A man who allegedly shot and killed his mother at her southern New Jersey home earlier this year has been indicted on murder charges.
Camden County prosecutors say 22-year-old Pedro Mercado also faces two weapons counts and an aggravated assault charge in the indictment handed up Friday by a county grand jury.
Authorities say Mercado shot 38-year-old Camden resident Iris Sanchez once in the chest at her North 18th Street home on April 1. She was taken to a hospital but was pronounced dead there a short time later.
Mercado fled the scene after the shooting but was captured later that day.
No other injuries were reported in the incident. A motive for the shooting has not been disclosed.
It wasn't known Sunday if Mercado has retained an attorney.
Police are searching for the driver of a minivan that crashed into the Delaware River early Sunday morning.
Witnesses told police they spotted a silver 2007 Buick Terraza driving eastbound at a high speed on Oregon Avenue at Columbus Boulevard around 2:50 a.m. A witness watched the vehicle crash through a metal fence and then heard the sound of water splashing.
“We were sitting at the light of the intersection,” Azid Abdussabur told NBC10. “A car comes flying by. So not paying attention I heard a crash so I’m thinking it crashed into another car. I look over and I saw a gate missing and I heard a splash.”
Abdussabur and his friend ran to the river’s edge but didn’t see the vehicle.
“We saw all the debris and the fender hanging off but we didn’t see anything in the water,” he said.
Witnesses then called 911 and the Marine Unit and Special Operations Fire Rescue responded. Marine Unit divers later found the vehicle in the water about 20 feet deep and pulled it out of the river. They did not find anyone inside the vehicle however. Police told NBC10 it’s possible someone was ejected from the vehicle as it plunged into the river. Officials continue to search.
A Philadelphia Police officer is in the hospital after an SUV slammed into his or her vehicle, according to officials.
The 35th District Officer was driving westbound on Champlost and Front streets at 7:09 p.m. Sunday when a Black Ford Expedition traveling southbound on Front Street struck the front end of his or her vehicle. The impact caused the police vehicle to crash into a telephone pole.
The officer was taken to Einstein Hospital. Officials have not yet revealed his or her condition. A driver and at least one passenger inside the Ford Expedition complained of neck and back pain and were also taken to Einstein.
Officials don’t suspect drugs or alcohol played a role in the crash and no arrests have been made. They continue to investigate.
A Philadelphia police building was evacuated Saturday night after a suspect’s gun and pipe bomb were discovered inside, according to officials.
The incident occurred at the 35th District headquarters on 5960 North Broad Street around 10 p.m. Saturday. The Attorney General’s Gun Violence Task Force brought in a suspect who was accused of straw purchasing weapons, according to a law enforcement source. The source told NBC10 the suspect had a backpack that contained an assault rifle as well as a pipe bomb.
The bomb squad was called to the scene and the entire building was evacuated, police said. The bomb squad later recovered the device and weapon and the building was cleared at 10:40 p.m., police said. No one was injured during the incident.
Officials have not yet revealed whether the suspect faces any additional charges connected to Saturday’s incident. They continue to investigate.
Two women are charged in the murder of a Delaware County woman found handcuffed, stabbed and shot in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park.
Shavon Armstrong, 39, of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania surrendered to Philadelphia Police Friday in connection to the death of Toy Charda Bryant. Shintele Smith, 28, of Philadelphia, was also arrested Tuesday for her alleged involvement in the murder.
Armstong, a.k.a. Palliadium Smith, faces murder, criminal conspiracy, kidnapping, robbery and other related offenses. Shintele Smith is charged with murder, criminal conspiracy, kidnapping, robbery, unlawful restraint and other related offenses.
A couple heading to work found Bryant's body around 8:30 a.m. on June 14 about 10 feet from Georges Hill Drive near the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in West Philadelphia.
The 26-year-old Chester, Pennsylvania woman had her hands handcuffed in front of her body. Detectives said she was stabbed multiple times and was shot once in the back of her head.
Homicide Capt. James Clark said Bryant had defensive wounds on her hands.
"I believe she was in a fight for her life, and unfortunately she lost," he said.
Detectives believe Bryant was killed in another location and then dumped in the park.
Fairmount Park is one of the largest municipal park systems in the United States, covering more than 9,200 acres throughout the city.
Police have not yet revealed a motive behind the murder.
School's out for summer and that means students in Philadelphia will become simmers as a summer tradition returns to the city.
Mayor Jim Kenney will join Philadelphia's Parks and Recreation Department to mark the opening of pool season with a first swim at Max Myers Pool along Hellerman Street in the Oxford Circle section of Northeast Philly.
