tonight, nbc news exclusive, could a tragic inferno have been stopped? new vi authorities inside the warehouse weeks before dozens perished. what we've learned about potential missed opportunities. lashing out. as police make an arrest in the apparent road rage death of a tirade filled with profanity and racial slurs. trump's billion dollar threat over the price of the new air force one, the president-elect using the bully pulpit against another big american company. l.a. terror threat. stepped up security, passengers being searched after the feds go public with a chilling phone call. and danger at the wheel.

sleep dramatically raises your risk. "nightly news" begins right now. from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. >> good evening. i'm tamron hall in for lester. tonight we begin in california, where nbc news has exclusively obtained new video that gives us a look inside that oakland, california, warehouse, not long before it killing 36 people. and now, this video could raise even more questions about what people who live there call an open secret. did authorities know that lives could be in danger well before the inferno? nbc's stephanie gosk starts us off in oakland. stephanie, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, tamron. tonight, fire officials say they don't expect the death toll to rise above 36. meanwhile, nbc news has learned that the

as recently as two months ago. exclusive video obtained by nbc news, shows oakland police officers in the warehouse known as the ghost ship in october of this year. part of an incident residents say, tied to a neighbor's party. landlord derek almena, helped police get access to the warehouse rooftop. >> through my space, up my ladder to save a kid on the roof. >> reporter: the police department wouldn't comment, on any visits to the property, citin investigation. including the night of this incident, nbc news has learned from interviews and records that city and county officials had multiple opportunities in the last two years to address possible safety concerns. starting with fire inspections. the city of oakland requires them for commercial and residential properties. every year. the head of the firefighters union zach unger told us he worries those inspections never took place. >> reporter: do they have the kind of resources they need?

>> reporter: is there talk among firefighters that there are unsafe buildings in the city? >> absolutely. there are many unsafe buildings in the city. >> reporter: a third possible missed opportunity, child protective services visited the property. almena said they were inspecting after the state had taken custody of his three children. a former investigator says fire safety is supposed to be an important part of their assessment. the city also received multiple complaints in the last two years about the property. hog an investigation was ongoing. but residents say no contact was ever made with them. tonight the mayor's office will release the full record of the housing department investigation. the worst fire in oakland's history, many wondering tonight in officials missed possible warnings. stephanie gosk, nbc news, oakland. >> reporter: this is gadi schwartz in oakland, california. tonight, video from inside the ghost ship, posted online by a director and filmmaker just an hour before it went up in flames. the man who rented the space on the "today"

lashing out after questions over whether he was responsible. >> i'm an honorable man, i'm a proud man. no, i'm not going to answer these questions on this level. i would rather get on the floor and be trampled by the parents. i'm so sorry, i'm incredibly sorry. what do you want me to say? i'm not going to answer these questions! >> reporter: but for those who survived the night of the fire any anger gives way to disbelief. joel shanahan, known as the golden donna, was there h >> it was hell. we just had to watch the exit for hours and just wait. and they never came out. >> reporter: two of his friends among those killed. investigators saying inside the cluttered space, the victims likely died quickly from smoke inhalation. some of the remains found holding one another. alex hassan, the man who instragrammed this video from inside the ghost ship, now leaving behind two young daughters.

those lost, too long to comprehend. at a vigil, artists, musicians, poets, teachers, all remembered. ? ? >> reporter: nick walrath, an up and coming lawyer, still listed as missing. >> i looked up to him in so many ways. >> reporter: his last text message, fire, i love you. >> we were best friends. >> reporter: families remembering those who celebrated life in what was supposed to be a refuge for artists, now reduced to ash and debri california. now to new developments in a shocking case of alleged road rage. a suspect has now been charged in the shooting death of former nfl player joe mcknight, after public outrage over his initial release last week. as our blake mccoy tells us today, the sheriff lashed out at those critics in a press conference filled with slurs and profanity. >> reporter: tonight, the man accused of shooting former nfl

ronald gasser, now charged with manslaughter, after initially being released last week. >> he was somebody's son! >> reporter: a decision that sparked public outcry, especially when it was revealed gasser had been arrested for road rage before, at the same intersection ten years ago. those charges, dropped. >> so for those who have criticized the men and women of this organization and the strategy decisions that we made relative to thaou >> reporter: a defensive and combative sheriff, reading some of the messages elected officials in jefferson parish, louisiana, have received for backing his decision to give the investigation more time. >> we saw you sell out to them, you rat [ bleep ] punk. >> reporter: the sheriff says since last thursday 160 witness interviews, 70 businesses contacted for potential surveillance video and multiple crime scene re-enactments.

