Traffic along Interstate 805 and Interstate 5 in San Diego’s South Bay seems to be worsening by the day, leaving commuters frustrated, but some solutions to alleviate the congestion are in the works.

Caltrans and SANDAG say there are a couple of reasons why traffic has gotten worse in the South Bay over the years. First off, gas prices have dropped, which gives people less of an incentive to use public transportation. Secondly, the economy has gotten better, which means more people are getting up and driving to work in the morning.

And, the agencies say that perhaps the biggest contributor to the growing traffic troubles is where jobs are located for South Bay residents. Places like Chula Vista are rich with housing, but there aren't many jobs there, so many South Bay residents have to drive to downtown, Sorrento Valley or the UTC area where the jobs are.

Another factor contributing to traffic in the area is increased border trade, which is great for our economy but also leads to more jams on South Bay freeways.

Caltrans and SANDAG told NBC 7 there are several projects in the works to curb the problem on the South Bay roadways, but drivers will not see much relief yet – at least not in the near future.

So far, the agencies have added HOV lanes to I-805 and improved the trolley station, making it quicker to get on and off the trolley. The I-805 and State Route 905 interchange has also been improved.

Starting early next year, SANDAG will begin construction on the South Bay rapid project that will provide rapid bus service along a 21-mile route from the Otay Mesa Port of Entry to downtown San Diego. Bus service on that project is expected to start in 2018.

Then there's a bigger, more comprehensive $204 billion countywide project approved by SANDAG last month, which stretches over 35 years and calls for 160 miles of managed freeway lanes, five new trolley lines and 32 new bus route lines.

However, since this massive project spans over decades, critics say people in the South Bay won't see any major benefits from the plan until 20 years from now.

That's why SANDAG Executive Director Gary Gallegos says they're trying to provide people with a variety of options, because there is no perfect or quick solution.

In terms of alleviating the traffic linked to border trade, Caltrans and SANDAG say they plan to build a third border crossing just east of Otay Mesa.

Mexico is the third largest trading partner of the United States, behind China and Canada, and about 7 percent of all U.S.-Mexico trade happens at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in south San Diego.

Caltrans and SANDAG say this third border crossing will serve both personal and commercial cars, with the goal of reducing crossing wait times to 20 minutes or less in the area.
 

After an evening of powerful rains, lightning and thunder, San Diego County residents were cleaning up Wednesday from flooding and downed trees.

Storm runoff flooded an intersection in Lemon Grove, trapping some vehicles in more than a foot of water, according to Heartland Fire officials. CHP officers shut down the off-ramp from eastbound State Route 94 at Federal Boulevard and Mallard Street.

"It was scary. The water was taking us away. We were floating," one driver told NBC 7.

Another driver said she just held on and prayed as the water quickly rose around her vehicle.

Most of the drivers were able to get out of the area on their own but people in four different cars found themselves stranded and needed firefighters to rescue them.

Firefighters say they did the right thing by staying in their vehicles because as the water rose to about 13 inches deep - that's deep and moving fast enough to sweep the legs out from underneath someone and lead to a scarier situation.

The owner of Giant Pizza King on Federal Boulevard saw his business flood in just minutes.

In North Park, a retaining wall failed sending mud and water into an apartment complex on 32nd Street.

Tenant Israel Espinoza and his wife heard a crash just after 8 p.m.

It wasn't until rain and waste water started pouring into the apartments below that they realized the neighbor's retaining wall collapsed.

The water damned up behind the wall but the pressure became too much to hold back.

Four apartments on the first floor flooded. Residents living in six units above were also evacuated because San Diego Gas & Electric shut off the gas and electric.

In Balboa Park, owners of two vehicles stuck in water say they saw a flash flood come through the golf course.

In La Mesa the power went out at a Costco store filled with shoppers. One NBC 7 viewer said the store went dark around 7:30 p.m. and the power outage lasted about ten minutes, but it didn't stop shoppers. He said they carried on as normal.

