Four men were taken in for questioning in connection to the repeated rape of a 26-year-old doctor inside her Rittenhouse apartment.
Philadelphia Police say they first started watching a home on South 8th Street in South Philadelphia on Sunday. On Monday they returned and searched through the home after issuing a warrant.
Investigators tell NBC10 that four men who live at the home were taken to the Special Victims Unit headquarters for questioning on Monday. Three of the men were picked up at the home while another was found on his bike near his job at Christian and Broad Street.
Police say the four men are persons of interests at this point. No charges have been filed.
Police also say they collected at least two bikes as possible evidence.
The victim returned to the crime scene with her family earlier on Monday as police released a sketch of the rapist and new surveillance video.
The woman was attacked around 1:20 a.m. on Saturday as she walked home from a bar called Ladder 15 at 1528 Sansom Street to her apartment in the 1900 block of Spruce Street.
The victim told police the man came up from behind her and grabbed her by the neck. He forced her to let him into her upstairs apartment, where he raped her multiple times, stole her phone and keys and took off, only to return a few minutes later.
Neighborhood surveillance video shows the man calmly locking up his bike on Spruce Street and then approaching the woman after she walks past him. With his arm around her, they walk the half block or so to her apartment. According to the time stamps on the video, the man leaves the apartment one hour and three minutes later. He walks back toward his bike and then immediately turns around and goes back into the building for another two minutes before leaving for good.
"He's a criminal is what he is and he needs to be in a penitentiary," Philadelphia police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said. "Beyond that, I don't think public TV would allow me to say what I really think about him."
After the attack, the victim, who is a doctor at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, left the city with her family. She came back with family members to her apartment on Monday and met for a second time with investigators in the Special Victim's Unit.
Captain John Darby, head of SVU, said the timing of the attack -- especially the way the man calmly locked up his bike before approaching the woman -- indicates to him that the crime may have been planned.
The attacker is described as a Hispanic male, 25-30 years old, 5-5" to 5'10" tall, thin with black hair. He was wearing a dark-colored baseball cap, black t-shirt, blue jeans and carrying a black messenger bag.
The 18-year-old was shot six times in the back and chest with an assault rifle, police said. He was able to walk a block after the shooting to Orkney Street, where he collapsed.
The teen was rushed to Temple University Hospital where he remains in critical condition.
As we get into the summer season, officials are warning the public on the dangers of leaving children in cars. NBC10's Jesse Gary reports from Plymouth Meeting, P.A. on some safety tips that can prevent the unintentional situation.
An elderly man was severely beaten during a robbery outside his home in South Philadelphia on Tuesday morning.
The man, who neighbors say is in his late 60s, was attacked by two men along the 1500 block of Moore Street around 5:00 a.m., according to Philadelphia Police.
The victim was badly beaten in the head before having a bag stolen by the attackers, police said. The suspects then fled the scene.
"They just wanted to grab something hoping that there was something valuable in [the bag], but the only thing the man has in there is his lunch bag," said John Dierich, a neighbor who witnessed the attack. He said the assault happened very quickly lasting only about 30 seconds and that the man was bleeding profusely from his head.
The victim was rushed to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania where he is listed in critical condition. Police say doctors are working to stop the bleeding.
Police did not have descriptions of the suspects immediately available.
Detectives are on scene investigating.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
A large wall of steam flowed out of the ground around the Pennsylvania Convention Center late Monday night after an underground steam pipe suddenly burst.
The pipe, which runs under the intersection of 13th and Race Streets, broke open around 10 p.m., officials said.
From the air, large plumes of steam could be seen rising from several locations in the area including at 12th and Arch Streets.
The open steam main forced the vapor into the 13th Street tunnel, where the convention center crosses over the street. Once the tunnel was filled, the steam then cascaded up the curtain wall of the meeting hall and into the sky.
The Philadelphia Fire Department, PECO Energy, Philadelphia Gas Works and the Philadelphia Water Department were all on the scene investigating the incident. Officials tell NBC10.com it's unclear what caused the pipe to blow.
