pierre thomas at the fbi. >>> the other news tonight, the war in ukraine. did russia use a chemical agent in mariupol? the pentagon tonight now investigating. and tonight, vladimir putin now -- talks are dead. and ukraine has now captured a putin ally. a ukrainian ally those daughter is putin's goddaughter. and for the first time, president biden now calling putin's actions a genocide. james longman is live in kyiv. >>> the war putting increasing pressure on the global economy and tonight, inflation here at home. the prices americans are paying. inflation now the highest it's been since 1981. the new move tonight from president biden on gas. >>> we're tracking dangerous storms tonight, possible tornadoes after dark and damaging winds and s tomorrow. from dallas to chicago and moving east. ginger zee tracking it all. >>> the pandemic. the omicron subvariant now nearly 90% of cases here in the u.s. and the alarming images from shanghai tonight. amid a major spike in covid there, families now being forced to stay in their homes. the food shortages. and the dro

pierre thomas at the fbi. >>> the other news tonight, the war in ukraine. did russia use a chemical agent in mariupol? the pentagon tonight now investigating. and tonight, vladimir putin now saying the talks are dead. and ukraine has now captured a putin ally. a ukrainian lawmaker whose daughter is putin's goddaughter. and for the first time, president biden now calling putin's actions a genocide. james longman is live in kyiv. >>> the war putting increasing pressure on the global economy, and tonight, inflation here at home. the prices americans are paying. inflation now the highest it's been since 1981. the new move tonight from president biden on gas. >>> we are tracking dangerous storms tonight. possible tornadoes after dark and damaging winds and severe storms tomorrow. from dallas to chicago and moving east. ginger zee tracking it all. >>> the pandemic. the omicron subvariant now nearly 90% of cases here in the u.s. and the alarming images from shanghai tonight. amid a major spike in covid there, families now being forced to stay in their homes. the f

>> pierre thomas tonight in ashington. pierre, thank you. >>> when we come back here, the alarming images tonight of mike tyson seen repeatedly punching a passenger on a jetblue flight. what police are now saying. sta, it needed to be here. ruby's a1c is down with rybelsus®. my a1c wasn't at goal, now i'm down with rybelsus®. mom's a1c is down with rybelsus®. (♪ ♪) in a clinical study, once-daily rybelsus® significantly lowered a1c better than a leading branded pill. rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't take rybelsus® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop rybelsus® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking rybelsus® with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases low blood sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting

>> pierre thomas, our thanks to you, as well tonight. pierre, aaron, janai, our team on this again tonight. our thanks to you all. >>> in the meantime, we move on now to that major severe weather outbreak. tornado watches up in eight states. nine reported tornadoes already in the past 24 hours. this one in gilmore city, iowa. winds ripping apart buildings there, debris flying away. and in central texas, hail the size of grapefruit there. and an ef-3 tornado now confirmed, winds up to 165 miles per hour. more than 20 people were injured. and, of course, a very anxious night ahead again this evening. and then concern for the northeast, philadelphia to new york city tomorrow. let's bring back in ginger zee with us tonight with the timing and the track. ginger? >> reporter: david, it is hard to believe that we have watching the same region for the fourth week in a row see these tornado watches and imbedded in this line of damaging winds. and that's exactly what's happening tonight from louisville to hattiesburg back into monroe andal sand dr

>> pierre thomas, our thanks to you, as well tonight. pierre, aaron katersky, janai norman, our team on this again tonight. our thanks to you all. >>> in the meantime, we move on now to that major severe weather outbreak. 30 million americans on alert tonight from the gulf of mexico all the way to the great lakes. tornado watches up in eight states. nine reported tornadoes already in the past 24 hours. this one in gilmore city, iowa. winds ripping apart buildings there, debris flying away. and in central texas, hail the size of grapefruit there. and an ef-3 tornado now confirmed, winds up to 165 miles per hour. more than 20 people were injured. and, of course, a very anxious night ahead again this evening. and then concern for the northeast, from philadelphia to new york city tomorrow. let's bring back in chief meteorologist ginger zee with us tonight with the timing and the track. ginger? >> reporter: david, it is hard to believe that we are watching the same region for the fourth week in a row see these tornado watches and imbedded in