In National City, construction crews at USA Gasoline pumped all the water out of the gas tank. The tanks have sensors that detect water and once they detect water they automatically shut off. Now, they are waiting for the manager to give the all clear to get the tanks up and running now that the water is gone.

Phone systems at several San Diego schools were not operating Wednesday due to the storm, according to the San Diego Unified School District. Parents of students at Patrick Henry and Clairemont high schools may notice the problem as well as those attending Pacific Beach Middle School and Hearst Elementary, officials said.

Due to storm runoff, the public should avoid swimming, surfing and diving in the ocean or Mission Bay and San Diego Bay for 72 hours following rain, according to county health officials.

Louisiana police fatally shot a 6-year-old after a car chase with the boy's father, authorities said.

The boy's father, who was driving the car, was listed in critical condition, police said.

The state police did not explain the reason for the chase of the circumstances that caused the officers to shoot.

Officials told NBC affiliate WDSU that the boy's death was accidental.

College applicants who recently took the SAT and ACT tests have been told that their scores may not be delivered in time to some schools with a November 1 deadline, due to a new electronic system that's experiencing delays, NBC News reported.

On Tuesday, the College Board, the non-profit that administers the SAT, posted an update to their website that said all students are able to view their scores online, and "the majority of scores" had been delivered to colleges.

The College Board promised to refund the $31 many students pay to rush their scores. "We are reaching out to affected colleges to ensure they understand the circumstances."

The delay affected the ACT's reporting of students' written exam scores from September tests. In a statement on Facebook on October 30, the organization reported that all essays had been scored. Both the ACT and the College Board apologized for the inconvenience.

Dr. Kat Cohen, founder of IvyWise, a college admissions consulting service, told NBC News it's "unacceptable that the College Board and ACT couldn't meet these important deadlines."

The crack of a gunshot brought a man out of his apartment in Banker’s Hill, only to find a bullet hole on his balcony.

He lives in the complex as a suspected active shooter, and found himself next door to a police standoff that’s gripped San Diego.

“I heard a gunshot and went out on my balcony and there was a hole probably this big through my balcony wall,” Tom said, modeling out a hole about five inches wide with his hands. “I knew it was gunshots, so I called 911 and they told me that there’d been reports of active shooters, they told us to take cover.”

San Diego police rushed to a community north of downtown Wednesday for what they described as an active shooter inside an apartment building using a high-powered rifle.

Tom, a resident of the apartment building at 2445 Brant Street in the Bankers Hill area, described the terrifying situation to NBC7. Following the news, he went to his bathroom and hid in his bathroom for the next half hour, he said. During that time, he heard multiple gunshots ring out.

“I heard a gunshot, probably heard three more, and while I was hunkered down in the bathtub, there was probably 30 to 40 more shots fired,” Tom said.

About a half an hour later, he said, 911 called him back and told him a SWAT team was outside his door.

“They told me to open the door, there was probably six, eight officers out there, they pulled me out, took me downstairs to a safe area and then I helped them with a layout of what the unit’s floor plan is so they’d have a better idea of what the logistics would be when they go in,” Tom said.

When officers first arrived on scene, they say they immediately came under fire.

The suspect was contained in a one-bedroom apartment on the southeast side of the apartment building, Wahl said.

The entire incident was “terrifying,” he said, and he never expected something like this to happen in Bankers Hill.

“It’s been a long hour or two, it’s been scary,” Tom told NBC7.

“Yeah, it’s a really nice safe area and you don’t expect thing like this to happen here,” Tom said.

San Diego police are searching for a man accused of sexually assaulting a woman in the aisle of a Target store in San Diego, pestering her for a date before reaching under her clothing to grope her.

The San Diego Police Department (SDPD) says the incident – being investigated as a case of sexual battery – happened around 9 p.m. on Halloween at a Target located at 5680 Balboa Ave.

According to investigators, the unknown man approached the woman and was persistent about asking her for a date. The woman repeatedly asked him to leave her alone, but the suspect ignored her requests.
The man then allegedly walked behind the victim, placed his hand on her upper thigh, reached under her shorts and touched her buttocks, police said.