A spokeswoman with the Pennsylvania Convention Center says the pipe burst did not cause damage to the exhibition hall and is not disrupting any meetings.
13th Street remains closed between Arch and Race Streets because of the incident.
Philadelphia Police are investigating the vandalism of a Northeast Philadelphia synagogue with anti-Semitic graffiti.
Swastikas were spray-painted onto the brick facade of the Congregation Ner Zedek-Ezreth, at Buselton Avenue and Oakmont Street in the Rhawnhurst section of the city, sometime Monday morning, congregation officials said.
Stanley Smuckler, the congregation's Ritual Chairman, tells NBC10.com the racist marks were discovered as people left morning worship.
"You wonder why there's still the existence of hatred in this society and people should be understanding...but unfortunately that doesn't exist," he said.
Philadelphia Police are investigating the incident and Smuckler said they hope video from newly installed surveillance cameras can provide some clues as to who may be to blame.
When people think of post-traumatic stress disorder, they often focus on military veterans. But there's growing evidence that PTSD is also a serious problem for American civilians, especially those exposed to violence in their own neighborhoods. Researchers in Atlanta found that 1 out of 3 inner-city residents they interviewed had experienced symptoms consistent with PTSD at some point in their lives.
We've put together a collection of some of the best reporting on PTSD in children and teenagers exposed to community violence. The stories here take a nuanced look at the intersection of trauma, poverty and racism. Not all stories about PTSD in high-violence neighborhoods meet that standard. This May, a local CBS affiliate released a segment on trauma in Oakland youth that referred to PTSD as "hood disease." The anchor who used that term on air later apologized.
Among our recommendations here are magazine stories, radio segments, a book based on a doctor's interviews with shooting victims, and a documentary film. You can also see our selection of the best reporting on PTSD and the U.S. military.
Please include your suggestions for other stories in the comments.
After the Columbine shootings, this article looked broadly at post-traumatic stress among American children. "The Columbine students are the lucky ones," the story concluded. "Most child witnesses to violence in America live in inner cities, where shootings occur repeatedly, and where parents often are as traumatized by them as children. And counselors rarely come calling on them in the aftermath of horrors, as they have in Littleton."
Eleven-year-old Tierra's brother was murdered two weeks before she began sixth grade. She wrote her brother's name on the cover of her notebooks. Her grades dropped. She started getting into fights. And she wasn't the only one: At her San Francisco middle school, a third of students said they had seen or knew someone killed with a gun. A look at how post-traumatic stress affects children's school performance 2014 and at the difficulties of getting treatment.
Experiencing traumatic events at a young age doesn't simply affect a child's emotional health. There's increasing evidence that childhood trauma is linked to serious medical problems in adulthood. A look at how a clinic in San Francisco's Bayview neighborhood is trying to treat toxic stress in children and transform how we think about pediatric care.
In the early 1990s, as violence in America reached unprecedented heights, Dr. John Rich watched as young black men returned repeatedly to Boston City Hospital's emergency room with life-threatening wounds. Many doctors and nurses assumed that the young men were doing something to get themselves shot. Trying to understand how to prevent more violence, Rich began interviewing the young men after they had left the hospital. He found that many of the patients were suffering from post-traumatic stress 2014 and that the reasons they had been shot were not what he had expected. NPR interviews Rich, who was awarded a 2006 MacArthur genius grant, and provides an excerpt from his book, Wrong Place, Wrong Time: Violence in the Lives of Young Black Men.
Between Jan. 1, 2001 and May 29, 2012, a total of 18,042 people were shot in Philadelphia2014and 3,852 were murdered. That's more than the number of Americans killed in the war in Afghanistan. Steve Volk looks at the burden of violence on a single city, tracing personal stories, along with the emerging research from Philadelphia's trauma experts.
