FOX 26 Daily Digital News Brief for Monday, Feb. 26, 2018

A mother heroically got her kids out of a burning apartment and into the arms of waiting firefighters. The dramatic rescue was caught on video as a fire raged through a Northwest Harris County apartment complex Monday morning. The mother handed her children to firefighters from a second story balcony, before climbing onto the ladder herself. Investigators are still trying to figure out what started the fire at the Cornerstone Village Apartments. More than a dozen families lost their homes.

Houston Police need your help finding the man who brutally beat a woman at Memorial City Mall. At around 8 a.m. Sunday, a 31-year-old store employee went to use the women’s restroom. A man attacked her from behind, strangled her until she passed out, kicked her multiple times, and left her unconscious on the bathroom floor. Another woman found her and got help.

“I did notice some marks on her neck all the way around from the front to the back,” said Ashley Hill, who found the woman. “Which was consistent with what they found. They found a garbage bag that had been rolled up into a kind of a rope, and I think that he wrapped around her neck. She really was hurting. It broke my heart.”

Police don’t know why the man attacked her. If you have any information, you’re asked to call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.

An Army recruiter was arrested for sending an inappropriate picture to a Deer Park High School student. Deer Park police said Adam Perkins sent the photo to the girl through Snapchat. Officers investigated and filed a warrant for displaying harmful material to a minor against Perkins. He turned himself in to police on Friday.

There was a bigger police presence at Dobie High School today after a threat was posted to Snapchat. This weekend, police arrested a DHS student for threatening to “take as many people as I can Monday.” That student is charged with making a terroristic threat. Pasadena ISD said student safety is the district’s top priority and the investigation is still active.

A Houston father has renewed hope after his son’s grandparents appeared in court Monday to face kidnapping charges. Chris Brann has been fighting to get his son back since 2013, when his wife, during a divorce, took the boy to Brazil for her brother’s wedding and never came back. Her parents allegedly helped their daughter keep their grandson from his dad. Brann’s son is now 8-years-old and is still in Brazil with his mom. She is also charged with kidnapping.

The Supreme Court declined to hear the Trump administration’s appeal deciding the legality of the president’s plans to end DACA. The program expires in a week, but several lower courts have ruled against that deadline, allowing illegal immigrants who were brought here as children to continue to renew their status. A federal appeals court will hear the case.