The man then fled the store and was last seen getting into a silver sedan.

Surveillance cameras at the Target location captured images of the suspect, which police released Wednesday.

Investigators said the suspect is described as a Middle Eastern man with brown eyes and black, receding hair, estimated to be between 40 and 45 years old. He stands at 6-foot to 6-foot-3 and weighs between 180 to 190 pounds. Police said he wore a black polo shirt and blue jeans during the groping incident.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information should contact the SDPD’s Northern Division at (858) 552-1735.
 

A man in his 70s was seriously hurt after being struck and pinned beneath a Greyhound bus for about 20 minutes near the Washington Convention Center in Washington D.C. on Wednesday.

The man was hit around 1:10 p.m. at the corner of 7th Street and Massachusetts Avenue NW. He was pinned beneath the rear wheels of the bus.

The bus was making a left turn onto 7th street from Massachusetts Avenue at the time of the accident.

Witnesses said the driver didn't initially realize he'd hit anyone, but people who saw what happened ran to the bus and banged on the door.

The bus stopped in the crosswalk.

A "secret hero" went to the man's aid, witness Rebecca Hochaus told News4.

"There was a doctor that happened to be walking by, and he dove underneath the bus and he just assessed the situation and stayed under there," she said. 

It took D.C. Fire & EMS personnel about 20 minutes to extricate the victim. Crews used hydraulic jacks and wooden slats to raise the rear of the bus to get to him.

The man was then was rushed to a hospital. Police are talking to him and say it's a miracle he survived.

"At this point, he's in serious but stable condition," Lt. Ronald Wilkins said.

The Greyhound bus was being used as a shuttle bus to pick up people for an American Dental Association convention at the Convention Center. 

The area was closed to vehicle traffic in the wake of the accident.

A 22-year-old man who moved to New York City three months ago was attacked by a box cutter-wielding stranger as he rode a subway to work Tuesday, leaving him with a glaring gash on his head that required more than two dozen stitches to close.

Matt Ruff and another man, Oneal Mendes, were riding a C train in Brooklyn shortly before 4 p.m. when a 29-year-old stranger approached them and slashed them on their heads. The suspect didn't say a word before attacking the men.

Ruff told NBC 4 New York he was having a normal day before the attack and didn't notice anything strange when he got on the C train.

"Suddenly all hell breaks loose as I see a guy pull out a box knife and attack someone beside me," Ruff said. "He then came after me so I tried to jump into the next subway car. My leg got stuck in the door and the train was still moving fast. The guy got on top of me and cut my forehead."

After, the suspect ran from the subway stop, dropping the box cutter on the platform. Police apprehended him a few blocks away.

Ruff and Mendes were taken to Brookdale Hospital, where Ruff remained Wednesday morning with a laceration that stretched diagonally from the top of the center of his forehead nearly to his right ear. He was released later in the day; Mendes had already been discharged.

Ruff said the attacker hit an artery and his head was gushing blood. He said he wrapped his shirt around his head and crawled out of the subway as terrified onlookers seemed too shocked to help. Soon, police, firemen and paramedics arrived and helped get Ruff to safety.

Ruff said Wednesday he is still in pain and "on a good bit of medication," but expects to be OK. He said he moved to the city from Florida three months ago to pursue his degree in musical theater.

"This happening to me in my first three months is really traumatic," Ruff said. "However, I firmly believe I still belong in this city. And I'm not going to let it defeat my faith that God makes all things happen for a reason."

Ruff's sister, Emily, posted on Facebook that their mother was headed to New York to be with him. She thanked everyone for their loving support and prayers.

Ruff's alleged attacker, 29-year-old Stanley Gary, faces assault charges in the case. He was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and is expected to be arraigned later Wednesday. Law enforcement sources say he has 18 prior arrests for crimes including assault and menacing.

It wasn't immediately clear if Gary had an attorney.  