Myers is among the first of more than 70 outdoor city pools and spraygrounds to open this summer. By July 1 the rest will be open, according to Parks and Rec. (Click here for a full pool opening schedule)
The pools offer free fun for the entire family and serve as a way for people to cool off during hot summer days drawing more than 1 million visitors each summer.
Most public pools will be open seven days a week.
The first dive of summer comes as the Philadelphia School District wraps up the school year.
The Lee Kaplan who owned a house on a leafy street in Cheltenham Township 13 years ago was clean-shaven and so put off by behavior he considered immoral, he once threw a plumber out for cursing, according to his then-next door neighbors.
Kaplan, now charged with sexual assault after police found 12 girls living in his current Bucks County home, looks nothing like the man who owned a house next to Dave and Sherri Kushin from 1994 to 2003, the couple said in an interview Tuesday.
"He was not a mountain man, like now," Dave Kushin said at his home of 40 years in the Melrose Park section of Cheltenham. "He was born again. But not Christian. He was a born again Jew, a Jew for Jesus."
After Kaplan bought the house in the 1000 block of Stratford Avenue for $110,000, he and his wife at the time worked hard to rehab the old house, the Kushins said.
The couple said they didn’t like how Kaplan treated his now ex-wife, Virginia.
"He worked her like -- what is it -- an indentured servant," Dave Kushin said. He added, "I just chit chatted with him from time to time."
“He was a mashugana,” he said. “He rubbed me the wrong way.”
Kaplan never lived in the house, the Kushins said. Instead, he rented it to groups of students attending a nearby university.
“He turned it into a frat house,” Sherri Kushin said. “There were 15 people living there at one point.”
Kaplan eventually sold the Stratford Avenue home for $250,000, more than double what he paid nine years earlier.
Investigators have yet to say what happened between 2003 and the last few years. Somehow during that time, Kaplan became the burly, bushy-bearded man police arrested last week inside a cramped Feasterville home that a FedEx deliveryman described as smelling "like cat piss."
Answers won’t come quickly, District Attorney Dave Heckler said last week after Kaplan’s arrest.
At least one of the 12 girls found inside his home allegedly lived there the last four years, according to the initial criminal complaint. Now 18, she gave birth to two children by Kaplan. Her parents, an exiled Amish couple from Lancaster County, allegedly told police they "gifted" their daughter to Kaplan after he bailed them out of bankruptcy.
Kaplan and the parents, who NBC10 isn't identifying to protect their daughter's identity, are each jailed on $1 million bail. The parents have told police the other girls in the house also are theirs, but Heckler said there are no documents readily available to prove that claim.
Lancaster County news outlets have reported that the couple and Kaplan met in the early 2000s, around the time Kaplan sold the Cheltenham property. The reports indicate the parents actively sought ex-communication from the Amish community, and became born again Christians.
All 12 children are now in the custody of Lancaster County protective services.
Kaplan, 51, graduated from Cheltenham High School in 1982. His senior yearbook photo shows off dark curly locks that covered his ears, and a thin, patchy mustache. His neck stretches from his jaw line to a white collared shirt, accompanied by a dark tie and pinstriped suit befitting an a cappella singer.
The senior class photos are ordered by birth date and grouped by zodiac sign. Above the photo of Kaplan, whose birthday is Nov. 6, reads in large, bold font:
One of Scorpio’s specialties is secrets
Detectives haven’t said how long all the girls allegedly were kept by Kaplan inside his house in the Feasterville section of Lower Southampton. The criminal complaint indicated the oldest girl, the 18-year-old, said she arrived at the house when she was 14. One of her children is believed to be three years old. A message left for the Lower Southampton police director was not returned Tuesday.
Most neighbors in the working-class neighborhood said they recently became suspicious of Kaplan, who allegedly told nearby residents that he lived alone. One resident said she saw Kaplan walking around holding one of the girls’ hands.
Police said that during their raid they found some girls in the basement of the house, among an elaborate miniature train setup. An EBay business, called The Brass Caboose, is registered to his house at 428 Old Street Road. The FedEx deliveryman for the neighborhood told NBC10.com on Monday that he had no idea anyone else lived in the house.
“He'd come to the door with no shirt on, that big beard,” Brandon Cragg said. “It kind of stunk in there, I thought, like cat piss. I thought he was a hoarder."
The home’s overgrown front-yard grass and its repugnant smell inside contrast sharply with the well-manicured exterior of the Northeast Philadelphia rowhouse belonging to Kaplan’s ex-wife, Jacqueline Albrecht.
Blooming flowers and a freshly cut lawn are accentuated by a newly lacquered, wood fence at the corner rowhouse on Glenview Street in the Mayfair section of the city.
Albrecht wasn't ready to answer questions about her ex-husband Tuesday afternoon as she arrived home from work.
“I just can’t talk right now,” she said politely when a reporter asked about Kaplan. “I just can’t talk right now.”