Reporter Alex Kotlowitz interviews two men with post-traumatic stress: an Afghanistan war veteran and a young man who was shot in one of Philadelphia's most dangerous neighborhoods.
What happens to children who have to step over dead bodies on their way to school? Four years before gun violence in America reached its peak, the Los Angeles Times did an in-depth story about the impact of shootings on children in South-Central Los Angeles. The story looks at early interventions, including what may have been the nation's first "grief and loss" program for elementary children.
At Chicago's Harper High School, 29 current students and recent alumni were shot over the course of a single year. Starting in late summer 2012, reporters from This American Life spent five months at Harper. They document how teachers, students and parents dealt with the constant threat of violence, how they tried to heal from past tragedies 2014 and how they worked to prevent more shootings. PTSD is not a central focus of the story, but it's very much in the background.
In Chicago's most dangerous neighborhoods, "violence interrupters" try to understand the unfolding conflicts between local teenagers and prevent them from escalating into killings. The role of trauma is one of the themes of the film. The full documentary is worth watching. You can also start with the trailer, or read an Essence Magazine profile of Ameena Matthews, one of the violence interrupters featured.
A Philadelphia Police officer was arrested after she allegedly encouraged and participated in several fights between her teen children and other minors.
Investigators say Tamika Gross, a 35-year-old Philadelphia Police officer in the 16th District, was involved in several altercations between January of 2012 and October of 2013.
The first incident took place on January 25, 2012, according to investigators. Police say Gross walked with her 18-year-old son to the 900 block of Marcella Street and demanded that he fight a 16-year-old boy who lived on the block.
Several fights broke out on the street between several groups of teen boys shortly after and police were called to the scene. Investigators say numerous 911 calls reporting the fight were made and one radio call reported that there was a riot on the street and that an “officer needed assistance.” Investigators later determined that the officer in need of assistance was Gross.
Gross was allegedly involved in another fight on March 16, 2012. Investigators say a 13-year-old girl and her 17-year-old sister were walking near Loretto Avenue and Sanger Street. Suddenly, police say, Gross pulled up in a car and her teen daughter jumped out.
The daughter then allegedly began punching both girls in the face as Gross encouraged her to fight. The victims told police that Gross kept screaming during the fight that she was an off-duty police officer and that no one would get arrested.
Finally, police say Gross was involved in another fight on October 23, 2013. Gross and her daughter allegedly approached a 14-year-old girl near Lincoln High School. Police say Gross’ daughter and the girl were involved in an argument at the school earlier that day.
The daughter allegedly challenged the girl to a fight as Gross encouraged her. Police say Gross was captured on cellphone video standing in the crowd and watching the brawl. The 14-year-old girl told police that Gross also punched her twice in the eye before the fight ended.
Gross is charged with endangering the welfare of a child, corruption of minors, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person. She turned herself In to Internal Affairs Tuesday morning and is currently being processed.
A SEPTA bus isn’t exactly the best getaway vehicle, as one alleged robber learned Tuesday afternoon.
Police say an unidentified man entered the Wells Fargo Bank on the 9100 block of East Roosevelt Boulevard around 4:45 p.m. with a demand note. The suspect allegedly stole $500 and then fled the scene on a SEPTA bus.
Police temporarily stopped five lanes of traffic on the Boulevard at Ryan Avenue as responding officers searched for the suspect. Investigators say a driver ignored the closed lanes and crashed into a police vehicle. No one was injured in the collision however.
Police were eventually able to track the bus down and boarded the vehicle after it stopped on Cottman Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard. They then arrested the suspect without incident and recovered the stolen money.
Police have not yet revealed the suspect's identity or the specific charges against him.
A Camden mom who was once addicted to drugs is now helping to save the lives of other women who find themselves in the same or a similar state of desperation.
A three-day hunt for a rapist, who police say repeatedly victimized a young doctor inside her Rittenhouse Square apartment this weekend, has ended with the arrest of a South Philadelphia man.
