Southbound lanes were shut down on I-95 near the Betsy Ross Bridge in Philadelphia due to a truck fire Wednesday night.
All lanes on I-95 southbound were closed from the Betsy Ross Bridge to the Allegheny Avenue ramp. Traffic was heavily backed up in the area.
Three southbound lanes later reopened on I-95 and only the shoulder is currently closed.
No injuries have been reported. Officials have not yet revealed the cause of the fire.
A Philadelphia man died from his injuries following a police-involved shooting in New Castle, Delaware.
New Castle County Police responded to the Coachman’s Manor apartment complex on Carriage Way around 7:45 p.m. Wednesday for a welfare check. When they arrived, a 28-year-old Philadelphia man allegedly struggled with one of the officers and shots were fired.
The man, who has not yet been identified, was struck in the shooting. He was taken to the Christiana Medical Center where he later died from his injuries.
Police have not yet revealed the man’s identity or more details about what led to the shooting. They continue to investigate.
If you have any information on the incident, please call 302-573-2800.
Police are searching for a man who they say drove into an officer with his van in the Kingsessing section of Philadelphia Wednesday night.
Police responded to a report of a domestic dispute on 56th Street and Whitby Avenue around 6:30 p.m. When they arrived they say they saw a man try to drag a woman out of a green Dodge van. Both of them then went inside the vehicle and the man hit reverse, officials said.
“By that time the male had entered the van and proceeded at a high rate of speed in reverse, striking one of the officers and dragging the officer several feet,” Commanding Officer Captain Sekou Kinebrew said.
The officer who was struck managed to recover and fired one shot at the van as the man drove off. The van then sideswiped another car and sent it crashing into a fence. Children at the nearby Multicultural Learning Center heard the commotion.
“It was a big crash because all the upstairs kids came running down and said, ‘Oh my Goodness! There’s something outside!’ So we all opened the door and looked out,” Calicia Bryan, the owner of the Multicultural Learning Center, said.
The driver of the van continued down the road while the lone driver inside the car that was struck was shaken up.
“A little delirious,” Bryan said. “He said he had just bought the car. I think he was delivering pizza because he had a Pete’s Pizza sign on top of his car.”
Police eventually found the van abandoned at a shopping center on Island Avenue and Lindbergh Boulevard. They continue to search for the man and woman. Investigators have not released a detailed description of them but say they are both in their 20s.
The officer who was struck and the driver who was sideswiped were not seriously injured.
NBC10’s Katy Zachry breaks down the latest on how the Trump Administration's plans on dealing with immigration could impact Philadelphia's status as a sanctuary city.
A bill to legalize recreational marijuana in Delaware is being introduced Thursday afternoon. NBC10’s Matt DeLucia has the arguments for and against the push for pot.
A driver ran a red light, striking and killing a driver in the shadow of a Montgomery County shopping center Thursday morning, investigators said.
The wreck around 6:15 a.m. along Cheltenham Avenue at Washington Lane left a 56-year-old man dead, Philadelphia Police said.
The 56-year-old was driving on Washington Lane toward Cheltenham Township when a driver going southbound on Cheltenham Avenue ran a red light and struck him, police said.
As SkyForce10 hovered overhead a short time later you could see a red Jeep up on the sidewalk on the Montgomery County side of Cheltenham Avenue and a red pickup truck with front-end damage stopped on the Philadelphia side of Cheltenham Avenue. The wreck left debris scattered on the roadway.
One driver died after being transported to Einstein Medical Center, police said. The other driver was hospitalized as a precaution, police said.
Investigators closed the intersection, which is near the Cheltenham Square Mall, for hours as they searched for clues.
No word yet on possible charges.
A New Jersey school briefly went into shelter mode after a cable worker was found dead inside a utility room closet, authorities say.
A school grounds administrator at the Academy of Holy Angels in Demarest found the worker and contacted police Wednesday morning.
Officers responded and secured the school as they investigated. Students and staff were taken to the auditorium as a precaution, according to police.
The 62-year-old Cablevision employee had been performing an installation when he arrived at the school Tuesday. No foul play is suspected.