The unprovoked attack on mass transit worried some residents.

"I have little nephews and nieces who use public transportation to get to school, so that worries me because somebody just got stabbed. Could be anybody at any time," said Roy Samuels of Brownsville.

Crimes on subways and buses are up 8 percent this year compared with the same time last year: nearly 2,000 in the transit system reported in the past year, compared to just over 1,800 by the same time last year, according to NYPD's CompStat data.

After a lengthy investigation, Chicago police identified the child whose body parts were found in the Garfield Park Lagoon in September as missing Rockford toddler Kyrian Knox.

The boy was identified through DNA testing, Chicago Police spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said Wednesday.

Police took DNA samples from Lanisha Knox, the mother of 2-year-old Kyrian Knox, who was reported missing from Rockford earlier in September, according to Rockford Police Assistant Deputy Chief Patrick Hoey.

Kyrian's mother, Lanisha Knox, said she left her son with her best friend's family in Rockford on Aug. 18, and the family agreed to watch him for two weeks while she started a new job. Knox has not seen Kyrian since she dropped him off.

The details surrounding Kyrian's disappearance are under investigation, but Hoey said there is no evidence he was abducted, adding that the disappearance did not meet the criteria for an Amber Alert.

Knox said she made repeated attempts in early September to go to Rockford to pick Kyrian up, but the family who was watching him always made an excuse about why it wasn't good timing.

"At this point, I don't trust anyone and I do feel like somebody knows something and they're not saying anything," Knox said.

In September, authorities found several body parts belonging to a toddler in Chicago's Garfield Park lagoon. Police said they recovered two feet, two hands and a head, all belonging to a child. A 20-pound weight was also found near the body parts, but it has not been determined if the weight is related to the discovery.

The suspect in a five-hour standoff in Bankers Hill, Titus Nathan Colbert Jr., is a documented gang member with a serious criminal record dating back to his teenage years, court documents reveal.

Colbert surrendered to police at about 2:30 p.m., ending an ordeal that terrified residents and grounded flights at San Diego International Airport.

An NBC7 source in the legal community says he is the brother of convicted killer Tecumseh Colbert, a man currently on death row for two murders in 2004. 

In July 2007, a jury found Tecumseh Colbert guilty of first-degree murder in the November 2004 killing of investment banker Anthony McCamey outside his Bay Terraces apartment. Two weeks later, Colbert shot to death liquor store clerk Richard Hammes. Colbert was sentenced to death.

The 33-year-old most recently pleaded guilty to selling illegal narcotics in 2012. He served a year in custody.

Colbert was charged with five felonies in the 2012 narcotics case, including transporting controlled substances and selling the party drug “Ecstasy." It was a potential “three strike” case because Colbert had prior convictions for dissuading a witness and aggravated assault.

Court records reviewed by NBC 7 Investigates also reveal that Colbert was caught with a weapon while he was in prison for a prior offense.

His criminal history includes arrests in San Diego, San Bernardino and Arizona.

In the 2012 drug case, the prosecutor said Colbert sold 20 pills of “Ecstasy” to an undercover officer for $160.

The drug deal happened outside the Black Angus restaurant on Friars Road, near Qualcomm Stadium.

Colbert was also implicated in another drug deal, a week later, at the In-N-Out drive-thru in Mission Valley.

That case carried a gang enhancement charge against Colbert, and a detective testified that Colbert was a documented member of a Skyline neighborhood gang.

According to court records in Maricopa County, Arizona, the suspect was arrested twice there. On June 6, 2009, Colbert was taken into custody on suspicion of shoplifting and aggravated assault, though he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.

After another arrest on Aug. 6, 2009, he again pleaded guilty to a lesser charge after he was accused of violating marijuana and drug paraphernalia laws, court records show. 

In both Arizona cases, Colbert was sentenced to probation. In May 2012, Arizona officials accused him of violating that probation, and a judge issued a bench warrant for the suspect's arrest the next year. 