Capt. John Darby, head of the Special Victims Unit, said Tuesday that 28-year-old Milton Mateo Garcia has been charged with Rape, Robbery, Aggravated Assault, Kidnapping and related offenses for the assault that took place early Saturday morning.
"We have this guy off the street and you can rest easy today. More importantly, this young professional woman and her family can begin to rebuild," Darby said during a news conference.
Mateo Garcia, who lives along the 1800 block of South 8th Street in South Philadelphia, was taken into custody on Monday along with three of his roommates. After hours of questioning, Mateo Garcia made a statement, was arrested and charged. The other men were released. Darby would not elaborate about what the man said in his statement to detectives.
Police say Mateo Garcia followed the 26-year-old doctor as she walked home around midnight Saturday from a local bar where she had been drinking with friends. Surveillance video from the 1900 block of Spruce Street shows the suspect biking up to a tree, tying up a bike and then walking up to the victim from behind and grabbing her.
"This appears to have been a crime of opportunity," Darby said. "We believed that this male followed this woman for some distance and then positioned himself at a point where he could intercept her path."
The alleged suspect walked the woman into her apartment building and forced himself into her home, investigators said. There, police say, she was repeatedly raped. Mateo Garcia stole the woman's smartphone and keys before leaving the apartment and cycling away, according to police.
Detectives were able to track the victim's phone to the suspect's neighborhood, but not to the house, Darby said. But by Saturday afternoon, after "good old detective work" Darby said investigators began watching the house. They gathered enough probable cause to obtain a search warrant on Monday. Among the evidence seized, were two bicycles and the victim's smartphone. The phone was found in a second-floor bedroom, detectives said.
Mateo Garcia wasn't home at the time of the raid, but police say they found him working at an Indian restaurant at Broad and Christian Streets -- just a few blocks southeast from the attack scene. It's one of three jobs he had in Center City and South Philly. Detectives said he was carrying the victim's keys.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division is assisting in the investigation as Mateo Garcia is a Honduran citizen, Darby said.
ICE told NBC10 they lodged a detainer against Garcia with the Philadelphia Police. Garcia was previously removed from the United State in June of 2013, according to ICE.
"By issuing a detainer, ICE requests that a law enforcement agency notify ICE before releasing an individual in order to allow ICE to assume custody," wrote Harold Ort, the Public Affairs Officer for ICE, in a released statement.
Garcia was arraigned without bail around 5 p.m. on Monday.
SVU is also looking into whether Mateo Garcia was involved in any unsolved sexual assaults in the city.
The 46-year-old store owner returned to Stan’s Health Foods in the Mayfair section of the city later that day. As she continued to work alone, police say a 47-year-old man entered the store with a knife in hand, immediately announcing a robbery.
The man went behind the counter, grabbed the register and threw it to the ground, forcing it open, according to investigators. After grabbing some cash, he allegedly stood up and put his knife to Doyle’s chest.
Unbeknownst to him, Doyle was armed not only with her .38 revolver but also years of law enforcement training. Before becoming a store owner, Doyle worked as a secret service agent in Philadelphia, protecting visiting dignitaries such as President Bush. She’s also a former Philadelphia Police Officer.
“I was in a few different areas of law enforcement,” Doyle said. “For family life it really wasn’t working out quite the way I wanted it to and it led me here.”
While she is no longer on the force, Doyle never forgot what she learned. It was that knowledge that she credits with giving her the ability to fight back.
“I just went into a mode like this is what has to be done,” Doyle said. “One of us is walking out of the door and it’s gonna be me.”
Doyle pulled out her weapon and fired, striking the man in the torso. He collapsed to the ground and Doyle called police.
“When police arrived he was behind the counter, unconscious on the ground,” said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small. “He still had a $100 bill clutched in his left hand."
The unidentified man, who police say had a lengthy criminal record for burglary, was taken to Aria-Torresdale Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 6:03 p.m. Police say the shooting was a justifiable homicide and charges will not be filed.
Doyle says she doesn’t regret pulling the trigger.