The medical examiner will determine a cause of death, police said.
The Philadelphia Water Department warned residents to not be fooled by yellow "Water Update" postcards recently popping up in Philadelphia homeowners' mailboxes.
The PWD said some customers have reported receiving the cards that state "unfortunately, we’ve been unable to contact you."
The card, which doesn't mention anything about Philly's water department, then tells residents to contact the company within the next 72 hours and gives hours that operators are available.
"This is not a water utility or government agency," small print on bottom of the address side of the notices states.
"These postcards are not being issued by PWD," the water department said in a news release. "These postcards are a product solicitation for a company based in Delaware. Residents should call our hotline at 215-685-6300 if they have questions."
The PWD said that any correspondence from them will include PWD logo or letterhead.
As for the yellow cards, they come from New Castle, Delaware-based Atlantic Water Products (AWP), a company that has been "providing clean water and air since 1987," according to the company’s website. The company offers home water treatment and purification services.
The company advertises itself as a Better Business Bureau accredited business. The BBB gives AWP a B+ grade.
NBC10 called the number listed on the notices and heard "please hold for a live operator" before music began to play. NBC10 reached out to AWP for comment but didn't get an immediate response.
A Bluetooth speaker filled a New Jersey bedroom with smoke and burst into flames, and the mother who caught it on video is telling others with the same device to get it out of their homes.
The woman said her daughter had been in her room listening to music with the speaker on her bed, not plugged in, and went into her mother's room to tell her the speaker was spewing white smoke.
"She came in casually and said, 'Hey, that thing is smoking,'" said Nichole Tatem.
Tatem said she thought her daughter was kidding, but went into her bedroom and saw the smoke. She said they didn't know what to do; her daughter grabbed an oven mitt and paper bag.
"I freaked out, like, what are we gonna do with it?" said Tatem. "It was so fumey. We have two boys, two dogs."
They threw the device in the bag and brought it out to the apartment stairwell, where the mother said the device "popped" and burst into flames. She called 911, and emergency crews responded to the home on Palisades Avenue in Cliffside Park.
The mother said she and her daughter doused the flames with two buckets of water and firefighters came and took the charred speaker away. She said no one was hurt and there was only minor damage to her daughter's mattress.
"I had to take two buckets of water to put it out," said Tatem. "It was crazy."
The Cliffside Park Fire Department is investigating the make and model of the speaker and what could have caused it to spark.
"We're looking into the device from the manufacturer. We haven't gotten answers back from them yet," said Frank Poerio.
The device appears to be a JBL Pulse, but the company said it has reached out to the customer to determine if the product is authentic or a knockoff.
Poerio says the fire department has been aware of problems with other electronic devices, including exploding e-cigarettes and cellphones, but has never seen a portable speaker burst into flames.
The fire department has contacted the New Jersey Division of Fire Safety, and is waiting to hear back, said Poerio.
A man apparently jealous over the attention his girlfriend paid to her dogs instead of him, killed the canines in separate incidents, police in Bucks County said.
Photos show Davis in loving embraces with the dogs but investigators say that he held animosity toward the pups and that jealously fueled him to kill the pets.
A Bucks County judge arraigned Davis Tuesday on two counts of animal cruelty, online court records said.
Davis’ girlfriend, Jennifer Sherman, told investigators that she left her dogs in the care of Davis on two occasions, Bensalem police said.
On Feb. 5, a family friend found the Sherman's 2-year-old Puggle Sebastian dead on its side on a small rug in the living room at a family member's home in Yardley, its head tilted up, police said. Sherman said she left the dog with Davis -- someone she has known with high school -- while away for the weekend.
After Sebastian's sudden death, the girlfriend got a rescue dog, Leo, investigators said. That dog would die days later.
On March 3, Davis called Sherman to let her know that another dog was unresponsive at her home on Neshaminy Valley Drive in Bensalem, police said. The same family member then found that 4-month-old dog dead in the same position that Sebastian was found in, police said.
Davis didn’t appear upset by the deaths, the girlfriend told investigators.