By then, Colbert had returned to San Diego, where he was arrested in the 2012 drug case.

The Department of Defense doled out $10 million of taxpayer money to clubs in the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and MLS over the last three years as part of a multimillion-dollar program to promote the armed services and boost recruitment through patriotic events, game tickets, player appearances and other perks, according to a Senate report release Wednesday, NBC News reported.

"Americans deserve the ability to assume that tributes for our men and women in military uniform are genuine displays of national pride, which many are, rather than taxpayer-funded DOD marketing gimmicks," Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, the report's co-authors, wrote.

The report summarizes the conclusions of an investigation McCain and Flake began last spring, after they discovered that advertising contracts revealed weekly "hometown hero" tributes hosted by the New York Jets and New England Patriots were paid for by taxpayer money.

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Depending on what part of San Diego County you’re in, the local police are likely either wearing body cameras or considering getting them.

The San Diego Police Department currently has 800 officers on city streets with body cameras, which means they’re well on their way to meeting the goal of outfitting all officers by the end of the year.

The use of body cameras by SDPD officers was approved in 2014 amid complaints of misconduct and racial profiling. While the cameras have been linked to a decrease in complaints, the technology hasn’t done much to improve transparency.

How those cameras are used and whether the footage should be released to the public remains controversial.

NBC 7’s Monica Dean and Voice of San Diego’s Liam Dillon discuss which police agencies are already using body cameras and what you need to know about them. That’s this week’s San Diego Explained.

Officers shut down a portion of a Mira Mesa road after a car and pedestrian collided, San Diego Police (SDPD) said. 

The incident happened at approximately 5:22 p.m. Wednesday on Black Mountain Road and Capricorn in Mira Mesa, SDPD said. 

The driver stopped after the accident happened and was not cited.

The pedestrian only suffered minor injuries.

Refresh this page for updates on this breaking news story. 

Chicago police are questioning a person of interest in the fatal shooting of a 9-year-old boy in Chicago, authorities said Wednesday. 

Police said a man walked into a police station for questioning but no charges had been filed as of Wednesday evening. He is also accompanied by his attorney.  

The father of boy told NBC Chicago Wednesday he believes his son, Tyshawn Lee, was targeted in the shooting. 

The fourth grader was fatally shot in an alleyway near his grandmother’s home in Chicago's Gresham neighborhood around 4:15 p.m. while still in his school uniform. Authorities said the boy was shot multiple times in the head and back.

"No little boy gets shot seven times on accident," he said. "That's not an accident, that's an execution."

Sources also said the boy may have been targeted in the shooting, one of two theories the sources said authorities are working surrounding the boy’s killing.

One theory is that the young boy was walking through the alley when he became caught in the middle of an argument. A second theory is the boy was the intended target in the shooting.

Chief of Detectives Constantine "Dean" Andrews said at a Monday night press conference a group of people were in the alley where Tyshawn's body was found when an argument broke out and someone started shooting. After the murder the group fled the scene. 

"Somebody executed a baby," Father Michael Pfleger from Saint Sabina Church said during a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

A reward for information leading to an arrest in the case has climbed to $35,000.

Shortly after, Tyshawn's mother gave an emotional plea asking for someone to come forward and help find her son's killer.

"Please come forward and find whoever did this to my baby," Karla Lee said as tears rolled down her face. "Oh my god I love my son. I'm going to miss him."

Dawn Valenti, a crisis responder who assists families in the aftermath of a homicide, called the shooting "another hard blow for our city."

"We just ask that the city stand up, get rid of the code of silence," she said. 

Mayor Rahm Emanuel also addressed the fatal shooting, saying the latest tragedy in Chicago violence is proof that there's evil in the world.

"Whoever did this, I want to say something," Emanuel said. "I believe fundamentally in the goodness of human nature, but there is evil in the world. Whoever did this, there is a special place for them. I hope they never see freedom. I hope they never see daylight."

Tyshawn was a student at Scott Joplin School, where his teachers say he was a "delight" to have in class. He liked to play sports and video games.