mcknight cut off gasser, who then sped after mcknight, the two involved in verbal altercations. cutting in front of one another, and zipping around vehicles. at a red light four miles later, mcknight pulled up next to gasser's vehicle, got out and approached his car, that's when gasser shot mcknight three times. gasser remained on scene as a bystander performed cpr. >> i can't believe it. my child is gone. >> reporter: mcknight's family >> we just want to just take everything day by day. we don't want to jump to any conclusions. >> reporter: ronald gasser is said to be cooperating with authorities and was interviewed for 12 hours without an attorney. tonight he's being held here on $500,000 bond. tamron? >> blake, thank you. now to politics and president-elect donald trump's sparking a new controversy over air force one after once again, taking to social media to criticize an american

an order for new presidential planes from aviation giant boeing. we get details from nbc's hallie jackson. >> reporter: the president-elect's preferred plane -- >> i don't know what i'd do without the airplane. >> reporter: his own. a boeing. made by the company he's targeting today, threatening to cancel a contract for two new presidential planes, upgrades he says he doesn't need. >> i think it's ridiculous. i think boeing is doing a little bit of a number. a lot of money, but not that much money. >> reporter: donald trump's tweet to cancel the order for the future air force ones, sent boeing stock into a slide before it bounced back. the aviation company saying in a statement, it looks forward to delivering the best planes for the president at the best value for the american taxpayer. its ceo, in a report published before trump's tweet, suggesting trump's trade proposals, especially toward china, could hurt. some experts warn,

too expensive. >> i think the president-elect took to twitter before he really understood the details. we don't know what this program is going to cost, because the air force hasn't said yet what the plane needs to do. >> reporter: military sources tell nbc news, the planes must be able to survive a nuclear blast and communicate with those on the ground under any circumstances. but donald trump's trying to show he's changing how the government does business with business. >> i think he is being a good steward of our >> reporter: to some, his boeing threat, an example of the businessman they elected, doing exactly what they'd hoped. >> overall, is there anything that the president-elect could do once he takes office that would cause you to really rethink your support of him? >> if he stops being donald trump. >> reporter: the president-elect's continuing his thank you tour here in north carolina, appearing with his defense secretary pick, general james mattis, but it's the son of another general in the

off the transition team, after defending a fake conspiracy theory online. tamron? >> hallie jackson, thank you very much. passengers on the subway system in los angeles are facing stepped-up security tonight after a phoned-in threat said a specific station would be hit with a terror attack. there are questions about the credibility of the information, but the city says it can't take any chances. we get details from our justice correspondent, pete williams. >> reporter: heavily armed police and patrolled l.a.'s busy red line subway after a phoned-in threat said it would be hit today with a suicide bomb attack. the tipster mentioned universal city, a busy stop. passengers boarding had their bags and backpacks searched. >> i'm not super comfortable, but i have to get to work. >> reporter: law enforcement officials say the call came monday from a payphone in australia to a police tip line there and word was passed to the u.s. >> next stop is

>> reporter: the mayor made a show of riding the subway today and said the tip was so specific the city had to respond. >> you cannot assign that this is incredible at this point. we're just doing what we do with an abundance of caution. >> reporter: but law enforcement officials tell nbc news, that very payphone in australia where the tip came from, has been used to make hoax calls before. l.a. officials were criticized a year ago for shutting down schools after a bomb threat that was quickly deemed the mayor said, given so little notice this time, he had no choice but to beef up security and go public. pete williams, nbc news, washington. turning now overseas where tonight we take you inside a daring rescue mission. a brave team risking it all to save women and children from the horrors of isis. nbc's richard engel as -- has the story of those putting their lives on the line to get civilians safely out of mosul. >> reporter: it's long after nightfall, and khaleel al dhaki, a lawyer, is filming his secret and

he's just rescued this woman and child from isis captivity, picking them up from a safehouse. any passing car could be driven by an isis fighter. they were kidnapped by isis. we had to kidnap them back, he told us later. but he still had to get laila and her 3-year-old son ahmed out of mosul. as u.s.-backed iraqi troops are now fighting isis in mosul, al dhaki is ra isis kills them or the city is destroyed. yazidi girls are being attacked and raped. isis members kill children right in front of their mothers, he says. isis has targeted the yazidis, a non-muslim minority for extermination and enslavement. iraq sent helicopters to save thousands, but activists say the group is still holding 4,000 yazidis.