Initially, Davis denied harming the second dog but a day later, he admitted to killing both pets by suffocating the dogs after slamming the pets onto the ground, police said.
The 23-year-old told investigators he killed the dogs out of jealousy, claiming the pets took away from his relationship with the girlfriend. He submitted a written confession and apologized to Sherman and her family, investigators said.
Davis remained jailed Thursday, unable to post 10 percent of $500,000 bail. It was unclear if he has an attorney able to comment on the case.
A bill to legalize recreational marijuana in Delaware is being introduced Thursday afternoon. NBC10’s Matt DeLucia has the arguments for and against the push for recreational pot.
A hearing for the man accused of raping, killing and dismembering a young adopted girl last year will be held in Doylestown, Bucks County, Friday and likely include a notice from prosecutors that they may seek the death penalty.
Jacob Sullivan, who is alleged to have raped and murdered Grace Packer in a rented Bucks County home while Grace's adoptive mother Sara Packer watched, will go before a judge for a formal arraignment.
Packer was arraigned March 10 and the Bucks County District Attorney gave "notice of aggravating circumstances" at her hearing. The notice does not mean prosecutors will definitely seek the death penalty, but it is required at arraignment for the option to be available at trial.
Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said after Packer's hearing that "it's early in the case and there's a lot to consider." The aggravating circumstances include the allegation that Grace was tortured prior to her death and that her murder was committed during the course of another felony crime of kidnapping.
Grace Packer's troubled life came to an end at the age of 14 last July when, authorities allege, Packer and live-in boyfriend Sullivan, carried out a "rape-murder fantasy" on the teenager.
The couple allegedly beat, raped and killed Grace Packer in their rented home in Quakertown and left her in the attic for months before eventually dumping the body in a wooded area of Luzerne County, according to authorities. Hunters found the girl's body. Both suspects are being held without bail.
The case is complicated by the long history of alleged abuse that Grace suffered after she was adopted by Sara Packer and Sara's ex-husband, David Packer in 2004. The Packers fostered more than two dozen children over the course of a decade in addition to formally adopting Grace and Grace's younger brother in Berks County.
Grace's murder has also raised red flags about oversight and management of county agencies known as Children, Youth and Family. Much remains unclear about the Packers' fostering and adoptions, which involved Children, Youth and Family agencies in at least two counties. Officials in several counties across eastern Pennsylvania have declined to provide details about the Packers, citing the ongoing criminal case. The state Department of Human Services, which purportedly provides oversight of the county agencies, also has released few details about the Packers' long history with adoption and foster care.
Montgomery and Northampton counties have canceled contracts with certain contracted adoption agencies linked to the Packers, NBC10 has previously reported.
Sara packer worked as a case manager for Northampton County Children, Youth and Family before she was fired two months before then-husband David Packer was charged with sexually assaulting one of the couple's foster children and Grace Packer in 2010.
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Weintraub's office declined to comment Thursday on Sullivan's hearing. Sullivan's attorney with the county Public Defender's Office also declined to comment.
A notice of aggravating circumstances was filed in Sullivan's case Wednesday by the DA's office with Common Pleas Judge Diane Gibbons, according to online court records.
A trial date has not yet been set for Packer, records show.
Three convicted murderers have been executed in Pennsylvania since the state re-instituted the death penalty in 1976. The last to be killed was Gary Heidnik of Philadelphia in 1999.
There are 173 inmates on the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Execution List.
One year after a woman was found in the bathtub of a Delaware County apartment complex, police put out a new plea to bring her "sadistic" killer to justice.
Markia Benson died from "blunt and sharp force head injuries complicated by immersion and extensive scald burns" on March 30, 2016, the Delaware County medical examiner said. Authorities described the death as a "senseless, sadistic murder."
Benson's naked body was discovered in a unit at the New Orleans Park Apartments on the 900 block of South Avenue in Secane. The shower was still on, water pouring down, when her body was found by a coworker who went to check on her, police said.
"It was a very, very senseless, sadistic murder and whoever committed this murder we believe she knew," Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said at the time.
"The apartment itself was in total disarray — blood on the walls, feces on the floors, some writing on the walls," he added.