Dave Kushin, the former neighbor in Melrose Park, said he never would have associated Kaplan with the man he saw in the news all weekend.
“You never know what makes someone snap,” he said. “That’s a big change.”
The dangerous clinging jellyfish that began to invade Barnegat Bay in New Jersey a few weeks ago are now multiplying like rabbits in the Shrewsbury River.
Researchers went to Monmouth Beach Tuesday to collect dozens of the jellyfish that have been collected floating freely in the town's lagoons in the past three days.
NBC 4 New York was the first to report the discovery of the invasive species in Monmouth Beach and Oceanport earlier this month. The swimmer who was stung in Oceanport landed in the hospital for two days after being stung by what he thinks was one of the jellyfish.
The sudden population explosion is not encouraging for the Jersey Shore.
"I'm not going into the river for the rest of the summer," said Emily Sgro.
While the invasive creature is turning up in the back bays of New Jersey, the creature has not been found on the ocean beaches.
A New Jersey high school is expecting hundreds of people to attend a vigil being held Tuesday night for two former star athletes found dead outside a crashed car off a highway in Mahwah Monday morning.
Don Bosco Prep graduates Sam Cali and Leo Vagias were discovered outside a blue Lexus in the woods off the southbound side of Interstate 287 at mile marker 62.5 by a Department of Transportation worker, state police said.
The 19-years-olds were best friends, close since the first grade growing up in Towaco, according to those who knew them.
"They were a pair, everywhere together and they were like twins," said Alex Cucciniello. "It gives you peace to know that in that horrible moment they had each other."
Cali and Vagias were standout student athletes while attending the private, all-boys' Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, and were both playing Division I sports in college. Vagias was voted the best kicker in New Jersey while he attended Don Bosco, and was playing for the University of Rhode Island. Cali was an elite wrestler for Rutgers.
For all their sports accomplishments, it's their smiles everyone remembers.
"They really lit up a room," said principal John Stanczak. "They were super guys to have around, they brought great joy to everything they did, and a lot of happiness to the school."
"They really embodied what Don Bosco is all about: hard work, compassion, caring for their teammates," said athletic director Brian McAleer.
Friends of the college sophomores said they had both come home for Father's Day to spend time with their families. Friends said Cali and Vagias went to Buffalo Wild Wings at the Palisades Center Mall Sunday night to watch the NBA championship game.
It's unclear when they left, or when they crashed, since the car veered off into a wooded area and wasn't discovered until Monday morning. State police said Vagias, who was driving, was wearing his seatbelt, but Cali was not wearing a seatbelt in the passenger seat.
State police said they're investigating all possibilities for what caused the crash, including mechanical failure, alcohol, speeding and an animal in the road.
The Vagias and Cali families were said to be so distraught they likely will not attend the prayer vigil Tuesday. It is open to the community and starts at 7 p.m.
Firefighters saved a three children and two adults after they escaped onto a fire escape as flames tore through Delaware County apartments overnight.
The blaze broke out as many residents slept inside a subdivided home at W 3rd and Yarnall streets in Chester, Pennsylvania around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday. Residents in the building banged on doors and shouted to make sure everyone got out safe.
There are six apartments and 12 people living in the building. Firefighters rescued five of those people, including three children, from a fire escape.
“All the victims that came out onto the third floor with our assistance came out on their own power,” said Chester Battalion Chief Joseph Iacono. “They were brought to Crozer Chester (Medical Center) for evaluation.”
No serious injuries were reported.
Tenant Daniel Harrold knocked on the door of a family living next door to make sure they got out after he saw their apartment on fire.
"My first instinct was to go try to get them out," said Harrold. "I ran next door and was kicking on the door, banging on the door."
No word yet on what caused the fire.
The Mega Millions jackpot has risen to $363 million after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn Tuesday night.
The numbers are 6, 13, 21, 49, 50 plus the Mega Ball 10.
The prize grew to $363 million since no winning tickets were selected last Friday night. The jackpot rolled again to an estimated $363 million ($244 million cash) -- the sixth largest jackpot in Mega Millions history -- for the next drawing on Friday, June 24.
This is the biggest jackpot Mega Millions has offered since March 18, 2014, when two tickets in Florida and Maryland shared a $414 million prize. The Mega Millions lottery is played in 44 states, including Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Nevada, Utah, Mississippi, Alabama, Alaska and Hawaii are the only non-participating states.
Last week a lottery player in Rhode Island won the largest Mega Millions prize ever won in the state. The ticket included an optional Megaplier, which turned the $1 million win into a $5 million prize.
The largest Mega Millions jackpot was won on March 30, 2012, when three tickets shared a $656 million prize. The largest single ticket jackpot was $326 million, which was won on Nov. 4, 2014.