“It might have saved somebody else because he looked like he was on a mission,” she said. “So, if it wouldn’t have been here, it may have been somewhere else."
Cheesesteaks, soft pretzels, water ice and….bread? Philadelphia may soon be known for another iconic edible item thanks to 25-year-old Pete Merzbacher, who won a year of marketing services for his bakery Philly Bread in the inaugural Lightning in a Bottle competition.
"I got the product, I got the bakery, I own the equipment, I have the staff, I already have a market that’s buying it,” Merzbacher said. "But I haven’t had any time to market it.”
Like a bagel, Merzbacher's Philly muffin comes in white, wheat, cinnamon raisin and everything varieties. But he says his product is an English muffin-bagel hybrid.
"There are nooks and crannies in it. …The appearance is a lot closer to an English muffin and there’s no hole in the middle,” he said. "A bagel is very dense. The dough has very low hydration. My dough has very high hydration, which gets a different texture.”
Since launching Philly Bread in May 2013, Merzbacher says his business has gone from producing a few hundred muffins a month to about 7,000 with essentially no advertising.
“Sometimes I’ll pull out my smartphone and snap a picture of what I’m doing, write a little blurb and post it on Facebook,” he said. “But it’s really been the last thing on my mind.”
His muffins are currently available at 15 different locations in the area, including the Swarthmore Co-Op Food Market, MOM’s Organic Market in Bryn Mawr, and Weaver’s Way Co-Op in both Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill.
But Merzbacher knew he needed to start advertising if he hoped to reach his ambitious goal of scaling the “Philly Muffin” -- an updated version of the English muffin -- so it would become known as the city’s bread of choice.
“San Fran has the sourdough loaf, New York has the bagel and Paris has the baguette,” he said. “My intention is to make the Philly Muffin as world famous as our cheesesteaks are.”
The texture and the taste first caught the attention of the Lightning in a Bottle judges, a mix of business, advertising and communication professionals deciding who would win a year of marketing services, valued at $60,000, from Wilmington, Del.-based AB+C Creative Intelligence.
But Philly Bread’s potential effect on the city’s economy is what led the judges to select the year-old bakery from among the 29 businesses that applied.
“[Philly Bread] could have high impact on the local economy, has good growth potential and can be easily leveraged by marketing assistance,” Joel Vardy, president of Vardy & Associates who judged the competition.
Several others pointed out the effects Philly Bread has already had on the local economy. Merzbacher employs two part-time and two full-time workers and rents a commercial space at 4905 N. 5th St. in the city’s Olney section.
Although Merzbacher is not yet sure what the marketing strategy will be, AB+C executives say they’ll likely begin by overhauling his website.
Whatever the plan, Merzbacher is committed to doing what he does best.
"As they start pushing the marketing,” he said, “I’m ready to do what I need to do in the bakery.”
Cherry Hill High School East graduating senior Christian Butts took an honors club requirement to tutor kids after school a step further. Butts made himself available to his peers around-the-clock for online tutoring help at no cost during the school year.
"Well in my mind, I was just trying to help a student in need," said 18-year-old Butts. "For me to ask for money -- it wouldn't be right."
The school's Cumlaude Society is a club reserved for the top students in the class, but the honor didn't phase Butts as he wanted to spread his aptitude for learning with others.
There were times during the past school year when a classmate needed extra help so they called up Butts on Skype. He would take calls as late as 2 a.m. on school nights.
His father, Timothy Butts, described his disciplined son as sharing out of the "goodness of his heart."
“I think it is wonderful. He has always been willing to help other and this is a good example,” said principal Lawyer Chapman.
Butts ran track in high school and traveled the world as a member of the Boys Choir of Philadelphia. He serving as the organization's Spanish interpreter when they visited South America.
Butts not only tutored his fellow students but mentored an underclassman as well.
He will attend the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania this fall studying business economics and public policy and plans to continue tutoring. He said he sees law school in his future.