The medical examiner's office told NBC10 Benson's death was ruled a homicide. There was no forced entry into the apartment, said Chitwood.
Chitwood said the 36-year-old had wounds to her head and neck and she appeared to have been strangled.
Upper Darby police called Benson "a young, kind professional woman" and said the department was "outraged over this senseless act of violence."
On Wednesday, police reminded people of a $5,000 reward for bringing Benson's killer to justice.
Police said that Benson was last seen alive getting into or out of her car the night before her death and a text message was sent from her phone to her mother around 7:45 the morning she was found dead.
A male friend and a co-worker from Chester-based SIG Shipping & Packing went to the apartment after Benson failed to show up for work and found her body along with a manager of the complex.
"Whoever killed her — based on what we've seen at the scene — it was done with a hatred, with a vengeance and with just, just predatory, sadistic violence," Chitwood said.
Police asked anyone with info to call 610-734-7693.
Authorities are investigating a fatal trooper-involved shooting at a service area off the New Jersey Turnpike.
State troopers were on a special detail patrol at the Molly Pitcher Service Area in Cranbury Township shortly before 3 p.m. when they observed a pickup truck they found suspicious, law enforcement sources told NBC 4 New York.
When the trooper approached the tan pickup truck, the man driving took off and rammed the trooper's car, according to sources.
The driver then backed into a second trooper's car, and a trooper ordered him to stop. That's when the driver accelerated towards the trooper and the trooper opened fire, sources said.
The driver was hit by at least one bullet and the pickup crashed into a guardrail near the rest area's exit. He died from his injuries, the New Jersey attorney general's office said.
The trooper was not injured, authorities say, but was taken to the hospital as part of protocol, according to sources.
The attorney general's office, which is investigating the shooting, says no further details will be released Thursday night because the investigation is ongoing.
The part of the parking lot where the shooting happened was closed off, but the rest stop building is open, Chopper 4 over the scene shows.
A 28-year-old man died late Thursday after he was apparently shot by police officers in both Philadelphia and Delaware only hours apart.
Leroy Brown Jr., a father of three, was identified by family members.
In preliminary accounts of what happened, Philadelphia police and New Castle County, Delaware, police described two incidents that occurred roughly two hours apart and which both involved police discharges.
About 5:45 p.m. in the Kingsessing section of Southwest Philadelphia, officers responded to a call of a "person with a gun" at 56th Street and Whitby Avenue. When they arrived, they allegedly found Brown getting into the driver's seat of a minivan.
Officers also allegedly saw a woman in the front seat, but did not see four children in the back seats of the van, according to the city police account.
When officers tried to stop Brown from driving away, he allegedly accelerated the van in reverse, striking an officer. That same officer, described as "positioned at the open driver's door area," allegedly then saw Brown reaching under his seat. The officer then shot Brown in his left side.
But Brown allegedly managed to drive away, according to the account.
He was able to steal another vehicle a few blocks away and get the woman and all four children into the vehicle before fleeing, police allege in the account.
Two hours later, New Castle County, Delaware, police went to a neighborhood in Wilmington after a call that Brown was there.
Police found him in the 100 block of Carriage Way and chased him to a parked car, where Brown allegedly scuffled with an officer, who shot him, according to the New Castle County police account.
Brown died a short time later at Christiana Medical Center. The New Castle County officer who fought with Brown was also injured. He was treated and released from a nearby hospital.
Both police departments said both shootings remain under investigation.
The final of three vacant gas stations in Ocean City has been demolished, and local store owners couldn't be happier. NBC10's Ted Greenberg has the story.
A new bill could legalize marijuana in Delaware, but residents would not be able to smoke marijuana in public. NBC10's Matt DeLucia has more on the bill, and what residents are saying about it.
A Penns Grove Officer is charged with lewd behavior and disorderly conduct, police said, after an incident inside of a restaurant's bathroom. NBC10's Cydney Long has the details.
Joe Biden, now a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, spoke to students on Friday night so they could get to know him better. The talk turned political though as Biden was asked what advice he would give to President Trump.
