The hearing for the the protective order request will be Jan. 8.