"I feel as though if you have the ability to do so, everyone should have some sort of inner obligation to help others with the power they have. I felt good helping other people," Butts said.
Pictured: Christian Butts walks across the stage at the Cherry Hill High School East gradution on June 17.
Suburban communities looking to strengthen their economy should mimic the walkable real estate development that boosted downtown West Chester, according to a new study.
"You need to urbanize your suburbs,” said Christopher Leinberger, president of LOCUS: Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors. "There are many, many market segments that don’t want to move into the city for many reasons. But they want a walkable urban lifestyle.”
The greater Philadelphia metro region ranked 13th among the country’s 30 largest metropolitan areas for "walkable urbanism," according to a joint study from LOCUS and George Washington University’s Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis.
The study ranked the country's largest metros based on the number of large commercial districts -- more than 1.4 million square feet of office space or 340,000 square feet of retail space -- in walkable areas.
The Philly metro region had 17 walkable commercial locations, making up just 19 percent of the total area's square footage, the report shows.
In top-ranked Washington, 43 percent of the metro’s square-footage is composed of walkable commercial developments. New York, Boston, San Francisco and Chicago round out the top five ranked metros, the study shows.
West Chester was one of the few locations within the Philly metro, yet outside city limits, to meet the walkability and commercial square-footage standards, Leinberger said.
"From an economic development point of view, this certainly has a major impact on future growth," said Leinberger, who pointed to a strong correlation between walkable urbanism and education level, as well as a connection to the local economy. "The more walkable urbanism of your area, the higher education of your workforce and higher [gross domestic product] per capita."
And office space in walkable commercial districts commands 74 percent higher rental rates than offices in traditional business parks, he added.
In the West Chester Borough, market value increased nearly fourfold since 1999, according to the West Chester’s Business Improvement District (BID). A square-foot of commercial space went for $153.15 last year.
Other signs of an improved economy -- the 1.8 square-mile Borough gained 241 businesses and more than 1,000 new residents in the last 13 years, said Malcolm Johnstone, BID’s executive director.
"Their interest in moving to West Chester is they can park their car and forget about it," he said.
Downtown West Chester has fewer parking lots today than it did 10 years ago and construction has added high-density residential developments alongside the business district, he said.
"People can walk from these residences to virtually anywhere," he said.
Investing in downtown led the Borough to collect an additional $320,000 in property taxes since 2000, according to the BID.
Before other suburbs model themselves after West Chester, Johnstone suggests thoughtful, long-term planning. “You can’t do it overnight,” he said.
But Leinberger reiterates the importance of rethinking downtowns in Philly’s suburbs.
"Regionally significant walkable urban places – this is the future of our country," he said. “These are the models for future development.”
A 12-inch water main broke on 56th Street and Woodland Avenue on Saturday, initially affecting around 60 homes. But as Philadelphia Water Department employees worked on repairs, even more homes were impacted after officials determined that the break also caused a disruption to the natural gas line in the area.
Philadelphia Gas Works officials shut off service in the area to prevent water from flowing into the fuel lines. As a result, around 1,000 homes in a 15-block radius were without gas.
“My gas went off Saturday,” said James Saddler, who lives on 52nd and Woodland. "On Sunday they came around but they didn’t really explain too much.”
PGW crews ultimately pumped 44,000 gallons of water out of the system as residents in the area struggled to deal with their gas service being shut off.
“We have no hot water to bathe," Saddler told NBC10 on Tuesday. “We have no gas to cook. So what do you do?”
As of Tuesday night, 700 homes in the area remain without gas.
PGW officials tell NBC10 they are in the process of indentifying homes in the area that have water damage in their fuel lines, a tatic called red-tagging. So far, about 45 homes have been red-tagged.
In a statement, the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) says they hope to have all homes in the area inspected by Wednesday night so that utilities can be turned back on.
"In coordination with PGW, PWD will work with contractors to make appliances such as hot water heaters, house heaters, etc., operable," the statement read.