"He was supposed to play ball. That's all he do, all he liked to do is play ball and play video games," Karla Lee said. "He didn't hurt nobody. I don't know why this happened."

Stokes said a vigil is schedueld for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at 81st and Marshfield. 

Anyone who may have information about the incident is being asked to call (312) 747-8271.
 

In 2013, 80 National Guard members unfurled an American Flag across the Atlanta Flacon's dome in Georgia.

What may have looked like a charitable display of patriotism was actually a $315,000 marketing contract, according to a Senate report released on Wednesday. 

The Department of Defense has paid over $10 million of taxpayers' money to the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and MLS over the last three years to promote the armed services in an effort to boost recruitment, according to a report put out by Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake. 

"While many professional sporting teams do include patriotic events as a pure display of national
pride, this report highlights far too many instances when that is simply not the case," the report said. "When our offices first discovered this practice, we sought to better understand it from DOD and introduced an amendment to the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to end these taxpayer-funded salutes to the troops." 

 
The initiative to ban this "inappropriate and frivolous" comes after the Senate said the Department of Defense failed to disclose and keep track of such deals. 

The line between advertising and community relations/military appreciation by the Department of Defense has been blurred. The investigation started in spring but the report still account all the examples of "paid patriotism."

The report went as far to criticize sports teams that took advantage of these deals and said it overshadows the teams that actually do charitable work for the military. 

The senators hope the ban will help restrict this kind of spending in the military, which also included the time the Los Angeles Galaxy were paid $1,500 for each of the five Air Force officers they honored at a game or the time the New York Mets were paid $10,00 for an on-field swearing-in ceremony. 

The NFL was paid the most of all the leagues; since fiscal year 2012 the NFL was paid over $6,110, 335 with the MLB coming in second at $899,085.

"We strongly oppose the use of recruitment funds for anything other than their proper purpose," NFL's commissioner, Roger Goodell wrote to the senators on Nov. 2.

A dispatcher at the Camp Pendleton Fire Department in Southern California has been arrested on suspicion of multiple charges related to child pornography after a lengthy investigation.

The investigation began in June when detectives and the San Diego Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force were able to obtain videos of child pornography online from 52-year-old William Francis Walsh, according to Escondido Police.

In July, police used a search warrant and took computer equipment from Walsh's home. During forensic analysis, they claim they found an extensive collection of child pornography images and videos downloaded and distributed electronically from the residence.

Tuesday night, police arrested Walsh at his attorney’s office on multiple charges including possession of child pornography, distribution of child pornography, sexual exploitation of a child,
advertising child pornography for distribution and matter depicting child sexual sadism/masochism

A Camp Pendleton spokesperson confirmed in a statement that Walsh worked on base as a fire department dispatcher.  and that Walsh is not active military, but a civilian government employee.

The spokesperson said Walsh has been placed in a non-pay status pending further outcome and that that policy in such cases is to terminate employment if the employee is found guilty.

Escondido police tell NBC 7 that NCIS assisted in the investigation and that police say the evidence they gathered indicated that no computer on Camp Pendleton was used in the alleged crimes.

William Francis Walsh posted bail of just over $400,000 dollars on Wednesday.

It is unclear when he will appear in court for his arraignment. 

 A sewer line explosion in San Diego's popular Gaslamp Quarter forced many surrounding businesses and hotel guests to evacuate, San Diego Police said. 

The HAZMAT situation happened at 7:06 p.m. at 660 K Street in San Diego.

The call originally came in when patrons at the Water Grill Bar in the Gaslamp saw smoke coming from manholes, San Diego Fire-Rescue Capt. Amador said. 

Police and Fire officials evacuated the Resident Inn and no one was allowed to head northbound on 6th Avenue. Water Grill and Bar and nearby businesses are also being evacuated. Though San Diego Fire officials initially said the Marriot Hotel was evacuated, the Director of Operations at the hotel said the hotel still has power and was not evacuated. 