hours later, they make it to safety. laila is welcomed by her relatives. she and her son had been held by isis for over two years. they separated me from my husband, she says, and sold me to an isis fighter to marry. the kidnapper raped her, she says, and his wife beat her son. unlike other communities in the middle east, the yazidis have refused to ostracize women who i thought i was going to kill myself when they held me, i didn't, because of my child, she says. al dhaki has now rescued 173 people. he says he won't stop until he's saved them all. richard engel, nbc news, duhok, iraq. still ahead, driving drowsy. a new warning about the dangers of getting behind the wheel when you haven't gotten enough sleep. why experts say it can

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accident starts climbing fast. 20% of all fatal accidents are thought to involve drowsy driving. here's nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: it's the kind of close call a lot of drivers can relate to. >> [ bleep ]. >> reporter: a lack of sleep, and suddenly -- >> [ bleep ]. >> your eyelids get ahead and it's like you go into a fog. >> reporter: the decision to drive drowsy has haunted karen roberts for years. a new nursing scho she got off her christmas shift at cincinnati children's hospital. on her way home, she fell sleep and crashed at this intersection, suffering a severe brain injury, her left side paralyzed. >> i was in a coma for nine days and then i was in the hospital for two months. >> reporter: now new research from triple-a suggests your risk of an accident jumps exponentially with each hour of lost sleep. most adults need at least seven hours a

drivers going to five -- on five to six hours of sleep are twice as likely to crash. on four to five hours, six times more likely to crash. less than four hours, the effects are similar to drunk driving, 11 times more likely to crash. many of us are sleep deprived and just missing an hour or two on a single night and the risk of having an accident, can rise dramatically. >> so when we nod off, and it feels like all you've done is blink asleep for two to three seconds. >> reporter: today karen still suffers from debilitating headaches and make full time work impossible. her only wish, that she'd pull over and taken a nap. tom costello, nbc news, washington. we're back in a moment with today's grammy nominations, setting the stage for a showdown between two musical

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the smartphone wars today for the tech giant apple at the supreme court. in a unanimous decision, the court sided with samsung, which was challenging a nearly $400 million judgment for infringing on apple's iphone design patents. the justices ruled that a lower court should reconsider the award amount. the nominations are out for music's biggest night. and it's fitting, the grammys this year could turn into a showdo two biggest music stars on the planet. beyonce and adele are both nominated for song of the year, record of the year, and album of the year. and with her leading nine nominations this year, beyonce just became the most nominated female artist in grammy history. the high honors might not end there for beyonce, tonight we're revealing for the first time the top six finalists for "time" magazine's person of the year.

clinton, donald trump, beyonce knowles, the scientists, the group pioneering advancement in genetic research, also vladimir putin and turkish president erdogan. so who will it be? it will be revealed exclusively tomorrow morning on "today," here of course on nbc. when we come back, we take you behind the scenes with the stars of nbc's newest musical event, "hairspray live." "hairspray" "nbc nightly news" generations of families achieve long-term financial security for over 145 years. ? like a human fingerprint, no two whale flukes are the same. because your needs are unique, pacific life has been delivering flexible retirement and life insurance solutions

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the musical "hairspray," even the most stubborn toe can't resist tapping to the beat. ? this performance of "you can't stop the beat" at the macy's thanksgiving day parade was a prelude to the upcoming live show. >> we're filming a life-action movie and it's going to be one night only. and it's going to be amazing. star-studded cast features, jennifer hudson, ariana grande, kristin chenoweth, martin short, and derek hough. they're joined by maddie baillio. who scored the role after answering the call with eye thousand other actresses. do you feel like you're dreaming? >> every day i wake up and i can't believe that i'm actually here. >> reporter: "hairspray" was a cult classic film that became a tony award-winning musical, then a movie-winning -- then a movie musical. ?? >> reporter: set in 1960s baltimore, the story focuses on

a spunky teenager works to integrate an all-white dance show. >> what's the message you hope everyone gets out of this? >> i think that understanding that we are all different and that's what makes us brilliant as a race, as a country. >> i hope people remember too that the arts have the power to change lives. >> yeah. >> and that's really what the message is. ? >> reporter: jennifer hudson will cement that message with a show-stopping ballad. >> i don't know what me, but i want to discover it in that moment. >> reporter: you got chills? >> yes. it's too much to think about. we've been rehearsing and i've been moved to tears, literally every single time, and it's going to be so hard not to cry on the day. >> reporter: a show that's every bit as powerful as it is colorful. joe fryer, nbc news, los angeles. >> can't wait to see it. that will do it for this tuesday night. i'm tamron hall in for lester. i'll see you tomorrow

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