>> pierre thomas tonight in washington. pierre, thank you. >>> when we come back here, the alarming images tonight of mike tyson seen repeatedly punching a passenger on a jetblue flight. what police are now saying. ruby's a1c is down with rybelsus®. my a1c wasn't at goal, now i'm down with rybelsus®. mom's a1c is down with rybelsus®. (♪ ♪) in a clinical study, once-daily rybelsus® significantly lowered a1c better than a leading branded pill. rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't take rybelsus® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop rybelsus® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking rybelsus® with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases low blood sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to

for "this week" pierre thomas abc news, washington. >> thanks to pierre. >>> we're joined by new york cty eric adams and police commissioner keechant sewell. thank you both for joining us this morning. mayor adams, what more have you learned about frank james and whether he could have been stopped? >> still under active investigation. cannot thank the commissioner enough for the way she handled the investigation and brought him into apprehension. we're still weeding through his history and other parts of this investigation. >> commissioner sewell, what do we know about why he turned himself in? >> the fact he called and turned himself in was evidenced by the fact we were closing in on him. there were a number of avenues we pursued to locate mr. james. we disseminated his picture. we had hundreds of detectives looking for him. one of the key factors our force multiplier which are the eyes and ears of our incredible new yorkers and we were able to bring him into custody. >> he was hiding in plain sight before the attack. he was arrested several times. he had youtube videos full of hate

for "this week" pierre thomas abc news, washington. >> thanks to pierre. >>> we're joined by new york cty eric adams and police commissioner keechant sewell. thank you both for joining us this morning. mayor adams, what more have you learned about frank james and whether he could have been stopped? >> still under active investigation. cannot thank the commissioner enough for the way she handled the investigation and brought him into apprehension. we're still weeding through his history and other parts of this investigation. >> commissioner sewell, what do we know about why he turned himself in? >> the fact he called and turned himself in was evidenced by the fact we were closing in on him. there were a number of avenues we pursued to locate mr. james. we disseminated his picture. we had hundreds of detectives looking for him. one of the key factors our force multiplier which are the eyes hi ha and do we need a better way to they take this violent action? whose responsibility is that? >> i believe we do. social media must step up. there's a corporate responsibility when we're watching

. >>> joining us now is our chief justice correspondent pierre thomas. good morning, pierre. >> reporter: michael, good morning. what we're seeing is a sustained surge in violence now two years and counting. we saw fatal shootings, not including suicides, jump by more than 4,000 from 2019 to 2020. that's a stunning 26% increase in one year. last year the rate of increase slowed, but the total number of fatal shootings grew to 21,000. as the overall number of shootings have increased, there's been an even dramatic rise in mass shootings where four or more people are shot in a single event. look at these numbers. according to the gun violence archive, there were 417 mass shootings in 2019. by last year, that number had spiked to 693. that's an incredible 66% jump. the pace of shootings so far this year, mass shootings, may be slowing down a tad, but we appear to be maintaining a high level of such shootings. we're now in an era where we can say mass shootings are chronic, sustained, and sadly routine. george? >> okay, pierre, thanks very much. >>> we're go

thomas. good morning, pierre. >> reporter: good morning, michael. >> and, you know, where does the threat level stand right now in this case? >> well, the key is you just heard the mayor say, this person who did this is not in custody and what law enforcement officials are deeply concerned about is this person was prepared. they had the gas masks. they had weapons. they had smoke devices. they wanted to kill as many people as possible. this person is dangerous. they need to find him quick, fast and in a hurry. that's why you're seeing such a huge law enforcement presence across the city. >> when we say law enforcement, fbi, atf, and i'm pretty sure they're using pretty sophisticated equipment to track him down. >> michael, the fbi, atf, the new york city is the biggest and perhaps most sophisticated police department in the nation. they're all over this case. now, why mr. james is a person of interest is because they found a key associated with the u-haul tied to him. there's a credit card as

our chief justice correspondent pierre thomas joins us with that. good morning, pierre. >> reporter: robin, good morning. with that new reporting that frank james basically turned himself in, it raises a question, did he want to be caught? he left behind a trail of evidence that led directly to him as the prime suspect. this is really a story of what was eft behind at the crime scene, first think about this. police say the shooter left at the subway station the gun used to wound all those innocent commuters. so when atf traced it they found the gun was legally bought in 2011 in ohio and james was the person who bought it. the shooter left behind fireworks. when we reached out to phantom fireworks they confirmed that frank james purchased them. guess who rented the van? james. so much pointing directly back to him. >> we don't have a firmly established motive but james posted a lot on social media offering some clues into his state of mind? >> reporter: yes, my sources say those social media videos have been a gold mine, a window into frank james' ps

our chief justice correspondent pierre thomas has the story. [ gunfire ] >> reporter: this morning, investigators hoping the shocking surveillance footage will lead them to who opened fire outside a teenager's birthday party in texas. through 23 seconds of uninterrupted gunfire, teens running for their lives, screaming, ducking behind cars and tires screeching as vehicles peel away from this quiet neighborhood outside of houston where police say a group of teens had rented out a home for a 16th birthday party. a neighbor caught in the cross fire as she returned home with her daughter. >> lots of very young kids, it just got out of hand very quickly. >> reporter: as many as 50 rounds fired from at least three different guns striking cars and homes. but miraculously injuring only one partygoer shot in the foot. investigators initially saying they have no leads. >> a fight ensued and people started to run. that's all i've gotten. >> reporter: abc houston station ktrk reporting police shared that shocking video because they're not getting as much help as they need from those at the party. police from