As of 8:28 p.m., streets were starting to reopen and people were starting to return to the area. 

Some electricity in the area is out as a result of the explosion, police officials said. SDG&E is responding.

Amador said police believe the incident began from a fire in an underground vault for SDG&E. A SDFD Battalion Chief said the explosion was caused by a wire failure. 

No further information was immediately available. 

Refresh this page for updates on this breaking news story. 

Tanya Thomas was in complete shock after learning the horrifying news. Her beloved pit bull "Mamas" was found hanged on the fence of her Philadelphia home while her two puppies were gone.

"I'm just hurt," Thomas said. "My stomach is flipping. I'm hurt. I'm just so hurt."

Humane Law Enforcement officers with the Pennsylvania SPCA told NBC10 the 5-year-old female pit bull and her two puppies, "Shiba" and "Marvelous," were stolen from the backyard of Thomas' home on the 5200 block of North Marvine Street in the Olney section of the city Tuesday.

A neighbor then found Mamas hanging by her own leash on a fence separating the home from another yard Wednesday morning, according to the PSPCA. Her puppies are still missing.

"I can't imagine why someone would do what they did here," said George Bengal, the PSPCA director of Humane Law Enforcement. "Whether this is a revenge kind of thing [or] if there's a neighbor dispute that I don't know about."

Thomas told NBC10 she doesn't have any enemies and has no idea who would target her pets.

"I don't understand why they want to hang a dog," she said. "What is the purpose of all that? What do you get out of that?"

Investigators say they have no suspects, witnesses or surveillance footage. They're counting on the public to come forward. If you have any information, please call the PSPCA’s cruelty hotline at 1-866-601-SPCA.

San Diego police say a woman, who they believe is armed, is in police custody after refusing to come out of her Pacific Beach apartment Wednesday night.

As a standoff ensured, residents were told to leave the Bay Pointe Apartments in the 3900 block of Ingraham Street. 

Officers went to the complex just after 7 p.m. to follow up on a domestic violence call, police say. There, they found a female suspect who said she will not come out.

Police confirm she may be tied to another suspect shot to death by officers Wednesday. The scene where he died is less than half a mile from the standoff location.

Officers in full gear were seen entering the building at about 8:20 p.m.

An SDPD emergency negotiations team was called to the scene.

At about 9:35 p.m., officers took the woman into custody, officials said.

With an El Nino on the way, the city of San Diego is making efforts to prepare for the forecasted storms. However, one city official says the city isn’t ready for what’s to come.

City Councilman David Alvarez says he wants to call a state of emergency in anticipation of the El Nino storms.

Alvarez told the council the city needs to know there are certain channels that need work to prevent flooding and other damages that the storms could bring. Tuesday’s storm gave the city an idea of what to expect in the coming months.

Residents all over the city woke up Wednesday morning to the clean-up the heavy rain left behind. Clogged storm drains, roadways flooding and downed trees are just a few of the things Alvarez wants to be ready for.

Wednesday, he called for preventative maintenance activity in every storm drain and channel immediately. Alvarez pointed out the top ten worst channels in San Diego. They range from San Ysidro to Little Italy to College Area.

On the other hand, Bill Harris of the Storm Water Department says the city is ready to take on El Nino.

Harris says with all the thunder, lightning and flooding that last night’s storm brought, the preventative work the city’s been doing proved it worked. He says the recent storm was nothing compared to what the county saw in July. Harris says that over the past year, city crews worked to clear nearly 30,000 thousand storm drains and taken 14,000 tons of debris out of the channels that Alvarez says need attention.

One street in particular that has a history of diverting water to cause flooding during storms has improved. It’s at Torrance Street and Reynard Way in Hillcrest. Construction on Reynard Way prevented water from flowing down into a cul-de-sac on Torrance Street during Tuesday’s rainfall.

While differing views on the preparedness of El Nino remain, the San Diego City Council’s Environment Committee also met Wednesday to continue a long discussion on the city’s preparations for El Nino.